Playing with chocolate clay > Chocolate Rose ^^

For some upcoming birthday cakes, I wanted to put some chocolate work.
I made some chocolate clay, and then try on making some roses!
I used to so poor at making roses!

I was having some problem on looking for the light corn syrup at first,
then I found in in Westfield, lucky me!
Well, if I can brush some gold glaze at the edge of the petals, would look more terrific!
Hope my glaze will arrive soon :)

I am very happy with the final outcome.
Can't believe that I did it!
muahahahahahaha

Kiwi CheeseCake with Fresh Kiwis & Cream Cheese Frosting

Always wanna make a kiwi cheesecake, I bake a cheese cake and wanna decorate the kiwi on top of the cake.
its hard to have kiwi flavour in the cheesecake, normally kiwi cheesecake only have fresh kiwi on top as a flavour,
but not really an infused flavour in the cake itself.
I am doing to experiment on this recipe, the conclusion is the cake texture is not as great compared to the rest I have made before. The taste was great but not the eating texture.
The ricotta cheese make the cake more soggy and not a really a tight and compact texture.
I am not gonna use ricotta cheese in my cheese cake next time.

Ahaha, the cheesecake is out from the oven, but it breaks a bit in the middle, so cover them with cream cheese
frosting. And I am using different base recipe for this cake, something like shortcrust pastry but I dont really like it.
The thing is, its more ingredients and more time consuming as you have to bake it first;
 and when you bake with the cake batter lots of oil is coming out which this is not gonna happen when I am using the biscuit crumb as the base.

Lastly, I have an idea to placing some chocolate stripes around the cake.
Match with the kiwi as well as add more visual effect to the cake !!

Fresh kiwis are ready for decorating the cake!

Final outcome, I am very happy with the look and the kiwi arrangement :)

Except for the uneven spreading of the frosting and the cake base border, I am quite glad with what I have did so far.
I know that everything will work better once I get my cake turner stand.
Gonna make the whipped cream border more pretty next time, I learn some lesson from this skill too :)

PassionFruit Paradise Baked CheeseCake ^^

Slice of PassionFruit Cheesecake would increase your appetite,
my first time making this cheesecake, playing around with the recipe but still I get the fantastic result ^^

After several hours chilling in the fridge, the cake absorb the passion fruit pulp a bit,
still it looks great!

Out from oven, smooth and even surface is making me to be more excited!
Hot tips: I always strain my cheese mixture before I pour it into the cheese base, to remove all lumps which will give you a smooth texture!
Then, tape to remove air bubbles and its ready to go into the oven!

There I put on some passion fruit pulp, making it prettier and yummy.

I can say, making the base and side crumb is the hardest part.
It is so tricky to make the side all stick together and make sure its even in height.
Spend like 15 minutes getting this part right!
Tips: Make sure you don's make the side crumb too high, or else when you have not enough cheese filling you will be having trouble in removing the excess side crumb which results in all the crumb falling into the middle (unpleasant look)! 
And, always be careful not to break the crumb side when you remove from the oven as while the cake is still hot the crumb is fragile and should be handle more carefully!
Well, you can always trim or correct the side with a pairing knife (after its out from the oven), be careful of the crumb though and make sure you do it when the cake is completely cool down (nah warm would be ok) ^^

There is absolutely no problem to move the cake around into a container, cake box or onto a cake board base.
Just REMEMBER to do it after you chill the cake in the fridge for at least 4 hours!

Still, another part of my baking journey, beautiful outcome and wonderful lesson for myself!

Lemon Meringue & Lemon Brulee Pie

Jerome is organising a BBQ in his house today, so I have decided to make some desserts to bring over.
I never make attempt on meringue tart, so today I made a large lemon tart with meringue on top.

Thought there will be 15 pack, so I made 2 tart pies which the other one is Lemon Brulee Tart.

With shortcrust pastry, I dont use the recipe from website as
I have experience that somehow they dont work properly or you can say its of a bad recipe.
The recipe that I tried from website last time results in very bad texture, cant even roll it nicely, it breaks when I am trying to lift it to the tart case.

The best ratio I have used is :
 flour:butter:sugar = 3:2:1


I am using 300g flour + 200g butter+ 100g sugar and 2 medium eggs. Always adjust the amount of eggs and flour if the dough if too dry or sticky.

Of course, there's lots of way of doing it. And I prefer cream butter and sugar method.
This is what I get, nice and soft dough.

Before using, I slightly flatten it in a disc shape and wrap it in cling wrap, chill it for half an hour in fridge.
If you have bigger amount, them divide it to 2 or more so that would be easy when you work on it later.
And definitely need lesser time in fridge before the next step.

