Low-Sugar Black Sesame Cookies

 I was experimenting with creating cookies that have as little sugar as possible without resorting to sugar replacements and without compromising texture and taste. After some less than satisfactory attempts, I have finally come up with something that I am pleased with!

Having fun with cat shaped cookie cutters!

The reference point for the recipe development is from the standard shortbread recipe which has a 1:2:3 ratio of sugar:butter:flour by weight. The dry ingredients is in the ratio of 1:2 for butter:dry ingredients. I tried to keep this ratio to maintain structural integrity while reducing the sugar proportion to the minimum. 

This low-sugar cookie recipe is simple & can be adapted for other seeds, nuts or plain vanilla. Although it contains less than 5% sugar without any sugar replacements added, it's still bold in flavour with a tender, crumbly melt-in-your-mouth texture but firm enough to hold cutout shapes.

Ingredients:
(makes about 24 cat cookies in my case)
45g plain flour
5g rice flour*
5g full cream milk powder*
5g icing sugar
1/16 tsp salt
10g black sesame powder*
35g unsalted butter

See the reel for the process of making the cookies:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcPbRvkyOqW/?igsi=MXFsOXVnZ2Fnb3YyYQ==

Steps:
1. Sift together all dry ingredients

2. Using only fingertips, rub butter into 1. Squish the crumbs together to form a ball of dough

3. Divide dough into 2 so at any time, there is always dough that is chilled firm & ready for cutting out shapes

 
4. Roll dough to 4-5mm thickness between acetate or OPP sheets. Freeze until firm. Rolling the cookie dough between two acetate or OPP (oriented polypropylene) sheets is an easy way to roll out dough without creasing it or sticking to any surfaces. This makes the task a lot easier and less messy! I used OPP sheets which I have on hand to make my piping cones. They are actually cookie bags for gifting usually sold in bulk at baking supplies stores so they are food-safe. Using guides for rolling out the dough helps you to keep the dough thickness consistent.

5. Cutout shapes as desired & place on tray lined with parchment paper. Freeze cutouts while preheating oven to 150C fan/170C

6. Transfer frozen cutouts onto tray lined with perforated mat if you have as it helps with shape retention during baking. You may stick with parchment paper/Teflon sheets/silicone mats too if you wish

7. Bake for 10-13 min or until lightly browned at the base & edges. Rotate the tray halfway through if your oven heat isn't even. Do not overbake as cookies can become dry in the absence of more sugar, but still aim for some browning for flavour. Adjust baking temperature & time according to what works for your oven as each oven is different. Cool completely before storing in airtight container. Best consumed a day later when flavours have become more balanced.

*NOTES ON INGREDIENTS:

- Rice flour: Helps to reduce overall gluten content for a tender cookie, increase crispiness. Adding too much will make the cookie drier & more crumbly. May replace with plain flour if you prefer a sturdier cookie

- Full cream milk powder: The secret ingredient that imparts flavour without adding sugar. Helps to prevent cookies from becoming too dry

- Black sesame powder: This is actually ground black sesame so you may replace 1:1 for any ground seed or nuts of your choice such as white sesame, pumpkin seed, almond, hazelnut, pistachio etc. You may also replace with plain flour & milk powder as plain flour alone would be too dry without the oils that seeds & nuts have. Feel free to add a little vanilla extract for substitutions that are mildly flavoured

with love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Capybara Yuzu Macaron-Shortbread Cookie Sandwich

 Capybara macarons again! But this time, as a yuzu shortbread cookie sandwich!

Don't they look like they are peeking out of windows?

A closer peek at the yuzu ganache filling with some bits of citrus rind in there. 

I could have made everything out of macarons instead of cookies but that would have made the bake a lot more time consuming 🤭.

Shortbread cookies are really simple to make. Simply follow the ratio of 1:2:3 for icing sugar : butter : plain flour by weight. Add some vanilla and salt and you have your vanilla version of shortbread cookies. Roll to your preferred thickness and cut out with cookie cutters. You may even shape the dough with your hands for some fun shapes without cookie cutters. For these sandwich cookies, the thickness I roll to is 3-4mm.

