Cherry Choc Cupcake

Unicorn Cake

2016-12-28T16:30:00.005+11:00

Time goes by so quickly, doesn't it? I just completed my third year at uni and yet it almost feels like I was snapping away on my little compact camera when I first started blogging last weekend. Now on summer holidays, I've been looking for inspiration for new baking ideas and happened to stumble upon this gem by Cupcake Jemma.

Now I thought to myself, this beauty should be easy to make. NOPE. The vanilla cake I had baked turned out dense, undercooked and just awful. My first batch of rainbow meringues had too much colour on them and took FOREVER to bake. I only realised my mistake of ignoring a bit of undissolved sugar in the meringue after they came out as hard as a rock when I actually thought that they were still undercooked. *Insert -_- face here*. Oh, and also, do not make these meringues on a humid day, I repeat, not on a humid day! The humidity messes with the sugar in the meringues and makes it sticky on the outside which ruins the appearance and colour on these beauties.

After a day of baking disasters, it felt like my 5 years+ of baking experience went out of the window. But as they say, when you fall you gotta pick yourself up am i rite? So this time I opted for my trusty chocolate cake with strawberries and cream filling. I tried out a recipe from the Cake Merchant because creaming butter and sugar, when done correctly, almost always ensures a light and fluffy cake. I used a basic recipe for rainbow meringues from Bakers Royale but halved the recipe because I only needed a small amount of "unicorn poop" to top my cake. You can see how these meringue kisses are made from this video. For the outside of the cake, I used a vanilla buttercream frosting which I coloured pink, yellow and blue.

I'm usually a sucker for simple cakes but you know, I could get used to making these kind of colourful beasts.

Chocolate and Cherry Cake

2015-07-22T22:55:00.001+10:00

Chocolate and cherries are my favourite combination - you've probably seen it already in my Black Forest Cake and even in my blog name, Cherry Choc Cupcake. What I love about this combo is that the fresh cherries offset the sweetness of the chocolate and helps balances the flavours of the cake perfectly. Think of moist, chocolate cake sandwiched in between cream and fresh cherries and topped with luscious milk chocolate ganache.

Coming up with the idea of this cake came from my desire to play on the classical Black Forest Cake. Reserving the same flavours, yet introducing a new element to the cake was my main focus. After some random searching on Youtube, I saw a video that displayed the creation of "chocolate bark" and I was instantly sold. What about creating a cake that gave an impression of cutting into a tree log with hidden goodness inside? Obviously it doesn't look like a tree log, but it's close enough with the chocolate bark in place.

Putting the cake together was simple as I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe from Sweetapolita. However, instead of baking the cake in 3 separate tins, I baked them in 2 and cut each layer in half after cooling them down. The filling is just whipped cream with pitted, chopped cherries and the chocolate ganache is milk cooking chocolate melted with heated cream. Creating the chocolate bark was super easy - just melt or temper dark cooking chocolate and pipe rows vertically next to each other on baking trays lined with baking paper, leaving space in between each one. Use a spatula knife to smooth out the chocolate and to create the ripples needed to realistically resemble actual bark. Once the chocolate has fully set, assemble the cake with layers of chocolate cake, cream filling and top with chocolate ganache. Then carefully place the chocolate bark around the cake, pressing them slightly against the cake to secure them in place. Top with fresh cherries and refrigerate until ready.

Chocolate and Mascarpone Cupcakes

2015-07-22T22:22:00.001+10:00

These cupcakes are dark. They're seductive. They boast the creaminess and slight tanginess of the mascarpone cream. And to top it off, they've got a luscious, sweet butterscotch sauce to add some luxury to the otherwise dull cupcakes. The idea of pouring caramel sauce over cupcakes is not new - but my main inspiration for it was from Call Me Cupcake. The stark contrast of the cream and caramel sauce against the intense, dark chocolate cakes caught my eye. It's simply stunning to the eye and heavenly for the mouth.

For the dark chocolate cupcakes, I used this recipe from Add a Pinch and found that it gave me excellent results. Moist, chocolate-y and moreish, this is my go-to chocolate cupcake recipe. The frosting is super easy and should be used straight away - just whip with an electric mixer about 226 grams of mascarpone cream with 1 cup of thickened cream and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Once it reaches soft peaks, gradually add 1/2 cup of icing sugar/powdered sugar and whip until firm peaks. You'll see it hold its shape when you lift the whisk. Be careful not to over-whip it, or the cream will curdle and turn into butter!

For the butterscotch sauce, I used this recipe from Just a Taste. I definitely felt that I could've taken the butterscotch sauce a bit further for a more intense caramel flavour and colour but was pleasantly surprised at how well the sauce complemented the cream in its original state. Once the cupcakes are baked and cooled, pipe the cream and pour over the butterscotch sauce. For extra decadence, add a pinch of salt. Voila!

Salmon and Avocado Sushi Stacks

2015-07-22T21:20:00.003+10:00

This post is quite different from usual, but every baking blog needs a little savoury touch once in a while right? I've been eating quite a lot of sushi lately, so when I recently discovered my love for salmon and avocado sushi, I decided to take up the challenge of making my own sushi. There's just something with the creaminess of the avocado that perfectly matches the fresh taste and slight fattiness of raw salmon. When making sushi, it's really important to use the freshest ingredients due to the minimal cooking processes required. I used organic sashimi-grade salmon fillets (skin-on), and just fried the skin to create a crispy snack.

To make the sushi, you just need to cook the sushi rice and add sushi seasoning/rice vinegar while hot. Rolling the sushi is relatively simple - just lay seaweed sheets (nori) on a sushi rolling mat and cover it with a thin layer of rice. Place salmon and avocado slices along the side closest to you. Putting a little pressure on the rolling mat, slowly roll the sushi. Click here if you want to see a video that more clearly explains how to prepare a sushi roll. The sushi stacks are even simpler; just press rice into round moulds and put them onto a plate, then top with chopped salmon and avocado, and garnish with nori strips. Since this was my first attempt at sushi making, I noticed that I rolled the sushi with a bit too much pressure and thus resulted in less salmon and avocado filling. Meanwhile while shooting and sneaking in bites of sushi, my cat Lily wanted to join in too....

Strawberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

2015-02-22T10:56:00.002+11:00

This is my second post in a row featuring strawberries, which might or might not be due to the abundance of these berries at the moment. I just love how they freshen up a baked good and add a slightly tart flavour to take away some of the sweetness. You might notice that I'm always trying to come up with a way to reduce the amount of sweetness in a dessert or baked treat - because, in reality, nobody likes sickly sweet food. In my early baking days, all of my sweets were either full of butter or sugar. Like this multi-coloured rainbow cake I made a few years ago. On a side note, it's my 3rd blogiversary! It's hard to believe that three years ago, I was once a 15 year old girl with a burning passion to bake and whip up desserts. I remember being successful at my first attempt at making macarons with my very first blog post back in 2012 and I've always been baking since. Had cherries been in season right now, I would've made some cherry chocolate cupcakes to celebrate. But there's always a next time right?

So, on to these cupcakes! I decided to use this recipe from the Cupcake Project for the vanilla cupcakes. Although I did get mostly vanilla-y, fluffy and moist cupcakes, I had a problem with some of the cupcakes shrinking from their cases. I dismissed the thought that it was the recipe and opted to blame the cupcake liners instead. Putting that aside, I made the cupcakes according to the recipe and mixed in chopped white chocolate and fresh strawberries to the finished batter. Viola! Mixing in white chocolate and strawberries makes ordinary vanilla cupcakes so much more special.

For the frosting, I used my beloved swiss meringue buttercream for its silky texture and slight sweetness. And since baking is loads more fun with friends, I let my two best buddies decorate the cupcakes with swirls of icing and strawberry roses. Cupcakes to me, are truly the epitome of elegance and beauty. They are also small enough to not be guilty about the amount of sugar or fat eaten. With that being said, how can anyone reject a cupcake anyway?

And of course I would like to end this post with a smile from K and a peace sign. Peace out!

Chocolate and Strawberry Pocky Cake

2015-02-07T22:42:00.001+11:00

Chocolate and strawberries are a modern, yet classical combination. Especially in a cake - where the tartness of the strawberries helps balance out the richness of the chocolate, and the sweetness of the buttercream. It might sound cliché, but it is, I believe, a match made on Earth for those romantics out there (hahaha....nope?).

This cake captures the essence of the chocolate and strawberries - an idea presented to me by my adorable best friend and university buddy K, who I am proud to dedicate this cake and post to. After going through some of the toughest times in my life, K was there to listen, give advice and ultimately helped me get through it. Also, props to K for helping me assemble and decorate the cake!!

The strawberry pocky decoration was inspired by two of my favourite bloggers - Raspberri Cupcakes and Sprinkle Bakes. After seeing the cake on the blogs for the first time, I immediately added it to my long baking list that always seems to end up at the bottom of my cupboard. Going through the list was like uncovering buried treasure because it contained some recipes I even forgot that I added a few years back.

Since chocolate and strawberries were the theme for this cake, an idea popped in my head to have chocolate cake layers, filled with fresh cream and strawberries, covered in strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and encased in strawberry pocky sticks. What I love about this cake is that the strawberry pocky - I used 4 boxes - helps to cover the messy frosting underneath and removes the hours (okay - maybe minutes if you're pro) to smooth out the frosting.

I used my go-to chocolate cake recipe by Sweetapolita, which always results in a rich, moist, chocolatey cake. I love swiss meringue buttercream - the silky texture compliments the cake and its subtle sweetness avoids the whole cake from tasting sickly sweet. Although it can taste quite buttery due to the large amount of butter, I found that the strawberry puree helps cut the taste of butter and gives it a fresh tart flavour. You can find the recipe here. I'd like to believe that love = chocolate + strawberries....

