At long last

Posted in Macarons, Trials and experiments by

Hello all.

As tomorrow would officially be my first day of internship, I’ve decided to update this page before I get too caught up with work-school life.

I wanna share on my recent attempt on MACARONS!!

If you have read my post on macarons, I have succeeded once but failed the rest (unfortunately). I think it was either too humid or anything could have gone wrong! Macarons are so tough to perfect!!

I did a little experimenting. I had planned to bake some using my new silicon mat and some on a heavy metal tray to see if there was any difference. I also dried some macarons at different timings. BATCH 1: no drying. BATCH 2: 45 mins drying time and BATCH 3: 20 mins drying time. I must say, I was pretty happy with the outcome for batch 2 which had the longest drying time.

The most important objective that I wanted to achieve was my macarons having feet whilst baking!!And true enough, FEET WAS SEEN after about 5-10 mins! I was jumping for joy because after several failed attempts (though not using the same recipe, I finally FINALLY achieved feet). Hooray. Okay, I’ll share some pictures now during the process.

Although I did not take pics of every batch before/after baking, I think you sorta get the point that batch  produced the most appropriate results (despite the slightly rough surfaces of each). I think it was due to the grounded almond I used. It wasn’t as fine. Batch 2 had a smooth base while the other two batches were slightly sticky and caused some to crack ): Overall, all batches had feet so yay.

BATCH 1 (no drying)

Taste: I think the sweetness was there. It was chewy, soft and sticky

 

Texture: fairly smooth surface but broken base

Appearance: pink turned peachy colour

BATCH 2 (45 mins drying time)

Taste: Almond. It was crisp, chewy and less sticky.

Texture: Slightly rough on the surface

Appearance: it was supposed to be peachy in colour but it turned out darker esp for this batch.

BATCH 3 (20 mins drying time, silicon mat used)

Taste: similar to batch 1

Texture: slightly rough surface and cracked easily when pressed together

Appearance: slightly broken base

As for the usage of silicon mat and heavy tray, I found that the macarons baked on the heavy tray had better/less sticky bases compared to those baked on the silicon mat. I will try this recipe out again when I find the time!

So I hope this has not bored you readers to death. If you want the recipe, feel free to comment! (:

For now, I gotta prepare for my first day of work tomorrow!! Excited yet nervous :S

I smell something yummm

Posted in School by

 

Hello dear readers!

So sorry for the lack of updates in this space! I haven’t had the time to bake at home.

Firstly, we’re into 2014!! Happy new year to all! Hope you had an awesome time ushering in the new year.

Since, I don’t have any of my home baked pics to share, I shall talk about school because most of my time has been devoted to my dear school, At-Sunrice where I’m taking a Diploma in Pastry and Bakery (for those who aren’t aware). So the picture above, are just some products my classmates and I have baked this week on basic cakes!! Tempering and working with chocolate is tedious but look at how beautiful they turned out !! (don’t drool) Hard work really pays off. Now I know why chocolates are sold at such a price.

So term 1 is coming to an end for me. I have secured a place regarding my apprenticeship site! Starting on 24 Feb.

More info on my other personal site>>oceansizedlovee.wordpress.com

Right now, I need to focus on getting well (yes, I caught the flu bug, argh). What’s more, I have my practical assessment approaching soon, I need to be fully recovered by then! I have to bake more products for this 2nd assessment! They are almond jelly and binka ubi. that’s for Asian desserts. For the Western, I’ll have to make 4 more items: rye bread, pear tart, chiffon cake and anglaise sauce. Gotta work on my time mgt especially! Work flow is super impt!

Oh well, I will try to update this space before I start my internship.

thanks fo ryour time! (:

Love, D

Dreams vs Reality

Posted in School by

Hello there!

I know I haven’t been updating this space as much as I would like to.

So it’s assessment week at school. I had my first ever practical assessment yesterday and well, I think I did pretty alright considering that chef had good comments on my 4 different cuts. Hooray. I also had my first written test(included some memorising) and yesss I made it through ever since my relapse. I haven’t gone through any test/exam ever since my discharge. Anyway, I’ve a theory test next Mon. So hope I can pull through that without difficulties, without stressing myself too much.

Yesterday was day 21 of school for me. I learnt that it takes 21 days to create/pick up a habit and yes, it’s very true!

