My Melody Watermelon Chiffon Cake

 

My favourite fruit is watermelon! What's yours? 

Another watermelon-inspired bake, here's my My Melody masquerading as a watermelon! 

Wishing you a blessed week! 

Love, 
Susanne 

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Macaron Bear in Ondeh-ondeh Choux Pastry

 I discovered a baking studio near home and decided to give it a try. For my debut, I will be sharing how to make two genres of bakes in simple but cute form: macaron bears in ondeh-ondeh choux au craquelin!

Just in time for dinner dessert on Father's Day too!

If you don't look too closely, you may mistake the choux pastries for actual ondeh-ondeh balls!

Perhaps what may be different about this studio as compared to others I have worked with is the number and range of facilities they have. Baker's Gym where I will be teaching this, has the most number of ovens available, has a blast freezer and their teaching principle is to let everyone do individual work. This teaching principle happens to be my preferred way as well because you learn more when you have hands-on practice by yourself from start to finish.

Please refer to this link for more details of class content and to register.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Rainbow Unicorn Macaron Carousel

 I made this rainbow unicorn macaron carousel a couple of months ago and finally posting it!

I always preferred bakes without age and name for social media posts so I used the above as the cover picture. But actually the completed bake looks like this:

I used swiss meringue method to make the macaron shells.

Sharing a collage of the piped macaron batter. Please excuse the difference in colours of the carousel frame as it was due to camera auto white balance correction. I was running low on teal coloured batter so I used a little white batter on the large base shells. If you are interested to know how to pipe the swirl macarons, you may refer to my Macaron Basics book.The video tutorial linked to the book can be found in this post.

I used black edible marker and peach coloured lustre dust to decorate the unicorns.

I filled the carousel with vanilla ganache and dark chocolate ganache.

I have made many unicorn macaron carousels over the years but I think this set is the most elegant 😊

Follow me on Instagram at phay_shing if you would like to see more up-to-date bakes from me as I may not post everything in the blog in a timely manner.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Chocolate Milo Banana Ondeh-ondeh Bear Swiss Roll

 After making three patterned swiss rolls based on Keem Ooi's method and recipe for the sponge, I decided to have another go at it based on another one of my creations. Macaron bear in Ondeh-ondeh choux pastry!

I realised that I forgot to post my original ondeh-ondeh bear bake in the blog! Will share that soon as it is actually a class material with a new baking studio that I am trying out. I already shared the class in my Instagram and Facebook. 

Here's another look at the top view of the roll to see the pattern more clearly.

The chiffon sponge is mildly chocolate flavoured, not too strong as I didn't want the brown colour to be too deep. I replaced about 3g of cake flour with cocoa powder for the brown sponge layer. The pattern is also naturally coloured as far as possible with the brown bear coloured with a little cocoa powder and the green is from pandan paste. I am not able to share the recipe and method for the pattern as I bought the video tutorial from Keem. Please check her Instagram at keempossible_2 and DM her for the recipe.

But what I can share here is the filling! The jelly bear insert is a milk based agar jelly with cocoa powder and Milo powder added. The cream is a caramelized banana diplomat cream, which pairs really well with the jelly! 

This bake begins with preparation of the jelly, followed by caramelized banana pastry cream, the chiffon sponge, and then finally adding in whipping cream to the pastry cream to make it a diplomat cream. Assemble the roll, chill overnight or at least 2 hours, slice the ends off and then paint in the details on the sponge. I added desiccated coconut to the Ondeh-ondeh portions to make it look like the choux pastry version.

Milo chocolate milk agar jelly

Note that you may use chocolate milk instead of adding cocoa powder like I did but I didn't have it on hand at home. Feel free to add more cocoa or Milo if you want a stronger taste. I was concerned about aesthetics as well because I didn't want it to appear too dark.

Ingredients (makes on 7x7"tray worth of jelly):

500g fresh milk

6g agar powder

20g sugar (or according to taste)

1 tbs Milo kosong powder (or regular milo powder if you wish, or omit it)

2 tsp cocoa powder (omit if using chocolate milk)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Line tray with teflon sheet if you have, if not, oil the base and sides.

