'My Love for Macarons"

After about a year an a half after attending a class, my blog entry -  "In Love with Macarons", on how to make macarons the correct way by Chef David Lee of Epicurean Cuisine & Patisserie, I finally managed to put the task to a test! Let me tell you, my first try at macarons was an epic failure!!! Hahaha... I even laughed when I saw the outcome of my macarons. I knew I had fumbled with the recipe somewhere along the way. I knew the batter was a bit runny and something was just not quite right when I piped the macaron shells. My sixth sense proved that my intuition was right on the money when my macaron shells came out of the oven. For one, the shells expanded while baking and became bigger than I anticipated. Secondly, the macaron shells were really sticking to the baking paper. It should have been able to come out easily. This one didn't even though they shells had feet and all that!! LOL

 

I then decided, I am going to try again and re-read the recipe properly before I embarked on my second try. This time, my macaron shells turned out quite beautiful and tasted awesome too. The macarons were not too sweet and the texture was amazing! I basically followed the Italian method recipe, whereby the caster sugar needed to be boiled with water until it reaches about 116 C, then poured into the egg whites that have been whipped to soft peaks. I find that using this method gives the macaron a really nice smooth finish. 

 

The macaron batter ready to be piped

The texture of the batter has to be ribbonlike when held above with a spatula

I separated the batter into 2 colours, pastel yellow & pale brown 

The piped macaron shells must be left outside for a minimum of 30 mins
before baking in the oven

The pale yellow batch

 Oven must be set at 150 C and macaron shells are baked for 15 - 17 mins

Pardon my reflection seen on the glass oven door!! Look how beautiful
they have risen complete with the feet, yeay!!



The macarons ready to be eaten, one with dark Belgian chocolate ganache & the other with peanut butter

I will make the colours darker next round as the colour dramatically
changes to a lighter shade while baking

 

I just recently made another batch and they turned out great too! I made macarons with a white chocolate & lemon ganache and tasted just as good as the chocolate & peanut butter macarons!

 

Five Important Tips When Making Macarons :-

1) Egg whites need to be aged at least 5 days, the longer the days, the better

2) Ground almond must be grinded in the food processor before sifting it with the icing sugar

3) Use only a digital scale as measurement must be very accurate

4) Please buy a digital thermometer before even attempting to make the macarons

5) Leave the piped macaroon shells at least 30 mins in a cool room before baking

 

Thanks again to Chef David Lee for this wonderful macaron recipe!

"Homemade Waffles"

I have always wanted to make my own waffles for my kids. So, when I saw the Kenwood waffle maker, I knew I had to get it. I am so glad I did!! The first recipe I used to make the waffles turned out to be not so good. The waffles were a bit soft and didn't have the right kind of texture that I wanted, which was light & crisp!

 

Not giving up, I searched through the web to look for the best waffle recipe that could produce wonderful light & crisp waffles. Found a few recipes but I tried this recipe by Pamela Anderson of Fine Cooking and her recipe was fantastic. The waffles turned out beautiful and my kids loved them. I've made them a few times already and each time they turned out really great!

 

The recipe for the waffles by Pamela Anderson is:-

 

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstrach

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup mik

6 tbs vegetable oil

1 large egg, separated

1 tbs sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

 

Mix the ingredients as per the photos below

 

Part A



This is the dry ingredient that is made of flour, cornstrach, salt, baking powder and baking soda

 

Part B

The wet ingredient made of buttermilk, milk, vegetable oil & egg yolk

 

Part C

Egg white  and sugar whipped until the peaks are firm and glossy

 

Then, pour Part B into Part A and whisk until just mixed. Drop the whipped egg white onto the batter (Part A & Part B) in dollops and fold in with a spatula until just incorporated.

 

Pout the waffle into the waffle maker and cook the batter until waffle is no longer sticking to the pan and the colour is golden. Do not forget to butter the waffle pans before pouring in the waffle batter!

