Yule Log!

To me, Christmas means Santa, snow and log cakes! Always have been, always will be. Even though 1) There's no Santa 2) It'll never snow here in Singapore. It's not an occasion that I celebrate but everyone just seems to get in the highly infectious mood don't they? 

The Yule log is a pretty uncomplicated thing when you're making it yet its held in such high regard especially when Christmas swings round. As a kid, I used to watch my mum make these on Christmas eve and it just added to the magic of Christmas!

So to say I was excited when I received my first order for one would be somewhat an understatement! I was extremely glad when my friend decided to get one made by me instead of buying one from the shops which - quite frankly - are grossly overpriced.

Having seen my mum make the Yule log countless times helped alot and I was able to start and finish it just the day before collection so that everything was as fresh as possible! My friend left the flavour up to me and although I'd prefer it if my orders were more defined, I decided to experiment a little and brought over the hazelnut chocolate mousse taste that I really liked, to the creamy log cake. 

Thankfully, it turned out well and now I've got another order via a recommendation from my friend! Woohoo!

Three For The Price Of One!

Gosh it has been a long time since the last post ain't it?! It's not that I've been sitting on my hands with regards to baking but I just haven't had the time to sit down and write a post!

Right, let me get down to it. First up, my dad's birthday cake! I think of all the cakes I've made, this took the cake(hehe) for having the most alluring yet the simplest decoration. Me and my mum were done with it in almost no time at all! The chocolate fingers were a last minute addition after the sides didn't really turn out smooth like I wanted but in the end, it was all good!

My dad always liked his cakes semi-sweet and he had taken a liking for the mango mousse cakes I made previously - he'd always ask if he could have another piece! So me and my mum decided that for his birthday, mango mousse cake it shall be.

There wasn't too many problems with the cake thankfully and we were really happy with how it turned out in the end!

Next up is a cake for a relative's birthday that almost didn't even make it into the oven! At first, I decided to cancel the order as it seemed that it was just too large for me to comfortably say I'd be able to make it. I'm of the opinion that if you're making a cake for someone, you have to be absolutely sure that you'll be able to make it and make it well. Especially in this case where it would be a first for me in making a cake of this size!

The order was a cake that had to feed about 50 people at a birthday party and it had to be a chocolate one. My mum suggested that I do the Nutella mousse cake that she thought was absolutely delicious, so I got down to it over the past weekend.

It wasn't exactly a cake that went the way I expected it to and there were quite scary hiccups and bumps along the way...however, it did turn out pretty alright in the end so it was a huge relief really!

My sister came over to help with the letterings and my mum set her creative mind to work on the decorations that would stand out best against the rich chocolate mousse base. It was quite a hassle getting nice looking strawberries and gooseberries especially...the quality of berries that end up on supermarkets shelves here can be quite atrocious honestly.

After a couple of minutes, the hefty cake was finally finished and picked up for the party! Always great to see smiles on people's faces when they're happy with what you've put together for them!

Next up's my own birthday cake! Of course, I had no hand in it - it was all my mum and I have to say I was completely blown away by the cake and the idea itself! I had seen a dome shaped cake before but honestly I thought it was terribly complicated. It was - but my mum managed it all by herself! Guess you can't take pure skill away from anyone!

Overdue Treats!

The oven in the kitchen has certainly been working hard these past couple of weeks...but it seems that I haven't! It feels like I've been spread too thin across all the stuff I have/want to do to recently that I just couldn't find the time to get cracking at posting here!

First up, red velvet cupcakes! It feels like eons ago that I set my heart on making these maroon beauties but getting the right recipe and thinking of the decorations seemed like too much work every time I wanted to get down to it, and I just kept delaying it over and over.

Eventually, I kind of stumbled upon a suitable looking recipe and decided that the wait had to end! To be honest, I had reservations about using such large amounts of food colouring, especially red food colouring, in a single recipe. This recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of the stuff which while I think is still pretty excessive, is one of the lesser amounts I've seen in a recipe. If you want to know more about the controversy surrounding red food colouring - Google it! Pretty yucky stuff.

Anyway, thankfully the cupcakes turned out alright - albeit being a little too small. Frosting them was fun though also extremely challenging given the terribly warm weather of late. The buttercream was almost impossible to pipe into patterns as it was just melting too fast once removed from the refrigerator. In the end, I decided that desperate times called for desperate measures and frosted the cupcakes in an air-conditioned room!

It wasn't an energy-bill-friendly solution but it did the trick! At least now me and my mum could pipe patterns without getting frustrated and covered up to our elbows in sticky rapidly melting buttercream.

I decided to take things slow and did the frosting over a couple of days, trying out various patterns and experimenting with the tons of frosting nozzles that my mum had accrued over the years. There were plenty of videos on YouTube as well to throw up interesting ideas and patterns.

The rose (the yellow one..my mum did the pink ones!) was the most challenging one but I managed one and needless to say, was extremely proud of it! Heh!

Next up was my sister's birthday and I knew she would want something chocolate-y but the obvious choices like a chocolate ganache cake or a chocolate mousse cake seemed kinda boring and I also wanted to do something new since I was looking for a new recipe to add to my stable!

                                                          ---------------------

Hazelnuts are like Nature's complement to chocolates and I can't agree more. After some deliberation, I settled on a Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse cake, the only problem being - I had no recipe for it!

I had my basic mousse recipe but modifying it for this cake was quite tricky as I had to get the right consistency for the chocolate hazelnut mix. Too runny and it might not set at all! Too thick and I might end up with a clumpy mousse. 

I decided that using Nutella would be the best choice for giving the chocolate hazelnut flavour I was after, so it was a bit hit or miss with my dilution of about 270 grams of the gorgeous dark brown stuff with milk. In the end the mousse turned out slightly runny and this affected the overall smoothness of the cake. 

It also kept seeping under the half slice of cake and messed up the alternate arrangement of cake-mousse-cake-mousse that I wanted. Almost ended up with having not enough mousse to cover the top of the cake! That was a heart stopping moment for me I must admit...thankfully there weren't too many imperfections, although it wasn't the prettiest looking cake.

Luckily, the taste was the saving grace of the cake...and thankfully my sister loved the taste! That was encouraging enough for me to consign this recipe back to the drawing board for further tweaking!

The Hairy Baker Rises

It's great to be baking again! After almost 2 months out in the cold, I couldn't wait to get stuck in the thick of things again - and what better way to get back into the groove than by finally trying out the recipe I had for the Molten Chocolate Lava Cake!

I had this recipe on hand for something like 6 months now and I was really really really itching to suss it out for myself. This cake requires no other accompaniment or decorations - just pop the middle and watch the chocolate ooze out. That's all you need really!

I got the ramekins in preparation for this decadent dessert during the first week of the holidays but had to put  the plans I had for them off due to my trip and other stuff which came up in between. But I decided that the wait was long enough and today was going to be D-day.

Thankfully I made 3 of these chocolate wonders as only the first one unmoulded properly. The other 2 got stuck to the ramekins quite badly and were reduced to a gooey though edible mess. One plop of Anderson's Vanilla Bean ice cream - which melted a little too fast - rounded things off pretty well I must say!

Housekeeping!

I should probably clear the cobwebs here! It's been weeks since my last post and 2 weeks since I last saw home! I miss baking quite terribly but the cakes sold here in Korea are nothing short of gorgeous...the designs are pretty unique and I couldn't help but sneak a couple of photos! Even chiffon cakes are decorated so nicely..would be nice to learn some cake making here to be honest!

Pizza Heaven!

If I could have pizza everyday of the year, I'll be the happiest guy alive! Such is my love for the Italian creation that I consider it a shame that I don't have a recipe for good ol' homemade pizza. Don't get me wrong - the authentic Italian ones I managed to gobble down in Italy many years ago still lives in the memory of my taste buds as the best pizzas ever. But unfortunately, the pizzas available here where I live are sad shadows of their Italian cousins; oily, overpriced and ever shrinking.

