I like to pattern chiffons because my family do not like fattening cream or fondant (they call sugar paste!). Since I love rainbows, I decided I would decorate my baby shower chiffon with rainbows. I had the sudden inspiration to do "hidden rainbows" in the cake from a dream I had during the second week of my confinement (I am forever dreaming of chiffons!).
Be prepared to spend 6 hours for this cake! In between taking care of baby and the kids, I took 2 days just to...
Sunday, 30 March 2014
Friday, 28 March 2014
Rainbow Themed Pandan Kaya Layer Cake
Susanne and I are really excited about our first big project together for Charissa's first month celebration! As Susanne really loves rainbows, we decided to make it rainbow themed. This is the first time we are making a cake for people we don't know too and we are very glad that it has been well received :). Presenting our 10x10" Rainbow Pandan Kaya Cake!
We used the recipe from my earlier post for Pandan Kaya chiffon cake but upsized it. This cake is made from two 10x10" pandan cakes...
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Osmanthus Macarons with Osmanthus Pastry Cream and Wolfberries
My successful attempt at making green tea macarons motivated me to try making macarons again, particularly tea flavored ones as the green tea macs were really yummy without being overly sweet. Just as matcha and azuki beans are a natural pair, osmanthus tea and wolfberries are often paired together too. I happen to have osmanthus tea leaves and dried wolfberries at home so I didn't wait to get started. Here's my round and flower-shaped osmanthus macarons with osmanthus pastry cream filling...
Monday, 24 March 2014
Pig Pig Rockmelon Chiffon Cake
I dream of chiffon cakes pretty often :p In fact many of my creations came from dreams! One night, I dreamt of a pig pig chiffon with a very talented friend who loves pigs (I am a pig lover too)! However, I had to shelve the inspiration because I didn't have any round bowls to bake the chiffon in. When my mum brought over some glass dessert bowls and a friend was coming to visit, I finally had the chance to try out the idea!
I wanted to try rockmelon chiffon as I thought that the taste...
Thursday, 20 March 2014
Turtle Red Bean Steamed Bun and Rose Mantou
"Mama, can you make some dou sha bao?"
"OK :)"
I have some homemade red bean paste in the freezer at the moment (I made them because of the sudden urge to make matcha macarons with azuki white chocolate fillings) so I agreed to the request. I haven't made steamed buns for ages and I guess it's about time! Presenting my turtle baos with red bean filling and rose mantous! I took the liberty of using green tea to add some natural coloring to the buns.
The inspiration for patterning the...
Tuesday, 18 March 2014
Matcha Macarons with Azuki Beans and White Chocolate Ganache
This is a bake that happened because I had leftover cream from making no-bake rainbow cheesecakes with my kids. Although macarons are generally too sweet for me, I thought of giving it a shot again with green tea flavor, hoping that the slight bitter taste of the tea will make the final product less overwhelmingly sweet. I was wondering what to fill it with.... ganache of some sort definitely since I really wanted to use up the cream. White chocolate perhaps, was my first thought. Then...
Labels:
Azuki,
Macarons,
Matcha,
Phay Shing
Sunday, 16 March 2014
Segmented and Psychedelic Mini No-Bake Rainbow Cheesecake -- Fun (but messy) holiday activity with kids
When I realized that I had almost all the ingredients I need to make a no-bake cheesecake, I jumped at the chance to make mini rainbow cheesecakes with the kids now that the school holidays are here. Here's my neat segmented rainbow cheesecake (different from the typical ones with various colors in concentric circles) and our psychedelic rainbow cheesecakes!
The psychedelic cakes at the front row are made by my kids and the one behind is made by me. This is a really simple yet fun...
Cooked Dough Pandan Chiffon Cake
I know I’m not supposed to touch anything during this period but the cooked dough chiffon craze in Culinary Kitchenette started by the very lovely Angel Wan really got my hands itchy! I couldn't wait to try the cooked dough or tang mian method of baking chiffon which supposedly gives the chiffon a very moist fragrant texture. This method which originated from Forbidden Garden, involves cooking butter (to form "cooked dough") instead of using oil.
I adapted the recipe from Wen's...
Thursday, 13 March 2014
Rose Tea and Raspberry Yoghurt Chiffon Cake
I love the aroma of rose tea and it used to be a staple for me when I was expecting my first child (steeped in warm milk sometimes and I get hot Bandung minus the sugar!) and when I felt that the screaming and crying of my first born baby was getting on my nerves. Having bought these beautiful dried roses for home consumption again, I was waiting for a chance to bake a rose tea cake. For added moisture and subtle fruity flavor, I added raspberry yoghurt with some raspberry puree into the...
Labels:
Chiffon,
Phay Shing,
Rose,
Yoghurt
Monday, 10 March 2014
Tomato and Cheese Chiffon "Tomatoes" -- A Savory Chiffon!