Danish Pastries

2013-12-02T13:51:00.001+11:00

I've always wanted to bake danish pastries. It's been on my to-bake list ever since, well, I embarked on my baking adventure when I first started this blog. It also turns out that my mother, who has been eating danish pastries as a child, had cravings for these and personally requested them. Which is completely fine by me, as I have no memory of making them let alone eating them before. But I can say it was the perfect opportunity to try them out since I have been procrastinating due to the knowledge that danish pastries involve essentially repeatedly rolling, folding, turning and chilling for the laminating of the butter process which can take AGES for me. Then there's the proving of the shaped dough for about an hour before being baked in the oven until puffed and golden.

For some reason I managed to over-bake the pastries and turned the small pieces of dough into crunchy butter biscuits instead of fluffy pastry. But rest assured, I was able to salvage the larger pastries and devour them with pleasure. I actually made a test batch of these pastries for tasting and thought they were plain and flavourless. Maybe because it was the cheap, low quality unsalted butter I used. Or maybe because it was the lack of salted butter. Nonetheless, I folded another layer of salted butter into the dough and thankfully, its flavour improved vastly. However my limited pastry skills were demonstrated in the lack of precision and some pastries turned out a bit messier than intended. Also blame the fact that the pastry kept melting for some explicable reason even the weather was not hot. Despite these mishaps, they came out delicious straight from the oven, especially when they're warm.

I whipped up a cream cheese filling for the pastries and topped them with some cherries. If you've read my past posts, cherries have become a common presence recently, and this is just another good way to use them up. Funnily I initially made a pastry cream, or in fancy French words, "creme patissiere" but I added to much milk because I thought it was too thick. Oops. Anyhow, go to this great website for a guide in shaping danish pastries and the recipe for the cream cheese filling just because I'm too lazy to copy everything on here. However, the recipe for the danish pastries and optional pastry cream is posted below. Enjoy!

Danish Pastries

Adapted from the cookbook, Essential Baking.
Makes about 12 pastries.

Ingredients:

For the Danish pastries,

2 teaspoons dried yeast
1/2 cup (125 ml) warm milk
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (250 g) plain (all-purpose) flour or strong bread flour
1/4 cup (55 g) caster sugar, extra
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
125 g each of salted and unsalted butter, chilled (total 250 g butter)

For the pastry cream filling (optional) or use the cream cheese filling, recipe here.

2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons plain (all-purpose) flour
2 teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch)
1/2 cup (125 ml) hot milk

Method:

Stir the yeast, milk and sugar in a small bowl until dissolved. Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes until frothy and slightly increased in volume.
Sift the flour into a large bowl and add salt and extra sugar.
Make a well into the center and add the yeast, egg and vanilla. Mix until it forms a firm dough or alternatively use the dough hook attachment of an electric mixer to combine the ingredients together.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes to form a smooth, elastic dough.
Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and set aside in a warm place for 1 hour, until doubled in size.
Meanwhile, roll and shape the two butters together between two sheets of cling wrap into a 15 x 20 cm rectangle and refrigerate.
Knock back the dough in one punch and knead for 1 minute. Roll the dough out to a rectangle of 25 x 30 cm. Put the butter in the center of the dough and fold up the bottom and top of the dough over the butter to join in the center like a letter.
Give the dough a quarter-turn clockwise, roll out to a 20 x 45 cm rectangle. Fold over the top third of pastry, then bottom third and give another quarter-turn clockwise. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Repeat the rolling, folding, turning and chilling four more times. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least another 2 hours.
For the pastry cream, put the sugar, egg yolks and flours in a saucepan and whisk to combine. Pour the hot milk over the top and whisk until smooth. Bring to the boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens. Cover and refrigerate to cool.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F) and line two baking trays with baking paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle 3 mm thick. Cut 4 inch squares and shape into desired shapes, demonstrated here and place on prepared baking trays. Cover the shaped pastries and leave in a warm place to prove from 30 minutes to an hour until puffed and doubled in size.
Fill each Danish pastry with about 1 tablespoon filling and top with jam, fruit or berries. Brush with egg wash (1 egg and 1 tablespoon water). Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden. Cool on wire racks and serve warm.

Cherry Miroir

2013-12-01T23:47:00.000+11:00

Miroir- translating from French to English is "Mirror" if you haven't figured that out already. And here I am with yet another recipe featuring cherries as one of the prominent stars of the dessert. Mind you, I've been given the task of finding a dessert that would use up most of the rapidly aging cherries, which means a lot of head scratching and confused looks. Although I am aware of the classics such as Cherry Clafoutis, Cherry Blondies and so on, I felt uninspired as I craved something a little more, let's say modern and different from what I usually make. That's when I turned to my trusty cookbook, Essentials Desserts, and landed on this recipe.

I've made several adaptions to this recipe: two, to be exact. Firstly, the Miroir is actually made with raspberries, but since cherries were all I had on hand, I figured that it should be a suitable substitute. Secondly, the dessert is usually made circular in a cake pan, but since my square cake pan was desperate for use, I technically turned this into a slice rather than a cake, if you know what I mean. I also found that the sponge base was very thin and delicate, so I doubled the ingredients from the book in the recipe below.

And after a whole day of pitting and pureeing cherries, which in turn sprayed cherry juice everywhere, including on my poor cat, the Miroir was finally complete in one piece. Not only have I spent copious amounts of time perfecting each layer, consisting of the sponge cake base, cherry mousse and cherry jelly topping, but the time it takes for each layer to set and the whole thing to set overnight in the fridge makes it seem like a massive task for the average baker. But hard work does eventually pay off, right? It certainly did for me as I tried a slice, feeling its light texture like a cloud disintegrate in my mouth. Its silkiness brought about a refreshing quality to the slice, especially since the jelly topping is essentially cherry puree. Overall, its a nice summer dessert that features a modern twist on a classic.

Cherry Miroir

Adapted from the Essential Desserts cookbook

Ingredients:

Sponge base

2 eggs
4 tablespoons caster sugar
4 tablespoons self-raising flour
2 tablespoons plain (all-purpose) flour

Cherry mousse

500 g fresh cherries, pitted
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup (125 g) caster sugar
1 cup milk
1 and 1/2 tablespoons powdered gelatin
1 cup pouring (whipping) cream

Cherry topping

2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
1/2 cup (125 ml) cherry puree

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease an 8 inch square cake pan (removable base) and line base with baking paper.

2. For the sponge base, whisk eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for 5 minutes, until thick and fluffy. Sift the flours together, and then fold into the egg mixture with a rubber spatula. Spread evenly into the prepared tin using a small palette knife and bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned and shrunk slightly away from the edge of the pan. Remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

3. For the cherry mousse, blend the pitted cherries in batches until smooth and press through a plastic strainer to achieve a smooth puree. Reserve 1/2 cup puree for the topping. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl for 5 minutes, until thick and pale. Bring the milk to the boil and gradually pour into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir for about 10 minutes, until it coats the back of a spoon. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour to cool completely. The custard and cherries are shown below:

4. Sprinkle the gelatin in an even layer over 1/4 cup of water in a small heatproof bowl and leave to go spongy. Put a large saucepan with about 4 cm water on to boil. Carefully lower the gelatin bowl into the water and stir until dissolved. Stir the slightly cooled gelatin and cherry puree into the custard mixture, then refrigerate for 30 minutes until thick not set, stirring occasionally. Whisk the cream until soft peaks form and fold into the cherry mixture until incorporated. Place the sponge in the base of the prepared pan and pour the cherry mixture evenly over the top. Refrigerate for 4 hours, or until firm.

5. For the cherry topping, sprinkle the gelatin in an even layer over 1/3 cup water in a heatproof bowl and leave to go spongy. Put a large pan filled with 4 cm water on to boil. Carefully lower the gelatin bowl into the water and stir until dissolved. After slightly cooled, stir in reserved cherry puree and pour evenly over the set mousse, then refrigerate for 30 minutes until set.

Slice into small pieces with a knife dipped in hot water. Top with fresh cherries, dust with a little icing sugar if desired and serve with cream.

Black Forest Cake

2013-11-19T23:39:00.002+11:00

I never expected the amount of excitement that would come around getting a new camera. Before its arrival, I spent countless hours watching videos and reading tutorials to prepare myself to step into the wonderful world of DSLR photography. Additionally, I signed up for a food photography e-course by Minimalist Baker and can say that it has been an extremely helpful asset towards exploring the new possibilities brought up by the camera. Prior to that, I used a point-and-shoot camera, which served me well for a few years as a beginner, until I began to recognise its limitations in both image quality and shooting speed. After finally completing school, I gathered the money I saved up for the past few years to invest in a good camera, forming an admiration for the Canon 100D as the smallest and lightest DLSR camera on the market; perfect for my small hands. The camera exceeded my expectations and hopes for beautiful photography, so much so, that I baked my own version of a Black Forest Cake to welcome it as the first of many posts to feature pictures taken with my camera.

The cake itself is adapted from Sweetapolita's one-bowl chocolate cake recipe, wherein it beholds a moist, dark chocolate crumb that is easy to bake as it is to eat. Although the intensity of the chocolate depends on the cocoa powder, it is a great cake to whip up for those sudden chocolate cravings. It is also one of those cakes that stays moist in the fridge for days (if it even lasts that long!), so it is perfectly fine to bake and freeze the cake layers ahead before frosting and decorating. And the frosting, is non other than swiss meringue buttercream flavoured with dark chocolate. Luckily I had planned ahead, using the egg yolks for salted caramel ice cream, which was unfortunately out of the running to be photographed. While the buttercream turned out with a lighter chocolate colour and intensity, it was heavenly silky, smooth and melted in the mouth as if it was made out of chocolate clouds. It's amazing how swiss meringue buttercream can be so delicious without being all gritty and unpleasant like the sugary powdered-sugar frosting.