This is my Kenwood waffle maker. I've poured the waffle batter to fit in just nicely around the square shape of the waffle maker

Ta da... my waffles all light & crisp ready to be taken out



My homemade waffles

These waffles are really good eaten hot out of the waffle maker with butter and maple syrup. also good with ice-cream, strawberries and chocolate fudge!!

Have a try and am sure you guys will love it! Thanks again to Pamela Anderson for sharing such a brilliant waffle recipe :)

 

"Its A Girl"

A baby shower cake for mommy to be Dina, who's expecting a baby girl. Ordered by her sister, Jesrina Arshad, the cake is a 2 tiered cake with the theme colours of pink, yellow, white & mint green. The lower tier of the cake is vanilla bean with vanilla frosting and top tier is orange cake with belgian chocolate ganache. The concept is mostly geometric patterns with a sleeping baby girl on the top tier as the main centrepiece of the cake. Also ordered along with this cake, 20 cupcakes decorated with 3D sugarpaste pieces. Cupcakes are  vanilla bean flavoured with vanilla buttercream.

 

Its A Girl caption at the side of the cake

A pink bow ribbon for the baby girl theme

Look at how angelic the baby girl looks asleep!

 

 

The cupcakes I made tie with the main cake in the same theme colours and I did a few 3D sugar pieces such as the baby under the blanket, pink teddy bears, rattle, bibs, daisies and the baby girl wordings. I also tied a ribbon individually on the cupcake casing to create the soft and sweet effect. This was indeed a fun project and I enjoyed making this order very much!

 

The 20 cupcakes that goes hand-in-hand with the main cake

The details on the cupcakes up-close



Thanks again for the order, Jess and I hope you had a great baby shower last Sunday.

"20th October"

Johanna Arshad threw a surprise birthday party for her mother in-law ("MIL") on 20th October 2013. To celebrate the occassion she wanted her MIL to have a lace cake just like her surprise birthday cake last year. She wanted a lemon cake. The theme of the cake is baby pink and light cream. This cake was relatively easy to make but quite time consuming as I'm a very detailed person. I can't help it but I can't stand imperfections! My husband says I have the OCD disease ("Obssesive Compulsive Disorder")... Hahaha... Which is true in some ways and an be very frustrating for me!

 

Back to the cake, when I started making this cake, I was already very tired!! I had been sleeping late every night as I was finishing 50 pcs of sugar decorated cookies for Johanna also. The cookies are also part of the birthday celebration. The cookies are door gifts for their guests. Johanna wanted  chocolate flavoured cookies in the shape of a cake with candles. the theme colours of the cookies are pink, blue & green. The cookies had to be individually packed also and tied with ribbons and a thank you tag. So, for me that was quite a task as I was working every day and only managed to start the cookies in the evenings. Very, very tiring and exhausting especially when I'm a perfectionist. I also had the cookies airbrushed to create a lustre effect.  But it was worth it as the cookies really turned out nice. I was very happy with the final product.

 

Before the beautification with the ribbons!

 

All ready with ribbons and thank you tags

 

 

 

The cookies also had a lace effect and I combined royal icing and gumpaste for the cookies sugar work. Actually making the cookies were not difficult but it just requires lots of patience as the process takes time from the momemnt you make, bake, decorate and pack the cookies!

 

After I had the cookies done, I started on my cake, which consist of 3 components; i.e. 1) the sugar frame for the edible image, 2) the sugar flowers; and of course 3) the lace cake itself. The weather was really bad that weekend. Very humid and my sugar frame took a long time to dry and harden. Luckily, I started early on the frame.

 



The overall view of the Pink Lace cake



The lace with the pink flowers

The edible image of the the grandparents with their grandkids

The lace work I did with royal icing and fondant

 

In the end though, all turned out well and I was very satisfied with my work!

 

"Two Birthdays"

On Monday, 14th October 2013, both my other half and daughter celebrated their birthdays together. October is always a very stressful time for me every year as I have to make 2 cakes for Bahrin & Hannah. Usually Hannah also requests that I make cupcakes for her to bring to school. So, this year, I decided to go with the golfing theme for my husband and Monster High theme for Hannah. I came out with two cake versions and included an edible image of them on the cake board. Bahrin's cake was chocolate and Hannah's cake was vanilla & chocolate marble cake.

 

The process of making these two cakes were not that difficult. The only drawback for me was time. I didn't have enough time as I had to also prepare for the Hari Raya Haji celebration on 15th October. I was hosting lunch for my parents and my brother's family a day after their birthday. So, I was really pressed for time. Fortunately for me, I let my employees leave early on Monday for them to prepare for the Raya celebration and that also gave me time to finish the birthday cakes in time for the dinner celebration that very Monday night!!

 

The two cakes I made for Bahrin & Hannah... Daddy & his princess...

Golf theme for Bahrin

Monster High theme for Hannah

The edible image of the two of them... I so love this photo... Hannah is a carbon copy of her daddy !!

Happy Belated Birthday to my dearest other half & my sweetie pie, Hannah... May both your life be blessed always and you both bring such joy & happiness into my life! I love you both so,so much!!!

 

Hannah & her daddy

 

Family photo

 

"Monster High for Hannah"

My sweetie pie, Hannah, turned 9 last  Monday, 14th October 2013. Prior to that day, she wanted to have a pre-birthday celebration with her friends in school. The reason being the school will be on a mid-semester hols during her birthday week and she won't get to see her friends for that duration! So, I decided to bake her cupcakes and make party favours for her classmates. She was so excited that she even helped me decorate her own birthday cuppies. I had Hannah choose the Monster High images that she wanted on her cupcakes and I then sent them for printing into edible form. I chose the theme colours of blue, pink and black. I made cookies & cream flavoured cupcakes for her. I hope you had a great celebration in school, sweetie!!

 

The cupcakes decorated with Hannah's favourite MH images

The famous logo of MH - the skull with a pink bow

More cupcakes up-close

The party bags I made for Hannah's classmates - zebra print



 

"Let's Go Bowling"

Last Saturday, one of my good friends from my Jakarta days, Hanie, threw a birthday party for her son, Danish's 9th birthday. The theme of the party was bowling. So, Danish wanted a birthday cake that has the bowling theme. Hanie actually sent me a sample photo of a cake that she would like to have for her son. I played around with the original cake design and came out with a cake that has the bowling elements mixed with some of the colours used in the party invitation. The cake was 3 tier with only the top and middle tier being real cakes. The middle tier is chocolate and top tier is vanilla.

 

It was quite a smooth process making this cake even though the cake was 3 tiers. Way much smoother than the Harry Potter cake!! I had the cakes bake on Friday morning and frosted Friday evening when I got back from work. Since only 2 tiers were made of cakes, I only had to bake 2 types of cake. I  covered all 3 tiers and had the cake airbrushed to a deep black with a tinge of silver in the colour. I can't get this lovely shade using just regular icing colours. Airbrushing a cake always make the cake look better and the colours are more vibrant.

 

I had the template of my bowling pins all cut out and ready. I used these templates for my gumpaste and I loved how they turned out. I actually managed to sleep at midnight on Friday and continued my cake the next morning. I was very surprised with how smooth things were with this cake. Syukur!! The only difficult part was actually driving the cake all the way from Shah Alam to Bukit Kiara and I managed to arrive at the destination with my cake in one piece!!

 

 

My 3-tiered bowling cake for Danish

The 2D bowling ball and pins

The bowling pins from the middle tier

The cake was decorated with the 5 colour circles that was part of the party 

 

The party invitation

More bowling pins

Danish and his friends (my kids included) at his bowling party

Happy Birthday Danish!! Thanks for having us at your party!