Mini Passionfruit Biscoff Basque Cheesecake

 Inspired by a flavour combination for macarons that I made for one of my regulars who said it's "Superbly good! 10/10!",  I made the same combination of flavour for basque cheesecake!

This cheesecake is only 9cm in diameter!

Checkout the creamy cross-section!

Burnt basque cheesecakes are simple to make once you figure out how to work with your oven because the most technically challenging part is trying to nail the char while keeping the interior in a creamy "Goldilocks condition" where it's not too uncooked and runny nor curdled due to overbaking. It took me several tries to nail this for a mini version which is more challenging than larger cheesecakes because mini ones either end up charred and overbaked (curdled inside) or lack the char if the interior is right. 

I can assure you that this combination is superb as a cheesecake because the richness of cheesecake is balanced out by the light caramel notes of Biscoff and fresh tartness of passionfruit. I have so many people who tasted it said they loved it so much! I had trouble stopping myself from sampling more each time I did my trial bakes too! 

I shared the full recipe along with important notes in my reel and the captions of the reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWBdP9BiXxY/?igsh=dm9maTFrbWk2anJo

Ingredients:

(makes one 9cm mini cheesecake)
150g cream cheese
30g smooth Biscoff spread/cookie butter 
30g caster sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 egg (about 60g with shell on)
90g heavy cream
40g passionfruit puree
1/2 tsp vanilla extract/essence

Toppings:
(may not use up all)
25g whipped cream of choice
8g thickened passionfruit puree 
1 Biscoff biscuit, coarsely crushed 

Method:

1. Mix room temperature cream cheese and Biscoff spread together until smooth.

2. Add sugar and salt. Mix well gently.

3. Add egg and gently whisk it in.

4. Add heavy cream, passionfruit puree and vanilla. Gently whisk until smooth.

5. Sieve batter before pouring into prepared tin lined with parchment paper/disposable panettone mould

6. Run a skewer in the batter to pop air bubbles.

7. Bake in preheated oven at 240°C fan/260C for 20 min or until internal temperature is 65-68°C. Rotate the tray after 12 min if your oven heat is uneven. Baking time and profile is just a reference as each oven behaves differently.

8. Cool completely before refrigerating overnight or for at least 6h.

9. Decorate with whipped cream of choice, thickened passionfruit puree and crushed Biscoff crumbs before serving.

with love,
Phay Shing

Read More »

Sleepy Snorlax and Pikachu Marshmallows

 My friend requested for Snorlax marshmallows along with the Pikachus so I made these!

Don't you feel like sleeping seeing them 🤭?

You may see the upright version of Pikachu marshmallows in my older post.

I made the Snorlax marshmallows vanilla flavoured with a hint of lavender, and tried to colour it naturally partially with dried blue pea flowers infusing the water used for making the sugar syrup.

I made some smaller Snorlaxes...

...as well as some large ones...

...so that the sleepy Pikachus can fit on top of the giant Snorlax!

You may watch the videos of making the smaller Snorlax over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI_HKH_StLx/?igsh=d3loMmxtdnhjYnVq

And the bigger Snorlax with sleepy Pikachu over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJTtfc7pfR-/?igsh=MWQ4NXBuaXB1MXVubQ==

I share the basic recipe, how to tweak it for different flavours and consistencies for adapting to 2D or 3D figurines in my Deco Marshmallows book.

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Pikachu Passionfruit Vanilla Marshmallows

 My friend requested for some Pokemon marshmallows for her nephews that aren't too sweet. I made Pikachu passionfruit vanilla marshmallows to satisfy the brief!

Upright versions of characters are always the most challenging to pipe because you have to work against gravity and it's largely freehand piping. I challenged myself further to create the entire marshmallow as a single piece instead of piping the gravity defying ears and tail as separate pieces and then gluing them onto the main body after dusting.

