Sheep Brown Sugar Cookiepops

Here are some sheep brown sugar cookiepops :)

If they look familiar to you, that's because they have appeared a couple of times on our blog in the form of macarons and gingerbread cookies.

Please refer to my updated post for brown sugar cookies for the cookie and royal icing recipe.

If you have not seen my old cookie posts, you may wonder how I manage to make cookies of so many different shapes. I make my own templates out of clear plastic files that you can easily find at stationery shops.

I use a small fruit knife to cut out the dough using my homemade template.

It's easier to work with firm dough. Refrigerate it if it becomes too soft and sticky.

Cookiepops are slightly more troublesome to make than regular cookies. The dough had to be rolled thinner (3-4mm) and the same shape cut out twice for each cookie, with an ice-cream stick sandwiched in between.

Freshly baked!

Decorating the sheep was fairly simple without the need for tracing outlines with edible marker. Freehand icing was not too challenging :).

Icing the cookiepops!

Be sure to dry the icing thoroughly either in the open or in the oven with the fan on but heat turned on only for a few seconds.

Store in airtight container. These can keep for 1.5-2 months.


With love,
Phay Shing

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'Thomas the Train' Blue pea flowers-2-tone Pandan Chiffon Cake

Ah Thomas the train again! It seems to be so popular among kids. It's one of the hardest characters to make as faces are really difficult to sculpt, but it was requested by a close mummy friend so it was really difficult to refuse her (usually toppers would have been required). The is sculpted from a 'bowl' chiffon cake, and mounted at the side of a 6-inch Blue pea flowers chiffon cake. I also cut blue strip and grey strips from sheet cakes to complete the Thomas profile, using melted marshmallows to stick on. The base is a 9-inch Pandan 2-tone chiffon cake (waves in Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes).

Sorry that my blogging has been so slow lately. I have difficulty juggling with my 3 kids, book launch, cake making, blogging and answering questions =p. Sometimes I'm so busy I feel like a clown! But I'm still current on Instagram as I only need to post pics, especially before I forget that I made it.

Blessed Thursday! Over the mid-week hump.. yay!

With lots of love,
Susanne

And here's my newest labour of love, at all major bookstores now (Popular, Kinokuniya, Times etc).

It features step-by-step guide to new 3D patterns, cute animals and pops, festive cakes, and an extended 6-page detailed troubleshooting guide and basic section. In addition, there are trending new flavours like Salted egg yolk lava chiffon cake! More information here. 

There's also a book event coming in Oct, so do look out for the flyer coming soon!

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Pororo & Friends Dark Chocolate Macarons (plus tips on packaging, part 2)

My friend requested for two sets of Pororo and friends macarons for her elder boy's birthday, of which one set is made as cake toppers. I will highlight how cake topper macarons and non-individually packed macarons are to be packed for a party in this post.

Pororo and friends!

I used the reduced-sugar macaron shell recipe and baked these along with Pokemon macarons.

You may refer to this post for a detailed write-up about the reduced sugar macaron shell recipe, my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic approach of presenting the basics to fancy shaped macarons, this post for video tutorials of macaron basics and this post for video tutorials of piping complex shaped objects.

Just a quick tip on how I manage a macaron bake with so many colours involved. I divide the mass according to estimated proportion of surface area that each colour covers, then use the formula:

Weight of meringue = 0.51 x weight of mass

If you are using my old non reduced sugar version that also appears in my macaron book, use this formula instead:

Weight of meringue = 0.55 x weight of mass

Just to share some pictures of the piping process...

To be honest, I didn't do research on all the names of the characters involved :p. I can only identify Pororo.

Freshly baked shells!

Checkout the awesome feet on the shells!

I decorated the macaron shells with a combination of royal icing and edible marker. Do not use edible marker on top of royal icing features as it will smudge when refrigerated.

Pororo and friends together with the Pokemon batch

I filled the shells with peppermint dark chocolate or dark chocolate ganache. You may refer to the Pokemon macaron post for the recipe.

I use lollipop sticks for the cake toppers. Pipe some ganache on the base shell, place the stick in the middle, pipe more ganache to cover the stick before putting the top shell on.

Most of my requests are for macarons that are displayed at the party or for home consumption. Here's how I pack...

I put each macaron on paper cupcake liners to help cushion the macarons and help to absorb moisture when refrigerated. Depending on the numbers ordered, I use transparent plastic boxes with 4 or 6 compartments as shown below. The boxes are bought from SKP or Phoon Huat.

Cake topper macarons are also placed in paper cupcake liners. If the toppers are giant macarons, I use paper towel cut or folded according to the size of the macaron. These are packed in a large box.

The boxes are placed in a jumbo ziplock bag with dessicant and paper towel. This is to ensure that the environment in which the macarons are stored in is airtight and condensation will not be as bad when refrigerated and taken out of the fridge repeatedly during transport.

I hope my sharing of practical tips on packing has been helpful!

My friend kindly sent some photos of the macaron cake toppers on a cake she baked herself :)

Can you tell who is missing? 