You may refer to my previous blog post for the recipe and tips for making chocolate macaron shells which can be tricky. 

Here's a closer look at the even feet all around.

Here's the reel for tips on how to pipe character macarons with intricate shapes and even feet all around:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJ6VZY4JZWx/?igsh=ZHBqYnllZHo4ZDd3

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Noah's Ark Cookies on Mixed Fruits n Cream Cake

A pair of grandparents wanted to bless their grand daughter with a birthday bake that provides and opportunity for them to share about God. So they requested for Noah's ark themed cake. Here is my cookie version of Noah's ark, on top of a fruits n cream cake!

 

I made the ark out of a no-spread cookie recipe, naturally coloured with dark brown sugar and coconut sugar. The animals are made out of shortbread cookies with minimal royal icing used. Even the little horns, spots on the giraffe and the tiny doves are made out of shortbread! 

I experimented with creating little rainbows out of green kiwi, mango and strawberry to insert into the cream layers. But that proved to be very challenging 😅. I think if I ever want to attempt something similar again, I will do it with just 2 types of fruits. I wanted to try making the rainbows because it is part of the Noah's ark story, signifying God's promise never to destroy the earth by flood again. 

I used my default vanilla chiffon recipe for the fruits n cream cake. Inside the cake is filled with fresh thai mango pieces and homemade mango compote cooked with a dash of yuzu juice concentrate. 

Be prepared for a long post as this bake consists of quite a few components. 

No-spread cookie recipe
Ingredients:
Brown dough
114g unsalted butter 
50g dark brown sugar
50g coconut palm sugar
50g egg, lightly beaten

250g plain flour 

48g cornflour 

3/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Pink dough

18g unsalted butter 

16g caster sugar

8g egg, lightly beatened 

40g plain flour 

8g cornflour

Pinch of salt 

1/8 tsp vanilla

Pink gel colouring 

Steps : 

1. Preheat oven to 170C for baking small parts like letters of name and 180C for larger pieces. 

2. Cream butter and sugar but not till fluffy. You want to minimize bubbles in dough. 

3. Add egg a bit at a time and mix well. Add vanilla and mix well. Add gel colouring if using and mix well. 

4. Sift together cornflour, plain flour and salt in another bowl. Add sifted flours into butter mixture. Fold the flour in until just combined. 

5. Roll the dough between parchment paper until about 6mm thick.  Use cookie cutters or a small knife and template to carve out the shapes required. I remove the excess dough instead of the cutouts so that it retains its shape. You may place the cookies quite close together as they don't spread in the oven. 

6. Bake smaller parts for around 10 to 12 min. Lower baking temperature for larger parts after the first 12 min to 160C and bake until done, about 20min. 

I assembled the ark using royal icing coloured in a similar shade to the cookie. You may refer to this post for the royal icing recipe. Use a zester to file the sides of the cookie so that the various parts join seamlessly. 

Animal Shortbread cookie recipe

Ingredients :

50g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter 

130g plain flour

20g cornflour 

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Gel food colouring and natural food colours like cocoa powder and charcoal powder

Steps :

1.  Preheat oven to 150C for larger parts, 140C for smaller parts. 

2. Cream butter, salt and sugar until combined but not till fluffy. 

3. Add vanilla and mix until well combined. 

4. Sift together cornflour and plain flour. Add into creamed butter and sugar. Fold in the flour until ball of dough forms. 

5. Divide dough into portions and colour them with gel or natural colouring. 

6. Shape using fingers and fondant tools and place on parchment. Freeze the tray(s) of shaped cooke dough for at least 10 min before baking. 

7. For larger parts, bake at 150C for first 10 min, lower to 130C and bake for another 10-15min . For the tiny doves, elephant ears, bake at 140C for 10 min then at 130C for another 2 min. Cool conpletely before storing or assembling. 

Tenporarily storing overnight before assembling 

8. Assemble by joining the parts with royal icing. You may gently scrape the cookie with a butter knife to get the crumbs to cover the seams a little. Use royal icing to add in the mane, eyes and mouth. 