Recipe and techniques that you need to know can be found in my Deco Marshmallows book. Here's the piping tutorial:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIqg1r1Jp6v/?igsh=ajZ0OXl3ajd1cGQy

Besides this Pikachu design, I also made another Pokemon character along with him. Keep a lookout for that!

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Sugar-Free Passionfruit Chick Marshmallows with Prebiotics

 I am super excited about these experimental marshmallows that turned out so squishy, full of passionfruit flavour and doesn't taste too sweet at all. The best part is there's prebiotic fibres added to further lower the Glycemic Index of the treat (fruit puree contributes to the GI) and it's beneficial for gut health and cholesterol management.

I used desiccated coconut to give the chicks a furry look. Even the beak and feet are made sugar-free from peanut butter as a base!

See the reel of the process over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DH8Kh0TTeXS/?igsh=cnQ2anA5MXltb3Ji

Here's a peek at a works-in-progress state!

I shared sugar-free, keto-friendly marshmallow recipes that are suitable for piping characters and florals in my book Deco Marshmallows. 

This version for the chick is made using another sugar replacement with prebiotic fibres replacing part of the sugar.  I am not ready to share the recipe yet but you may see the regular sugar version in the captions of my reel. 

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Passionfruit Honey Vanilla Reduced-Sugar Snake Marshmallows

 Someone asked privately if the sugar content in my default marshmallow recipe in Deco Marshmallows can be reduced. My first thought was wouldn't it affect the stability and simply be essentially a volume reduction? I decided to give it a try anyway. Here's what I made to welcome the Year of the Snake!

Passionfruit honey vanilla marshmallows that are more tangy than sweet and full of passionfruit flavour!

A closer look at the kawaii version!

While reducing sugar did make the marshmallow batter softer to work with, it also did make it a little more unstable as expected so one has to work quickly and adjust the process a little to make it work. What's more significant is the reduction of invert sugar. I reduced the amount of invert sugar (can be light corn syrup, glucose syrup, dark corn syrup, golden syrup or honey) just enough to prevent sugar crystallization. The resulting marshmallow tends to be less sticky in humid Singapore's air, which is a plus point for me!

Here are the piped snakes before dusting.

This design is inspired by clarakitchen21 (Youtube channel)

They are super fun to play with especially the long snake which can slither!

Piping tutorials are on my Instagram.

Long snake piping tutorial:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEeuHtpSlOX/?igsh=YmJmbXIxYmg1aW9m

Kawaii snake piping tutorial:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEj3vf0S5Lp/?igsh=c20ydnp3ZXE4amY2

Do give these a try to welcome the Year of the Snake!

P.S. If you are interested to know about my reduced sugar recipe, I will be sharing it in my upcoming studio marshmallow class for mandarin orange and pineapple tarts that will delight (and fool 🤭) your family and friends this Lunar New Year!

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Meringue Powder-Based Macarons

 I made some Christmasy small macarons for our church's creche helpers this year! It may look like ordinary macarons but I am so excited to share it because these were made using meringue powder instead of fresh egg whites! 

Look at how full the insides are! 

The split open shell was piped 8 hours after I made the batter! What's more, with the use of meringue powder, having to deal with extra egg yolks will be a thing of the past for bakers who choose this method!

Here's a closer look at some of the macarons.

Why make the macarons small when I can make them bigger? Because I wanted them to fit into jars like these as gifts.

Pardon the poor photo quality because I was taking the photo late at night under low lighting. The macarons had to be 3.5cm in diameter in order to fit into the jars in this arrangement.

This meringue powder experiment and mass bake came about because of the superb performance of meringue powder for my character marshmallows. Although I am a convert to using meringue powder for marshmallows, I can't say I will do this for macarons. I will explain in this blog post. Although meringue powder as fresh or carton egg white substitution works, it's not without some differences/challenges. Just as sugar-free marshmallows are possible, it's impossible for macarons due to the presence of almond flour which contains oils, and the necessary condition that nice feet formation should be present on the cookie before it can be called a macaron.