A MUST step: dust you bench, dough and rolling pin with some flour to prevent sticking.

Around 0.5-1 cm thickness would be great, you don't want thin pastry that gonna break when you lift it or thick pastry that result in slow cooking and bad eating texture.
Make sure you roll in evenly.

Next step is tricky, lifting the rolled dough onto your tart case.
Usually I lift it with my rolling pin, it always depends on the room temperature and the dough I can say.
After you did this, fit the dough into your tart case gently but firmly, trim off any excess part around the edges with a small knife.

This is what you get ^^

Put them back into the fridge before the blind making for around 20 mins.

Then, pock with holes by using fork or knife, this is to allow air escaping.

Put on your baking sheet and tart weight, then its ready to bake in preheated oven.
I do take it out from oven after 15-20 minutes, remove from tart case and blind bake for another 10 minutes again, just to make sure the pastry is cooked well and evenly.
It kinda hard to get out the one with rectangle tart case though :( almost break it

I am having 2 different recipe for the filling of the tart, basically they are almost the same, both lemon based.
I don't why I make 2 recipes, should have used one recipe for both.

Out from oven, firm to touch on the middle indicates that its done!

You can see, the tart is still remain in the case, this is because its very hard to get it out.
And when its hot, its gonna break easily because of the long rectangle shape.
So I didnt risk it.
I cool both of them in the fridge until they cool down completely before any further steps.

Meringue, just some egg whites and sugar.
I mix it until hard peak though, for easy piping and firm looking.

The most exciting part! hehehehehehehe

DONE ^^ AND ENJOY!

I hope the people like it. You can keep them in fridge or at room temperature prior to serving, the meringue gonna stay for at least 1 day :)


I am very Happy with what I did today, another valuable lesson for me :)

Plain Scones with Butter & Jam

I learn how to make scones when I worked in Langham.
The serve it in afternoon tea.
This small little goodies served in warm with optional jam, cream or butter.
And it taste so good. I bet all the girls would love them ^^
And you know what, I just can't help myself kekekekeke

They are good to go with coffee or tea, perfect combination for a relax evening while you can have some chit chat with your partners or friends.

Simple ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, milk, butter and baking powder.
Some of the recipes are using self-raising flour though which you can neglect  the baking powder I guess.
You need to have basic equipments like rolling pin, scone cutter and preferably a mixer.

I mix the dry ingredients and the butter with a hook attachment until its crumbly.
Then I add in the eggs and milk.
Tips: Adjust the amount of milk when necessary, sometimes when the dough gets to wet,
you just have to stop pouring in the milk, add some flour if needed.
You don't have to follow exactly what the recipe ask you to^^

Ready dough is just nice and soft to knead, not wet/sticky but not too dry/hard.

Dust your bench with flour.
Round them into a ball, DO NOT OVER KNDEAD.

Then,  the push down/flatten the dough a bit, dust some flour on the dough and its ready for rolling.

Roll them into around 3cm of thickness approximately.
Cut the dough using a scone cutter, always get ready a bowl of plain flour and
 immerse the cutter into flour so that it won't stick and for easy cutting.

Make sure they are round and pretty!
You can use the remaining dough and repeat again for more scones.
BUT, REMEMBER ONLY RE-KNEAD THE DOUGH FOR MAXIMUM 3 TIMES as dough get tighten
after many rounds of kneading, it wont rise much in the oven and you will get very tight texture.

I am using cupcake mould for the baking, spray a bit just in case it sticks.
If you are using silicon mould, then don't bother about the oil spraying.

Cute????

Fresh out from the oven, soft texture just almost like bread!

It is best to go with butter and jam, but somehow people love cream and some sugar too!
What about honey???

Stir Fry Veggies and Prawn Cutlets with Oyster and Garlic Sauce

Still, on diet. Gonna have veggies but want to get some meat as well.
Simple mix vegetables and seafood, you can choose you favourite vegetables and seafood.
Well, I am having prawns again ^^

Snow peas, Mushroom, carrot and mini corn.
I got prawn cutlets from Woolworth.

Wash and season them with some salt and pepper, add some soy sauce.
This is what I do whenever I got meat in my dish.
Just simply some salt and pepper would add the taste.

I stir fry the veggies first, as carrot need longer cooking time.
Put in some oyster sauce and water (almost cover the veggies), wait until it boils.

Then add in the prawns, stir to combines.
I simmer it with a pot cover for around 5 minutes, Just to reduce the sauce a bit and cook the dish to more tender state.
Put in some seasonings like salt/pepper/sugar just to add some taste.
LASTLY,  I thicken the sauce with some corn flour water.
Then, dinner is ready!