Lychee Cake with Marzipan Covered Walnut Brown Sugar Cookie Deco

This is a way overdue post! I didn't get around to posting it because it has so many components to this bake! I made this cake for my friend's son who was turning 21... a year ago 🙈. She wanted a theme that showcased his love for Chelsea and his stage in life as a young man about to enter business school. I made a lychee raspberry rose cake with marzipan and cookie cake topper.

It's my first time making anything remotely fondant-like as the centerpiece. Those of you who know me long enough know that I don't touch fondant because it does not taste good. Marzipan on the other hand, is still somewhat edible although sweet as well. Almond is nutritious after all 😆. 

I used Cooking Tree's recipe for marzipan, which contains more almond than sugar and doesn't use raw egg whites. The books, laptop, scarf, outer layer of soccer ball, the limbs and outer layer of the figurine were all made of marzipan. The Graham cookie base was covered with a thin layer of marzipan too.

Marzipan 

240g almond flour

200g icing sugar

50g light corn syrup (or honey but honey imparts colour)

30g water

Steps: 

1. Sift together almond flour and icing sugar.

2. Add light corn syrup and water and knead until a dough forms. Dust with extra icing sugar if it gets too sticky.

3. Add gel colouring and form into shapes desired. Keep any unused portions cling wrapped to prevent drying out. Like fondant, marzipan can be left out to dry to harden.

As I didn't want the decorative parts to contain too much sugar, I used edible cookie dough for the head, body and center of soccer ball.

Edible cookie dough with toasted walnut 

(Adapted from chefsweets.com/veganedible-cookie-dough)

38g butter (I use Golden churn)

44g light brown sugar

Pinches of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

40g heat treated plain flour (microwave to reach 71.1C)

20g chopped toasted walnut

1. Briefly cream together butter, brown and salt.

2. Add vanilla extract and mix well. 

3. Add sifted heat treated plain flour and mix until a dough ball forms. Add chopped toasted walnuts (optional) and mix well. Store in airtight condition at cool room temperature until ready to use, preferably within a few days.

Here's the weight of marzipan and edible cookie dough I used for the various parts. I am recording this more for myself but it's great if you find it helpful too!

Soccer ball

The core is 8g cookie dough, followed by a layer of 8g marzipan wrapping around it. The outer surface is made up of 20 small white balls and 12 small black balls. The small balls are 1-1.5g each. The white ball in middle made up of the core and marzipan wrapping it should be about 8x bigger than smaller balls.

Marzipan soccer ball that tastes way better than any fondant 😆

Figurine

Legs 56g

Shoes 7g each

Body 52g  (marzipan + cookie)

Hands 10g each

Head 50g (marzipan + cookie)

The head and body are marzipan wrapped edible cookie dough.

I mounted the scene on a large Graham cracker base. But instead of whole wheat flour, I used plain flour for a softer texture. This firm but yummy base is necessary for anchoring the marzipan figurine to the base so it doesn't fall apart accidentally during transport. I ran a skewer from the head through the body into the cookie base. 

Graham cracker

142g whole wheat flour or plain flour

85g light brown sugar

½ tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp baking soda

3/8 tsp salt

50g unsalted butter (slightly softened but still firm)

23g milk

42g honey

1tsp vanilla extract

Chopped toasted walnuts (optional)

1.  Line 7" round baking tin with parchment at the base and sides. Preheat oven to 150-160C.

2. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a mixing bowl.

3. Add butter in and use fingertips to rub in until fine breadcrumbs form. Alternatively, you may use a blender, a pastry cutter, or a pair of butter knives to do this.

4. In a measuring jug, mix together honey, milk and vanilla. Pour into dry ingredient mixture and form a dough. The dough will be sticky.

5. Press dough into baking tin, making sure the top is flat. Press in some toasted chopped walnuts if you wish. Bake for 30 min. Cool completely.

Freshly baked large cookie base

I used desiccated coconut that is coloured green with vodka and vanilla extract added as the "grass". The desiccated coconut was glued onto the marzipan covered base using a little water.

Ta-dah! My first hand molded figurine cake topper!

The cake on which the cake topper sits is made of three layers of lychee rose chiffon cake filled with chopped canned lychees, lychee jelly, lychee rose diplomat cream and raspberry lychee reduction. The whole cake was then coated with lychee rose Italian meringue buttercream (IMBC).

