'Hedgehogs on Stump' Gula Melaka Chiffon Sponge and Pudding Cake

My dad loves my Pandan kaya gula melaka cake and requested it for his birthday. I had a brainwave of making a stump cake with cute animal deco on top so I came up with this :).

The hedgehogs are snowskin mooncakes with Pandan lotus paste filling. You may read about how to make them over here. They are really much easier to make than they look! I wanted the tree stump to look more realistic so I decided to change the chiffon sponge to gula melaka flavour instead of Pandan. Gula Melaka chiffon sponge still has Pandan and coconut milk as main ingredients that give the cake the fragrance, along with gula melaka but the Pandan flavour is downplayed while the gula melaka flavour is enhanced. It's my first attempt at making a vertical swiss roll with pudding as the filling so it was a challenge but I am so glad that the outcome looks really "stump-like" and it wasn't too difficult once I get the hang of it. My first stump cake was filled with swiss meringue buttercream and it was a easier to assemble. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend this cake as it is really fragrant, rich yet refreshing, fondant-free, cream-free and dairy-free as well!

Recipe for gula melaka chiffon sponge
Ingredients (makes two 10x12" sheet cakes for a 6-7" diameter stump cake):
Egg yolk batter
4 egg yolks
106g gula melaka, chopped
46g coconut oil (or vegetable oil but will be less fragrant)
80g coconut milk
4 Pandan leaves, cut into 3cm strips
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp caramel flavouring (optional)
80g cake flour
1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Meringue*
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
40g caster sugar

* Divide ingredients into two equal portions unless you are able to squeeze both trays into the oven at the same time. Each tray can accomodate a 2 egg yolk/3 egg white recipe.

Steps:
1. In a heavy based saucepan, combine coconut milk, gula melaka and Pandan leaves together. Heat over low heat until all the gula melaka has dissolved. Set aside to cool. Pass the mixture through a sieve and squeeze all the liquid from the Pandan leaves. Discard the leaves.

2. Line the trays with baking paper. Set oven rack to second lowest position. Preheat to 170°C.

3. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks until pale and thick. Add coconut oil and whisk until well combined. Add coconut milk mixture and mix well. Add flavourings and mix well. Gradually sift in flour and salt and whisk until no trace of flour is seen. Divide the batter into two equal portions if you are baking in two rounds.

4. Prepare the meringue. In a clean metal bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks form, gradually adding in the sugar once the egg whites are foamy.

5. Fold the meringue into egg yolk batter quickly but gently in three additions. Tap the tray to release air bubbles.

6. Bake for 11 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Immediately remove from baking tray, carefully peel off baking sheet and cool the cakes in rolled up position. Roll the cakes along the longitudinal direction.

Cooling freshly baked cakes!

While the cakes are cooling, prepare the pudding. Boil about several Pandan leaves in about 1L of water for about 10 minutes to make some Pandan water.

Recipe for gula melaka pudding
Ingredients:
A)
480g coconut milk (you may substitute partially or whole with evaporated milk if you wish)
250g Pandan water
125g gula melaka, chopped
2 tsp agar powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp caramel flavouring (optional)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
A few drops of coconut flavouring (optional)

B)
46g custard powder
250g Pandan water

Steps:
1. Mix ingredients in B) in a jug and set aside.

2. Place all ingredients in A) in a saucepan and bring to a boil using medium heat while stirring continuously.

3. Stir B) again and slowly pour into the saucepan while stirring continuously. Continue to stir until mixture boils.

4. Sieve the pudding into a large bowl. Place a cling wrap touching the surface of the pudding. Let it cool for about 30-45 minutes at room temperature.

5. Use a ladle to stir the pudding as it thickens and continues to cool until consistency is like slow-moving lava (sounds like macaron batter haha :p).

Assembly
1. Unroll the cooled cakes. Use a long serrated knife to cut each rectangle into 8cm wide strips. You may not use all the cake for the main body of the stump.

