Strawberry Latte Chiffon Cake

I love you a Latte!! ❤🍓 
Does she make you smile? This creation was inspired by my favorite strawberry yakult hehe. Hope you like it too! 

Strawberry Latte Chiffon Cake 

Ingredients: 
2 egg yolks 
20g milk 
30g strawberries 
30g vegetable oil 
40g cake flour 
1/8 tsp strawberry flavor/emulco 
@suncorefoods cerise prickly pear for the color 

2 egg whites 
35g caster sugar 
¼ tsp lemon juice 

Blend strawberries with milk and sieve out the seeds. Combine egg yolks with oil, strawberry milk, flavor and mix well. Whisk in cake flour and pink color powder (ceries prickly pear) till well combined. 

In another mixing bowl, whisk egg whites with lemon juice and sugar till firm peaks. Fold the egg yolk batter into the meringue gently and bake in 2 baking cups and a dome mold at 140C for 30 mins.
Stack the pink cupcakes and dome mold and secure with marshmallow glue. Decorate with white sheet cake and chocolate. Insert a straw in and enjoy! =)💖 


With lots of love,
Susanne

3D Rainbow Cloud Macarons (video tutorial)

Some bakes come about unplanned and this was one of them! I had leftover batter from a bake and therefore a chance to try out a technique by Melinda of missmelindasmakery (Instagram account) to create these 3D rainbow cloud macarons! 

Usually a strip of rainbow sour candy is used for the rainbow. But I created this popular treat using macarons only! 

Years ago back in 2016, I explored piping macaron batter on non-flat surfaces and tried 2 things. 1. Piping on silicone hemisphere molds. 2. Piping on rolled up parchment paper. With the first option, I have since made a variety of things like teacups, various animals including a hedgehog that appeared in my Macaron Basics book, hot-air balloon, solar system just to name a few. But I couldn't see what good I could do with the second option so I didn't develop that area. Melinda took it further by piping batter on flat parchment paper surface and molded the batter on a pre-formed contoured surface before baking. This opens up many possibilities and I was excited to try once again but didn't have the opportunity until now. 

This bake looks deceptively complex but is actually very simple and you can make do without a template like me too although it would be neater to use a template for the clouds. I made a short video of the process of making these! 

Some tips for successful 3D rainbow-making: 

1. Use an underfolded batter to pipe if you wish so the batter doesn't pool at the foot of the rainbow when you place the parchment over the rolled up foil. 

2. If you are using regular macaron batter like me, wait a few minutes or until a very thin membrane forms at the surface of the piped batter before transferring the parchment on top of the foil. Don't wait too long or the piped batter will crack when you place the parchment over foil. Don't wait for too short a time either or the batter will start pooling at the foot of the rainbow. 

3. Wait until the batter is completely dry to touch before baking. 

4. Bake as you would regular macarons in terms of temperature and time. 

5. Cool completely and remove the rainbows by  gently pressing the parchment away from the base of the rainbow. Don't rush this process or you may break the rainbows by accident. If they are really stuck, bake longer in the oven at a low temperature that doesn't brown it further, about 110-130C.

I used my regular swiss meringue method recipe for the shells and made a simple but yummy lemon white chocolate ganache for filling which I will share here. 

Lemon white chocolate ganache 
Ingredients:
60g unsalted butter
80g white chocolate, finely chopped or use chips 
1 lemon zest
20-25g lemon juice (according to taste) 
A pinch of salt

Feel free to use more butter and a little bit more lemon juice according to taste and your climate. It is very warm in Singapore so the fillings I make tend to be firmer. 

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients except zest and juice in a heatproof bowl. Melt over hot saucepan of water slowly without the bottom of yhr bowl touching the water. Do not overheat. Do not panic either if the mixture splits. Just let it cool down at room temperature and whisk everything together. It will become smooth and silky again. 

2. Add lemon zest and mix well. 

3. Add lemom juice 1 tsp at a time and mix well with each addition. Add as much or as little juice as you like according to taste, but add it in a bit at a time. You should get a smooth and silky ganache. 

4. Transfer to piping bag and fill the macaron shells. Store in airtight condition for at least 24h before consuming. 

This timeless bake is suitable for a variety of occassions like St Patrick's Day, Easter and of course birthdays and weddings if you wish! 

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

With love, 

Phay Shing

Cocomelon Chiffon Cake

 

Cocomelon chiffon cake! Made this cake sometime back but realized forgot to post here in the blog. I may be designing a class with watermelon soon so was looking for the pictures. 
I am a big fan of watermelons so many of my creations have been inspired by them. 
Have a blessed week! 
Love, 
Susanne

Eeyore Plushie Marshmallows

I venture into the realm of homemade character marshmallows not because I planned to, but because there is a request for me to teach character marshmallows in a baking studio. I didn't plan to master marshmallows because to me, they are just nothing more than a candy that is one-dimensional in taste and texture. But when I discovered homemade S'mores from scratch, it is a different story altogether! 

