Fastfood Themed Chocolate Cake

This is a fun bake covering quite a few genres of bakes. Presenting my version of fastfood themed birthday cake that is fondant-free!

Macaron "burger" filled with dark chocolate ganache "beef patty", modelling white chocolate pandan "lettuce", strawberry "tomatoes" and lemon "cheese; choux pastry "fries"; white chocolate "box" filled with chocolate pastry cream; all these on top of a semi-naked chocolate drip cake! 

The mainstream way of creating this fastfood theme is to use fondant for everything. The result will be something pretty but people are going to throw it away or eat very little of it. I wanted every single element to taste good with a variety of textures, and I wanted the recipient to have fun with it. I think you can tell that the birthday boy loves everything chocolate flavoured. This is a fairly long blog post as this creation has various genres of bakes involved. No detailed recipe here because I have recorded it in other posts but I will provide the links and any mentions of tweaks in the recipe to suit the nature of this creation. The order of presenting this post is roughly the order in which I baked the items. Some good planning is required because of this. 

Sauce box

I made the white chocolate box by thoroughly cleaning a McDonald's sauce box and using it as a mould for the melted white chocolate. I made 2 such boxes so I could use one for photography filled with chocolate pastry cream, and reserved another empty box for the recipient to fill just before serving. Be careful not to overheat white chocolate when you melt it as it will seize. I had to put the chocolate coated box into the freezer for 2 to 3 min before unmoulding because Singapore is really warm. You may refer to this post for the chocolate pastry cream recipe.  I tweaked the recipe a little by adding 30g of dark chocolate couverture along with the butter and folded 20g of whipped cream into pastry cream after it has cooled. This chocolate pastry cream is for the sauce as well as for the cake filling. Make the pastry cream only after the cake sponges have been baked as it has a shorter shelf life than the white chocolate box. 

Burger buns

I made the burger buns using the swiss meringue method recipe. You may refer to this post for the details. I added some cocoa powder, a drop of orange and yellow gel colouring to achieve the bun colour. I have also tweaked the swiss method recipe a little by replacing about 20% of the caster sugar in the meringue with icing sugar (with cornflour already added). 

Piped batter. Sprinkle some sesame seeds while batter is still wet. I had to make one large burger and many small ones. 

You may make the macaron shells ahead of time and store in airtight container for a few days before assembling.

Beef patty
This can be made in advance and kept in the fridge. I made a firm dark chocolate ganache and refrigerate until toothpaste consistency before whipping it with a spatula. Alternatively, you may leave the ganache at room temperature to firm up. This will take longer. I poured out the whipped ganache onto teflon sheet (you may use parchment paper or silicone mat), place another sheet of parchment over and used a rolling pin to roll it to 1cm thickness (or thinner if you prefer). I chilled the ganache until firm (at least half an hour) before cutting out circles with cookie cutter. I used a small fork to poke little indents into the sides of the cutouts to create some texture that looks like beef patty. Keep the tray of ganache cutouts chilled until ready to assemble.

You may use the recipe in this post for a firm dark chocolate ganache but reduce the amount of cream further by 5-10g, depending on the climate you live in. Use a firmer ganache (less cream) if you have to work in a hot kitchen like me.

Reserve the excess ganache as glue for assembling the parts together. Transfer the excess ganache into a piping bag and leave it at room temperature until softened before assembly.

Cheese, tomatoes and lettuce
For the modelling chocolate cheese, tomatoes and lettuce, I used the ratio of 5:1 by weight for white chocolate : light corn syrup. You may refer to this post for details of how to make the modelling chocolate. It works like fondant but taste better! Please use a higher ratio of cornsyrup to white chocolate if you live in colder climates. It is very hot and humid here in Singapore all year round. I added the pandan paste, strawberry paste or lemon paste when the corn syrup is added to the melted white chocolate. I just add a few drops of the paste and add a drop of gel colouring to deepen the shades as necessary. After kneading the modelling chocolate, I rolled them out between parchment paper and chill until firm before cutting out using square or circle cookie cutters. I used a fondant tool for thinning out the edges of the lettuce to make it more realistic. Place the cutouts on parchment paper lined trays and keep it chilled in the fridge if you live in hot climate like Singapore until you are ready to assemble.

Modelling chocolate pieces. I made the parts for small and large burgers

Assembly of burger

Begin by piping a thin layer of ganache on the bottom macaron shell. Gently but firmly press a piece of lettuce. Pipe a little ganache and then layer on the cheese. In a simolsr aay, use the ganache to glue on the tomatoes and chilled beef patties. You may layer it in any order you wish. End off with the top burger bun.

I made some regular sized "burgers" as well!  The big one for the centerpiece is 9cm in diameter.

Regular sized "burger" macarons

Fries
This version of fries does not only look like the real thing. It is fun to eat and tastes delicious too when eaten with the "sauce". Yoy may refer to this post for the choux pastry recipe. Add a few drops of yellow gel colouring to the batter. Pipe lines of batter using a wilton #8 tip and bake at 170°C for 10-12min or until puffy and very slightly browned. The pastry should be baked through but not totally crisp yet. You may bake longer until totally crisp, or if you want to shape it to make it look more realistic, Do what I did. I took the pastries out at around 10 to 11 min mark and once cool enough to handle, I used my fingers to gently shape the ends of the fries to make it more blockish. I gently shaped the length of the fries to make the round cylindrical shape to be more of a rectangle block shape.

Piped choux pastry batter for fries

Place the shaped fries back in the oven to bake at 140°C until totally crisp and dry. This may take another 20 min or so. Test one or two to check for doneness.

Drying out the choux fries. 

Store in airtight condition at room temperature after cooling. Do not refrigerate.

Here's the picture of the assembled fastfood platter! I coated the cakeboard with blue royal icing as blue is the birthday boy's favourite colour.

Ta-dah! I made a little macaron sign with the birthday message as well! 

A closer view at the choux fries 

Dipping into the chocolate pastry cream! 

Chocolate cream coated fry! Yums! 

Dark chocolate drip cake
As for the base cake, I used my default ultimate chocolate cake that have always received rave reviews. You may refer to this post for the detailed recipe.

I frosted the sides semi-naked style with chocolate ganache 

I tweaked the filling recipe a little as the chocolate custard I made was meant to be shared with the "sauce" in the sauce box, with dark chocolate couverture and a bit of whipped cream already added in. I folded extra whipped cream into the ganache as I had leftover whipped cream from the portion I made for the "sauce". This also served to lighten up  the filling by balancing the richer chocolate custard. You may use any proportion of chocolate custard, chocolate ganache, and additional whipped cream (if using) . You can make it richer (by adding more dark chocolate) or lighter (by adding more whipped cream)

Thank God the cake was really well received, and the kids at the party had fun eating the "fries" dipped in "sauce"!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Guinea Pig Lavender Vanilla Éclairs

My elder kid requested for Choux pastry for his birthday treat -- Guinea pig designed and Lavender flavoured. I decided to make it earlier so that we can all have it together with my parents for a post-christmas meal celebration. Since my mum (who has diabetes) will be eating it as well, I try to keep the use of refined sugar down but at the same time, not compromise the flavour. And so I took the liberty of using some honey (to replace part of the sugar) and include vanilla as part of the flavour that goes harmoniously with lavender. Presenting my version of guinea pig choux pastry, filled with smooth and creamy lavender vanilla pastry cream!

These guinea pig Éclairs are actually modelled after our very adorable pet guinea pigs!

Bottomless pits for food!

Here's a closer look at the cross section of an Eclair...

Nice and crisp pastry case! Really nice when eaten with cold and smooth pastry cream!

I have not been including detailed recipes of my past few choux pastry posts as I can't share what is going into the Deco Choux Pastries book that I am working on. But since what I did here deviates from my basic recipe, I can share it here. There are a couple of firsts for me here. It's the first time I tried using more egg whites than yolks in the Choux pastry batter (pate a choux) and the first time I am using modelling chocolate to create such a complex design.

Feel free to use more sugar if you prefer sweeter pastry cream. Do a taste test. I had my mum in mind when I made it. The Choux pastry batter contains no sugar as well so fell free to include 1 tsp of sugar if you wish. My kids are having the modelling chocolate coated pastry cases so it will be sweet enough for their palate, whereas my mum and the rest of us health conscious adults will be eating the Éclairs without modelling chocolate coating.

Lavender Vanilla honey pastry cream
Ingredients:
3egg yolks
300g lavender milk*
1.5 tsp vanilla bean paste/extract
30g cornflour, sifted
30g sugar (use more if you prefer because lavender is a little bitter)
A pinch or two of salt
15g unsalted butter
1.5 tbs honey

100g whipping cream
1 tsp gelatin powder**
1 tbs water**
1 tbs icing sugar (I didn't use)

* Steep 3-3.5tbs of dried lavender flowers in 340g hot milk for 10 minutes. Strain out the flowers and weigh out 300g of milk to make the pastry cream.

**You may omit the use of gelatin if you are using icing sugar to help stabilize the cream

Steps:
1. In a small saucepan, heat lavender milk with vanilla bean paste until it just starts to bubble. In the mean time, whisk together cornflour, sugar, salt and egg yolks together.

2. Once the milk starts to bubble, remove from heat. Pour into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream while whisking continuously. Start off in a slower stream before pouring more quickly. This is to temper the egg yolks. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

3. Heat the mixture over low heat while whisking continuously until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and whisk vigorously until mixture is smooth. Return to heat and continue whisking for another minute or two to thicken until your preferred consistency, keeping in mind it will thicken further after chilling.

4. Add butter and whisk until well combined. Add honey and whisk until well combined. Sieve the mixture into a bowl.

5. Press a cling wrap over the surface of the pastry cream and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight if you wish. Chill the whipping cream in mixing bowl for an hour or overnight.

6. When the whipping cream and pastry cream base are sufficiently chilled, sprinkle gelatin over 1 tbs of water and let it sit for 10 min. Heat in microwave oven or double boiler until gelatin is dissolved (medium power for 10 seconds if using microwave). Set aside to cool to room temperature.

7. Whisk the chilled whipping cream with icing sugar (if using) until firm peaks form. If using gelatin to stabilize, whisk until soft peaks form. Gradually add the dissolved gelatin while whisking the cream until firm peaks form.

8. Gradually fold the whipped cream into pastry cream.

Smooth and fragrant lavender vanilla honey pastry cream

Refrigerate the pastry cream until ready to fill the pastry cases. You may make this two to three days in advance. Press a cling wrap to the surface of the pastry cream for storage.

Choux pastry case (Eclair)
Ingredients (makes about twenty 5-6cm mini Éclairs):
105g water
20g unsalted butter
24g olive oil (you may replace with 20g butter)
1/2 tsp salt
50g bread flour
10g plain flour (you may replace with bread flour)
95-105g egg, lightly beaten (use two whole eggs or in my case, one whole egg and topped up the rest with egg whites.)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200℃. Set oven rack to middle position. Line baking tray with parchment paper/silicone mat. I am trying out a perforated silicone baking mat to see if it makes a difference. It is supposed to be great for baking choux pastries.

2. Sift the bread flour and plain flour together twice. Set aside. Place water, butter, oil, salt and vanilla (if using) in saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to make sure all butter is dissolved before water boils.

3. Remove saucepan from heat and pour the flour into saucepan all at once. Quickly mix well with a spatula until a ball of dough forms. Press out any visible lumps of flour.

4. Return the saucepan to heat. Use low heat to cook the dough while kneading it in the saucepan for about 3-4 minutes. Pour the dough into a mixing bowl and knead with a spatula for about a minute before leaving it to cool for a few minutes.

5. Add half of beaten egg into the dough and mix until well combined. Add half of the remaining egg into the batter and mix until well combined. Add the remaining egg a little at a time until the batter is smooth and shiny and is able to fall off the spatula in three seconds. You may not need to use all of the egg.

6. Transfer batter into piping bag fitted with a 12-15mm open star tip. Choose one with as many teeth/tines as possible. Using a star tip instead of round tip helps to control the cracking of eclair during baking. Pipe 5-6cm lines on baking mat. Use a finger wet with water to tap down the peak at the end of piping the eclair. Dab some water around the piped batter. This is to help create steam during baking.

Piped batter. It looks more pale than my usual as it contains more egg whites.

7. Place tray of piped batter into oven. Turn temperature down to 190℃ and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180℃ and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Switch off the oven and leave the tray inside for another 10-15 minutes.

Freshly baked cases!

You may make the cases in advance too or store the frozen piped batter and bake when you are ready. Just add 5 minutes to your baking time.

Modelling chocolate
I adapted the recipe from here. I tweaked the ratios a little as Singapore is warm and humid. Please check out the link as it has a more detailed explanation of how to work with modelling chocolate.

Ingredients:
White colour
48g compound white chocolate
11g light corn syrup
A few drops of white gel colouring

Brown colour
42g compound white chocolate
10g dark chocolate couverture
12g light corn syrup
1 drop orange gel food colouring
1 drop yellow food colouring

Black colour
48g dark chocolate couverture
20g light corn syrup
1/2 tsp charcoal powder

Steps:
1. Melt the chocolate in microwave oven using short bursts of 10-20 seconds using medium-low power. Stir between each heating cycle. Be careful not to over heat.

2. Pour corn syrup into melted chocolate and fold in until just combined. Pour the mixture onto cling wrap and wrap it up. Leave it to firm up overnight at room temperature or for 30 minutes in the fridge.

3. Knead until smooth and pliable. Wrap in cling wrap again until ready to use. You may prepare this in advance too!

Homemade modelling chocolate! Tastes much better than fondant!

As I don't work with modelling chocolate often, I was quite nervous about working in Singapore's hot weather so I worked in the air-con room. Try to minimize direct contact between your fingers and the chocolate. I use cling wrap as a barrier between my fingers and the chocolate so that it is less messy to work with. I used toothpick, knife and some fondant tools to help to shape the guinea pig shape and features. You may want to replace chocolate with candy melts as advised by the experts as they are easier to work with. I found it easier to work with white compound chocolate than the dark chocolate couverture based ones as the latter may be firm to begin with but quickly turn into a soft sticky mess with a little handling using my fingers.

The birthday boy exclaimed that they look so real!

It is best to fill the pastry cases just before eating to enjoy them crisp. If this is not possible, you may fill it and keep the pastry refrigerated until ready to serve, preferably within a few hours if you still want the case somewhat crisp. If you don't mind it turning soft, you may store filled choux pastry in fridge for up to two days.

Here are the piggies about to be eaten!

Checkout the cross-section!

The other piggy being eaten!

Birthday boy loved his treat a lot and so did the rest of us!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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'Sheep on Bench' Mango Sponge and Pudding Cake

Someone requested for mango cake with cute sheep deco. I came up with mango sponge and pudding cake with whipped mango ganache filled sheep macarons!

Bear with me as this is going to be a long blog post because there are a couple of firsts for me for this bake. It's my first attempt at making a bench out of homemade modelling chocolate and my first attempt for this flavour of sponge and pudding cake.

I had lots of fun making the bench and it can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge. There's room for improvement since it's my first attempt but I have learnt a lot from this experience. For one, I should include another leg in the middle of the bench even if aesthetically it may not be as nice as I didn't realise how fast the structure can soften in hot Singapore! I will also reduce the amount of corn syrup by a little the next time I need to make a chocolate structure that needs some strength and rigidity.

Recipe for dark modelling chocolate bench
Ingredients:
100g Dark Chocolate couverture
35g Light corn syrup

Steps:
1. Melt dark chocolate in microwave safe bowl by heating at medium power for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat until chocolate is fully melted and there are no lumps.

2. Add corn syrup and stir until well mixed. The mixture will harden immediately.

3. Pour onto clingwrap and wrap it. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes or until firm.

4. Knead it until it becomes pliable. You may find that wearing gloves or kneading the chocolate through clingwrap helpful as the chocolate may melt and stick to your fingers.

5. Pull out a small handful of chocolate and roll it between two pieces of baking sheet to thickness of 6mm for the legs and 4mm for the bench planks. Use an oiled bench scraper to cut out portions of the chocolate. Stick the pieces together using a bit of semi-melted modelling chocolate. Simply pinch a bit of the chocolate and rub between your finger tips to melt it.

Useful tips:
- Place the rolled chocolate on top of reusable freezer packs to firm up the chocolate a little so that it is more rigid but not so hard that you have difficulty cutting through.
- Place the cutout pieces on smaller pieces of baking sheet to facilitate moving them around.
- Chill the cutouts until rigid before assembly.
- You may use straw or cookie cutter to make patterns on the bench back.

I needed to prop up the middle and refrigerate until rigid before removing the baking paper support. On hindsight, I should have added a leg there.

6. Store finished product in fridge until ready for assembly.

So cute!

I have made macaron sheep in rainbow scarf before sometime last year. You may refer to this post for the macaron shells. I decided to make the scarves appear more vibrant this time. The macarons are filled with whipped mango ganache. Recipe can be found here.

Sheep in vibrant scarves!

Recipe for mango chiffon cake
Ingredients (makes two 7" round cakes):
3 egg yolks
5g caster sugar
42g vegetable/canola oil
52g mango puree
60g cake flour
A pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp mango flavouring (optional)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Line the base of the pans with baking sheet. Set oven rack to second lowest position. Preheat to 150℃.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add puree, vanilla and mango flavouring and mix well. Gradually sift in flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

3. Prepare meringue. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding sugar once the egg whites are foamy.

4. Quickly but gently fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter in three additions with a spatula. Pour the batter into the two prepares pans. Tap the pans gently on the table to release trapped air bubbles.

5. Bake at 150℃ for 10 min, followed by 130℃ for another 25-30min or until toothpick comes out clean.

6. Let the cakes cool in the tray for 5 min before removing.

Freshly baked cakes!

Recipe for mango pudding
Ingredients:
A)
113g evaporated milk
247g water
188g mango puree
1/4 tsp mango flavouring
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
40g sugar
1/16 tsp salt
2 tsp agar powder

B)
36g custard powder
210g water

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients in B) in a jug and mix well. Set aside.

2. Place all ingredients in A) in a saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring.

3. Stir contents for B) again and slowly pour into A) while stirring the contents in the saucepan. Keep stirring and bring to a boil again. Boil for a couple of minutes before removing from heat.

4. Sieve the custard before assembling.

Assembly
1. Scoop some pudding to line tbe base of the spring form pan. Note that the sponge cakes should be about 1-1.5" less in diameter than the spring form pan. Cut the sponge cake if necessary to fit the pan.

2. Place a sponge cake over the pudding. Pour more pudding to cover the cake.

3. Add the second sponge and pour more pudding over, making sure that the sides of the cake are covered.

4. Refrigerate for two hours or until firm before unmoulding onto a cakeboard.

I decorated the cake with a park scene using chiffon cake. The centerpiece is of course the chocolate bench with the macaron sheep on it. Here's a picture of the cake without the occupants on the seat ;)

Thank God the cake was very well received!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Mermaid, Seashell & Starfish Cookies N Cream Macarons

This is a very girly set of sea themed macarons, complete with sweet girly colours and a pretty mermaids :).

Mermaids, seashells and starfish!

The starfish and seashell macarons can be found in my Creative Baking: Macarons book so you may refer to it if you need the templates and piping instructions. I was given a picture of the mermaid and made a template out of it.

I used the reduced sugar recipe for the macaron shells here. Both regular and reduced sugar recipes can be found here. You may refer to my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic presentation of the basics and complex shaped macarons. You may refer to my video tutorials for macaron basics and piping of complex shapes on the blog too.

Piping the mermaids

Freshly baked shells. I baked this batch together with the pirate themed batch

Just to share some photos of the decorated shells. I decorated the shells with royal icing and edible marker. The rosy cheeks on the mermaids were added on using peach coloured lustre dust and a small soft brush.

I had a hard time trying to source for candy/chocolate balls that are just the right size for the pearls in the shells so I made my own instead. I followed the recipe for modelling white chocolate from here, using a ratio of 2:1 for white chocolate : light corn syrup.

Homemade modelling white chocolate

Let the balls of "pearls" dry and harden in the open a little before adding on a coat of pearlescent lustre dust.

Brushing on pearlescent lustre dust

I filled the shells with cookies n cream swiss meringue buttercream. The recipe can be found here.

Thank God these were very well received at the party both looks and taste wise :).

With love,
Phay Shing

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