2. Whisk together agar powder, Milo powder, cocoa powder and sugar in a small bowl. This is to disperse the agar powder and prevent clumping. Place milk and vanilla extract in saucepan. Scatter powdered contents in and let it sit for a few minutes for agar to bloom.

3. Bring contents of saucepan to a boil while whisking continuously. Continue whisking as it simmers for 2 more minutes. 

4. Pour into prepared tray and let it cool down for a while. If a skin forms due to the fat from the milk, you may skim it off before the agar starts to set. Leave it once the agar starts to set. Refrigerate the jelly for an hour or overnight once it cools to room temperature.

5. Cut out the bear heads and keep in container or tray in fridge until ready for assembly. I made the bear shaped cutter myself from a cookie cutter making kit.

Caramelized banana diplomat cream

Ingredients:

100g ripe banana (does not have to be over ripe)

20g dark brown sugar

5g + 10g unsalted butter

140g milk

20g cornflour

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

80-100g whipping cream (you may use non-dairy or dairy, or combination of both. Stabilize dairy cream if using and be careful not to overwhip)

Steps: 

1. Prepare the banana. Weigh the empty saucepan you will be cooking the banana in and take note of the weight. Place banana, dark brown sugar and 5g butter in saucepan. Cook the banana while mashing it until it boils, simmer on low heat for another 5 min or so and check the weight. Cook until weight of contents in the saucepan is about 80-90g. Remove from heat.

2. Add milk, vanilla and salt to the cooked banana. Mix well. Put it back to low heat and heat until steaming hot, not boiling. I like to put my hand over the saucepan and once I can feel the heat or see some steam appearing above the contents in the saucepan, it is hot enough.

3. While the milk and banana mixture is being heated, whisk together egg yolks and cornflour in a heavy mixing bowl or heavy glass jug. Once milk is hot, pour it in a thin stream into egg yolk mixture while whisking the egg yolk mixture constantly. 

4. Pour everything back into saucepan and cook over medium low heat while whisking constantly. Once the custard thickens, remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Put it back on medium low heat and whisk until custard thickens to a consistency where it is able to hold a soft peak.

5. Remove from heat and add in 10g butter. Whisk until well combined. If you prefer smooth cream instead of one with banana bits in there, sieve the pastry cream using a fine sieve into bowl. Immediately press cling wrap onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate at least an hour or until ready to assemble.

6. When ready to assemble with sponge cake, whip up whipping cream of choice to firm, nearly stiff peaks for dairy, and stiff peaks for non-dairy. Take pastry cream out from fridge and whip it briefly to loosen it. Fold whipped cream into pastry cream. Transfer into large piping bag with a hole cut.

Here as some more pictures of the process...

Piping first layer of pattern. This took me so long I was afraid it might fail but thank God it didn't!

Adding in the yellow batter to surround the pattern

Freshly baked sponge just before rolling!

I shared a short reel on Instagram for the reveal of the pattern. Pardon the "off" colour as I forgot to adjust the white balance when taking the video. I couldn't edit it until the original colour so I left it as that.

Here's a peek at the assembly!

The outlines were painted on using gel food colouring diluted with water. The desiccated coconut was glued onto the cake with a little light corn syrup, which also helps to moisten the cake a little.

If you spent a long time painting the cake, you may want to moisten it by lightly brushing with simple syrup of sugar and water in ratio of 1:1. Store in fridge in airtight condition. Best consumed within 3-5 days.

Please follow me on Instagram at phay_shing if you would like to see more up to date stuff of my bakes as the blog doesn't necessarily have my latest work and some bakes are not going to be posted in the blog.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Pooh Chiffon Cake

 

I made this Pooh cake quite sometime back! It's been sitting in my phone and I just remembered it as Mother's day was around the corner. Hope this sweet cake makes you smile! 

With love, 
Susanne 

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Unicorn and Mermaid Pusheen Cookies n Cream Macarons

This is another way overdue post. I made these unicorn and mermaid Pusheens together with the choux pastry version way back in way January this year!