Inside the cake is layers of vanilla whipped cream filling with fresh cherries, adding a juicy burst of cherry goodness in every bite. Light, airy, whipped cream accentuating subtle sweetness is a traditional component, yet the combination of it with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream adds a modern take on the classic Black Forest cake. The chocolate trees I had piped for the collar is somewhat borderline between messy and elegant. I mean, it's pretty inconsistent regarding the design and size of each tree. But it does kind of cover up my impatience on getting a perfectly smooth and even surface. Plus I was running out of time to take advantage of the beautiful sunlight streaming through the window. In the end, the piping was messy as the buttercream had become soft by the time I had frosted the cake, but the cake overall tasted pretty good. Also, I noticed that the frosting on the outside of the cake was too thin and needed more frosting to cover up. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it, and hopefully you may want to give this cake a try; its worth the extra time and effort!

One-bowl chocolate cake

Makes one 6-inch, 3 layer cake

Adapted from Sweetapolita

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cups of plain (all-purpose) flour (180 g)
1 cup of sugar (225 g)
1/2 cup of cocoa powder (60 g)
1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder (6 g)
1 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda (6 g)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (2.5 g)
140 ml of milk
130 ml of strong, hot brewed coffee OR boiled water
75 ml of vegetable oil
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (15 ml)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease three 6-inch round cake tins with melted butter, placing baking paper rounds on the base of each tin.
Sift all the dry ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Briefly whisk together all the remaining wet ingredients in a jug for easy pouring.
Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, mix the dry ingredients on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Slowly pour the liquid from the jug prepared earlier into the mixture and mix until combined. If there are any lumps, continue mixing until the batter is smooth.
Evenly divide the mixture between the three pans using an electronic scale, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Rotate the pans in the oven, and continue baking for about another ten minutes. The cakes are ready when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs.
Cool the cake layers on a wired rack for 15 minutes, turning them out to completely cool. If the cakes are domed, you may try to use a clean tea towel to gently push down on the dome to flatten it immediately after they have come out of the oven.

Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

5 large, fresh egg whites (150 g)
1 cup of sugar (225 g) with two teaspoons taken out
200 g of unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into cubes
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (5 ml)
200 g of chopped dark chocolate (300 g if you want a more intense chocolate flavour)

Method:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, or in a microwave, stirring at 20 second intervals until smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, whisk the egg whites and sugar together until the temperature reaches 65.5 degrees C (150 degrees F) or until the sugar has dissolved completely and the egg whites are hot to touch.
Transfer the egg whites to the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the whisk attachment of the mixer, whisk the mixture at high speed to firm peaks until the meringue is thick, glossy and the bottom of the bowl feels neutral (not warm).
At medium speed, add the butter cubes one at a time, until incorporated. Mix until it reaches a silky smooth texture. If the mixture has curdled, continue mixing until it becomes smooth again. If the mixture is runny, refrigerate it for about 15 minutes and continue mixing until it comes back together.
Add vanilla, and then add the melted and cooled chocolate at medium speed until combined.

For the vanilla whipped cream filling, whisk 420 ml of cold thickened cream, 1/4 cup of powdered (icing) sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract with an electric mixer to firm peaks (it should hold its shape) until combined.

For the chocolate trees, melt 200 g of dark/milk chocolate and fill it into a piping bag with a small, round tip. Pipe trees of about 3 inches tall on a baking tray lined with baking (parchment) paper. Extra chocolate may be melted again and reused for other purposes.

Assembly of Black Forest Cake

Using a cake turntable, place a cake layer on a circular cake board. With an ice cream scoop, add one scoop of whipped cream filling onto the cake and evenly spread it out with an offset palette knife. Spread a few pitted fresh cherries on top and add another scoop of cream on top of the cherries, smoothing it out.
Repeat the step for another layer, placing a cake layer on top of the cream and adding the cherries.
Fill the spaces in between the cake layers with more whipped cream.
Refrigerate the cake for about 15 minutes.
Add a scoop of chocolate swiss meringue buttercream on top of the cake, smoothing out and applying to the sides of the cake until thinly covered to seal in the crumbs. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Add more buttercream to the sides of the cake to form a somewhat thick layer, using an offset palette knife and bench scraper to achieve a smooth surface.
Pipe a buttercream border using a 1M star tip.
Chill the cake to set for at least 2 hours.
When ready to serve, carefully peel the chocolate trees from the baking paper and place them on the sides of the cake.
Serve the cake at room temperature, carefully slicing the cake in between each chocolate tree.

Double Chocolate Cake Pops

2013-11-10T01:13:00.000+11:00

I made these cake pops in the past weekend for a party, wrapped in cellophane bags with a cute ribbon entitled "EAT ME". I still can't get my head around why I didn't make these treats earlier. But all the steps involved did make it seem a little tricky and fiddly to create; the rolling of the cake balls, inserting the lollipop sticks, freezing them, dipping them in chocolate and finally decorating them with sprinkles. Even with the amount of work to make them, they are worth the effort and seem to be simple and easy to make. For my first try, I think it was a success.

These cake pops were demolished by the kids, I mean everyone thought white chocolate and nutella chocolate cake go hand in hand. Funnily, one of the kids called it as one of those massive chupa-chups "lollipop" before I told her it was basically a cake ball on a stick. Brilliant idea to whoever came up with cake pops.

It was pretty frustrating when some of the cake pops fell apart or refused to be held by a lollipop stick, even after spending some time in the freezer. I was able to save the best ones by re-shaping them into balls and forcing the sticks to hold them in place. I also used small cups to dry the cake pops after dipping them in white chocolate as shown in the pictures, rather than styrofoam which I unfortunately didn't have on hand.

These chocolate cake pops held together by nutella and coated in creamy white chocolate make it the perfect treat for virtually any occasion. I found this easy recipe from Divas Can Cook and you can find her recipe here. Now please excuse me as I go grab one from the fridge...

The Best Vanilla Cupcake

2013-11-09T00:25:00.000+11:00

This rarely happens to me. You know, when you first taste test a cupcake and then fall in love at first bite. In fact, I'm convinced it's the best vanilla cupcake like, ever. And being myself, the ever experimental baker, I wanted to find another vanilla cupcake recipe that's fail proof with an authentic vanilla kick. So within my 2 years of baking, I've tested many vanilla cupcake recipes I dug out from the internet but this one from Cupcake Project's popular Vanilla Cupcake recipe is certainly crowned the best above the rest. It's got a super soft crumb that melts into your mouth with a true vanilla flavour that's hard to beat. I'm not exaggerating, its the truth. And I strongly suggest you try it, if you haven't already.

And what about the topping to match this perfectly baked vanilla cupcake? Ah yes, and since I am considerate for those who I bake for, I turned to my mother for the details:

Mum: "I want something with white chocolate"
Me: "Like a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting?"
Mum: "No....WHITE chocolate not the one from cocoa beans"
Me: "Okeydokey, the ultimate white chocolate cupcake it is...*runs off to get the white chocolate*

Actually, after the conversation I decided to change it to a vanilla cupcake with white chocolate frosting, as I figured it would be too much of one ingredient. With the white chocolate frosting, I landed into this recipe from Not So Humble Pie that A: involves cream cheese and B: has lots of white chocolate. Perfect. I am quite aware of the effects cream cheese has on piping, but I like that its tangy flavour cuts out some of the sweetness. Unfortunately it came out super sweet, I guess loads of white chocolate + icing sugar = SWEET HEAVENS. So, to solve the problem, I dabbed a little icing on the cupcake and was randomly hit with a brilliant idea of covering it with sprinkles. I mean, who doesn't like sprinkles? It screams fun and celebration when you look at it. It reminds me of the epicness that is fairy bread from my childhood really.

Since I was making this for two people, I slightly modified the recipe by halving the ingredients, and substituting yoghurt for sour cream. This turned out wonderful, so much so, my mother stood up, declared it one of the best cupcakes ever and rated it five stars (excluding the frosting). Oh, and before I leave for another cupcake, here's a little swirl of sweet white chocolate buttercream....

Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

2012-09-27T13:56:00.000+10:00

This is officially my favourite baked cheesecake. Think of luscious roasted strawberries with juices to die for, topped on a strawberry-flavoured cheesecake. It has ricotta in it, which makes it so light and fluffy compared to the only cream cheese ones. I actually first saw this on Raspberri Cupcakes, and I instantly wanted to make this particular one since I was craving for cheesecake recently.

Strawberries are in abundance and are so cheap these days, which makes it perfect to use them for a cheesecake. I have never roasted fruits before, so I was a little skeptical of the idea of baking strawberries. But they came out so juicy and succulent, perfect for pairing with the cheesecake. Thanks to Steph (Raspberri Cupcakes), I will be roasting fruit more often now! You might have already seen it, but I tried to hide the ugly cracks on top of the cheesecake with the strawberries. This always happens to me whenever I bake a cheesecake.

I decided to use a recipe from Donna Hay for the biscuit base because I had run out of them and was too lazy to bake a batch. It came out fine, but probably next time I would use biscuits and process them up in a food processor for the base. It was just tasted a little bit more buttery to me...other than that, it was perfect, and next time I will definitely remember to buy more ricotta from the store for this cheesecake.

Baked Strawberry Cheesecake
Makes one 8 inch cheesecake

Adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes and Donna Hay.

