Sometimes you don't know something can be done until you try it. This is one of those experimental bakes that turned out really well and I thank God for it ๐. Presenting my version of Hello Kitty with Donutella on a hot-air balloon trip over the rainbow, all made using macarons!
Saturday, 12 September 2020
Hello Kitty and Donutella in Hot-Air Balloon Macarons
Friday, 11 September 2020
Giant Boba Brown Sugar Milk Tea Chiffon Cake
Saturday, 5 September 2020
Princess Crown and Shoes Raspberry and Earl Grey Macarons
I had to decide whether to go for easier time before baking or post-baking. I chose the latter to avoid using royal icing (which is added sugar) on the baked shells. So this is what the piped batter looks like...
I used the Swiss meringue method for making the macaron shells and you may refer to the detailed recipe in this post.
I used edible marker to decorate the baked shells to make the features on the tiaras and shoes more well defined. I painted on some white stars to give the glass slipper a "bling bling" look by using paint made with white gel colouring dissolved in vodka.
Raspberry and earl grey flavours were requested. You may refer to this post for raspbery white chocolate ganache and this post for the Earl Grey ganache.
Did these princessy accessories charm you ๐?
With love,
Phay Shing
Wednesday, 2 September 2020
Shopkins Rainbow Chiffon Cake
We all need Rainbows๐ in these strange times of adjusting to the new normal!
Sending a huge, cheerful Rainbow, in the form of Shopkins Rainbow bite!๐๐
You can also learn how to make the Chiffon cake Rainbow from my latest 2-in-1 LTS Rainbow online class (sign up link here).
And ending with my favorite quote: There is a Rainbow of hope๐ at the end of every Storm!
Have a blessed week!๐๐๐
Sunday, 30 August 2020
'Peter Rabbit in Pink' Macaron Picnic Scene on Pandan Kaya Cake
This is how it looks like without the rabbit on the swing. I used stiff royal icing for constructing the swing.
I was seriously cute overloaded by this scene, how whimsical it is and how much it reminds me of the Sylvanian family figurines!
This whole project was really a labour of love! Thank God it was very well received!
With love,
Phay Shing
Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Little Twin Stars Little Rainbow Chiffon
Celebrate Little Twin Stars 45th Anniversary with us! Little Twin Stars Little Rainbow Chiffon – a 2-in-1 class where you can learn how to make Little Twin Stars chiffon⭐ and Rainbow chiffon๐ as well!๐๐
LTS character templates and downloadable recipe are provided, as well as special tips to create perfect features. A new flavour, yummy coconut chiffon ๐ is also taught.
The online class is available to everyone, overseas as well! =)
Baking kits with molds and pans are also available for delivery to your doorstep (within Singapore region only)! ๐
Hope you will enjoy it!
Monday, 24 August 2020
Chihuahua Chocolate Choux Pastry (updated vanilla pastry cream recipe)
I usually don't take last minute requests but since this one requires only 3 pastries and it was riding on another bake I was working on, I thought why not. Presenting my attempt at making Chihuahua choux pastries!
I have written a detailed recipe for making the choux au craquelin (creampuffs topped with crispy cookie dough layer on top) that the chihuahuas sit in in this post. These choux buns are just plain uncoloured batter, piped into 2.5cm rounds and topped with 3cm diameter cookie dough before baking.
I made the chihuahuas out of pastry cream. Most of it is chocolate pastry cream except for the light parts of the chihuahua's face. I made vanilla pastry cream and portioned it for colouring various colours, most of which is chocolate flavoured.
Updated vanilla pastry cream recipe
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
20g cornflour
30g caster sugar (use up to 40g if you have a sweet tooth!)
A pinch of salt
200g milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
15g unsalted butter
30g dark chocolate couverture + 1tsp milk (optional, couverture and extra milk are for colouring and flavouring dark parts of the pastry cream)
Steps:
1. Place milk and vanilla extract in a saucepan and heat until steaming but not boiling.
2. In the mean time, whisk together cornflour, sugar, salt and egg yolks until a smooth paste is formed. It is helpful to put all these in a heavy glass measuring jug so that it is easy to pour and it is heavy enough so it won't spin when you whisk the contents with one hand. If you don't have a heavy glass jug, just use any heavy mixing bowl or put a damp towel under the bowl.
