Tea Time Sugar-Free Bakes

 Someone requested that I teach a baking class featuring simple bakes without sugar, one sweet treat and one savoury treat. This was what I came up with!

The savoury treat is Gougeres, a cheese-based Choux pastry that can be enjoyed with or without a filling/dip. 

I use a combination of Gruyere and mature Cheddar with a sprinkling of Parmesan as well as some seasonings to impart flavour to the pastry without adding table salt.

Thee this reel for a better look at the pastries along with the ASMR of how crunchy they are!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dal2r59S3cj/?igsh=MTl2ZTd0bTdqamN0dA==

The sweet treat is a sugar-free lychee blueberry cake with blue china butterfly pattern as the design as requested. The cake composition includes:

- Sugar-free lychee chiffon sponge

- Blueberry compote made without any sugar added

- Blueberry mascarpone whipped cream without sugar added

- Wafer paper butterflies as optional decorations

You may watch this reel for a peek at the process of making the mini cakes!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DatlC2YyEQS/?igsh=cDBidHlnbjBtbnJm

I have both studio and online class for this. Studio class participants will have access to online class material for free. The online class doesn't have expiry date.

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

My Melody and Kuromi Macaron Carousel

 My friend requested for a My Melody and Kuromi macaron carousel and this was what I made!

I used my default Swiss meringue method recipe for the macaron shells.

Here's a video tutorial on how I create My Melody's lop-eared fold. A secret I have kept for many years! Some people asked how I did it way back in 2017 but I wasn't ready to reveal it yet.

The details are added on using royal icing and edible marker. I made royal icing transfers for My Melody's flower

I like to experiment and change designs along the way so this time round, I did something a little different for the carousel frame.

These are some of the standard pieces.

I included some small flowers piped using #2D tip from underfolded batter.

Blueberry ganache is the logical choice for filling to match the purple frame so that's what I used as the filling. The natural purple from fresh blueberries is lovely! I used a stiffer and darker coloured ganache for the middle of the carousel frame, hidden from sight by adding some freeze-dried blueberry powder to impart a stronger blueberry flavour without adding moisture. 

Blueberry yuzu ganache

Blueberry compote:

150g blueberries

15g yuzu juice concentrate (or lemon juice)

15g sugar

Light colored ganache:

150g white chocolate (finely chopped from bar or use couverture chips)

75g compote

15g unsalted butter, slightly softened at room temperature

Dark colored stiffer ganache:

150g white chocolate

45g compote

5g yuzu juice concentrate (or lemon juice)

20g freeze dried blueberry powder

10g unsalted butter, room temperature

You may not use all the ganache for the carousel but they cam be kept frozen for longer storage.

Steps:

1. Prepare blueberry compote. Cook over medium-low heat until reduced to about 140g in total. Press through sieve to remove the skins.

2. Melt white chocolate over double-boiler or using microwave at medium-low power in 10 second bursts, stirring between each heating cycle.

3. Mix warm compote with freeze-dried blueberry powder and yuzu for the stiffer ganache. Heat it up again slightly if it has cooled down after mixing.

4. Pour warm compote/compote mixture over melted chocolate. Stir in one direction until well mixed. Use an immersion blender if you wish.

5. Add softened butter and mix well. Press cling wrap onto surface and refrigerate for at least half an hour or until ready to assemble.

I added some chopped toasted hazelnuts coated in dark chocolate in the middle of the larger macarons like the base and the roof. I used a 1:1 ratio for nuts: dark chocolate by weight.

In order to support a softer filling than I normally use for load-bearing macaron structures, I piped a ring of medium-stiff royal icing for the central pillar pieces of the carousel frame.

I also reinforced the straw with royal icing so that the characters don't have the risk of sliding down the straw.

As usual, I let the weight bearing pieces rest overnight after partial assembly before adding on more load. This is to allow the royal icing time to harden fully.

I think the carousel frame looks lovely on its own 😍

Here's a reel of the assembly process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CttiocAAq95/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

with love,

Phay Shing 

Read More »

The Promised Neverland Mangoes n Cream Cake

A friend requested for The Promised Neverland themed cake for his daughter's birthday.  Here is what I made! 

Of all types of character macarons, Anime types are the toughest because of the amount of details needed for the eyes and hair. It's a test of patience!

I used the Swiss meringue method for making the macarons. 

This tray took me 2 hours to pipe! 

Freshly baked macaron shells! 

I decorated the details with edible marker and vodka wash. You may refer to this blog post on how I do anime character macarons including the edible marker and vodka wash technique. I decided to do the hair with macaron batter to make ot look 3D and without post-baking decoration. 

The macarons are filled with dark chocolate ganache and blueberry strawberry ganache.

Blueberry strawberry ganache 

I made a firm ganache so feel free to increase the amount of compote if you wish. Compote is made by reducing fruit puree with a little sugar until it weighs about half of its original weight. 

Ingredients :

60g white chocolate 

11g butter

1/16 tsp salt

10g strawberry compote

8g freeze-dried blueberry powder

Steps:

1. Melt all ingredients together using double boiler or microwave oven. Be careful not to overheat. 

2. Chill in fridge until firms up to toothpaste consistency.  Whip up with spatula or electric mixer until buttercream texture. 

3. Transfer into piping bag and use it. 

I made the macaron sofa in purple, Alethea's favourite colour. 

Norman, Emma and Ray on a macaron sofa! 

I used my default vanilla chiffon cake recipe to make the sponge. 

I filled the cake with fresh Thai mangoes, mango yuzu compote and fresh cream. The mango yuzu compote is made with 1 mango pureed with 1 tsp yuzu juice concentrate, a little sugar and a pinch of salt, cooked over low heat until weight of puree is reduced to about 70% its original weight. 

Thank God this birthday bake was very well received! 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Read More »

Whale Shark Blueberry Choux Pastry

It's been a really busy time with book event and classes on 3 consecutive weekends and I am glad I managed to complete this request from a friend! Whale shark choux pastries filled with blueberry whipped cream!

I must admit that it took me 3 tries to get decent shape of tapered éclairs for the main body of the whale shark, partly because I wasn't thinking clearly and used the wrong tip size or wrong piping technique for the first two tries *slap forehead*.

As usual I made my own templates for piping the fins, tail and main body of the shark. As a rule of thumb, I make the cookie cutout about 5-6mm larger than the piped area. You may refer to this post for the detailed recipe for craquelin and choux pastry batter.

Just to share a couple of photos of works in progress and a tip on how to pipe the whale shark body shape.

Piped batter for whale shark body. 

Choose a large enough open star piping tip and pipe a tapered éclair. The batter should fall from the piping tip naturally, and not flare out from the piping tip (which creates a line wider than the diameter of piping tip). You may refer to this post for the video tutorial on how to pope éclairs to see what I mean. The difference is, for the tapered éclair, you release pressure on the piping bag earlier and continue dragging the piping tip towards the finishing point to create the taper. It takes a little practice to get this right. You can always scrape the batter off the mat and try again. I strongly recommend using perforated mats for baking éclair shaped choux pastries for better shape retention.

Freshly baked choux pastry case! 

I cut a rather large hole at base of the pastry case for ease of filling the pastries. Be sure to thoroughly dry the cases in the oven before decorating. I used Royal icing for the underbelly, and black candy melts for the eyes. For the candy melt eyes, I didn't melt the candy melt chips but instead just roll the chips between parchment paper and use a round cutter to cut out the eyes. Singapore is that warm that I can roll and cut the candy melt chips. Store baked cases (decorated or undecorated) in airtight condition at cool room temperature until you are ready to fill. You may store it up to a week.

Please also refer to my new book, Deco Choux Pastries for a systematic overview of how to prepare, pipe batter and create choux pastries of various shapes.

I made my own blueberry jam from scratch and added more kick to it by adding freeze dried blueberries. It's really tart so feel free to add more sugar if you prefer.

Blueberry jam
Ingredients :
250g fresh blueberries
45g caster sugar (or according to taste)
1tsp lemon juice
A pinch of salt
10g freeze dried blueberry powder (optional)

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients except blueberry powder in saucepan. Cook using medium low heat and stir frequently, gently mashing the blueberries when they are soft.

2. Continue cooking until desired consistency. This could take about 15 min. Press jam through sieve to remove the skins.

3. Add freeze dried blueberry powder and mix well. Chill in fridge until ready to use.

Homemade blueberry jam

Blueberry whipped cream
Ingredients:
150g non-dairy whipping cream, cold (I used Redman's Whip topping)
150g heavy cream or double cream, cold
150g blueberry jam

Note: you may use non dairy whipping cream alone, dairy cream alone or both but in different ratio from what I suggest. As Singapore is really warm, I use a mix of both to get the best of milky fresh cream taste and stability. You may add icing sugar if you wish to sweeten the cream even more. I omitted because the non dairy cream already contains some sugar.

Steps :
1. Place both types of dairy creams in mixing bowl and beat on low speed using electric mixer until stiff peaks form. If using purely dairy cream, be careful not to overbeat or the cream will separate.

Whipped cream

2. Fold in blueberry jam in a few batches until well mixed.

Store filling in fridge in airtight condition (I keep in piping bags) until ready to fill pastry cases. You may prepare this up to a few days in advance.

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

'Many Faces of Pusheen' Berry Jam with Dark Chocolate Macarons

This is a follow-up post after last week's post on foodie Pusheen macarons...Pusheen with all sorts of poses and expressions!

