Hello Kitty x Pusheen Chiffon Cake

 

Have you heard of the cutest collab EVER between Hello Kitty and Pusheen #HelloKittyxPusheen ?😍

Love this sooo much and thank you @Pusheen and @Hellokitty for sharing this creation too!! 💖💖

My chiffon cake creation inspired this dream with double dose of cuteness! ❤❤🥰

With lots of love,

Susanne

Starry Wonderment Macaron & Cookie Creation

"Make something with as many stars as possible, and a moon, and maybe a pig. Because the recipient said she wants to be surrounded by stars." 

If you were given a task like this, how would you put it into a picture? This was my take on it using cookie and macaron as my medium of expression 😊. 

Matcha hojicha flavoured macarons and hojicha cookie tree! As usual, my bakes are fondant-free and this has minimal inedible items included. 

I wanted to create everything in macaron at first but thought it is too risky due to the fairly thin parts on the tree skeleton structure. I decided to use my default cookie base for construction projects to ensure a sturdier support structure is present without having to use inedible dowels. The recipe is tweaked a little by replacing the cornflour with plain flour for a sturdier structure, and hojicha and cocoa powder added for a darker colour. I adapted my cookie template from Jennifer Maker. 

Recipe for Hojicha cocoa cookie

Ingredients :

114g unsalted butter

100g caster or brown sugar 

1 egg (51g without shell) 

285g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

1tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs hojicha powder

1 tsp cocoa powder

Steps:

Please refer to this post for the steps. I rolled the dough to 4mm thickness before cutting the tree shape out. Add milk a little at a time if the dough is too dry and crumbly. Add flour a little at a time if too sticky and soft to work with. 

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

Undecorated macaron shells

I used pink lustre dust to create some of the intermediate shades of pink for the macaron stars. 

I used edible marker, lustre dust and royal icing for adding the details on the pig, moon and star. 

I used a mixture of hojicha and matcha ganache for the fillings. I added some crunchy chocolate balls for the large base macaron shell, which is around 14cm in diameter. 

Hojicha ganache, matcha ganache and crunchy chocolate balls. 

The assembled base looks pretty on its own! 

I filled the moon and stars with hojicha ganache. The stars are glued to the tree with hojicha ganache.

But before I glued the stars on, I had to take a photo of the tree on the base! It looks like something out of a children's picture storybook! I used stiff royal icing to secure the cookie tree to the base macaron. It is sturdy enough so no dowels are needed. I just reinforced the cookie structure with some royal icing on the back surfaces of the cookies. 

With love, 

Phay Shing

All You Need To Know About Making Anime Character Macarons

After making Nezuko and Levi macarons, I had requests for video tutorial on how to make anime type of character macarons. Although people would like to see how to make specific characters, I am not comfortable with using trademarked characters as subjects for the tutorial so I am using a caricature of myself drawn by very talented artists Duvoir and Artysaur (from Twitch). Hubby commissioned them to draw caricatures of our whole family some time back so we have the drawings for our own use. Presenting myself as a macaron, lol! 

Cat ears are included because I love cats. 

I put up two Youtube videos for this. The first video focuses on piping the macaron batter and some tips for the dos and don'ts. The second video focuses on using edible marker and vodka wash technique to include the details. Tips such as how to "erase" edible marker marks are included. A bonus portion is also included at the end of the second video showing how I fill the macarons and how to cut it such that you get a nice cross-section for photography. 

I hope you find the tutorials helpful! 

With love, 

Phay Shing 

Tom and Jerry Chiffon Cake (Miniso)

 

Cake or plush toy?❤

Excited to collaborate with @miniso.official to create a Tom & Jerry cake based on the Miniso Tom and Jerry blind boxes! I grew up watching them on TV!

With love,

Susanne

Apple Black Tea 'Basket of Apples' Cake

After making the chiffon apples in biscuit basket, I made another version of the "apples in basket" theme with the same flavour (apple black tea) but with the basket made out of cake this time! This was for my dad's and uncle's combined birthday celebration.