Let the icing dry completely before storing in airtight container. 

I glued the animals to the ark using the same brown coloured royal icing. 

I added in the flood waters using stiff royal icing and glued on the name in the waves. 

The recipe for the vanilla chiffon can be found in this post. I baked a 17cm (7 inch) chiffon and a 7x7 inch sheet cake. I love how tall and fluffy the chiffon cake is! 

Slice horizontally into 3 layers with a serrated knife. Store in airtight container until ready to assemble. 

Prepare mango compote by cooking mango puree with a little sugar, a pinch of salt and a small dash of yuzu juice until reduced and thick. Refrigerate until ready to assemble. 

Slice all the fruit and place on paper towel to absorb excess water. Refrigerate overnight. 

I used a combination of dairy and non-dairy cream to get a more stable filling that still tastes good. 

Stabilized whipping cream with non-dairy cream

Ingredients:

150g whipping cream (dairy cream) 

2 gelatin sheets, bloomed in ice water

180g whip topping (non-dairy whipping cream) 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Steps:

1. Heat whipping cream until steaming (not boiling). Add bloomed gelatin and whisk until melted. 

2. Press cling wrap on surface of cream and refrigerate overnight. 

3. Beat chilled whip topping with vanilla extract using electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside. 

4. Beat dairy cream set by gelatin with electric mixer until firm peaks form. Fold into whipped non-dairy cream until well combined. 

Assembly

1. Add a little whipped cream onto cakeboars and place first layer of chiffon cake on it. I cover the hole with a separate cake cutout. Wrap the cake with acetate sheet to facilitate assembly. Coat the sponge with some mango compote 

2. Add a thin layer of whipped cream and arrange the fruits around circumference and in the middle. Drizzle some compote on top of the mango slices in the middle. 

3. Cover fruits with more cream and smooth it out with a teaspoon. 

4. Drizzle some compote on top of the smoothened cream. Carefully place the next layer of cake on top and gently press it down. Repeat layering with cream, fruits and another sponge on top. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before carefully removing the acetate sheet. 

Insert some dowels and glue a cakeboard on top using royal icing as a platform to put the cookie cake topper on. Keep cake refrigerated until ready to serve. 

Thank God it was very well received! 

With love, 
Phay Shing

Read More »

Graduation Hat Pinata Shortbread Cookies

I had a request for graduation themed cookies for a class of preschool kids who are entering Primary school next year. The idea of making the graduation caps pinata style came to mind because which kid doesn't like pleasant surprises ;).

These cookies are filled with sunflower seeds coated with chocolate. Different from the first pinata cookie I made for my kids two years ago which were filled with mini MnMs.

Recipe for Graduation hat pinata cookies
Ingredients ( makes about 22 pinata cookies):
Cookie dough
250g icing sugar
500g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
725g plain flour
20g charcoal powder
5g dark cocoa powder/Dutch processed cocoa powder
1.25 tsp fine sea salt
2.5 tsp vanilla bean paste

Royal icing
250g Icing sugar
18g Meringue powder
Pinch of salt
50g water (more as needed)
Red gel food colouring
1 tbs + 1 tsp Charcoal powder
1 tsp dark cocoa powder

Additional items
Chocolate coated sunflower seeds
Red sour candy gummy strips

Steps:
1. Sift together flour, icing sugar, cocoa powder, charcoal powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add in butter and use finger tips to rub butter into flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Add vanilla and mix well. Press the mixture together with your hand and lightly knead to form a ball of dough.

4. Divide the dough ball into two or three and roll each one between two baking sheets until about 5-6mm thick. Chill in fridge or freezer until firm. At least 15 minutes.