Trying to create a cloudy beach scene here😆

I made these macarons using the swiss meringue method and decorated the macaron shells using edible marker and a mixture of edible marker and vodka wash (for the details on the unicorn horn).

Top view look at decorated macaron shells

Checkout the awesome feet on the shells!

I filled the macarons with cookies n cream swiss meringue buttercream as requested.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Dragonfruit Rose Mantou (Mother's Day Special)

It is my pleasure to share a full length video tutorial for a Culinary Arts Ministry Mother's Day special with my church Adam Road Presbyterian Church! 

Here is a screenshot of the simple ingredients you need for making the rose mantous.

Please click on this link to view it.

Have fun making these healthy edible roses for or with your mum!

Note that the colour of the roses may differ depending on steaming time and whether you choose to use a mix of milk/water and dragonfruit as well! 

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Angry Bird Hatchlings Marshmallows

While making a batch of brown sugar teddy bear plushiemallows for my friend, I made some marshmallows in the semblance of my kids' favourite plushies! 

Blue and green hatchling plushiemallows!

These were made with the same recipe and batch as this post so you may head over there for recipe. I would have preferred using all white sugar so I didn't have to compensate so much for the light tanned colour caused by the brown sugar but I didn't want to end up having too much marshmallow by making separate batches!

As usual I mark out the size and rough shape of the character so that they turn out approximately the same size and shape. I used a measuring spoon here.

Marking out the shapes on bed of cornstarch. You may use a mix of icing sugar and cornstarch if you wish.

Freshly piped marshmallows!

And of course I have to reveal the plushies I based my creation on!

Here's a video of the plushiemallow in action!

As mentioned previously, I prefer toasting marshmallows instead of floating them in beverages because toasting marshmallows bring out a wonderful caramel aroma and taste that cannot be found in untoasted ones. I didn't bake any Graham crackers at the time of making these plushiemallows so I used the plain crackers we have at home instead.

My kids had a good laugh seeing their edible versions of the plushies sunburnt😆

with love,

Phay Shing

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'Rose Tart' Tea Castella Cake

 

Rost tart made from tea castella cake! Created this early mother's day cake! 💗

Tea Castella Cake 
3 egg yolks 
33g warm oil (60C) 
40g peony jade tea 
54g cake flour 
Pinch of salt 

3 egg whites 
¼ tsp cream of tartar 
70g castor sugar 

Tea-infused jam 
240g peony jade tea 
70g sugar 
5g lemon juice 
2g pectin  

Recipe video here.  

Make peony jade tea by steeping 4 tsp tea leaves in 2 cups of hot water. Heat the oil to 60C. Add 40g tea, then whisk in sifted cake flour and salt. Add in the egg yolks and mix well. Divide the batter 1/3 (plain) and 2/3 (red).  

Whisk egg whites in a separate bowl with cream of tartar and sugar till firm peaks. Divide the meringue 2/3 and 1/3 as above and fold in. 

Fill two 4” pans with plain batter till 2/3” thick. Bake at 160C for 20min. Pour the remaining plain and red batter into a half sheet pan (18”x11”). Bake for 16min. 

Make the tea jam: Mix sugar with pectin, then add to 240g tea and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over low heat and allow to thicken. Cool and transfer to piping bag. 

To assemble, cut a thin strip of plain sheet cake and wrap around the 4” cake. Pipe a layer of tea jam over the cake. Cut semicircles (1.5” round cutters) from red cake and line the cake in circles to make the giant rose. Enjoy! 

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Bento Box Chiffon Cakes

 

Another version of Bento chiffon cake, this time peeking out of the box cover! 

Check out my other bento chiffon cakes here and here! 

With lots of love, 

Susanne 

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Chocolate Filled Strawberry Marshmallow Bouquet

 This is rather last minute but I have decided to share how to make this edible bouquet made out of marshmallows!

The marshmallow flowers are all filled with chocolate!

The marshmallow recipe and technique is different from all the plushiemallows I have been making. These are actually traditional Russian marshmallows called Zephyr or Zefir which are agar and fruit-based. No gelatin is used for the version I follow so there is no pork, beef or fish source in there. I use lots of strawberries in this bouquet. The pink roses are coloured with the strawberries and a little strawberry paste so no additional food colouring is added!