Cheesecake filling
330 grams ricotta
500 grams cream cheese, softened
1 cup of strawberry jam
1 and 1/2 tablespoon of cornflour (cornstarch)
1 and 1/2 tablespoon of water
4 eggs

Base
1/3 cup of almond meal
3/4 cup of plain flour
1/4 cup of sugar
90 grams of butter, chopped

Strawberries
500 grams of fresh strawberries
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C (350 F). Make the base by combining almond meal, flour, sugar and butter in a food processor until a dough forms. Press the mixture with the back of a spoon on the base of a lined/greased 8 inch round springform pan. Bake for 15 minutes until light golden and set aside.

2. Make the filling by placing the cream cheese, ricotta, eggs and strawberry jam in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until just combined. Combine the cornflour and water together in a small bowl and add to the cream cheese mixture. Process until smooth. Pour the filling over the biscuit base of the prepared cake tin and bake for 1 hour until golden and a little wobbly in the center. Turn the oven off and allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven for another hour. Transfer to a wired rack to completely cool.

3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C (390 F). To make the strawberries, hull and halve the berries and place them in a roasting pan. Add the brown sugar and toss to combine. Pour over the vinegar and toss again. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the berries soften and the juices are present. Allow to cool completely, then arrange on top of the cooled cheesecake before serving.

Neapolitan Layer Cake

2012-09-16T10:42:00.002+10:00

So I was invited to a party last week. I was so excited about it that I planned what to make 3 days in advance. It only seemed fitting that a neapolitan cake would wow the guests and act as a thank you gift to the party host for inviting us. Distinctive layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry that is most familiar to me in my childhood (actually in ice cream form and yes, I was spoilt for the amount of ice cream I was allowed to have). Strangely enough, I remember only eating the chocolate part and leaving out the rest for my mum. But now, I love neapolitan ice cream in its whole form and eat every part of it (my favourite is still chocolate!).

I was only able to take photos of the cake before transferring it to the cake carrier so that's why the frosting-covered baking paper is still stuck to the cake (I use it to easily lift the cake onto the container). So I would like to apologise for the mess I had to capture, which honestly is quite embarrasing to me...but the main component in the pictures is the cake, right?

So would you like to see what's hidden in this cake? Here it is, the three neapolitan layers! I was surprised to see it look so similar to its ice cream form, and it seems that my hard work has paid off. I had some problems with the strawberry swiss meringue buttercream, but it came out all right at the end. I think it was due to the amount of strawberry puree and butter it had in it. The cake was also a little dense, but it was a real crowd pleaser and by the end of the day, there was none left...not even crumbs. I was so happy to see people enjoying the cake and commenting on how good it looked. Looks like I'll have to make this cake again soon, applying some changes to the recipe.

Since I followed the recipe from Annie's Eats and only made minor changes to the cake (I didn't add strawberry gelatin to the strawberry layer), I will direct you to her site which has all the detailed instructions and information you need to make this. Check it out HERE.

White Chocolate Cupcakes

2012-07-29T12:18:00.002+10:00

Cupcakes are my thing at the moment. With my hectic study schedule and the upcoming exams looming in, all I could ever have time to bake was cupcakes and cookies. Plus my pretty paper eskimo baking cups recently arrived in the mail, patiently waiting in the cupboard for someone to use them. I am getting a little bored with baking only cupcakes this time (even though they all taste yummy), but soon enough I should be able to bake other things like cakes and macarons. I will, I promise.

These cupcakes are heavenly and are one of the best. The white chocolate heightens the flavours of the cupcake and adds a beautifully textured crumb. The cream cheese frosting complements the white chocolate perfectly and gives it a creamy tang to balance out the sweetness. Oh, and heart confettis add a little fun to the cupcakes. You can use whatever icing or topping you think is best to match the cupcake like white chocolate ganache. Traditional cream cheese icing is not normally served with white chocolate though, more often it is for banana, red velvet or carrot cakes. But since my mum requested this icing, I did it for her.

White chocolate cupcakes adapted from Ooh, Look.

Makes 12

Ingredients:

100 grams of butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1/2 cup of milk

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 and 1/3 cups of plain flour, sifted

3/4 cup of sugar

100 grams of white chocolate, melted

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 F). Line a cupcake baking tin with 12 cupcake paper liners.

2. Beat butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, until incorporated.

3. Add the sifted flour and baking powder into the butter mixture and mix until combined.

4. Mix in the milk and melted chocolate and continue to beat until smooth.

5. Fill the cupcake liners with batter until about 1/2 full and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the tin immediately and cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream cheese frosting

Ingredients:

250 grams of cream cheese, softened and cut into cubes

50 grams of butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 cup of icing sugar, sifted

Method:

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

2. Gradually add the icing sugar to the cream cheese until well combined.

3. Beat the frosting again until it is fluffy and creamy and is ready to pipe.

Assemble the cupcakes by piping the cream cheese frosting on top. Sprinkle with your desired toppings and serve.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream

2012-07-15T20:15:00.003+10:00

Hello! I've been absent for the past few weeks (again) but during that time, I was searching for a new mixer since my old one became useless for baking. I was thinking of getting a KitchenAid mixer, since so many bakers own one, but its expensive price put me off. So when I couldn't decide between the Sunbeam Planetary Mixmaster and the Breville Scraper Mixer Pro, I chose Breville because of the great reviews it had and the features which stood out to me. And can I tell you that was the best decision I have ever made! I am so happy and proud to be the owner of such an amazing mixer. It does all the work for me and makes baking a breeze. Now I have a second helper in the kitchen. So to celebrate the purchase of my new mixer, I made some vanilla cupcakes with caramel swiss meringue buttercream.

The picture above is of course, none other than my shiny new mixer! I am so in love with it and the sound of the motor is so quiet that I can concentrate on doing other things. It also has a count up or down timer which is handy to prevent overmixing and to indicate how long it has been mixing. It whips icing wonderfully, creams butter and sugar until light and fluffy in seconds, and mixes cake batter thoroughly. Oh and did I mention that it came with an ice cream bowl? Yep, it makes ice cream in just 10-20 minutes. I'm getting a little carried away here with my mixer, so let's talk cupcakes!

I had found The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake bookmarked in my browser which I intended to try before but didn't have the chance to, so it was a great opportunity to try the recipe with my new mixer. It requires quite a few more ingredients than your average vanilla cupcake, but when mixed together, it produces vanilla-y, light and fluffy cupcakes that matches really well with the caramel buttercream. Talking about swiss meringue buttercream, adding caramel sauce to it transforms it from ordinary to something special with a rich caramel flavour that melts in your mouth. The unbelievably silky smooth, not too sweet texture makes swiss meringue buttercream among the best frostings to use for cakes and cupcakes.

The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake adapted from the Cupcake Project.

Makes 16 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 and 3/4 cups of cake flour (plain/all-purpose flour is fine)

1 cup of sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

57 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup of sour cream

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup of milk

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F). Prepare the cupcake pans with paper cupcake liners.

2. In a medium bowl or bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt until well combined.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, sour cream and vanilla extract until combined and smooth.

4. Add the butter and mix on a medium-low speed for about three minutes. This will turn into a fine crumb texture.

5. Slowly add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, beating on a medium speed until just incorporated.

6. Slowly add the milk to the batter and mix on a low speed until just combined.

7. Fill the cupcake liners until just over half full. Bake in the oven for 14 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. If they are not done, check them again in 2 minutes. They should be white in colour but not golden brown. Remove them from the pan immediately and allow to cool completely before decorating.

Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream adapted from Martha Stewart.

Ingredients:

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1/4 cup of water

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

180 grams of unsalted butter, chopped into pieces and softened at room temperature

Method:

1. Place 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar and the water in a medium saucepan and boil at a medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan ocasionally until it turns into a dark amber caramel. Wash the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent the sugar crystals from forming. Remove from the heat, and whisk the cream into the caramel until smooth. Set aside to cool.

2. Place the egg whites and remaining sugar into a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk the egg whites until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot to touch. If you have a candy thermometer, it should reach 160 degrees when inserted into the mixture.

3. Remove from the heat, and transfer the mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk on a medium speed for about 5 minutes. Increase the speed to medium high and whisk until glossy, stiff peaks form for about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, and add the pieces of butter one at a time, waiting for them to incorporate before adding the next piece. Whisk in the vanilla until combined. If the mixture is soupy, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes and whisk again. It will likely to come to the curdled stage, but keep whisking until it turns into a smooth buttercream.

4. Switch to the paddle attachment. Mixing on a low speed, add the caramel slowly and beat until smooth, for about 3-5 minutes. Best used immediately.

Decorate the cooled cupcakes with the buttercream, using a 1M star tip. Top with sprinkles if desired.

Ruffled Vanilla Celebration Cake

2012-06-28T11:53:00.000+10:00

Since I wrote my last post on how to make macarons, I turned 16...yes, I aged a year! My birthday was this past weekend and even though I stayed home with my friends and family, I wanted to make a cake that has all the things I have ever wanted in one, including ruffles. I have always admired all the ruffle cakes I saw in the past, like this, this and this! Aren't they all pretty and perfect? Mine isn't too pretty like those ones, but I am happy enough with my first attempt. The strawberry swiss meringue buttercream was the real highlight of the cake because it was so delicious that it tasted like fresh strawberry ice cream. It was really light in texture and not too sweet or buttery (I decreased the amount of butter to only 200 grams and it worked!). It was the perfect choice for making ruffles on this cake. The traditional buttercreams use too much icing sugar to stiffen it up, which gives it an unpleasant gritty, overly sweet and buttery taste. That's why I rarely use it anymore.

At first, I couldn't decide what cake to bake since it was only going to be for me and my little family. I had some strawberries leftover so it became the perfect opportunity to try piping ruffles with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream. My main inspiration for this cake came from Diamonds for Dessert's ruffle blogiversary cake. Her post convinced me that ruffles aren't that hard or time consuming to create and perfect. But really, I had some difficulties with it since it was my first attempt. I piped the ruffles the first time and it ended up looking messy and uneven, so I scraped it off and started again. The second time round it came out okay but was still not as perfect as I wanted it to be. I figured out that it already looked good enough and I was tired of the thought of doing it again.

