At long last

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.

Batch 1 before baking: no drying time (on silicon mat)

Batch 2 before baking: 45 mins drying time (metal tray used)

Batch 2 after baking: slightly rough surface

Batch 3 after baking: top

Batch 3 after baking: bottom

The surface tops of 3 diff batches

The bottom/bases of 3 diff batches

Compare: batch 2 had the smoothest bottom(not sticky)

This was to see the diff between using a silicon mat and metal tray

Final outcome with choc ganache

Final outcome with choc ganache

Final outcome with choc ganache

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

Cupcake not icecream cone

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!

In support of breast cancer month!

Just practicing my piping skills

Halved cupcake cone

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