The challenge of making Zephyrs is the precision required of each step and you have to work relatively fast. But I will try and show you how to make it manageable. 

Class details will include technique of making Zephyr, how to pipe hydrangeas and roses, and fill them with chocolate. And of course how to form a simple bouquet with materials that you either have at home or are easily available from supermarkets.

Here's a short video of how bouncy they are! Less bouncy than plushiemallows due to the use of different ingredients and technique, and also due to the chocolate filling inside, but nonetheless still unmistakably marshmallowy bouncy!

Both online and hands-on classes are available. Hands-on participants will have access to online class material at no extra charge. There is no expiry and you can watch the pre-recorded class unlimited number of times and you may ask me questions if you encounter difficulty.

Click here for hands-on class registration.

Click here for online class registration.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Mermaid Pusheen Vanilla Choux Pastries (New technique!)

 I made these Mermaid Pusheen choux pastries in early January this year but only got around to posting it now. Better late than never!

These creampuffs with crunchy cookie dough (or craquelin) are filled with vanilla diplomat cream.

Choux pastries need not come in round choux buns, long Eclairs or donut shaped like Paris Brest. They can come in any shape you want! Besides demonstrating how to make non-regular shaped choux pastries, I am going to show you that it is possible to add on details using choux pastry batter on a baked choux pastry case instead of using chocolate, fondant or royal icing in a double-baking technique.

You may refer to this post for my default craquelin and choux pastry batter recipe. Note that baking temperature and time may vary according to your oven.

Begin by preparing the craquelin. You may refer to this post to see how I create customized shaped cookie dough cutouts without a customized cookie cutter.

Freeze this tray of craquelin cutouts until frozen hard, at least an hour or overnight.

Prepare choux pastry batter as per normal and pipe the mermaid Pusheen shape on perforated mat with a template underneath.

Place the craquelin on top of the piped batter. Note that the craquelin is about 5-10mm larger than the piper batter.

Bake as you normally would. Let the baked pastries cool for about 20-30min before piping on the pink frills on the pastries with choux batter. Pipe the pink tail and grey front paws separately on the perforated mat as well. Pipe only a thin layer of pink batter for the frills and dab down any peaks with a damp finger. Thick batter piped will not stick well to the contours of the pastry after baking.

Bake in preheated oven at 130-150C for 30min or until thoroughly dry. This baking temperature should be high enough to thoroughly bake the batter but not so high that it browns the pastries further. 

I have mentioned before that long baking times for choux isn't a concern for me as the filling has such high water content that it softens the cases within half an hour of filling it. If you prefer it really crisp, double-baking is perfect for you!

Add on the facial features, stripes and scales on the tail with royal icing . I used a gold star sprinkle for decoration as well. The pink tail and front paws were glued on using royal icing.

Recipe for vanilla diplomat cream can be found in this post .

Here's a short video of cutting a choux pastry, revealing the cross section!

Pardon the poor lighting as it was rainy, and the slightly messy cut as the crumbs trailed down the cream😅. I took this video and cover photo on a different day from the day I finished assembling the pastries (which had better lighting).

I made some mermaid Pusheen and unicorn Pusheen macarons along with these choux pastries as well! Stay tuned for another Pusheen themed post!

Get a copy of my Deco Choux Pastries book if you would like to have a comprehensive guide to making decorative choux pastries! I am also most active on Instagram so do check out my account at phay_shing if you would like to have a look at what I am up to in a more timely manner😊.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Totoro and Mei Earl Grey Salted Caramel Macaron Scene

 

I had a request for a macaron scene with birthday girl's favourite characters in there so I created this!

Totoro and Mei with elephant, giraffe and koala!

I used my default swiss meringue method recipe to make the macaron shells for the characters and the large round base. 

The trees are made of black tea brown sugar meringues. I got the basic recipe from a baker friend but tweaked it for the added flavours so I am not able to share it. 

Yes the entire tree is made of meringue! No royal icing or wires used to glue or support the structure. I had to build it up in stages like a 3D cardboard tree except all parts and glue are made of meringue. These were made in advance, thoroughly dried and stored in airtight container.