5. Each pinata hat is made up of three layers of cookies: a 5cm circle, a 5cm ring with 1cm thickness and a 6-7cm square. I use a 5cm and 3cm diameter circle cookie cutters to create the ring. Place the cookie cutouts into baking tray lined with baking sheet. Chill the tray of cutouts until firm. Place only same shaped cutouts in each tray as baking time varies for different shapes. Note that if the dough is too firm, it may crack more easily when cutting. Simply gently press the dough around the crack together of that happens and wait for a while before attempting to cut another one out.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 160℃ for about 14 min for the ring, 20 min for circles and 24 min for the squares. Use the timing as a gauge only as each oven is different. Bake until the cookies appear dry.

7. Let the cookies cool completely before assembling.

8. Prepare royal icing while the cookies cool completely. You may store the cookies in air right container if not assembling immediately. Sift together icing sugar, meringue powder and salt into mixing bowl. Add water and use a spatula to mix until the powdered mixture is thoroughly wet.

9. Use an electric mixer and beat at medium-low speed for 2 minutes. Scoop out about 2-3 tbs of royal icing and colour it red with red gel colouring. Add cocoa powder and charcoal powder to the remaining icing and mix well with mixer for another 1-2 minutes. Check the consistency of the icing it should form peaks that disappear within 10 seconds. If too thick, add more water a few drops at a time and mix well with spatula. Cover the icing with cling wrap touching the surface to prevent it from hardening.

10. Cut the sour candies into tassle shapes using scissors like the picture below. You may wish to cut a shorter segment to add more "threads" at the end of the tassle. Pipe black royal icing to secure one end of the tassle to the middle of the hat. Pipe a little red icing to make the "knot" of the tassle. Let it dry completely.

11. Assemble the pinata as shown below. Glue the ring onto the circle using black icing. Put the candy in the middle before sealing the pinata with the top square piece.

I used a butter knife to smooth the sides of the pinata to hide the seams between the different cookie layers. This step is optional but it keeps kids guessing how you stuff the pinata with the goodies ;).

All done!

I know this post comes a little late in the year, not in time for most kids' graduation parties. But hopefully this blog post leaves a lasting impression and you may refer to it next year to make some yummy surprises for kids who are moving on to the next phase of their lives :).

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Sweet Potato Shortbread Lollipop Cookies

This is the third in my series of cookie baking classes for kids at ToTT -- sweet potato shortbread cookie lollipops! These colourful treats are 100% naturally coloured and flavoured!

Find out how to make coloured shortbread dough using natural sources and how to shape the beautiful lollipop swirls without the need for any cookie cutters!

This class is for kids from 5-12 years old with an adult accompanying each child. Please go to this link to register if you are interested.

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Christmas Piñata Shortbread Cookies

I am all excited about conducting a series of cookie baking classes for kids! To kick-start the series, I will be teaching how to make Christmasy piñata shortbread cookies---cookies with surprise goodies hidden inside them!

Shortbread cookies may seem really simple, but come to this class to find out how to transform it into a magical box containing colourful treats! Once the technique is learnt, you can create pinata cookies with any design you like for various occasions and parties.

Children between the age of 5-12 years old are welcome to join the class with one adult accompanying them.

You may find the details for sign up over here at ToTT.

Places are limited so do book your slot as soon as you can!

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Orange Chocolate Sunflower Shortbread Cookies

Want to bake something simple yet yummy and impressive looking for Teacher's Day? Why not try making these lovely sunflower shortbread cookies :). They smell and taste lovely too!

I love shortbread cookies because they are simple to make (no special equipment or technique involved) using few ingredients. The original recipe just uses icing sugar, butter and plain flour in a very easy to remember ratio of 1:2:3 by weight, and therefore very easily adaptable for scaling the quantity and various flavours.

The baking part is easy. It is the rest of the craft portion that may be more time consuming. So feel free to improvise the design :).

