'My Favourite Toys' Plushiemallows on Macaron Monogram

 In all my years of macaron making, I have never made a monogram cake. Presenting my first macaron monogram cake with character marshmallow and meringue cookie decorations!

Can you spot the marshmallows and meringues?

The requestor wanted the birthday bake to be a customized and special one so it includes the recipient's favourite plushies, such as the panda in red panda suit and Goodluck Bear. The sleeping corgi is part of a plushiemallow class material, which I included because the recipient likes a corgi plushie (different design but they don't mind it not being exactly the same).

I am not able to share the meringue cookie recipe as it was shared by a baker friend who uses it for class material. If you guessed that the tiny ducks are made of meringues, you are correct!

I was adventurous and flavoured all the plushiemallows this time. The corgi is hojicha flavoured, the panda is yuzu chocolate and the Carebear is yuzu matcha.

While the hojicha was easy to work with, it seemed like the yuzu version was stickier. I think I may need to increase the gelatin portion a little and reduce the amount of yuzu juice concentrate I used to replace the water in the sugar syrup next attempt. There was a need to re-coat with cornstarch for those two plushiemallows. Nevertheless, the flavours were beautiful and amazing 😍! I just need to tweak it a little if I ever try again.

You may refer to this post for reference recipe. I used regular sugar instead of brown sugar. 

Here are some pictures of the plushiemallows before and after dusting with cornstarch.

Here are some video clips of the plushiemallows in action!

I will share the video of the corgi plushiemallow in another post as it is part of a collection of corgi designs.

Store the plushiemallows and meringue cookies in airtight container until ready to decorate.

I used the swiss meringue method recipe for the macaron monogram and the bush on it. For such large and geometrically shaped pieces, I use teflon sheets to line my baking tray instead of parchment paper. I also tried removing the template before baking and notice that it helps with bottom heat transfer from the oven.

You may refer to this post for the two types of yuzu fillings I used, and this post tor the dark chocolate ganache that I used to break the monotony of yuzu a little. The requestor loved the yuzu flavour I made last year she is requesting for it again this year! I also brushed the surface of the monogram with a little yuzu juice concentrate to boost the flavour a little bit.

Filling the macaron monogram with yuzu ganaches and dark chocolate ganache.

I have been baking for some time but this bake allowed me to learn something new about marshmallows and macarons!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Winnie the Pooh Mango Choux Pastries in Macaron Teacups

Mangoes are still cheap and plentiful at the moment so I hope you aren't tired of seeing more mango creations from me 🤣. Presenting my mixed genre creation that I was working on while we aren't allowed to bake for sale. Pooh bear mango choux pastries in macaron teacups, topped off with strawberry meringue Piglets!!

Here is another look of them without the distractions in front.

You may refer to my previous post for detailed recipe for the Piglet meringues.

The focus of this blog post will be for the new mango filling recipe that is yummy both frozen in freezer and chilled in the fridge. Up to you which way you want to serve it.

You may refer to this post for the detailed recipe of choux pastry batter with craquelin. I used a 3cm craquelin on 2.5cm piped batter for Pooh's head. I used a pinch of yellow powder food colouring and some white gel food colouring for both craquelin and batter.

Highly recommended to use perforated mat if you have it! Baking time is about 45-50min to thoroughly bake dry the cases. Temperature depends on your oven as each one behaves differently. As a rule of thumb, start off high but drop the temperature later on. This is to ensure nice puffy cases but minimal browning. 

I piped the ears and hands after baking the heads just to have a better gauge of the size of the small parts that need to be piped. You may pipe these on parchment lined baking trays. These just need to bake for about 15 min

Freshly baked ears and hands! Oops some pieces got blown away by the fan in my kitchen 😂

When choux cases are baked until dry, they can be stored for a week at room temperature while staying crisp, much like cookies. So take your time to dry out the cases if you like crisp pastries. Sometimes this can take up to an hour of leaving the cases in the oven.

You may refer to this post on how to make the teacup macarons. I just decorated it in a way to suit the Pooh theme.

Macaron teacups decorated and assembled with royal icing. 

I was cute overloaded by this sight even though it was still works-in-progress! The ears can simply be inserted into the choux cases but the hands need to be glued on using some royal icing. Do use a zester to grind off a little bit of the hands so that it fits nicely on the surface of the head.