Lychee rose chiffon cake

(makes three 9.5" cakes)

9 yolks

112g oil

113g canned lychee puree, strained

1.5-2 tsp rose syrup

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp salt

190g cake flour

meringue*

9 whites

135g caster sugar

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

* Split the meringue ingredients into separate batches if you don't have multiple ovens. Bake in preheated oven at 150C for 30 min. Cool in oven for 5min with door ajar. Cool in open for 5 min before removing from pan. Line base of pan with parchment.

I didn't want to make this long post even longer than necessary so you may refer to this post on method of making the chiffon cake batter.

Lychee Rose IMBC 

( Reference recipe from Catherine Zhang over here)

300g canned lychee syrup

15g caster sugar (added to syrup that is not too sweet)

2 egg whites (76g) + 5g caster sugar

1/2-1 tsp rose syrup

300g unsalted butter, softened but cool

20g icing sugar (optional)

1. Place egg whites and 5g sugar in standmixer and mix of low speed. The little bit of sugar is to help stabilize the meringue.

2. In the meantime, heat 300g canned lychee syrup with 15g caster sugar. I added a little sugar as the syrup wasn't too sweet to begin with so I wasn't sure there was enough sugar in the lychee syrup.  Heat syrup until 115C without stirring.

3. When syrup reaches about 110C, turn mixer speed up to medium and whip until soft peaks. Turn mixer speed down if syrup is not yet 115C. 

4. When syrup is ready, turn mixer speed up to medium high and slowly pour syrup down the sides of the mixing bowl. Continue beating until totally cooled to room temperature.

5. At medium speed, add butter 1 tbs at a time. Continue beating 10minutes more until light and silky.

6. Add rose syrup and beat until well combined.

7. If your IMBC is rather soft due to low sugar content of lychee syrup, you may add a little icing sugar and beat for a couple of minutes at this point.

Refrigerate up to a week or a month in freezer

Filling in cake

10 chopped canned lychees

Lychee jelly

Lychee rose diplomat cream

Raspberry lychee reduction

Lychee jelly

Bloom 6 sheets of gelatin (12g) in 50g cold lychee syrup. Melt in microwave. Stir in 100g lychee syrup. Set in fridge until firm before cutting into small pieces.

Raspberry reduction

110g raspberry puree (strained to remove seeds)

15g lychee syrup

Cook over low heat and reduced to 70g.

Lychee Rose diplomat cream

2 yolks

20g cornflour

50g milk

150g lychee puree, strained

6g rose syrup

Pinches of salt

15g unsalted butter

100g whipping cream*

(I use non-dairy whipping cream which is pre sweetened and stabilized. If using dairy cream, stabilize with gelatin and add sugar)

Please refer to this post for the method for diplomat cream.

Here's a peek at assembling the layers. I spread some raspberry reduction before layering on diplomat cream and topping with lychee jelly and chopped lychees.

I coloured half the IMBC blue so that I could frost the cake in Chelsea colours.

Thank God it was very well received!

with love,
Phay Shing

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Burger and Fries Chiffon Cake Class

 

Here's my next hands-on class in May, a cute Burger and Fries Chiffon Cake Class! Hope they made you smile! 

Best wishes, 

Susanne 

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Shiba Inu, Rilakkuma & Korilakkuma Vegan Mitarashi Dango Macarons

 This was the last project I embarked on before focusing on making marshmallows to take step-by-step photos for Deco Marshmallows. Shiba Inu, Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma Mitarashi dango macarons! 

The macaron shells, decoration and filling are all vegan except for the caramel coated Pocky stick.

This is my third attempt at vegan macarons but first attempt at Swiss method for vegan macs. I think I prefer this to the French method which I used earlier for my Hanami dango macarons. I decorated the macaron shells with vegan royal icing. The brown shells are coloured with Hojicha powder.

Inspired by Mitarashi Dango, which is a traditional Japanese rice dumpling smothered in an irresistibly sweet soy sauce glaze. The dumplings are skewered on a bamboo stick and enjoyed all year round. I filled mine with toasted white sesame ganache and soy sauce caramel, both are vegan. But the "wooden skewer" is a caramel Pocky biscuit stick which is not vegan. I can't bring myself to make that from scratch as well after all the work 🙈.

I am unable to share the recipe and method as I intend to use it for future class material. But you may have a look at my Instagram reel to see the process of making these! 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cq2y5L5guLv/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Just to share some pictures...