Sleepy, smiley, munching, winking, acting cool and holding onto food!

I made these a week after the foodie Pusheens because my friend loved them so much she wanted more! I had capacity to squeeze in a small quantity of macarons so I made these.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

The Pusheen shape is not too challenging to pipe and you may follow the basics in my Creative Baking: Macarons book for piping fancy shapes and pop-up features on macaron shells.

Piped shells

I made this batch of Pusheens together with the playground macaron pieces and some dinosaurs (posting in the future).

Checkout the awesome feet on these shells!

Filled with blueberry, raspberry or strawberry jam and dark chocolate ganache! You may find the recipe for the berry jams and the link for dark chocolate ganache in this post.

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Foodie Pusheen Berry Jam and Dark Chocolate Macarons

My friend requested for some Pusheen macarons. Not just any Pusheen, but foodie Pusheen!

And a Pusheen that is trying to act cool

I decorated all the bottom shells as well since it was requested. These Pusheens were mande concurrently with the Chinese New Year doggie macarons and hedgehog macarons. And so I have to mention the fact about poor photography due to bad weather and lighting conditions 😅. The colours just seem to appear a bit off in the pictures for all of them but this is the best I can do.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping the shells

Baked shells with details added in using edible marker

I made the food items using royal icing along with the berries for the hedgehog macarons 

I glued the food on with more royal icing and added the legs. It's a little tricky to get the icing to be the same shade as the macaron shell 

Checkout the awesome feet!

Filling the shells with various berry jams (blueberry, raspberry and strawberry) and dark chocolate ganache. You may refer to this post for the jam recipe and reference for dark chocolate ganache.

These were so well received that my friend wanted more! I made her another set of Pusheens the following week with different designs. You may take a look over here :)

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

2D and 3D Hedgehog Berry Jam and Dark Chocolate Macarons

I have a request for hedgehog macarons filled with dark chocolate ganache and various berry jams!

I had to use a filter from Instagram to create a photo that has colour closer to the actual macarons.

Both 2D and 3D versions! This was the original photo taken, which had a yellow hue

Pardon the poor photography as it has been really rainy and gloomy lately so I couldn't make use of natural sunlight to take pictures.

The 2D version of the hedgehog is modelled after a little boy's favourite stuffed toy. Mummy wanted some 3D hedgehogs as well so I included them as well. I first made 3D hedgehog macarons last year. Since I have bought another silicone mat with smaller hemispheres, I made little hedgehogs too! The inspiration to make each critter wear or hold a berry came about because I thought there should be a way to identify what type of jam filling is in each macaron since the jam is not visible from the outside.

This is the third time I am making 3D hedgehog macarons so I am ready to disclose a bit more detail on how it's done for those of you who are interested to try.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

Just to share some pictures...

Piping the 2D hedgehog

Piping the base shells for the 3D hedgehog

Piped 3D shells!

These are the smaller hedgehogs!

Baking time for hemispherical shells are much longer than regular macaron shells due to the shape and the fact that the hump of the silicone is not in direct contact with the metal baking tray. The shells must be totally dried out as well or it will be impossible to unmould without shattering the shells. Reduce temperature to around 110℃ after 15 min of baking and continue to bake for another 30 min to an hour or more as necessary. Thoroughly baked shells should be fairly easy to remove from the moulds. Don't worry about overbaking it. Simply let the shells mature for a longer time with filling, or brush the inner surface with milk or syrup before filling it.

Freshly baked shells!

I made some royal icing raspberries, blueberries and strawberries as identifiers for the type of jam filling in the macarons.

I made them concurrently with food items for some Pusheen macarons which I will post in the near future. I cheated a little for the strawberries by using red heart shaped sprinkles as the base. I just added the seeds and leaves. I put my thumb there to show just how tiny these things are!

The shells were decorated with black royal icing and edible marker. The berries were glued on with royal icing too.

I filled the macarons with an outer layer of dark chocolate ganache and berry jam filling in the middle. I made raspberry, strawberry and blueberry jams from scratch. You may refer to this post for the raspberry jam recipe. You may use the same recipe for strawberry and blueberry jams. Adjust the amount of sugar accordingly. If your fruit is sweeter, you may want to add less sugar. Raspberry is the most sour of the lot.

Cooking the strawberries and blueberries to make jams

Jams in piping bags

Turn the hemispherical shells over onto the silicone mould as support when you fill it.

Coat the insides with a layer of dark chocolate ganache. Fill the center with jam.

Cover the jam with more dark chocolate ganache.

Fill the bottom round shells with chocolate ganache.

Filling the 2D shells too!

Cover the hemispherical shells with the bottom round shell before flipping it over the right side up. Store the macarons in airtight container in the fridge for at least 24h before consuming.

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »