"Capybaras Celebrate SG60" Mao Shan Wang Durian Ice-Cream Cake

I will never look at the Merlion the same way again 🤭. When this image popped into my mind, I couldn't help giggling and knew I had to turn my imagination into a loving creation, complete with a cake flavour fitting for the celebration.

Singapore's 60th birthday is just around the corner so I am sharing with you this yummy and simple durian ice-cream cake! I used premium durian with complex flavour for this. 

I will just share the ingredient list in this blog post for your convenience. You may find the video of the process and method in the pinned comments of my reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM7j4pvpBuf/?igsh=dms0NGtuOXBqbHpt

White chiffon sponge cake (12x12" sheet):

A)

30g oil

40g milk

40g pandan water* (or replace with milk and more vanilla)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

70g cake flour, sifted

1/8 tsp salt

B)

4 large egg whites (150-160g)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

60-70g caster sugar

Durian ice-cream:

350g durian puree*

200g whipping cream of choice*

8g gelatin powder*

40g cold water or milk

* Additional Notes:

🔸Pandan water: 

Boil a small saucepan of water with a few knotted pandan leaves for 5min. Leave it to steep for another 5min after taking it off the heat. Discard the leaves. This is optional but I find the hint of pandan aroma with vanilla complementary to durian.

🔸Durian puree: 

I didn't use a blender because I wanted chunks of durian in the ice-cream. I just pulled the flesh off each durian seed and tore any fibres into smaller chunks. You may make the puree smooth if that's your preference. I used a premium durian (王中王(king of kings) 猫山王 (mao shan wang)) which has a complex flavour profile and creamy flesh. Use less durian and more cream if you prefer a milder durian flavour with stronger fresh cream taste.

 

🔸Whipping cream: 

I used 100g dairy and 100g non-dairy whipping cream to get a balance of stability, good taste and ease of whipping. This combination has no risk of overwhipping and there is no need to add sugar because non-dairy whipping cream is pre-sweetened.

If you are using only dairy cream, you may add a little icing sugar to whip together if you wish, and be careful not to overwhip. Non-dairy whipping cream also stays creamy and soft when frozen so it helps with keeping the ice-cream texture creamy and soft.

🔸Gelatin powder: 

Adding gelatin not only helps to stabilize the whipped cream if you intend to serve this chilled instead of frozen, it also helps to prevent ice crystals from becoming large when frozen so the ice-cream stays creamy and soft. You may use fish, beef or pork gelatin. If you need a vegetarian option, skip this and use xanthan gum instead.

Just to share more pictures of the cake...

Painted design using the printing technique shown in the reel. You just need to bake a blank canvas of white sheet cake. No messing around with patterning batter!

A peek at the sides of the cake 

A closer look at the durian ice-cream chock full of durian chunks!

Do give this recipe a try even if the design is too challenging for you. According to the durian lover who received this cake, it's really yummy!

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Carrot Cream Cheese Capybara Swiss Roll

 Here's the fourth in my series of five animal Swiss rolls made from baby food puree -- capybaras!

While my previous three Swiss rolls have the option of making it dairy-free, this contains cream cheese and has a more exciting/complex flavour profile as I add spices, brown sugar and a hint of orange in addition to the carrot puree base and cream cheese.

Why use baby food puree? Because it doesn't contain additives and its smoother than what you usually get from homemade (unless you put in extra effort to make it super smooth).

I will list the ingredients here. You may refer to my reel for the video tutorial on how to decorate and shape the swiss roll. See the pinned comment of the reel for the method.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMH9LOvTHQw/?igsh=MWwxODFxNnpmMWV6aQ==

Egg yolk batter:

3 egg yolks

30g neutral oil of choice

51g reduced carrot puree with spices* 

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp orange extract or 1/2 tsp orange zest

1/8 tsp salt

48g cake flour

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/8 + 3/16 tsp cocoa powder (for colour)

Meringue:

110-120g egg whites (about 3 large eggs)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar 

25-30g caster sugar

25-30g light brown sugar

Cream:

50g whipping cream of choice** 

45g cream cheese, softened at room temperature 

5g milk powder 

10g dark brown sugar

25g reduced carrot puree with spices*

Eyes:

1/16 tsp charcoal powder or black cocoa powder

5g butter/oil

5g icing sugar

5g egg whites

5g cake flour

Black edible marker for nostrils and mouth 

*110g carrot puree + 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 1/8 tsp ginger + 1/8 tsp nutmeg. Heat until reduced to 75-80% original puree weight

** Use non-dairy for better stability in hot climate. Use heavy cream with at least 35% fat for better taste but add 2 tsp icing sugar & be careful not to overwhip or it will split. Use a combination of creams if you wish

Stay tuned for the last animal which comes in another exciting flavour!

with love,

Phay Shing

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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

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Capybara Mint Chocolate Macarons (template included!)

 Chocolate macarons may be tricky to make. Let me share some important tips to show you how to make it work!

Featuring capybaras as the subject!

Check out the awesome feet!

Freshly baked shells!

You may use this template below to create the capybara macaron shells.

Recipe for mint chocolate macarons and video of the process can be found in the reel below:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJEQtCDptpb/?igsh=MWJvZG1taXpubXExcg==

When making chocolate macaron shells, choose the brand of cocoa powder that has the lowest fat content that you have access to. For me and many bakers, it's Hershey's with fat content at 10% compared to 20-25% for most other brands. If you would like your shells to have a deeper brown colour, choose the Dutch processed version. Make sure your almond flour is not too oily as well because it will cause the meringue to deflate prematurely.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Sugar-Free Capybara Apple Pop Tarts

 I made these felt toy lookalike capybara pop tarts for hubby's birthday!

A peek at the insides!

I tried to make it as low a GI as possible without compromising taste and kept the use of artificial colouring minimal.

If this style of felt toy lookalike pop tarts seem familiar to you, it means you must have seen Melly's (Instagram: @mellyeatsworld) incredible pop tart creations a few years ago! I was truly inspired by her work and the pop tarts stood out because I have never seen anything like them before. I hope I did her style of work justice here to make the pop tarts good enough to fool you into thinking that they are handmade felt toys 🤭.

My hubby loves capybaras (actually everyone in my family does) and anything with apple pie filling so I took the chance to create these sugar-free pop tarts as his super early birthday bake. Hardly any sugar replacements are used because sugar is optional for this bake. Although sugar sweetens and helps with caramelization, it's not absolutely necessary for the structure. I relied on brown butter, cinnamon and caramelizing the apple to give this creation amazing flavours. It's naturally coloured too except for the 🍎 that the capybaras are holding.

Here's the template. Do tag me on social media if you create it!

Please resize the template till the height of the capybara is 10cm

I put a heart on the template instead of an apple for sizing purposes since I have an apple cookie cutter that's about 1".

Sugar-Free Capybara Apple Pop Tarts

(makes 4 pop tarts)

Apple filling*:

2 large Gala apples, peeled & finely diced 

A pinch of salt

1/8-1/4 tsp lemon juice (optional)

1/4-1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1-2 tbs (8-16g) Alchemy fibre* (replace with sugar or omit)

25g unsalted butter 

1. Mix all ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl. Set aside

2. In a light coloured saucepan, brown butter over low heat 

3. Add 1. into brown butter. Cook until apple is translucent & slightly caramelized. Adding sugar helps with the caramelization but I want to keep the GI as low as possible

4. Cool completely before using or stored in the fridge until assembly

Tart dough:

180g plain flour

5-10g powdered Erythritol/icing sugar (optional)

Pinches of salt

1/2-3/4 tsp cinnamon powder

100g cold unsalted butter, cubed*

1 egg yolk

30g cold milk/ice water

Egg wash*:

1 egg yolk

15g water

1/2 tsp cocoa powder

5g boiling hot water

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt & cinnamon

2. Rub in cold butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

3. Whisk egg yolk & cold milk together. Add to 2. Mix well until a ball of dough forms

4. Portion out dough & colour:

Red: 20g + red gel color

Dark brown: 25g + 1/16 tsp cocoa powder + a few drops of water

Green: 5g + green gel color 

Black: 3g + 1/16 tsp charcoal+ a few drops of water

5. Wrap & refrigerate for at least 30min

6. Roll to 3mm thick for base dough for capybara's body & 1mm thick for the rest. Freeze for 15 min 

7. Cut out dough using template. Join small parts to main body by brushing some water/egg wash. Press small cutouts firmly into body. Freeze if not assembling yet

I had leftover dough which I used to make some circles 

8. Assemble with apple filling by adding 1 tbs of filling to the base dough cutout. Brush perimeter with water/egg wash. Press top dough cutout down firmly. Crimp the edges & egg wash stitches*. Pierce holes for nostrils & mouth to vent. I used a combination of a cake tester and a small knife to create the vents.

9. Freeze assembled tart while preheating oven to 170C fan/185C

10. Bake 10-12min. Rotate tray & bake another 10-12min or until lightly browned. Adjust baking conditions to whatever works for your oven as each oven is different.

* Additional notes:

🔸Alchemy fibre: A prebiotic fibre mix of inulin & edible gum. Glycemic index is not zero but has beneficial effect on gut health, glycemic load and cholesterol. Tastes mildly sweet

🔸The portion of apple filling is more than enough for filling 4 capybara pop tarts. I recommend serving the pop tarts with extra filling on the side as overstuffing the tarts may risk them exploding during baking. Other types of fillings that are rich like S'mores (milk chocolate & toasted marshmallows), or really strong flavoured like jams that are sweet and tart at the same time need not have filling top-ups

🔸You may replace some of the butter with shortening if your environment is really warm like mine (30-31C kitchen these days 🥵) for better shape retention 

🔸 Egg wash: Mix egg yolk with 15g water for a regular egg wash or to glue pieces of dough together. For the brown stitch egg wash paint, dissolve cocoa powder in boiling hot water, then mix in 20g egg wash. I used fine tweezers instead of a fork to crimp the edges for a more realistic stitch pattern. Fork tinnes tend to be a little thicker so it won't appear too "stitch-like"

🔸 Tarts can be stored at room temperature for 2 days or in the fridge for a week tightly wrapped. Extra apple filling can be stored in the fridge for a week. Reheat by toasting tart for a few minutes until sizzling before consuming it piping hot with extra filling. If you aren't diabetic, you may pair it with a caramel drizzle and vanilla ice cream 😋

Here's the video of the process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DB4492cykUz/?igsh=MWc5aGl1OXYxenh0bg==

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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Capybara Strawberry Ice-Cream Roll Cake

 I made a capybara strawberry ice-cream roll cake for my younger kid's birthday, in time for this sudden hot spell! 

It was really delicious and full of berry flavour! I filled the middle with a strawberry-pandan-matcha chiffon cake surprise instead of using whole fresh strawberries as this cake is consumed frozen. Vanilla chiffon sponge is used for the patterned outer sponge.

Making patterned swiss rolls need not be a nightmare with this type of "cheat" roll when you have a U-shaped cake mold! Cracked sponges during rolling will be a thing of the past. You may purchase this mold from Qeleg at a discount over here:

https://qeleg.com/products/u-shaped-adjustable-cake-mold?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYgBP6eDjrtx_FQH69wIC4yR9m0hKnD70DFbvH6uMwako_AA_cQvLmUvvU_aem_3sSiuDMoas-oUm_u6AfrFQ

You may also use my discount code: Phay_Shing to purchase any of the wide range of baking tools that Qeleg has in their store or browse their site using this link with all the discounts in-built:

https://qeleg.com/?ref=tan_phay_shing_&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaYR-6wAY8qt16D1X5gQ-qumOFIeXXd4sFkdF2nxsWFzqE-nTAZfEUvKoVg_aem_6EgjYfSjZ49pcYU-Swv9cA

This is my second capybara themed patterned roll cake made using the U-shaped mold. You may refer to this post to see the orange themed one. I adapted both orange and strawberry designs from the ones on Qeleg's store so you may purchase the patterns from there too.