I am more familiar with my surroundings/environment etc. Especially my body clock. I automatically wake up at 6am even on weekends!! Thankfully, I can get back to sleep. By 11pm, my eyes feel heavy and I just want to go to bed. It’s been this routine for almost a month already. I need to stay healthy, keep my immune system strong. Our health is extremely important (must exercise later). Okay, I’ll add some photos to brighten this post!! I will be updating more at my personal blog later so do head over for more details if keen (:

These are just a few pictures over the past month ever since my first day of school. A lot was learnt and interesting! Stuff I didn’t knew and how certain factors affect this, that etc you know what I mean. One minus point, I realised the skin on my fingers are drying quite a bit ): I do apply moisturizer every night!! Hmm. So now I have some skin peeling off my fingers, boohooo. Anyway what’s more important is that no major cuts/burns yet!! And that I’m enjoying myself at school. Never looked forward to school THIS much. another thing I learnt is that BURNING desire that’s needed to survive in this industry.I still have it in me, never want it to die down!! I still have that dream to work towards to (:

Why stop now?!

Posted in Cakes by

Hi hi hi!

I am in high spirits right now!! Why you may ask?!

That’s because I baked 2 successful treats! One was delicious, light and fluffy cream puffs and the other, a chocolate chip cake(2nd attempt)!!

In my previous update, I mentioned that something went wrong with my chocolate chip cake and I’ll let you readers know why. Simply because I used the WRONG flour. Now you must be saying, what a careless mistake..I know! UNFORGIVABLE!! Ah, totallyy blamed myself. At least I knew what went wrong. The batter and everything was fine until the baking stage. During the first 20 mins or so, it did rise to an acceptable height but after that, it started ‘erupting‘ like a volcano!!! Thankfully I was alert and saw this ‘erosion’. Yes..I did panic a little but also knew I had to think on my feet. If the batter kept spilling on the bottom of the oven, there won’t be any nice buttery cake smell but a burnt one instead.

So to prevent that, I placed a baking tray below. That would ease the cleaning up better. Phew okay that was solved. The cake tasted quite good actually. However, the shape of the cake was ruined due to the ‘eruption’. I should’ve taken some ruined pictures to show you guys but I didn’t. Anyway, what I will share today is my 2nd attempt at this cake including the recipe. I used Nigella’s choc-chip orange sour cream cake recipe and did some modifications to it. The cake originally is a butter cake but I changed it to a pure chocolate flavoured one. I think an addition of walnuts would give the cake a good crunch too but you could leave it out it you prefer your cake to be solely chocolate! I omitted the orange syrup because I didn’t want the cake to be overly sweet.

Okay, let the pictures do the talking!

So what do you think of my cake? I personally feel this has got to be one of my chocolate cakes made that I am most proud of!! (not boasting, just really really pleased with myself!!) *confidence boost* My family loves it. My dad said “spot on!” Yay. I think the sour cream plays a major role in allowing the cake to stay moist thus making this cake so so yummeh. When I took my first bite, it really was moist, not too heavy going, didn’t crack and crumble so I guess I did a good job 😀 I usually do not eat/indulge most of the things I bake. I only eat and taste when I have to but this time round, I wouldn’t mind having a slice to myself! hoho (it’s not like I don’t like to eat stuff I bake but I rather leave it for others to try) *share good food*

Anyway, same goes for my 1st attempt at choux pastry. Yup! I made cream puffs last week!! And they turned out superbbbbbb! Beyond my expectations!! I was surprised at myself actually. My family and I gobbled them instantly. I am considering making them for X’mas this year. (: Okay without digressing into my cream puffs, here is the recipe for my choc-chip cake!

Ingredients:

180g butter, unsalted and softened

175g caster sugar

2 tsp grated orange zest

4 eggs

1/2 cup choc chips

188ml light sour cream

1 and 1/3 cups plain flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

75g walnuts,chopped (optional)

Method:

1) Preheat your oven to 175 deg and grease a 20cm/ 8 inch round pan.

2) Combine the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and sift into a bowl and set aside.

3) Cream butter, sugar and orange zest till light and fluffy.

4) Beat in 1 egg at a time at low speed.

5) Fold in the sour cream and choc chips.

6) Fold in the sifted flour one third at a time.

7) Add in the walnuts(optional) and stir to combine.

8) Pour mixture into the pan and bake for 55 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake.

9) Allow cake to stand for 10 mins before turning onto a wire rack.

*notes

– All ingredients to be at room temperature.

– I used ‘Bulla’ light sour cream.

– Do not omit the orange zest as it is flavourful.

– Be careful not to over beat the eggs as it may curdle and cause the cake to sink or air pockets in the cake

– Gently fold in all the flour to prevent over-mixing.

– Cake can be stored in an air-tight container for 3 days or a week in the refrigerator.

Alrighty!! Get some baking therapy! It sure does help me! I hope you readers would try this recipe at home soon! Nothing beats a delicious home-made moist warm choc chip cake right?? Stay tuned to my next post on my cream puffs adventure!!(:

thanks for your time all! Feel free to follow and comment!