I used this mass bake to conduct an experiment for small and large batch. Both pass with flying colours. The recipe I come up with has easy to remember ratios.  The ratio for rehydration of meringue powder I use is 1:3 for meringue powder : water. The ratios of all the ingredients are 1:1:1:1 for "egg whites" : caster sugar : icing sugar : almond flour. Feel free to tweak it a little in terms of proportion but not by too much.

Ingredients:

15g meringue powder (I use Wilton brand)

45g water (room temperature or lukewarm)

60g caster sugar

60g icing sugar

60g almond flour

1. Sift together almond flour* & powdered sugar. Set aside

2. Whisk together caster sugar & meringue powder. Add water & whisk until well combined 

3. Continue whisking over double boiler until sugar is dissolved (use fingers to test) & temperature is about 45C

4. Whip meringue until very stiff peak*

5. Fold sifted dry ingredients into meringue gently* as shown in reel until batter is able to flow off spatula slowly in a continuous ribbon

6. Pipe as per usual. Rest piped batter until very dry to touch*. Bake* in preheated oven that's about 10C lower than your usual & longer by about 5-10min.

Meringue powder based meringues for macaron making tend to be less robust than fresh egg white based meringues. Although it tends to deflate more easily due slightly under whipping, oils, certain food colouring & rough handling during folding, it's able to produce a stable batter that stays stable for many hours provided you take note of the baker's notes below.

*Baker's notes:

🔸Make sure your almond flour is not oily or your batter will not remain stable for long. I have YouTube videos for proper drying of almond flour & sifting dry ingredients so as not to cause more oil in your batter

🔸Whip your meringue to as stiff as you can. It should ball up in the whisk & offers a lot of resistance when you run the whisk through. Just like vegan meringues, meringue powder based meringues may tend towards being less robust in the presence of oils (from almond) although stabilizers like cream of tartar has already been added in the ingredients. 

🔸Drying time for meringue powder macarons is longer than you think. The skin/membrane of piped batter may feel dry to touch already but it's not ready to bake yet if it's still soft, much like vegan macarons, as the meringue produced is less robust than using fresh egg whites. Insufficient drying time may produce feet that are large & protruding/exploding outwards more than usual. Feet may also be lopsided.

🔸Fold the batter with gentleness & care. It takes less number of folds to go from under to overfolded due to the less robust nature of the meringue 

🔸Baking time & temperature needs to be slightly longer & lower respectively, much like vegan macarons due to the meringue properties. Baking temperature that is too high will also tend to result in protruding/exploding feet more than egg white-based macarons. Longer baking time is also needed due to the lower baking temperature. I reduce by about 10C from my usual baking temperature & bake longer by 5-10min. Note that temperature & time adjustments are just suggestions as each oven works differently. Use the guiding principle I shared to tweak accordingly

🔸The appearance of wrinkled & patchy tops on baked shells is evidence of meringue that's not stiff enough, use of certain colouring, or oily almond. The crust tends to be thinner & more fragile than fresh egg white based macarons but with proper technique, this can be minimized

Here's the video tutorial for using meringue powder to make macaron batter:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DC833dBSW09/?igsh=cWtnd2p3and2d3Zn

Here's the video for piping tutorial of the wreath, candy cane and snowflake designs using the wet-on-wet batter technique borrowed from royal icing cookie decoration. You may apply this same piping technique on macarons made using fresh egg whites as well. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDEmWrJyI3t/?igsh=Z2g4NWU4MDkxMmgx

For the lacey, more complex snowflake design, please refer to this post for the piping tutorial:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDrOOpxSScJ/?igsh=MXRwejkxdHA2OWJnaQ==

I filled the macarons with passionfruit spice ganache, matcha ganache with dried cranberries and dark chocolate orange ganache.

with love, 

Phay Shing

Read More »

Passionfruit Honey Vanilla Capybara Marshmallow

 I made some passionfruit honey vanilla marshmallows for a future class content and decided on the spur of the moment, to create a video tutorial for piping capybara marshmallow since I didn't get around to doing it with my vegan character marshmallows. 

I coloured the marshmallow brown with a little chocolate paste. The little citrus fruit props are all choux pastries which are part of another future class material.

Here's a closer look at the marshmallow and my plushie inspo!

Here's my piping video tutorial! Do read the details about the technique for working with leftover batter in a hot environment!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4AkEWCyHCT/?igsh=eGsxcHU4ZDlkcGJm

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Passionfruit honey Winnie the Pooh Marshmallows

 Part of book writing involves testing of recipes that I write in the book. I took the chance to make Winnie the Pooh passionfruit honey marshmallows to satisfy my curiosity to see if there is a difference between fresh and freeze-dried fruit options for marshmallows. I took the chance to satisfy my curiosity to see if there's a difference using tapioca starch instead of cornstarch as dusting too. Here's what I made!

Here's a peek at the piped marshmallow batter before I added in the small details!

You may see how I piped both designs in my Instagram reels:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cpgk4MTATsi/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

and

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpoQa0-gzLH/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I coloured the brown marshmallow parts with chocolate paste. The facial features and "Hunny" lettering where painted or piped on with melted dark chocolate. Yes the hunny pots are marshmallows too! 

The little bees on top of some of them were made out of yellow candy melts, a little bit of blue sprinkle and melted dark chocolate. 

See how squishy they are in this video!

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

with love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Giraffe Macaron Swing on Fruits n Cream Cake

 I don't usually take requests in December as it is a busy month for me. At most I will accept one request. Someone wanted a giraffe swing with elephant and dog in it, on top of a fruits & cream cake. Here it is!

I used my default Swiss meringue method recipe with separated egg whites for the macaron pieces. As the swing is a structure that needed to bear weight, I made the fillings firm enough even at Singapore's indoor room temperature without air-conditioning. The macaron shells are filled with a stiff mango passionfruit ganache and dark chocolate-butter filling.

Mango passionfruit stiff ganache
80g white chocolate, finely chopped or use chips 
20g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
30g warm water
20g freeze dried mango powder*
20g freeze dried passionfruit powder*

*You may use fresh fruit but you need to reduce it over low heat until thick.

Steps:

1. Mix freeze-dried fruit powders in warm water until you form a paste. Set aside.

2. Melt chocolate, butter and salt. Set aside to firm up. Use spatula or electric mixer if you wish, to whip until it looks like buttercream.

3. Add fruit paste into white chocolate mixture in a few additions.

Dark chocolate filling
You may use ganache but I wanted something really firm to support the weight plus movement of the swing.

100g dark chocolate
50g butter
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Steps:

1. Place everything in heatproof bowl and melt over double boiler. Alternatively you may use microwave.

2. Set aside to firm up. If your environment is very cold, I would suggest using ganache or this will become too hard to work with when set.

I used my default vanilla chiffon sponge recipe but baked in two 7"x1.5" round pans lined at the base and sliced each one horizontally into two to get four layers of sponges. Baking profile was 150C for 15 min, 140C for 15 min, followed by 130C for 20min with steam baking. Note that every oven is different so adjust accordingly.

Requester wanted the cake covered in cream so I prepared more cream for it. Feel free to use your favourite Chantilly cream recipe that can hold up in your climate. I live in hot and humid Singapore so stabilizers are needed. You may use gelatin as stabilizer but I go for what was easy, tastes good and it works!

Whipped cream
250g Whip topping (non-dairy whipping cream)
200g double cream (high fat dairy cream)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Note: Non-dairy creams are pre sweetened so there is no need to add sugar. Please add sugar if you are using dairy cream only.

Steps:

1. Whip whip topping until really stiff peaks with vanilla extract.

2. In another bowl, whisk double cream until it is just able to form a hint of soft peaks. Don't over whisk!

3. Fold Whip topping into double cream in a few additions.

Your resulting cream should be relatively smooth and able to hold its shape at aircon temperatures and briefly for 10min in hot kitchen.