Strawberry ice cream

2 egg yolks

20-25g caster sugar

50g white chocolate

200g whipping cream of choice*

30g strawberry jam*

1 tsp freeze dried strawberry powder 

1/2-3/4 tsp strawberry emulsion 

*Strawberry jam: You may use store bought ones but I made my own from scratch without pectin added. I cooked down strawberry puree with 15% sugar until 60% original weight

*Whipping cream: Use dairy, non-dairy or a mix. I used a mixture to get a good balance of stability & taste

Steps:

1. Melt white chocolate, keep warm

2. Heat up jam with emulsion & freeze dried powder mixed together till warm to touch, set aside & keep warm. I keep both melted chocolate and warm jam mix in the oven with light on but heat off.

3. Whip whipping cream to soft peaks, set aside

4. Whisk sugar & yolks over double boiler until sugar is dissolved & 60C

5. Add chocolate, jam mix & 1-2tbs of whipped cream. Emulsify with blender

6. Gradually add 5. to remaining whipped cream. Transfer to a piping bag & refrigerate until ready to assemble. Freeze for 8h in serving cups if consuming as ice-cream straight away. You may prepare this a day or two ahead of time if making ice-cream cake.

Strawberry & Matcha Pandan Chiffon Sponge**

( Two 7x7" sheets)

2 yolks 

20g oil

30g milk/water

1/2 tsp strawberry emulsion

1/4 tsp matcha powder

1/8 tsp pandan paste

40g cake flour

2 egg whites 

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

30g caster sugar

Vanilla roll cake chiffon sponge**

(12x12" sheet)

3 yolks 

30g oil

45g milk/water

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

54g cake flour

3 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

45g caster sugar

** Steps for chiffon sponges: 

1. Line baking trays with teflon sheet. Preheat oven to 170C

2. Make egg yolk batter. Whisk yolks, oil, salt flour, milk/water together. Divide batter for making 🍓in half & add respective flavourings

3. Make meringue. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks, gradually adding sugar once egg whites are foamy.

4. Fold meringue into yolk batter. Pour into tray. Bake for 15 min or until done. 

Strawberry cutouts from red and green chiffon sheet cakes

Painted vanilla sponge 

I am not able to share my patterning method and recipe at the moment but what I share is enough for you to make a beautiful and delicious strawberry ice-cream swiss roll. You may watch this video tutorial for the process of making this cake:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBdmdP2zhYr/?igsh=MTJhaWxzOGc5dzExOQ==

Just some tips on managing a project like this as it can be pretty intensive. Store baked patterned sponge in U-shaped mold overnight & paint the next day if it's too intensive to finish everything in one day. Keep the sponge in mold wrapped overnight at cool room temperature to prevent drying out. Periodically brush the sponge with drinking safe water if you paint slowly like me to prevent it from drying out. Keep sections you are not painting covered to prevent excessive drying.

Everyone in my family is a capybara fan so stay tuned for more capybara birthday bake coming up!

with lots of love,

Phay Shing

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'Capybara in Teacup' Macaron

 I needed to make some blue hemispherical macaron shells for an epic project so I took the chance to play around with this for fun!

We have a teacup plush toy and one of the capybara plushies we have fit so nicely in it I simply had to make a mini macaron version of it! The capybara is a hand-shapeable filling. I made it gula melaka coconut flavoured with a pandan gula melaka coconut surprise inside. Here's what it looks like when you take a bite of it!

I couldn't bear to do the cut of the capybara so I made a plain round version of it to do the cut scene. Here's a peek at how I piped the hemispherical shell and how I made the capybara filling! 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_HIjKlSuhb/?igsh=MTlsanlvamkxbWtkdg==

I shared the coconut filling recipe in the captions of the reel. I can't share this low fat low sugar hand shapeable filling as of yet as I only discovered it recently and am using it as a class material. It's texture is similar to Orh Nee or Mont Blanc dessert and it's relatively neutral tasting so it can take on many flavours. It's temperature stable too so it won't melt in Singapore's tropical heat.

Stay tuned for the epic project that made use of the blue hemispheres! 

with love,

Phay Shing

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Capybara Snowskin Mooncakes

 

Capybara Snowskin Mooncakes! 🦫₍ᐢ-(ｪ)-ᐢ₎ Too cute to eat?🥰 
Made with RedMan lotus paste and premium ingredients from @phoonhuat !💕 

Video tutorial reel here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C--SOQ8y8yg/ 

With lots of love, 

Susanne 

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