Marshmallow Cats in Ice-Cream Cone Class

 Want to learn how to make these adorable marshmallow cats in ice-cream cones? Join me for this class happening in October!

The cone is coated with chocolate and filled with Biscoff toasted pecan marshmallow mix 

Most people find getting the right consistency for various parts of character marshmallows challenging. In this class I will show you how to get a consistency that can hold the shape for larger structures like the head, a slightly softer one for patches and runnier consistency for adding on very fine features. Piping techniques are covered too!

Take a peek at how squishy they are and how I piped one of the cats in my reel below!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cv4oKnGg2LI/?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==

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

Don't be intimidated by the seemingly long hours. We gave a longer window of time so participants don't feel pressured by time to complete their work quickly. We want the session to be fun and enjoyable!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Tuxedo Sam Roll Cakes

 

Tuxedo Sam roll cakes, adorned with a surprise bow inside! It's made for Sanrio's Friend of the Month! 

Watch the video tutorial here. 

With lots of love, 

Susanne

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Biscoff & Dark Chocolate Shiba Dango Macarons

 I discovered a couple of months ago that crunchy Biscoff spread makes such a great convenient filling that is stable at warm temperatures and is vegan-friendly. Not to mention, it is a popular flavour especially amongst kids and teens! I had a small quantity bake that was made last minute for a request so this handy filling came in...well, handy!

I paired the Biscoff with a simple dark chocolate ganache

I kept the piping simple so I added on the white parts and facial details using royal icing. I used my default Swiss meringue method recipe to make these brown sugar shiba macaron shells. I replaced the caster sugar with brown sugar.

Thank God these were very well received!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Mooncaron and Piglet Macarons (new imprinting technique!)

 When I first tried to make mooncarons back in 2017, I tried all sorts of ways to replicate the imprints on traditional mooncakes but none of them worked. "Mooncaron" was a name I came up with in 2017 to describe my macarons made to look at taste like traditional baked mooncakes that are eaten and sold around Mid-Autumn Festival season. I resorted to laboriously piping the designs by freehand from then till now because it is the only foolproof method. But when I saw the imprinting technique shared by Hannah (@mcfonsa_macaron) on Instagram, I knew I had to try it on mooncarons. I finally managed to come up with something that is somewhat mooncake-ish by imprinting the design!

I am including the cutesie version of piglet mooncakes in macaron form this year too!

I used textured parchment sheets from Intricut Edibles. Although they have geometric designs that are similar to mooncake mold imprints, it is faster and easier (I shall explain why later) to pipe those designs using macaron batter. Instead, I chose floral designs with lots of intricate curved lines, which are more challenging to pipe consistently and quickly by freehand.

While the imprinting technique works, it is not without challenges and drawbacks:

1. Embossed designs on the parchment are a lot shallower than mooncake molds. As a result, the imprints do not appear to pop out as much as piped designs.

2. Macaron batter is meringue based so it is impossible to avoid all air bubbles under the parchment sheet. In order to fix the air bubbles, the holes have to be filled post-baking, leading to possibly more time for the whole process. Whatever time you saved from not having to pipe the designs may be lost through the longer baking time required for the first round of baking and extra time needed to patch the holes, rest and bake the second time.  Having said that, if you wanted complex floral designs, it is definitely faster to use the imprinting method, whereas if you wanted geometric designs with straight lines, it is faster to pipe them.

You may compare the set of imprinted mooncarons with my usual piped ones.

Piped designs appear to pop up more, just like actual mooncakes.

I have put together a reel to show you how to use the textured parchment sheets to make it work for you. It definitely needs some patience but it is a lot easier for those who struggle with piping intricate designs! 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwFedOaAu13/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Let me share part of the caption of the reel in this blog post for easy reference.

DON'Ts

❌ Improper placement of parchment resulting in huge air pockets

❌ Underbaking resulting in parchment stuck or patchy-looking tops 

❌ Applying "egg wash" paint without following the contours of the designs resulting in indistinct appearance of patterns

DOs

✅ When placing parchment on top of piped batter, start from one edge & slowly work across to the opposite edge as shown in reel

✅ Bake a few minutes more than usual as batter covered with parchment takes longer to bake

✅ Outline designs with egg wash paint & use lighter coloured paint for raised portions to let the designs stand out to compensate for shallow embossed designs on parchment

You may be concerned that the shells are overbaked due to longer baking time & double-baking to eliminate holes & to add on the rim. This can be fixed by brushing the base of shells with cream or milk before filling but in my case, the filling (lotus paste based) has enough water content to soften the shells so it's not necessary.

You may see this reel for how I prepare the lotus seed puree and lotus seed paste from scratch:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuVTHf6gSpi/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

My mooncaron class with the piglet macarons this year is also up for registration, with both online and studio class options. The online class has been up before this year but we will update the class material with the new filling-- lotus paste instead of the previous mung bean paste, and also include the piglet template and video of piping and decorating it. All studio participants will have access to online class material at no extra charge.

Please click on this link for the studio class and this link for the online class. 

with love,

Phay Shing

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Love SG Raspberry Tiramisu

 

Going to share this Raspberry Tiramisu with vegan mascarpone cream this Sat at my church ARPC's Let's Carnival to bless the community =). As Singapore's National was around the corner, I spruced up the traditional Tiramisu, which usually has dreamy layers of mascarpone cream, coffee soaked-ladyfingers and cocoa powder, with additional red raspberry layers! The combination is really rich and refreshing at the same time! 

Tiramisu is said to have originated from Veneto in the 1800s. Authentic tiramisu using raw (or sometimes pasteurized nowadays) whipped egg whites, and separately whipped egg yolks with mascarpone to obtain super creamy mascarpone cream. Due to food safety concerns, many modern day versions (and also mine) uses whipped cream to replace the eggs. The resulting mascarpone cream is also rich and creamy =). To make the recipe even safer, the version that I am presenting is dairy-free/vegan, using non-dairy whipping cream as well as vegan cheese substitute, which should be able to sit out for around 2hrs.

So here goes the recipe! 

Love SG Raspberry Tiramisu

100g heavy cream + 100g mascarpone cheese (or 150g non-dairy cream + 50g vegan cheese substitute)
24g icing sugar
2g vanilla extract
1/2 cup strong coffee (5 g coffee powder, 100g hot water, 7g sugar)
1/2 tbsp kahlua/rum/marsala *optional
200g raspberry preserve/compote (recipe below, or store bought)
16 ladyfingers (savoiardi) - 2 fingers/tiramisu
Cocoa powder (for sifting in between layers)
Raspberry powder and snow powder (for sifting decorations on top)

1. Make strong coffee by dissolving coffee powder and sugar in hot water. You can also use espresso. Add 1 tbsp kahlua/rum/marsala (optional).

2. Mix mascarpone cheese, icing sugar and vanilla until combined.

3. Beat heavy cream until medium-stiff peaks.

4. Whisk in mascarpone cheese mixture and beat again till smooth. Transfer the mascarpone cream mixture to piping bag.

5. Smoothen the raspberry preserve and transfer to a piping bag.

Assembly:

1) Dip the ladyfingers quickly in a shallow dish of coffee and line the base of the glass cups.

2) Pipe a layer of mascarpone cream.

3) Pipe a layer of raspberry preserve. 

4) Sift a thin layer of cocoa powder.

5) Line a layer of coffee-infused lady fingers (try to pack neatly).

6) Pipe a layer of mascarpone cream.

7) Sift a layer of raspberry powder (with design), or sift a layer of raspberry powder, followed by snow powder (with design)

*You can repeat steps 1)-4) if your jar is taller. 

Raspberry compote/preserve (You can DIY or use store-bought)

240g raspberry (2 cups)
14g granulated/castor sugar (2 tbsp)
10g lemon juice (2 tsp)
4g pectin (1 tsp) or 4g cornstarch (2 tsp)* optional

1. Place the raspberries and lemon juice in a saucepan.

2. Add sugar, or sugar mixed with pectin (or cornstarch), to the saucepan. Stir with a whisk or spatula.

3. Bring to a boil over low heat and allow to thicken (few mins) till the compote coats the back of a spoon.

4. Allow to cool and transfer to piping bag. Keep in the fridge until ready to use.

Here's a short video tutorial I made before to make the raspberry compote/preserve. It was actually for another online class I had :)

Ladyfinger sponge (savoiardi) (You can DIY or use store-bought)

100g egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
83g castor sugar
3g salt
83g egg yolks (5 egg yolks)
83g plain flour, sifted

1. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar using an electric mixer. Add sugar and salt in 3 additions and whisk till stiff peak.

2. Whisk in egg yolks using the mixer (< 5sec).

3. Fold in the plain flour in 2 additions.

4. Transfer to piping bag and pipe 2” long fingers.

5. Sieve icing sugar over.

6. Bake at 180C for 8 min.

And here are some other versions :)

 

Hope you enjoy this creation! =)

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Ice-Cream Cone Marshmallow Surprises (Class)

 This is the first marshmallow class I planned after finishing my work with Deco Marshmallows: Ice-cream cone marshmallow surprises!

I intend to share a few kid-friendly flavour combinations in this Junior chef class. Participants are of course free to mix-and-match whichever way they prefer!

Just look at the yummy surprises inside!

Strawberry marshmallows with homemade strawberry jam centers. The cones are coated with strawberry white chocolate inside. I use a combination of freeze-dried strawberries and strawberry paste to impart the flavour and colour to the marshmallow.

Biscoff and vanilla marshmallow with crunchy Biscoff surprise inside! The cones are coated with dark chocolate.

Strawberry and vanilla swirl marshmallows with cookies n cream marshmallow and Ferrero Rocher surprise inside. Cones are coated with dark chocolate.

Here's a reel of piping the swirls, squishing and cutting open the cones!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuO-W8lgtC4/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

If you are interested to join this class with your child, please click on this link for more details or to register.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Bear Sando Toaster cake with a Flower Surprise

 

Bear Sando Toaster cake with a Cheesecake and Flower Surprise! 💕🌷 

Hope this made you smile! 

Tutorial can be found here. 

With lots of love, 

Susanne 

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4-Ingredient Gluten-Free Coffee Cashew Butter Bear Cookies

 These gluten-free and dairy-free bear cookies are soft, chewy, fragrant and tasty, BUT insanely easy to make! 

This is so easy even young kids can help to make the dough! If you don't bother with the bear design, it is also very quick to make these cookies. You only need a mixing bowl, hand whisk and spatula to make the cookie dough. The recipe can be applied to any nut butter. I used the coffee cashew butter from Redman but you may omit the coffee bit and just use any nut butter of choice. The coffee in the nut butter I used isn't too strong and I feel helps to round out the flavour. My kids love it!

Cookie dough

(makes about 22 rounds or 19 bears)

250g (1cup) coffee cashew nut butter

140g brown sugar 

1 egg (60-65g with shell on)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt (optional)

1/8 tsp caramel essence (optional)

Decoration

White chocolate chips

Mini dark or milk chocolate chips

Black cocoa powder (optional)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with baking paper/mat.

2. Dump everything for the dough into mixing bowl. Lightly beat the egg with a whisk. 

3. Mix everything with whisk & switch to spatula when it gets too thick to whisk. Sugar doesn't need to be dissolved but dough should look homogeneous.

4. Set aside for 10min to firm up. 

5. Shape into balls of about 20g each. Place on baking tray at least 5cm apart. Flatten the balls of dough. Add ears of about 1g each if desired.

6. Bake for 8-12 min or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on tray. 

7. Decorate bear face if desired, with chocolate chips & melted chocolate.

Tips & Notes:

- I used Central Sugars Refinery's "Better Brown low GI sugar" that tastes great but only has a glycemic index of 55 (that's way less than plain flour!)

- Salt & caramel essence are optional but they serve to improve the flavour

- I reshaped the bear heads to be slightly oval but that's optional

- Use a fine zester to smoothen the edges of baked cookies if you wish

- Make sure excess black cocoa powder is dusted off thoroughly or you may stain the cookie if you accidentally drop it on the bear.

You may refer to my Instagram reel for the tutorial of shaping and decorating the bear face. You may choose to decorate it any way you want or leave it undecorated too!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cvdzdc-gHkM/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Here's a peek at the insides!

with love,

Phay Shing

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