I used the same white cake recipe from the White Vanilla Cake with Macarons because it turned out fluffy, moist and vanilla-y which would pair really well with the strawberry swiss meringue buttercream. But this time the cake turned out a little dry, so maybe next time I should try another recipe. Nonetheless, the strawberry jam in between the layers helped moisten it a little and added a beautiful flavour to the cake. The cake really did taste wonderful and I was very happy to have finally made a ruffle cake. The ruffles took up so much frosting though, so you would need to make a lot more for a larger cake. Just in case you were wondering, this mini cake is 5 and 3/4 inches in size which is perfect for a celebration to serve a small (I mean tiny) crowd of people.

White Vanilla Cake from Joy of Baking.

Makes 4 thin layer, 5 and 3/4 inch cake (if you want a larger cake, you should increase the recipe by 1.5 or 2 times)

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 and 3/4 cups of cake/plain flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

113 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 cup of milk

1/8 teaspoon of cream of tartar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C (350 degrees F). Line with baking paper the bottom and grease one 31.1 x 20.6 cm rectangular sheet pan. If you're doing a larger cake, prepare two or three 8 inch cake pans.

2. Separate the egg whites and egg yolks into different bowls and set aside.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

4. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft for about 1-2 minutes and add 3/4 cups of sugar to the butter, beating until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and mix again.

5. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture in three additions, starting and ending with the flour.

6. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Slowly add 1/4 cup of sugar to the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.

7. Gently fold a little of the meringue into the cake batter to lighten it first with a rubber spatula, and then fold in the remaining egg whites into the mixture until combined. Try not to over-mix or the batter will deflate.

8. Put the batter into the prepared pan/pans and smooth the surface with a small offset spatula. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

9. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack to cool completely before assembling.

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Adapted from Diamonds for Dessert. (You would have to increase the recipe by about 1.5 or 2 times for a larger cake since the ruffles use lot of frosting)

Ingredients:

4 egg whites at room temperature

1 and 1/4 cups of sugar

200 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature (the original recipe stated 339 grams of butter which is totally unnecessary since I tried adding a little less than 2 sticks of butter, which still worked perfectly!)

1 and 1/2 cups of fresh strawberries, pureed

Method:

1. Simmer some water in a small saucepan on the stove. Mix the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and put it over the pot so that it fits well. Whisk the mixture until it is hot and the sugar has fully dissolved (dip your fingers into the egg whites and rub them together, if it feels gritty, keep whisking).

2. Remove the bowl from the heat and pour into a bowl of an electric mixer. Alternatively, you could just leave it in the bowl if you are using a hand-held electric mixer. Beat on a medium high speed until stiff peaks form and the bowl has cooled down to room temperature for about 10 minutes.

3. Cut up the butter into small pieces and add them to the mixture a few pieces at a time, waiting for the butter pieces to incorporate before adding any more. Continue beating for a few minutes, and add the strawberry puree a little at a time to allow it to slowly incorporate. If the mixture turns out soupy after a couple of minutes of beating, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes. After beating again it might curdle, but just keep your hopes high and continue to beat the mixture until it turns into a silky smooth buttercream. Add a few drops of pink food colouring if desired. Best used immediately.

Assembly:

1. If making a small cake, create a template for the cakes on a sheet of paper. Use a compass to draw a circle of 5 and 3/4 inches in diameter and cut the stencil out. Then use a knife to cut out 2 circles from the rectangular cake and cut both circles horizontally in half. If making a larger cake, skip this step.

2. Put a cake layer on a cake board or a baking paper circle. Spread a small amount of strawberry jam on the cake and smooth it out with an ofset spatula.

3. Now dollop a scoop of frosting using an ice cream scoop or a large spoon and smooth the frosting out evenly.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the other layers until you have a nice staked tower of cake. Apply a thin layer of frosting on the outside of the whole cake to act as a crumb coat. It doesn't have to be too neat, the ruffles will cover it up later. This also keeps the crumbs from mixing into the frosting. Refridgerate the cake for 30 minutes or until firm.

5. Place a petal tip (I used no.104) in a piping bag. Fill the piping bag with the remaining buttercream.

6. Hold the piping bag vertically along the side of the cake with the fat part of the tip facing towards the cake and the thin part facing towards you. Apply pressure and squeeze the bag while piping in a back and forth motion until you reach the top, while making sure that the ruffles stick to the cake. Repeat until the whole cake is covered. If you would like to see how it is being done, check out this helpful video by Sweet and Saucy. She made it look so easy!

7. To finish, pipe ruffles on the top as a border (I would have liked to fully cover the top of the cake, but I had no more frosting left. Instead, I scattered the top with some multi-coloured heart confetti. Sprinkles makes everything look better!

Strawberries and Cream Macarons

2012-06-26T12:04:00.000+10:00

The title of this post says it all. These macarons are filled with a custard-cream that encases a hidden dollop of the best quality strawberry jam. You might have seen these from my last post on how to make macarons. You might have not. Either way, these delicate treats are certainly delicious when filled with a creamy, vanilla-y thick cream. Just what I need to serve an elegant afternoon tea with the girls. Oh, and some organic tea or hot chocolate to go with it too.

Instead of using strawberry jam, you could use fresh pureed strawberries with a little sugar added to it to give it a fresh strawberry scent that is perfect when paired with the cream in the macarons. I must admit that I am a little disappointed with the colour of my macarons since they were over-baked. It makes them look brown and ugly, hiding the real beauty of the macarons. But putting them in pretty cupcake liners adds a touch of cuteness and probably also hides my mistake, right? Next time when I make another batch of macarons, I will be in the kitchen watching closely at the oven door the whole time. That should solve my problem of over-baking macaron shells.

For the macaron recipe and a tutorial on how to make them, click here.

Vanilla Custard Cream Filling
Adapted from the book, Macarons: Chic and Delicious French Treats

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks (saved from the last batch of macarons)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of cornflour/cornstarch
1 cup of milk
1 vanilla pod/bean or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of thickened cream

Method:
1. Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a heatproof bowl until combined.

2. Heat the milk with the vanilla in a small saucepan until it just starts to boil.

3. Pour the hot milk over the egg yolk mixture and stir until incorporated.

4. Put the mixture back into the pan and simmer gently over a low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens and will coat the back of a spoon. Heat it slowly and gently and remove it from the heat immediately after it is ready. Be careful not to boil it too much otherwise it will curdle.

5. Strain the mixture into a clean bowl and add the butter, stirring until it has melted and incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to cool before refridgerating.

6. Whip the cream until it holds soft peaks and fold it into the custard. Chill before filling the macarons.

When done, the custard/cream should look thick and creamy like the one in the picture above. The colour of the filling depends on the type of sugar you use. My filling is kind of a brown colour because I used brown sugar so if you use white sugar, it should look like whipped cream.

After filling the macarons with the cream and strawberry jam, you should refridgerate them for 30 minutes before serving. Don't store the filled macarons in the fridge otherwise they will go soggy from the custard. Store them separately and fill them before serving.

How To: Make French Macarons

2012-06-23T15:57:00.000+10:00

So I have been away for a while... to be more specific, that was 2 weeks. I know. Apparently my school work keeps on pilling up and I simply didn't have the time to bake. But now I am back (unfortunately for a short while) with a little how-to on making French macarons! I won't go into all of the details on how to make a perfect batch of macarons but I will show you how to make them step by step. Since these delicate treats can be pretty tricky to make, I suggest you go to this website by Food Nouveau which I refer to when my macarons are cracked, have not developed feet or are just not looking like macarons should.

Let's get started on some macaron-making!

You'll need the following ingredients:

From the cookbook, Macarons: Chic and Delicious French Treats
Makes about 20 filled macarons

200 grams (1 and 1/2 cups) icing/confectioners'/powdered sugar
100 grams (2/3 cup) ground almonds
3 large egg whites (put the egg whites in a microwave for 10 seconds to speed up the aging process)
a pinch of salt
3 tablespoons of sugar

Start by sifting the icing sugar and ground almonds together.

And mix them together well. Alternatively, you could do this in a food processor.

Then whisk the egg whites together with the salt using an electric mixer in a clean mixing bowl.

Keep whisking until it just holds a stiff peak. Try not to overwhisk or this can affect the outcome of the macarons.

Slowly add the sugar to the egg whites, a teaspoonful at a time until incorporated and becomes thick, white and glossy. Try turning the bowl upside down on top of your head to see if it stays in the bowl. If it doesn't and is still runny, continue whisking until it forms stiff peaks.

Then add any food colouring paste to the meringue mixture. I added a combination of two colours, Americolor super red and Americolor deep pink to create a kind of girly look. Mix thorougly to ensure that the colour is evenly blended.

Using a rubber spatula, fold the icing sugar and ground almonds mixture into the egg whites a little at a time until combined.

Now your mixture should look smooth and drop from the spatula like molten mass.

Fill the piping bag with the macaron mixture using a 1 cm wide tip (I just used a plain coupler). Pipe evenly sized rounds on 2 baking trays lined with baking/parchment paper about 5 cm/2 inches across. Also make sure to leave some space in between the macarons otherwise they will stick together after piping. If you want to be sure that every macaron shell is the same size, you could use a round cookie cutter as a guide by drawing circles on the baking paper and flipping it over to pipe on the other side. I piped the macarons myself without a guide but instead tried counting 2-3 seconds for each one. It didn't always work but at least all the macaron shells looked similar in size....

