Matcha Christmas Tree Marshmallow with a Surprise Inside

 Although I made Christmas tree marshmallows with a surprise inside 3 years ago, this updated version yields a more stable marshmallow batter that holds ridges and peaks well without needing to freeze in between piping layers. Matcha lovers will love it too!

A closer peek at the Meiji strawberry chocolate candy inside!

Matcha honey vanilla marshmallows:
12g meringue powder* (I used Wilton)
36g drinking safe warm water*
10g caster sugar

7g gelatin powder
28g ice cold water

100g caster sugar
8g matcha powder 
1/8 tsp charcoal powder (optional, for sage green colour)
1-2 drops of forest green gel food coloring (optional)
1/8 tsp salt
20g honey 
35g water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or essence

Other ingredients:
Cornstarch or a mixture of cornstarch and icing sugar (for dusting)
Round sprinkles of choice 
Star sprinkles

* May replace meringue powder and warm water with 48g fresh egg whites

See the reel for the video tutorial and for the method.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSZv_kqiSlS/?igsh=MXJvaTM3azZoZXpydA==

with love,
Phay Shing

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Dubai Chocolate (Kunafa Chocolate) Inspired Log Cake

 Here's my take of the Dubai chocolate in the form of log cake!

Composition:
🌲 Chocolate chiffon sponge brushed with strawberry jam syrup
🌲 Crunchy pistachio kunafa
🌲 Pistachio diplomat cream
🌲 Dark chocolate ganache
🌲 Dubai chocolate Christmas tree decorations (see previous blog post for the recipe)
🌲 Penguin orange chocolate hazelnut macaron

Here's the video of the process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDjfymJyeAI/?igsh=MTAwazU4Yjg0d2Z6bw==

Chocolate chiffon sponge (12x12")*:

3 yolks

15g Dutch cocoa powder

32g boiling water

35g cake flour

1/8 tsp baking soda

27g oil

1 tsp vanilla

Pinches of salt

3 egg whites

50g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Line 12x12" tray with teflon sheet/parchment. Preheat oven to 160C fan/170C

2. Make chocolate paste. Dissolve cocoa powder in hot water to make a paste. Add vanilla and salt. Mix well

3. Make egg yolk batter. Whish together egg yolks, oil and chocolate paste. Gradually add sifted flour and baking soda, whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

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

5. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in 3 additions. Pour into prepared tray.

6. Bake for 10-12 min or until done. Immediately flip the sponge out of the tray and roll it up to cool completely.

Crunchy pistachio kunafa

80g kataifi pastry

16g melted butter

75g white chocolate couverture, melted

85g pistachio paste*, warmed

1. Coat finely chopped kataifi pastry with melted butter. 

2. Fry pastry over low heat until browned and crisp

3. Add melted chocolate and warm pistachio paste. Mix well. You may fry the pastry ahead of time and add the chocolate and paste when you are about to assemble.

Pistachio diplomat cream

2 egg yolks

15g cornstarch

25g caster sugar

1/8 tsp salt

220g milk

15g unsalted butter, softened

45g pistachio paste*

1 tsp vanilla extract 

3g gelatin bloomed in 10g ice water 

100g whipping cream of choice*

1. Heat milk until hot but not boiling. In the meantime, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch in a heavy heatproof bowl/jug. 

2. When milk is hot, pour in a thin stream while whisking the egg mixture continuously. Pour everything back into saucepan

3. Whisk egg mixture while cooking over medium-low heat until it thickens. Remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Put it back on heat and keep whisking until it starts to bubble/boil. Continue whisking for an additional minute.

4. Remove from heat. Add butter, pistachio paste, vanilla and bloomed gelatin. Whisk until smooth. Press cling wrap onto surface of pastry cream and refrigerate overnight.

5. When you are ready to assemble, whip your whipping cream of choice until firm peaks. Loosen the pastry cream by whipping it briefly. Fold whipped cream into pastry cream in a few additions. Transfer into piping bag and keep refrigerated until ready to pipe.