2. Use a spatula to spread some pudding onto a strip.

3. Roll the cake like a swiss roll. Don't worry if some pudding spills out at the sides. Place it on the cakeboard vertically as shown in the top left picture below. Repeat for subsequent pieces. You may wish to add some triangular pieces at the base to form tree roots.

4. Cover the sides with more pudding using a spatula. It doesn't have to be very neat as real tree trunks aren't ;).

5. Scoop out about 1/3 cup of pudding and add 1 tsp of sifted cocoa powder and mix well. Transfer into piping bag fitted with a 6-7mm diameter piping tip. Pipe a spiral on the top of the stump, following the spiral made by rolling the cake. Use a spatula to spread some pudding at the side to give the bark of the tree stump a darker shade. Again, it doesn't have to be very neat. Put the cake in the fridge for 35-40min.

6. Use a fork to scratch some markings at the side by dragging from bottom to top of the sides. Refrigerate at least for 24 hours in airtight container before serving. The sponge and pudding cake is best eaten about 3 days after assembly.

Gula Melaka stump cake!

I added on some Pandan green chiffon cake grass and some mushrooms made from snowskin.

Cake at birthday lunch!

Take a peek at the awesome insides with alternating sponge and pudding!

Everyone young and old, chiffon cake haters and chiffon cake lovers all loved this cake too! My brother and hubby who are not chiffon cake fans said both texture and taste are superb. Mum and dad didn't find it too sweet too even though I was a little apprehensive about the amount of sugar in the cake. I can't reduce the gula melaka by too much or the flavour will not be strong enough. My family loved it so much they said I should make this flavour of cake for grandma's birthday next month! So I highly recommend all gula melaka fans to try this out!

Blessed birthday to daddy!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Chocolate Pandan Hedgehog Snowskin Mooncakes

I have been toying with various ideas on how to decorate the birthday cake for my dad that I will be making really soon and these critters came up on the spur of the moment!

Hedgehog snowskin mooncakes with Pandan lotus paste filling and chocolate snowskin!

I used my favourite snowskin recipe that involves cooking the dough a little to give it a more long-lasting moistness. I used store-bought Pandan lotus paste from Phoon Huat but feel free to choose other flavours like chocolate or plain lotus, or even make your own custard filling or homemade lotus paste from scratch. I am hard-pressed for time so I worked with ready-made filling.

Recipe for snowskin hedgehog mooncakes
Ingredients (makes about 8 mooncakes):

1/3cup cooked glutinous rice flour (kao fen 糕粉) for dusting

Plain snowskin
106g kao fen
106g icing sugar
36g vegetable shortening
176g pandan water (boil a few Pandan leaves in a pot of water for 10 minutes)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1/4 tsp caramel essence (optional)

Chocolate snowskin
82g kao fen
82g icing sugar
28g vegetable shortening
135g hot water
1 heaped tsp Dutch processed cocoa powder (you may use regular cocoa powder but the colour will be lighter)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
Charcoal powder

Filling
400g Pandan lotus paste (or filling of your choice)
1-2 tbs toasted melon seeds (optional)

Steps:
1. For each of the flavours of snowskin, sift icing sugar and kao fen together in a bowl. Dissolve cocoa powder in hot water.

2. Place shortening, water (Pandan or cocoa) and flavourings (if using) in a small saucepan and heat over low heat until shortening is fully melted but water need not boil.

3. Pour water with melted shortening into flour mixture. Use a spatula to mix well until a dough forms. Loosely cover with cling wrap and let it cool until you are able to handle with your hands. About 15-20 minutes.

4. Toast some melon seeds and knead it into the Pandan lotus paste.

5. Divide the filling into 50g each. Roll into a ball before making one end tapered until you get a teardrop shape.

6. Knead the dough on a non stick mat, dusting with kao fen as necessary if it feels sticky. Reserve about 8g of plain dough for the ears. Divide the rest of the plain dough into 8 equal portions of about 52-53g each.