Love, D

Cupcake not icecream cone

Posted in Trials and experiments by

Hi dear readers, I know in my previous post I said I would be trying out a chocolate walnut cake but I did something different.

I did cupcake cones!! What inspired me? Well I happened to watch this episode of ‘cupcake girls‘ on one of my favourite TV channels TLC and one of their stores needed a boost in their sales! So that’s when the cupcake cones were sold!

Okay here’s a few shots I took. Decided to go with 2 colours, pink and cream for my buttercream. Pink to represent my support for breast cancer awareness!! I was reminded of it this month as I saw this lady dressed in hot pink from head to toe!! Not kidding! Anyway, yup so I did a trial of my first batch of cupcake cones! Take a look at these!

I was afraid the cones would burn in the oven but they didn’t! (shouldn’t burn because it didn’t burn when cupcake girls were testing too) Taste wise, I think it tasted a little too sweet? Maybe because of the buttercream? I always try not to overload with the sugar but I can’t reduce it as much too, considering the proportions to other essential ingredients. I think the texture of my cupcake was light, not crumbly(yay). My family thought it would be better to have it without the cone. But that would defeat the purpose right?

Maybe because my cone turned kinda soft(probably left it out in the open too long). Anyway, I had fun trying to ‘invent’/create my own cupcakes like filling them with whatever came to my mind.. I filled some with jam, melted choc. You see the halved cupcake cone above?

That had some melted choc and I stuck a biscuit stick which I coated with more choc and rainbow sprinkles for colour! Just playing around=messy kitchen indeed!! I obviously had to clean up which I dread..we all dread that. I gotta get used to it soon, all this cleaning up and mess because I’ll be facing the kitchen almost everyday starting from end of this month.

Why you may ask?! Becauseeeeeeeee I GOT INTO ‘AT-SUNRICE GLOBAL CHEF ACADEMY’ OCT 2013 INTAKE!!! Ah, yes no more waiting/ what ifs/ and false hopes whatsoever. Now it is confirmed! I’m definitely elated, excited yet nervous as to what’s coming up for me. One thing for sure, I most probably wouldn’t be as this free to update but but but! I will try to find the time to update you readers about my new experiences and stories. I know I’ll have loads to share. You can also hop over to my personal blog(found under ‘about’ link) for more updates. This blog is more for my baking creations and experiements and reflections/thoughts about them.

With that said, halloween is around the corner too!! I have something in mind already, more experimenting and play! These cones were baked beginning of this month so this is quite a delayed post. I baked the chocolate chip orange cake today and hmmm lets just say, it didn’t go that well? Careless me!! Nonetheless, it’s still a cake and edible. So stay tuned dear readers/followers to find out what went wrong!!

Thanks for your time!

Love, D

Chocolate ganache ftw!

Posted in Cakes by

Hi there!

My apologies for the late update, I was updating my personal blog over at oceansizedlovee.

So anyway…in my previous post, I told you my friend requested for a birthday cake so I decided to make a chocolate walnut cake with dark chocolate ganache. I’ll show you some steps in pictures[mini tutorial]!

So there you have it!! I had some trouble with the piping though. Definitely need more practicing in that area!! Still fun nonetheless.

As I do not have much experience in decorating cakes, I just did what I could. I did a trial run before the actual so I could be slightly more familiar when it came to the actual day. I think I did a better job at slicing the cake into half, without it crumbling! My heart would crumble if it did !!! I just feel maybe the texture of the cake could be better. thankfully for the ganache, it sort of made the cake taste better. *phew

Anyway, my friend enjoyed his cake so yay to that! On top of that, we all had fun at his birthday party at MacDonalds(yes, we overaged kids celebrated it there) haha.

I will be experimenting a basic choc cake recipe but modifying it, to see the difference in texture. If it’s successful, I will share the recipe over here!! So stay tuned(:

Thanks for your time dear followers!

Love, D

Coming soon!!

Posted in Uncategorized by

Hello !

Yup that’s right!! My upcoming post would be a chocolate walnut cake with a delicious oo bittersweet chocolate ganache.

I will be baking for my friend’s birthday this weekend. I must say I’m truly honoured to be baking for such an occasion (his special day), catering for at least 40 people?

I usually bake for my friends and family. So this is probably my first time baking for others. I’m not very good at decorating cakes so I decided to go simple but yet presentable? I did a trial and in my opinion, it tasted good! However, there’s always room for improvement. Well my friend liked it so if the birthday boy is happy with it, I hope his guests will too.

Once I start my pastry and baking course in school (i’m absolutely thrilled btw), I’ll definitely be using whatever new skills/tips to my future baking 😀

In the meantime, I have always been thinking of my future patisserie? What can I bring to the table that will outshine others? Always dreaming, haha. Dreaming…is good once in a while right?

Okay! So dear followers, I hope you look forward to my next update, probably over the weekend, with more pictures! Thanks for your time(:

Love, D

‘Macaron’ rollercoaster

Posted in Macarons by

Hello TGIF!! How quickly the week has passed by. Hello to my new followers as well. Thanks for stopping by to read my fairly new blog.

So the first thing that came to my mind this morning was ‘choc macarons’ and yes I was absolutely determined to correct the error/errors I made in my previous 2 attempts. The error/errors? I might have over/underbeat my meringue. I even timed my whisking. I took about 5mins till it formed stiff peaks. Another error I could have made was over or under mixing. I did my research. I asked around, I watched videos, I read blogs. And even after all that effort put in, today’s trial #3= failed yet again!! Quite annoyed at myself. It rained today so probably the humidity, moisture affected the outcome.

I initially was preparing to update a successful macaron post but looks like I’m gonna show you readers some pictures of failed macarons instead of perfect pretty filled ones. If you have been following, I did bake a successful batch before in May. They were my first attempt at strawberries & cream macarons. I was jumping for joy when I saw feet meaning they had risen!! I made them after my first attempt at choc macarons which obviously failed since I’m at my 3rd one. I should compare recipes to see the difference but first, I need to get it back from my neighbour!

I guess my only successful outcome was my choc ganache! After realising the same failed outcome of my first batch, I decided to make notes and do some experimenting!! Okay, so here are shots I took during my prep and my baking adventure experimenting  with different batches.

So next is my 3rd attempt.

Two different batches for my 3rd attempt. I let them rest at different time periods. These were my notes taken.

1st batch: 30 mins drying time. Least bubbles appeared on the surface thus a smoother finish. It was crisp, chewy, a little soft, cracked easily when pressed. Risen slightly compared to my 1st attempt.

2nd batch: 20 mins drying time. More bubbles appeared but slightly harder than 1st batch so it didn’t crack that easily. It was crisp, chewy as well. This batch rose higher.

Below are some pics I took during my experimenting..

Okay so the first row are my different batches and the differences in each result.

The flat one really wasn’t good and had a sticky bottom, too chewy for my liking. Even though these ‘macarons’ aren’t what I expected, they’re still edible so I got my dad to taste. It tastes much better with my silky choc ganache. Thank goodness for that, it did the ‘macaron some justice’ So I added more choc. Hah. He preferred the 3rd attempt, 2nd batch where it was crisp, chewy, slightly harder than the other batch. Well in my opinion, I went for the other. It had a smoother finish and least bubbles on the surface. A few of my friends are coming over later, so I’m gonna ask them to be my taste testers! Hopefully I can take the criticisms. Heh 😀

Oh btw, the final batch was sucha disaster, expected because I wanted to see how bad it would be without leaving them to dry before baking. True enough, the texture was real sticky, worse than my 2nd attempt. Terrible terrible!! Threw them away. yup there was lots of wastage today. Oops.Can’t expect myself to sample all anyway!!

I will take a break from macarons for now. Maybe it really is the unpredicatble weather here in SG. Humid max!! I will continue my research of course. Oh here’s something I read from Ms Humble’s blog. She’s like queen of macarons!!

Even the professionals struggle with macaroons, says Meike Beck, chief home economist at the Good Housekeeping Institute. “Three seconds of overbeating and they’re ruined.” The institute spent a month making hundreds of batches of macaroons, trying to perfect a recipe. In the end it gave up. “They’re best left to the professionals. Macaroon recipes do work. But they are not consistent.” — Times Online

I’m no macaron pro but I did it before and I will probably find another recipe to try out and if it is a success, I will share in this space!

Alright, with that said..time’s running out! Gonna fill my ‘macarons’ for my friends before they come.

Thanks for your time dear readers!! Stay tuned for more baking adventures from the aspiring pastry chef(:

Love, D

Walnut only

Posted in Cookies by

Hellooo!!

Yesterday morning was spent baking some walnut cookies for my friend’s last day of work. She wanted to give it as a farewell gift to her colleagues. I usually bake choc chip ones but I guess walnut would taste good too(less sweet which is good). Cookies are already meant to be sweet anyway. I made about 80 in all and packaged them in time. So, I shall leave here with some pictures!!

My usual choc chip cookies
Walnut cookies
All packaged up!!

Do leave a comment if you have trouble viewing the pictures especially readers viewing from their mobile phones!

Hokay, this has been a short post. It’s getting late, I will update tomorrow about my SURPRISE bake!! Stay tuned followers 😀

*I’ve been neglecting my personal blog because I’m so excited to share my baking stories, whoops! But nonetheless, I will still try to manage both my blogs. You can find my other blog at oceansizedlovee.wordpress.com

Thanks for your time dear readers!

Love, D