Ingredients (makes about 50-55 4cm sunflowers):
Orange dough
50g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter
150g plain flour
1/8 tsp sea salt
Zest of 2 oranges (orange part only)
1/8 tsp orange paste/emulco (optional)
A drop of lemon paste (optional)
A few drops of Queen's natural yellow food colouring (optional)

Chocolate dough
20g icing sugar
40g unsalted butter
55g plain flour
5g Cocoa powder (I used Dutch processed cocoa powder)
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste (optional)

Decorative items
Royal icing*
Cake pop sticks/ wooden skewers (cut to about 5-6cm)
Styrofoam board (cut to fit inside cupcake case)
Green coloured paper (cut to leaf shapes)
Green shredded paper
Large cupcake cases (about 5cm at the base)

* The icing consistency should be less runny than the recipe link I provided. To do so, add a bit more icing sugar until the icing is able to form peaks that can hold for 20 seconds.

Orange zest! The key to awesome tasting orange cookies!

Steps:
1. The method of making the dough differs depending on whether you are using electric mixer or not. I will describe both over here. Resulting texture may be lighter for the electric mixer version but both are still yummy.

A) Without electric mixer:
Sift together flour, icing sugar, salt and cocoa powder (for chocolate) or orange zest (for orange). Add small pieces of butter into flour mixture and use your finger tips to rub the butter into the flour and knead until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add flavouring/colouring and knead the mixture until a ball of dough forms.

B) With electric mixer:
Cream icing sugar, salt and softened butter with mixer until creamy and well combined. Add flavouring/colouring and orange zest (for orange) and mix well. Add flour and cocoa powder (for chocolate) and fold in with a spatula until a ball of dough forms. Use your fingers towards the end if necessary.

Divide each coloured dough into two or three portions. The reason for dividing the dough is this, Singapore is really warm so the dough softens quite fast at room temperature. It is easier to work with a firm but pliable dough. At any one point the dough becomes too soft, simply re-roll, freeze it and take the other frozen batch out of the freezer to work with so there is no in between waiting time for the dough to firm up again.

Coloured and flavoured dough

2. Roll each ball of dough to thickness of 4mm between two baking sheets. Freeze the dough until firm. The dough can keep in the freezer for a few months in airtight condition.

3. Prepare a small portion of cornflour or plain flour for dusting. Use a Daisy (or any flower cutter you have) fondant cutter to cut out the orange base flowers. Dust the surface of the dough and spread a thin coat of flour on the dough before cutting out the shapes. Let the dough soften a little before cutting otherwise it will crumble. Place the cut-outs on a baking tray lined with baking paper, about 2-3cm apart from each other. Dust the cookie cutter with flour if necessary but knock off the excess flour as much as possible.

Cookie cutouts

4. Use a small knife to make imprints on the petals if you wish (optional). Make criss cross patterns on the brown portion using the knife as well. If you find that the dough sticks to the knife, dust and coat the brown portion with a teeny bit of flour before making the imprint. This is also optional if you are feeling lazy.

5. If you feel really hardworking, you may add on a little darker yellow highlight on the petals near the flower centers. Dissolve a little golden yellow gel food colouring in water and use a fine paint brush to paint on the highlights. I am providing these options for details just in case you want to make more realistic looking flowers but these steps are just cosmetic.

6. Refrigerate the whole tray of cutouts until firm. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 150℃ and set the rack to second lowest position.

7.  Bake for 12-15 min or until the base of the cookies show telltale signs of being browned.  This is perhaps the trickiest part. It is safer to underbake, check the cookies and return them to the oven to bake longer for a few more minutes than to overbake them at the start. But don't worry, they still look pretty and taste yummy even when slightly browned. Keep a close watch on the browning towards end of baking time.

Freshly baked sunflowers!

8. Cool the cookies on the tray. Place the cookies on paper towels for an hour or even overnight to absorb excess oil from the base of the flowers. You may place the whole tray of cookies in jumbo ziplock bag to keep it in airtight condition.

9. Flip the cookies over such that the base is facing upwards. Prepare royal icing and cake pop sticks. Pipe a generous dollop of icing at the center of the flower base and insert a cake pop stick as shown below.

Leave the icing to dry in aircon room or under a fan for at least a few hours until fully hardened. Cookies won't turn soft if they are thoroughly baked through.