Dark chocolate ganache

120g 55% dark chocolate couverture 

50g heavy cream/water

5g honey 

15g butter, softened

1. Melt chocolate. Add heated cream and honey, mix well 

2. Add softened butter and mix well. Press cling wrap onto surface of ganache and let it sit at cool room temperature for 2h. If it is too warm, refrigerate for 15-20 min before spreading on log cake.

*Notes:

- Please refer to my previous blog post for the pistachio paste recipe

- You may choose to use non dairy cream, heavy cream (35-38% fat) or double cream (45-50% fat) depending on preference and climate. You may add a little powdered sugar when whipping the cream if you wish.

- I made a really thin sponge on purpose to enjoy the log cake like an ice-cream cake when frozen. If you prefer to have more sponge to cream ratio and enjoy it chilled instead of frozen, upsize the recipe to 4 eggs and layer with less cream.

Assembly

1. Unroll chocolate sponge. Brush surface with strawberry jam syrup (I just diluted strawberry jam that was previously reduced for the Christmas cookies).

2. Layer a thin layer of crunchy pistachio kunafa 

3. Pipe a layer of diplomat cream and spread it evenly with spatula.

4. Roll it up tightly and freeze for 2h. Slice off both ends for the branches.

5. Attach the branches to main trunk with some ganache. Cover the surface of the sponge with ganache. Use the spatula to create bark patterns. You may use a fork instead if you wish.

6. Dust some snow powder and decorate as you wish

This was before I dusted with snow powder.

I hope to bless my family and friends with this creation! I will be making two more of these but thought of sharing it earlier in case you want to give it a try!

Update 3/1/2025:

This comes a little late but better than never. All who tasted my cakes said they are really tasty, including my relatives who came down to visit from the US after their last visit back in 2017! My elder kid who did a blind taste test at one of the parties that ended up having two log cakes said mine tasted better! With such positive feedback, I highly recommend you to try it out!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Dubai Chocolate (Kunafa Chocolate) Inspired Christmas Trees

 What if the viral Dubai chocolate turned inside out and dressed up for Christmas🤔? You may get these!

Composition:
🌲 Crunchy kataifi pastry coloured with a little pandan paste
🌲 Pistachio ganache
🌲 Dark chocolate ganache 
🌲 Homemade pistachio paste
🌲 Dark/milk chocolate & a little toasted kataifi pastry* at the base
🌲 White chocolate star & tinsel, bauble sprinkles

I made these as log cake decorations. I am sure you can guess what flavour profile of log cakes I am making this year🤭! I will be sharing that in my next post.

You may refer to my reel for the visuals of the process:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDbxcFySarn/?igsh=dnA0bm0xN3pnOWRk

Dubai Chocolate Christmas Trees

Ingredients (makes about twelve-fifteen 5-6cm tall trees):

Green Kataifi Pastry

70g kataifi pastry 

30g butter + 1-2 drops pandan paste (to colour. Feel free to use green colouring)

1-1.5 tbs caster sugar (as pastry binder during baking)

1. Chop kataifi pastry to shorter segments. Add melted butter with pandan paste and sugar a little at a time to pastry. Mix well after each addition to colour the pastry green evenly.

2. Spread the pastry out in small portions in a very thin layer between parchment paper. Press it flat. Freeze until very firm, at least 2h or overnight 

3. Cut paper cones to height of about 5-6cm. You may have trees with different heights for a nicer display contrast. For each size of tree, cut open the paper cone to be used as template.

4. Cut frozen pastry using template to trace. Let it soften slightly and carefully fit it into the prepared paper cone. Press the pastry firmly to the sides and bottom of the cone.

5. Bake at 140-150Cfan/160-170C for 9-12 min and turn it out from the cone. Crisp it up and brown it further by baking for another 5-10 min, checking every few minutes to ensure that the browning is controlled. 

Store in airtight condition until assembly.