And so for a practice run at home, I decided to try making something that I have been holding off for the longest time --- Eeyore plushie! This plushie (or rather plushies since we have a few of them) has been sitting on our bed for a long time and I have been toying with the idea of making it into a bake/food but haven't found the right medium for it until now. Presenting my squishy Eeyore marshmallows! 

See how squishy it is in this video! 

This isn't class material by the way. Just a practice run for me to challenge myself to create something slightly more complex. 

I have to thank two very talented bakers for sharing their experiences with me on making character marshmallows. Please check out these two Instagram accounts (Gloria of miscellaneousmao and Amy of cookingwithamyy) to see their amazing work! 

I have to stress that a lot of how the marshmallows turn out has to do with practice. I have the experience of working with gelatin, Italian meringues and piping meringue cookies and choux pastry characters. The skillset I gathered from all that can be applied here.

I did a quick survey of the internet and find that character marshmellows are best made using Italian meringue. There are marshmallows made without egg whites but those will be harder to work with especially when you have multiple colours and more complex shapes. 

Gloria kindly pointed me to Claire's blog post on making cute character marshmallows. Please click on this link to view her very helpful and detailed post! I converted to grams so I don't have extra washing to do from measuring cups🙈. 

I did minor tweaks to the recipe and it works well. A few tips I would like to share (without revealing too much of my class material and what the experts mentioned that they would like to keep to themselves for the time being) that you may find helpful:

1. Use only cornstarch for dusting if you live in humid environment like me. Some people use icing sugar or a mix of cornstarch and icing sugar. 

2. Don't use piping tips. That way you can safely microwave the piping bag of marshmallow if necessary when it becomes too firm to pipe nicely. 

3. Use cookie cutters to mark out the area that the character is supposed to cover in your tray of cornstarch. That way you have reference points to indicate how you should pipe when you don't have a template. Unlike macarons or choux pastries, piping character marshmallows require you to do it more or less by freehand. Having reference points really help a lot to keep your characters more or less the same size and shape. You can see my example below. I used a rectangular cutter to mark out the spaces to pipe. 

4. Be generous with the dusting below the marshmallow. All experts stress this and I have to agree. It's a pain to try to release marshmallow stuck to your piping surface. 

Any for tips specific to this Eeyore plushie? Yes! Use a damp toothpick to mark out the indent on his face after the marshmallow has set a little but before dusting. I tried painting a faint line along with an indent, just an indent and without a line down the face at all. See the examples below. 

I asked my kids and hubby for their opinions and they all agree that with the indent alone looks the best. Without the line down the face in whatever form just isn't Eeyore anymore. 

Most people float their marshmallows in hot chocolate but the only beverages I drink are water, unsweetened teas and soup. I prefer them as S'mores instead, which happens to be my class material for character marshmallows! Stay tuned for my next blog post on my character S'mores class! The combination of lightly spiced, sweet and savoury Graham cracker, rich chocolate layer, and soft gooey marshmallow on top that is toasted until caramelized and crisp at the top 😍😍😍. The flavour explosion and combination of textures is amazing!! Here is Eeyore before and after toasting! 

I placed a small bar of chocolate under Eeyore before toasting like regular S'mores. We have a good laugh whenever we toast an Eeyore on homemade Graham cracker 😂. My kids love them and have fun eating even though they are in their early teens now. I use my small and cheap home oven toaster so the browning is uneven but it still tastes yummy! You may use a blowtorch if you have one. 

Follow me on Instagram @phay_shing if you would like to see more of my work as I am more active there than on Facebook and I don't post all my work on the blog either. 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Caramelized Banana Cat Eclairs

Besides the sausage dog eclairs, you can also make eclair cats! 

These eclairs with crunchy craquelin come in one of the most delectable flavours I have had for choux pastries - - - caramelized banana diplomat cream! 

It may not show up in the picture but this is really super delicious! The aroma and taste of caramelized banana in cold and creamy diplomat cream, eaten along with crunchy choux pastry... Mmmm-mmm!!! 😍😍😍 Words fail me when I need to describe this! 

Come and join me for this class with Artz Baking and Culinary Studio in April. Click on this link for more details and to register. 

Do note that I focus on techniques of basic choux and especially how you should apply it to eclairs as eclairs have some things you should be more careful about than making regular choux buns. And of course I will cover how you can decorate and how you should store or serve such that you can enjoy it crisp on the outside, cold and creamy on the inside. 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Hidden Message Chiffon Cake

 

The best way to say I ❤️ you this Valentine's day? With cake of course!🥰 

Teaching this Hidden Message Chiffon Cake live on Howtocakeit this Sat morning 12th Feb 9am, SGT (or 8pm US time).  

Video tutorial will be available for unlimited streaming after that too, with access to workbook and private FB group for discussion! 

Link to join here. 

With love, 
Susanne

Corgi Earl Grey Strawberry Swiss Roll

I am trying to make time for other bakes this year, not just macarons and choux pastries. For a start, I decided to create a corgi swiss roll inspired by my 3D corgi macaron design! 

