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

Malty Milo ^.^ Happy Birthday Middle O!

Milo lovers, this post is for you!

Milo is a malty chocolaty energy drink that I grew up with. Almost everyday, Mommy will always make a cup of hot Milo for me and my sisters (Morning before I leave house for school/work or at night before I head to bed). There is one habit that I cannot get rid off when making myself a cup of milo and that is to eat one or two big spoonful of Milo powder. You must be smiling and nodding to yourself as you read it right? keke...because you do that all the time as well!!! For those who didn't and have not tried eating Milo powder, don't look at me that way...you seriously are missing out BIG BIG time! The taste of Malty Chocolate is just like heaven! (not that I had been to heaven but it really just feel heavenly when you eat it. try it and you will know what I mean)

This recipe had been bookmarked for many years =x and since it is Middle O's birthday (12 June to be exact and btw she's my niece aka GodChild), I had decided to make milo Cupcakes instead of a fanciful castle that I had intended to make. The recipe is taken from this website. It is really easy to make. Quick and yummy :) You might want to alter the recipe a little as I did where I reduced the amount of sugar to my liking (I have a very low threshold when it comes to sugar). Also, I halved the frosting recipe and it was just right.

One thing I like about this recipe is that, the recipe contains MILO! ok yes that is one of the main reason. Another reason is...the recipe does not contain a lot of butter and sugar!!! ^^V

The cupcake tasted Malty, Chocolaty, Moist, Sugary sweet but not too sweet, HEAVENLY!

Below are the photos I had taken during the mini birthday celebration, followed by the recipe.

It is a tradition to eat eggs that are dyed in red for birthday..hence, Mommy dyed some red quail eggs for the children. 

This is Middle O

This is BB O

 This is Big O

She is 5!

 They love it to the max and wanted a 2nd serving..but...to be honest...Milo is kinda 'heaty' hence you need to drink lots of water after eating it.

Now photos of the Milo cupcakes!!!

MILO CUPCAKES
Time 20-40 minutes

Difficulty - Easy

Serves 12

Ingredients
Cupcakes
115g Plain Flour
140g Caster Sugar
1.5 teaspoons Baking Powder
Pinch salt
40g Unsalted Butter, room temperature
120 ml Whole Milk
3 tablespoons Milo
2 teaspoons Cocoa Powder
1 Egg
Milo Frosting
300g Icing Sugar
100g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
40g Cocoa Powder, sifted
40 ml Whole Milk
2 teaspoons Milo
(Adapted from Vanilla Cupcake recipe, The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with patty cases.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer until everything is combined.

In a jug, stir the Milo into the milk until the milk turns chocolate coloured. Add 60ml of the milk mixture to the batter and whisk until just incorporated.

Lightly beat the egg, the pour the egg and remaining milk into the batter and beat until mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.

Spoon the mix into the paper cases until two-thirds full. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the cakes bounce back when touched and a skewer comes out clean.

Leave cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting
Stir Milo into the milk until mixture turns chocolate coloured.

Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder with an electric mixer until well mixed.

Slowly add in the milk mixture. Once all the milk has been added, turn the mixer to high speed and continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy (around five minutes).

Have fun :) Try it out and let me know how it goes ;)

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

Official opening ^^V

All righty...and i shall open this page OFFICIALLY today, 12 May 2012! (background:WOOHOO!!! YAY!!! AWESOME! CLAP CLAP CLAPSSSSS!) okay there is no cake cutting ceremony for it neither is there any celebration of any sort..but I had chosen this date because.....

Today is the day that TheBakingGrace (TBG) held its very FIRST event - Varsity Christian Fellowship 60th Anniversary. Firstly I would say many thanks to Nat (a LCB friend of mine) and Aunty PH (the lady who assisted with the organizing of this event who is also a very nice lady) for giving me this opportunity to work on an event like this. As I had not done this before (referring to holding an event - just the pastry and table styling portion if you are wondering), I was a little, a tiny bit, ok I meant very stressed BUT excited at the same time. I had always wanted to prepare pastries for events as well as styling of the table :) This is my chance! How can I missed it! Thankfully the event is scheduled to be held today ('May' was a busy month for me as I was away last weekend and will be away again next week), hence I concluded that GOD is hinting that I should accept this task and make it work!

To be honest, it was not easy as I am totally new to this. There were lots of ideas and plans. However, dreams are not reality which simply means what you imagined might not look as good or work in real life as you thought. So experimenting is inevitable.

After discussing with Aunty PH, we had concluded to have cupcakes, cakepops and a fondant cake for the event. Colour theme being white and orange / something cheerful :) And so I started to work on it. How I should place these cakes on the table, the size, materials needed, etc.

I made a mess out of the room =x

Opps I had forgotten to take a picture of the done up display pieces. my apologies. Anyway, after the display pieces were done, I move on to doing my Mise en place. Next on the list was making cakepops!!! gosh the video by Bakerella looks totally simple BUT dont be trick by it. I am serious (saying it with a serious face -.-) hahaha ok I should take back what I had said because there is a high possibility that the problem lies with ME. It is just me not following the instructions in the video well enough which resulted in my cakeballs committing countless suicidal attempts (either drowning into the bowl of CandyMelts or being stabbed by the lollisticks to death). I am sorry but there are no photos on such gruesome story. Lets move on to see if the remaining cakepops managed to survive.

Lesson Learnt #1: Please read / listen and follow instructions accordingly!

Next, the making of fondant cake. My second attempt but i was quite confident =x ahem* My only worry would be storage, since the weather in SG is so humid. also was afraid I would overwork the fondant resulting it to crack when placed on the cake. Thankfully no hiccups on this as compared to my 5am cakepops torture which i almost surrendered to them ;)

I wanted to add more design over the white fondant covering. However with the many things piling up the cake I think I shouldn't add more and just let the focus be on the number '60' and 'VCF'. 

hmmm looks kinda bare? I think I could have done more to it. :( 

Lastly not forgetting cupcakes!!! my 'Proudest' product. keke. ^^ There were 2 flavours (Lemon and Earl Grey)

and now FINALLY for the overall display at the event with the help of Aunty PH :) I present to you Varsity Christian Fellowship 60th Anniversary!!!

 Hope everyone enjoyed this event and that the cakes would sweetened their night =x

Another great reason to set this day as the official opening of TBG is because my dearest Girlfriend from Uni aka PRETTY OH got married today!!! I sincerely apologize for not being able to attend your solemnization today but I made it to your wedding dinner!!! I know that you will not be petty over such stuff because you not only have a pretty face, sweet smile, awesome personality, not forgetting your hot body, over all that, you have a BIG heart!!! :) Happy that you got married and wishing you and WS a blessed marriage. Love you always!!! muacks!

and yup that's all folks. be sure to stay tune for more postings ;)


xx,
TBG