The apples are the same as what I made for my dad's small birthday bake where each large apple has an apple black tea diplomat cream and apple dragonfruit black tea jelly filling. Here's how the cross-section looks like! 

The mini apples don't have filling because it would have been challenging to insert it in. 

The recipe for the cake (chiffon sponge, diplomat cream and jelly) can be found over here where I did my trial bake for cake flavour. I made chiffon apples back in 2014 when I first discovered that cake marbling technique can be used to create the patterns on the apple. I have done basket weave type of cake using chiffon sponge a number of times since I made the first one for my mum's birthday in 2015. But this is the first time I am making it this complicated as there is a heart-shaped hole at the side of the basket revealing the layers of goodies that the cake is made up of. While I usually make a half basket weave covered cake as the cake base to showcase the basket weave as well as the beautiful yummy cake layers, I thought this would look a little odd for the apple theme. But I am not willing to cover up the sides totally in basket weave as it is a pity to hide the goodies inside. I ended up with a compromise of a hole at the side to showcase the cake layers and basket weave. This is the first time I sliced the chiffon sponge cake into 5 layers too. Usually I slice into 3 layers only. Quite a challenge to slice it so thinly because chiffons are so soft! 

Here's a peek at the layer of filling between sponge layers. 

Apple black tea diplomat cream and apple dragonfruit black tea jelly

Here's a view of the basket cake without the apples! 

I baked very thin layer of chiffon sponges to make the basket weave. I added a little more kocha powder (black tea powder) and a little cocoa powder to make a slightly darker brown for the basket weave but I think it isn't too obvious 😂. 

I chose a heart shaped opening at the basket because this bake is made with lots of love for the people who love me. My uncle treats me like his own daughter although he never had children, and has continued to support my family over the years. So this cake is a little gift I make in return for all the love and care. 

With lots of love,

Phay Shing

Apple Black Tea Chiffon Cake 'Apples' in Biscuit Basket

My dad's and uncle's birthdays are pretty close to each other and because we have 2 separate celebrations, I decided to make 2 separate but related bakes for them. Both are apple themed. For my dad's small home birthday celebration, I revisited an old bake back in 2014 but with filling this time and placed in an edible basket! 

Apple black tea chiffon cake "apples" in biscuit basket! 

A close up view of the cross-section of the insides! Apple black tea diplomat cream and apple dragonfruit black tea agar jelly! 

It actually took me 2 tries to get the basket right. The first try was my default construction cookie recipe that tastes awesome and it's easy to work with as rolled cookies. But it was difficult to handle for weaving as the dough kept breaking, and the basket fell apart when I placed it upright to dry it out a little more in the oven. Way too fragile due to the microcracks induced by the compression forces as the weaved dough expanded slightly during baking in the oven. 

I had a think and remembered that I had a biscuit dough recipe which has a texture and elasticity similar to bread dough, making it easier to handle for weaving and hopefully, remains sturdy enough after baking to keep its shape and hold the apples! This biscuit happens to be my iced gems biscuit base. I tweaked it slightly to include a little cinnamon and cocoa powder for colouring, and reduced the baking powder to minimize expansion of the dough which may cause cracks due to the weave pattern. Thank God it worked this time! 

You may refer to any basket weave tutorial for circular baskets on how to weave. Pinch seal the ends of each rope of dough when you run out of length. Use a metal bowl that is wrapped in aluminium foil as your work surface. Remember to grease it first before slapping on the dough. 

I didn't take photos of the weaved rim and handles because it was late and I was a little miffed at having to rebake😂. I used small hemisphere slicone moulds as the work surface for the handles. The various parts were glued together using royal icing. 

Ta-dah! My edible wicker biscuit basket! 