Everyone in my family said it looks like a corgi ran into the roll cake and got stuck😂. Once you see it, it is difficult to unsee! Here's a top view of the cake. 

I made it almost dairy-free as my friend's family cannot tolerate dairy. Trace amounts is ok so I used a little butter in the strawberry diplomat cream. 

This cake is made of Earl Grey strawberry vanilla chiffon sponge, strawberry diplomat cream made from lots of fresh strawberries (see the specks of red in the cream) and an Earl Grey vanilla honey oat milk agar agar jelly in the middle of the roll. 

This bake begins with making the strawberry pastry cream, the Earl grey agar and vanilla honey oat milk agar. You may refer to this recipe for the strawberry diplomat cream. For a dairy free version, use non-dairy whipping cream and use a plant-based milk. I used soy milk. I also added the whipped cream into the pastry cream just before assembling the cake. 

To make the corgi butt shaped jelly, I made my own customized cookie cutter from a DIY kit. You may use some condensed milk or evaporated milk if you wish. Adjust any sugar added according to type of milk you use and according to taste. The agar is quite a firm one as I wanted to be sure the jelly cutouts can keep the shape. You may reduce the amount of agar powder used if you prefer softer filling, or use fresh strawberries as the filling. You may use gelatin instead of agar but it has a softer bite than agar and melts more easily in hot Singapore so it will be more challenging to cut out shapes. 

Earl grey and Vanilla honey oat milk jelly

Ingredients (makes two 7x7" trays) :
Earl grey agar
500g oat milk (or any milk of preference) 

6 Earl grey teabags (adjust according to strength preference ) 
6g agar agar powder
Sugar (according to taste. I didn't add as oat milk is slightly sweet) 

Vanilla honey agar

440g oat milk

40g honey (or according to taste)

1 tsp vanilla extract

6g agar powder

Steps:

1. Boil 500g oat milk in saucepan and steep 6 teabags for 10 minutes. Squeeze all the tea out from the bags. Let it cool to room temperature before adding agar powder and sugar (if using). 

2. Bring all the contents in saucepan to roiling boil while stirring constantly. Keep it boiling for about 1min (continue stirring!) before removing from heat and pour into mould/tray lined with teflon sheet. I used 7x7" trays for setting the agar. You may reserve about one tablespoon for piping the corgi tails on a separate teflon sheet or parchment paper and let it set. 

3. Prepare the vanilla honey agar in a similar way. Transfer about 1.5 tbs into piping bag to pipe out the corgi feet. I used my macaron template for piping the agar corgi tail and feet. Store set tails and feet in airtight container in a single layer until ready to assemble. 

4. Set the two square trays of agar in fridge until firm, at least an hour. You can prepare this a day in advance. 

5. Make customized cookie cutter and cut out the corgi butt shape. I glued the different coloured jelly together using freshy made transparent (plain) agar as glue but with a lower powder to liquid ratio (1/4 tsp agar powder to 100g water). Keep all assembled pieces in a single layer in airtight condition in fridge while preparing the chiffon sponge. 

Cutting out the agar pieces with customized cutter

This is the second time I am using Keem Ooi's technique and recipe for patterned swiss roll. You may see my first attempt over here. Please check out her Instagram page (Keempossible_2) and drop her a DM if you are interested in purchasing her recipe. I just tweaked it to flavour the sponge layers with strawberry paste and earl grey to flavour and colour the cake without additional food colouring. I used a 10x12" pan instead of 9x11" as suggested by Keem.  I added about 1/2 tsp strawberry paste and used 2 earl grey teabags for the pink and brown sponge layers respectively. 

Freshly baked patterned chiffon sponge

Cooling the sponge in rolled up position helps to prevent it from cracking. 

Are there any additional tips I would like to highlight? Yes! Make sure the meringue for your patterning batter is whipped till really stiff but not broken. Take your time to build up your meringue slowly. These two tips will ensure you have a nice thick and smooth patterning batter that stays stable for a longer time as you pipe the design. 

Instead of painting, I used edible markers to outline the corgi and add on the details as they are really small and fine. You may use paint made by dissolving gel colouring in water like what Keem does. You may wish to brush the surface of the sponge with simple syrup if the sponge dries out while you work in the open to paint in the details.

Do follow me on Instagram @phay_shing as I am most active there if you would like to see more of my work. I don't most some of my work on Facebook and the blog. 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Tiger Pineapple Chiffon Cake

 

Pineapple creation inspired by the cutest @mediacorp Hu Tiger mascot!🐯😍

Have you wondered why pineapple tarts are so popular during CNY? Apparently it's to do with pineapple sounding like 'ong lai' in dialect hehe!🍍

I've been making the cny mascots every year to show my support! Missed seeing the plushies around the last 2 years. Hope that my 3D impression of the cute cartoon makes you smile too!😀💕

Hu tiger (from the pineapple) sending lots of love!❤❤🥰

Love,

Susanne