Tap the bottom of the baking trays once on a work surface to remove any large air bubbles. Do this sharply but don't be too harsh. You don't want the macarons to end up losing their shape. Smooth any peaks on the tops of the macarons with a wet finger. Let the macarons set and form a dry shell for at least 15 minutes and up to an hour, until they are not sticky or wet when tested with your finger.

When they are ready, bake the trays in a preheated oven of 170 degrees C (325 degrees F) for about 10 minutes. The tops of the macaron shells should be crisp and the bottoms dry. They should also peel off the baking paper easily but if they stick, put them in the oven again for another 5 minutes. Leave them to cool completely before filling and serving.

Here are my baked macarons and yes, there are some problems with it. Firstly, I overbaked them a little which gave them a tanned colour so make sure the oven is not too hot and don't let them bake in the oven for too long. Secondly, the tops of some macaron shells were cracked. Probably because they have not set long enough to form a dry shell unlike the other ones. Thirdly, there were some shells that stuck together because I piped the shells too close to each other. As I have said before, leave some space in between the shells when piping as they do expand a bit. Try not to make the mistakes I did!

They didn't come out as perfect macarons but they did form feet/crown and were delicious when filled with a home-made vanilla custard. Practice is the key to success! They may be a little tricky to perfect, but when made these treats are certainly rewarding. They are also so versatile and can be matched or combined with different flavours, fillings and colours to suit your theme or preference. Scattering the macarons with sprinkles, other edible decorations or liquid food colouring can add a touch of sparkle to your macarons and turn them into special little treats.

~~I'll be back soon with another post featuring these macarons I made from this tutorial!~~
Click here to see the post featuring these macarons from this tutorial.

Pink Banana Layer Cake

2012-06-11T11:07:00.000+10:00

The design of this cake was certainly unexpected. I was supposed to pipe pink buttercream flowers to decorate the top of the cake, but I changed the plan when the flowers started to melt and my wrist started to ache when I tried piping again. The colour of the outside of the cake wasn't supposed to be pink too. It just happened to be that the pink buttercream flowers didn't work out, so I had to coat the cake with pink frosting. Then an idea suddenly popped in my mind when I was trying to figure out on how to decorate the top of the cake: Marshmallow flowers. Why not? I know the flowers don't look right, but they do resemble them a little. It may also look a little childish and silly, but in the end I was happy with it, except when some of the marshmallow petals decided not to stick together anymore.

I didn't intend on making a banana cake too. I was setting out a plan on baking a red velvet cake this week, which is something I have never made before. But the overripe bananas in the fruit bowl had my mother asking me to make something with it before they turn into black, mouldy fruit. The banana cake with cream cheese frosting recipe from Taste.com.au was one of the first cakes I made a few years ago when I was a beginner in baking. I wanted to change the basic recipe a little and turn it into a layer cake by increasing the amount of ingredients by 1.5 times. This ensured that I had three nice, slightly tall layers instead of just one large layer. I rarely bake cakes that have one layer anymore.

The pictures in this post look a little different and 'unnatural' because when I made the cake, it was a dark, cloudy day. What I don't like about cloudy days is that they make me sad and lazy and they aren't so good when it comes to providing natural light for taking photos. So I had no choice but to use bright artifical light, which in the end turned out better than I thought. This cake also reminds me of the Brown Butter Pink Ombre Daisy Cake with Strawberry Jam from Raspberri Cupcakes. Although I didn't attempt at making an ombre icing, the pink colour and the flowers on top make it look similar to her cake (but it is so much better than mine).

The cake tasted pretty good with a great banana flavour. It is slightly dense and on the heavy side, but since it is a banana cake, it isn't fluffy and light like a vanilla cake would. And it was a bit too sweet for me since the frosting and marshmallows were already quite sweet themselves. Hence, I recommend reducing the amount of sugar in the cake to 1 cup instead of 1 and a half. I'll leave it up to you if you decide to make this banana cake. The flavour is great and the cake is moist but if you're looking for one with a lighter crumb, I'd say this cake isn't for you. Anyway, I'll be back soon with another post next week!

Banana Layer Cake adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients:

187.5 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3 large mashed bananas
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
150 ml of milk
337 grams (2 and 1/4 cups) of self-raising flour (or add about 2 teaspoons of baking powder to plain flour)
1 teaspoon of baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (356 degrees F). Grease and line three 8 inch cake tins with baking/parchment paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. Mix in the vanilla extract, mashed bananas and milk and stir to incorporate.
3. Sift the flour and baking soda into the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter or the cake will come out tough and dry.

4. Divide the batter evenly into three cake pans and bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in tins for 10 minutes, before allowing them to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Make the best-ever-frosting, which is the cooked flour frosting with the cream cheese added (or you can use any type of frosting you like, cream cheese frosting is another good one).
6. Assemble the cake by spreading 3/4 cups of frosting on each layer, working your way up to the final third layer. Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting and put it in the fridge to set for 30 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, make the marshmallow flowers by taking a few marshmallows and cutting them horizontally into two or three halves (it depends on the size of the marshmallows). Press the sticky side of the marshmallow halves in sprinkles and pinch five pieces together to make a flower. Repeat with the rest of the marshmallows.
8. Colour the rest of the frosting pink with a little pink food gel colouring. Frost the outside of the whole cake with the remaining frosting evenly and smooth it out. Top with the marshmallow flowers. Best served at room temperature.

Chocolate Cupcakes & Mint Chocolate Macarons

2012-06-01T12:04:00.000+10:00

At the moment, mint and chocolate seems to be the flavour combination of my latest obsession. I didn't realise how popular they were until I saw them featured in ice cream, biscuits, slices, whoopie pies, cakes and even cupcakes! I wasn't a fan of them either. That is, until I tried a mint slice which is a chocolate-covered biscuit filled with a layer of mint cream inside. They worked so well together, and the mint was a refreshing component that perfectly assisted the sweetness of the chocolate. I also tried eating fresh mint leaves with blocks of chocolate just for fun, but that didn't work well like eating one of my favourite chocolate bars, Mint Aero.

I decided to feature my new love for mint chocolate in the form of macarons when I saw them in the book, Macarons: Chic and Delicious French Treats. I have been wanting to make these ever since I bought the book, and I was further inspired by Raspberri Cupcakes once again, with these adorable Heart Polka Dot Macarons & Vanilla Bean Blueberry Cupakes. I actually attempted to pipe heart shapes with the macarons but failed when they looked like deformed hearts. I'm going to stick with the regular round shapes for now until I perfect my piping skills. Using David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake recipe, I made a small batch of chocolate cupakes which were moist and chocolatey, perfect for pairing with mint.

The real star of the cupcakes are of course, the macarons which are filled with a lovely minty milk chocolate ganache. I used a bunch of fresh mint leaves I bought from the shop, just because I didn't have any peppermint extract on hand. The key to getting as much flavour from the mint possible is by letting the leaves infuse in the syrup for at least an hour. I let mine sit for about three hours, which was enough to bring out the minty-ness, but no too overwhelming as not to mask the flavour of the chocolate. And when it came to the macarons, I was sure to let them set until they formed a skin. But even that, a batch of the shells came out cracked and ugly. I was lucky to have another batch perfectly baked (maybe a tad over-baked) with feet and no cracks!

The frosting I used is new to me, and it is a cooked flour frosting from Tasty Kitchen that I actually wanted to try before I discovered the Best-ever-frosting. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for me as the mixture split and there was still lumps of flour present in the frosting. It also kind of melted a bit which did not hold its shape very well as shown on the cupcakes. However, it did taste delicious and wasn't too sweet or buttery at all, but I will go back to my favourite recipe for now as my go-to frosting.

Chocolate Cupcakes adapted from David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake.
Makes 10 cupcakes (double the recipe if you want 20 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
4 and a half tablespoons of cocoa powder
3/4 cup of cake flour (or plain flour)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/8 teaspoon of baking powder
57 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup of sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of water

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F). Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners.

2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. Mix the milk and water together in a bowl and set aside.

3. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until fluffy and creamy. Add the egg and mix until combined.

4. Stir half of the flour mixture into the butter and add the milk and water to the batter. Stir in the other half of the flour mixture and mix until incorporated.

5. Fill the cupcake liners until half full. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in tray for 5 minutes, before placing the cupcakes on a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Mint Chocolate Macarons adapted from Macarons: Chic and Delicious French Treats by Annie Rigg
Makes 20 macarons

Ingredients:
200 grams (1 and 1/2 cups) icing/confectioners'/powdered sugar
100 grams (2/3 cup) ground almonds
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons of sugar
30 grams (about 1 bunch) of fresh mint leaves
Extra 3 tablespoons of sugar
200 grams of dark/milk chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup of water
Green food colouring paste

Make the mint-infused ganache first,

1. Lightly crush the mint leaves with your hands and add it to the extra sugar and water in a small saucepan.

2. Slowly bring it to the boil until the sugar dissolves and then simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove it from the heat and let it infuse for at least 1 hour (The longer it infuses, the more mint flavour will come out).

3. Bring the mint syrup back to the boil and and then strain the leaves into a heatproof bowl. Immediately add the chocolate to the syrup and mix well until smooth and melted. Let the mixture cool before putting it in the fridge for it to set and thicken up slightly.

To make the macarons,

1. Sift icing sugar and ground almonds in a bowl and set aside.

2. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer in a clean bowl with a pinch of salt. Whisk until it just holds a stiff peak.

3. Add the sugar to the meringue while beating at a medium-high speed a teaspoonful at a time. Mix well between each addition. Add the green food colouring to the mixture and stir well until the colour is evenly distributed.

4. Fold the icing sugar and almond mixture into the egg whites until incorporated and smooth.

5. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe evenly sized circles of about 2 inches wide in diameter on a baking/parchment paper lined baking tray.

