Still on cakes made in November...

Got a slightly tricky order from a friend. A birthday cake with a fondant Hello Kitty design which will only be eaten 3 days later (as we couldn't work on the collection dates as we were busy during each others free time). You must be thinking what the hell I am blabbering about. 'Just put in the fridge lah!' -.-

Rocher Toffee Cake aka THE ROCK

The inspiration of this cake comes from Gateau Alhambra that I had learnt in LCB. The visible changes would be the removal the chocolate galcage which was replaced with a Rocher 'cover' and the inclusion of toffee between the layers :) 

Speaking of Rocher, it brings me back to the days at Melt's kitchen. I remembered vividly, the smell of yummy chocolate, the cold air (it was autumn, almost winter back then), trays and trays of freshly made chocolate bars, chocolate sticks, truffles, bon bons, etc. Of course there were Rochers as well and one day I was told by Chef to make some. So I did as I was told. Mixing toasted silvered almonds with tempered white chocolate, spooning them on parchment paper as quickly as I could. Hopefully to finish spooning the bowl of almond chocolate mix before they set due to the cold weather. 

Slow with the baking?

It has been quite a quiet month due to the limited baking orders. If you are worried that I am doing something illegal, do not worry. I do not take in public orders at the moment. I do not wanna break the law, do I? If you do not know, it is illegal to sell home baked goods to the public in Singapore. Yup many people have been asking me to market and sell to the public but no no...I can't do it unless I own a kitchen / shop.

Lately I had been working on a cake - fusion of Chocolate and Mango. It was an accidental thought that was worth a try. I got 'by far the best cake made' compliment from my friend's colleague who tasted the cake. (jumping for joy as I received the whatsapp msg. kekeke)

Composition (from bottom to top): Chocolate sponge, dark chocolate mousse, mango mousse with mango chunks, dark chocolate mousse and chocolate glaze.

What's rolling in the kitchen

Earl Grey Chocolate Cupcakes, Red Velvet Cake and Celebration Cakes were some of the creations that were 'rolling' in my kitchen lately.

I was quite surprised to know that Earl Grey works hand in hand with Chocolate. I mean I had read and heard that they go well together but I never really believe that they do. hmmm do you know what I mean =x oh well now that I had made it, I believed. Just like the phrase: 'seeing is believing' but just in this case, 'tasting is believing' lol

The Red Velvet Cake was an impromptu order from Friend A which was quite a success. phew! Sadly I do not have a photo of it. It is the first REDDEST cake sponge I had made. haha..I told my Mom, I am gonna pour the entire bottle of red liquid colouring into the batter and she gave me the look 'OMG! you are NOT serious are you?!' hahaha.. I poured the entire bottle of red colouring, combine it into the batter and showed it to her. She was like 'Yuck! The colour looks disgusting, it is like the colour of pig's liver!' wahahaha how can she compare my red sponge batter to a pig's liver! humph! I guessed the batter colour turned out that way because I was too 'generous' with the addition of the cocoa powder to the batter. =x Thankfully the sponge turned out red after baking. Though I think it should be redder. oh well I will remember that and not be too 'generous'. kekeke.

The next project being Captain America Cake which I had butterflies in my tummy when making. Like really really. I was told to make it long before. I prepared for it (the ingredients, the drawings, the colourings, etc) and even made a tiny sample (as small as a teacup) of it just to be sure I would not screw it up.

The tiny sample

At first I had problem with the royal icing piping. As you can see from the sample the lines created using the star tip was not visible. My icing was to runny!!! TT (NB: the piping on the tiny sample was really tough. hence the crooked and uneven piping.) Not only that, I had problem with the colours as well. I added tons of blue paste, but the royal icing just would not turn as blue as I want it to be. Captain America blue to be exact. :( *sniff sniff* I was about to break down. (haha just kidding) Only to realize, the colour actually darkens if you let it rest in the fridge in an air tight container for a day or two and also the icing will darken further when dried...geez i think i had wasted tons of my colour paste. Another lesson learnt. I redid my royal icing so that it is much much thicker. Thankfully it worked. The lines are visible!

So here is the final product. Ta-Dahhhhhh....

Oh apart from the tiny sample, I also did a tiny celebration cake for the 4th July which looked like a little pressie ^^

All righty I shall end off and head to bed. ;) Sweet Dreams. 

xx,

TBG

It's the Sissy's Birthday!!!

and she is off to the airport heading to BKK for an awesome time EATING and SHOPPING!!!! -.- i also wanna go!!!! sob sob TT all right enough of my nonsense. BOO HOO :(

We celebrated her birthday yesterday where I made a plain and simple cake - Strawberry Shortcake. It is basically 2 layers of Genoise (thick, airy and spongy) soaked in syrup (I soaked mine with Cointreau syrup) with sliced strawberries and Creme Chantilly (aka sweeten whipped cream) in between. I diced my strawberries and macerate it with Cointreau syrup for an hour. Only to find that, I need to add more Cointreau or probably macerate them longer in the syrup.