I have been wanting to do a savory bake for my mum who has diabetes so I came up with my first savory chiffon. Tomato and cheese chiffon cupcakes!
This is totally experimental and I expected it to fail or taste weird but my mum, hubby and the littlest member of my family gave it a thumbs up! Only my elder kid thinks it's weird and did not want to have more after a nibble. Do not think of this as a chiffon cake when you take a bite of it to enjoy this new creation of mine. It's like a soft and fluffy tomato and cheese focaccia that is loaded with flavor but made almost the same way as regular chiffon cakes. I was pleasantly surprised that the surface of the cakes turned out glossy... like real tomatoes!
Here's the recipe that I came up with (makes 6-8 cupcakes):
Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks (preferably large eggs)
35g tomato puree (I used canned ones but you can make your own)
22g light olive oil
10g finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning (you may add more but I didn't want the herbs to spoil the "tomato" look)
37g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Red and orange gel food coloring (optional)
Meringue
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
5g caster sugar
Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Whisk the egg yolks together with olive oil, followed by tomato paste and cheese. Add salt, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning, and whisk until well incorporated.
3. Sift together cake flour and baking powder and gradually add to the batter, whisking until no trace of flour can be seen.
4. You may want to add a bit of red and teeny bit of orange food coloring to make the cake look more realistic but this is optional. My egg yolk batter looks like this:
5. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites in a clean metal bowl. Add cream of tartar when the whites are foamy. When soft peaks are formed, gradually add in the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. The meringue is less smooth and shiny than when more sugar is used. I was contemplating omitting sugar altogether but I didn't know if it would affect the texture and stability of the meringue too much so I settled for a small amount of sugar that comes up to less than 1g per cupcake.
6. Fold in one third of the meringue into the egg yolk batter until no trace of egg whites can be seen. Gently but quickly fold in the rest of the meringue in two additions.
7. Tap the mixing bowl a few times on the table top to release any trapped bubbles. Spoon the batter into small round bottomed glass bowls/ metal molds until they are slightly more than half full.
8. Bake for 15 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 150 degrees Celsius and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Immediately invert the bowls onto a cooling rack after removing from the oven to cool if the tops of the cakes are not above the rim of the bowls.
9. Unmold the cakes by hand and place in paper cupcake liners. I decided to make them look real by topping them with tomato stems :P.
Here's a peek at the inside of a tomato wannabe...
If you ever dare to try making this (some people still think that it's weird to have a savory chiffon), I hope you enjoy it as much as my mum did :).
With love,
Phay Shing
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This is totally experimental and I expected it to fail or taste weird but my mum, hubby and the littlest member of my family gave it a thumbs up! Only my elder kid thinks it's weird and did not want to have more after a nibble. Do not think of this as a chiffon cake when you take a bite of it to enjoy this new creation of mine. It's like a soft and fluffy tomato and cheese focaccia that is loaded with flavor but made almost the same way as regular chiffon cakes. I was pleasantly surprised that the surface of the cakes turned out glossy... like real tomatoes!
Here's the recipe that I came up with (makes 6-8 cupcakes):
Ingredients:
Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks (preferably large eggs)
35g tomato puree (I used canned ones but you can make your own)
22g light olive oil
10g finely grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning (you may add more but I didn't want the herbs to spoil the "tomato" look)
37g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Red and orange gel food coloring (optional)
Meringue
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
5g caster sugar
Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
2. Whisk the egg yolks together with olive oil, followed by tomato paste and cheese. Add salt, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning, and whisk until well incorporated.
3. Sift together cake flour and baking powder and gradually add to the batter, whisking until no trace of flour can be seen.
4. You may want to add a bit of red and teeny bit of orange food coloring to make the cake look more realistic but this is optional. My egg yolk batter looks like this:
5. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites in a clean metal bowl. Add cream of tartar when the whites are foamy. When soft peaks are formed, gradually add in the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. The meringue is less smooth and shiny than when more sugar is used. I was contemplating omitting sugar altogether but I didn't know if it would affect the texture and stability of the meringue too much so I settled for a small amount of sugar that comes up to less than 1g per cupcake.
6. Fold in one third of the meringue into the egg yolk batter until no trace of egg whites can be seen. Gently but quickly fold in the rest of the meringue in two additions.
7. Tap the mixing bowl a few times on the table top to release any trapped bubbles. Spoon the batter into small round bottomed glass bowls/ metal molds until they are slightly more than half full.
8. Bake for 15 minutes then lower the oven temperature to 150 degrees Celsius and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Immediately invert the bowls onto a cooling rack after removing from the oven to cool if the tops of the cakes are not above the rim of the bowls.
9. Unmold the cakes by hand and place in paper cupcake liners. I decided to make them look real by topping them with tomato stems :P.
Here's a peek at the inside of a tomato wannabe...
If you ever dare to try making this (some people still think that it's weird to have a savory chiffon), I hope you enjoy it as much as my mum did :).
With love,
Phay Shing
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