Recipe for biscuit basket

Ingredients:

140g plain flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder

20g icing sugar 

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp cocoa powder

48g unsalted butter

50g milk (use less or add more as necessary) 

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

Steps:

1. Sift together all powdered ingredients into mixing bowl. Add vanilla extract to milk. 

2. Rub in unsalted butter into powdered ingredients until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. 

3. Add milk a little at a time until a ball of dough forms. Cling wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. This will help the dough to relax and make it more pliable.

4. Prepare the baking tray/ moulds, lining with parchment or foil and greasing as necessary. Preheat oven to 165C.

5. Portion and roll out the ropes of dough as needed for weaving. Weave the basket, pinch sealing portions where you need to join the ropes. 

6. Bake until slightly golden brown. This bake time can vary depending on size of the weaved portion. Can range from 15 to 25 min. Cool completely before assembling with royal icing as the glue. 

The basket was stored at cool room temperature in airtight condition. 

I prepared some apple dragonfruit black tea jelly and measured 1 tsp of it for each apple, set in cling wrap. You may refer to this post for the jelly recipe. 

Refrigerated until ready to fill the chiffon apples. It would be perfect if I have moulds of the right size but I didn't so this less ideal cling wrap trick will have to do.  You only need to prepare a small quantity of jelly since each apple only needs 1 tsp worth. 

Prepare the apple black tea diplomat cream and store it in a piping bag in the fridge until ready to fill the apples. Please refer to this post for the recipe. You will only need a little cream and 1 egg yolk portion recipe is more than enough. 

Apple black tea chiffon cake recipe for "apples" 

Note that I increased the sugar content in the meringue to improve its stability compared to my old recipe in 2014. This makes it easier for patterning the apple design. 

Ingredients (makes about 9-12 cupcakes) :

Egg yolk batter

3 egg yolks

42g vegetable or canola oil

42g apple black tea

3/4 tsp vanilla extract 

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1/8 tsp salt

60g cake flour 

1/4 tsp baking soda (to neutralize acidity of tea) 

1/2 tsp kocha powder (black tea powder) 

Colouring for yellow and red batters

Yellow gel colouring 

1/8 tsp red powder colouring 

Meringue

4 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

80g caster sugar 

Steps :

Kindly refer to this post for the detailed steps because it is too long to type😂. The difference is I simplified the use of many sources of colouring because some of them impart a flavour which I didn't want as it will detract from the apple black tea base that I intended it to be. 

Inverting the glass bowls to cool the chiffon apples. 

Carefully unmould the cakes by hand when cooled totally. Use a piping tip to mark out the hole and then use a toothpick to dig out a portion of cake. Don't throw the cake cutout, instead pipe in a little cream. Insert a ball of jelly and coat with more cream.  It should look like this:

Cover the hole with some of the cake cut out earlier. Shape the base of the cake to make it taper slightly inward. To do so, you may shape by hand, or use a mould/bowl with smaller diameter. Insert the base of the cake into the mould/bowl to round it out. I used a silicone mould with smaller diameter than the glass bowls they were baked in. 

To shape the apple top, make an indent on the top of the apple with a clean finger or wider end of the chopstick. 

Ta-dah! Shaped apple. The shaped portions may tend to bounce back to its original shape. Just keep pressing or inserted into the mould for a longer time and the shape should hold better. 

Insert a sliver of cinnamon as the apple stem and you are done! 

With lots of love,

Phay Shing

Pumpkin Patch Chiffon Cake

 

Pumpkin Patch Chiffon Cake!! ❤

*New Class Alert*

Excited to unravel a very fun new class @howtocakeit ! Here's what you will learn:

- how to use natural flavors and colors in cake (matcha, cocoa and pumpkin)

- how to shape chiffon pumpkins without special molds

- how to create the cute wave patterns at the side of your cake (see video here)

- marshmallow & ganache 'glue'

Live class on Fri Oct 22nd 8pm EST (Oct 23rd 8am GMT+8). Recordings and workbook available forever too! Bundle up with my Oct 1st class and get 25% off!

Link to sign up here.

Really excited about this one! See u soon 💓😍

With lots of love,

Susanne