Optimus Prime and Bumblebee Rose Tea Marshmallows

 My friend requested for some Bumblebee and Optimus Prime bakes. Since I have already made the macaron versions earlier this year, I thought why not challenge myself with the marshmallow version since I was concurrently working on another epic marshmallow project.

I couldn't find references I like because marshmallow subjects need to be on the softer side compared with using cookie or macaron as the medium. I ended up having to design Bumblebee. As there are lots of details, I could only manage 3 for each design 🤭.

I used cold brewed concentrated rose bud tea for the sugar syrup, gelatin bloom and a little to replace the water for rehydrating meringue powder. I have decided to switch to using meringue powder instead of egg whites from now on because of the convenience 🤭. You may refer to this reel for the ratio and visuals on how to do the replacement to be used with my basic marshmallow recipe from my book Deco Marshmallows.

Watch the squish and piping reel for these Autobots over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAnt-Wlyhjt/?igsh=bzByNnZyNmdsaWhq

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee Macarons II

 My friend wanted some Optimus Prime and Bumblebee macarons for her son's birthday and I took the chance to challenge myself. Although I made these way back in 2018 over here, I thought of trying the full body versions this time round!

I used my default Swiss meringue method to make the shells.

Checkout the awesome feet on the shells!

I added in the details after baking using edible marker and cake paint from Sweet Sticks.

I filled the macarons with strawberry-raspberry stabilized ganache that is temperature stable enough to stay at room temperature during this heat wave period in Southeast Asia (but don't leave it out in the sun of course!). I packed it with lots of fruit too! To make it temperature stable and safe for leaving it out of the fridge for some time, I made the filling dairy -free.

Dairy-free berry ganache for macarons 

240g white chocolate couverture 

80g berry jam (cook and reduce berries of choice with 10% sugar)

5g freeze dried berry powders

10g light corn syrup

pinches of salt

1/4 tsp strawberry emulco

3g gelatin bloom in 12g ice water

2g soy lecithin added with chocolate to melt (optional)

Steps:

1. Melt chocolate with soy lecithin to 41C

2. Heat corn syrup, berry powder, salt, emulco and jam until warm, about 46C

3. Melt bloomed gelatin. mix with warm liquid ingredients.

4. Add 3. to warm melted chocolate. Stir briefly and emulsify with blender.

5. Press cling wrap to surface, leave at aircon temperature to firm up for an hour or fridge for 30 min. Transfer to piping bag and pipe onto macaron shells

Watch the video tutorial with my tips on how to make macaron shells that are smooth, sturdy and have even feet all around for complex shaped characters like these in my reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6aL_ykS25e/?igsh=Mjk1MmlmMDUwaDVl

I had feedback that the macarons tasted fantastic, full of fresh berry flavour!

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Macarons

Some macaron characters are easy subjects, such as Hello Kitty and the Tsum Tsum version of Winnie the Pooh. This is an example of what are NOT easy subjects. Presenting two of the Transformers cast -- Optimus Prime and Bumblebee!

My friend requested for these as farewell gifts that mark the end of a school year. I thought it would be pretty all right to make just the heads of the characters. But it was when I started making them that I realised how super tedious the whole process is! As a general rule, the more the shape of a subject deviates from the circle shape, the more tedious it would be to pipe.

I used the Italian method to make these macarons.You may use your favourite macaron recipe or any recipe in our blog. You may refer to my macaron books Creative Baking: Macarons and Creative Baking: Macaron Basics for a more systematic review of the basics and piping techniques, as well as the macaron shell recipe I used here.

Just to share some pictures of the process...

Piping Optimus Prime

Piping Bumblebee

Freshly baked shells

Adding on the details post-baking was even more tedious than piping the batter. I needed two days to work on decorating 30 macarons. Either that or I am getting old and need to take more eye breaks 😆.

Other than techniques of baking macaron shells, I get queries about how I manage to draw by freehand all the minute details on the macaron shells. I would say having learnt the Chinese language from young is an advantage. We learn how to write by learning the brush strokes (笔画) of each word. Usually by the 5th or 6th piece, I have the "brush strokes" of each character figured out. I can proceed at a quicker pace as I memorised the "brush strokes" to draw. It becomes a calligraphy exercise after a while!

I decorate these Transformer pieces first by using a fairly fine black edible marker to draw the outline or "brush strokes" of the character. Next, I fill in the highlights or coloured portions by painting using a very fine soft brush with edible paint. I make the paint by dissolving gel food colouring in a little vodka.

You can see the process of decorating from this tray of Optimus Prime 

All done! It always helps to have your reference picture next to the macaron shell you are working on

Tray of Bumblebee shells

As the shells had to spend some time out in the open for decoration, I oven dried each tray worth of decorated shells at 80℃ for 20 min, and ensure that there is at least three days of maturation allowed post-assembly with filling as the shells will become drier with this additional drying step.

My friend requested for macarons filled with dark chocolate ganache and salted caramel some time back. She really loved the taste so she requested for it again this time round.

Filling the shells with an outer ring of dark chocolate ganache and generous dollop of salted caramel in the middle.

I packed each pair into little gift bags.

Thank God that these were really well received in terms of looks and taste!

With love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Transformers (Bumblebee) Chiffon Cake (Vanilla-choc, naturally colored)

This is a special cake for my dear sil. I made a 4-flavour Lego chiffon cake for him last year and it was one of my first cakes so very memorable. On to this year, my friend requested for Vanilla-chocolate, safe flavours for kids, and a very handsome theme, bumblebee Transformers.

I was inspired to make a version of bumblebee bursting out from the chiffon cake to make good use of its tube hole! In order to do that, I had to make a chiffon cake layer that was 2 coloured – yellow below and black above – to make it look like he had torn the cake. I did this by the swissroll patterning method – first prebake the chocolate layer pattern for 1.5 min, then pour the yellow batter over. 

The chiffon cake is all naturally colored. Thanks to Phay Shing’s Queen’s natural yellow turmeric-based coloring, I was able to colour the vanilla batter yellow easily naturally. The dark brown/black is coloured by using the Bakeway Extra dark cocoa powder from Phoon Huat. I have both the normal cocoa powder and this version which I use to colour the batter dark brown while adding some yums to the cake.

Yellow-Dark Brown Vanilla Chocolate Chiffon Cake (9-inch chiffon tin)
6 egg yolks
40g sugar
78g corn/vegetable oil
74 ml water
10 ml vanilla extract
120g cake flour
Queen’s natural yellow coloring
Cocoa powder (extra dark)
¼ tsp baking powder (added to the cocoa batter)

Meringue:
8 egg whites
90g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water at the bottom of the oven (I used the lowest rack to bake the cake). *You may omit steam baking; I like to use it to control my oven temperature rise.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Divide the batter 2/3 and 1/3. To the 2/3 portion, add a few drops of Queen’s yellow coloring. To the 1/3 portion, addition 1 tsp extra dark cocoa powder and 1/4 baking powder.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions. Divide the meringue into 2/3 and 1/3.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the each batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Pour the yellow batter into the chiffon tin till 2/3 full, then scoop the dark brown batter over.
7. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C and then at 150°C for 10 mins and 140°C for 20 min, then 130°C for 15 min.
8. Invert immediately once out of the oven to cool.
9. To the remaining dark brown batter, spread it thinly on a baking-paper lined 8-inch tray. Bake the tray for 1.5 min at 160oC. Then pour the yellow batter over (to 1 cm thick) and bake for 14 min at 160oC. This layer cake is used to make the strips bursting out of the chiffon tube hole.
10. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand after the cake is cool (see my humble video "Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cakes for a Clean Finishing").

I cut out the Transformers face using a grey layer cake and grey-brown layer cake (both 1 egg yolk recipe, using charcoal powder for the grey and charcoal + cocoa powder for the brown shade).

Thankful it was well-received by the kids and her hubby (who usually doesn’t like cake!).

With lots of love,
Susanne

Read More »