Pirate & Sea Creatures Mango and Strawberry Macarons (New filling recipe!)

I have a request for some cute pirates along with some sea creatures for a birthday party. If you think they look familiar, that's because I have made these designs before and all of them (except the pirates) are featured in my Creative Baking: Macarons book.

What I am excited about sharing in this post is the new recipe for strawberry white chocolate ganache that is stable at Singapore's room temperature and is able to keep in air-conditioned room temperature for 2-3 days, making it perfect as door gifts. I used to flavour the strawberry ganache with strawberry paste only but this new and improved version contains high percentage of fresh fruit puree.

After my discovery of making a creamy mango ganache with high fresh fruit content but yet stable at Singapore's room temperature, someone asked if the same can be done for strawberry. I took this chance to test it out. So glad that it works well for strawberries too! I can now safely say that this recipe/method will work for all types of fruit. Simply adjust the fruit flavouring/essence according to taste.

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. Templates and steps for making the sea creatures can be found in Creative Baking: Macarons.

The freshly baked shells were decorated with edible black marker and royal icing. I used silver dragees for the pirate's earings

For the fillings, begin by blending 1-1.5 cups of coarsely chopped fresh fruit with 1/2-1tsp of lemon juice (to prevent browning). Sieve the puree to remove the lumps.

I love the natural vibrant colours of fresh strawberry and mango puree!

Recipe for whipped strawberry white chocolate ganache
Ingredients (fills about 16-20 macarons):
55g white chocolate, chopped
10g vegetable shortening
10g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
25g strawberry puree
1/2 tsp strawberry emulco/paste

Steps:
1. Place white chocolate, vegetable shortening and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat at medium power for 20 seconds. Mix well with a spatula. Repeat until mixture is smooth. Add salt and mix well.

2. Freeze the bowl for 1-2 minutes and mix well with spatula. Repeat freezing and mixing. As the mixture thickens, start to beat it with the spatula. You will notice that the texture will lighten up and become creamy.

3. Add a teaspoon of puree and whip the mixture with the spatula until well combined. Repeat until all the puree has been added. Add strawberry puree and mix well. The texture should be like buttercream

Adding strawberry puree to plain whipped ganache. Look at how smooth and creamy the whipped ganache is!

Fresh strawberry puree added only. Forgot to take a photo after adding strawberry emulco.

4. Transfer whipped strawberry ganache into piping bag and pipe onto the shells. Store assembled macarons in the fridge in an airtight container for at least 24h before serving. Let the macarons sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before consuming.

Filling some with mango ganache!

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Pirate Strawberry and Dark Chocolate Macarons

This is an overdue post of pirate macarons that I made some time back. Don't they look so cheerful that they put a smile on your face?

If they look familiar, that's because I made them more than a year ago for a sea themed party over here. I baked these friendly pirates along with the request for Lego Friends themed macarons.

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.

Just to share a few pictures of the process...

Piping the shells

Freshly baked shells along with the Lego Friends bake!

Decorating with royal icing and edible black marker. I used silver dragees for the earrings, stuck on with a bit of royal icing.

I filled the pirates with strawberry and dark chocolate ganache. The recipe for both types of fillings can be found here.

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Nautical Brown Sugar Cookiepops II

I have a request for nautical themed cookiepops again but decided to change the design a little :).

I made them last year and you may refer to this post to take a peek. I chose to use brown sugar cookies for all designs instead of regular sugar cookies for the lifesavers as they seriously taste much better. I am not kidding when I mention that people request for brown sugar cookies again because they love it so much and remember to hide some for themselves before offering at parties because they taste and smell so heavenly! They may look less pretty as cookie base than paler coloured regular sugar cookies but I wouldn't trade taste for looks if I had the choice. Even as I bake and ice the cookies, I am rewarded by the wonderful aroma of the cookies :).

You may refer to this post for the recipe for brown sugar cookies and royal icing, and this post on how to make templates. I use homemade templates to do away with the need for a big collection of cookie cutters. Saves space and money although it means more effort in design and preparation.

