My versions of Mont Blanc Cakes

My first try was for a birthday, but we didn't cut the cake, so I split the cake and still gave it to the birthday girl anyway. I think the piping can be better, so I'll be trying another one soon. Looking forward! 

Here's a second version with chestnut chiffon cake. The cake's lighter and has a subtle chestnut after taste.

五仁月饼

虽然过程很繁杂，但很好吃，不会太甜也不会太腻。

五谷杂粮，和人生一样，口感复杂，但这样才好吃，有味道。

Mooncakes 2016

So this year I started making mooncakes and the original plan was to make the traditional 5 nuts ones. Well, I did. Just. The last few bakes were distractions along the way when I was researching for an ideal recipe.

I made these cuties in June because I cannot resist cute things.

Then I bought some paste and discovered the sugar free white lotus paste is subtly sweet, wonderful for the not so sweet toothed and the older folks, so I made these. 

The final bakes were for the 5 nuts ones. I must say, they are quite difficult to make  because the filling doesn't bind easily and the resultant dough, filling round doesn't yield to the shape of the mould easily too.  A slight crack will result in a obvious one as I shape the rest of the mooncakes.

Here they are, last mooncake bakes 2016 and I finished almost all the nuts filings with the help of 2 friends! Yea!! 

The 5 nuts ones are not so sweet and packed with nutty goodness, suitable for the old folks. :)

Chocolate Drip Cake

This took me a long long time and honestly, I had to redo the drip about 4 times. The colour was really off, I bought 2 additional colours, teal and sky blue and still didn't get the baby blue I wanted. In a desperate attempt, I wanted to do candy melt, but that would mean going to the store a third time and the cake will turn out cloyingly sweet, so I threw out the idea, did a blue buttercream and made do with the slightly green chocolate drip. Well, at least the drip is glossy.

Was quite satisfied with the result, hope it's good enough for the photoshoot. 

Didn't put the stars because I didn't know if it'll look good for the photos, gave them together with the cake anyway and let the photographer decide. 

A note to self, I used the same sponge for the strawberry shortcake, a ratio of 1 part cream to 3 parts white chocolate for the chocolate drip and sky blue to achieve the colour. For the buttercream, ratio of butter to icing sugar is 1:2. For the toppers, fondant didn't work because they go soft in our humid weather, gum paste works much better, but try not to fridge them because they get slimy. If left with no choice, don't touch them after they are out of the fridge, they'll become shiny, but till dry out in time, albeit after a long time. 

Inspired

Thank you, inspiring people!

Breathing! 

Strawberry Shortcake

A friend wanted to bake a birthday cake for the husband and asked if I could help. I thought, why not, it'll be fun. So we set out to research on a suitable cake and decided on strawberry shortcake.

It was fun, albeit a little stressful because she was already 37 weeks pregnant! But all's good and we were very satisfied with the decoration and according to the tasters, the cake's yummy too. I secretly love the finished product too. 

I know they look the same, but I really love this cake.