6. Tap the bottom of the baking trays sharply and leave the shells to set for about 1 hour or until they have set and formed a shell. They should not be sticky or wet when touched with your finger.

7. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (325 degrees F) while the macarons are drying. Bake the shells for about 10 minutes, until they are crisp and dry. Cool completely before filling with the ganache.

8. Take two similar sized shells and sandwich them together with the prepared mint ganache filling. Repeat with the rest of the shells.

Vanilla cooked flour frosting adapted from Tasty Kitchen
Double the recipe if you like lots of frosting

Ingredients:
2 and a half tablespoons of plain flour
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup of sugar
113 grams of unsalted butter
Green food gel colouring

Method:

1. Pour milk in a small saucepan and whisk the flour into the milk until combined.

2. Heat the mixture over a medium heat until it is very thick and creamy. Cool the mixture completely by letting it cool in the fridge or putting it over an ice bath.

3. Add vanilla extract to the cooled mixture and stir to combine.

4. Beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

5. Add the cooled flour mixture to the butter and whip on a medium-high speed until it looks like whipped cream. Add colouring and mix well to distribute the colour evenly.

To assemble the cupcakes, pipe a swirl with the frosting and top with a mint chocolate macaron.

White Vanilla Cake with Macarons

2012-05-19T23:18:00.000+10:00

This may be one of the best cakes I've ever made. It's pretty, elegant and most of all, really delicious. And I made it within 3 hours, which was a mad rush to bake the cake layers, make the macarons, whip up the frosting, assemble the cake and frost the whole thing before my friends came over. I know, I should have planned it earlier and started a day ahead because my macarons didn't turn out right. I was devastated to see the poor, cracked with no crinkly feet macarons looking like mini whoopie pies when I took them out of the oven. But in the end I still used them, because they just tasted so good. I didn't let them set long enough to dry as I didn't have enough time. Lesson learned.

The main inspiration for the macaron topping came from the Balsamic Strawberry Butter Cake by Steph of Raspberri Cupcakes (I am her no.1 fan of her blog!). My cake is no where near as perfect as her cake (and all of her other amazing cakes) and I should have topped the cake with more macarons too. The frosting on the cake isn't super smooth because I didn't bother spending more time on that, and those air bubbles from whipping so much made it even harder to smooth out. Speaking of frosting, I used my go-to recipe: Perfect buttercream frosting, minus the cream cheese. This never lets me down and always impresses with its light and not-too-sweet whipped cream taste...yum.

For the cake, I used the recipe from Joy of Baking, which is great for me because it uses the egg whites and egg yolks. It is more complicated than just mixing the ingredients together, because you have to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold it through the cake batter. But, it's totally worth it when it comes out of the oven, because it creates a beautiful light, moist and buttery crumb that tastes oh so vanilla. I also carefully increased the recipe by 1.5 times, so that I could have a third layer. And it turned out just as it should which made me really happy, unlike my attempt at a third layer on the Chocolate Delight Cake.

The macarons are the star on this cake even though they weren't as perfect as I had hoped. I recently bought the "Macarons Chic & Delicious French Treats" book by Annie Rigg from the bookstore, and it is an beautiful little book full of stunning pictures and ideas for making various flavours of macarons. I adapted one of the ideas to flick some red liquid food colouring on the unbaked macarons (a genius idea!), which gave it a Jackson Pollock effect. It gave it a pretty colour on an otherwise plain macaron. I was also going to make heart shaped macarons but I ended up piping the regular round shapes, so I'd love to try it the next time I make another batch.

White cake recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Makes one-3 layer 8 inch cake.

Ingredients:

3 large eggs, separated

262 grams cake flour (about 2 and 3/4 cups) or use plain flour and replace 4 tablespoons of the flour with cornflour

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon of salt

170 grams of unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 and 1/2 cups (300 grams) of sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3/4 cup of milk

1/8 plus half of 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Macarons recipe from 'Macaron Chic & Delicious French Treats' by Annie Rigg.

Makes about 20 filled macarons

Ingredients:

200 g (1 and 1/2 cups) icing/ confectioners'/ powdered sugar

100 g (2/3 cup) ground almonds

120-125 g egg whites (about 3 eggs)

a pinch of salt

3 tablespoons of sugar

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C (350 degrees F). Grease and line three 8 inch round cake tins with baking paper.

2. Separate the eggs, reserving both the egg yolks and egg whites and set aside in covered bowls.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

4. Beat butter with an electric mixer until soft and add 1 cup of the sugar. Continue to beat until creamy and fluffy.

5. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing after each addition and add the vanilla extract to beat until combined.

6. Add the flour mixture and milk in three additions, alternating between each to make sure the flour is added in the beginning and end.

7. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl with an electric mixer until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.

8. Gradually add the remaining sugar (1/2 cup) and keep beating until it forms stiff peaks.

9. Gently fold a little of the egg whites in the cake batter with a rubber spatula and then add the rest, mixing until combined. Be careful not to overmix the batter otherwise it will deflate.

10. Evenly divide the batter between the three prepared cake tins (weigh the batter if you want to have exactly even layers) and bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center is clean. Cool the cakes in the tins for 10 mins and let them completely cool. Cover the layers with plastic wrap and place them in a freezer for at least an hour to make it easier for assembly.

For the macarons:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (338 degrees F). Sift the icing sugar and ground almonds in a mixing bowl and set aside.

2. Whisk the egg whites with an electric mixer in a clean bowl. Add the salt and continue to beat until it just holds a stiff peak. Add the sugar a teaspoonful at a time and mix well between each addition. It should form a thick, white and glossy meringue.

3. Fold the icing sugar and ground almond mixture into the egg whites until combined and smooth.

4. Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe even circles on the baking/parchment paper lined baking trays, about 2 inches across in diameter.

5. Tap the bottom of the trays sharply to remove any large air bubbles. Dip a clean toothbrush in some red liquid food colouring and flick the bristles over the macarons to colour them (the food colouring may splash quite a bit).

6. Leave the macarons for at least 15 minutes to an hour, until they become dry and have set. They should not feel wet or sticky when tested with your finger.

7. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes until the tops are crisp and the bottoms are dry. Let them cool completely after baking.

8. Fill the macarons with some buttercream, jam, ganache or frosting (I used some leftover frosting from the cake) and sandwich them together.

To assemble the cake,

1. Fill the cake with about 1/2 cup of frosting on each layer (I used my favourite buttercream frosting here), stacking them layer by layer and frosting the outside of the cake. Put it in the fridge to set for at least an hour. Top the cake with macarons just before serving and serve at room temperature.

Chocolate Heart Whoopie Pies

2012-05-13T22:29:00.002+10:00

For those of you who aren't into the baking trends, whoopie pies may be new to you. So what is a whoopie pie? It's basically two cookie-like cakes sandwiched together with a delicious creamy filling. They are a combined version of cookie and cake and are taking over the baking world by storm, becoming increasingly popular among bakers. Traditionally, whoopie pies are made with a marshmallow filling but I decided to give it a modern twist and use classic buttercream instead. No one likes bland food, especially when it comes to sweet treats. And what's my version of whoopie pies without a little surprise inside?

Thanks to Not Quite Nigella's recipe, I was able to reproduce some delicious chocolate whoopie pies. It was the first time I've ever made these treats, and I'm glad that I did! They however, came out a bit too large for me so I decided to cut out heart shapes with my cookie cutter and split each in half, which explains why there are so many crumbs. You can cut out other shapes or have these in their regular circle shape and fill them with your favourite frosting or filling. You could even try strawberry and cream whoopie pies like the traditional scones!

I wanted to surprise my tasters with a strawberry-flavoured marshmallow hidden inside, surrounded by the creamy buttercream. It was a delicious treat with a nice chocolatey moist crumb which was complimented by the filling and heart-shaped marshmallow. The dark chocolate chips added in the batter were a nice addition and took the whoopie pies to another level. Next time I might try adding in white or milk chocolate chips, or even sprinkles for a funfetti version.

They may not be too pretty or fancy, but they are certainly tasty and worth to try. There are so many flavours and versions of whoopie pies from pumpkin to red velvet to choose from, that it may be time to try another one soon!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies adapted from Not Quite Nigella.
Makes about 12 whoopie pies

Ingredients:

125 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

1 cup of milk

1 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of plain/all-purpose flour

1 and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

1/3 cup of chocolate chips

Classic Vanilla Buttercream from Savory Sweet Life.

Ingredients:

226 grams (2 sticks, 1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3 to 4 cups of confectioners' (icing, powdered) sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 to 4 tablespoons of milk/cream

To make the whoopie pies,

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 F). Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat well until creamy.

2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt and set aside.

3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating in three parts with the milk and mixing well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips and mix to combine.

4. Use a greased whoopie pie pan and fill the moulds with batter, OR use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop and drop 12 balls of batter, about 6 inches apart, onto a baking paper lined baking tray. You can also pipe them with a piping bag if you're a neat baker.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle is clean or they spring back when lightly pressed. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack before filling or decorating.

To make vanilla buttercream,

1. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for a few minutes until pale and creamy. Turn the mixer to a low speed and add 3 cups of the icing sugar and mix until incorporated.

2. With the mixer at a medium speed, add the vanilla extract, salt and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. Add another cup of icing sugar for a more stiff consistency or add the rest of the milk/cream a tablespoon at a time.

Assemble the whoopie pies by piping or spreading some buttercream on one cake and sandwiching it with another. Decorate as you like with icing, sprinkles or sifted cocoa/icing sugar on top!