3. While whisking the egg yolk mixture continuously, carefully pour the heated milk into the jug in a thin stream. This is to temper the egg yolks. Pour everything back into the saucepan
4. Heat the mixture in saucepan over medium low heat while whisking continuously until the pastry cream thickens. The thickening will happen suddenly so be ready to take the pan off the heat to continue whisking for a while until smooth. Put the pan back onto medium low heat and continue cooking until the pastry cream is thick enough to form a firm peak. We are piping characters in pastry cases with this so it has to be cooked until firm enough. But if you are just filling it the regular way without fancy piping , then just cook the pastry cream until your preferred consistency. Some people prefer it softer, some prefer it firmer. It is important to cook it slowly and keep whisking to ensure the pastry cream remains silkily smooth. You don't want to end up with scrambled eggs
5. Remove saucepan from heat and whisk in the butter until smooth.
6. If you aren't making the chihuahuas, just transfer the pastry cream into a bowl and press cling film on the surface of the cream. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour before whipping it briefly with a spatula to lighten the texture and using it to fill. If you are making the chihuahuas or colouring the pastry cream, quickly portion out into the various bowls and add whatever colouring you need to colour and press a cling film on the surface before chilling. For the brown and black parts of the chihuahua, I added 30g of dark chocolate with a little milk to the portioned out pastry cream while it is still hot enough to melt the chocolate. For black colour, I added some charcoal powder. For pink part of the ears, I added freeze-dried raspberry powder. I try to use natural food colouring whenever possible.
I omitted adding whipping cream to lighten the pastry cream as I wanted the cream to remain firm and glossy enough for piping. If you prefer a lighter, less rich cream, you may add about 80-100g of whipped whipping cream to the chilled pastry cream. Filled pastries need to be kept refrigerated and best eaten within 2 to 3 days.
Choux pastries of this style where the decorative parts are made out of filling will have soft pastry cases instead of my usual crisp cases as the moisture from the filling will soften the pastry cases quickly. Even then, it is still delightful to eat. Thank God the birthday girl loved these!
With love,
Phay Shing
Saturday, 22 August 2020
Anniversary Celebration Macaron Gift
Decorated figures
Wednesday, 19 August 2020
Crayon Shin Chan Chiffon Cake
Psst.. means you are in the same generation as me?๐
Have an awesome week ahead!❤
Saturday, 15 August 2020
Vegan Pandan Kaya Gula Melaka Cakelets
My friend requested for a vegan cake for her daughter's birthday. I gave some thought to select a flavour that is still yummy despite not using eggs or dairy. It is quite a new challenge for me as my favourite type of cake is leavened by meringues in the form of chiffon cakes. I decided to experiment and take the plunge, even though I was skeptical about the taste and texture of any sponge not leavened by meringues or loaded with butter or eggs. There was a happy accident along the way which I will elaborate later, and the resulting cake tastes beyond my expectations! Full of flavour and wonderful aroma, this is my bite sized version of a vegan pandan kaya cake that uses gula melaka as part of the sugar!
And what was the happy accident? The sponge layers as you can see, is totally brown. When I prepared the batter, it was in a lovely shade of jade green from homemade pandan juice. The oven temperature went wonky a few minutes into baking and went into a high overshoot, toasting the coconut milk in the batter in the process although I did manage to bring down the temperature after about 13-15min into baking time. As the cake is a thin sheet cake, the cake became brown throughout. Is it dry you may ask. The cake is surprisingly moist and soft although it doesn't have the spongey nature of chiffons. The texture is more like a soft and moist muffin. I chose an easy reference recipe that involves mixing wet and dry ingredients, much like making a simple muffin.
The pandan gula melaka pudding is more or less a variation of the same default recipe I use for my regular pandan kaya cake, which is vegan anyway. But I will share it here in detail for your convenience.
Recipe for vegan pandan gula melaka sponge
Ingredients:
110g cake flour (plain flour in original recipe)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt (1/4 tsp in original)
40g caster sugar (75g in original)
25g gula melaka, chopped (not in original)
70g coconut milk
50g pandan juice (blend as many pandan leaves as you want in some water and strain out the juice)
1/2 tbs apple cider vinegar
45g vegetable oil
1/2tsp vanilla extract
Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160C (180C in original recipe) and line an 8x8" square tray with parchment.
2. Melt gula melaka in coconut milk, set aside to cool.
3. Sift flour, baking soda, white sugar and salt into mixing bowl. Whisk until combined.
4. Add vinegar into coconut milk, set aside for 5 min. Add oil, pandan juice, vanilla and mix well.
5. Pour wet into dry ingredients. Whisk until just combined.
6. Pour into prepared baking tray and bake until golden brown.
Now here is the thing. I didn't follow the baking temperature and time of the original recipe, which was 180C for 30 min. This step would vary from oven to oven as each oven behaves differently. I was baking pandan gula melaka chiffon sponge just before baking this so I had a tray of water at the base of the oven so mine is a steam bake instead of the original dry bake. I preheated to 180C on the temperature dial but actual temperature was about 150-160C for the first 5 min. Nothing appeared to be happening so I turned up the temperature dial by a little (my oven is an analog one) at the 5 min mark and went away for 5 min to have a quick bite. When I came back, the oven thermometer read 190C! I quickly turned the dial down and opened the oven door a little for a few seconds. It took a few minutes for the temperature to drop to 160-170C. I continued baking until total bake time was 25min instead of the suggested 30min because by then, the crust looked really browned. If you aren't sure what time and temperature profile to use, I would suggest following the original reference recipe but do keep an eye on your oven and how browned your cake appears. Even if the coconut milk didn't get toasted in the process, the cake will still be yummy! Just less aromatic.