Pistachio Paste*

50g pistachio kernels

10g honey

15g water (more if needed)

* Pistachio paste is typically made from blanched pistachios with skin removed. But because I wanted to increase the pistachio flavour, I reserved a portion of the blanched nuts with skin removed to bake in the oven. I used low temperature to bake for a longer time to avoid browning the nuts too much. If using more baked nuts, you may need to add a little more water when blending as baked nuts are harder and drier than blanched nuts. If using only blanched nuts, you need less water. The resulting paste with baked pistachios is grainier than if only blanched pistachios were used.

1. Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Turn the heat off and blanch pistachio kernels for 3 min. Drain and dry briefly on paper towels. Remove skins.

2. Portion 15g of skinned kernels. Bake in a single layer at 100C for 2h. 

3. Blend all ingredients together until smooth paste forms, gradually adding water only as needed. Use a powerful blender for a smoother paste. This may take several rounds of blending and scraping to get it smooth

Pistachio Ganache

15g pistachio paste

70g white chocolate couverture

15g hot water

Pinch of salt

1. Heat white chocolate until warm, soft and partially melted. 

2. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well until smooth. Using immersion blender helps.

3. Press cling wrap onto surface of ganache. Refrigerate 2h or overnight. Transfer into piping bag before using

Dark Chocolate Ganache

50g 55% dark chocolate couverture 

3g honey 

22g hot cream/water

Pinch of salt

1. Follow method for pistachio ganache

Assembly

1. Place baked kataifi pastry cone in mold to hold it in place. 

2. Pipe and spread a thin layer of pistachio ganache followed by dark chocolate ganache

3. Fill the cavity with pistachio paste

4. Cover base with melted chocolate of choice and sprinkle on some kataifi pastry fried with butter (optional pastry). Freeze for 5 min

* To toast kataifi pastry. Coat 15g finely chopped pastry with 4-5g melted butter. Fry over low heat until golden brown and crisp. I used coloured pastry so it appears a little green in the video.

5. Flip the trees upright. Decorate with melted white chocolate and sprinkles/additional decoration of your choice

Here's a look at the trees before the stars are added.

Here's a closer look at the insides!

Here's the log cake version of this flavour combination!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Pandan Chiffon Christmas Trees

 

Sharing an easy and creative way to make our favourite yummy Pandan Chiffon Cake into Christmas Trees🎄! Recipe video on my IG here. 

Pandan Chiffon Christmas Trees (makes 9)😋 

2 egg yolks 

16g caster sugar 

26g vegetable oil 

28g fresh/coconut milk 

65g cake flour, sifted 

1 tsp pandan paste 

½ tsp vanilla extract 

3 egg whites 

30g caster sugar 

¼ tsp cream of tartar 

Assembly 

Melted marshmallow 

Sprinkles 

1. Preheat oven to 140°C. Double wrap a baking tray with aluminum foil, make small holes and insert conical cups. 

2. Whisk egg yolks with sugar. Add oil, milk and vanilla extract and whisk well. Whisk in cake flour and mix until no lumps. 

3. Add pandan paste to egg yolk batter. This makes all green trees. 

Optional: For white stripes, transfer 30g egg yolk batter to a new bowl for plain batter, and mix pandan paste to remaining batter. 

4. Prepare meringue: whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till foamy. Add in caster sugar in 3 additions and whisk till firm peaks. 

5. Gently fold meringue into the egg yolk batter. 

Optional: For white stripes, transfer 30g meringue to plain egg yolk batter and remaining meringue to green egg yolk better. Fold meringue into respective egg yolk batters. 

6. Fill each paper cone till 1.5-cm from brim. 

Optional: Pipe green and white layers till 1.5-cm from brim. 

7. Bake at 140°C for 35 mins or till bamboo skewer inserted into middle comes out dry. 

8. Unmold cakes when fully cool and trim off the base to level. 

9. Melt marshmallows with a sprinkle of water. Stick on sprinkles and star sprinkle using melted marshmallows. 

Keep in airtight container in fridge for up to 5 days. Enjoy! 🩷🥰 

The Redman pandan paste is one of my personal favourite as it is rich and flavourful. Item code of the ingredients above at redmanshop.com: pandan paste (67762), caster sugar (1417), cake flour (1208). 