7. Wrap each filling with plain dough and pinch seal it. Place the seal side down.

8. Portion out about 8g of chocolate dough and colour it black with some charcoal powder. Divide the chocolate dough into 8 equal portions, about 40g each.

I apologise for the lack of photos for the next part of shaping the critter as I was rushing. Hopefully the descriptions are clear enough!

Use your palm or a rolling pin to roll a ball of chocolate dough into a flat disc. The disc should be big enough to wrap around the hedgehog from the top to the sides.

Use a bench scraper to cut off one segment such that there is a straight edge. Use a small knife to create the zigzag "fringe" at the hedgehog's head by cutting out small triangles.

Carefully wrap this onto the assembled hedgehog body and smooth it out. Carefully cut off any excess dough with a knife.

Use a pair of kitchen scissors to snip the back of the hedgehog to create the spikes. Gently lift up each spike after you snip the snowskin.

Add on ears, eyes and nose on the hedgehog.

Just another ear to add on for us!

Store assembled hedgehog in the fridge in an airtight container that is not too big for your mooncakes. Best consumed within 1-5 days of assembly. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours to let the snowskin set.

I had a little extra dough to play with so I made some snowskin mushrooms :)

Extra deco for the cake I will be making!

Here's the post for the gula melaka sponge and pudding cake that these critters sat on!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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Chilli Chocolate Siamese Cat Macarons

I have a request from my friend to make Siamese cat macarons with a spicy filling. This is the first time I am trying the combination of chilli with dark chocolate and I must agree that it's awesome!

I used the reduced sugar recipe for macaron shells.

I made these cats along with Pusheen macarons and a pink macaron carousel structure. But for your convenience, I will type out the full recipe for these cuties.

You may refer to this post for a detailed write-up about the reduced sugar macaron shell recipe, my Creative Baking: Macarons book for a systematic approach of presenting the basics to fancy shaped macarons, this post for video tutorials of macaron basics and this post for video tutorials of piping complex shaped objects.

Here's the template I used. Pardon me for the poor quality as this is a photo of the original that I used. There's watermark features on my original file so I do not wish to copy and paste it directly here.

Reduced sugar macaron shell recipe for Siamese cats (makes about 50 macarons, 100 shells)

Ingredients:

Mass

210g superfine almond meal

196g icing sugar

10g rice flour

4g cornflour

82g egg whites

1/8 tsp fine sea salt

Dutch processed cocoa powder

Charcoal powder

Orange gel food colouring (optional)

Italian meringue

78g egg whites

196g caster sugar

73g Water

1/8 tsp Cream of tartar (optional)

Steps:

1. Prepare baking trays with Pusheen template and baking sheet over it. Stick the baking sheet to the tray with Italian meringue after you have made it. You may find pictures of Pusheen easily and since it is a trademarked character I will not reproduce the template here.

2. Make the mass. Sift together almond, icing sugar, rice flour, cornflour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add egg whites and mix well until a thick paste forms. Divide the mass into ratio of 2:5 for dark brown : light brown colours. Add sifted cocoa powder (and charcoal for dark brown) into the mixture until a desired shade is reached Add a drop of orange food colouring to make the brown shade warmer but this is optional. I apologise for the lack of precise measurements for cocoa powder and charcoal as I am used to working with large batches with many colours and I am used to using visual cues to gauge how much to add. Add cocoa powder 1/4 tsp at a time and charcoal powder a pinch at a time.

3. Prepare Italian meringue. Heat caster sugar and water in a small saucepan until it reaches 115°C without stirring. Use a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature. In the meantime, beat egg whites with cream of tartar with electric mixer at medium low speed until soft peaks form. Be careful not to overbeat till stiff peak but also do not underbeat such that the egg whites are foamy but unable to hold a peak for 1 second. Reduce mixer speed to keep egg whites moving if temperature of syrup is not reached yet. Once syrup is ready, increase mixer speed to medium high, carefully pour the syrup into the egg whites in a slow, thin stream while avoiding the beaters. Continue beating for another 10-15 minutes until the meringue is cooled to about body temperature. The meringue should be stiff and glossy. Reserve about 2 tbs of meringue for sticking the baking sheet onto the trays.