10. Cut pieces of styrofoam such that it can fit into the large cupcake cases. Cut leaves of appropriate size too.

This is to show the rough sizes of the styrofoam

11. Insert three flowers into the styrofoam block. You may find it easier to poke holes using a toothpick/wooden skewer first before inserting if you are using cake pop sticks. Carefully place the flower block into the cupcake case. Insert leaves and shredded paper as you wish.

Depending on how you want to pack, you may place in airtight container large enough to fit the whole assembly. I didn't have that so I packed them in large cookie bags but I had to make a more rigid barrier around the flowers to protect them. I also placed the base of the cupcake cake on a rigid piece of plastic. You may use small round cakeboard for this purpose but I didn't have them on hand too. The rigid barrier around the flowers and piece of plastic under the cupcake case are transparent so they aren't very visible as you can see here...

These cookies can keep for a month in airtight condition in a cool and dry place.

Inspired to try :)? Feel free to adjust accordingly to what you can manage. You can even do away with the flower pot idea and simply place each flower on pretty paper cupcake cases and pack a few in a box. Go on and bless your teachers or loved ones ;)

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Tiger and Bear Pull-Apart Buns with Cream Cheese Filling (Naturally coloured!)

I love new challenges and bakes that break away from the routine of what I am familiar with. Although that means trial bakes may be necessary, I welcome the challenge if it is not out of my reach. And that was why I accepted the request for making my first cute pull-apart buns for sale! The cute bee on top is made from shortbread cookie.

Bee on tiger and bear buns!

Shortbread bees! Requested as part of the deco. Refer to this post for the recipe.

I am very much in favour of making cute buns for birthday celebrations as they are healthier than cakes or macarons. I use absolutely no artificial colouring at all for the buns. Although using cocoa powder would have been the easiest to create brown colour, I was told not to use it due to allergy. I experimented with dark brown sugar with a little Earl Grey powder, vanilla bean paste and a pinch of charcoal. It worked perfectly :). The deep orange colour was created using pumpkin powder and a pinch of paprika. I adapted the recipe from Victoria Bakes' killer toast recipe which stays soft for 5 days (I tested it myself). I bought both pumpkin powder and Earl Grey tea powder from Kitchen Capers.

It would also be easier to knead one large batch of dough, divide it into two and colour it separately when the dough almost passes the windowpane test. But because the brown colour is primarily coloured using dark brown sugar, the orange and brown dough have to be prepared separately as sugar has to be added at the beginning of making the dough. I did a few trial bakes before finally coming up with a satisfactory version. Here is one of my earlier trial bake.

How do I knead two separate batches of dough at the same time? I spend about 5-8 minutes kneading each colour at a time. This also allows the dough to relax in between 3 kneading cycles for each coloured dough. Those of you who have followed my blog posts will know that I prefer to knead dough by hand as I can feel the change of structure through my fingers. You may save yourself the trouble and use cocoa powder instead to colour the dough brown. That way you can just knead one dough and divide it later. Having said that, the brown sugar vanilla bread tastes awesome on its own!

Recipe for pumpkin and dark brown sugar cream cheese bun
Ingredients (makes 9 pull-apart buns in 7" tin):
Dark brown sugar dough
130g bread flour
25g dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/8 tsp Earl Grey powder (optional)
1/16 tsp charcoal powder (optional)
1g (or 1/2 tsp)  sea salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
85g half an egg and top up the rest with milk
15g unsalted butter

Pumpkin dough
110g bread flour
10g caster sugar
1/2 tsp instant yeast
20g pumpkin powder
1/8 tsp paprika powder (optional)
1g (or 1/2 tsp) sea salt
90g half an egg and top up the rest with milk
15g unsalted butter

Filling
9 pieces of Laughing Cow cream cheese (about 16g each piece)

Decoration
White compound chocolate
Charcoal powder
Edible markers

Notes: You may use any pumpkin bread recipe that uses fresh pumpkin but I find it more convenient to use the powder form here. You may also use any brand of cream cheese or any filling of your choice.

Steps:
1. Shape each piece of cream cheese into a ball and freeze it. Add vanilla bean paste into the egg and milk mixture for brown dough. Line a 7x7" tray with baking sheet.

2. Combine all ingredients for the dough together except butter. Cover the mixing bowl with cling wrap and let the mixture rest for 10 minutes. This is to help the flour absorb more moisture but it is optional. Knead until the dough is smooth. About 5-8 minutes. Add butter and knead until the dough passes the windowpane test (another 15 minutes or so). Place the resting dough in a bowl loosely covered with cling wrap to prevent it from drying out if you are kneading two separate balls of dough at the same time like me.

3. Place the kneaded dough in a bowl loosely covered with cling wrap. Let the dough proof for about 25 minutes at room temperature (27-28℃ in hot Singapore).

4. Punch down the dough to release trapped air bubbles. Divide the dough into 44-45g portions for the head and 3g for a pair of ears. You will end up having extra dough for one colour.

5. Lightly flour the work surface with bread flour. Flatten a ball of dough for the head and wrap a ball of cream cheese filling. Pinch seal the dough and place in baking tray seam side down. Repeat for all the heads.

6. Divide the 3g dough into two for the ears. Stick the dough on the head and use a toothpick to press down the edge of the ears as shown in the picture below. This is to prevent the ears from falling out during proofing and baking.

7. Cover baking tray loosely with cling wrap and proof until the buns double in size. This can take anywhere from 45min to 1.5h depending on proofing conditions.

Assembled buns before proofing

After doubling in size

8. Towards end of proofing time, preheat oven to 180℃ (fan off) and set the rack to lowest position. Bake for 10 minutes. Carefully tent a foil over the tray and bake for another 20 minutes at 150℃ or until done.

9. Let the buns cool in the tray for 10 minutes before letting them cool completely on a cooling rack.

10. Prepare some melted compound white chocolate to decorate the snout and ears. Colour the white chocolate with charcoal powder for the eyes and nose. Use edible marker to add the markings on the tiger and rosy cheeks.

All packed and ready to go!

Thank God these were very well received! The birthday boy gobbled up the bun before mummy could take a picture :p.

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Dessert Themed Shortbread Cookies

I love it when requesters give me relatively free rein for the design of bakes :). Someone requested for ice-cream and cupcake shortbread cookies that I made last year but I expanded the selection of desserts!

You may refer to this post for a detailed write-up of recipe and shaping steps for making the ice-cream cone and cupcake cookies using homemade templates. I will briefly describe what I did for this batch. Please refer to this post on how to shape the lollipop cookie.

I try to use as little artificial colouring as possible, relying on flavouring to colour the cookie dough instead.

Ingredients (makes about 25-30 cookies):
60g icing sugar
120g unsalted butter, slightly softened
165g plain flour
15g cornflour*
1/4 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp strawberry emulco
1/2 tsp lemon paste
1/8-1/4 tsp cocoa powder (I use Dutch processed but regular will do)
A drop of blue and red gel food colouring

* You may replace with plain flour for a firmer, less melt in your mouth cookie.

Steps:
1. Beat butter with icing sugar and salt until light and fluffy. You may beat by hand or use an electric mixer.

2. Add sifted cornflour and plain flour. Fold in with a spatula until a ball of dough forms.

3. Divide dough into 72g for brown, blue and pink dough, 140g for yellow dough and 5g for red dough. You may divide the colours equally too if that's your preference.

4. Roll the dough between two baking sheets to desired thickness (4-6mm). Use homemade cookie templates to cut out desired shapes or simply shape using your fingers. The lollipops for example, don't require templates. I made each lollipop using 7g of coloured dough for each colour.

5. Place cookie dough cutouts in baking tray lined with baking sheets. Chill in refrigerator until firm.

Cookie dough cutouts! I made a few bee cookies as well for another request.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 150℃ for 15-17 min or until done. Use the middle rack. Keep an eye on the cookies to make sure they don't turn brown.

7. Let the cookies cool completely on the tray before decorating or storing in airtight container.

Freshly baked cookies!

