Bunny & Elephant Lychee Mixed Berry Rose Choux Pastries

 I had a request for some cute animal choux pastries with bunnies as a must. Here's what I came up with!

If the bunnies look familiar, that's because the requestor saw the choux pastry bunnies I made beginning of last year and wanted something similar. I adapted the choux pastry filling from this cake and it's always been a hit. I used less cornflour in the diplomat cream, agar as the gelling agent and a mix of berries for the choux pastry version.

Here's a peek at the cross-section view of the frozen filling of lychee rose diplomat cream, strawberry raspberry jam and lychee rose agar!

Why freeze them? Because they taste wonderful this way! I prefer eating them like ice-cream creampuffs. Refreshing on a hot day! This flavour combination is really popular for creampuffs and I can understand why! 

Here are some pictures of the process...

Freshly baked choux buns!

In the process of filling up the pastry. Doesn't the lychee rose agar jelly look inviting?

Here's a reel of the process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-oXhQASzmy/?igsh=MWhrOHlkMGN3ZmJlaw==

with love,

Phay Shing

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Fruity Bear Lychee Raspberry Rose Choux Pastry Class

 Want to create a cute and yummy choux pastry creation? Join me for this class in April!

Filling is a delectable lychee rose diplomat cream, juicy pieces of lychees and homemade raspberry jam. The jam can be a mix of berries too!

Here's the reel for how I piped the filling and decorated the bear!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4LAtAmyxPf/?igsh=ejdyeHo5OGhmbDJq

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

with love,

Phay Shing

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Cat Bus Lychee Rose Mixed Berry Choux Pastries

 I made use of a new painting technique to create patterns on choux pastries covered with craquelin to make these Cat Bus creampuffs and Eclairs!

Of course the Totoro vegan marshmallows have to join in the scene!

Here's a look at the cross section showing the lychee rose diplomat cream with raspberry strawberry jam!

You can't see it clearly but there are juicy bits of lychee pieces inserted to give it a little more juicy bite.

It's time consuming to put together the full body version so I only made a couple of those but many more heads (some not shown in picture)

Good technique is necessary for a sturdy, crisp pastry and super hollow interior

I feel decorative choux pastry is not as popular as macarons or marshmallows although the possibilities are endless and it tastes the best in my opinion because it contains a lot less sugar. I hope to be able to showcase more choux pastry creations this year!

Here's the reel showing the making and filling of the full body cat bus choux pastry, and the ingredient list:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3m68gPSJ1-/?igsh=cmpyZWs1ZzR5NWVx

with love,

Phay Shing

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Lychee Cake with Marzipan Covered Walnut Brown Sugar Cookie Deco

This is a way overdue post! I didn't get around to posting it because it has so many components to this bake! I made this cake for my friend's son who was turning 21... a year ago 🙈. She wanted a theme that showcased his love for Chelsea and his stage in life as a young man about to enter business school. I made a lychee raspberry rose cake with marzipan and cookie cake topper.

It's my first time making anything remotely fondant-like as the centerpiece. Those of you who know me long enough know that I don't touch fondant because it does not taste good. Marzipan on the other hand, is still somewhat edible although sweet as well. Almond is nutritious after all 😆. 

I used Cooking Tree's recipe for marzipan, which contains more almond than sugar and doesn't use raw egg whites. The books, laptop, scarf, outer layer of soccer ball, the limbs and outer layer of the figurine were all made of marzipan. The Graham cookie base was covered with a thin layer of marzipan too.

Marzipan 

240g almond flour

200g icing sugar

50g light corn syrup (or honey but honey imparts colour)

30g water

Steps: 

1. Sift together almond flour and icing sugar.

2. Add light corn syrup and water and knead until a dough forms. Dust with extra icing sugar if it gets too sticky.

3. Add gel colouring and form into shapes desired. Keep any unused portions cling wrapped to prevent drying out. Like fondant, marzipan can be left out to dry to harden.

As I didn't want the decorative parts to contain too much sugar, I used edible cookie dough for the head, body and center of soccer ball.

Edible cookie dough with toasted walnut 

(Adapted from chefsweets.com/veganedible-cookie-dough)

38g butter (I use Golden churn)

44g light brown sugar

Pinches of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

40g heat treated plain flour (microwave to reach 71.1C)

20g chopped toasted walnut

1. Briefly cream together butter, brown and salt.

2. Add vanilla extract and mix well. 

3. Add sifted heat treated plain flour and mix until a dough ball forms. Add chopped toasted walnuts (optional) and mix well. Store in airtight condition at cool room temperature until ready to use, preferably within a few days.

Here's the weight of marzipan and edible cookie dough I used for the various parts. I am recording this more for myself but it's great if you find it helpful too!

Soccer ball

The core is 8g cookie dough, followed by a layer of 8g marzipan wrapping around it. The outer surface is made up of 20 small white balls and 12 small black balls. The small balls are 1-1.5g each. The white ball in middle made up of the core and marzipan wrapping it should be about 8x bigger than smaller balls.

Marzipan soccer ball that tastes way better than any fondant 😆

Figurine

Legs 56g

Shoes 7g each

Body 52g  (marzipan + cookie)

Hands 10g each

Head 50g (marzipan + cookie)

The head and body are marzipan wrapped edible cookie dough.