4. Divide the meringue into ratio of 2:5 by weight or use the formula of weight of meringue = 0.51 x weight of mass for each colour. Fold the meringue into the mass in 2 batches (with the first batch about a third of the meringue) with a spatula until the batter moves in a slow-moving lava-like manner.

5. Transfer batter into piping bags fitted with round piping tips of appropriate sizes (depends on your template). I used Wilton #10 and #5 tips for the large and small portions. Pipe the cat head base and bang the tray on the table to release trapped air bubbles. Dry for about half an hour in air-conditioned room and/or under a fan until a sticky membrane forms. Pipe on the dark brown features. Use a toothpick to pull the batter whenever necessary, especially the ears. Bang the tray on the table to release trapped air bubbles.

6. Let the piped shells dry until the surface is no longer sticky to touch. About 2 hours.

7. Bake in preheated oven with rack at lowest or second lowest position at 140°C for 12 minutes, rotate the tray and bake at 125°C for another 5-10 minutes or until the feet of the shells do no appear wet. Baking times may vary according to size of shells. Let the shells cool completely before peeling the baking sheet away from the shells.

Freshly baked shells! Along with some Pusheens and a little peek of the pink carousel shells.

Decorate with black edible marker for the nose and mouth and royal icing for the eyes and whiskers.

Let the icing features dry completely before filling the shells.

Recipe for chilli dark chocolate ganache
Ingredients:
150g dark chocolate, chopped
50g heavy cream
16g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp chilli powder

Steps:
1. Place dark chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt in microwave oven for 20 seconds at medium power. Stir the mixture. Repeat until the mixture is fully melted.

2. Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan at low heat until it starts to bubble. Remove from heat and pour over melted chocolate. Use a spatula to stir in one direction until mixture is homogeneous.

3. Add salt, vanilla and chilli powder and mix well.

4. Let the ganache sit undisturbed at room temperature for about half an hour to an hour or until toothpaste consistency. I prefer to speed things up by popping it into the fridge and checking the consistency every 5-10 minutes.

5. Transfer into piping bag and pipe onto shells. Refrigerate assembled shells in airtight container for at least 24h before serving. Leave the macarons at room temperature for about 15 minutes before consuming or the ganache may be too hard.

Best to enjoy the macarons after 3-4 days of maturing in the fridge!

Spicy and rich!

Thank God these were very well received!

With love,
Phay Shing

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Snorlax Chiffon Cake with Ultraball

Look what I caught!! ;) Hehe...

This is a cute 3D Snorlax made from blue pea flowers vanilla chiffon cake that I just made for my dear friend's son's birthday! I used almost 100 dried flowers for this cake and only a pinch of charcoal powder for the shade. The Snorlax body is baked in a doll cake tin, the head from a glass bowl (Iwaki, 11 mm), 2 ears from paper cones, and the arms from swissrolls (with some carving). I baked a vanilla chiffon sheet cake to cut out the white patch for the face and tummy, which was glued on using melted marshmallows. Just to share some pictures of the process. The right is the cake I used for the body and the left is the cake I used for the head and ears.

Can you guess how I did the spikes? Yes, by baking the vanilla chiffon in more paper cones. Quite tedious hehe. The feet was from 2 more bowls.

The Ultraball was made similar to my Pokeball, but replacing the raspberry jello with charcoal powder, and baking an additional yellow sheet cake for the 'H'.

Made with lots of love, thankful the cake was very well-received!

With lots of love,
Susanne

 Newest labour of love! 

Coming to you in mid-Sept!

For those who have pre-ordered, you can collect from 9 Sept to 10 Sept, and those who opted for delivery will have theirs sent on 9 Sept! Hope you enjoy these loving creations!

