Happy Birthday Singapore!

I was invited to join the home school group for their National Day celebration on Mon. J and I thought it would be most appropriate to have a birthday cake for our  beloved country and what better way than to have it in the form of our national flag!

Due to the children's special diet, it has to be dairy, egg and gluten free again. This definitely called for my chocolate pudding cake, which is dark brown in colour. As I do not want to have icing made of shortening and margarine, I decided to cover the whole chocolate cake in another layer of white soya pudding. The result? A hefty 7 layers, 8inch square cake which weighed 2.4kg !

The crescent and stars were painstakingly cut out from thick cardboard and 'dicast' out from the red coloured pudding. Once the layer set, it is then filled in with white pudding.

The different layers can be seen here, with a much thicker outer layer, due to two different size of cake rings used and I didn't want to create wastage by trimming it off.

I wasn't confident of the end result initially but was well pleased with the end result. I also had a wonderful time with the children and parents - singing our national anthem, reciting the national pledge in both English and Mandarin, a parade around the estate and a party with good food. As the group gathered around the cake to sing Happy Birthday to Singapore, I couldn't help but felt proud... to be a Singaporean.

Cake for the Angels II

A week before Angel's birthday, I received a texted message from J, asking if she could order two cakes for her daughter’s celebration. The first was to be collected 2 days later and the other, two days before Angel’s birthday. I had already been looking forward to bake her cake, so adding one more shouldn’t be a problem I thought. However, as I re- read her message, I realised there was a new challenge this time round. In addition to the usual dairy and egg free, the second cake was to be gluten free as well! Was I up to the challenge, she asked?

Well, with the earlier experience from Angel junior's cake, the first one would not be difficult. The second cake, however, I have no confidence as I've not done it before. However, I replied J that I would give it a try.

I had been planning a strawberry cake as Angel love strawberry. However, as it was to be collected much earlier than I had expected, I haven’t had time to get decent quality ones. After a quick check with J, I decided to use frozen mixed berries for the pudding instead. I had expected the pudding to be a dark pinkish colour, however, it turned out to be a funny purple! Based on my previous experience working with frozen mixed berries, the result was totally unexpected. Then I recalled, the bag of berries was of another brand, thus, the ratio of dark and red berries wouldn’t have been the same.

Purple cake, with the pureed dark berries still visible in the pudding. I have never been good with my hand writing nor drawing and it is always a very daunting task whenever I have to do both when decorating a cake. When on paper, you can always start with a fresh piece of paper  to redo if you don't like it. But on a cake, you can only do it once.
Here, the ladybugs were drawn using red berries puree, dark chocolate buttons and pearls - not the best but not the worst... I hope.

I found my one and only reference recipe for a gluten free sponge cake which looks promising, but it uses eggs, which I decided to replace with my usual egg replacer. It also requires xanthan gum, which is pretty costly to buy but J saved me by passing me hers. She also gave me some left over gluten free flour mix to experiment, on top of the 3 different types of wheat free flour which I had stand by to mix my own.

The batter mix turns out really dry and I hesitated whether to add more liquid than stated in the recipe. My experience tells me it would be way to dry to go into the oven, but at the same time, the ingredients were not my usual and I just couldn’t be sure. In the end, I decided to go for a in between, adding more liquid but not to the usual fluidity of my other batter. After I put the cake mix to bake in the oven, I was practically glued to the oven door as I couldn’t wait to see the end result. Past half time, the surface of the cake looked really dry and no sign of rise. My excitement somewhat deflated and I couldn’t help but began to say a silent prayer. There wasn't any more ready mix gluten free flour left and mixing my own would likely be a more difficult task as it would require more steps to experiment, despite the availability of recipe.

As it turned out, the cake did rise, albeit just a tiny bit, towards the last 10 minutes! I waited impatiently for the cake to cool down so that I could slice a cross section to check the texture. Half hour later, I had my answer... the sponge was surprisingly pretty moist and soft, totally unexpected of the dry appearance and the low rise level! I couldn't help but feel elated. It meant I could do more gluten free cake moving on! For the icing, it was another pudding base, but this time round, a chocolate one, converted from my signature chocolate mousse cake recipe.




Double chocolate pudding cake, dairy free, egg free and gluten free! The illustration on this cake is definitely much better than the other.

 

Angel, celebrating her 7th birthday with another friend from the home-school group. We were very blessed with good weather and wonderful time with a 2D1N camp out by the beach.