My mum did make pizzas in the past but somehow the dough always seemed to have a pungent yeast odour even after baking and the smell really put me off both eating and attempting homemade pizzas. But my mum did chance upon a recipe that didn't seem too heavy on the yeast and was pretty different from the previous recipes we attempted.

So we gave it a go today!

I was over the moon when the pizzas came out of the oven perfectly done and without that horrid yeast odour! We went for two flavours - tuna and a sort of spicy curry chicken - on a thin crust pizza that was crispy but not too dry and hard. The best thing about pizzas is their versatility..the number of different topping combinations at your local pizzeria should give you an idea of what I mean! It just never gets stale when it comes to pizza toppings.

Almost ran out of cheese for the last one! Guess I got a little too cheese happy when I was loading on the toppings and the cheese oh glorious cheese for the first two pizzas...can you blame me seriously?! Give the recipe a try..I promise you won't regret it. Parmesan and mozzarella heaven beckons!

Summertime Muffins

I had this recipe on my mind ever since I saw it on a blog a couple of weeks back and I knew I just had to try it someday - the sooner the better! However, as it turned out, I would only get to try this out about 2 days ago what with all the other things I had to strike off my to-do list first.

Actually the pictures that came along with the blog post for this recipe drew me in and made me go "I have to try this!". I love the lemon and blueberry combination anywhere and I think lemons go well with almost all berries anyway!

The recipe was by Ms Garten, whose TV shows I'm a big fan of, so that meant I was even more eager to try this one out! I wasn't too sure about using fresh blueberries though as the kind of blueberries I get here tend to be more tart and sour than sweet, and the last thing I wanted were sour muffins!

So out went the fresh berries and in came the dried ones which apparently were coated in sugar or something as they were terribly sweet...more evidence that the natural stuff is always better for you! What I loved about this recipe was the ease of it - mix dry into wet ingredients, combine both and you're pretty much done. Less mess and less clean-up equals happier me.

One problem I had - that was entirely my fault - was that the muffins had quite large tunnels and empty pockets inside. I think this was due to over-mixing the batter when I was adding the flour to the wet ingredients and the amount of gluten formed probably caused this "tunneling" effect.

Other than that, I think this is a great recipe that should be in your arsenal. The muffins were light, not too sweet and had that summer time feeling that is quite simply irresistible!

Happy Birthday!

It's a wonderful feeling you get when someone asks you to bake a birthday cake for their friends or for someone in their family. To me, that's a great deal of trust that someone places into your hands. Trust that you will give them a cake worthy of a birthday party, and trust that you won't disappoint them.

Birthday cakes are pretty stressful to make. That's a fact - well at least to me it is! I think it's because without the cake, there can be no real celebration. I can't imagine having a birthday party with no cake to blow the candles out from or having a cake that looks nothing like a birthday cake...it just doesn't make any sense!

So when my friend asked me for one I was initially hesitant to accept but I decided to go ahead with it since it was for a dear old friend's 21st birthday! You'll never know if you don't try I guess!

Chocolate overload was requested and chocolate overload it was! Basically, it was a chocolate cake with 2 layers of chocolate whipped cream sandwiched in between and topped off with a chocolate ganache covering the top and sides of the cake. No make that smothering instead of covering.

There were hitches aplenty along the way but luckily I had loads of help from my mum and sis! Thankfully it came out alright in the end!

For Mum

Mother's day is an occasion celebrated like no other isn't it? The outpouring of love and affection for the one person that we hold so dear to our hearts is almost overwhelming. But mothers deserve that I think! Over at my house, its almost tradition to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day, along with birthdays, with a cake so I had been planning one for quite some time now.