Double-Decker Cookies

2012-04-29T19:29:00.002+10:00

When I first saw these cute double decker cookies on Bake at 350, I instantly fell in love with the idea which gives you two cookies all in one! It was perfect for me as a beginner in cookie decorating which I have only started recently. These are nice and simple cookies topped with royal icing and decorated with dots to give it a cute look. As you can see, my cookies are quite untidy and not as good as those on Bake at 350 but I am learning and improving more on my cookie decorating skills as I bake up more batches of cookies. They tasted light, sweet and beautiful for morning or afternoon tea and was especially delicious when paired with a hot cup of tea or coffee.

I used Sweet Sugarbelle's recipe for perfect sugar cookies again but unfortunately for me, I over-browned some of them and was able to rescue other batches that resulted in quite a lot of crumbs. The royal icing recipe from Joy of Baking was successful the last time I used it so I adapted it by adding more icing sugar to follow the 10 second icing rule which Sweetopia uses. You can also follow other rules some cookie decorators prefer like the 20 second rule from Sweet Sugarbelle but go with what you are the most comfortable with. I also think that using the same icing for both outlining and flooding suits me because I don't have many piping bags on hand and is convienient as well.

I decided to make two colours and was torn between the colour choices of electric green, sky blue, electric pink and violet. Sky blue and electric pink were my favourites and I ended up liking the blue cookies (because they looked better) instead of the pink. Some of the dots on the cookies are raised because I did not work fast enough to make sure that they layed flat like those on the blue cookies. And my piping skills still need to improve a lot. Practice makes perfect so be prepared to see more cookies on this blog!

Perfect sugar cookie recipe from Sugarbelle.

Makes about 24 cookies.

Ingredients:
227 grams unsalted butter
175 grams icing or confectioner's sugar
1 egg at room temperature
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
400-425 grams of plain or all-purpose flour

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 204 degrees celcius (400 degrees farenheit) and beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy. Add the egg and vanilla to the mixture and mix until combined.

2. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and add this to the mixture a little at a time until incorporated.

3. Roll out the dough with some flour to dust on hand to a 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies with mini hearts and stars cutters (the same ones I used in the homemade candies) and cloud or flower cutters and place them on a baking tray lined with baking/parchment paper.

4. Bake the cookies for 7 to 8 minutes until dry but not brown.

Royal icing recipe from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:

2 large egg whites (60 grams)
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
3 cups or 330 grams of icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted
Sky blue and pink food gel colouring

Method:

1. Beat egg whites and lemon juice in a bowl of an electric mixer until combined.
2. Add the icing sugar and mix on a low speed until combined and smooth. (Depending on your preference for the consistency of flood icing or for bordering, you can use the 10 second rule which is when you drag a knife through the center of the icing, it should come back together completely in 10 seconds). Mix in more icing sugar if it is too thin or add a little water if it is too thick until the desired consistency.

3. Tint the icing with blue and pink or your favourite colours and mix well.

To decorate the cookies,

1. Fill your piping bags with royal icing and border the cloud cookies with blue and pink icing. Fill the cookies with plain or white icing (go to this tutorial from Sweet Sugarbelle for help with outlining and flooding) and add coloured dots to the white icing while working quickly before they set.

2. Ice the hearts and stars with coloured icing and leave to dry overnight.

3. Stick the hearts and stars to the cloud cookies with a little royal icing and set aside about 30 minutes to an hour to set.

Marshmallow Chocolate Cupcakes

2012-04-15T09:25:00.003+10:00

Pair soft and not-too-sweet marshmallow with a beautifully light and chocolatey cupcake and you have a wonderful yet playful treat! Actually, it is marshmallow fondant that tops these super cute cupcakes. After trying one and getting a lot of positive feedback from my friends, I declared them as one of the best creations I have ever made...not to mention amazingly delicious and simple to make. I made these to take with me to a park I was going with my friends and I desired to make something colourful and pretty like the homemade candy hearts and stars I made a while ago.

The inspiration of this idea came from flicking through the 'Cupcakes by Colour' book by the Australian Women's Weekly. This book is the first place where I look for decorating cupcake ideas. One particular cupcake that caught my eye looked similar to this but was just blue and white stars so I adapted this idea to make more colourful and attractive cupcakes with the addition of hearts. Then applying marshmallow fondant to the cupcake instead of traditional fondant as suggested just made sense and it fit into my plan perfectly.

It worked so well when matched with the perfect chocolate cupcake I found from Glorious Treats. I also had my eye on the marshmallow fondant Bakingdom used for her cakes until I finally got my hands on a packet of vanilla marshmallows. That's when I really started to get creative with the help of the marshmallow fondant recipe by Clockwork Lemon. I got my four gel colours out and added a little to each portion of fondant that I divided by weighing (I love my kitchen scales). Then I cut out hearts and stars (the same cutters I used for the candies) from each coloured dough, replacing the cut-out shapes into the cut out pieces of dough.

The instructions also stated that you should slather some buttercream icing or ganache on top of the cupcake to adhere the fondant but I didn't think that was necessary as the cupcakes were already sticky on the top which helped the fondant to stay in its place. These cupcakes were gone in a flash and everyone loved them. I am already being asked to make another batch of these cupcakes so I highly recommend that you to try out these treats soon!

Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes recipe by Glorious Treats

Makes about 24-27 cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 cups of sugar
1 and 3/4 cups of plain or all-purpose flour
3/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 cup of boiling water

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) and line muffin trays with cupcake liners.

2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Add sugar and salt and stir until combined.

3. Stir in the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla and beat for one minute or until incorporated.

4. Add the boiling water to the mixture and mix together thoroughly until it is a shiny thin batter.

5. Fill the cupcake liners with the batter until 2/3 full.

6. Bake in preheated oven for about 22-24 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre is clean.

7. Remove the cupcakes from the tray and allow them to cool completely on a wired rack before topping them with marshmallow fondant.

Marshmallow fondant by Clockwork Lemon

Makes just enough to decorate about 20 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

250 g packet of vanilla marshmallows (or any other flavour of your choice)
Icing or confectioner's sugar (the amount can vary so make sure you have an entire bag on hand)
Food gel or colouring

Method:

1. Put the marshmallows in a large microwavable bowl and sprinkle teaspoons of water to make them a little moist.

2. Microwave the marshmallows for ten seconds at a time, stirring with a greased wooden spoon until it has melted and puffed up enough to be sticky (for me it was about a minute in the microwave).

3. Start adding the icing sugar to the marshmallow mixture and stir, adding more each time until it becomes a soft and fluffy dough. Grease your hands if it becomes too sticky and transfer the mixture to a icing-floured bench. Keep adding icing sugar while kneading until it is stiff enough to roll out but be careful not to add too much icing sugar. If it is too stiff and breaks easily, add butter or stick it in the microwave for about 2 seconds.

4. Portion the finished fondant dough by weighing the whole piece and dividing that by 4 (it depends how many colours you desire). Roll out the dough briefly and add a little food colouring in the middle. Start kneading and wear plastic gloves if you don't want your hands coloured until the colour is distributed evenly, making sure that the other pieces of dough are wrapped tightly with plastic wrap.

5. Roll out each piece of coloured fondant to about 5 mm thick or a little less. Cut out shapes with your tiny cutters (about 3 cm in diameter) slightly close together. Put these shapes in a zip lock bag while you do the rest. Alternate the shapes and place them in the cut out holes of all of the coloured portions of fondant. Roll it again to ensure the shapes are in place.

6. Cut out rounds of fondant from each colour with a 7 cm round cookie cutter (or a similar size that fits the cupcakes) and carefully place each piece on top of the cupcakes, pressing them slightly in place.

Chocolate Delight Cake

2012-04-14T10:13:00.002+10:00

What happens when I put two of my favourite things together? You get a delicious combination of moist, rich chocolate cake with silky smooth and deliciously sweet buttercream frosting. It's such a simple cake, but is just enough to satisfy anyone's sweet tooth without creating a tooth ache. Plus, it's easy to make and is customisable too. Decorate it the way you like it if it is too plain to your liking.

I used David Lebovitz's Devil's Food Cake again, just like many other bakers who declared the cake as their favourite chocolate cake. I also tried experimenting with the recipe by increasing it 50% so I could create another layer of cake. It was still as delicious with a moist chocolatey crumb but maybe my measurements were a little wrong as one layer had a small part that was undercooked and dense. I think next time I should just stick with the original recipe. But if your adventurous like me, you could try it out and see if the results are as good as the original.

I was actually going to decorate the sides of the cake with chocolate trees made out of melted chocolate. But when I tried piping it, it turned out to be a disaster. The hot melted chocolate (I did not want to cool down otherwise it would have set) burnt my hand a bit and oozed from the piping bag everywhere onto the baking paper. So, after an unsuccessful attempt at making a baking paper piping bag, I gave up and decided to leave the cake nice and white on the outside. I didn't bother to pipe decorations either because I was too tired after the mishaps.

Devil's Food Cake from David Lebovitz

Makes a two (or three) layer 8 inch cake.

Ingredients:
9 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 and 1/2 cup of cake flour (you can make this by replacing three tablespoons of plain flour with cornflour/starch)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
115 grams (1 stick/4 ounces) of unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup of water or coffee
1/2 cup of milk

For the recipe and instructions of the Perfect buttercream frosting, click here.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) and grease and line 8 inch cake pans (I used two pans).

2. In a medium bowl, sift together cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and set aside.

3. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the water (or coffee) and the milk and set aside.

4. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, making sure that it is mixed in properly.

5. Mix in half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then add all of the wet ingredients (milk and water). Stir in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.

4. Divide the batter into the prepared pans. You can do this by weighing (use a kitchen scale for this to weigh the whole mixture then divide it by two or three).

5. Bake the cake layers for about 25 minutes and check with a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake if it comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to cool completely on a wired rack before frosting or decorating.