Hmmm can you picture the Strawberry Shortcake that I had made? If not, look below :)

I made another version, looking similar to Fraisier (which is made up of 2 layers of syrup soaked Genoise, lined with halved strawberries with Vanilla Creme Mousseline sandwiched in between. A layer of Baby Pink Marzipan will usually me laid above the top Genoise and decorated with royal icing piping). All right maybe you would wanna google image 'Fraisier Cake' to take a look. I am sure it will make more sense after googling. :)

This cake is for my dearest friend's Anniversary :) Wishing her and her other half the best. Forever and Always ^^

xx,
TBG

P.S i caught some unglam photos of my sister. It was a surprise birthday celebration - i love surprises!!! Big Sis came out of the bedroom wearing her PJs and wrapped a 'turban' on her head (muahahahaha) All of us (my nephew aka Big O stayed over her my house together with my parents) sang Birthday song as soon as she came out of the room. She was shocked and said 'OMG why now?!!! with me wearing PJs and a turban?!!' hahahaha that moment was hilarious..keke...I shant post the unglam shots and let her do the honor on FB instead. keke funny moments ^^ HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG SIS! たんじょうびおめでとう～ 생일축하합니다~

Lychee experiment #2

Tried making an Ispahan Cake which is the combination of Lychee, Raspberry and Rose. I got the recipe from SweetToothFairy. 

Basically the cake should be quite a success except for the fact that... I had decided to try my new purchase of Phoon Huat's gelatin which I conclude that I should just stick to using Bake King's gelatin. The lychee jelly that I made were kinda soft as you can see from the photo below, maybe I need to double the dosage when it comes to using PH gelatin. :(  

I got my rose water from London which I had not done any 'open ceremony' for it as yet. keke...finally I found my chance to do so. anw the verdict for this cake was...mehhhhh -.- it wasn't fragrant enough, in fact it tasted kinda bland. i wonder what I did was wrong or was it supposed to taste like that.

I changed the jelly portion where I didn't use any puree (puree is not cheap here...*sobs*) I guess that was the reason why. The next time I am gonna puree my lychees (lychees ain't that ex in SG) as well as changing raspberries to strawberries [still very ex but 'bo bian' (aka 'no choice')] as raspberries are not easily available in SG unless I pop over to PH to buy the frozen raspberries or raspberry puree.

The rose mousse was overpowered by the vanilla pod that I added to the cream which smells so vanilla..hmm am I making any sense? Also, I didn't have any rose bud and hence, I only added rose water :( ZOMG!!! i just searched online and found that 50g of Rose buds cost SGD26!!!! geez...if the experiment continues like that 'confirm broke' (excuse me for my Singlish)

Moving on to the sponge, I was quite satisfied with it. The texture was light, moist and smooth. Just a touch too soft, making it slightly difficult to handle. Other than that, it was great :)

All right I shall present to you a picture of my not so pretty and not so well made Ispahan Cake...Actually the red portion of the cake looks quite pretty isn't it =x

That's all folks. I will make sure it will be better the next time round.

xx,
TBG

Back from a holiday, time to start working

I had been away at Bintan for 5 days. It was an awesome getaway. There were so many activities in Club Med Bintan that 5 days is just not enough for us to cover everything. This is the first holiday that was fully packed with activities. We were busy from morning to night, not that I am complaining as the activities were very enjoyable and everyday is just a happy day.

Back from holiday means no more playing TT 

I had been busy working on orders from TBG's friends who were very appreciative of the sweet treats that I had baked. I am really glad to have them enjoying those sweet treats. It really made my day ^^

Every since I am back, I had been baking piles and piles of Choux!!!! (These are just a portion of it =x)

Not only that, I had been baking Mousse Cakes as well. And a 'New Cake on the Block' Lychee Mint~ :)

There was a feedback that a stronger Mint taste would be preferred but nevertheless it tasted yummy. ^^V Okie dokie! Noted. Will improve on it the next time :)

The typical mango cake :)

The Famous Mango Blackcurrent mousse Cake :D

Opps actually prior to this busy week and my trip to Bintan, there was another event held at a friend's company. You know the monthly birthday celebration that company holds for their staff. Yup yup that is the one.

The above Mango Blackcurrent Mousse Cake (ok this kinda long name to type and remember, it shall be called in abbreviation as MBM) is one of the cakes that they ordered.

Otherthan that, hot Scones, tarty Lemon Tarts, Apple Tarts and not forgetting Choux were present at the party. They were happily being ermmm 'eaten' by someone who appreciates them (haha this sentence doesnt sound right..)

Anyhow, Lemon tart proved to be subjective to person where it somewhat has an acquired taste. I should topped it with meringue the next time. Not only will it be more attractive, texture wise would be good as well as the tart will be less tangy and tarty..

Presenting to you the sweet treats that attended the party...we have Mr Scones. Hunky and Hot!

Then we have 'I will wake you up' Lemon Tart

'Don't judge a book by it's cover' Apple tart

and finally...the 'Explosive' Choux

I will be keeping myself busy with projects that I set for myself. In the month of june, I shall dedicate this month to my 大姐 (Big Sister) who loves Lychee. It shall be Lychee month where I will try to make many different combination of Lychee sweet treats :) Stay tune for it.

xx,

TBG