Wednesday 26 October 2022

3D Pumpkin Macarons

This is the second in my series of Fall/Halloween themed macarons and it is 3D! 


Each pumpkin is filled with pumpkin spice latte ganache, non-dairy whipped cream, Biscoff crumbs and Malteser. 

I used my default Swiss meringue method recipe for macaron shells and adapted the ganache recipe from Marina. I used decaf coffee instead of espresso to make it kid-friendly, and included the pumpkin spice in the ganache.

The video tutorials for this creation is in two parts. Please see the captions in the videos for details.

Part 1: Piping and assembling 3D pumpkin macaron


Part 2: Filling 3D pumpkin macaron


Here's another look at my macaron creations, 2D and 3D, together!



with love,

Phay Shing

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Tuesday 25 October 2022

Candy Corn and Pumpkins Chiffon Cake Pops

 


*Recipe* The happiest Candy Corn and Pumpkin Chiffon Cake Pops!🥰 

Flavored with LorAnn Oils Pumpkin Spice Bakery Emulsion, these treats are bursting with bold pumpkin flavor and the sweet spices of fall!💕✨️ 

Recipe (Recipe video reel here
3 egg yolks 
15g castor sugar (4 tsp) 
30g oil (2 tbsp) 
50g milk (3 ¼ tbsp) 
1.5 tsp LorAnn Oils Pumpkin Spice Bakery Emulsion, product of the USA 
57g cake flour, sifted (1/2 cup) 
LorAnn Oils Liquid Gel Food Coloring 

3 egg whites 
60g castor sugar (0.3 cup) 
1/4 tsp cream of tartar 

Steps  on Lorann Oils website =) 

Hope these bring a smile to your faces!❤️🥰 

With love,
Susanne

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Monday 24 October 2022

Halloween Biscoff Pumpkin Spice Latte Macarons

 This is the first of two Fall/Halloween themed macarons that I made with video tutorials and for this design, templates as well!

Cheeky ghosts and scared kitty in scary pumpkin!

The tutorials are broken up into part 1 for batter piping and part 2 for post-baking decoration and filling. Please credit me if you share your work on social media. My apologies for putting this up late because it was rather impromptu 😅. The macarons were made from leftover batter for my display pieces for a cat macaron class.

Photo taken after class!

I only realised that the colours are so very Fall/Halloween as I was preparing for the class. Otherwise I wouldn't have shared this so late!

Here are the templates!



Please resize them to fit A4 size for each page. You may omit the eyes on the cat if you find it challenging to include it in batter piping.

I used my default Swiss meringue method recipe where egg whites are split into whipped and unwhipped portions. You may use whatever meringue method or recipe you are comfortable with.

Filling is adapted from Marina's blog post. I used decaf coffee (1.5 tsp) instead of espresso so it is kid friendly. I also added the spice into the ganache since my shells are not flavoured. I added some coarsely crushed biscoff crumbs into the middle of the filling as well.

Part 1: Video tutorial for piping macaron batter

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkGVuVnAHoO/?igshid=NjZiMGI4OTY=

Part 2: Video tutorial for post-baking decoration and filling

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CkIesOtgGGY/?igshid=NjZiMGI4OTY=


Here's a peek at what other Fall creation I did!



with love,

Phay Shing




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Monday 17 October 2022

Kyoho Grapes, Strawberries n Cream Longevity Peach Chiffon Cake

 I made this longevity peach cake for my grandma's birthday!

Vanilla chiffon sponge with my version of Chantilly cream, kyoho grapes and strawberries

It has been a few years since I made longevity peach themed cakes when there was a time early in my baking journey that I made them so often for requests!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the chiffon peaches in a steaming basket 

Although I stuck with my default vanilla chiffon cake recipe for the main cake, I decided to use more egg yolk for the peaches for richer taste but it needs more white colouring to compensate. You may refer to my past longevity peach chiffon cake peaches for reference if you wish. I used to make other flavours like lychee rose, which is really yummy too!

Here are the heart silicone moulds and cookie cutters I used for the small and medium sized peaches. The minis are bite-sized. The medium-sized ones are about three bite-sized. I used lemon juice to make the longevity peaches but feel free to replace with water if you want plain vanilla flavour.


Vanilla lemon longevity peaches
Ingredients (makes 12 med & 12 small peaches, one thin 10x12 inch sheet cake):
Egg yolk batter
3 egg yolks
15g caster sugar 
56g vegetable oil
28g lemon juice
28g water
80g cake flour
1tsp white powder colouring (or use gel colouring)
1/8 tsp salt
1tsp vanilla extract
More white gel colouring as needed
1/4-1/2tsp pandan paste

Meringue
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
85g caster sugar 

Steps:
1. Line 10x12" tray with teflon sheet. Parchment paper will do as well but it may wrinkle. Lightly grease the silicone molds with oil. Preheat oven to 170C, top and bottom heat only.

2. Make egg yolk batter. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar and salt until pale. Add oil and whisk until smooth. Add lemon juice, water and vanilla and whisk together. Gradually sift in cake flour and white powder until no trace of flour is seen. Add more white colouring if desired.

3. Make meringue. In a clean metal bowl, use electric mixer to beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding sugar once the egg whites are foamy. Take your time to slowly build up the meringue so that it is stable with tight compact air bubbles.

4. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions. Transfer about 2/3 of batter into large piping bag and fill the silicone moulds until full. 

5. Bake for 5 min at 160C, reduce temperature to 140C and bake for 20min, reduce to 130C for another 10-15min or until skewer comes out clean. Cool completely before carefully unmoulding by hand. Preheat oven to 170C again.

6. Add pandan paste to the remaining batter. The batter would have deflated a little by now but it is ok. Just gently fold in pandan paste. Smoothen out the batter until it is a very thin layer in the 10x12" tray. Bake for 8-9 min or until done. Immediately flip the cake out onto fresh sheet of parchment paper. Cool completely before cutting out the leaves with cookie cutter.

Important note:
Adjust baking temperature and time according to your oven as each oven behaves differently even if they are the same model and batch.

Decorating and assembling longevity peaches
I used cake glue to stick the leaves on instead of melted marshmallows out of convenience. I sprayed the ombre pink coating on the hearts with pink coloured water and a toothbrush. Spray the hearts pink before assembling the leaves. You may pipe on the eyes with melted black candy melts or chocolate. The red cheeks were added on using red edible marker.

Filling
Instead of using a stabilized whipped cream, what I used for this cake is even simpler as it doesn't include gelatin stabilization but tastes just as good as it is stable.

I used a ratio of 2:3 for Whip topping: double-cream by weight. Whip topping is a non-dairy whipping cream that is pre-sweetened and very stable. Double cream is more stable than regular dairy cream that has lower fat percentage, but still as delicious but richer. Simply whip the whip topping until stiff peaks, no danger of overwhipping here. Loosen the double cream with a hand whisk until it is smooth and thick but not able to hold a peak. Gradually fold the whip topping into the loosened double cream. Transfer into piping bag for cake assembly. Be careful not to overwhisk the double cream or it will split. You may add some vanilla extract if you wish.

I made some syrup by using kyoho grape juice squeezed from some grapes, sugar and hot water. This syrup was used to brush the vanilla sponge surfaces to keep it moist as well as add flavour. There is no fixed ratio of sugar: liquid, up to personal preference. I usually use about 1:2 sugar: liquid by weight.

Just to share some pictures of the layers in the cake.



Even without the longevity peaches, the cake looks inviting!


So glad it was very well received and everyone loved it!

If you would like to know how I make such neat fruits n cream cake, you may refer to my Instagram post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjmC-w8Pfvq/?igshid=NjZiMGI4OTY=


with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Monday 10 October 2022

Retro Chiffon Cake

 

*Recipe* Retro prints lemon chiffon cake!❤️💙💛

I had so much fun making this one! Who is a lemon cake lover? 🍋 Using @LorAnnGlobal’s Lemon Bakery Emulsion is the secret ingredient to adding bold, lemony, flavor to all your citrus treats.

Lemon Retro Chiffon Cake 
3 egg yolks 
4 tsp castor sugar (15g) 
2 tbsp oil (30g) 
2 tbsp water (30g) 
1 tsp LorAnn Oils (@LorAnnGlobal) Lemon Bakery Emulsion, product of the USA 
1/3 cup cake flour (45g) 

3 egg whites 
1/5 cup castor sugar (40g) 
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice 

Video reel on the piping here on my IG

Head on to Lorann Oils website for step-by-step instructions!

With lots of love,
Susanne 


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Friday 7 October 2022

Knights, Horses and Dragon Macaron Carousel

A client who loved my work so much she decided to order a similar macaron carousel this year! Presenting my first attempt at making a jumbo macaron carousel!

Of knights, horses and dragon with kissy lips!

Z the knight faces school bravely this year as he is armed with school bag, pencil and book, and of course his armour! I used my default Swiss meringue method recipe and split the baking sessions over three days as the number of colours involved is insane 😅.


I made a reel on how to pipe the large circle:


The largest circle is 16cm instead of my standard 13cm. This is to accomodate 6 characters on poles instead of my usual 5. The template for the standard sized macaron carousel can be found in my Macaron Basics book.

Here are some pictures of the character macaron shells before and after adding in the details with royal icing, edible marker/paint and lustre dust.

Before decoration

After decoration



I filled the macarons with dark chocolate ganache and a firm vanilla lemon white chocolate ganache. Some coarsely chopped toasted walnuts were added to give some change in texture without adding more sugar.


The paper straw poles were glued to the bottom with royal icing before filling to prevent the characters from sliding down the poles.

Firm vanilla lemon white chocolate
Ingredients:
160g white chocolate (finely chopped or use chips)
1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt (1/8 tsp fine salt)
10g lemon juice

I decided to take a last minute photo of the loose pieces that didn't end up on the carousel after I kept the lighting equipment so pardon the poor lighting here!

You may see the reel of assembling the carousel frame over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjO8XDhgeiZ/?igshid=NjZiMGI4OTY=


with love,

Phay Shing

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Sunday 2 October 2022

Hello Kitty Chiffon Cake

 


Too cute to eat?❤️ Throwback to Charity baking and Birthday celebration for @yvonnelim928 last week! 

We made cute animal chiffon cake "ice cream" cones, and it was so much fun and a meaningful event!  All proceeds were donated to club rainbow. 

I made this cake, inspired by Hello Kitty for her birthday surprise as well. Thank God it was well received! 

You can watch some highlights and video of the event here

With lots of love,
Susanne


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