Chocolate Salted Caramel Biscoff Sausage Dog Eclairs

Did you know that just a few tweaks to your classic eclair can become something like this? 

Chocolate daschund craquelin eclairs! Filled with delectable salted caramel biscoff diplomat cream with extra oozy salted caramel!. 

The basic techniques on how to create puffy, hollow eclairs will be covered, as well as the decorative techniques and yummy filling. 

Puffy chocolate craquelin eclairs! 

Please click on this link for more information or to register. 

With love, 

Phay Shing 

Triceratops Chocolate Choux Pastry (Video Tutorial)

Making character choux pastries sometimes involves making Choux au Craquelin that aren't your regular round, oblong or even donut shapes. I made a video tutorial on how you can make any shape you like! Triceratops is used as an example but the same principles can be applied to all shapes.

 

Here's a view of the main body of the Triceratops before and after baking. 

 

The pastries are filled with chocolate diplomat cream. I adjusted the amount of cocoa powder and dark chocolate couverture so that it is less intense. 

For the full video tutorial, please click on this link. 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Tiger Family Chiffon Cakes

 

My little Tiger family wishing everyone a Happy New Year!🐯💕 

Thank you for your love, friendship and support!❤ 

They are made from orange chiffon cake pops. 

May you be safe, healthy and blessed!😘 


With love,

Susanne

'Ox Welcoming Tiger' Yuzu Mango Matcha Macarons

This was an unplanned bake that had to be made because it stuck in my head and I needed to get it out of my system😅. Last year I made an impromptu bake of "Rat welcoming the Year of the Ox" macarons. This year I thought of making something with similar theme but in 3D form. So here's my version of this year's "Ox welcoming the Year of the Tiger"! 

A closer look at the Ox without the cart. 

Of course I had to test out the cart to make sure it works... 

What was really stuck in my head was this that I had to get out of my system... 

I broke down the baking into 3 separate sessions since this was unplanned. The red macaron shells for the new year greeting was baked with batter for my teacup macaron class using Swiss meringue method. The cart was made using French method and the ox and tigers were made using swiss method. The cart and animal macaron shells are lightly mango flavoured and filled with a new flavour I was testing out: yuzu mango matcha! I was inspired by the full leaf yuzu green tea I drank and the mention of this flavour in one of the baking contest shows I watched. 

The quantities of each component can be tweaked according to preference. I needed something firmer and not too intensely green so I went easy on the matcha and used less wet ingredients. You may use more yuzu juice or mango compote instead of brewed green tea like I did. I was trying to get more tea flavour without the colour. Feel free to up size the portion as this is a small portion. 

Yuzu mango matcha ganache 

Ingredients:

60g White chocolate, finely chopped or use chips 

10g Concentrated brewed green tea (made from 35g hot water and 3 teabags steeped for 20min)

4g 100% yuzu juice concentrate

1/2 tsp freeze-dried mango powder

1/4 tsp matcha powder

6g unsalted butter 

Steps:

1. Place everything in microwave safe bowl. Use medium-low power to heat for 10 seconds and stir. Repeat heating and stirring until mixture is homogeneous and melted. Alternatively you may use the double boiling method. 

2. Leave it at aircon room temperature to set until toothpaste consistency. Whip it up to lighten texture if you wish. 

3. Transfer to piping bag and fill the macarons. Let thr macarons mature at room temperature or in fridge for at least 24h before consuming. 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Tiger Roll Cake

 

This Tiger roll uses the same technique as orange chiffon recipe. Check out the previous post for the recipe.

For this roll cake, bake in a quarter sheet pan at 160C for 20-22 mins.

*Tip: If you are worried you may accidentally smudge the black stripes while piping the orange batter, you can bake the patterns for 2-3min at 160C before filling with orange cake batter to set the patterns first (optional but useful for first-timers)❤

I further tried to make Tiger stripes in the cream using chocolate and chantilly cream 🙈. Not sure what to make of it😆. 

Recipe for Chocolate-Chantilly Filling: Whip 1 cup cold heavy cream (240g) with 55g icing sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla till firm peaks. Remove 1/3 cream and fold in cocoa paste (1 tsp cocoa powder/1 tsp cream).
Pipe humps of chocolate cream, fill the rest with chantilly cream and then roll up.

Have a great CNY in advance!

With love,

Susanne

Pandan Kaya Chiffon Croissant Cereal

I don't usually follow trends but this idea in my head got me so excited I just had to try it out! Presenting my pandan kaya mini chiffon croissant cereal! 

 

I was excited because it is a combination of traditional pandan kaya cake in croissant form and miniaturised as a cereal treat. There's a cereal trend several months ago but I didn't follow it until I have a reason to present my bakes that way. Not only is this visually cute, the form factor of it in bite size and eaten with fresh blueberries makes it a refreshingly good and new way of enjoying pandan kaya cake. Only thing is, it is rather time consuming to assemble a bowl of it😂! You could speed things up by making bigger croissants than I did. I made them tiny enough that you can fit a few in your mouth comfortably with a couple of blueberries. The actual baking and making of the pudding layers is very fast so feel free to assemble in a way that suits your patience level and time best. This can also be made into swiss roll form or layered cake. 

I took the chance to test out Scoop Wholefood's pandan powder for making pandan chiffon cake. Something I had been procrastinating for some time. You may make pandan juice concentrate the traditional way if you wish by blending fresh leaves with a little water, sieving and settling the juice for 3 days, and then using the concentrate that settled. 

Pandan chiffon thin layer cake

Ingredients (makes one 10 x 12" and one 7x7"cake):

Egg yolk batter

2 egg yolks 

21g pandan juice concentrate from 1tbs (heaped) pandan powder and 3tbs water*

18g coconut milk 

14g any vegetable oil

38g cake flour

A pinch of salt

1/8-1/4 tsp pandan paste

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

Meringue

2 egg whites

15g caster sugar

15g granulated gula melaka 

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

*to make pandan juice concentrate from pandan powder with insoluble fibers, rehydrate the powder with water and let it sit for half an hour. Sieve out the liquid and weigh out 21g for baking. 

Steps: 

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

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk together egg yolks until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add coconut milk, pandan juice concentrate and flavourings and whisk until combined. Add sifted flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour is seen. 

3. Prepare meringue. Use electric mixer to beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peak or just reach stiff peaks, adding sugar gradually once egg whites are foamy. Use low speed to whip egg whites for a more stable meringue with smaller air bubbles. 

4. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions. Scoop out the batter onto prepared trays and spread it out in a thin layer using an offset spatula or bench scraper. 

5. Place baking trays in oven and immediately lower to 150C and bake for 10-11min or until skewer comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake or you will have difficulty rolling the sponge without breaking it. 

6. Immediately remove from oven and flip onto fresh sheet of parchment. 

Roll the sponge into a tight roll to cool completely. In the meantime, prepare the pudding. 

Pandan kaya pudding 

A) 

100g coconut milk

5g pandan juice concentrate 

1/8 tsp pandan paste

1/8 tsp vanilla extract 

Pinch of salt

10g gula melaka

15g caster sugar (or to taste) 

75g Water

1/2 tsp agar powder

B) 

13g cornflour 

65g water

Steps:

1. Mix together ingredients in B) in a jug and set aside. 

2. Place all ingredients in A) in saucepan and bring to a boil while whisking. Make sure all agar powder is dissolved. Use medium heat. 

3. Stir contents in B) again. Pour into A) in a thin stream while whisking the contents in saucepan continuously. Continue cooking and whisking for a minute after it starts boiling again. Remove from heat. Do note that as the pudding cools, it will start to set so you will have to stir it now and then if you are not ready to assemble yet. 

Assembly

1. Unroll the cooled cakes. 

2. Spread a very thin layer of pudding on the cake and let it set for 20 min or until pudding is solid (doesn't stick onto your finger when you touch) but still soft before rolling. 

3. Cut triangles 2.5cm base by 7cm height or any preferred size. Layer cake and pudding really thin and use rolling pin gently roll flatter with pudding side down. 

Roll it up like a croissant by starting the roll from the base of the isosceles triangle, pudding side up. Leave it on a tray lined with parchment to set fully. 

You may have excess pudding. Just transfer into a jelly mould and refrigerate it. Enjoy it as a pudding treat. 

If you don't have the patience to make these minis, try cutting bigger triangles or simply make a swiss roll like the one I did below. 

The mini croissant cereal is really delicious when paired with juicy blueberries that are slightly sweet and tart, not too sour or strong tasting so that it doesn't overpower the pandan kaya flavour but rather, complements it.

Store the cake in fridge and consume within 3 days. 

Follow me on Instagram at phay_shing as I am more active there and post more stuff there than on Facebook and blog. 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Tiger Chiffon Cake

 

Which version do you prefer? Cute🐯 or Stripy🐅 (below)?

Some of you had DM-ed me about the Recipe for making orange-chocolate Tiger chiffon cake. So here goes! Hope you will find this helpful!🤗 

Orange Chocolate Tiger chiffon cake 
4 egg yolks 
20g castor sugar 
40g vegetable oil 
45g orange/mandarin orange juice 
60g cake flour, sifted 
Orange zest (1 orange) 
1 tsp black cocoa powder in 1 tsp hot water (cocoa paste) 
@suncorefoods vermillion annatto for the color (or orange food coloring) 

4 egg whites 
45g castor sugar 
1/4 tsp cream of tartar 

Whisk egg yolks with sugar, followed by oil and juice. Add in sifted flour and whisk till well combined. Divide the batter into 1/3 and 2/3. To 1st part: add cocoa paste. To the 2nd part, add orange zest and vermillion annatto powder and mix well. 

In another mixing bowl, whisk egg whites with sugar till firm peaks. Divide the meringue into 1/3 and 2/3 and fold into each colored batter. Pipe tiger stripes at the base and inside the cake using black batter, interspersed with orange batter. 

*Tip: use a toothpick to drag the tips of your piped black stripes to make tiger stripes. 

Bake in a 7” cake pan at 140C for 1hr, or until a bamboo skewer comes out dry. 

Enjoy baking!! Tag me if you try it! See cross section of the stripes in the cake! ➡️🥰 

More pictures here.

Love and stay healthy, 
Susanne

Yuzu Tiger Macaron Class

 Welcoming 2022 and the Year of the Tiger with these "旺旺虎” macarons!

This is the first time a group of people from the same company wants a class from me and they requested for some cute tiger macarons to welcome the Year of the Tiger. 

I will be teaching this class at Tottstore end January, just in time for Chinese New Year. Yuzu macarons where the shell is lightly yuzu flavoured and the filling is a yuzu ganache with chopped milk chocolate bits. As the group size maxed out the capacity, this class is not open for registration for others to join. Posting this here on the blog as I hope these cutely fierce tigers will put a smile on your face as we welcome 2022 and the Year of the Tiger! 

With love, 

Phay Shing 

Tigger Chiffon Cake

 

Happy 2022 to everyone! Lunar new year is coming! So all the cute tigers are coming out to play, including Tigger! =)

Tigger is made from my favorite orange chiffon cake. Will be sharing the orange chiffon recipe in an upcoming post!🥰

Does the cake look like a plushie?😛❤

With lots of love,

Susanne