It helped that I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted so I decided to go for something that I've never tried before instead of sticking with the safe choices. After searching online for ideas and recipes, I settled on a Gula Melaka Mousse Cake, which was sort of a new experience for me as it was the first time I was using palm sugar though I already was an ardent fan of its smoky rich flavour.

If it didn't turn out...well I would be disappointed but then again, you have to try at least once! This was going to be the first Mother's Day that my sister wouldn't be around to make the cake with me since she moved out, so I was kinda worried about that to be honest!

I meant the cake as a surprise though my mum was expecting one(since its tradition!) but in the end I had to tell her because I was kinda afraid it wouldn't turn out well. Darn it...in the end, she helped me from beginning to the end! So much for surprises eh? But I was extremely grateful for her help as I would have gotten stuck couple of times without her guidance!

Thankfully, I was able to find a recipe online that seemed pretty reliable and had quite a few positive comments so I knew I could trust it to turn out well. The danger that comes with using online recipes is that sometimes the cake/cookie/whatever just doesn't turn out like the glorious looking picture on the page.

But this one was pretty good - simple, very few ingredients needed and easy to replicate. Try it!

Everything I know thus far about baking and cooking, I learnt from my mum and I owe it all to her. I think perhaps she passed on her intense passion for the culinary arts when she was carrying me in her belly! So this one is for you mum, Happy Mother's Day!

Back In The Groove - Pineapple Cheesecake!

It's quite clear to me now that baking makes me happy. Unfortunately, there just isn't time during the semester to go anywhere near the oven with peace of mind. So I decided that now since the semester is done and dusted, I should get back to baking to put the semester's disappointments well and truly behind me.

Moving on...

My mom had her eye on this recipe for a Pineapple Cheesecake for quite sometime and I was just happy to get stuck in! Pineapples are a personal favourite of mine but they don't get turned into cheesecakes or mousses as often as they should due to their pretty high acidity which doesn't let the gelatin set. And no one wants a runny cheesecake or mousse now do they?

This recipe called for canned pineapples which are great but don't really come close to the taste of the real McCoy if you ask me. Cream cheese made way for the ridiculously creamy Mascarpone cheese which just makes everything a thousand times more sinful!

The recipe was pretty complicated...alot of mixing Mixture A into Mixture B and cool in ice water baths or heat over simmering water..stuff like that. But then again, I felt that the creamy, heavenly end product was well worth all the extra effort here and there. And I stumbled on an excellently rich and delectable custard recipe along the way so all in all, a good day at the office I must say.

One regret I had was adding the rum flavouring...just 1 tablespoon of that stuff which didn't seem like much at first, but it made the cheese mixture taste a little like cough medication. Argh! But I think adding a tablespoon of rum instead of rum flavouring would have done the trick. After all, pineapples and rum goes pretty well together!

A Match Made In Heaven!

It's been some time since I last went anywhere near an oven and honestly I was itching to get back in business. But finding time once the semester starts can be pretty hard with tests, presentations and reports gobbling up much of my time.

Nevertheless, I decided that I was going to make something whether or not I had the time! Things fell in place nicely enough during the recess week that I could think about making something yesterday so I grabbed the opportunity with both hands!

I've been dying to try an orange-ginger based recipe after my friend put the idea in my head some time back. Ginger is one of those amazing spices that combines well with both sweet and savory dishes/desserts with its warm and gentle, "not-in-your-face" spiciness that I find kinda soothing. Ginger Snaps were my favourite when I was a kid and it still tops my list of favourite cookies.

So I decided to make an Orange Ginger Cheesecake! Though, I have to admit I wasn't exactly sure about where to bring the ginger element into the cake. Should it be in the cream cheese mixture or the base? I thought the base would be a safer bet so I substituted only half of the biscuits used for the base with ginger ones - I didn't want the spiciness of the ginger to overpower the zesty zing of the orange!

Thankfully, it went well and the cake was an instant hit! I was just glad that the combination worked since its not exactly one that is commonplace in cafes and such.

Woohoo! (Maybe I should have taken better pictures though...)