I went for simple, slightly rustic and elegant design for the cake, with the exterior showing a hint of what's inside. The sponges were brushed with simple syrup (1:1 water:sugar)  before slathering on the cream.

Mango, Korean strawberries and green kiwi as fruits in the cake.

Watch the swing in action over here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmRCT-9AwGC/?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY=

with love,

Phay Shing 

Read More »

Mango Passionfruit 3D Cat Macaron Class

These may look impressive as 3D standing cat macarons but this class is actually targeted at beginners! 

Design is inspired by Kokoma's 3D deer macarons. 

If you are new to macarons and this character macaron intrigues you, come and join me for this class to make these rather uniquely designed macarons filled with a sour mango and passionfruit ganache! 

Please refer to this link for registration and more details. I will cover the basics of French method and how to pipe, decorate and assemble this car design. The shells are flavoured with mango and passionfruit freeze-dried fruit powders so they taste good on their own too! You will also learn how to make a filling that is not too sweet (sour in fact!), packed full of flavour but firm enough for Singapore's tropical climate. 

What are you waiting for 😉! 

With love,

Phay Shing

Read More »

Mango Passionfruit Cat Macarons

 I was testing out a new flavour combination for both macaron shells and filling in preparation for class material, and decided on a tropical combo of mango and passionfruit. Mangoes are in season now so it's a great time to test this out. And because I love cats, I made these 😊.

I had a hard time deciding which photo to use as the cover photo so I did a poll on Instagram and chose the most popular one as my cover. 

The macaron shells were made using French method but I added freeze-dried mango and passionfruit powders so the shells alone didn't taste too sweet and had a wonderful flavour on its own too! Exactly what I had in mind as my class material has shells that have no filling in a 3D assembly that I am working on. 

Just to share some pictures.... 

Freshly baked macaron shells! These took me over an hour to pipe! 

All the decorated shells! I used black edible marker and royal icing to add in the details. 

Check out the awesome feet! 

I made my own mango compote amd chose slightly sour mangoes for it. My formula for making compote for macaron filling follows this rough formula: add sugar to pureed fruit, about 10-15% by weight of fruit, add a dash of lemon or yuzu juice, add a pinch of salt, and cook over low heat until weight of fruit is reduced to half of original weight. 

Nice and thick mango compote! 

I needed a firm filling as I am testing out for a simple 3D macaron structure that won't soften too much in tropical Singapore. To do that, ganache base is the best as buttercream may not be as firm. You may choose to make passionfruit curd, mango curd, or buttercreams if you wish. 

Firm mango passionfruit ganache

Ingredients:

80g white chocolate, chopped or use chips

20g unsalted butter 

1/8 tsp salt

50g mango compote

4g freeze-dried mango powder*

8g freeze-dried passionfruit powder*

* adjust according to taste. I was going for really tart filling. Add more compote or butter if you want a softer ganache. 

Steps:

1. Melt chocolate, butter and salt together over low heat using microwave or double-boiling. Set aside to firm up to toothpaste consistency. You may chill in fridge for a few minutes to speed it up. 

2. Whip the mixture using a spatula until white and light like buttercream. You may need to repeat chilling and whipping to get to the consistency of buttercream.

3. In another bowl, add freeze-dried fruit powders to mango compote and mix well. 

4. Add one tablespoon of compote at a time to whipped white chocolate mixture and fold it in. 

Whipped white chocolate mixture and mango compote. 

5. Transfer into piping bag and fill the macarons. Store filled macarons in fridge in airtight container for at least 24h before consuming. Before serving, leave the container out at room temperature unopened for 15 to 20min before opening. This is to prevent condensation from forming on the shells 

A close up view of the filling. Look at the bits of fruit! 

I hope these kitties put a smile on your face as it did to me! 

With love, 

Phay Shing

Read More »