Freshly baked macaron shells! Although the brown is coloured with Hojicha powder, you can't taste it much as the filling is strong flavoured.

Toasting white sesame seeds until aromatic

White sesame paste made with a little peanut oil and a pinch of salt added to toasted white sesame.

Filling macaron shells with toasted white sesame soy sauce ganache and soy sauce caramel. Not forgetting the caramel Pocky stick!

These macarons have a depth of flavour that is so delightful! From the first bite until you swallow, the lingering taste in your mouth changes. My kids gave a thumbs up!

Keep a lookout for class announcement for Shiba Inu Mitarashi dango macaron class probably third quarter of this year on my Instagram!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Lemon Minions Bunny Egg Cakes

 

Sharing some cute Lemon Minion Bunny Egg Cakes with recipe =) ❤️ 

Ingredients (5 egg shells) 
1 egg yolk 
13g vegetable oil 
7g lemon juice 
7g milk 
1/4 tsp vanilla extract 
20g cake or all-purpose flour  
¼ tsp lemon zest 
Yellow and blue food coloring 

1 egg white 
25g castor sugar 
Few drops lemon juice 

Whisk egg yolk with oil, lemon juice, milk, vanilla, zest. Add sifted flour and whisk till well combined. Divide the batter 2 (yellow): 1 (blue). Whisk egg whites with sugar and lemon juice in a new bowl till firm peaks. Fold in the meringue into respective colored batter. 

Pipe yellow batter till 1/2 full, followed by a layer of blue batter in each egg shell. Bake at 140C for 30 mins. Crack open the egg shells when the cakes are cool. Decorate with melted chocolate. 

Hope they made you smile!!❤️❤️🥰 

Video baking/assembly reel here on my IG: @susanne.decochiffon 

With love,

Susanne

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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

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Sanrio Hanami Dango Vegan Macarons

I am finally done with the first draft of Deco Marshmallows! While waiting for the editor to get back to me with it, I have decided to work one something I have been procrastinating for years---vegan macarons! 

As Sakura season is here, I am inspired by the Hanami dango, which is a traditional Japanese confectionery that announces the arrival of spring. Of course I couldn't resist the chance to make it kawaii with Hello Kitty, My Melody and Keroppi! 

Matcha, strawberry and vanilla white chocolate ganache as filling to match the traditional colours 

Besides vegan macarons with vegan fillings, I took the chance to try out vegan royal icing for some of the fine details.

All credit goes to Meiyee (Instagram account: nm_meiyee) for sharing her vegan recipes. Her work is beautiful, naturally coloured and flavoured! I adapted from her recipes that are shared so I didn't follow exactly what she did but do check out her account for the recipes and to marvel at her work! 

I used bakeable matcha powder with no additional artificial green colouring for the matcha shells and ganache. I added freeze-dried strawberry powder and a tiny bit of bottled strawberry emulsion for strawberry. I used matcha Pocky sticks for the "skewer" (I know it's not vegan but I prefer having everything edible but I didn't want to make the biscuit sticks from scratch too 🙈)

Here are some photos of the process:

Freshly baked shells. I was working on a separate set for future vegan macaron class material at the same time.

I actually rushed through the decoration and didn't manage to finish as I had to go out of the house. This is the works-in-progress decoration with vegan royal icing. Could have been better if I didn't rush

Strawberry, matcha and vanilla vegan white chocolate ganache before whipping it up to lighten the texture.

Filling up the macarons and inserting a matcha Pocky stick

Experienced macaron bakers will be able to tell that I had issues with one of the colours of batter and they would be right! I knew what went wrong and but am confident I can rectify it for the class. After all, this is my first attempt and it was rather ambitious of me to try three colours/flavours of macaron shells in a single batch. The flavour that I left to the last to work on had issues because the meringue needed to be whipped stiffer again and I should have trusted my instincts to do so. Can you tell which one it is? 

I am excited to be able to include vegan macarons as part of my class content after this experiment. Stay tuned for class announcements July onwards for vegan macarons! But note that I won't be teaching the Sanrio characters. 

Check out my Instagram reel for some video snippets of the aquafaba meringue and macaron batter!

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

with love,

Phay Shing

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Strawberry Cartoon Chiffon Cake Class

Love cartoons and desserts? Combine your passions in my new Strawberry Cartoon Chiffon Cheesecake Class! 🍓🍰 

I'll teach you Step-by-Step how to make the cutest yummiest cartoon cake ever! 😍  Here's a video to see what you will learn! 