Here are some pictures of the process...

Assembling the cookie dough and ice-cream sticks

Freshly baked cookies!

It took me about one and a half days of pretty relaxed icing work to complete this batch of 20 cookiepops. You may find it helpful to use edible marker to outline the features before icing even though the design is relatively simple and cookie experts out there may do without this step. I found it helpful to draw the outline first.

Day 1!

Day 2! All done!

As usual, some time has to be spent packing them individually for the party. Remember to dry the cookies thoroughly before storing in airtight condition. They can keep at cool room temperature for a month. These were served with nautical themed cupcakes decorated with macarons for the first time. Both cookies and cupcakes were very well received! Thank God!

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Nautical Macarons on Lychee Yoghurt Chiffon Cupcakes

This is my first attempt decorating cupcakes with macaron toppers. It's a pretty involved bake as it is a combination of baking macarons and cupcakes, and preparing the lychee flavoured swiss meringue buttercream (smbc) for the filling and attaching the macarons to cupcakes. So bear with me if this looks like a long post!

You may check out my newly launched Creative Baking: Macarons book for the basic recipe, baking tips and piping techniques.

You may refer to the basic macaron recipe  here (omit strawberry paste and pink colouring) if you wish although the book would provide a neater and more systematic layout of what you need to know. Simply divide the mass into three equal portions to colour them white, red and blue. I tried to include almost all the details using macaron batter as I wasn't sure that royal icing would hold out well if it stays in contact with moist air caused by storing moist chiffon cupcakes with the macarons without turning into a runny mess. The barrier of cream between cake and macaron is necessary as the moisture from the cakes would turn the macaron shells soggy if they stayed in contact for too long. I must admit that including all the details was very time consuming but worth a shot. If I don't try I won't know :p.

Just to share the pictures of making the macarons...

Piping the anchors

Piping the sailboats! These were the most tedious!

Piping the lifesavers! Deceptively time consuming too!

Adding on the ropes using very stiff royal icing. Follow the recipe in the link for royal icing but add more icing sugar until stiff peaks form.

I filled the macarons with lychee swiss meringue buttercream.

Recipe for lychee swiss meringue buttercream
Ingredients:
320g smbc
1/2 tsp lychee flavouring (optional)
1/2 tsp rose water (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
30g lychee puree (I blended canned lychees, sieved to remove woody bits and heat in saucepan over low heat to reduce the amount of liquid for half an hour. This is to give a stronger lychee flavour with less moisture added so that the smbc doesn't turn out too soft.)
Blue gel food colouring

Gradually add puree and flavourings into plain smbc and whisk or beat well with electric mixer. Make sure that the reduced puree is cooled to room temperature before using. Add colouring until desired shade is reached.

As you can see macaron shells can be very delicate. I accidentally broke an anchor!

Assembled macarons and macaron pops! I decided to push the stick through more as I realised that it is too long for the cupcake.

I prepared some blue coloured water coloured with dried blue pea flowers to create the blue layer cakes. I baked two 10x12" and one 7x7" layer cake for the circles. Using a reduced egg yolk recipe and a bit of white gel food colouring helps to keep the blue from appearing too much like turquoise. A bit of blue gel is necessary of course as blue pea flower imparts a dull colour.

Lychee yoghurt chiffon cupcakes (makes twenty 5cm diameter cupcakes)
Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
15g caster sugar
56g coconut oil (vegetable oil will do. I used a mild aroma coconut oil)
50g lychee puree (blend lychees and sieve to remove woody bits)
15g plain yoghurt*
1/3 tsp lychee flavouring (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp rose water (optional)
87g cake flour
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
65g caster sugar

* you may replace with lychee puree if you wish.

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Place a tray of water at base of oven (optional but helps to create a more moist cake). Set oven rack to second lowest position.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and thick. Add oil and mix well. Add yoghurt, lychee puree and flavourings. Mix well. Gradually sift in flour, salt and baking powder 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 stiff peaks just start to form, gradually adding in sugar when egg whites reach soft peak stage.