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Chocolate Chiffon Cupcakes with Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I have a Japanese mummy friend who wanted to order some cupcakes for her younger boy's birthday during a very busy period for me. She didn't mind it being a simple bake as long as it is yummy. Here's a humble bake from me. Chocolate chiffon cupcakes with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and rainbow sprinkles :).

I used my chocolate log cake recipe that was very well received for the chocolate cupcake base.

Chocolate chiffon cupcake recipe
Ingredients (makes about twenty-one 44x35mm cupcakes):
4 egg yolks
10g caster sugar
56g canola/vegetable oil
60g milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp instant coffee powder (Optional. Dissolve in milk if using)
1 tsp Kirsch (optional)
26g Dutch processed cocoa powder (add 1/3 tsp baking soda if using regular cocoa powder)
52g cake flour
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/3 tsp baking powder

5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
65g caster sugar

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 140°C with tray of water at base of oven (optional but I put it there to create steam). Set oven rack to second lowest position.

2. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Add oil and whisk until well combined. Add milk, vanilla and Kirsch. Whisk until well combined. Gradually sift in flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.

3. Prepare meringue. In a clean metal bowl, use electric mixer to beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until firm peaks form, just before stiff peaks.

4. Fold the meringue into the egg yolk batter quickly but gently in three additions. Spoon the batter into cupcake cases until about 1cm from the top of the rim. Gently tap the cases on the table to release air bubbles.

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting the cupcakes.

Strawberry swiss meringue buttercream
Ingredients:
110g egg whites (about 3 large eggs)
90g caster sugar
1/8 tsp salt
200g unsalted butter, cubed to tablespoon size and softened
45g strawberry puree
1/4 tsp strawberry paste

Steps:
1. Place egg whites, sugar and salt in a heatproof bowl that can fit over a saucepan filled with about 1" depth of water without the base of bowl touching the water. Use a hand whisk to whisk the egg whites continuously over simmering water in the saucepan until sugar has dissolved and temperature reaches 71.1°C on a candy thermometer. This takes about 5 minutes.

2. Remove the bowl from heat. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites on high speed for 10 minutes until the meringue is stiff, glossy and cool to almost room temperature.

3. Add butter once cube at a time and beat until smooth. Don't worry if the buttercream appears to curdle halfway. Just continue to beat and gradually add butter and it will all come together in the end. Continue beating for another two minutes after all butter has been added until the cream appears light coloured and fluffy.

4. Gradually add strawberry puree and beat until well combined.

5. Add strawberry paste and beat until well combined.

Transfer buttercream into piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1M tip and pipe swirls on the cupcakes.

Sprinkle on some rainbow sprinkles and store the cupcakes in airtight condition in the fridge. It can store for 3-4 days.

All packed!

My friend sent me a photo of a cupcake at the party...

She fedback that everyone said the cupcakes were really yummy!

With love,
Phay Shing

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'Mooncake' Chiffon Cakes (Peanut butter & jam)

I tried dressing up some Peanut Butter Chiffon Cakes as mooncakes as gifts for Teacher's day (this is a trial). Mid-autumn was coming but I didn’t have time to go baking shops yet to buy the ingredients, so that gave me an idea to dress up my chiffon cakes into mooncakes (will still be making the real ones soon because I finally got the ingredients today!).

Peanut butter is a very nice and yummy flavour that comes strongly in chiffon cakes. If you loved the kaya, you may like this one! I wrapped the peanut butter chiffon cake with strawberry jam-flavoured chiffon sheet cakes.

This was another experiment. I observed that the mooncake plunger looks very much like our cookie cutter plungers, so that gave me the idea to try using it as a cutter for my sheet cakes, and it worked like a charm! The patterns on the plunger was also transferred onto the sheet cakes! =) Presenting my Peanut butter and jam Mooncake Chiffon Cakes!

Each ‘mooncake’ is a 4-inch peanut butter chiffon cake, wrapped in strawberry jam-flavoured chiffon sheet cakes.

I have also written the recipe for one 7-inch chiffon tube pan in case you just want to try the yummy flavour!


