My Time in the Kitchen: Order

Showing posts with label Order. Show all posts

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Another big project!

I am using this same butter cookies recipe that I used previously. As for the icing, I replaced egg whites with boiled water. Seriously I never really liked the idea of raw egg whites. At least today I dare to let them eat the cookies with icing.. Ha~

I did this over 3 days, spreading the job, spending almost 12hours in total. I made the fondant, using red man ready white fondant on thurs, baked the cookies on fri nite, did icing and piece everything together today. And I even prepared a simple steamboat dinner for my GF. Tiring tiring!! All done and job handed to my neighbor.

Happy Birthday Palsen & Azelval!!

I am submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Egg" event hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out, organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Project 'Princess' for my niece

My sister told that my niece wants a Princess 3D cake for her school celebration so I take up the project. Been ages since my lesson with RG on the princess cake. I vividly remember that I pipe the dress til my hands shake and trembles. Remembering that I was also on the verge of sweating, despite doing that in an air con room.

Today, weather was not really forgiving. Initially, the morning was cooling and heavy rain pour. Ended up the rain stopped very fast, as quickly as it came and it became humid once again. Sigh..

I baked the cake using Betty Crocker Cake Mix as I wanted to try out rainbow layers. I was afraid of my sponge cake will deflate fast so thought of trying the layers with cake mix, as I believed it won't collapse so fast. I came up with 4x6" layers and 2x4" layers. Eventually I only ended up using 4 layers as it is already very tall. As for the colors, I didn't use good quality colourings, only normal Red Man colourings, I guess it's time to invest in good ones for cakes.

I use whipping cream cos it is easier to cream the cake, as well as piping it. I was racing with time, piping as fast as I could as I could feel the cream melting fast.. So stressful, and with screaming kids at home, it didnt seems to help. Finally, I ended up with a product that my gal, hubby and sis saying that it is nice. But to me, I feel there could be more improvements. Hahahah =)

Anyway, this is my final product. Also submitting this to the Little Thumbs Up "Egg" event hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat Your Heart Out, organized by Bake for Happy Kids, my little favourite DIY.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

New York CheeseCake II

Just a day ago, I asked my mum to bring my cake to her collits for tea break as I have been having cakes for the past 5 weeks and I think we are very scared now. LOL~ And the next day, I received a phone call from my mum, her collit is asking if I know how to make Cheesecake. Ha~

I have used a recipe from EllenaGuan previously and it is the normal method of adding in eggs to the 'cream' batter and it taste really good. Both the New York and Oreo version. So this round, I decided to use the recipe from Vivian Pang which uses whites beaten to peaks then fold into batter. I wonder what the difference it is. And the best part, it's gluten-free. Yumm...

As the previous bake is quite a while ago, I can't remember in details but it is like eating Ice cream Cheesecake, not very 'cheesy' or too overwhelming that you will feel that you are suffering from cheesecake overdose. As for this recipe from Vivian Pang, I would say the texture is very smooth, rich in flavour and yet not too overwhelming. It taste like those you can get from Starbucks or TCC. Nice too! It's definitely a keeper! Pls make 1 at him..... =)

On top of my order, I made 2 4" again. (Yes, I am. Infatuated with my small tins.) 1 is plain NY Cheesecake and 1 Marble Chessecake w/Oreo cookies in it. You can refer to my noted on how I use 1 recipe for the 3 cakes. But pls be hardworking if you have a small oven like mine. Cos I divide them into 2 different bakes, which means I spend more than 3hours from prep to baking them. But I bet on it, the end results, you won't regret..

New York Cheesecake (adapted from Vivian Pang Kitchen)

*I use the recipe for a 6" & 2x 4" cake tin*

Base - 8" cake tin, grease tin all over and line
(I didn't follow the amount in the recipe as I wan a thicker biscuit crust cos I like the crust a lot!)

Marie biscuits, crushed

Butter - melted

Mix all the above ingredients and press onto the cake tin base.

Filling:

400g Cream Cheese
20g Butter
20g Sugar
*i added a few drops of lemon juice*
3 yolks
1Tbsp Vanilla Extract
30ml milk

30g Cornflour
3 Whites
60g sugar
1/2tsp lemon juice

1) Cream cream cheese, butter and sugar til smooth.
2) Add in yolks, vanilla, milk then cornflour in the same sequence
3) In a clean bowl, beat egg whites til foamy, add in lemon juice & 1/2 sugar, contd beat til glossy. Then add in remaining sugar and beat til soft peak
***I just add all sugar and lemon juice and beat together til soft peaks*
4) Fold in 1/3 whites to batter, then pour batter into remaining whites. Fold gently
5) Steam bake at 150deg for 25mins, then lower 120deg for another 30min.
6) Leave to cool in oven, then chill overnight. Remove and serve.

Notes:
**i divide the recipe into 2 and bake twice as my oven is too small. Here is my variations**
I used 1/2 recipe for the 6" for a NY Cheesecake version.
And use 2 yolks and 2 whites instead of 1.5 each.

I took another 1/2 recipe to make a NY Cheesecake and Marble Cheesecake for the 4" each.
Same using the 2 yolks and whites instead of 1.5 each
I took a few spoonful of batter and mix with coco powder, lay some Oreo cookies on the crust, then make into Oreo Marble Cheesecake. Yummy!!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Cake requested by a nice fren

I think I knew this fren when I was still schooling, maybe polytechnic time? Or waiting for 'O's results? I bet it was more than a decade and I seriously can't remember the details. Signs of aging. I remembered at that age, I feel that she looked like an Ah Lian and she tot that about me too. And we didn't really talk, until that fateful day. Ha~ Since then, we sometimes plan to wear same colour theme, or occasional catch - up after that, we sort of arrange same same clothing, went to take photo cards etc. That was the day... So long ago, when I was once young.

Anyway, now we are both married and having our own lives. We seldom meet up but occasional what's app, FB or even buying me goodies when I was preg and craving to have what she eat and post on FB. I am so blessed to have a fren like her, seldom meet but lives in the heart.

So, her hubby bday is coming up and she want to have a fondant cake, with strawberry shortcake base. Considering the weather, the fondant and the cake, it is not suitable to do so. So with some advices from a nice fren, I decided to go along with her idea of using a cake board, same size as the cake, and prop it on top of the Strawberry Shortcake so that it doesn't come into contact with moist and have risk of melting. And it is my first attempt to have to use dowels/thick straws to support the cake board of fondant deco as if I am making a tier cake.

Overall, I am very pleased with the deco part, cake wise, need to find out from my fren. And I also use my human mould for the first time and it is not so easy to mould even though I used that. But still a fun and learning experience for me. =)

Vanilla Sponge ( given by a fren, so not sure where she got it)

6 yolks

130g Top Flour *I use Cake Flour

70g Oil

80g Milk
20g sugar

6 whites

130g Sugar

1) Using Chiffon method

Cream - I am using whipped cream

300g Whipping Cream

Sugar to taste

1) Beat whipping cream til stiff peak

2) Add sugar to taste

******Will update once I get more pics frm my GF and also her reviews on the cake*****

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Another attempt at customised cookies

A dear fren of mine recommended her fren to ask me for customizing a cookie for her son's 7th birthday. Initially I was quite worried as I wasn't confident if customizing cookies as it isn't my forte to work with small items.. Lol~ I wanted to pass the deal to another baking fren who started her own shop but she was tied up so can't take the order so..... Yes, it falls back to me!

I decided to try the cut out cookies recipe from Angela and the icing recipe that I used previously. The recipe is similar to what Angela is using too. I modified slightly by adjusting the sugar to using caster sugar and brown sugar to 1:3 proportion and cut back the sugar by 40g from original recipe. I did 3x recipe and managed to have 45 gingerbread boy cut outs. It pays to have extras, from my past experiences..

So after cooling them, I pipe out the white shirt. The next afternoon, I do up the shorts. While I leave them to dry up, I proceed to make little books that says 'Bryan's 7' to be 'glued' to the little boy. I seriously hope the mummy will be satisfied and the little boy and frens will be happy to receive them.

Cut-out Butter Cookies (modified from AngelCookBakeLove)

450g Butter, soften

180g Caster Sugar

60g Brown Sugar

225g Eggs, slightly beaten (approx 4.5 eggs)

1tsp Vanilla extract

1050g Cake Flour

1) Beat butter and sugar til pale in yellow

2) Add in beaten eggs and mix well

3) Fold in flour using spatula

4) Chill dough in portions that you can to work with each time with cling film. Keep refrigerated for at least 15mins

5) Shape accordingly. Bake at 180deg for 20-30min or until browned.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Baby Shower for Baby Chloe

My aunt asked to make some cupcakes for Baby Shower, therefore I used 2 recipes - my fav Chocolate Cupcakes & Vanilla Cupcakes. Added confetti to the vanilla cupcakes to make it more colourful. And this time, I use MMF (means Marshmallow Fondant).

Overall, I am very pleased with the end results as almost all were gone.. Happy happy..

Sunday, January 13, 2013

My 1st BIG project - Miffy

Why do I call this my 1st 'big' project though I have made many customized cakes and cupcakes before - reason cos it's the first time baking a close to 2kg Buttercream Cake on a 14" cake board! I top it up with another 14 chocolate cupcakes which everyone likes.

My niece is celebrating her 1st birthday, so my sis 'ordered' her cake thru me. A cake with the shape of number '1' and to be rabbit theme. Then her hubby says, oh Miffy Rabbit. So here I go, racking my head over Miffy.

I goggle and see what I could find. Managed to find a short tutorial after browsing thru some links, but I have to get down to it, hands on and modify along the way. My 1st attempt - standing up. Didn't kinda like it cos the Miffy kept on 'falling' due to the heavy ears.

My 2nd attempt, I made them sitting down, each holding an alphabets to form my niece's name. This time I like it better. I follow up with some little roses, pressie. And there it goes, after a few afternoon, I finally made all the toppers.

Then came the headache, the fondant doesn't dry up well. I use toothpicks, gum paste powder and cornflour too. Trying the best to add in little portion and hoping it dries up. Everyday, without fail, I would check on them, making sure it is getting 'drier' as the days goes. Luckily all went well.

So the big day came, baking and baking. Deco and creaming etc. Then actual morning came, deco with all the toppers and there u goes, the finale.. As for the recipe, I used my previous Chocolate Chiffon(x5) and Swiss Meringue Butterccream (x2) and it covers nicely a 14" cake and 14 cupcakes.