in the mood for baking

I think I finally figured out what went wrong with the macarons the last time round. I should have waited until the egg whites were brought to room temperature before whipping them, but I forgot, being me and happily whipped them when they were still cold. I will probably attempt them again soon.

I was recently swamped with orders for my cookies (which I did for a charity fundraiser and sold WAY BELOW cost) and cupcakes for a friend's birthday. I thought I would re-visit the pink with butterflies theme (I also attempted little tiny ribbon roses and to cater to the boys, I did blue icings with stars on them) and this time, I mixed a little gum-tex into the fondant to make it into gumpaste and the butterflies held up pretty well. I also placed the cupcakes into breathable paper boxes as opposed to using the air-tight ones I used previously and this time, the butterflies didn't melt away into globs. Well, the cupcakes got a pretty good reception and the birthday girl was mightily pleased, so I'm happy :)


It rained today, and being cooped up at home, I thought I would bake. I had been itching to attempt Financiers for the longest time and that is what I did. I found a fabulous recipe on Dorie Greenspan's blog (as you know, she can be considered quite the doyenne of baking, so why not learn from the best there is!) and it got me hooked. It was simple to do and they tasted absolutely moist, buttery, nutty and fantastic. I will probably attempt them again!

You can find her fabulous post and the recipe here: http://www.doriegreenspan.com/dorie_greenspan/2007/04/i_recently_got_.html

I tweaked the baking times a little as I didn't have financier moulds, so I baked them in cupcake cups instead, at 160 degree Celsius for 25 minutes, while the recipe called for baking at 200 degree Celsius for 13 minutes. Somehow, when I use high temperatures, the cakes always burn, so 160 degree Celsius makes for pretty safe and burnt-free work.

macaron misadventures

I have been itching to do macarons since the last time I did macarons and so I did. Unfortunately, it has been one baking mishap after another. Somehow, I could n't get the almonds and the meringue to form the thick shiny amalgated "flow-like magma" paste that I had previously. I atttribute it to the fact that I didn't heat my sugar syrup long enough nor hot enough. Oh well. Every baking experience is a learning experience. I really do need a digital food thermometer. This guesswork nonsense is giving me crappy food.

On the plus side I do have I crunchy almond meringue tuiles. I could probably crush them up and make crushed cookie cupcakes :)

rainbow flopcakes

There being an incredible hype about making Rainbow Cupcakes, I felt an impulse to try and make my own. Well, it seemed simple enough - just take your favourite butter cake recipe (that preferably yields a thick batter so the colours won't bleed), separate the batter into seven parts, tint each part with a colour of the rainbow, bake and you're done. It was indeed simple, and the cupcakes turned out very pretty. Think marbled cake with five more colours added but, and I must add a humongous, BUT, they tasted horrible. The added colouring took away the luscious, creamy, smooth taste of butter completely and left it tasting plasticky and chemicky. Not nice at all.

Well, if you want to see another food blogger's rendition of the Rainbow Cupcake, do check out, http://www.lifeofacupcake.com/2008/10/aunties-and-cupcakes-and-pumpkins-oh-my/ Her cupcakes are very very pretty.

You can find the original tutorial here:
http://mkecupcakequeen.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-straight-girls-make-big-gay.html

Does anyone have a way of making the cupcakes taste less chemicky???

cupcake rosaries

I guess it is not in the culture of Singaporean Catholics to do so, but I came across this intricately amusing idea of making a rosary out of cupcakes. Now I've seen all manners of cord and wire rosaries, but this edible rosary thingy is quite interesting. Hmmmm... now the question is, how does one go about praying on a cupcake rosary and how does one eat the "rosary", a supposed holy object at the end? Do you pop one into your mouth after a hail Mary is said??? Forgive me, although this is indeed a rather novel idea, but I'm not quite sure whether I am for it...

You can check out the cupcake rosary on Catholic Cuisine below:

http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2008/10/cupcake-rosary.html

(ps. Jessica, if you happen to pop by, do enlighten me with answers to the above questions. Thank you!)

u.d.d.e.r.s / ice-cream-ology

photo courtesy of Charlinary.com

Last Saturday, as part of an ice cream making workshop Charlinary.com organised with ice creamery U.D.D.E.R.S, I learnt the intricacies of ice-cream making and even got my hands dirty massaging my ice-cream on a bed of ice sprinkled with salt, to aerate the ice-cream. After a talk dangerously laced with humour, participants had a choice of either making vanilla bean ice-cream or coconut ice-cream. As Vanilla was rather ordinary (though the taste phenomenal, no thanks to the use of vanilla bean rather than vanilla extract), my team decided to go with the coconut ice-cream instead. Although the ziplock bag holding the ice burst, because I was massaging the ice cream too vigorously, and I was worried the ice cream wouldn't set, it did and although it felt like I had spent fifteen minutes massaging potong ice cream into being, it was nonetheless an interesting experience.

I do wish the workshop had provided tips on making exotic ice cream though, like those laced with alcohol or even a recipe pack containing recipes for flavours requiring eggs or yolks and maybe a tasting session of the different flavours of ice-cream offered, but I guess for $25, what you pay for is what you get.

All in all, it was enjoyable, and if you are interested in hosting an ice cream party, maybe, U.d.d.e.rs is the place to go.

U.d.d.e.r.s ice cream
155 Thomson Road, Goldhill Shopping Centre

Tel: 6254 6629

Operating Hours:
Sun-Thu: 12noon - 11pm
Fri, Sat & Eve of PH: 12noon - 12am

Vanilla Cupcakes with Fondant toppers

Although I can't really say I like the plasticky taste of fondant, the amazing things that fondant can do, leave me breathless. A fondant accent really makes manifest the wow factor of a cupcake. The above is a fondant butterfly inspired by the great cupcaker Kylie Lambert, although my plain butterfly does not do justice to her works in any way, she is a fabulous inspiration and one day, I hope to have cupcakes as beautiful as hers. With the butterfly, is a fondant pig, which I have christened Susie Piggie.

I haven't been baking in ages and I must say, I'm glad the baking mojo has returned. *grin*

chocolate bites

Working with chocolate can be hell in Singapore - the humidity and the high temperatures are marked guarantees of mess and sometimes disappointmets, unless you have the privilege of working in an air conditioned kitchen with temperatures set at 25 degrees celsius and below.

Although my Masters application and proposal are due on Thursday and I am panicking like crazy, because the academic referral letter has not been given to me yet, I decided to bake something as I would be having a freshmen orientation camp games and main com meeting tomorrow. So I did my cocoa vanilla variation cupcake and as I had used up my last stick of butter, could not make buttercream and decided instead to make a chocolate ganache to dip the cakes in. Well it was a fabulous idea except that in the humidity and the heat, the chocolate just couldn't set unless I put it in the fridge and that meant I had to wrap the wrappers rather uglily around the cupcakes. I am not too happy about it, but at least the dipped cake balls tasted good. Not too sacharinely sweet and with a tiny hint of cinnamon - yes I went crazy today.