4. Gently but quickly fold the meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions. I prefer to fold in using my bare hand for the last addition instead of a spatula for large amounts of batter like this to reduce the number of folds needed to make a homogeneous batter.

5. Quickly fill the cupcake cases until batter is about 1cm away from top of rim. Tap the cupcake cases gently on the table to release air bubbles

6. Place cupcakes in oven and reduce temperature to 135°C. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. You may adjust your baking temperature and time according to your oven as each oven is different.

Cool completely before slicing off the dome  of the cupcakes (if necessary). Use a round cookie cutter to cut out blue circles from the layer cakes, sticking them on with melted marshmellows. Brush some lychee syrup from the canned lychees to keep the surface of the cakes moist.

I piped on some smbc onto the tops of the cupcakes.

And then attach the macarons onto the cupcakes.

Keep the assembled cakes refrigerated in airtight box until time to serve.

Thank God that these were very well received along with some nautical themed brown sugar cookiepops!

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Matcha Turtle Beachy Seawaves Chiffon Cake (with blue pea flowers)

I've been slowing down recently due to the 3 kids and also busy writing up the draft for Creative Chiffon Book 2, titled "Creative Baking: Deco Chiffon Cakes". Yes, really very thankful that there will be a Book 2 as the Book 1, "Creative Baking: Chiffon Cakes" is doing well (its second print run will be out in April)!

This chiffon cake will be in Book 2 (Deco Chiffon Cakes), so am really sorry there will be a short wait of a few months before recipe is out in full. But for now, you can refer to my older Matcha Ogura Turtles recipe, and Book 1 for simpler waves. I had a friend try out the Turtles recipe above and had good reviews! Book 2 (Deco Chiffon Cakes) covers more interesting and innovative 3D patterns on the chiffon cakes (which may actually be even simpler to make than the first book).. and an extended 3-page FAQ section from all the questions I encountered from Book 1... I'm really excited to share more about it later after the photoshoots!

This cake is made for my dear friend Christine's daughter Hui En's 2 yo birthday! She loves animals especially turtle so the cake was specially designed for her. Thank God the cake was well-received. And she's truly adorable! She got really sad when daddy cut up the turtle lol..

Made with lots of love,

Susanne

Thanks everyone for your support again! *hugs*

Read More »

'Little Mermaid' Chiffon Cake

"Under the sea...Under the sea..

Darling it's better, down where it's wetter, take it from me.." =)

As I am writing this, this cute song by Sebastian the crab goes in my head! I remember this cartoon when it came out while I was still a young girl in MGS! I loved it so much I probably watched this over 8 times and can sing all the songs! ;)

This Little Mermaid Cake was super fun for me as it’s my first ‘Under-the-sea’ chiffon cake, though I’ve made a few nautical theme cakes. I had to chance to make Corals, Seaweeds and Clams from chiffon cake!

The base chiffon cake is a 2-tone Blue pea flower (vanilla)-chocolate chiffon cake, like my Cars. It seems blue with brown can be used for various themes, both ‘under-the-sea’ and desert lands. The 2-tone chiffon cake was actually unintended, but the birthday girl loved chocolate and so asked it chocolate flavour can be incorporated into the cake, hence we came up with this ‘Sea-seabed’ Blue-Brown chiffon cake scheme. Since the chiffon cake is inverted after unmoulding, the way to make the ‘Sea-seabed’ 2-tone chiffon cake is to pour Blue pea flower (vanilla) chiffon cake batter in first to fill the base to more than half, then deposit humps of blue batter, then fill with Chocolate chiffon cake batter.

The seaweeds are made from pandan chiffon layer cake. I happened to have a cute dino cutter in which I used the spikes to cut out zigzag seaweeds shapes (make a double cut side-by-side).
I made 2 types of corals, both the tube-like ones as well as the sheets. For the sheets corals, I baked a similar vanilla layer chiffon cake and cut out holes of different sizes using a circle cutter. For the tube corals, I baked strawberry chiffon cake in mini cake pop molds and then used a straw to punch out a hole for the tube ones. The clams were made using a clam mold which I have.

Thankful the kids loved the cake! Phay Shing made some beautiful mermaid macarons to go along with them.

With lots of love,
Susanne

Read More »

Pirate Assorted Macarons -- sea themed macarons part 2

Here are some pirates who are too cute to be the stereotyped badassed pirates :p. I made these along with the mermaid macarons.

The octopus and dolphin macarons are going to be featured in my upcoming Creative Baking: Macarons book so keep a lookout for them :).

You may refer to this post for the basic macaron recipe, and this post on how to pipe complex shapes. The pirates are fairly easy to pipe compared to the mermaids. Keep in mind the ratio I use for weight of Italian meringue/ weight of mass = 0.55 when portioning out for the various colours.

Begin by piping the base shells for top and bottom shells.

Wait for 15 minutes or until a thin sticky membrane forms. Pipe the nose, ear and little tuft of cloth on the head scarf. Wait until the shells are dry to touch before baking.

Freshly baked shells!

Prepare royal icing and add on the white polka dots, eye and eye patch. Use edible black marker to draw the mouth. I used some royal icing to stick on a silver pearl for the ear rings.

Freshly decorated and looking cute!

Filling up with the same non-refrigerated assorted flavours as mermaid macarons. There's dark chocolate, Earl Grey, orange and strawberry white chocolate.

Individually packed!

Here's another look at all the macaron shells from the sea themed collection!

I hope this short series puts a smile on your face as it did to mine :).

With love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Nautical Assorted Cookiepops

I have a request for nautical themed cookiepops along with ombre blue iced gems. Here they are!

There are 2 types of cookies here. Sugar cookie with minimal icing in the form of a lifesaver with rope around, and brown sugar cookie with sailboat and anchor royal icing designs.

You may refer to the recipes in the links provided for each type of cookie recipe. The royal icing for the ropes has a stiff consistency so follow the icing recipe from my iced gems post. It's my first time piping a rope so I had to watch a video tutorial on how it is done.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Making sugar cookiepops lifesavers

Cut out cookie dough using a donut cookie cutter. Dough is 4mm thick.

Two donuts are cut out for each lifesaver, with the ice-cream stick sandwiched in between.

Cut strips of dough flavoured and coloured with strawberry paste and stick them on.

The red strips are about 1cm wide and 3mm thick. I used enough strawberry paste to colour a bit of dough to the desired shade of red so I didn't measure precisely.

Freshly baked

Icing ropes in progress

Dry the iced cookies in oven with fan on at 60°C for half an hour.

Cool the cookies completely before packing or storing in airtight container.

Making brown sugar cookiepops

Cut-out dough with round scalloped cutters

Sandwich ice-cream sticks between two 4mm thick cookie cut-outs.

Freshly baked!

Rest the cookies overnight before icing.
I iced the cookies differently from my usual style of tracing with edible marker and homemade template.

First, I outlined and flooded the background. Please excuse the practice rope piping on cookie made from leftover dough :p

These were dried in the oven with the fan on for about an hour to an hour and a half but heat switched on for a few seconds. I stored these in airtight container, stacked with pieces of baking sheet in between for a few days before I added on the designs. Waiting overnight will do. I was busy.

Outline of subject scratched onto icing base using a needle and homemade plastic template.

Filing in details with icing.

I used a thicker consistency than my usual flooding icing to prevent the icing from running out of the desired boundaries. I used a toothpick to nudge the icing along to fill in corners and small spaces.

Icing sailboat!

I dried the cookies in oven with fan on but heat turned on for a few seconds for about an hour.

All packed for party!

Thank God that these were well received along with Susanne's nautical cake and the ombre blue iced gems!

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »