11 June 2009: Quiche ~ My Hawaiian Version :P

Modified from Richard 老师's recipe, I use Honey baked Ham, Pineapple, Edem+Cheddar Cheese for my quiche... as I felt that Edem is on the saltish side, I mixed 50% Cheddar, 50% Edem... Plus the sweetness from canned pineapple cubes balanced out the overall taste. Very Hawaiian lor.... Tessa says its Pizza :D

I baked for almost 45mins instead of the recommeded 25-30mins as I dun seem to get the "browning" on top initially...

Then I've got some left-over pastry... so wasted lor... so I made them into these mini cheese tarts.. its the same ingredients used for my quiche, minus the ham and pineapple as there is limited "tart space" :D The result is not bad! Nyx and Tessa say nice and wanted more wor!

I think this looked very much like Portuguese Egg Tart... Of coz I know Portuguese Egg Tart uses Puff Pastry... mmm..I will try tat next time :D ~ Puff + UHT Whipping Cream+ Egg ~

My 1st Cake Order :D

Joanne, my batch girl called me last week... Its her daughter, Emily's birthday and she wanted cupcakes... Joanne saw my 1st fondant attempt pictures on my FB and asked if I can help her make some cupcakes for Emily... As her order was only 20 cupcakes and 1 strawberry cake, I agreed! This is my 1st order for cakes :D

At first I was worried as I dun have most of the fondant gadgets... so I told Joanne I can only make her some very simple figurines... mostly cut-out using my cookie cutters. She is so nice to accommodate :-)

03 June 09: I'm getting started... moulding these bags and crowns took this new bird almost 4hrs :P Hubby was home... amazed by me playing with plasticine the whole afternoon :D

I bake a sponge cake, cut into 3 layers & sandwiched them with strawberries and cream... stored in fridge to set overnite and do the final decoration tomorrow.


04 June 09 morning, I started baking the cupcakes... Joanne wanted 20... I made some extra... 4 more for my future experiments...

After the cupcakes r done, I mix the butter cream, using my Fondant Shifu's (Mong) recipe:

• 250g Unsalted Butter
• 250g Crisco White Shortening
• 2 tbsp Meringue Powder
• 500g Icing Sugar (Mong's recipe was 900g!)

Then Butter cream r being colored, creamed on cupcakes - 4 White, 4 Pink, 4 Blue & 4 Yellow
And Its Decoration Time... The Fondant figurines I prepared the day before is now swee-swee displayed on the cupcakes! Some silver balls, colorful heats and flowers adds more swee-ness to the cupcakes :D


The handbags r standing nicely with the support of a toothpick pocked thru the cupcakes & fondant bags :D

Then finally I decorate the Strawberry cake, tie ribbon around the Finger Sponge and brush the strawberries with apricot gel.... Dun believe the whole process took me another 4hrs wor :P



Joanne picked up the cakes @ my place around 3.45pm... Hope Emily will love them :-)

25 May 09: My 1st Fondant attempt

Lifeng forwarded me this site@ http://www.mongstirs.com/ and everything there seems so interesting lor.... so I signed up for a Fondant modeling workshop. Too bad, Lifeng's colleague already took leave for tat day so she is not able to join this workshop :(

The class is fun... only 4 person in a class. Fees is only @ $100 including tools, a packet of wilton fondant & 6 pre-prepared cupcakes.

We learnt 6 pretty looking figurines: crown, baby booties, bee, car, handbag & elmo... fun fun fun :D

1st we start off making a crown... but I was too engrossed and forgot to take picture... then we make the baby booties....

• Roll out 2 white balls of the same size
• Use a dog-bone tool to dig a hole in each ball
• Pipe ribbon on the booties using tip no.3
• Decorate with golden ball-ball

Here's the "Chanel" handbag :D

• Roll out Fondant to about 1/2cm thick
• Press quited plastic moulding sheet on the rolled-out fondant using rolling pin
• Cut out 2 "rectangles" - 1 for front of bag, 1 for back.
• Roll out another fondant sheet of about 2mm thick (for the bag flap)
• Roll out a tiny stripe for the handle
• "Glue" all bits and pieces together using water :D
• Decorate with golden ball-ball
  
  

Buzz buzz Beezzz....

• Roll out 1 yellow ball - to shape of a giant tick-tac
• 1 long black stripe for the body stripe
• 1 short black strip for the sting
• 1 "m" shape white fondant
• roll the black strip on the yellow oval-ball, using water to stick
• white "m" shape fondant for the wings
• use edible marker to dot the eyes
• use any rounded cutter to shape the bee's smiling mouth
• dig a hole at the back of the bee and place in the sting
  
  

Sport Car

• roll out 1 blue fondant ball, shape into a oval shape
• 1 smaller tube-shape as spoiler
• 4 black balls as wheels
• 1 white ball as the driver

Mong recommend the "Shinny brand" stamping set... can use to stamp any alphabets on fondant :) but please.... its meant for fondant work only... do not use as its original purpose :D

Elmo

• 1 round red ball as head
• 1 oval ball as body
• 2 tubes for hands
• 2 tubes for legs
• 2 white balls as eyes
• 2 black balls as eye-balls
• 1 orange ball as nose
  
  

07 May 09: Strawberry Basket bouquet for my MUM

It's Mother's Day on coming Sunday...

My mum told me recently.... Korean strawberry tastes best!... although it's towards orangy in color, and looks as if its not ripe yet, it tastes sweet... compared to the USA lah, Egypt lah, Australia lah.... blah blah... all so sour :(

Was at Shop&Save on Wednesday and there were a few punnets of Korean strawberries on the fridge shelves... so I bought 2... maybe I should bake a strawberry cake for mum... Present + Cake... 2-in-1 :D so cheapo!! :))

So again... my same pattern, I bake a 6-inches sponge cake... cut into 3 half-inches thick slices.

I layered the sponge cake with strawberry mousse, stuffed with lots of halved-strawberries. Then I position the top layer with whole strawberries, then I brushed them with apricot gel... so they look shinny-shinny :D The sides r lined with finger sponge (ladyfinger... used for tiramisu) and to prevent them from falling off the cake, I tied a ribbon around the cake, which makes it look like a present :D

Result not bad hor?

I delivered the cake to my mum, who stays with my brother now... I think mum is happy and gave me 2 mangoes in exchange?!?? Make no sense :P

Brother saw the cake ands say I PRO leh!! Me Very happy of coz!! :">

Then, as usual, lots of left-over of cake, strawberry and cream... so I made these for my gals! And they LOVE it! and I'm glad :)

06 May 09 : Checkerboard Cake

I always wonder how to create those checker boxes inside cakes....

Last week, I borrowed "Cakes Galore" by Valerie Barrett from Yishun Library and there is this Pink and White Cake which Nyx said its so beautiful. Its actually a checkerboard cake which was what I wanted to do... so I started my experiment (again :D)

I made 2 6-inches round sponge cakes, 1 strawberry and 1 vanilla.

• Cut the cake into slices of about 1/2 inches thick for each slice
• Use cookie cutters in 2 different sizes to cut out rings of cake from the slices
• Assemble to cake with alternate colours.

I tried to imitate the decoration of the cake on the book but my piping skill is still very limited... so this is the outcome :P Evelyn suggested to change the icing colour to green and it'll look like durian :D I will do that for my durian cake.... soooon... :D

This is quite easy to make... but hor, I was too lazy to spread some icing in-between the cake slices to secure the cake... little cube of checkers actually fall off when i cut it... anyway, its ok as all got to go inside my tummy after all :P

Baking Lesson By our Richard Goh老师: Expresso Cream Cheese Torte

Ingredients for Cake

1. 3 Eggs
2. 70g Sugar
3. 75g Plain Flour
4. 70g Butter, melted
5. 1/2 tsp instant coffee or coffe paste (optional)

Method

1. Whisk eggs and sugar at max. speed for until stiff. add coffee paste
2. Fold in sifted flour by hand, Add warm melted butter. Mix well until batter is shinny
3. Pour into baking tin and bake for about 35 minutes
4. Cut cake into two layers when cooled

Coffee Mousse Cream Ingredients

1. Water
2. 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
3. 1 tbsp Demarara Sugar
4. 1 tbsp Molasses sugar
5. 3 Egg yolks
6. 110-125g Cream cheese (thaw for 1hr @ room temp)
7. 5 tbsp water
8. 1 tbsp Gelatin
9. 200g Fresh Cream, whipped

Method

1. Boil water, coffee powder, demarara sugar and molasses sugar till dissolved. Whisk in egg yolks
2. Beat in cream cheese till smooth. Add in some of (1), mix well, then add in all the rest of the (1), leave to cool
3. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water, leave to cool
4. Add whipped fresh cream into cooled (2), then add in (3)
5. Spread half of the mousse on the cake, place the second layer of cake over and spread the remaining mousse over the top.
6. Leave the cake into the freezer to set before decorating the top

Chocolate Base

1. 100g Cooking chocolate
2. 80g Feuilletine

Method

1. Double boil to melt the choclate and add in Feuilletine.
2. Spread on a piece of paper and roll into a 9-inch rould baking tin.
3. Leave in the fridge to set for about 1hr.

08 April 09 Pulut Hitam

I had a craving for Pulut Hitam last week after watching "Sweets for my sweet" on AFC. They were featuring a famous Vietnamese Dessert Shop, Baguette @ Raffles city. Then there is this Pulut Hitam cake which caught my attention... I think I want to try making a cake like that...

Then I start searching net for ingredients & method but I can't find any... so I guess I got to explore on my own...

I found out that Pine Garden is also famous for their chewy pulut hitam cake... but I'm not going to buy anything from them anymore... after Jenn's wedding cake incident which aluminium foil was found in Pine Garden's SGD700 wedding cake!! Its not about the $$, but the "foreign object" spoilt everyone's mood :(

Anyway, my experiment starts with dessert on Wed, 08 April 09... Pulut Hitam kosong =D

No coconut cream!

Reason 1: I'm VERY health-conscious =D

Reason 2: Nyx hates anything to do with coconut, except Herbal Essence Shampoo?!!?

Ingredients

1. 250gm Black glutinous rice
2. 50gm White glutinous rice
3. 4-5 Pandan leaves, knotted
4. 120gm Honey rock sugar
5. 1500ml Water

Method

1. Wash black and white glutinous rice
2. Boil (1) in water with pandan leaves for 10mins.
3. Transfer to pre-heated slow cooker, using high option (if available)
4. Add honey rock sugar, stir occasionally.
5. Leave it to cook for at least 1 hr.

For my gals....

Pulut Hitam topped with Non-diary whipped cream! Mmmmm...

Then here comes the outcome of my experiment...

I think this is nice! I mix my pulut hitam with non-diary whipping cream, sandwiched between layers of sponge cake. Texture is light, with chewy glutinous rice. I like it ;-)

06 April 09 Pineapple Tarts

This is quite easy to make... just need a bit of time... It took me about 2.5hrs in total, from start to wash-up.

Tips from Lifeng...

Keep the tarts in air-tight container... the tarts will taste better the next day. Dun ask me why but this is true leh as the tarts dun really taste so nice right from the oven. It taste much better few days later :D

My tarts can be kept in air-tight containers for up to 2 weeks.

Ingredients (makes about 80 tarts)

Filling:

1. 1 kg Pineapple
2. 300 gm sugar
3. a pinch of salt
4. 6 gm. cinnamon stick
5. 1 tsp. of cloves

Pastry:

1. 250 gm. Butter (1 block SCS brand butter)
2. 1/2 tsp. salt
3. 1 egg (70-75gm with shell on)
4. 250 gm. Plain Flour (Leave 50gm aside for dusting later)
5. 150 gm. Cake Flour (If cake flour is not available, use all 350gm plain flour also can)

For glazing: 1 egg (beaten)

Method:

For filling:

1. Peel pineapples , cut into pieces and blend till fine
2. Pour blended pineapples into a wok and fry for awhile before adding in sugar, cinnamon stick and cloves. Cook till it thickens and set aside to cool. Shape the pineapple jam into small balls.

**For my convenience, I bought ready-made pineapple filling from JB bake shop, which is sold in 3.8kg can... only RM33.00! and it taste very good!**

For pastry: (Use RUBBING-IN method, rub using finger tips)

1. Sieve together plain flour, cake flour and salt
2. Cut butter into small cubes. Rub-in butter, (1) and beaten egg till a dough is formed.
3. Roll out the dough to 0.5 - 1cm thick(depends on your likings) Cut it out with a fluted round cutter
4. Lay grease-proof paper on tray, place cut-out pastry on tray. Brush egg-glaze on cut-out pastry and place a small round ball of pineapple jam on the centre of cut-out pastry
5. Roll put small pieces of dough into thin strips and place it on top of the pineapple jam to make a cross
6. Brush with egg-glaze again on all "almost-done" pineapple tarts and bake at 170C for about 15 - 20 mins. or till pastry is golden brown. (need to watch the tarts at this stage... need to alternate the position of tray in the oven as some oven distribute uneven heat, causing different shades of brown on the tarts)
7. Leave pineapple tarts to cool on tray, out of oven for at least 15mins before transferring them on wire rack. Make sure tarts r completely cooled before storing in cookie containers.