Tag Archives: experiment

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

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

‘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