Sign up link is here. 

With lots of love,

Susanne

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Eeyore Sugar-Free Ube Coconut Chiffon Dome Cakes

 I am almost done with draft 1 of Deco Marshmallows! But before I complete writing the last two recipes and create the respective templates for them, I decided to take a short break to satisfy my curiosity as well as test out the ube paste that I am going to use in one of the marshmallow entries. Having had success with the sugar-free chocolate Rilakkuma swiss roll, I am curious to know if it works for decorative chiffon cake characters as well. Here's the result of my experiment!

This is actually my second attempt. The first attempt was considered a fail for me although taste and texture wise was great. Why so?

I use Allulose and Alchemy fibre as my sugar replacements for sugar-free chiffon cakes. I explained my choice of sugar-replacements in my previous post and you can read about it. 

While this combination of sugar replacements produce chiffon cakes that have texture like the real deal, Allulose browns at a much lower temperature than sugar. If you are baking strong colours, earthy, brown or black colours, the browning of Allulose would not be as obvious. But browning will show up more obviously for pastels and tricky colours like blue and purple. This makes baking "naked chiffons" or character chiffons trickier if you don't want the cakes to appear brown at all.

Using coconut milk like I did for this bake doesn't help either as the cake tends to brown more easily than if water is used but I prefer not to compromise the taste for looks. I used steam baking and lower temperature to help to mitigate the browning.

Video of the process is on my Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqEyn-EgGdl/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Sugar free ube coconut Eeyore dome cakes (makes one 7x7" sheet cake + 4 domes baked in glass bowls*)

Egg yolk batter
2 egg yolks
5g Allulose
30g oil of choice 
30g coconut milk

1.5 tsp ube paste/extract**
45g cake flour

Pinches of salt

white gel coloring (as needed or optional)**

1 drop of purple gel coloring (optional)**

2-3 drops strawberry paste**

1 small toothpick dip of peach gel colouring**

Meringue
3 egg whites
22g Alchemy fibre
53g Allulose

1/4 tsp Cream of tartar/lemon juice

* I used glass bowls that are about 9cm in diameter at the top and 6.5cm in height. You may use any metal or silicone molds about the same size as well but do note that any markings using edible marker should match the colour of the batter or pipe by freehand.

** Use 2 tsp ube paste and omit all extra colouring and flavouring if you are making plain ube coconut cake without Eeyore design. Bake in 6" chiffon tin or in 10x12" tray for Swiss roll.

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 150C with tray of water at base of oven. Line 7x7" tray with Teflon sheet or parchment paper. Trace out the snout on outer side of glass bowls with edible marker.

2. Make the egg yolk batter. Whisk egg yolks, salt and Allulose until pale and thick. Add oil and whisk until combined. Add coconut milk and whisk until combined. Gradually sift in cake flour and whisk until no trace of flour is seen. Add a little white gel colouring if you wish to make the batter base less yellow. 

3. Portion out 2 tsp of batter and add strawberry paste to colour it pink. Portion 2 tsp of batter and colour it peach coloured. Add ube paste to the remaining batter. Add purple gel colouring if desired.

4. Make the meringue. Whisk together Allulose and Alchemy fibre in a small bowl. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm (almost stiff) peaks, adding sugar-replacement mix gradually once egg whites are foamy.

5. Fold in 4 tbs of meringue into the each of the pink and peach batters. Fold in the rest of the meringue into purple ube batter. Fold in the meringue in two or three additions. Transfer purple and peach batter into piping bags with hole cut.

6. Pipe purple batter into glass bowls until it reaches the line marked by edible marker for the snout. Pipe the snout with peach batter. Fill up the whole glass bowl with more purple batter, leaving about 1cm unfilled. 

7. Pour the pink batter into the 7x7" tray and spread it to fill half (one side) of it. Fill the other half with purple batter.

8. Place all cakes into the oven. Reduce temperature to 140C. Bake for 10 minutes or until the sheet cake is baked through. Remove from oven and immediately flip it out onto a fresh sheet of parchment paper. Continue baking the dome cakes at 130C for another 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 110C and bake for another 10 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Please adjust baking temperature and time according to your oven. All temperatures mentioned in this post is as read by the oven thermometer.