Here's a better view of all the characters. I usually make duplicates of each character in case of accidents while handling.

I filled the macarons with Earl grey Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC), homemade salted caramel and some crushed biscoff.

I folded in some salted caramel, crushed biscoff and some earl grey tea leaves into half of the Earl grey IMBC, and drizzled more salted caramel and sprinkled more crushed biscoff for the large macaron base.

 I have always used Swiss meringue buttercream as my default buttercream base but thought why not try Italian meringue based buttercream instead so that I can incorporate more brewed tea in the buttercream.

Earl grey Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC)
Ingredients:

76g egg whites (about 2 eggs)

100g caster or granulated sugar (portion about 1 tsp out for egg whites)

30g concentrated Earl Grey tea*

114g unsalted butter (cut into small pieces, cool but softened)

A pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

* Steep 4 Earl grey teabags in 60g boiling water for 10 minutes. Squeeze out the liquid from the bags as much as possible. Measure out 30g for making IMBC

Steps:

1. Place sugar (100g minus 1 tsp) , concentrated tea and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan and heat at medium-low heat. Stir intially to help the sugar dissolve but once the water starts boiling, stop stirring. 

2. In the meantime, beat egg whites with 1tsp sugar until foamy. Reduce mixer speed if necessary to prevent overwhipping.

3. Once syrup temperature reaches 110C, turn up mixer speed and whip until soft peaks as you wait until syrup reaches 115C. Again, reduce mixer speed as necessary once soft peak is reached. Once temperature is reached, remove from heat. Turn mixer speed up to medium-high and pour the syrup down the side of mixing bowl in a slow and steady stream. Keep beating on medium-high speed for 10-15 minutes or until Italian meringue is cooled to room temperature.. It is important to make sure butter is not warm when you add the softened butter.

4. Add butter a little at a time while beating on medium-low speed. You may switch to paddle attachment if you wish but I prefer having less things to wash. Don't panic if it appears to split a little. just keep going and adding butter a little at a time.

5. After all the butter is added, add vanilla. Continue whipping but increase mixer speed to medium high and beat for another 2 minutes.

You may use the Earl Grey IMBC as it is. But I portioned out about half of the IMBC and added homemade salted caramel with the ratio of 

1:2 for salted caramel : Earl grey IMBC,

folded in some Earl grey tea leaves (about one teabag's worth) and crushed biscoff (about 30g). Do note that the ratios can be adjusted according to taste.

Sharing a picture of the assembled large base with a meringue tree before the tree gets hidden by the characters.

I hope this creation brought a smile to your face as it did for me and the recipient! 

Do check out my Instagram account at phay_shing for a more up-to-date view of my baking journey!

with love,
Phay Shing

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Comic Chiffon Cake

 

Comic Chiffon Cake!

Thought it was too cute not to try the trending webtoon cake! This is my watermelon comic chiffon cake version =p Does it look like from the page of a webtoon? 

Here's a video of the comic cake with me instead? =p 

Just opened a new Comic watermelon chiffon cake at Redman next month too! Check it out here if you are keen =) 

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Gudetama Chiffon Egg Cakes

Cute Lemon Egg Cakes singing & dancing 🥰💃

Which is your favorite?❤️😛

Lemon Chiffon Egg Cakes🍋
1 egg yolk
10g vegetable oil
5g lemon juice
5g milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
15g all-purpose flour
¼ tsp lemon zest
¼ tsp lemon emulco (optional)

1 egg white
25g castor sugar
Few drops lemon juice

@suncorefoods yellow safflower for the color

Whisk egg yolks with oil, lemon juice, milk, vanilla, lemon zest. Add in sifted flour and whisk till well combined. Add in yellow safflower powder and mix till desired shade.

Whisk egg whites with sugar and lemon juice in a new bowl till firm peaks. Fold in the meringue till well incorporated.

Pour the batter into 6 drained egg shells till 2/3 full. Bake at 140C for 30 mins. Unmold when the cakes are fully cool. Decorate with melted chocolate, sheet cake and sprinkles.

Hope they made you smile!!❤️❤️🥰
 

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