Noah's Ark Cake

Been a long time since my last blogging. Nothing much going on, but at least today I successfully built a Noah's Ark cake with Marzipan and Fondant. Which animal do you like the best?



Before this, I also did some modeling and also a Sacher cake (to fill up my photo album haha)

High Tea Cakes to please the crowd

These 2 weeks are all about high tea and what can we serve to please the crowd with their tea cups and saucers.

Let's start with bite size items that we can conjure off from the kitchen for the sake of our guests :). We have, macaroons, petite fours, and ooh, we even can cut the Chinese New Year necessity, the glorious Kue Lapis, into bite size and make it look cute too.



Then, we can graduate to the slightly bigger cakes that are definitely feasts to the eyes. All you need to have is cream and fruits and voila, you got yourself a revamped roulades and layered cakes.

Tiramisu Vs Kue Lapis, Fight!

Yesterday baking class was definitely not one of my best classes to date. It went so horrible that I ended up with coffee addicts' Tiramisu and Kue Lapis that can make people unconscious if I throw the cake at them. There's nothing to say to express my disappointment. And what I can do now? Besides sighing, I've been more vigilant in deciphering my mom's recipe heirloom (Yeah, other people have lockets, brooches, etc for their heirloom, I get 4 books full of recipes from my late mom, it's her beloved bible and I greatly respect it though I still can't make it out of how she could end up with fabulous Kue Lapis that filled my childhood stomach). Anyhoo, here's the pics.

Choco Black Cherries Cake

Initially I planned to make a black forest cake because I have 1 can of black cherries. But alas, the white butter cream may refrain my colleagues from eating them because of 1 simple reason, butter = fat. So, I tried to make it lighter, with filling of chocolate custard smoldered with rum and 1 layer of black cherries sandwiched between the custard. The cover is just a simple chocolate whipped cream with nothing but whipped cream. And the result, look pretty, right? Haha...

From Cheesecake to Meringue

In today's class I made 2 completely different things.

First off is the baked cheesecake. Bake cheesecake turned out to be not that easy, lots of tricks involved in producing that fluffy golden yellow cake.

Next is play time! Colorful meringue for the eye candy indulgence. And they taste sweet too. Surely they'll satisfy your sweet tooth craving to the verge of diabetic fufufufu...

Another thing not done in class is the improptu ginger pudding with Green tea base. The base is actually crushed green tea sponge cake layered on the bottom of the glass. Next time I'll damp them with rum so that the crumbs didn't floating up to the surface.

Wobbly Cooling Snack

Who could resist the wobbly cute Jell-O snack? It's cooling, swimming through your throat and most definitely it satisfies your sweet tooth, in non overwhelming mode. So care to join me?

Butter Cream Cakes to satisfy your sugar craving...

Today was one of those times when I felt so challanged and frustrated in baking. My creamery skill is just sucks, it's so obvious that I had to keep redoing my Zuger Kirsch because my layering is too thin. And with me being left handed, it's a bit difficult to translate the technique showed by the teacher to suit me, so I almost broke down after 4 times of layering.

But, I'm quite happy with the second cake because it's just pure pipping! Pipping basket is not that bad *smile*... making rose marzipan is fun, though 1 hour spent just to make 7 roses and it's not enough to cover the whole cake... Luckily there's still enough butter cream left over to do some fixes.

Swiss Rolls rolling down the street...

Today's baking is not as exciting as last week. I mean, come on, we just learned the basic sponge cake and Swiss Rolls and they're not even decorated. Just plain old cakes. Anyhow, below are the Spring Rolls, both plain Choco cream Swiss Roll and Raspberry Swiss Roll.

Tired of the boring choco milk Kit Kat Flavor?

Try this one, only Japanese is allowed to have something different. Tsk tsk. Very fortunate to get some rations of these cheesecake flavors Kit Kats haha... Gimme a break, gimme a break...

Circle of Strawberries

When you're feeling down, a touch of redness will definitely cheer you up!



It's softness and sweetness will melt your stress away and if one is not enough, you can have another and another until you're satisfied!

Lol....

Another yet Round of Pastry Family

Not my best day at my baking school today, but at least the pics is still put my heart at ease :D.
Today we had a project assessment on pastry section. Basically we just need to do what we've learnt so far. For this time we have to make 4 products: Eclairs, Swans, St Honore and Apple Strudel.

My first Quiche

To think that I literally spent my own money to do the filling, but to get no annoyed and uncivilized roller coaster emotion in me today, I'd say it's worth it!

The Quiche family below have 2 kinds of fillings, though they all look the same (silly me for forgetting to put different topping to differentiate which one is which). But anyway, the fillings are either chicken sausage sauteed with mushroom and onion with the hint of sun-dried tomatoes and basil, or vegetarian style, sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts topped with chopped basil leave. And not to forget the expensive stuff, I used Gruyere cheese! Yes, off course it's yummy (it's still sinful) and it's definitely not salty.

It's The Tart Week

Sweet and cute tarts to please your eyes and tastebuds...

Cream Puffs and The Gank!

Another week of puffing the pastry :).

Another Round of Puff Pastry...

Another week of puff pastry. This time we did it in the French way. Easier than the Brit method, but alas, we had to do it with butter, which was another different story. From top to the bottom are: Cream Horne or Canolli, Fruit Slice and Napoleon:

Puff Pastry

My first practical training in the baking school. Today we made puff pastry. The good thing about puff pastry is that we can make lots of kinds of variation out of the same piece of dough. Even the scrap dough is very useful to make yummy snacks. Though the prospect of me getting slimmer at this stage is greatly diminishing, one just got to try what one makes, correct?

So without further ado, here are the result of today's labor of love:

In order by row from left to right (Fruit purse, Apple Turnover, Tuna Pastry, Palmier)

Double Choco Chip Muffin

March 09 is started with the sweet aroma of double choco muffin coming out from my oven. Baked to perfection, the muffins are so round and fluffy! I literally cannot hide my joy when these cute muffins come out smoking from the oven.

Fairly easy to make. Basically you just substitute 20gr out of your total flour with coco powder and instead of 1 cup of dry fruits, add on 1 cup of choco chips and fold all together... If only baking hotel cakes is this easy...

Luffa with Mi Soa

Ingredients:

100 gr Luffa (It's Oyong), peeled and sliced evenly - it's about 1 or 2 piece
5 gr Ebi, washed and chopped to small pieces
200 gr Mi Soa (or Somen), boiled and strained - about 2 packet
5 cloves garlic, chopped (I like more garlic, so usually I put more than 5)
Seasonings: Sugar, White pepper, Salt to your taste

1. In a wok, heat up oil with high fire, stir fry garlic and ebi until fragrant
2. Put in the sliced Luffa and stir fry until rather soft
3. Put in the strained Mi Soa and quickly season it with the seasonings
4. Keep stir frying until the seasoning is evenly distributed

For me personally, I like this dish to be as dry as possible. If I can make it happen, I want the Mi Soa a bit crispy too on the outside. But, you can make it like a soup too. Just add more water or chicken stock and definitely add more seasoning to balance the liquid.