Grogu Matcha Marshmallow

This was an unplanned creation as I am really swamped with making each entry in Deco Marshmallows. I was making a matcha marshmallow character for the book when I realised that May the 4th is around the corner and I can take a little time out to create Grogu, baby Yoda!

Pardon the off-colour as my phone camera doesn't pick up the true colours sometimes 

This is the correct color

A works-in-progress shot!

As I wanted to keep things as simple as possible, I used a store bought product for Grogu's body. I bought Twiggies, a cream filled sponge by Gardenia.

Watch the reel on how I made this! Recipe for matcha marshmallows will be in Deco Marshmallows.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CryYtlRAlOE/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

with love,

Phay Shing

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Sugar-Free Lemon Butter Cake with Mascarpone Whipped Cream and Lemon Curd

This is a baby Yoda- lemony- (partially), sugar free part 2 bake for hubby's birthday! 

Please see my previous post for part 1 for sugar-free lemon bar with baby Yoda grapes.

Baby Yoda is made out of kiwi this time!

Please visit Melly's Instagram page for the tutorial on how to make baby Yoda out of kiwi @mellyeatsworld.

Here's a peek at a slice of the cake!

This lemon cake is made of a dense and rich tasting lemon butter sponge that is full of lemon flavour but has a melt in your mouth texture, sugar-free lemon curd, and mascarpone whipped cream. I brushed the sponge with mixture of honey and lemon juice to add moisture and more lemon flavour.

I adapted Hanbit Cho's lemon cake recipe for this bake.  You may find his detailed recipe and video tutorial on youtube over here. I tweaked it by including egg separation method to include a meringue component in the batter, as well as adding a little more lemon juice. I replaced half of the sugar with erythritol. You may use Hanbit's recipe as it is too but I was going for something like Mrs SK Ng's butter cake where both creaming method and meringues are used, but with the weight of eggs similar to Hanbit's recipe.

Lemon butter sponge

Ingredients (makes two thick 6" layers):

152g unsalted butter, softened (around 20-22C)

50g castor sugar (I used erythritol)

A pinch of salt

24g honey

4 egg yolks* (large, room temperature)

34g finely ground almond powder

136g cake flour

3/4-1 tsp baking powder

8g lemon zest

35g lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

Meringue

2 egg whites* (large)

60g castor sugar (I replaced 15g with erythritol, may replace all with sugar replacements for totally sugar-free version)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional)

* Total weight of egg yolks plus egg whites used about 152g.

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 165C. Line two 6" round pans with parchment paper at the base. I didn't have two identical pans that size so I used the paper cases for panettone.

2. Sift together almond, cake flour and baking powder, set aside.

3. Beat softened butter with electric mixer until loosened. Add sugar and salt and beat until light and fluffy. Add honey and beat until well combined.

4. Add one egg yolk and beat with electric mixer until well combined. Add a third of the sifted dry ingredients and beat until well combined.

5. Add the rest of the egg yolks one at a time, beating until well combined before adding more. Add in rest of dry ingredients and beat until just combined.

6. Add lemon juice, zest and vanilla and beat until well combined. 

7. Divide batter between two pans and bake for 25-30 min or until skewer comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before unmolding from pan.

For the cake assembly, I sliced each layer horizontally into two.

Lemon curd

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
100g lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)

80g sugar of choice (I used erythritol for sugar-free option)
100g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes at room temperature
Zest of 1 lemon

Steps:
1. In a heatproof bowl, whisk together sugar and egg yolks until smooth. Add lemon juice and mix well.

2. Double-boil egg mixture and whisk until temperature reaches 80C. 

3.Sieve mixture if you wish. Add softened butter one cube at a time, mixing until well combined after each addition with a spatula.

4. Add lemon zest and mix well. Use it immediately or to store, keep in airtight container with cling wrap touching the surface in the fridge for up to a week or freezer for up to a month. 

Mascarpone whipped cream
Note that conventional mascarpone whipped cream has sugar added and non-dairy whipped cream is not used. I use some non-dairy whipping cream for added stability in tropical Singapore. It is also pre-sweetened and has stabilizer added so I didn't add sugar. I used double cream instead of regular dairy whipping cream for a milkier taste and better stability.

Ingredients:
100g Whip topping (non-dairy whipping cream)
50g Mascarpone cheese
150g double cream (45% fat)

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Whip non-dairy cream until stiff peaks. Set aside.

2. Whisk Mascarpone cheese until loosened.

3. Add double cream and vanilla to loosened cheese and whisk until well combined. Do not overmix. Once the mixture is smooth and creamy, stop whisking in with the hand whisk.

4. Fold in non-dairy whipped cream in 3 additions with a spatula. 

5. Keep refrigerated airtight until use or transfer to piping bag and use straight away.

I folded in lemon curd into some of the mascarpone whipped cream and added a little yellow gel colouring for piping the dots around the cake.

Assembly

Get ready all the above and prepare a syrup made from honey and lemon juice with 1:1 ratio for brushing the sponge. You may refer to the reel on how I assemble the cake. Feel free to pipe it and decorate anyway you like! Hubby loves a mouth puckering lemon bake so adjust the ratio of mascarpone whipped cream and lemon curd on the cake to your preference. The sponge is sweet (but not overly so), mascarpone whipped cream mildly sweet and the curd is really sour. I kept the piping bags that are not in use in the fridge, and chill the cake in the fridge whenever necessary while working as Singapore is warm.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cksz3KsAV82/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Refrigerate cake and best consumed within a week.

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Sugar-Free Lemon Bars with Baby Yoda Grapes

Hubby was craving for something lemony so I made sugar-free lemon bars for a simple birthday bake for him! A super early birthday bake because year-end schedule looks set to be really busy!

He's a Star Wars fan so I took the chance to decorate the plain bars with a healthier but cute topper, baby Yoda grapes!

Aren't they cute?

Many thanks to Melly for sharing her tutorial on how to assemble these. Do check out her Instagram account @mellyeatsworld to see her amazing work!

I adapted the lemon bar recipe from Sally's blog post over here.

I made a few changes to the recipe:

1. Used erythritol instead of white sugar for a sugar-free bake. Note that erythritol tends to leave an "icy" mouth feel so feel free to use other types of sugar if you wish.

2. Added lemon zest in the shortbread and lemon custard.

3. Reduced amount of sugar

4. Replaced plain flour with cake flour for a more tender bite.

I also used half recipe as my glass tray was 10x7".

Sugar-free lemon bars

Ingredients (makes one 10x7"tray):

Shortbread

115g unsalted butter

45g erythritol (or replace with regular castor sugar)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

132g cake flour (or plain flour)

1/2 lemon zest

Lemon filling

180g erythritol (or castor sugar)

3 large eggs (65g or more with shell on)

120g lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)

1.5 lemon zest

23g cake flour

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Line bottom and sides of glass tray with parchment paper large enough to leave an overhang over the edges.

2. Make shortbread crust. Mix melted butter, sugar, vanilla, salt and zest in a bowl. Add flour and stir to combine. Press into pan. Bake 20 min or until edges lightly browned. Poke shallow holes over top of warm crust using fork.

3. Make lemon filling. Sift together zest, sugar and flour. Whisk in warm eggs (around 40C, helps to dissolve sugar), then lemon juice until combined.

4. Pour filling over warm crust. Bake for 18-22min or until center no longer jiggles. Cool completely before refrigerating for 2 hours or overnight. 

5. Once cooled, lift parchment off pan using overhang on the sides. Cut off the uneven edges. Dust with powdered sugar (I used a sugar-free option) and cut into squares before serving.

Hubby couldn't stop snacking on the cut off pieces as I was still working 😆.

If you are a fan of lemon, do give this simple bake a try !

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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TV Room Macaron Scene

I made this for someone who is a fan of Star Wars and K drama, and who is born in the year of the Ox! 

Can you tell which drama they are so engrossed watching? 

I used Swiss meringue method to make the macaron shells. The couch pieces are flavoured and coloured with freeze-dried raspberry powder and the large base shell is coloured and flavoured with cocoa powder. 

These were made on 3 separate days due to my schedule! The large chocolate macaron shells are 15cm in diameter. 

I prefer to use Teflon sheets to line the baking tray for large macaron shells or shells that need straight edges as Teflon sheets do not wrinkle like parchment paper. I prefer to use parchment paper for macaron shells that need intricate designs as I can see through parchment better than Teflon. I hope this helps im explaining why I use different types of material to line my baking trays. 

Here are the freshly baked character macaron shells! 

Here are the decorated characters! I always make an extra set in case my butter fingers accidentally damage something.

I decorated the shells with royal icing, edible marker or edible paint made by washing edible marker with vodka. The technique of using edible marker and vodka is a quick way of decoration. I drew the popcorn and the TV scene using this technique. 

This TV scene is painted using edible marker and vodka to create a water colour effect. The canvas is royal icing transfer that has been thoroughly dried. This icing transfer is glued onto the black rectangle macaron shell with more royal icing to create the TV. 

I filled the base chocolate macaron with dark chocolate ganache, crunchy chocolate balls and a little raspberry white chocolate ganache. 

This isn't the first time I made the raspberry macaron couches. I made it a couple of years ago too in this scene. 

I added a little dark chocolate ganache to the raspberry ganache such that the shade matches the macaron shells. I also flavoured and coloured the royal icing that joins the pieces together with freeze-dried raspberry powder and a little cocoa powder to help the shade to match the shells. 

Couches on the giant base shell! 

This project took me almost a week, including a day to plan, conceptualise and make the templates. Although it did test my patience, it is really satisfying to see the finished product. Hope it puts a smile on your face as it did to mine😊. 

With love,

Phay Shing 

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Jawa and Tusken Raider Dark Chocolate and Earl Grey Macarons

I was asked to make some macarons for a Star Wars fan club event that was supposed to happen back in May last year but it got postponed until end November due to the pandemic. The drawings for a rather chibi version of Jawa and Tusken raiders were given to me so it was very helpful when I had to make a total of 66 character macarons like these! 

I used the Swiss meringue method to make these macarons. The shells alone I chose to split over 2 days to bake as I still have my hands full with family. 

Here are some photos of the piped batter... 

Piped Jawas! 

Piped Tusken raiders! 

I decorated the shells with edible marker and royal icing.  It took me 2 days to complete decorating the shells. 

See the awesome feet! 

See the awesome feet on these too! 

I filled the macarons with dark chocolate ganache and Earl Grey ganache. 

Here is another peek at the assembled macarons! 

With love, 

Phay Shing

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Reading Room Raspberry & Dark Chocolate Macarons

As far as whimsical bakes are concerned, I think this is one of my most whimsical ones. Presenting a reading room scene made out of macarons! Even the armchairs, lampshade and floor rug are made out of macarons!

Darth Vader is finding someone else's reading material interesting 🤣. 

You can guess what are some of the birthday man's favourite characters and what's his favourite hobby. I had fun coming up with this creation!

I used the Swiss meringue method to make the macarons as there are many colours involved and I needed a more stable meringue. You may refer to this post for the detailed recipe. Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping the characters

I made the armchairs using raspberry flavoured macaron shells and filling by adding freeze dried raspberry powder. 

You may refer to this post for the raspberry filling recipe. I replaced some white chocolate with cocoa butter to make the filling even less sweet. I made Royal icing that is close to the colour of the macaron shells to join the individual macaron pieces together.

Filling the characters with raspberry white chocolate ganache. I decorated the characters using edible markers and paint made by dissolving gel food colouring in vodka. 

Filling the base macaron with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry ganache. This is the largest circle base I have made so far, which is about 15cm. My macaron carousels have 13cm circles as the base. 

You my refer to this post for the recipe for dark chocolate ganache.


I hope this creation brought a smile to your face as it did mine 😊.

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Characters in Tea Set' Chocolate Hazelnut Macarons

This is what happens when the requester gives me free reign of design, specifying only the required characters and flavour of filling 😁. Presenting my tea set macaron cake!

R2D2, Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Marie and Darth Vader sitting in teacups (or hiding in teapot in Piglet's case)

Everything in the setup is made of macarons! The wooden serving tray, teacups, saucer and teapot (handle, spout, body and lid!) are macarons! Needless to say, so are all the characters. I must admit that the teapot was particularly challenging but I am glad that at least it is recognisable 😆.

I used a stabilized French method recipe that I have been using recently as the colours are many but quantity is few. My schedule lately is also more manageable if I break down a complex bake into shorter separate sessions, instead of having a long full day of baking many different coloured and complex-shaped shells. I had to coach my kids as it was exam period.

The hemispherical shells for the teacups and teapot were made by piping the batter over silicone cake pop moulds. You can find the details of this in my Creative Baking: Macaron Basics book.

Just to share some photos of the process...

Piping the characters. I usually prepare an extra set in case one set turns out ugly.

Piping the wooden serving tray. The wood grain pattern was a challenge to pipe with batter!

I forgot to take photos of the piped batter for the teacup set. But you may refer to my first attempt  for some photos of piped batter for making hemispherical macaron shells.

I decorated the shells with royal icing and black edible marker 

Assembled teacups! This photo actually went a little viral when I shared it on social media and it got reposted twice in Instagram

I filled the tea set with something kid friendly, something with chocolate in there as requested. I didn't want the filling to appear extra dark so I used a mix of dark chocolate, white chocolate and hazelnut to create a filling that is still yummy despite having less dark chocolate content.

Recipe for chocolate hazelnut ganache
Ingredients:
80g dark chocolate
80g white chocolate
40g hazelnut ganache* (or hazelnut butter)
50-70g whipping cream (use more if you prefer softer ganache)
20g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

*I used store bought hazelnut ganache and didn't intend to make my own because I have it on hand from another recent bake. You may add more hazelnut butter or ganache if you prefer stronger hazelnut flavour.

Hazelnut ganache from Phoon Huat

Steps:
1. Heat a saucepan filled with about 1" of water and let it simmer. Put all ingredients in a heatproof bowl that can sit on top of the saucepan without the base touching the water.

2. Use a spatula to stir the contents until everything is melted and homogeneous. Remove from heat.

3. Chill in freezer for 2 minutes. Beat mixture with spatula until smooth. Repeat chilling and beating until the whipped ganache resembles buttercream

Whipped ganache

4. Transfer into piping bag and fill the macaron shells.

Piping filling into wooden serving tray macaron shell.

Here's a photo of the tea set at the party! Someone else made the cake. I made some extra macarons too and those adorned the cake.

I hope this post has inspired you to let your imagination run wild!

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Our Favourite Characters' Cookies n Cream Macaron Playground

My friend's Bible study group was planning to have a combined birthday celebration for everyone with birthday that falls in the month of March. What better way to personalize the birthday bake for everyone than to create a playground where their favourite character is!

All macarons are filled with cookies n cream filling

Back view of the playground. You don't get to see the steps of the slide that well from the front.

Here's a short video of how the playground works!

This is the second time I am making a macaron playground. Checkout my cute overload version that I made in January over here.

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 some pictures of the process...

Piping the characters

Freshly baked shells

Decorating the shells with royal icing and edible marker.

You may find the recipe for cookies N cream filling that is suitable for outdoor display over here.

Filling the shells. I have a couple of extra macarons to fill that aren't included in the playground.

Checkout the awesome feet!

Thank God it was very well received with the kids eating up every single edible part!

With love,
Phay Shing

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