Caught by a little boy with the rest of the friends watching on *gasp*!

Mmm-mmm! The little man approves of the macaron!

She says that they are not too sweet :). A comment I often get for my macarons!


With love,
Phay Shing

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Video Tutorial for Passionfruit/Yuzu Lollipop Chiffon Cake Pops

Finally unveiling what I have been working on! My next video tutorial on Passionfruit Lollipop Chiffon Pops from my new cookbook Deco Chiffon Cakes, that's just been launched at all major bookstores in Singapore!

This lollipop chiffon pop is from Pg 94. I'm really not techie so it's really a pain for me to make the video =p, I'm really thankful I had my hubby's help. So hope you don't mind my humble video:

You can substitute passionfruit juice with any of the other fruit juice of your choice. I have tried with yuzu and orange juice and both works well. There is also a natural food coloring guide (how-to-make) from Pg 29. Many people also do not know there are actually some brands like Queen's or PME that sells natural coloring (in some colours). If using wilton gel, then a tiny toothpick prick dip is required only.

And here's my newest labour of love!

It features step-by-step guide to new 3D patterns, cute animals and pops, festive cakes, and an extended 6-page detailed troubleshooting guide and basic section. In addition, there are trending new flavours like Salted egg yolk lava chiffon cake! More information here.

I really really hope the ideas will bless many who read it!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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6-Asian flavours (Earth Tones) Chiffon Cake

6 Asian flavours in one chiffon cake, naturally coloured by their flavours!

Matcha (light green), Coffee (brown), Soy (cream), Yam (light purple), Charcoal (grey) and Adzuki (light pink, it’s the only colour with some added natural colouring)! The cake is yummy for the Asian palate and there is a flavour for everyone!

Very excited that my latest labour of love, Deco Chiffon Cakes is finally available at all bookstores tomorrow (23 Sep 2016)! There’s a step-by-step pic tutorial for this 6-Asian flavours chiffon cake in the book (Pg 82)!

My first prototype of this cake was the 5-colour 'Inside Out' chiffon cake I made for my birthday using natural colorings my MIL got from Thailand. Very happy that my editor loved the cake too and even put it on the cover of the new cookbook (together with a cute Matcha turtle and flowers pompom chiffon cakes)! 

To thank everyone for their support since the beginning, I am also giving away 4 new Deco Chiffon Cakes cookbooks on my FB and Instagram! Contest ends 23 Sept 2359.

With lots of love,

Susanne

Deco Chiffon Cakes (Chiffon book 2) will be available at all bookstores (Popular, Kinokuniya, Times etc.) from Friday 23 Sept 2016. It features step-by-step guide to new 3D patterns, cute animals and pops, festive cakes, and an extended 6-page detailed troubleshooting guide and basic section. In addition, there are trending new flavours like Salted egg yolk lava chiffon cake! More sneak peeks here.

Thank you so much for your support once again!

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Pokemon Peppermint Dark Chocolate Macarons (plus tips on packaging, part 1)

This bake came about because I have excess batter from making Pororo and friends macarons. Keep a lookout for the Pororo macarons in my next post! Someone requested for a blog post on how I pack my macarons for sale. I shall split it into two blog posts due to the nature of how the requesters want it packed. Presenting my first attempt at some Pokemon character macarons!

Caterpie, Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Charmander!

You may refer to this post for a detailed write-up about the reduced sugar macaron shell recipe, my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic approach of presenting the basics to fancy shaped macarons, this post for video tutorials of macaron basics and this post for video tutorials of piping complex shaped objects.

Despite the complex shapes I thought why not try the reduced sugar recipe for these. I may stick to the reduced sugar version from now on and if I am brave enough, experiment with a higher percentage of sugar replacement.

Just to share some photos of the piping process....

Pikachu head

Jigglypuff

Full-body version of Pikachu

Charmander

Caterpie

Take a look at the freshly baked shells!

Awesome feet!

I used a combination of royal icing and edible marker to decorate the shells. Remember not to use edible marker on top of royal icing as it will smudge when the macarons are kept in the fridge.

All decorated along with the Pororo set!

Peppermint dark chocolate flavour was requested for some of the macarons from the Pororo batch so I used it for these. I used my regular dark chocolate ganache recipe but added Peppermint extract.

I use the good stuff!

Peppermint dark chocolate ganache
Ingredients:
180g dark chocolate, chopped
60g heavy cream
20g unsalted butter
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
3/4 tsp Peppermint extract

Steps:
1. Place chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 20-30 seconds at medium power. Stir to mix well. Repeat until mixture is melted and smooth.

2. Place cream in a small saucepan and heat on low heat until it starts to bubble. Pour over melted chocolate and stir with spatula in one direction until smooth and well incorporated.

3. Add salt, vanilla and peppermint gradually and stir until well mixed.

4. Let the ganache sit at room temperature for half an hour to an hour or until consistency is toothpaste-like. Transfer to piping bag and pipe onto shells.