With this cake's success and comments received, it seems destined that my signature cake would still be chocolate after all, be it the regular dairy version or the special diet ones. Even Angel herself feedback that she prefers the chocolate one too, even though she likes berries and purple is one of her favourite colour. Seems all the more appropriate now,  that I have adopted a chocolate cake graphic to represent little bake shop! 

Durian Mousse Cake

Many people love durians, myself included. At the restaurant, we have a durian dessert which I had helped created,  using our in house home-made ice cream. I love that and had long wanted to make a durian mousse cake, which would resemble an ice-cream cake of sort, if served frozen.

Opportunity came last week, when I had to prepare a cake as dessert for my brother's housewarming reception for forty over people. As it was buffet style, I did one 10 inch tray and a 7 inch round for two separate group of guests.

Durian Mousse Cake - I finally tried making this in my kitchen, 2 cakes at one go due to the large no. of guests invited by my brother.

The cakes were made thinner than my usual, to be served buffet style and decorated simply with meringue rosettes which was then torched lightly.

The cakes' texture turn out pretty good, but a tad too sweet and the taste a little on the light side. This surprised me as I thought durian should taste stronger than other fruits. As I found out from this attempt, durain may smell really strong, but when it comes to making dessert with them, it would be good to increase its ratio higher for better taste, while amount of sweetness lower, to compensate for the fruit's natural sweetness. Will definitely attempt this again as durian is one of my all time favourite fruit!

Madeleines

These French petit fours were baked as a last minute gift, just before I met an ex-colleague for lunch. Ever since we had arranged to meet 2 weeks before, I knew I wanted to bake her and her family something. Somehow, work and projects got in the way and I didn't really plan ahead.

Most cakes would have to be prepared minimum a day before. However, as I got home from work the night before, I was too tired to do anything. The next morning when I woke up, 3 hours before I was to leave my home to meet K, I was contemplating to give up the idea or to come out with something fast. As I desperately tried to think hard, I suddenly remembered the new silicon madeleines mold I bought. Madeleines shall be it then! They are relatively easy to be prepared and they get baked within 10-15mins.

The recipe from my French chef calls for the batter to be rested in the chiller over night while most other recipes recommends an hour. Here I had only half hour, which is during the time when the oven gets pre-heated while I had my shower! The madelines turned out nice, though looked rather plain looking. Despite the short time I had, I quickly melt down some chocolate, tempered it and coated the edges of every piece from the first batch, while the second batch was still cooling down.

I must say I was very happy with the result, though I had to postpone my appointment by 15mins.

Madelines - they make nice, delicious little gifts. An extra touch of chocolate make the presentation even more special.

As it turned out, I was caught in the rain when I left my home and had to delay my meeting time by a total of 45 minutes. Despite running in the rain with the box of madelines swaying frantically in my hand, the recipients received them in good conditions, to my great relief.

Another thing to note for madelines other than the batter resting time, they tast best when baked on the day itself. To make in advance, cling wrap them airtight after they have cooled down from baking and keep in chillers. Before serving, let defrost completely to room temperature before removing the wrap to prevent condensation collecting on them. They are best served with tea or coffee as the sponge tends to be on the drier side, being a genoise base cake.

Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Cake

This mousse cake is specially made for one of my aunt who turns 58 this year. I love using strawberries in my cake making and decorating. However, sweet strawberries are not easy to come by. Those available at regular supermarkets may appear red and juicy, but once a bite is taken, the taste is usually disappointing. The gourmet range is a better bet, but not only do they cost a lot more, they are also not readily available. Hence, I like to stock up imported IQF version in my freezer, which make it readily available whenever I need them.

Having said the above, IQF fruits are usually good when making components which uses a puree, or when mixing into your yogurt or ice cream. They are not ideal for decorating as once defrosted, the texture tends to be soft and the fruit tends to weep. The garnishing and decorating still have to depend on fresh ones.

The cake comprised of two layers of chocolate sponge, with strawberry slices and mousse in the centre. The cake is then topped with another layer of mousse, with strawberry slices arranged in a circular pattern on top. Finally, when the mousse is set, a jelly layer is poured on top to embed the strawberries and also to create a nice see through effect.

For personal taste preference, I like to pair this mousse cake with chocolate sponge, rather than vanilla. Like the mango mousse cake in an earlier post, I find some fruits go better with chocolate. These are banana, mango and strawberry.



I simply love the top view of the cake, however, choosing similar sizes and shapes for the strawberries will create some wastage. 



The IQF strawberries gives a nice natural colour to the mousse. 

 


FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2011

Addendum:
When I made my aunt's cake, I knew the strawberry wasn't sweet and was more on the sour side. However, I went ahead with it as that was the last box I could get hold of at the supermarket. A week later, I made another exact cake, using the same batch of ingredients, including the strawberries for my brother's house warming.

Yes, I managed to keep the strawberries fresh, despite a week long. All thanks to the new fridge I bought beginning of the year, specially for my baking needs. With right temperature control and careful handling, I had managed to keep most of my ingredients fresh and perishables for longer period. Another factor is that most of our imported fruits are harvested when they are still pretty raw, thus longer shelf life, but unfortunately short in taste.

The mousse, made from the IQF strawberries tasted really good. However, the overall taste of the whole cake was below the notch, due to the sour strawberries slices. I come to conclude, never ever make a cake with strawberries if sweet ones are not available. It really spoils all the effort you've put in, no matter how pretty it looks, or how fragrant it smells.

Mango Mousse Cake

I made a lot of  mango mousse cake while at the restaurant where I was attached during my baking school days. As they served it for buffet and required large quantity, it was made using commercial sponge pre-mix and mango puree. I find the sponge rather tasteless and usually a tad dry. The puree which was from the same local supplier, I felt it contain too much flavouring and chemicals. The amount of whipped cream was also a bit on the high side, compared to the amount of puree. The overall taste however wasn't too bad and one really couldn't fault them for their choice of ingredients due to their operating costs and the prices charged.

When it comes to making this cake at home, I am more selective in my choice of ingredients. Mango are not always in season and even if they are, they usually differ in taste. To maintain consistent taste in my mango mousse, I usually use a particular french brand of puree which is all natural and contains no additives. For garnishing and decorating, I would choose the ripe ones when buying them from supermarkets as these tends to be sweeter.

I paired this mousse with my usual chocolate sponge, as I love the combination. The top of the cake has a very thin layer of coloured gelatin, to prevent the mousse from drying in the fridge and to create a nice shine. This is more visible in the heart-shape cake below.

This is one of two 4" cake which I specially made for 2 close friends. The bottom layer of sponge is specially left exposed, to show the chocolate/mango combination. As usual, I like to garnish with gooseberry, besides the mango cubes and chocolate deco.



I had some leftover mousse from the two small cakes and made this 5" heart-shape one for myself and my roommates, using leftover cake trimmings which I compressed down to form the cake layers. This one is more cake than mousse, which is fine for personal consumption.



Cake for the Angels

I finally did it! A non dairy and eggless birthday cake, which is completed with icing decorations and wordings for the Angels!

Ever since I started my course at the culinary school, I have set in my mind to make such a cake for one of my friend's daughters. One of her daughter has some food allergies and hasn't been able to enjoy the usual birthday cake. My friend has also been trying out recipes to make cakes, muffins and cookies suitable for her.

This cake was actually for the younger daughter who does not have any allergy. However, to enable her older sister and other children who have similar allergy in the homeschool group to enjoy the cake together, the cake has to be egg and dairy free.

The chocolate sponge was my usual recipe, minus the eggs and the milk replaced with soya. The result is a denser sponge, more like brownie, but delicious none the less. I didn't want to use non dairy icing to piece the cake together, as most non-dairy version uses shortening or margarine, which I felt is too unhealthy for the amount needed. Hence, I opted a soya pudding, flavoured with orange zest. An earlier version which used orange juice couldn't set, despite overnight, and I had to redo the whole cake all over on the morning itself.




The final cake, which I had to rush to redo on the morning as the first pudding filling couldn't set.



I have never really decorated a kid's cake before, other than the bear and panda cupcake. Did some search online and got the butterfly idea. For this, I had to contend with the shortening icing, with some food colouring. The flower petals are made with small orange pieces. Am very happy that the girls, the children and even the parents enjoyed it, together with the soya ice cream I made as well (view post "Homemade Ice Cream). One point for me to note for the older Angel's birthday coming up in July - make more ice cream as they disappeared so fast, with the children asking for more helpings!






The Angels, together with few of the homeschool children and parents. They sang the Happy Birthday songs in different languages and one of the children even hold the birthday gal's hand. I was almost moved to tears by the sight and atmosphere.