Peanut Butter and Jelly Chiffon Cake 'Entremet'

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich anyone?😛

Do you like my chiffon cake "entremet"?🥰

Layers:😋

- Peanut butter chiffon cake jar

- Salted caramel almond layer

- Peanut butter caramel mousse

- Whipped Peanut butter

- Chocolate chiffon cap

And here's a slicing video!

The cake was super yummy! =)

And here's the original cake before the slicing!

Hope this cute creation made you smile! 

With lots of love,

Susanne

Apple Black Tea Swiss Roll

This was an accidental flavour that is so good that picky cake eaters like hubby, gave a thumbs up, and so did my elder kid who appreciates desserts with complementary multidimensional flavours and textures. Presenting my trial bake for apple black tea cake! 

This cake consists of a soft and moist apple black tea chiffon sponge, same flavour of diplomat cream, and a crunchy apple black tea dragonfruit agar jelly.  I brewed a concentrated tea and used it as a base for making the various components. I originally planned for a hojicha cake but Phoon Huat was out of stock for hojicha powder so I settled for kocha, a black tea often used to make bubble teas. I thought just kocha alone would be one-dimensional. And since I am planning an apple themed bake, I thought why not make it apple black tea! The flavour is refreshing with some fruity tartness from the apple, and sweet aroma from cinnamon and kocha. The addition of dragonfruit was an afterthought as I wanted to colour the jelly naturally for a reddish tinge. But this turned out necessary as the fine dragonfruit seeds add a nice crunch to texture which complements the crunchy agar and soft cake and cream.  

This is a long post as I am recording it for my reference too. 

Apple black tea

Feel free to upsize or downsize, or change any ingredient quantity according to taste. You should aim for what you want the jelly to taste like (except that it is unsweetened) as your base tea that you will use for all ofher components later on. You may store excess in fridge or freezer. Recipe is adapted from here. 

Ingredients:

3 apples, peeled and grated 

6 cups of water

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/8 tsp ginger powder

1 tbs (6g) Kocha powder (I bought from Phoon Huat) 

Steps:

1. Bring water, tea powder, cinnamon and ginger to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.

2. In the mean time, peel and grate the apples. Add grated apples to the tea mixture and simmer for another 3 min. 

3. Remove from heat at let the ingredients steep and cool to room temperature. Sieve before using or storing. 

Apple black tea jelly

This is a very small portion for my trial bake so feel free to upsize it for larger cakes or swiss rolls. 

Ingredients:

150g apple black tea

20g honey (feel free to adjust according to taste or change to sugar of choice) 

25g pink dragonfruit puree, optional if you don't need extra crunch (I blended it so seeds are broken to smaller bits) 

2-3g agar powder (depending on how firm you prefer)

Steps:

1. Place all ingredients into small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to ensure agar powder is completely dissolved. 

2. Continue boiling and stirring for a minute more. 

3. Pour into lined tray or silicone mould/tray until at least 1cm high. Chill in fridge until firm. 

Apple black tea diplomat cream

This is again very small quantity. Feel free to upsize it. Excess can be frozen and eaten like ice-cream. 

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk

20g cornflour

3g kocha powder

A pinch of salt

15g erythritol (or sugar of choice, adjust amount according to taste) 

75g apple black tea

25g heavy cream 

7g unsalted butter

50g whip topping (or stabilized dairy whipped cream) 

Steps:

1. Heat apple tea and heavy cream in a small saucepan until you are able to feel the heat rising from the pot when you place your hand over it. 

2. In the mean time, whisk egg yolk, cornflour, sugar of choice, salt and kocha together until a thick paste forms. 

3. When apple milk tea is warm, pour it in a thin stream into the egg mixture while whisking the egg mixture constantly. Pour everything back into saucepan. 

4. Heat over medium low heat while whisking constantly. Once the custard starts to thicken, remove from heat and whisk vigorously until smooth. Place saucepan back on heat and continue to whisk and cook until thickened further, able to hold a firm peak (peak with a curl at the end) . Remove from heat. 

5. Add unsalted butter and whisk until well combined. Transfer to bowl and press cling wrap on surface. Chill in fridge overnight or at least a few hours. 

6. Whip up the whip topping until stiff peaks. Take the pastry cream/custard out and whisk it to loosen the texture. Fold the whipped cream into the custard. Transfer into piping bag and store in fridge until ready to assemble. 

Apple black tea chiffon cake

Quantity here is enough for a mini 7x7 inch swiss roll plus one or two 5cm cupcakes. Feel free to upsize to a 2 egg yolk recipe for a 10 x 12 inch swiss roll. 

Ingredients :

Egg yolk batter

1 egg yolk

5g caster sugar

14g vegetable oil

17g apple black tea

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp kocha powder

A pinch of salt

23g cake flour

Meringue

One and a half egg whites (about 55g)

25g caster sugar (more if you have sweet tooth, up to 35g)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:

1. Line tray with parchment paper or teflon sheet. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolk, salt and sugar together until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until smooth. Add apple black tea and vanilla and whisk until combined. Sift in flour, cinnamon and kocha powder gradually. Whisk until no trace of flour is seen. 

3. Prepare meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks, gradually adding in the sugar once the egg whites are foamy.

4. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 batches. Pour into cupcake case and prepared swiss roll tray. 

5. Bake at 170C for 12- 14 min or until skewer comes out clean. Immediately flip onto fresh sheet of parchment paper and roll it up to cool completely. 

Assembly

1. Cut out apple shapes from the jelly or any other shape you like with a cookie cutter. I used a small 1 inch apple cookie cutter for this mini roll. 

2. Unroll the cooled cake and pipe/spread a thin layer of diplomat cream. 

3. Place a row of apple black tea jelly cutouts upside down in the middle of the roll as shown below. 

4. Pipe a thin layer of cream around the jelly, smoothing it out with a spatula as necessary. 

5. Carefully roll it up and refrigerate for at least a few hours before attempting to slice it. 

I wasn't sure how this would end up tasting so I was pleasamtly surprised that it was really refreshing with all the subtle complex flavours coming out when you take time to savour all 3 components together. 

With love,

Phay Shing 

Dinoland Mango n Peaches Cake

Dinosaur theme for birthdays never go out of fashion and is surprisingly popular with little boys. Presenting my Dinoland macaron scene on top of a mango and peaches fresh cream chiffon cake! 

I learnt something new from a baker on Instagram (account is flourhour_afterdark) that you can pipe macaron batter on silicone cupcake cases. I am not a stranger to piping macaron batter on silicone hemisphere mould trays but have not tried cupcake cases before. It was surprisingly easy to pipe on and easier to unmould than the tray types! I used the swiss meringue method recipe for the macarons. I created the volcano and tree foliage using silicone cupcake cases. 

I achieved the height of the volcano by piping on stacked cases. A little wiggling with a toothpick is enough to dislodge the silicone case from the baked shell. 

Freshly baked shells! 

The lava on the volcano was added on post-baking with royal icing. The dinos were decorated with royal icing and edible markers. 

Putting it all together! The volcano is filled with crunchy chocolate balls (store bought) and dark chocolate ganache. The rest of the macarons are filled with dark chocolate ganache. 

I made the vanilla chiffon sponge using my default recipe. 

Freshly baked vanilla chiffon cake! 

I used a mix of stabilized dairy cream and non-dairy cream to get a good balance of stability and taste. 

Recipe for cream

Ingredients:

100g + 100g heavy cream

2 gelatin sheets, bloomed in ice water

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g whip topping (non-dairy cream) 

Steps:

1. Heat 100g of heavy cream until about 40C. 

2. Add bloomed gelatin and vanilla. Whisk until gelatin is melted. 

3. Add 100g cold whipping cream and whisk until well combined. 

4. Press cling wrap on surface of the cream and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

5. When ready to assemble, whip non-dairy cream till stiff peaks. Whip chilled dairy cream until stiff peaks as shown below. 

6. Fold dairy cream into non-dairy cream and transfer into piping bag with a hole cut for assembly. 

To assemble, the sponge was sliced horizontally into 3 pieces. Between the sponge layers was the cream, mangoes and canned peaches and some homemade mango yuzu compote. Use an acetate sheet to hold the layers together during assembly. Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight before removing the acetate sheet. 

I love the clean and fresh look! 

Thank God it was a well-received bake! 

With love,

Phay Shing

Mid-Autumn Macaron Special (Mooncarons & Teacup Bunnies)

These macarons are actually class material with Artz Baking and Culinary Studio but I couldn't resist taking photos of them, and making the bunnies hold teeny mooncakes for the occassion! 

Mooncarons and bunny in teacup oolong osmanthus macarons! All ready to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival! 

I made mooncarons or macarons that look and taste like mooncakes since 2017 but this is the first time I am teaching a hands-on class for it. I tweaked the recipe a little for the class but technique is essentially what I shared in the previous years in the blog. 

Close up view of the cross-section of a mooncaron! Filing is mung bean paste and salted egg yolk! 

The bunny in teacup macaron class has been running for a number of rounds since last year and this will he the last one for the forseeable future so I took the chance to make it more memorable by including the teeny royal icing transfer mooncakes. My elder kid originally designed the bunny template and it was intended for Mid-Autumn festival at its debut, that's why the flavour is oolong osmanthus. The yellow macaron shells are passionfruit osmanthus flavoured, fruity and floral, so good you can even eat it on its own! 

I hope these bakes put a smile on your face as it did on mine 😊. 

With love,

Phay Shing

Chiffon Fruit Cakes

 

Which is your favorite design? 💓 

These Patterned chiffon cakes with Surprise fruit flowers and cherries fillings taste like strawberry shortcake! 

I will be sharing how to make these at my new Howtocakeit class coming in Oct! 

Link to sign up here! 

Here is a video on their slicing!  

Meanwhile, take care and stay safe! 

With lots of love,

Susanne

'Waves' Matcha Chiffon Cake with Fresh Cream, Injeolmi and Azuki Beans

I seldom accept requests for orders nowadays as I want to make time for some YouTube content. I accepted this because I thought it wouldn't take too long and was from an old customer who really loved my fresh cream cakes. This turned out rather challenging not just due to Singapore's tropical weather, but also because I have never done palette painting on cakes (or on paper for that matter), don't have a palette knife, and this was a new flavour combination I am exploring. Presenting my Matcha cake with fresh cream, Injeolmi and azuki beans! 

I was excited about trying this flavour combi because it reminds me a little of bingsu with the milky shaved ice, bits of azuki bean, Injeolmi and matcha jelly! 

The creamed cake with the painted wave design was requested. But since it is a new flavour combination for me, I decided to make a small swiss roll to do a taste test as well. 

I painted this using a mixture of dairy and non-dairy cream, and a specialized fork for eating crabs since I didn't have a palette knife. Maybe crab fork painting can become a thing 😂! 

The chiffon sponge is the last thing to prepare before assembly so I prepared the cream and injeolmi first. For those of you who don't know what injeolmi is (like me before I got this request), it is like muah chee or soft chewy glutinous rice cake but instead of coating with ground peanuts like muah chee, it is coated with kinako (roasted soybean flour). 

Homemade injeolmi! Please follow the recipe here from Maangchi. It is really quick and easy! 

I used a 1:1 ratio for dairy and non-dairy whipping cream to get the best of taste and stability. I stabilized the dairy cream with gelatin. 

Recipe for stabilized fresh cream and non-dairy cream mix

Ingredients:

250g heavy cream or double cream or a mix

1 gelatin sheet

1 tbs icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste 

250g whip topping (non-dairy whipping cream)

Steps:

 1. Bloom gelatin in ice water. In the meantime, heat dairy cream with vanilla and icing sugar until sugar is dissolved and cream is warm (not hot, about 40C). Melt bloomed gelatin in warm cream. Whisk until dissolved. 

2. Press cling wrap onto surface of the cream. Chill overnight or at least for a few hours. 

3. When ready to assemble, whip non-dairy cream until stiff peaks. Set aside. 

4. Whip stabilized dairy cream until firm or stiff peaks. Gradually fold dairy cream into whipped whip topping. 

5. Portion small portions of cream to colour with gel colouring for paintig the waves. Transfer the cream into piping bags for assembly/painting. 

Freshly made cream! I love the smoothness of it! 

I adapted the matcha sponge recipe from my hojicha chiffon sponge recipe. You may refer to this blog post for the chiffon recipe but replace hojicha powder with matcha powder, use regular caster sugar instead of monkfruit sugar and omit the cornflour. 

Freshly baked matcha sheet cake! 

Here is a peek at how I assembled the swiss roll with the cream, injeolmi and azuki bean. 

Such cakes need to remain chilled in Singapore's tropical weather. Challenging to assemble but of all the cake fillings and frostings, fresh cream is one of the yummiest! Thank God I had great reviews for the taste of the cake from the birthday recipient who loves Injeolmi! I was a little nervous that the Injeolmi would be too hard or chewy when cold but he loves it this way! 

With love,

Phay Shing

Bubble Tea Mooncakes with Boba Pearls Surprise

I'm a huge fan of Bubble tea and have made many previous Bubble Tea creations! As mid-autumn is next month, I was inspired to make a Bubble Tea version of the mooncake! The mooncake skin is tea-infused and naturally-coloured with tea and bamboo charcoal. Making the mooncakes made me smile from ear to ear and were pretty yummy! I embedded my favourite Boba pearls into the mooncake too, as I had some Boba pearls in preparation for my upcoming How to cake it Bubble Tea chiffon class.

Anyway at the very last minute, I decided to place my tripod on while I was working, so I managed to come up with a very simple Youtube video tutorial (all taken from same angle haha). Not very pro at all, but I hope it will be helpful to those interested in how to make it! I used push pop molds to get very clean shapes. The measurements and weights of the various ingredients are in the video. This recipe is best consumed the next day or so.

Hope you will like it!

Youtube Video tutorial and recipe:

With lots of love,

Susanne