9. Let the dome cakes cool completely before carefully unmolding by hand. Be gentle as chiffons are delicate! 

Extra details like the hair and eyes

10g butter

10g egg whites

10g cake flour

10g powdered erythritol (replace with icing sugar if you don't have. Although it won't be 100% sugar-free, this is negligible)

1g charcoal powder

1g cocoa powder (may replace with charcoal)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 150C and line a small tray with teflon sheet or parchment paper.

2. Whisk everything together until smooth. Transfer into a small piping bag with a small hole cut.

3. Pipe a blob with spikes for Eeyore's hair. I did this by freehand. Pipe a patch of batter about 6x6cm in area for the eyes. Batter doesn't have to be too thick. About 2mm thick will do.

4. Bake for 7-8 min or until it appears dry. 

5. Cool completely before carefully removing the hair and use a Wilton #12 tip to cut out the eyes.

Assembly

1. Use a knife to press a line down the front of Eeyore's face.

2. Use a tear drop shape cookie cutter to cut out the ears from the sheet cake. I made one out of metal can. Press the pink and purple cutouts together for each ear.

3. Melt some sugar-free chocolate (I used 100% cocoa with no sugar added from Pascha) and colour it black with charcoal powder or oil based black colouring, or use black chocolate chips. Paint on the nostrils, stitches and eyebrows with melted chocolate.

4. Glue on the hair and eyes with melted chocolate. 

I had to stop work here as it was night time and had other household things to deal with but took the chance to take a photo of the works-in-progress look.

5. Glue on the ears with melted marshmallows or cake glue. Use short pieces of wooden skewer to help to secure it in place if necessary but warn your recipients! 

As with all sugar-free bakes made with sugar replacements, eat in moderation as some people have digestive systems that are sensitive to them.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Black Pink Oreo Chiffon Cake

            

Black pink oreo chiffon cake recipe!

Video tutorial here.  
I was surprised that many of you were interested in this recipe, so here’s the tutorial. This is a very yummy cake! 

Black pink oreo chiffon cake (6” heart pan) 
2 egg yolks 
30g vegetable oil 
24g milk 
4g vanilla extract 
42g cake flour, sifted 
5 black pink oreos 

2 egg whites 
45g castor sugar 
Pinch of cream of tartar 

Crush 2 pink oreos (without filling) into fine crumbs. Mix egg yolks with oil, milk and vanilla extract.  Add in cake flour, pink oreo crumbs and a drop of pink food coloring (optional). 
Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar and castor sugar (added gradually) till firm peaks. Fold the egg yolk batter above into the whipped egg whites. 
Arrange the pink oreos (6 halves) at the base of the cake pan. Pour the cake batter over. Bake at 140C for 45+ min, till the centre of the cake is dry. Enjoy! 

With love, 

Susanne 

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Sugar-free Rilakkuma Chocolate Swiss Roll

 In the midst of writing Deco Marshmallows, I couldn't resist taking a little time out to make this simple bake because we stumbled across an awesome source of chocolate that is 100% cacao with no sugar added BUT is so smooth! Once we tasted the chocolate chips which were suitable for use in baking and making hot chocolate, I knew I had to try it for my bakes. Most other 100% cacao chocolate we have tasted tend to be a little dry and gritty. Here's my rich chocolate swiss roll made without white sugar!

Even the decoration for Rilakkuma is made without white sugar!

The Swiss roll is made of sugar-free chocolate chiffon sponge and sugar-free dark chocolate cremeux. Those of you who aren't familiar with cremeux, it is a cross between ganache and custard.

Where is this awesome chocolate from you may ask? It is from Pascha. I used their unsweetened dark chocolate chips. The sugar replacements I used for the cremeux are a mix of Allulose and Maltitol, and for the chiffon sponge I used a mix of Alchemy fibre (which is a blend of Inulin and edible gum) and Allulose. Why these choices of sugar replacements? They are all soluble in water so you don't get any grittiness from them like you would from Erythritol. While Alchemy fibre is not sugar, it adds bulk to the bake, is a good meringue stabilizer and good for diabetes management and digestive system. I thought of using it when I saw Swee Heng, a bakery chain in Singapore, use it for their sugar-free chiffon cakes. While Maltitol is a sugar replacement, it contains carbohydrates and will raise the blood sugar levels a little (but much less than sucrose), unlike Allulose and Alchemy fibre. I used a little Maltitol instead of using all Allulose because I have it lying around at home and it needs to be used up 🙈. All the sugar replacements used here taste less sweet than white sugar (sucrose) so I used more than if white sugar were used. The chocolate doesn't contain sugar at all so that needs to be compensated as well. You may adjust the amount of sugar according to taste. We don't have a sweet tooth so if you prefer sweeter tasting cakes, please add more sugar replacement.

