My friend requested for some space themed and Mickey and Minnie mouse cookies for her son's birthday.
This is a way overdue post that I couldn't find an opportunity to post earlier due to more pressing bakes to post first. I made a more "grown-up” version of the planets and sun for my elder kid's birthday end of last year. This cute version was actually made months before that 😅.
You may refer to this post for the brown sugar cookie and royal icing recipe.
Just to share a couple of works in progress pictures...
Icing the cookies
Thank God these were so well received that they were all finished during the party along with the cupcakes that my friend baked for her boy, much as mummy wanted to reserve some after the party.
Have you ever done school projects whereby you had to make the solar system model or Sun, moon and Earth model? I was given such a project but using macarons to do so 😂
Sun, Earth and Moon models filled with vanilla white chocolate rice crispies!
This is not just a static display but all three can rotate on the stand!
Pardon the poor lighting as it was raining. It would help to have sturdier 10cm cakeboards too 😅
I have done a number of bakes involving the use of cake pop moulds to make hemispherical shells. But this is the first time I am making a full sphere by joining two hemispheres together.
I used the regular 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. You may wonder which part of the model requires piping of complex shapes on flat surfaces. Let me reveal a little secret on the hidden mechanics of the frame. You need to pipe donut shaped macarons for the frame/stand of the models. I have made a few macaron structures with moving parts so I am able to reveal a bit more.
Showing off the feet and interior of donut shaped macaron shells. No hollows and beautiful, even feet all around!
One thing I learned about this bake is that not all silicone cake pop moulds are made the same. The blue cake pop moulds I have below are not as good for the purpose of baking macaron shells as they remain stuck for a long time and require much longer time in the oven for drying out. The dark red moulds however were very easy to use. Spacing between the rounds was wider and the macaron shells just detached themselves from the silicone mould while cooling down out of the oven.
Piping hemispherical shells.
Remember to thoroughly bake through the shells before removing them from the mould or you will risk breaking the shells while unmoulding.
Freshly baked shells, decorated with edible paint.
I made the edible paint by dissolving gel food colouring in vodka, use crushed paper towel to soak up some paint and dab on the surface of the shells.
The Earth was a lot trickier. I had to assemble the whole thing before adding on the continents using royal icing. Icing on a spherical surface is tricky but thank God I managed it. Freehand too without using marker to trace out the continents!
I borrowed my kids' inflatable globe as my reference
Recipe for rice crispies white chocolate filling
Some consideration has to be made about the filling as it will be really heavy to fill the whole sphere with regular ganache or buttercream. I opted for a rice crispies base with chocolate as the binder. I would personally use dark chocolate as it is less sweet but the requester wanted vanilla white chocolate. Feel free to increase the ratio of chocolate to rice crispies cereal as you see fit. I used fairly little white chocolate to prevent the whole thing from becoming too sweet, so the rice crispies are not bound too tightly.
Ingredients:
60g rice crispies cereal
60g compound white chocolate chips
30g vegetable shortening/ unsalted butter
1tsp vanilla bean paste
1/8 tsp salt
10g golden syrup or honey
Steps:
1. Combine white chocolate, golden syrup, shortening and salt in a microwave safe bowl. Melt in 20 sec bursts at medium power. Stir with spatula. Repeat until completely melted.
2. Add vanilla bean paste and mix well.
3. Pour rice crispies into chocolate mixture and mix until well coated.
Fill the shells by carefully spooning mixture into each hemisphere. Quickly put two hemispheres together and gently press them together. Leave the chocolate to set at cool room temperature.
I hope this post inspires you to see that there's endless possibilities when it comes to making macaron structures :)
Having a mum who is a homebaker means that you get to choose exactly what you want for your birthday bake in terms of type of bake and design. My elder kid requested for a solar system bake in brown sugar cookie form after he was wowed over by the realistic swirl patterns on my solar system macaron ferris wheel. He wanted the moon added in so there's an extra item.
My favourite happens to be the moon 😍
These cookies were made concurrently with my nativity scene cookies so I used the coloured icing from nativity scene whenever possible to help me save time. That's why the colours are a little different from my macaron ferris wheel version.
It's not surprising that he chose brown sugar cookies as I have never had a kid who didn't like my brown sugar cookies and that's a straight record for 3.5 years ever since I started making them. Others who have tried my recipe also gave a thumbs up and gave the same report that kids (and adults) love them. I am also sharing this recipe in classes conducted at ToTT for kids because it's so good I shouldn't keep it to myself ;)
You may refer to this post for detailed recipe for brown sugar cookie and royal icing. I added the swirl patterns, lines and craters using edible marker, vodka and a fine paint brush. The white highlights were added on using white gel food colouring dissolved in vodka. You may refer to this post to see how this is done.
The birthday boy was happy to share some with the younger one, both having the dilemma of deciding which planet to eat first 😅.
This also marks the last blog post from me for 2017. Have a blessed 2018!
When I received this request a couple of months ago, I was really thrilled as it really allows the macaron Ferris Wheel concept to shine with this theme. Presenting my version of solar system displayed in the form of macaron Ferris Wheel!
This beautiful photo was taken by my friend at the birthday celebration. I am ashamed to say that my photography skills are terrible!
I took this photo at home, trying to make use of fading sunlight after a long day's work of assembly. Needless to say it pales in comparison to the one my friend took!
Checkout the wheel in motion!
Again, my friend took a much clearer video of it although it didn't show the full range of motion...
Here's my version showing how smooth the wheel turns.
Pandan Gula Melaka flavour was requested. I personally would have gone all the way to include coconut as well to make this Ondeh-Ondeh flavoured but someone in the party is allergic to coconut so I have to leave it out. After trying out brown sugar replacement in the Italian meringue for salted caramel macarons, which was a hit, I did not hesitate to replace half of the caster sugar in the Italian meringue with Gula Melaka this time round. Why only half and not all, you may ask. It's because I didn't want the light coloured or blue shells to need too much white gel colouring to mask the browning due to Gula Melaka.
Recipe for reduced-sugar Pandan Gula Melaka macaron shells
Ingredients: Mass
180g superfine almond meal
168g icing sugar (with cornflour added)
11g rice flour
1g (1/2 tsp) cornflour
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
70g egg whites
Charcoal powder
Gel food colouring
1/8 tsp caramel flavouring (optional)
1/8 tsp pandan flavouring (optional)
A few pandan leaves
Italian meringue
88g Gula Melaka (buy powder form or finely chopped from block)
88g caster sugar
65g water
70g egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional)
Steps:
1. Dry the almond meal, rice and cornflour together with pieces of pandan leaf in the oven at 90℃ for 30min. This is to impart some pandan aroma from natural source but optional if you don't want to go through the trouble. Discard the leaves. Cool to room temperature and sift together with icing sugar and salt.
Drying almond with Pandan leaves
2. Prepare templates on baking tray and line with parchment paper. Set oven rack to lowest position. Add egg whites to powder mixture to make a thick paste. Divide the mass according to how much of each colour you need and colour with natural source and/or gel food colouring. I used a pinch of red yeast powder for red colour.
3. Prepare Italian meringue. Place caster sugar, Gula Melaka and water in a tall saucepan. Bring to a boil to temperature of 115-118℃. In the meantime, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Reduce mixer speed to low if syrup temperature is not reached yet. Once temperature is reached, remove saucepan from heat. Turn mixer speed to high and carefully pour the syrup into the egg whites, avoiding the beaters. Continue beating on high speed for another 12-15 minutes or until meringue is cooled and stiff peaks form.
4. Use some of the meringue to stick the baking paper to the baking tray. Divide the meringue for the various colours. Use formula of weight of meringue = 0.51 x weight of mass. Fold the meringue into the mass in two batches until batter flows in a slow-moving lava-like manner. You may refer to this post for the basics.
5. Transfer batter into piping bags and pipe away! I am not ready to share the details of Ferris Wheel structure yet so I will not show in detail what the structure is like. Here's what I am comfortable to reveal..
Piping the sun!
Piping the man looking through his telescope at the planets! Note that I pipe double the number just in case one of them fail.
Piping the planets!
You may refer to this post on how to pipe complex shapes. Bang the tray on the table to release trapped air bubbles. Dry in air-con room or under the fan until dry to touch. Bake at 140℃ for the first 10 min before reducing temperature to 110℃ for the rest of the baking time. Bake until shells are dry. Duration depends on size of the shell. Cool completely before removing from baking sheet. If the shell is still stuck, bake at 110℃ for another few minutes and try again, more than once if necessary.
Freshly baked shells!
Decorate with edible paint and royal icing. I use edible markers, white gel colouring and vodka wash to create the designs on all the planets except Earth (royal icing).
All decorated!
I spray painted the Ferris Wheel frame with some white paint to create an outer space effect.
What I am really excited about for this project, other than the design, is the new non-refrigerated filling that I successfully experimented with. If you have been following my posts, you will realise that all my non refrigerated filling use white chocolate as the base (if it's not dark chocolate flavoured). White chocolate as you know, is way too sweet. I add vegetable shortening, salt, and tea flavoured fillings to compensate the sweetness level of white chocolate. This helps to a certain extent but sometimes not enough for the taste buds of some people. I was wondering what else I could use that is fairly neutral tasting but firm yet creamy in Singapore's hot and humid weather. Thank God for the inspiration when I thought about using mung bean paste! Chinese have been using mung bean paste as mooncake fillings to create a myriad of different flavours for a long time. I thought why not create a "cream" that is mung bean based then. And since the filling will be prepared from scratch, I have absolute control over how much sugar goes into the filling, which I couldn't achieve with white chocolate. I did a trial and my family gave it a thumbs up when they ate Pandan Gula Melaka flavoured shells sandwiched with the same flavour of mung bean paste cream! Imagine my excitement 😍!
I adapted the mung bean paste recipe from Christine's.
Recipe for Pandan Gula Melaka mung bean cream (suitable non-refrigerated macarons)
Ingredients: Mung bean puree
200g dried deshelled mung beans
A few pandan leaves, knotted or cut into shorter strips
Water
Mung bean paste
200 mung bean puree
36g Gula Melaka (more if you prefer sweeter)
32g milk (or coconut milk)
1 pandan leaf cut into smaller pieces
2/3 tsp salt
28g vegetable shortening (may replace with oil and/or unsalted butter for refrigerated macarons)
1/2 tsp caramel flavouring
1/4 tsp pandan paste
1/4 tsp coconut flavouring
2 tsp wheat starch
Mung bean cream
280g mung bean paste
20g vegetable shortening (replace with unsalted butter if you your final product is meant to be refrigerated)
Note: this recipe is catered for macaron filling so it tends to be less sweet but saltier, to be paired with macaron shells that already have high sugar content. Please adjust sugar and salt content accordingly if used in other pastries.
Steps:
1. Prepare mung bean puree. Wash and drain dried mung beans a few times before soaking overnight. Drain the soaking water and rinse and drain one more time. Transfer beans into a shallow steaming plate. Add pandan leaves and cover the beans with enough water toll about 1cm above the beans. Steam for 30-35 min or until beans are soft. Drain away excess water and remove pandan leaves. Press the beans through a fine sieve. I didn't use the finest sieve I have so the paste wasn't as smooth as it should be although it still tastes great. You may freeze any excess puree for future use.
2. Prepare mung bean paste. Heat milk with Pandan leaf in microwave oven or in small saucepan. Let the leaf steep for 10 min. Discard the leaf. Place all ingredients except wheat starch in a nonstick frying pan or wok. Bring to a boil while stirring with a spatula. Once it's boiling, reduce heat to simmer. Keep stirring until liquid is reduced by two-thirds. Gradually add sifted wheat starch and stir until well combined. Continue cooking the mixture and stirring/kneading with spatula until a soft dough forms and all liquid has been cooked off, about 20-30 minutes. Note that you may want to cook it until it is drier than you would for mooncake fillings if using it
For macaron structures that require stability at Singapore's room temperature. Transfer to a bowl and cool completely.
3. Make mung bean cream. Cream shortening with electric mixer in a bowl. Gradually add mung bean paste and continue beating until mixture lightens up.
Left: Pandan Gula Melaka mung bean paste Right: the creamed version
Transfer the cream into piping bag and fill the shells!
Creating this Ferris Wheel has been challenging but I am more confident in making these now that I have more practice :). You may check out my first macaron Ferris Wheel creation over here. I made a miscalculation for the size of the planets. That's why I had to raise the platform to allow space for the planets to rotate fully. I better do my calculations more carefully next time and not just reuse my old template 😅
Thank God the wheel survived the trip intact! I delivered it myself while taking public transport. Everyone certainly had much fun playing with it and commented that the aroma is wonderful!
My humble attempt at a "Galaxy" chiffon cake, inspired by the "milky way"! My humble video of my Galaxy chiffon cake can be found here! Since Father's day was coming, I thought to post on cake on a 'Super man' in space! Actually I was trying to depict an Astronaut who had just conquered the moon lol.. Thank God cake was well-received!
Thank God for the 'Super dads' we have! I am on holiday break, so will be slightly slower in my replies, please bear with me! =)
I made this cute Solar system 2-tier chiffon cake some time back. It got lost in my phone until I got reminded of it suddenly when a friend tagged me yesterday with a cute solar system cake!
The two-tone cake and base recipe is similar to the Charcoal-blue pea flowers solar system chiffon cake I made for my son's birthday a year back, omitting the cinnamon powder. I deliberately made one side look like it was facing the sun, with charcoal chiffon on one side and charcoal with blue pea flowers on the other side. The planets are all cute mini chiffon cake pops sticking into the cake. I made them by baking chiffon cake batter (with marbling) in small cake pop molds. The solar system cake was actually in Deco Chiffon Cakes book to the last draft but taken out at the very last minute in favour of the chick chiffon =p.
Happy 7th Birthday to my dearest firstborn! I made a Solar system chiffon cake for my future scientist/geek who loves these! I also worked hard on my planetary facts and tried my best to get their placement/size/design as accurate as possible hehe. So from the Sun, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupitar, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto. God is amazing at making all these!
My MIL gave me two packs of Ceylon grounded cinnamon (which they say are the best), so I tried out these on the cake. I added 1 tsp cinnamon powder to my usual vanilla chiffon cake recipe (below). The taste wasn’t that strong so I would recommend adding 1.5-2 tsp (which other recipes use) the next time. In my case, I didn’t dare add more as it created a lot of brown specks on the batter.
5 egg yolks
33g sugar
65g vegetable oil
70 ml water
8 ml vanilla extract
100g cake flour
1 tsp cinnamon powder (recommend adding 2 tsp in future)
7 egg whites
75g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
I divided the batter 1/3 and 2/3. I added 1 tsp charcoal powder and blue pea flower extract (35 flowers in 10 ml hot water) to the 2/3 portion and only blue pea flower extract to the 1/3 portion. I made the blue-black boundary curved to represent the halo from the sun. The final colour was a bit dull, so I painted the whole cake with more blue pea flower extract (now have an abundance thanks to my MIL). Lastly for the planets, I baked chiffon cake in round cake pop molds of different sizes and created stripes, marbling effect and patches by spooning in the batter differently.
My son had great fun distributing the planets and telling everyone about them yesterday! Thank God so much for helping him grow.