Thankful to be the new brand ambassador for RedMan by Phoon Huat during this festive season. Use my exclusive code SUS05 to get a 5% discount on all @Phoonhuat products! 

Enjoy baking!

Love,

Susanne

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Christmas Tree Surprise 'Log' Cake

 

Posting some of my backlogs as I was away in Dec. Here is a Christmas "log" cake with a Christmas tree surprise! Piping tutorial here.

With love,

Susanne

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Pandan Vanilla Christmas Tree Marshmallows (Video tutorial)

Busy as I am, I needed to get this out of my system! Presenting my Pandan vanilla Christmas tree marshmallows filled with Meiji's Apollo strawberry chocolate candy!

You may make these without the candy if you wish! 

Pandan vanilla marshmallow
Ingredients (makes about 40 trees):

57g egg whites

150g caster sugar

62g light corn syrup

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 tsp pandan paste

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

45g water

7-8g fish gelatin (200 bloom)

28g ice water

I am not including much details or the steps here as this is likely to be an entry in my upcoming Deco Marshmallows book. 

Please refer to the video below for the tutorial and some tips!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Clhr9UBADAW/?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY=

with love,

Phay Shing

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Matcha-Azuki Christmas Tree Bread

Christmas Tree Matcha bread with Red bean filling! Sharing a yummy idea for Christmas. What are you baking for Christmas?

Matcha-Azuki Christmas Tree Bread Recipe
240g bread flour (2 cups)
36g superfine sugar (3 tbsp)
150g milk/soy milk (2/3 cups)
1 ¼ tsp instant dry yeast (4g)
1/4 tsp salt (2g)
25g oil/ butter (dairy-free)

8g @Suncorefoods green matcha powder *dissolved in 2 tsp water
Pinch of yellow safflower and cocoa powder

Filling - 0.4 cup azuki sweetened bean paste (95g)

1. In a stand mixer, add all bread ingredients except for salt and oil/butter. Using a dough hook, mix on medium-low speed for 10 min, then add in salt and oil/butter. Knead for another 6-8 min till the dough is smooth. Check that the dough can stretch into a thin membrane without breaking (window pane test).

2. Pinch out two 15g dough for the yellow and brown dough and knead in yellow safflower and cocoa powder till combined (optional – you can use all green dough). To the rest of the dough, knead in matcha powder till even. Further divide each dough into 2 and shape into balls (you will need two pieces of dough to sandwich the filling). Cover and let them proof for 1 hr or until doubled in size.

3. Punch down the green matcha dough and roll out the dough into a large triangular Christmas tree shape on a piece of baking sheet. Do the same for the other matcha dough. Spread azuki red bean paste over one large triangle and cover with the second triangle. Use a knife to trim the edges.

4. Flatten the yellow and brown dough and sandwich azuki bean paste. Place onto the top and bottom of the large green triangle.

5. Cut 1-inch wide strips on each side of the triangular tree shape, leaving around a 1-inch wide column in the middle of the tree uncut. Starting at the bottom, take a strip of dough and twist, forming a spiral and pinch down the end. Repeat with all of the strips of dough.

6. Use a star cutter to cut a star shape from the yellow dough and a knife to trim the sides of the brown dough to form a tree trunk.

7. Allow the Christmas tree to proof till doubled in size (around 45 mins). Preheat oven to 180C. Reduce the temperature to 140C just before placing the tree bread into the oven. Bake for 20 min or until the buns are firm and sound hollow when tapped. Enjoy! =)

With love,

Susaanne

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Christmas Tree Tier Chiffon Cake

 

"When they saw the star, they were overjoyed." - Matthew 2:10

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive the king!

May this Christmas bring you and your family much love, joy and peace!

I had a lot of fun making this Christmas tree! This is my first 5-tier chiffon cake, made from multiple pandan chiffon cake bundts. I stacked them up to make a tree and decorated with colourful chiffon cake pops "balls". The tree is almost 10-inch tall and topped with a chiffon cake "star". 

Here is a little assembly video just for fun.

Merry Blessed Christmas to you and your families!

With lots of love,

Susanne

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