Sugar-free dark chocolate cremeux (with yuzu option)

Ingredients:

150g heavy cream (may replace with 40g butter and 110g full fat milk)

150g full fat milk

60g egg yolks (about 3-4)

55g Allulose (45g if not adding yuzu concentrate)

20g Maltitol (15g if not using yuzu concentrate, may replace with Allulose)

Pinches of salt

140-145g sugar-free 100% cacao dark chocolate (unsweetened)

3g gelatin bloomed in 20g 100% yuzu juice concentrate (optional)

1. If adding yuzu, bloom gelatin in chilled yuzu juice concentrate. Set aside. Omit gelatin if not adding juice concentrate.

2. Whisk together egg yolks, salt and sugar replacements in a heatproof bowl. 

3. In the meantime, heat milk and cream in a saucepan until steaming hot but not boiling. Pour into egg yolk mixture in a thin stream while whisking the egg yolk mixture to temper the egg yolks. Pour everything back into the saucepan.

4. Whisk the custard and cook until 82-84C. 

5. Place chocolate and bloomed gelatin in large mixing bowl. Pour hot custard over and let it sit for 2 minutes. Use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.

6. Press cling wrap onto the cremeux and cool to room temperature before refrigerating overnight or at least 4 hours.

7. When ready to assemble with sponge, remove from fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Loosen the cremeux gently with a spatula before using.

I added a little yuzu to offset the richness of the chocolate. You may use orange juice concentrate and orange zest to add some citrusy notes too.

Sugar-free chocolate chiffon sponge

Ingredients (makes one 10x12" and one 7x7" sheet cakes):

Egg yolk batter

4 egg yolks

10g Allulose

20g sugar-free 100% cacao dark chocolate (unsweetened)

45g vegetable oil

45g boiling hot water 

10g cocoa powder (I used Valrhona)

65g cake flour

½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1.5 tsp vanilla extract 

Meringue

4 egg whites

30g Alchemy fibre

70g Allulose

¼ tsp cream of tartar 

1. Line the trays with Teflon sheets or parchment paper. Preheat oven to 170C. 

2. In a heatproof or microwave safe bowl, bloom cocoa powder by whisking in boiling hot water. Let it sit for 1 minute. Add unsweetened chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Microwave or double boil if necessary if the chocolate is not fully melted. Set aside.

3. Prepare egg yolk batter. Whisk together egg yolks, salt and Allulose until thick and pale. Add oil and whisk until combined. Add chocolate paste in 2. and whisk until well combined. Add vanilla and whisk until combined. Gradually sift in flour and baking powder and whisk until no trace of flour is seen.

4. Prepare meringue. In a small bowl, whisk together Alchemy fibre and Allulose. In a clean metal bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until firm peaks, gradually add sugar-replacement mix once the egg whites are foamy. 

You should also be able to flip the bowl upside down without the meringue sliding out or flopping around.

Meringue with firm peak

5. Quickly but gently fold meringue into egg yolk batter in three additions. Divide the batter among the two trays in a ratio of approximately 5:2 by weight for larger: smaller tray.

6. Bake for 12 min or until skewer comes out clean. Immediately flip the cakes out onto fresh sheet of parchment paper and roll up the larger cake to cool. Note that each oven is different so adjust temperature and time accordingly.

Freshly baked 10x12" sheet cake

When you are ready to assemble, unroll the large sheet cake and pipe a generous amount of cremeux in the middle of the sponge. Use a small spatula to smooth out the cremeux as necessary. Roll it into a tight roll, cutting off the excess strip of sponge if necessary if you are making Rilakkuma's face for each slice of cake. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

In the meantime, you may cut out Rilakkuma's ears from the smaller sheet cake using 2-2.5cm round cookie cutters. Cut off a little cake along the circumference with the same cutter so the ears can sit nicely on the head. Keep the small cake cutouts in a container or covered until ready to assemble.

I used white strawberries for Rilakkuma's snout as it is in season now. You may use other fruits like banana if you wish but dip it in lemon juice to prevent oxidation. I used mango for Rilakkuma's inner ears. I used a smaller round cutter or you may use jumbo straw to cut it out. Leave the cut pieces of fruit on paper towel in the fridge to remove excess water.