I mounted the scene on a large Graham cracker base. But instead of whole wheat flour, I used plain flour for a softer texture. This firm but yummy base is necessary for anchoring the marzipan figurine to the base so it doesn't fall apart accidentally during transport. I ran a skewer from the head through the body into the cookie base. 

Graham cracker

142g whole wheat flour or plain flour

85g light brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp baking soda

3/8 tsp salt

50g unsalted butter (slightly softened but still firm)

23g milk

42g honey

1tsp vanilla extract

Chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

1.  Line 7" round baking tin with parchment at the base and sides. Preheat oven to 150-160C.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a mixing bowl.

3. Add butter in and use fingertips to rub in until fine breadcrumbs form. Alternatively, you may use a blender, a pastry cutter, or a pair of butter knives to do this.

4. In a measuring jug, mix together honey, milk and vanilla. Pour into dry ingredient mixture and form a dough. The dough will be sticky.

5. Press dough into baking tin, making sure the top is flat. Press in some toasted chopped walnuts if you wish. Bake for 30 min. Cool completely.

Freshly baked large cookie base

I used desiccated coconut that is coloured green with vodka and vanilla extract added as the "grass". The desiccated coconut was glued onto the marzipan covered base using a little water.

Ta-dah! My first hand molded figurine cake topper!

The cake on which the cake topper sits is made of three layers of lychee rose chiffon cake filled with chopped canned lychees, lychee jelly, lychee rose diplomat cream and raspberry lychee reduction. The whole cake was then coated with lychee rose Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC).

Lychee rose chiffon cake

(makes three 9.5" cakes)

9 yolks

112g oil

113g canned lychee puree, strained

1.5-2 tsp rose syrup

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

190g cake flour

meringue*

9 whites

135g caster sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

* Split the meringue ingredients into separate batches if you don't have multiple ovens. Bake in preheated oven at 150C for 30 min. Cool in oven for 5min with door ajar. Cool in open for 5 min before removing from pan. Line base of pan with parchment.

I didn't want to make this long post even longer than necessary so you may refer to this post on method of making the chiffon cake batter.

Lychee Rose IMBC 

( Reference recipe from Catherine Zhang over here)

300g canned lychee syrup

15g caster sugar (added to syrup that is not too sweet)

2 egg whites (76g) + 5g caster sugar

1/2-1 tsp rose syrup

300g unsalted butter, softened but cool

20g icing sugar (optional)

1. Place egg whites and 5g sugar in standmixer and mix of low speed. The little bit of sugar is to help stabilize the meringue.

2. In the meantime, heat 300g canned lychee syrup with 15g caster sugar. I added a little sugar as the syrup wasn't too sweet to begin with so I wasn't sure there was enough sugar in the lychee syrup.  Heat syrup until 115C without stirring.

3. When syrup reaches about 110C, turn mixer speed up to medium and whip until soft peaks. Turn mixer speed down if syrup is not yet 115C. 

4. When syrup is ready, turn mixer speed up to medium high and slowly pour syrup down the sides of the mixing bowl. Continue beating until totally cooled to room temperature.

5. At medium speed, add butter 1 tbs at a time. Continue beating 10minutes more until light and silky.

6. Add rose syrup and beat until well combined.

7. If your IMBC is rather soft due to low sugar content of lychee syrup, you may add a little icing sugar and beat for a couple of minutes at this point.

Refrigerate up to a week or a month in freezer

Filling in cake

10 chopped canned lychees

Lychee jelly

Lychee rose diplomat cream

Raspberry lychee reduction

Lychee jelly

Bloom 6 sheets of gelatin (12g) in 50g cold lychee syrup. Melt in microwave. Stir in 100g lychee syrup. Set in fridge until firm before cutting into small pieces.

Raspberry reduction

110g raspberry puree (strained to remove seeds)

15g lychee syrup

Cook over low heat and reduced to 70g.

Lychee Rose diplomat cream

2 yolks

20g cornflour

50g milk

150g lychee puree, strained

6g rose syrup

Pinches of salt

15g unsalted butter

100g whipping cream*

(I use non-dairy whipping cream which is pre sweetened and stabilized. If using dairy cream, stabilize with gelatin and add sugar)

Please refer to this post for the method for diplomat cream.

Here's a peek at assembling the layers. I spread some raspberry reduction before layering on diplomat cream and topping with lychee jelly and chopped lychees.

I coloured half the IMBC blue so that I could frost the cake in Chelsea colours.

Thank God it was very well received!

with love,
Phay Shing

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Lychee Rose Cat Macarons (New filling recipe!)

Someone requested for lychee flavoured cute cat macarons last month. Here's what I came up with!

Design is inspired by Darius the cat in buddygatorcomics (Instagram account).

I used Swiss meringue method to make the shells.

Freshly baked shells!

Decorative details were added in using edible marker and peach coloured lustre dust.

LYCHEE ROSE ITALIAN MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM (adapted from Catherine Zhang)
300g canned lychee syrup
45g + 5g caster sugar
2 egg whites (76g) 
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp rose syrup (or rose water)
300g unsalted butter (cool to touch but slightly softened)
1/2 tsp lychee powder (optional, to boost flavour without the chemical aftertaste from artificial flavourings)

Notes: Catherine's original recipe had no added sugar, salt and lychee powder. Not adding sugar works for brands of canned lychee syrup that has sufficient sugar. The brand I used did not have too much sugar added but I have no idea how much sugar was in there since it isn't listed. Omitting the sugar for me resulted in the syrup almost boiling off entirely and the buttercream is too soft for tropical Singapore. Despite needing to add sugar, this buttercream is still not too sweet but it's a clever way of getting that delicate lychee flavour in!

Steps:
1. Place egg whites, salt and 5g sugar in standmixer and beat on low speed until foamy. 

2. In the meantime, place lychee syrup, and 45g sugar in small saucepan and heat until temperature reaches 115C.

3. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and pour lychee syrup into egg whites down the sides of the bowl, avoiding the whisk. Continue to beat until totally cooled to room temperature.

4. Reduce mixer to medium speed. Add butter 1 tbs at a time. Continue beating 10 min more until light and silky.

5. Add rose syrup and beat until well combined. Add lychee powder and beat until well combined.

You may refrigerate up to a week or a month in freezer.

How to fill the macarons:
1. Coat a thin layer of buttercream on bottom shell.

2. Pipe a wall of buttercream along outline of the shape.

3. Fill cavity with chopped lychee.

4. Cover lychee with more buttercream before sandwiching with top shell.

Fresh or canned fruit has high liquid content so insulate the macaron shells from it with a thin layer of buttercream.

with love,

Phay Shing

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'Basket of strawberries' Lychee Rose Strawberry Chiffon Cake

 This was what I made for my mum's birthday this year! Chiffon cake strawberries in biscuit basket, on top of a lychee rose strawberry chiffon cake!

There's more to it than meets the eye. Each strawberry in the biscuit basket has cream and strawberry jelly inside. The cake below is made from lychee rose chiffon sponge and filled with lychee rose diplomat cream, lychee jelly, strawberry compote and chopped canned lychees. The sweet pink buffalo check mat is made from chiffon too!

This will be a super long blog post as this bake has so many components. I will break it down into two main parts: 1. Chiffon strawberries in biscuit basket and 2. Lychee rose strawberry chiffon cake.

1. CHIFFON STRAWBERRIES IN BISCUIT BASKET
Recipe and steps for this part includes biscuit basket, strawberry jelly and chiffon strawberries.

Biscuit Basket

Ingredients:

140g plain flour or cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

30g icing sugar (I used sugar-free option but can use regular ones)

1/8 tsp salt

1 tbs milk powder (optional, added to boost milky flavour)

3/8 tsp cocoa powder (optional, for colour)

48g vegetable shortening or unsalted butter

50g milk ( May not use all)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:

1. Sift together all dry ingredients. 

2. Rub in butter/ shortening until breadcrumb-like.

3. Mix vanilla into milk. Add milk a little at a time until cohesive dough forms.

4. Cling wrap and rest the dough overnight or at least 2hours at room temperature. This is to make the dough smoother and more pliable.

5. Roll dough, cut into thin strips and weave the basket.

6. Bake at 165C until lightly golden brown and cool completely. Remember to bake till really dry. If it is still a little soft, the basket may not hold its shape unless you do a tight weave. I prefer a looser weave revealing a little of the goodies that are inside. 

7. Assemble by gluing parts together with stiff royal icing. Dry completely before storing in airtight container. 

Please click on this link for the Youtube video tutorial of making the basket.

Strawberry Jelly

Ingredients:

70g strawberry compote*

70g water

2g agar powder

1/4 tsp strawberry emulco

*Strawberry compote

220g strawberries

15-30g sugar of choice (may use regular caster sugar or diabetic friendly options like erythritol, adjust amount according to taste and tartness of fruit.)

Pinches of salt

Note: Excess strawberry compote is reserved for assembling the lychee rose strawberry cake.

Steps:

1. Prepare strawberry compote by boiling all the ingredients with low heat in a saucepan until the fruit content is reduced to 60-70% of original weight. Mash the strawberries as it cooks with a potato masher or spatula. Sieve the compote if you prefer smoother compote. Cool completely before storing or using.

2. Make the jelly. Place all ingredients except agar in a small saucepan. Scatter agar powder on the surface of the mixture and let it bloom for a few minutes. 

3. Prepare moulds for setting the jelly. I used paper cones as my moulds but you may use other moulds if you wish. Bring mixture to a roiling boil while whisking continuously. Continue boiling for one minute more while whisking continuously. Add about 1/2-1 tsp of jelly mixture into each mould and let it cool slightly before refrigerating for at least 30 minutes. Unmould and store in fridge in airtight container until ready to assemble the strawberries.

Chiffon cake strawberries

Ingredients:

Egg yolk batter

2 egg yolks

25g vegetable oil

25g water

(1 tsp strawberry emulco + 1/4 tsp vanilla extract for strawberries)

OR

(1/2 tsp pandan paste + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract for leaves)

(40g cake flour +1/8 tsp cocoa powder for strawberries)

OR

(38g cake flour for leaves)

Pinch of salt

Any other gel colouring to get desired shade of red/green

Meringue

2 egg whites

32g caster sugar 

1/8-1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:

1. line 10x12" tray with parchment or teflon sheet. Prep about 25-28 paper cones in suitable holders (you may use aluminium foil covered loaf pans with holes in the foil to make a stand for the cones). Preheat oven to 150C for red cones and 175C for green sheet cake.

2. Prep egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks until thick and pale. Add oil and whisk until combined. Add water and respective flavourings and whisk together. Gradually sift in respective flour and whisk until well combined. adjust colour if necessary.

3. Prep meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks or just reach stiff peaks, gradually adding in sugar once the egg whites are foamy.

4. Gently fold the meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions.

5. Pour/pipe batter into respective tray/cones. Spread the batter really thin for the leaves. You may not use up all the batter for that. Fill cones till about half full.

Paper cones filled with red batter

6. Bake green sheet cake for 9-10min. Bake red cones for 25-30 min. I reduced the temperature for the cones to 140C after first two minutes of baking. Note that temperature and time is oven dependent so adjust accordingly.

Assemble the strawberries as shown in this Youtube video (you may also watch the shortened version in my Instagram reel). You will need light corn syrup/cake glue/ melted marshmallows as glue. The cream I used is just store bought non-dairy whipping cream with a little more vanilla extract added. You may use dairy whipping cream that is stabilized but this entire bake is already so involved I felt like simplifying this part 😂. I whipped up about 40g of whipping cream for assembling the strawberries. Store assembled strawberries in the fridge in airtight container for at most a week. This is non-dairy if you use non-dairy cream so a week storage isn't an issue but it may dry out with longer storage.

Here's another view of the basket of "strawberries"! I love the cut view as well! The mat under the basket is actually homemade marzipan. I just used the marzipan for photography so not sharing the recipe.

2. LYCHEE ROSE STRAWBERRY CHIFFON CAKE

This part consists of a chiffon cake placemat with pink buffalo check pattern, lychee rose chiffon cake sponge, lychee rose diplomat cream, lychee jelly made from canned lychee syrup, fresh Korean strawberries, canned lychees and strawberry compote.

Lychee rose chiffon cake

Ingredients (makes one 17cm chiffon cake and one 7x7" chiffon sheet cake):

Egg yolk batter

6 egg yolks

75g canned lychee puree, sieved

75g vegetable oil

6g rose syrup (you may use rose water but I find rose syrup that is used to make Bandung has less tendency to taste chemical)

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

130g cake flour

Meringue

6 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

90g caster sugar (I replaced half with erythritol)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Place a tray of water at base of oven if you wish to create steam. Line 7x7" tray with teflon sheet or parchment paper. Set oven rack to second lower position.

2. Make egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks until thick and pale. Add oil and whisk until combined. Add lychee puree, rose syrup, salt and vanilla and whisk together. Gradually sift in flour and whisk until well combined. 

3. Prep meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks or just reach stiff peaks, gradually adding in sugar once the egg whites are foamy.

4. Gently fold the meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions.

5. Fill 7x7" pan till about one inch thick with batter. Pour the rest into 17cm chiffon tin. Run a chopstick in the batter to pop any trapped air bubbles. Place both into the oven

6. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the 7" tray and immediately flip the cake onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper. Continue baking the 17cm cake for another 40min at 130C (as read by oven thermometer) or until skewer comes out clean. Invert the chiffon cake immediately and cool completely before unmoulding by hand. Note that baking temperature and time will vary between different ovens so adjust accordingly. Store the cakes in airtight condition until ready to assemble.

Lychee jelly

Ingredients:

50g chilled lychee syrup from the can

12g gelatin powder or 6 gelatin sheets

100g lychee syrup from the can at room temperature

Steps:

1. Place chilled lychee syrup in a microwaveable bowl. Scatter gelatin powder or place gelatin sheets in it to bloom for 10 minutes. 

2. Microwave on low power for 20 seconds and stir. Repeat if necessary until melted fully. You may use double boiling method to melt the gelatin if you wish.

3. Add the rest of the lychee syrup. Whisk until well combined. Chill in fridge until set, at least one hour.

4. Cut the jelly into small cubes and store in the fridge until ready to assemble.

Lychee rose diplomat cream

Ingredients:

150g lychee puree from canned lychees, sieved

50g milk

20g cornflour

2 egg yolks

6g rose syrup

Pinches of salt

15g unsalted butter, softened (you can take it out from the fridge once you start work and it will soften)

80-120g whipping cream of choice (I used non-dairy for convenience which is already stabilized and sweetened. You may use dairy cream or a combination of both. If using dairy cream only, please stabilize it with gelatin or other means and add sugar to taste. Use less whipping cream for a richer cream and stronger lychee flavour.)

Note if you are opting to use less whipping cream, especially if you are using dairy cream, you may have to upsize the recipe to 3 egg yolks worth to ensure there is sufficient cream for cake assembly.

Steps:

1. Whisk together egg yolks, salt and cornflour in a heavy mixing bowl or heavy glass jug.

2. In a saucepan, heat milk, lychee puree and rose syrup until steaming hot, not boiling. Remove from heat and slowly pour in a thin stream into the egg yolk mixture while whisking the yolk mixture continuously. Pour everything back into saucepan and cook over medium low heat while whisking continuously. 

3. Keep whisking and cooking until custard starts to thicken. Remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Return back to heat and cook and whisk until custard is firm enough to hold a soft peak.

4. Remove from heat and add butter. Whisk until well combined. Transfer to a mixing bowl and press cling wrap on the surface immediately. Cool to room temperature before refrigerating for at least an hour. You may prepare this pastry cream a day in advance if you wish.

5. Remove pastry cream from fridge and loosen it with spatula. Whip up whipping cream and fold into pastry cream to make diplomat cream. Transfer into a large piping bag with a hole cut for cake assembly.

Cake assembly

-17cm chiffon cake cut horizontally into three pieces

-7x7" chiffon cake to cut out three circles to cover hole in middle of chiffon cake

-Strawberry compote (from previous section)

-Canned lychee syrup

-Lychee rose diplomat cream in large piping bag

-Korean strawberries cut to size and dried on paper towels

-Canned lychees cut to small pieces, remove woody parts

- 9" cakeboard

- guitar sheet or acetate sheet

Steps:

1. Pipe a little diplomat cream on cakeboard and place chiffon cake on it. Cover the hole with circle piece of cake cutout. 

2. Wrap acetate sheet around cake and secure with tape. Brush cake surface with lychee syrup. Carefully spoon some strawberry compote in the middle of the cake, leaving about 1inch border uncovered. Pipe a ring of diplomat cream around the strawberry compote and carefully thin it out all the way to the edge using a metal teaspoon. (see first picture in collage below)

3. Add strawberries around the circumference, taking care to press the fruit against the acetate sheet. (second picture in collage)

4. Pipe some diplomat cream in the middle. Add lychee jelly and chopped lychees in the middle. (third picture in collage)

5. Carefully pipe diplomat cream around the strawberries to fill the gaps, and over the jelly and lychees. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out the cream (fourth picture in collage).

6. Place another slice of sponge over the cream and cover the hole with a cut piece of sponge. Repeat above steps until the last piece of sponge is placed on top. Brush the tops of the top sponge with some lychee syrup. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight or at least two hours until ready to assemble. I inserted jumbo straws into the middle of the cake as dowels to support the heavy basket of strawberries but you may omit if not needed.

Buffalo check patterned chiffon cake mat

Ingredients:

Egg yolk batter

2 egg yolks

20g oil

30g milk

45g cake flour

white gel colouring

strawberry emulco

Meringue

2 egg whites

1/4-1/2 tsp cream of tartar

40g caster sugar (I replaced half with erythritol)

Note that there will be excess batter. I just piped it out to make another sheet cake for mini swiss roll.

Steps:

1. Prepare 10 x 12" tray with buffalo check pattern template (I made my own according to size of squares I wanted) and teflon sheet (preferable)/ parchment paper (ok in a pinch but may result in wrinkled looking pattern). Preheat oven to 180C, set oven rack to middle position.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter as mentioned above (not gonna repeat myself 😂) but add some white gel colouring in. Divide yolk batter into 1:1:2 ratio for white:dark pink: light pink. But if you want things simpler for yourself since there is excess batter anyway, just divide into three equal portions, about 40g each. Add strawberry emulco until desired shade of pink is reached for light pink and dark pink.

3. Prepare meringue and divide into three equal portions or 1:1:2 ratio for white: dark pink : light pink. Fold into respective egg yolk batter. Transfer into piping bags with a small hole cut, about 2-3mm. I must stress the importance of a properly made meringue. If it is unstable, it will break down fast. I use a little more cream of tartar and sugar in the meringue than for my regular chiffons for the reason of stabilizing it a bit more.

4. Pipe the pattern following the template. Pipe as thick as possible while retaining the shape, at least 4-5mm thick

5. Place tray in oven, lower temperature to 170C and bake for 9 min or until you think it is done 😂. Unfortunately this one takes a bit of guess work and you have to know your oven well and have some experience working with chiffons, because the batter is so thin. I cannot prescribe exact baking time and temperature. Bake too long and it gets browned and dry. Bake too short and it will be very fragile. Temperature too high, it will brown. Temperature too low and it will also be fragile and the meringue may start deflating before it sets (pattern will not he pretty). A chiffon this thin can go from baking too short to too long within a minute. To give yourself a larger margin of error, start with the higher temperature for first few minutes to quickly set the meringue structure before it breaks down, and then lower the temperature to a level where it is unlikely to brown so quickly but sufficient to dry out your cake batter. It is ok to open the oven door to have a closer look at your cake to check after the first few minutes. If it still appears wet, continue baking another half to one minute.

6. Once baked, immediately flip it out onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper.

Ta-dah! Looks like an actual towel.

7. Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut the cake according to the size you want. 

8. Carefully place it on top of the lychee rose strawberry cake after removing the acetate sheet. Brush the surface with lychee syrup.

You may add some fresh strawberries or chiffon strawberries on top, or the whole basket of strawberries. Please remember to use dowels of putting something heavy on top because this is a delicate cake.

Actually, I didn't get to taste the big cake because mum and dad caught Covid a few days before the planned extended family get-together celebration. My aunt picked up the big cake and shared it with the rest of my extended family including grandma. My mum and dad had the basket of chiffon strawberries instead. According to aunt, the cake was so yummy and she kindly helped me take picture of a cut slice.

Pardon the messy interior because I inserted jumbo straw dowels into the cake for photography of what the entire bake should look like.

In my slightly distracted state of mind while making this bake, I forgot all about the chiffon cake daisies I made as little pops of colour to add on the bake when I took the photos. I think they deserve a mention and feature in the blog post because they are so dainty and cute!

My parents are better now so it is a relief! Thank God for vaccines and good medical care in Singapore!

This project was really a labour of love that took many many hours. Glad it turned out yummy and pretty! Please acknowledge me if you use any of my material that I shared in this post (and other posts) because it has taken me a lot of time to develop it. For more timely view of my work, please follow me on Instagram at phay_shing as I may not share everything in the blog.

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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McDull Lychee Choux Pastries

This is a way overdue post! I forgot I made these choux pastries end of 2019! 

Besides making McDull macarons for a request, I made some Choux pastries as well 😊

McDull in apple and watermelon suits! 

I filled the pastries with lychee pastry cream that is lightened with non-dairy whipped cream. Recipe can be found here. The detailed recipe for choux pastry batter and craquelin can be found here. I made these pastries at the same time as the Pokemon ones, that's why the same filling is used.

I must admit that this set is rather challenging in terms of maintaining the puffiness and colour of the baked pastry cases at the same time. Originally I planned for McDull in pineapple suit as well but the colour contrast between the resulting light brown and yellow is poor so I decided to drop it.

Piped batter with the various coloured and patterned craquelin

Freshly baked choux pastry cases. 

I piped the snouts and limbs of McDull separately and baked for a shorter time.

Royal icing was used to decorate the pastry cases as well as to join the parts together.

You may refer to my Deco Choux Pastries book for more Choux pastry ideas and techniques!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Hello Kitty Lychee Raspberry Rose Macarons (jumbo sized!)

My friend requested for a giant Hello Kitty cake topper for her daughter's birthday. I couldn't resist playing around with my new backdrops for photography! 

She looks happy on a day out! 

I was actually preparing some prebaked macaron shells for a bunny teacup class and had lots of leftover white batter. I thought why not make the Hello Kitty macaron. Although it is my preferred way to make the clothes out of macaron batter as well, I didn't want to waste the excess white batter and didn't have the bandwidth to make extra colours. This was what I piped with the batter. 

I usually make one extra just in case of damage. 

You may refer to this post for the recipe for swiss meringue method macarons. 

I used royal icing to add on the clothes, nose and bow, and used black edible marker to draw the eyes. 

Photo taken with a ruler to show how big these macarons are

I filled the macarons with lychee raspberry rose Swiss meringue buttercream. You may refer to this post for the recipe. 

Filling colour fits Kitty very well! 

With love,

Phay Shing 

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Lychee Raspberry Rose Snowskin Mooncake

 I didn't plan to make mooncakes this year because I am really swamped by too many things. But a friend had leftover ingredients from making lychee snowskin mooncakes so she passed it to me. The reduced sugar lychee lotus paste, snowskin flour premix and cooked glutinous rice flour (kou fien) are all bought from Redman. She also passed me a set of mooncake moulds and I used it to make these 😊.

Lychee raspberry rose snowskin mooncakes with a little chopped walnuts, almonds, dried cranberries and freeze-dried raspberry powder added to the lychee paste for a little variation in texture and taste. 

I have decided to blog about this so that I have a proper record of this recipe, in case I want to try it again. 

The mooncake mould I used is for approximately 50g dough + filling. I adapted this recipe from my favourite default snowskin recipe that I use when I made snowskin mooncakes to sell because it had the softest texture and able to stay soft and moist the longest. You may read about it in this post. 

Recipe for filling

Ingredients (makes 12 small mooncakes) :

280g lychee reduced sugar lotus paste

1.5 tsp freeze-dried raspberry powder*

1tbs chopped walnuts*

1/2 tbs chopped almonds*

1/2 tbs chopped dried cranberries*

* you may adjust quantity or omit according to taste. 

Steps:

1. Add raspberry powder to paste and knead until evenly distributed. 

2. Knead the chopped ingredients into the lotus paste until evenly distributed. 

3. Divide into 12 balls, about 24g each. You may prepare this a day ahead of time if you are busy. Store in airtight container at room temperature. 

Lychee lotus paste with goodies added in

Recipe for raspberry rose lychee snowskin

Ingredients:

26g kou fien + extra for dusting 

26g icing sugar

104g snowskin premix (replace with 52g icing sugar and 52g kou fien if not available) 

26g vegetable shortening

90g boiled water

10g rose syrup (the type for making bandung) 

35g raspberry puree, strain out the pips

2 drops lychee flavouring (optional) 

Pink, white and purple gel food colouring (optional if you are not making the flower pattern in different colour ) 

Steps:

1. Sift together icing sugar, kou fien and snowskin premix into a mixing bowl. Set aside. 

2. Place vegetable shortening and the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat while stirring until shortening is totally melted. 

3. Pour heated liquid into sifted flour mix and use spatula to mix until a dough forms. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest until cool enough to handle with your hands, about 15 minutes. The dough appears rough at this stage and it is ok. 

4. Portion out a little dough (1-2g) and colour it white for the flower center. Portion out 22-24g dough and colour it dark purple. Keep the coloured dough covered to prevent drying out. 

5. Portion the rest of the dough to 22-23g balls. Keep covered to prevent drying out. 

Assembly

1. Knead the 23g ball of dough until smooth between parchment paper, dusting with kou fien as necessary. Flatten into a circle and wrap a ball of filling with it. You may put this in the mould to press it out if you aren't making the coloured flower pattern. 

2. To make the flower, very lightly dust the insides of the mould with kou fien. Put a little white dough in the center and press it in with a finger wrapped with cling wrap. Cover the petal portions with dark purple dough and press in the same way. 

This is how it should look like. The wrapped filling on the left and the mooncake mould with flower pattern on the right. 

3. Brush the flower pattern with a little water so that the main dough with filling will stick to it. Lightly dust the sides of the wrapped filling and carefully insert into the mould. Press it firmly to make the pattern.

 4. Refrigerate in airtight container for at least a day before consuming. The snowskin texture is mochi-like for the first day or two before settling down to the familiar snowskin texture. 

You can flavour your snowskin mooncakes any way you like and have fun with the wide variety of fillings Redman offers! 

With love,

Phay Shing 

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Lychee Raspberry Strawberry Rose Chiffon Cake with Diplomat Cream and Lychee Jelly

I was wondering what flavour of cake to make for my dad's and uncle's birthdays that is flavourful yet refreshing and not too sweet. My dad said he would like to try a new flavour from me since I made earl grey, pandan kaya cakes and chocolate cakes in the past. I thought why not try the lychee mixed berry rose combination and I came up with these cakes! 

Lychee rose chiffon sponge with lychee rose diplomat cream and chopped lychees between sponge layers. There was supposed to be the mixed berry compote between sponge layers but I forgot to put it in😅 so I served the compote on the side with each slice of cake. The hole of the chiffon cake is filled with lychee gelatin and chopped lychees. Topped with decoration of whole fruits and gold coloured lychee tuiles. 

There are many elements in this cake so be prepared for a long blog post! The following is the list of elements and I have indicated those that you may omit if you are short of time or want something simpler. 

1. Lychee rose chiffon sponge 

2. Raspberry strawberry compote (try not to omit this but go ahead and leave it out if it is too much work for you) 

3. Lychee rose diplomat cream

4. Lychee jelly (omit if it is too much work or if you are baking in a pan without central core) 

5. Gold coloured lychee tuiles (omit if it is too much work for you) 

6. Raspberries and/or strawberries and whole and chopped lychees for decoration and filling

I used as little sugar as possible and even omitted it for some elements because lychees are sweet and I use rose syrup for the rose flavour. I find that rose syrup doesn't have a chemical aftertaste that most brands of rose water that I tried have. 

Lychee gold tuiles

These can be prepared in advance and stored until needed that's s why I put it at the top of the list of recipes here. 

Ingredients:

5g plain flour 

30g vegetable oil

25g lychee syrup from the can (or water) 

Gold spray can for gold colouring 

Steps:

1. Whisk together flour, oil and lychee syrup until no trace of flour is seen. 

2. Heat a non stick frying pan at medium heat for a couple of minutes. Carefully pour a teaspoon worth of batter onto the pan. Be careful as it will splatter. 

3. When the tuile looks almost browned, remove pan from heat as it will continue cooking. Carefully slide one edge of the tuile up a silicone spatula and transfer onto paper towels to drain. 

4. Place frying pan back on heat and wait for a minute before repeating. 

5. Spray on the gold paint when tuile is cool. Alternatively, you may colour the batter with gel colouring to any colour you want. Preferably something dark and strong like red or cyan as the browning from cooking may show through. 

6. Transfer tuiles onto fresh sheet of paper towels and oven dry at 110-120°C for half an hour. Cool completely and store in airtight container between parchment paper until ready to decorate. 

Lychee rose chiffon cake

Ingredients (makes one 6" and 7" chiffon cake or one 8" chiffon cake) :

Egg yolk batter

5 egg yolks

75g vegetable oil 

75g canned lychee puree (blend and strain lychees) 

1 - 1.5 tsp rose syrup (for making Bandung) 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1/8 tsp salt

120g cake flour 

Meringue

7 egg whites 

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

85g caster sugar (I used half caster and half diabetic friendly sugar, erythritol) 

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Set a tray of water at bottom of oven (optional) if using steam bake. Set oven rack to second lowest position. 

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add lychee puree, rose syrup and vanilla and whisk until combined. Add sifted flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour is seen. 

3. Make the meringue. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a clean metal bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat until firm peak or just reach stiff peak, gradually adding sugar when egg whites are foamy. 

4. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions using a whisk or spatula. Fill the chiffon tins. 

5. Bake for 20 min at 150°C. Reduce tenperature to 135°C and bake for another 40min for 6" chiffon, another 50min for 7" chiffon and another 60min for 8" chiffon. Note that baking temperature and time is oven dependent so adjust accordingly. Baking time is also shorter without steam baking. 

6. Invert chiffon tin to cool completely. Carefully unmould by hand. Slice each chiffon cake into 3 layers horizontally. 

Lychee rose diplomat cream

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

30g cornflour 

75g milk

225g lychee puree (blended and strained) 

9g rose syrup

1/8 tsp salt

25g unsalted butter 

250g stabilized whipped cream* (use whip topping if making this is too much work but note that whip topping is pre sweetened and doesn't taste as good as full dairy) 

Steps:

1. Heat milk, Lychee puree and rose syrup in a saucepan until steaming hot but not boiling. In the mean time, whisk together egg yolks, cornflour and salt in a glass measuring jug or heavy bowl. 

2. Pour hot lychee mixture into egg yolk mixture in a thin stream while whisking the egg yolk mixture continuously. This is to temper the egg yolks. Pour everything back into saucepan. 

3. Heat the saucepan at medium low heat while whisking continuously. Once mixture thickens, remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Place saucepan back on heat and whisk and cook until pastry cream is able to hold a firm peak. 

4. Remove from heat and add butter. Whisk until butter is incorporated. Transfer into a bowl and press cling wrap on the surface. Refrigerate for at least 2hours. You may prepare it a day in advance. 

5. Remove cling wrap and whip the chilled pastry cream until smooth and lightened in texture. Fold in the stabilized whipped cream. Transfer the diplomat cream into piping bag with a hole cut at the end for cake assembly. 

* Stabilized whipped cream (adapted from Bakertanbakes (Instagram account) 

Ingredients:

50g whipping cream 

1.5 sheets gelatin

20g icing sugar

180g cold whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tsp freeze-dried lychee powder instead. Use vanilla if you don't have the lychee powder) 

Steps:

1. Soak gelatin sheets in ice water until soft. 

2. Heat 50g whipping cream until steaming but not boiling. 

3. Squeeze water out from gelatin sheets. Stir into hot cream. Pour into 180g cold whipping cream 

4. Add sugar. Whisk until sugar dissolves. Press cling wrap onto cream surface before refrigerating. Chill overnight. It should look like panna cotta after setting. 

5. Whip until firm peaks with electric mixer. Add lychee powder (or vanilla extract) and whip until combined. 

Raspberry strawberry compote

Ingredients:

100g raspberry puree , pressed through sieve to remove pips

100g strawberry puree (chop and blend strawberries) 

20g sugar (or to taste. I make the compote really sour) 

A pinch of salt

1 tsp lemon juice

Steps:

Place everything into saucepan and heat and stir over low heat until reduced to about 60% of original weight of ingredients. Cool completely before using to assemble. You may prepare this ahead of time and keep refrigerated. 

Lychee jelly

Ingredients :

400g canned lychee syrup (you may dilute it with water to make up 400g liquid in total if the canned syrup is too sweet) 

8 gelatin sheets (use 5 or 6 sheets if you prefer a softer jelly. The one I made is fairly firm) 

2 chopped lychees

Steps:

1. Bloom gelatin sheets in ice water for 10 min. Squeeze out excess water. Microwave on low power for 20 sec to melt the sheets. Stir. Repeat heating if necessary to melt it all. 

2. Pour melted gelatin into lychee syrup and mix well with a whisk. 

3. Carefully spoon the gelatin into the hole of the cake. Add chopped lychee bits if you wish. If you want the chopped lychees to be suspended throughout the jelly instead of sinking to the bottom, repeat filling the hole with a little gelatin and lychee and chilling in fridge for 5 min until you have filled to the brim.

Assembly

1. Place cakeboard on turntable. Apply a little diplomat cream and place one layer of chiffon sponge on the cakeboard. 

2. Spread some compote on the sponge (I forgot this so I served the compote on the side instead with each slice of cake 😅) 

3. Pipe a layer of diplomat cream on top of the compote layer. Smoothen it with a spatula. 

4. Place some chopped lychees on top. 

5. Place another sponge on top and repeat steps 2-4.

6. Place last piece of sponge on top. Frost the whole cake including the hole in the middle with lychee rose diplomat cream. Chill the cake in the fridge, 2h or overnight. Keep the excess diplomat cream in piping bag or in a bowl covered with cling wrap. You will need to use some of this for decoration. 

 7. When frosted cake has set, prepare the lychee gelatin. Fill the hole with gelatin and chopped lychees. Chill for at least 30min or until firm. 

8. Cover the gelatin with a little diplomat cream. Decorate with whole lychees, raspberries /strawberries and gold tuiles. You may pipe some dollops of diplomat cream too. Do note that the tuiles are best inserted shortly before serving or they may collapse due to absorption of moisture from the fruit and cream. If you need to decorate in advance, place some toothpicks behind the tuiles to help support it. 

Serving the cake with compote on the side! 

Cake was really yummy according to my dad, uncle and other relatives who tried the cakes! Please don't forget to layer on the compote like I did 😅. The tanginess from the mixed berry compote really livens up and complements the lychee and rose elements. 

I hope this post has been helpful! You may choose to simplify or omit some elements if you find it too daunting to make all the elements of the cake. But be warned that the subtle complex flavours may be compromised! 

With lots of love, 

Phay Shing

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