Peanut Butter Chiffon Cake (makes three 4-inch chiffon cakes or one 7-inch chiffon cake)

3 egg yolks
18g castor sugar
39g peanut oil/vegetable oil
42g water/milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g Prima cake flour, sifted
34g peanut butter
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt

Meringue
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
45 g castor sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. *Optional: I used steam baking, i.e. I placed a pan of water under the lowest rack before preheating – to control oven temperature, prevent cracks and for moister texture.

2. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until light, fluffy and well-mixed.

3. Add in oil, then water or milk and mix well. Add in peanut butter and whisk till well-combined.

4. Whisk in sifted cake flour, baking soda, baking powder, a pinch of salt and mix till well-combined.

*Optional: Spoon out 3 tsp batter and add extra 5g peanut butter for darker coloured batter (for making the ‘egg yolk’) – optional if you don’t want to make the ‘egg yolk’.

5. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry metal bowl, using electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy.

b. Add in ½ castor sugar for meringue and whisk at high speed till soft peaks form.

c. Add in rest of the castor sugar for meringue and whisk till firm peaks form, or just the point of stiff peak. Firm peaks give finer, softer texture.

6. Gently fold in meringue gently into peanut butter batter 1/3 at a time.

*Optional: Transfer 6 tbsp meringue into the darker peanut butter batter for making the ‘egg yolk’, and gently fold in the meringue into the respective batters in 2-3 additions.

7. Pour into 3 ungreased 4-inch chiffon tube pan (or one ungreased 7-inch tube pan). Gently tap on counter top to remove air bubbles.

*Optional: Spoon the darker peanut butter batter into six 3-cm cake pop cavities. Bake for 160°C for 12 min.

8. Bake at 160°C for 15 min, 140°C for 5-10 min for the 4-inch tube pan (or at 160°C for 15 min, 140°C for 30-35 min for the 7-inch tube pan), or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.
**If you use steam baking, you may need to bake for a few more minutes.

10. Invert pan to cool on a wire rack completely.

11. Unmould the chiffon cakes by hand (see video tutorial ‘Hand unmoulding Chiffon cakes for a clean finishing’). 

Freshly unmolded Peanut Butter Chiffon Cake - smells good!

Strawberry jam chiffon sheet cakes
2 egg yolks
11g castor sugar
26g vegetable/corn oil
28g water/milk
3g vanilla extract
40g Prima cake flour, sifted
18g strawberry jam
Few drops strawberry paste/emulco
A pinch of salt

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
30 g castor sugar


1. Preheat oven to 160°C.

2. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until light, fluffy and well-mixed.

3. Add in oil, then water or milk and mix well. Add in strawberry jam and whisk till well-combined.

4. Whisk in sifted cake flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt and mix till well-combined.

5. Prepare meringue:

a. In a grease-free, dry metal bowl, using electric mixer, whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy.

b. Add in ½ castor sugar for meringue and whisk at high speed till soft peaks form.

c. Add in rest of the castor sugar for meringue and whisk till firm peaks form, or just the point of stiff peak. Firm peaks give finer, softer texture.

6. Gently fold in meringue gently into batter 1/3 at a time.

7. Pour into two 9-inch baking pans, lined with baking paper. Gently tap on counter top to remove air bubbles.

8. Bake at 160°C for 15 min. Peel off baking sheet, transfer onto a new sheet and cover with another sheet to cool completely.


Assembly

1. Melt some marshmallows by sprinkling some water onto a few marshmallows in a heat-proof bowl, and then popping in into the microwave for 30 s. This makes the ‘glue’ to stick the cakes together.

2. Slice a peanut butter chiffon cake into two. Use a circle cutter to cut out a semi-spherical hole in the peanut butter chiffon cake.

3. Apply some melted marshmallow in the hole and stuff an ‘egg yolk’ cake pop in. Repeat for the other half. 

4. Use a 4-inch mooncake plunger (for 200g mooncake)to cut two pieces from the sheet cakes. For the top piece, push the plunger completely to make the imprints. For the bottom piece, just use it as a cutter (do not push completely down).