As you can see in the picture below, the batter is green but the sponge is browned throughout! But the aroma is really intense from the toasting of the coconut milk and sugars!
Cut the sponge into squares or use round cookie cutters to cut out rounds, depending on how you want to assemble. A simple way is to use cupcake cases. I decided to do a fancier one using my silicone mould.
Recipe for pandan gula melaka pudding
Ingredients:
A)
240g coconut milk
120g pandan water (boil some pandan leaves in water)
30g gula melaka, chopped
30g caster sugar (may replace with gula melaka if you wish)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp pandan paste
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp liquid green food colouring
1/8 tsp caramel essence (optional)
1 tsp agar powder
B)
26g cornflour
130g pandan water
Steps :
1. Combine ingredients in B) in a jug and stir until cornflour is suspended in water. Set aside.
2. Place all ingredients in A) in a saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring all the time. Keep stirring for another 1 min once the mixture is boiling. This is to ensure agar is totally dissolved.
3. Bring heat to medium low. Stir B) again and pour in a continuous slow stream into the saucepan while stirring the saucepan continously.
4. Keep stirring and bring the mixture to a boil using medium low heat. Continue stirring and boiling for a minute.
5. Sieve the mixture to remove any large gula melaka bits or undissolved agar. The pudding is now ready to assemble with the sponge. Stir the pudding in the bowl now and then to prevent it from setting in the bowl.
Assembly
There isn't a fixed way to do this. Simply alternate layers of sponge and pudding and then refrigerate for a few hours. If you assembled in cupcake cases, you can leave it as it is. If you used moulds, you can carefully unmould at this point. I rolled the unmoulded cakelets in dessicated coconut for that extra texture when you bite into it.
The fancy silicone truncated cone mould is rather small so I used the smallest round cookie cutter I have to cut out the sponge. And this wasn't enough so I had to halve each round cutout horizontally so the sponge layer isn't too thick so it looks proportionate in the tiny mould. Needless to say, it was a challenge to work neatly and quickly ๐คฃ
Messy assembly!
My kids did a taste test and gave thumbs up for it! You don't miss the egg at all because it is so full of flavour and aroma! If you want an easy vegan cake that is yummy as well, give this a try! No electric mixer required!
With love,
Phay Shing
Wednesday, 12 August 2020
Matcha Dark Chocolate Macaron Mustard Tree
The little girl really loved this gift and almost couldn't bear to eat the birds ๐คฃ.
With love,
Auntie Phay Shing
Deer Squad Chiffon Cakes
Very excited to partner with Nickelodeon to share their brand new animation Deer Squad and to create chiffon cakes inspired by their characters! ๐
Watch Deer Squad on Nickelodeon, weekdays @ 2.15pm (SG), 3pm (WIB), 4pm (MY/PH)!
Head on over to facebook.com/nickasia to catch the trailer and get a FREE Deer Squad Starter Kit, where you can take a quiz to find your inner deer, make your own helmet and more!
My kids loved the cartoon and the kit! This was one of the more difficult projects of late. Thank God for providing!
Friday, 7 August 2020
SG National Day Boba Milk Tea Chiffon Cake
This is a simple National day version of the Boba Brown Sugar Milk Tea cake.
The pearls are red and white to celebrate National day! I prepared this item for a demo for Bishan cc today.
We are so blessed to be in this safe, secure nation and so blessed that we can celebrate National day despite the COVID situation and all the challenges. Keeping the nation and leaders in prayers.
Happy National day!
With lots of love,
Susanne
Matcha Milk Chocolate Dinosaur Macaron Class
Monday, 3 August 2020
Sleeping Fox Choux Pastry Class
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Hello Kitty Popsicle Celebration (Online Class)
Here is the second class which I am launching with Sanrio!
Titled Hello Kitty Popsicle Celebration, Hello Kitty dressed in red and white and getting ready to celebrate SG National day with us! =)
These yummy chiffon cake popsicles are vanilla-strawberry flavoured. This item is easier to bake and fun to make for the whole family. We hope that these online classes will promote bonding as we celebrate National day at home. Sign-up link for the class is here.
There are also options to add on baking kits with popsicle mold, ice cream sticks, and ingredients pre-weighed!
Hope these cheerful Hello Kitty popsicles made you smile!
With lots of love,
Susanne

















