When it is time to assemble, you may melt a little chocolate with charcoal powder (or use black chocolate) and added on the eyes, nose and mouth of a cut slice of swiss roll. Cut slices of swiss roll with a serrated knife and arrange the ears and facial features on the serving plate. 

Serve with extra fruits (highly recommended) as this is a very rich cake that serious chocoholics can appreciate. And by serious chocoholics I mean those who appreciate cacao without too much added sugar to offset the natural bitterness. My hubby is one such person and he's the type that likes his eating chocolate, chocolate drink and chocolate bakes with a touch of bitterness from the cacao. Needless to say, hubby gave a thumbs up for the cake! Best eaten chilled when the cremeux is firmer.

with love,

Phay Shing

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Sumikko Gurashi Chiffon Cake

 

Sumikko Gurashi Birthday chiffon cake for my daughter's birthday party. Thank God it was well-received!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Sugar-Free Cinnamoroll Marshmallows

 This was my first attempt at sugar- free character marshmallows in December last year. I decided to give Cinnamoroll a try since my friend requested for some Cinnamoroll cookies and macarons at the same time. 

Ever since this first attempt, I have refined the recipe until I can safely say I am satisfied with the ingredient ratios for sugar-free character marshmallow making! Working with sugar replacements isn't as straightforward as they don't behave like sugar does when working with sugar syrups. So glad to find the formula to work with where hubby my taste tester can tell me "This is more like proper marshmallow!" 

I will share this formula in my upcoming Deco Marshmallows book but for now, you can take a sneak peek at how I piped these using the templating method in the video over here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoVyFGKSY2s/?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY=

The templating method is much easier for those of us who are artistically challenged and uses so much less cornstarch! Here is a peek at the piped marshmallows before dusting!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Cinnamoroll Brown Sugar Cookies

 My friend who has been buying bakes from me for her daughter's birthday every year since 2015, requested for Cinnamoroll brown sugar cookies. She loves the taste of my cookies because they are really fragrant with caramel notes. 

I used my default brown sugar cookie recipe and royal icing. I made a template for cutting out the shape of the cookie dough.

Cookie dough cutouts on perforated mat lined baking tray before baking

As the details on this design are rather complex, I made royal icing transfers for the flowers and cupcake on Cinnamoroll.

I couldn't resist taking photos of the two bakes she requested: macarons and brown sugar cookies! See my previous post for the recipe for the macarons.

Stay tuned for a third Cinnamoroll creation that I made for her!

with love,

Phay Shing

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Couple Bear Chiffon Cake Mugs with a Hidden Message

 

Couple Bear Mugs with a Hidden Message! ❤️🥰  

Watch the Video tutorial reel here. 

Hope you had a blessed Valentine's with your loved ones. 

With lots of love, 

Susanne 

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Hot Cross S'mores

 Here's my marshmallowy twist to the classic hot-cross buns--- hot-cross S'mores!

I am in charge of coming up with the item for April's Culinary Arts event with the church and since it is scheduled near Good Friday and Easter, a theme that relates to Jesus' death and resurrection is appropriate. 

S'mores was the reason I fell in love with marshmallows when I don't have a sweet tooth. The complementary flavours and textures of the components are so delightful! Although Graham crackers are the classic cookie base for S'mores, I am using digestive biscuits for convenience because they come in rounds and the size is just nice. You could also make the Graham crackers from scratch but I am trying to keep things simple for the event and keep the marshmallow bit as the only technical part.

Hot-cross S'mores recipe

(Makes about 15-16)

Ingredients:

15-16 digestive biscuits*

Piping chocolate*
80g chocolate couverture (percentage of cocoa up to personal preference)
4g vegetable shortening

Marshmallow (to set in 15-16 44x35mm cupcake cases)
8g (3/4 tbs) gelatin powder (I used bovine 170bloom)
40g ice cold water
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g sugar
1/8 tsp salt 
60g light corn syrup
1/16-1/8 tsp cinnamon powder
40g water
canola oil spray

Cornstarch or tapioca starch for dusting

* If you want to simplify it further, use chocolate coated digestive biscuits and omit the extra step of melting and piping chocolate. You may also use Nutella but note that it is sweeter than dark chocolate but has that hazelnut flavour added.

Steps:
1. Bloom gelatin by scattering gelatin over cold water and whisk until well combined in large mixing bowl. Add vanilla over the gelatin bloom. Add cinnamon powder if you wish. Set aside.

2. Heat sugar, salt, water, corn syrup in saucepan till 115C without stirring. Gently swirl the saucepan. Use medium-low heat.

Monitoring syrup temperature with a candy thermometer.

3. Pour onto bloomed gelatin and stir with spatula until gelatin is melted.

4. Beat with electric mixer for 5-7 min, starting with low speed and gradually increase to high speed. Volume of mixture should increase by about 3x.

Marshmallow mixture should become fluffier and thicker as you whip.

5. Transfer into piping bag and pipe into greased cupcake cases until about 1 inch high or 15g. Tap down any peaks with damp finger. (Tip: Easiest way to quickly and effectively grease the cupcake cases is to spray with an oil spray from pressurized can but you may also wipe with paper towel dipped in oil or melted butter).

6. Leave to set overnight at cool room temperature or in the fridge for 30min. Note that gelatin in the marshmallow will continue to set with time for up to 24 hours.

7. Unmold the marshmallow onto a bed of cornstarch. Coat with cornstarch or tapioca starch and remove excess by tossing it around in a sieve. 

Put a teaspoon of corn/tapioca starch on top. Open up the sides of the cupcake case.

Invert the cupcake case and deposit the marshmallow on corn/tapioca starch. Coat it well.

Tossing coated marshmallows.

8. Let the marshmallows dry out in the open or loosely covered (preferably aircon environment as Singapore is very humid) for 2-4 days before using it as toasted marshmallows. Marshmallows will melt into a puddle easily if they are too moist when toasted.

9. Melt chocolate with shortening and pipe onto biscuits. You may pipe the chocolate decoratively if you wish!

10. Place dried out marshmallow on top and toast. Enjoy the S'mores freshly toasted! See the notes below on how to create the foil cross and how to toast.

Storage

Freshly made marshmallows may be stored in airtight container and kept at cool room temperature for two weeks if you are not toasting or consuming immediately. For longer storage, keep in the freezer.

Flavour variations

Although marshmallows can be easily bought from supermarkets, homemade ones taste better and are less sweet. You can also customize it with your own favourite flavour by replacing water with juices or purees (except highly acidic juices or juices that contain enzymes that break down gelatin), tea and coffee, or use different types of flavouring extracts. Just make sure you avoid using fresh fruits containing enzymes that will break down gelatin like kiwi, mango and pineapple. You may use them if you simmer for 20minutes before using as the prolonged heat will destroy the enzymes. Make sure all liquids used for blooming gelatin are chilled in the fridge before using.

You may replace light corn syrup with honey, glucose syrup or dark corn syrup if you wish.

You may also replace white sugar with brown sugar but keep in mind that the syrup will boil higher so you may have to use a taller saucepan or stir occassionally to prevent the syrup from boiling over. Stirring won't cause recrystallization of sugar if you have added an invert sugar like light corn syrup/honey/glucose syrup/dark corn syrup.

Aluminium Foil Cross 

In order to create the cross shaped marking on top of the marshmallows, you will need to make a mask.

1. I used a 5mm wide and 11cm long wooden stirrer available from SKP in Singapore to help with folding the foil. You may work without it if you wish. Just fold the foil with the help of a ruler and your fingers. Create a rectangular piece out of foil around 5mm x 8-9cm.

2. Repeat step 1 to make another rectangular piece.

3. Place the two foil pieces perpendicular to each other. Cut a slit that is as long as the width of the foil pieces (around 5mm) as shown in the picture below. Carefully slide one end of the perpendicular piece into the slit and pull it through. Flatten the pieces to form the cross.

Notes for toasting:
- Lightly coat the foil cross with a little oil before placing on top of marshmallow
- Make sure marshmallow is not too moist or it won't retain the shape well. Dry out for 2-4 days in aircon room.

This is what happens if you toast your marshmallows while they are too moist😆

- Place the digestive cookie with marshmallow close to top heating element, about 4-5 cm away. Avoid placing too close to bottom heat or the whole marshmallow will melt instead.
- Toast for 30 sec-2 min or until browned at the tops. Check every 30 sec in the beginning and every 10 seconds once it shows signs of browning to avoid burning.
- Carefully remove foil with tweezers or chopsticks.

Remember to eat the S'mores when they are freshly toasted as that's when it tastes the best!

Update:

Here's a lovely photo taken by someone at the event. I couldn't have taken a better photo!

with love,
Phay Shing

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