 

5. Cut a strip corresponding to the height of the 4-inch peanut butter chiffon cake (to go around the sides).

6. Use melted marshmallows to stick the pink strawberry jam sheet cakes on the top, bottom and sides of the peanut butter cake.

7. Use a knife to make cuts at the sides of the ‘mooncake’.


Hope you will enjoy this labour of love too!

With lots of love,

Susanne

       Newest labour of love! 

Coming to you in mid-Sept!

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Iced Brown Sugar Cookies: Back to Basics & Teacher's Day Special

I have been wanting to do an updated brown sugar cookie and royal icing post for the longest time but haven't had the chance or discipline to do so. With this batch of cookies for Teacher's Day and a whooping order of 400 cookies for my cousin's wedding, I thought I would take the time to do a detailed documentation along with some updates from my previous write-up. I will highlight points to note and tips when making these cookies.

I am really eager to share this because all my recipients have waxed lyrical about the taste and smell of these cookies, with customers coming back for more and learning their lesson to reserve some for themselves before giving away to guests because it's so good.  I prefer brown sugar cookies as cookie base over regular sugar cookies that everyone else uses for iced cookies for precisely this reason. The taste is really good. From a baker's point of view, I love the fact that these cookies have a long shelf life (about 1.5-2 months) at cool room temperature, are forgiving so even new bakers are able to master it, and have a soft chewy texture by nature such that the cookie doesn't taste "lao hong" when covered with royal icing that would soften cookies that are crisp by nature, although in terms of  looks they are not as pretty as regular sugar cookies.

I have a request for brown sugar cookies for Teacher's Day so I decided to ride on the request and made some for my kids' teachers too. Sharing my first humble attempt at laced designs on iced brown sugar cookies.

There are more beautiful and intricately designed laced cookies out there that I could use as a reference but I have another whooping 400 iced cookies to make on the heels of this batch of 27 cookies for teachers. I didn't want to kill myself so I tried to look for a design that is elegant and simple.

My brown sugar cookie recipe is adapted from a gingerbread cookie recipe, minus the spices and using primarily brown sugar or a mixture of brown and white sugar as the sugar in the recipe. The golden syrup and caramelizing process of the sugar during baking, combined with good quality vanilla bean paste and good brand of butter is the secret to making these cookies smell so awesome.

Recipe for brown sugar cookies
Ingredients (makes about thirty-eight 7cm heart shaped cookies):
421g plain flour
1.25 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
135g unsalted butter ( I use Lurpak)
160g brown sugar (you may substitute parts of brown sugar with caster sugar if you wish to have a lighter coloured cookie)
58g egg (about 1 large egg 65g with shell on)
99g golden syrup
2.5 tsp vanilla bean paste

Steps:
1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt.

2. Add cubed pieces of cold butter and rub in with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

3. Add in brown sugar into the mixture and mix well with fingertips. Remove any hard lumps of sugar before adding into the flour mix.

Brown sugar

4. Lightly beat egg in a bowl, add golden syrup and vanilla. Mix until well combined.

5. Add egg mixture to the flour mixture. Use a spatula to mix well until a ball of dough forms.

6. Divide dough into 3 portions (optional but I find it easier to work with smaller portions of dough when rolling and cutting). Place each portion between two baking sheets and roll to thickness of 5-6mm. If you are making cookiepops, roll to thickness of 3-4mm. Freeze the dough until firm. You may store the cookie dough in jumbo ziplock bags for a few months in the freezer.

7. Line baking tray/ cookie sheet with baking paper. Take out firm dough from freezer and let it sit at room temperature for a minute or two before cutting out the hearts. If you are making cookies without a cookie cutter, please refer to this post on how to make your own cookie templates. Place the cookie cut-outs spaced about 2cm apart. Note: If you are using a knife to cut out the cookies with complex shapes, you may find it helpful to place the sheet of cookie dough on reusable freezer packs to prevent the cookie dough from softening too fast. This dough tends to be sticky when soft so try to handle it while it is still firm but pliable. Pop the dough back in the fridge or freezer if it becomes too soft to work with.

8. Chill the whole tray of cookie cut-outs while preheating the oven to 160-170°C with oven rack in the middle. Bake for 15-18 minutes, rotating the baking tray halfway through baking. Note: Use your eyes and firmness of slightly cooled cookies to gauge doneness instead of baking time as size and thickness of cookie cut-outs vary. I tend to overbake slightly to compensate for some softening of the cookies due to royal icing. Baked cookies should be browned and firm when cooled. If the cookie still feels soft in the center, pop it back into the oven and bake for another 3-5 minutes and check again. It's ok to pop the tray of cookies in and out of the oven a few times.

Freshly baked!

Cool the cookies completely on tray or cooling rack before storing or icing. You may stack the cookies between baking sheets in a box for storage. Make sure that the storage container is airtight. Store in a cool and dry place. For best results, let the baked cookies rest for at least a day before icing.

Recipe for royal icing
Ingredients:
500g icing sugar
36g meringue powder
86g water
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp caramel flavouring

Previously, I did not include salt in the recipe. This is to help counter the sweetness and enhance the flavour. Although expert advice suggest using colourless flavourings so as not to tint the royal icing, I still value taste above looks so I included vanilla and caramel in the royal icing. You may choose to use other extracts like lemon or almond if you wish but I prefer to compliment the flavour of the cookie base. Just to show some of the ingredients I use...

Meringue powder

Vanilla extract and caramel flavouring

Steps:
1. Sift together icing sugar, meringue powder and salt in a clean, grease-free metal mixing bowl. Add water and flavourings.

2. Use electric mixer on low speed or hand whisk to whisk for about 7 minutes. Using hand whisk will require a lot of muscle strength for this quantity of ingredients so I used my stand mixer. Hand whisk is more suitable if your half the recipe. If using stand mixer, scrape down the sides every1-2 minutes. Beating on high speed with electric mixer is not recommended as it will introduce a lot of air bubbles.

Note that the icing will change from off-white to white in colour as it becomes ready for use.

Note: The resulting consistency of this icing is close to flooding consistency whereby any peaks will disappear within 10-20 seconds. Add more icing sugar if you want a stiffer consistency and more water if you want it to be runnier. Always add water a bit at a time to prevent it from becoming too watery. Remember to mix well.

Add colour to the icing with gel food colouring as you wish. I like to use charcoal powder for black and some cocoa powder for brown as I prefer natural sources of colouring.

Store any unused icing in airtight container with cling wrap touching the surface. You may refrigerate the icing for a month. Stir well before use.

Tips on icing cookies:
1. Arm yourself with a damp paper towel to wipe off any mistakes before icing hardens.

2. Use a toothpick to ease the icing into small corners or for drawing very fine features.

3. You may oven dry at 60°C using the fan mode to speed things up but be careful not to leave it in the oven too long as the oil from the cookie base will seep into the icing and make it look patchy. Alternatively, turn on the heat for several seconds before turning it off, with the fan mode on. It may take longer to dry but chances of the oil seeping from cookie base to icing layer is less.

4. Store the cookies in airtight container only when completely dry.

5. You may use piping bags fitted with piping tips or a squeeze bottle but I find that a lot of icing is wasted. I just cut a small hole in ziplock bags or piping bags. I only use piping tips if I need very neat outlines.

6. Use wet-on-wet icing technique (adding icing on top of wet icing) if you want the features to be flat. Wait for the bottom layer of icing to dry if you want the feature to stick out.

7. Practice makes perfect! I am still practising and learning :). Mastering the right consistency for icing takes time.

Just to share some photos of icing in progress...

I packed the cookies in self-seal bags with satin ribbons tied at one end.

Blessed Teacher's Day to all teachers!

With lots of love,
Phay Shing

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