5. Refrigerate the macarons for at least 24h in airtight container. Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before consuming. Ganache filled macarons can withstand cool room temperature storage for 2-3 days so they are good as gifts. For longer term storage, you may freeze individually wrapped macarons for a month or refrigerate them for 5 days-2 weeks (Depending on how moist the fillings are. Wet fillings like lemon curd or jams can only last for about 5 days whereas firm ganaches like this one can last for 2 weeks).

Here comes the part about packing macarons...

Some of these Pokemon macarons are to be given away as gifts so they have to be individually packed. I use transparent cylindrical plastic containers (bought from Phoon Huat) for this purpose. I prefer to use rigid packaging instead of self-seal bags that I use for cookies as macarons are delicate and prone to being easily crushed. I always line my macarons with cupcake cases to absorb any moisture due to condensation from refrigeration and to help cushion any shock during transport. They also serve as good "handles" when you need to move the delicate macarons around without breaking or smudging them. Macarons with thin bits sticking out will tend to break more easily than roundish ones. Parts decorated with edible marker will smudge if you touch them.

Packing each macaron

Although the container lids are pretty tight (they won't fall out), they are not airtight. I could tape down all the lids but the tape is a pain to remove after that. Instead, I pack the containers into jumbo ziplock bag. I include a dessicant and a paper towel in the bag to absorb any moisture due to condensation. It's unfortunate that Singapore is hot and humid so condensation takes place quickly when we transport the macarons in and out of the fridge.

This whole assembly is refrigerated.

Keep a lookout for my next post on how to pack macarons for display at parties or as cake toppers.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Psyduck Chiffon Cake

Psyduck spotted! =p

Something simple and cute for my hubby's birthday this year, mainly because the kids like the cute silly-looking duck from Pokemon go! =)

The duck is from lemon chiffon cake (naturally colored) from 2 bowl cakes and 1 swissroll (for the arms). The base 'island' cake is pandan chiffon cake baked in a wilton ball cake pan.

I know my kids will enjoy cutting it up so much hehe =p Thank you for everything!

With lots of love,
Susanne

Good news! Deco Chiffon Cakes will be hitting the bookstores this Friday 23rd Sept! 

It features new 3D patterns, a 6-page extended troubleshooting guide, and trending flavours like salted egg lava chiffon cake! So excited! <3

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Wedding Brown Sugar Cookies

I mentioned earlier in my Teacher's Day cookie post that I have a huge batch of 400 brown sugar cookies to make for a wedding. Here are some of them :)

When you have 400 decorative cookies to make within a limited time frame, some careful thought has to go into planning the design. My cousin wanted the initials of the bride and groom with a cross in the middle to represent the centrality of Jesus Christ in their marriage. Her colour theme for the wedding is blue and therefore the ombre blue shades for the cookies.

You may refer to my Teacher's Day cookie post for a detailed write-up of the basic brown sugar cookie recipe and the royal icing recipe.

Just to share some photos...

Freshly baked cookies!

Testing the consistency of royal icing.

Consistency of icing for flooding the hearts should be such that any peaks disappear in 10 seconds. Consistency for the letters should be thicker at about 20 seconds or the little twirls will end up looking like blobs.

Outline the hearts with white icing, dry completely before flooding with blue.

Let the flooded cookies dry overnight before adding on the letters and dots.

If I had more time or less numbers to work with, I might have used a needle to scratch the letters on the surface of the flooded hearts before tracing with royal icing. But as it turns out, my freehand piping wasn't too bad after all :p.

Really thank God for helping me to complete this gargantuan task, and for my dad who helped me dot the border of about 30 cookies as I realised I had one day less to work on the cookies due to personal family commitments. It took me about two and a half weeks to work on these cookies along with family commitments and other bakes.

Here's me wishing the lovely couple a blessed marriage!

With love,
Phay Shing

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BB-8 droid Chiffon Cake

I made this BB-8 cute robot from chiffon cake for dearest Joash and one of my closest mummy friends! Previous years I made the Lego and Transformers Chiffon Cakes. In fact the Lego chiffon was one of my first cakes when I started out so there's a lot of nostalgia and I had to try making BB-8 when he requested it. I realise I still haven't posted my Transformers cake! =p

The BB-8 shape is obtained by combining two bowl or ball pan cakes, and the top was from a 5-cm cake pop mold. It was quite a pain to cut and stick on all the details from sheet cakes as you can imagine, as there were no cutters for the patterns! =p Just imaging lots of small stripes and circles.

It was a labour of love and thankful cake for well-received! May you grow up to be a wonderful boy who loves God!

With lots of love,

Susanne

New cookbook Deco Chiffon Cakes, launching 23rd Sept in bookstores!

For those who preordered, do come collect your copy now! Those who opted for delivery, it's already on the way to your house =)

My video tutorial on making a cute character chiffon posted on TODAY's fb page with a shout-out for the new cookbook at the end. Read more here on Creative chiffon feature in TODAY. Thankful to God for everything.

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