I am a big fan of strong but balanced flavours without being too sweet in desserts. The lightened mango pastry cream is one of them. I inject fruity flavours by using a combination of cooked puree and chopped fresh fruit pieces. Do adjust the amount of sugar according to taste and sweetness level of the mangoes you are using. You may use more or less whipping cream as you wish.

Recipe for lightened mango pastry cream
Ingredients:
150 mango puree, strained
50g fresh milk (or coconut milk)
1tsp vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
10g sugar
A pinch of salt
20g cornflour
18g unsalted butter
80g dairy or non-dairy (or a mix) whipping cream
1 mango, cut into small pieces

Steps :
1. Place puree, milk and vanilla in a small saucepan and heat on medium low heat until steaming but not boiling.

2. In the mean time, sift cornflour into a heavy mixing bowl. Add sugar and salt and whisk together. Add egg yolks and whisk until a paste is formed.

3. While whisking the egg yolk mixture continuously, slowly pour in hot puree /milk mixture in a thin stream. Pour the mixture back into saucepan.

4. Heat saucepan over medium low heat while whisking continously. Once the mixture starts to thicken, remove from heat and continue whisking until smooth. Return to heat and continue to whisk and cook until desired consistency.  Some people prefer runnier filling, some prefer firmer. Remove from heat and add butter into the pastry cream. Whisk until butter is combined into the mixture.

5. Sieve the pastry cream into a bowl and press cling wrap onto the surface. Chill in fridge until cool, at least an hour.

6. Whip whipping cream until firm peaks. If using full dairy, be careful not to overwhip.

7. Take the pastry cream out from fridge and whip with spatula to loosen it a little. Add a little at a time to the whipped cream and fold it in. Add chopped mangoes and fold it in.

If you prefer the "ice-cream" version, freeze the lightened pastry cream in a thin layer in a container or lined baking tray. This is to ensure the cream freezes quickly and does not turn icy too much. You can also chill the cream in fridge until ready to fill. Always fill the cases just before consuming to enjoy the crisp cases with cold and yummy filling.

Folding in the pastry cream and chopped mangoes. 

Here is another look of the cute Poohs!

My kids love the ice-cream version so much they have been having it on consecutive days for a few days!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Piglet Strawberry Meringue Cookies

While I have the time to play around with content that is not requested by someone, I thought I better seize it. I had this outrageous idea of creating a mixed genre creation that involves macarons, choux pastry and meringue cookies. This blog post features the meringue cookie part. Presenting my first attempt at character meringue cookies --- strawberry Piglet meringues!

Many thanks to a very talented baker, Kokoma, for the meringue recipe. Do checkout her Instagram account @kokomacake. She shared her meringue recipe and method in video tutorials on her Instagram account. I tweaked it a little to include strawberry flavour and added cornflour because it has been rainy here in Singapore lately. She uses Swiss meringue, which is more stable than French meringue as Swiss meringue uses semi-cooked egg whites. I made meringue mushrooms for a stump cake end of last year using French meringue and you can read about it here.

Important notes on meringue cookies. Do make sure that sugar is completely dissolved in the egg whites before piping it out. Otherwise your meringues won't have a smooth surface and the piped shapes will collapse a little or lose its definition. Always use a temperature of not more than 100°C to dry out the meringues as the meringues will crack if temperature is too high. If you have a dehydrator, you may use it instead of the oven. That was what Kokoma used. I don't have one so I used my oven.

Strawberry Meringue Piglet
Ingredients (makes about 25 Piglets) :
35g egg whites
60g icing sugar (preferably with cornflour already added)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional, to stabilize meringue)
1 tsp cornflour
A pinch of salt (optional)
A little strawberry paste (less than 1/8 tsp)
Pink gel food colouring

Steps:
1. Prepare a template with 2.5cm circles and place it under parchment paper on the baking tray. Preheat oven to 90-100°C.

2. Combine all ingredients except strawberry paste and food colouring in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan of water without the water touching the base of the bowl. Whisk and heat over medium low heat until sugar is all dissolved or temperature reaches 45-50°C. Take your time to heat the egg whites as you want to ensure all sugar is dissolved.

3. Remove bowl from heat and use electric mixer to beat until firm peaks form. Do not beat until stiff and dry. As long as meringue doesn't slide around inside the bowl when you tip it, it is ready. Add a few chopstick dips of strawberry paste into the meringue and gently fold it in. Do not add too much as you don't want too much moisture in the meringue.

4. Add some gel food colouring if the shade of pink is still too light. Portion out about 2tbs of meringue and add more pink colouring for Piglet's ears and nose.

5. Transfer light pink meringue into piping bag fitted with Wilton #12 tip and dark pink meringue into piping bag with a small hole cut at the end. Glue the parchment down to baking tray with a little meringue.

6. Pipe the head, followed by the ears. Change the tip for light pink to Wilton #4 or 5 and pipe the hands. Dap a small dollop of dark pink for the nose. You may use a toothpick to pull the meringue a little to shape the nose or any other part to your liking.

7. Bake for 2-3h or until dry. Store in airtight container if you aren't decorating yet.

Freshly baked! 

8. Make some black edible paint or in my case, I used black royal icing to add on the eyes and eyebrows. Let it dry again in the oven for about 15 min at 90°C. Remember to keep meringues at room temperature in airtight condition to keep them crisp and not sticky.

Wondering where Piglet is supposed to go? See this next blog post!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Chocolate Stump Cake with Meringue Mushrooms

I don't usually accept last minute requests but this one I couldn't refuse. My mum asked for a logcake I can make at my convenience, so I decided to let this request ride on a planned bake that involves making my ultimate chocolate cake. I usually bake chocolate chiffon sponge for log cakes as the sponge is soft and flexible enough to roll into swiss roll. Since the sponge I use for my ultimate chocolate cake isn't suitable for making swiss rolls, I make a stump cake instead 😊

Mushroom meringues as deco! 

I followed my original recipe closely, except that I tweaked the chocolate ganache to make a firmer one for the bark patterns, and I made chocolate whipped cream for the rings on the stump.

When I shared the photo of the mushroom meringues on social media, some were interested how I made them crisp and non sticky in humid Singapore. I will share the detailed recipe and tips in this blog post. I applied what I learnt from macaron making to create a meringue that remains crisp for a longer time.

Recipe for mushroom meringues
Ingredients (makes about 25 mushrooms) :
40g egg whites (about 1 large egg)
70g icing sugar (with cornflour added)
1 tsp cornflour
1/8 tsp fine salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Cocoa powder (for dusting)

Notes
Traditional meringues are made using caster sugar insted of icing sugar. I chose to use icing sugar as it is much finer in texture and therefore more easily dissolved in the egg whites. Any undissolved sugar grains in the meringue will cause meringues to collapse a little during baking. Traditional recipes don't call for the addition of more cornflour but I recommend adding a little to help the baked cookies remain crisp and dry longer. Salt is optional but I included to balance the taste. Cream of tartar may be substituted with lemon juice if you prefer. The ratio of egg whites:sugar is traditionally about 1:2. I reduced it a little. Don't reduce by too much as it will affect the stability. Some people make swiss or italian meringues for better stability but what I am sharing here is the simplest method.

Steps:
1. In a small bowl, mix icing sugar, fine salt and cornflour. Set aside. Preheat oven to 100-110°C as read by the thermometer (no higher than that). Line baking tray with parchment paper.

2. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add sugar mixture and beat at medium high speed until firm peaks form like below. This should take about 10 minutes.

3. Transfer meringue into piping bag fitted with a wilton #12 tip (about 8mm diameter). To pipe the mushroom caps, gently squeeze the bag with the tip placed 1cm away from baking tray surface until a mound forms. Release pressure and twirl the tip horizontally to try to release the tip from meringue without forming a peak. Dont worry if a peak forms. Just use a damp finger (not dripping wet) to tap down the peak gently. To pipe the mushroom stems, pipe a vertical column about 2cm tall by slowly moving the tip away from baking tray surface as you pipe. Tap down the peak gently with damp finger. You may pipe mushrooms of varying sizes for some variety.

4. Lightly dust the mushroom caps with a little sifted cocoa powder if you wish.

Piped and dusted with cocoa powder

5. Bake at middle rack without the fan on for 2 hours. Make sure the oven temperature doesn't exceed 110°C or the meringues may crack. If you don't mind a little cracking happening to make the mushrooms look a little more rustic, you may increase the temperature to 120°C. Open the oven every half an hour to release the steam build up in the oven. Traditional baking temperature is 90°C but I find that this may not dry the meringues out sufficiently and the surfaces may remain sticky.

To assemble the mushrooms, cool completely inside the oven. Dig a little hole at the base of the mushroom caps such that the stems can sit inside comfortably.  You may attach the caps onto the stems using melted chocolate or in my case, I used royal icing but dried the assembled mushrooms  in the oven for half an hour at 100°C.

Cute meringue mushrooms! 

Store the meringues in airtight container at room temperature.


You may refer to this post for the chocolate sponge and chocolate custard recipe. The portion is suitable for 7 to 8 inch sponge cake. I used only three-quarters of it as I used the rest of the batter for another bake. This stump cake that I made has three 6" sponge layers. The other bake I did concurrently had a small amount of homemade raspberry jam which I used to brush the sponge layers during assembly. This is optional but I used it since I have it. You may bake the cake layers in square pans if you dont have round ones and just cut to the desired shape and size using a clean cakeboard as your template. I actually baked the 3 sponge cakes in three 7x7" square trays, and then used a 6inch cakeboard as my template to cut to size.

Dark choc ganache (for bark) 
Ingredients:
150g bitter dark chocolate couverture 74%*
150g dark chocolate couverture 56%*
200g whipping cream

* you may use one type of couverture

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients in a heatproof bowl and set it over a pot of freshly boiled water without the water touching base of bowl. Let it sit for a few minutes. Use a spatula to stir the mixture until all the chocolate is melted and ganache is smooth.

2. Set aside to firm up at room temperature

Chocolate cake filling
Ingredients:
200g chocolate custard
150g dark chocolate ganache

Steps :
1. Portion out 150g of dark chocolate ganache above and chill it briefly in the freezer for 2 min. Use an electric mixer to whip the ganache until it is lightened in texture but smooth and creamy.

2. Fold the whipped ganache into the chocolate custard.

3. Transfer filling into piping bag fitted with a round piping tip of your choice.

Chocolate whipped cream (for rings on stump) 
50g whip topping (or double cream/ heavy cream)
40g dark chocolate ganache
10g chocolate custard

Steps:
1. Beat chilled whipping cream until firm peaks form. Be careful not to overwhip if you are using full dairy cream.

2. Fold in chocolate custard and chocolate ganache in a few additions until mixture is smooth.

3. Transfer into piping bag fitted with a wilton #12 tip (or any round piping tip of your choice)

Assembly
1. Apply a little ganache on cakeboard. Place first layer of sponge on top. Brush with syrup or jam if desired.

2. Apply a thin layer of custard with a spatula

3. Pipe the filling as shown below (3rd picture). Place the second sponge on top and press down gently. Repeat with the next layer.

4. Coat the top sponge with some chocolate whipped cream and use a spatula to smooth it out.

5. Coat the sides of the cake with dark chocolate ganache. Don't worry about being neat as you don't have to be!

6. Pipe rings of the stump on top using chocolate whipped cream. Use a fork to draw out the bark patterns by running the tines upwards.  Chill the cake in fridge until ready to serve. This chocolate cake tastes the best after 3 or 4 days of storage when the flavours have matured!

Unadorned cake! Still looks good! 

Decorate the cake with meringue mushrooms as you wish. You can add on other plastic christmas cake deco as well!

With love,
Phay Shing

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'We Bare Bear' Meringues

My kids love 'We Bare Bears' and meringues, so I made these for them. They loved these ‘We Bare Bears’ meringue kisses very much, especially the chocolate version. I used cocoa and charcoal powder for the brown and black colours. The recipe is adapted from Two Bites Kitchen into my 'We Bare Bears' meringues.

Recipe (‘We Bare Bears’ meringues)
90g castor sugar
30g water
35g egg whites
25g icing sugar


1. Make sugar syrup by dissolving castor sugar in water under low heat. Keep stirring under the low heat for a few mins till fully dissolved.

2. Whip egg whites with sugar syrup above using an electric mixer till stiff peaks.

3. Mix in icing sugar using the mixer.

4. Divide the batter into 3. Mix in the respective colored powder (cocoa and charcoal), leaving the last plain. *I didn’t take note of how much I added. Just pinch by pinch till I get the desired colour.

5. Transfer the batter into piping bags. For each colour, I had a large tip for piping the body, and a smaller tip for the fine features. Pipe the body first on the parchment paper, followed by the features.

6. Bake at 100°C for 90 min (top, bottom heat, no fan)

7. Allow to cool and remove from the parchment paper.


A little sweet for me, but my kids really loved them. Hope you liked them too! 

With lots of love,
Susanne 

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