Decorate with royal icing or melted dark/milk chocolate and sprinkles as you wish. Store the decorated cookies in airtight container after the icing/chocolate has dried. These cookies can keep for about 1.5 months in airtight, cool room temperature.

My kids had some leftover dough to play with. It's been some time since I had time and energy to let them meddle with leftovers from my bakes. They didn't have the benefit of working with chilled dough and couldn't resist using up all the leftover sprinkles :p. Here's their handiwork...

You can tell which one was done by me as a demo piece!

My kids thought their creation was yummy ;).

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Cupcakes & Ice-cream Cone Shortbread Cookies

I have a request for a whooping 100 shortbread cookies in the shape of ice-cream cones and cupcakes. Here they are :)

These are modelled after the macarons that appear on the cover page of my Creative Baking: Macarons book. Shortbread cookies have the advantage of containing less sugar as decoration with royal icing is kept to the minimum. The sugar content in the cookie dough is not too high either.

I combined the ingredients together in a different way from how I did it previously. I have been using the method of cutting butter into flour/sugar mixture but thought of using the creaming method this time round to incorporate the colouring/ flavoring with minimal kneading after flour is added.

I made templates using clear plastic files to cut out the dough since I don't have cookie cutters for these designs. Very tedious but at least I don't and up having a huge collection of cookie cutters that I probably just use once in a lifetime. You may check out this post on how to make your own templates here.

Homemade templates and knife I use for cutting cookie dough

Ingredients:
(makes about 60 ice-cream cone and 60 cupcake cookies. About 4cm in size)

Pink/red dough
70g icing sugar
140g unsalted butter, softened
190g plain flour
20g cornflour (you may replace with plain flour)
1/4 tsp strawberry paste
1/8 tsp white gel food colouring  (optional)
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Few drops of red gel food colouring

Brown dough
60g icing sugar
120g unsalted butter, softened
165g plain flour
5g cocoa powder
10g corn flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Blue dough
60g icing sugar
120g unsalted butter, softened
165g plain flour
15g cornflour
1/4 tsp salt
Blue gel food colouring

Steps:
1. Use an electric mixer to cream butter, salt and icing sugar until pale and fluffy.

2. I will use the pink dough for illustration here. Add any liquid flavouring/colouring/extracts and mix well.

3. Add sifted plain flour and cornflour (and cocoa powder for brown colour) in a few batches. Mix until well combined with a spatula.

4. Portion out about 50g of pink dough and colour it red. Divide the rest of the pink dough into 4 or 5 batches. Place each batch between two baking sheets and roll to thickness of 4mm. Freeze or refrigerate until firm. Roll the brown and blue dough to about 5mm thick. Roll the red dough to about 8mm thickness. These thickness don't have to be too precise.

5. In order to create the ice-cream cone, use the template to cut out the outline on the brown dough. Return the dough to freezer when it softens too much to work with. I use a small knife to trace the outline with the help of the homemade plastic template. Place the cutouts on the baking tray lined with baking sheet. I find it helpful to place the dough on reusable freezer packs to prevent the dough from softening too fast.

6. Cut out the pink scoop of ice-cream and attach it to the base cut-out.

7. Sprinkle some rainbow sprinkles on the scoop of ice-cream. Gently press the sprinkles onto the cookie dough. Refrigerate the tray of cookie cut-outs while preheating the oven to 150°C.

8. For the cupcake cookies, cut out the blue base.

9. Cut out the pink cake and stick on top.

10. Use a drinking straw or a small circle cookie cutter to cut out the cherries. Carefully press the dough together where the boundaries meet.

11. Carefully sprinkle some chocolate rice on the pink cake. Chill the tray of dough cutouts.

12. Bake at 150°C for 14-17 minutes at the middle rack. Be careful not to brown the cookies.

After two days of hard work, here's what I achieved! I still had two-thirds of the cupcakes left unbaked!

Prepare white and brown royal icing. Use cocoa powder to colour the icing brown. Pipe the details on the cones and cupcakes cases.

Let the icing dry completely before storing in an airtight container.

I had to pack all 100 individually so it really tested my patience :p.

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »