It's A Wrap!

It's raining orders! 

I was pretty much tied down for the entire Christmas/New Year stretch but I'm not complaining one bit!

Right on the heels of the largest order ever, was another for 40 cream puffs for a dear old friend. The great thing about making cream puffs is that they're pretty relatively fuss free. Get the consistency of the batter right and pipe those mounds away. Bang them into the oven and you're pretty much guaranteed little puff balls!

20 each of mango and durian cream puffs were ready in no time!

Next up was 50 Pistachio Macarons for a neighbor! Macarons have always caused heart palpitations here and 50 was really really huge an order...I was pretty sure I'd be stuck in the kitchen the entire day, throwing failed macarons in the bin and tearing my hair out at that. Luckily, it worked like clockwork this time round and all 100 shells were placed on the cooling rack as I stood watch over them like a dad whose kids have just won...something. All that was left was filling them up the day before and popping them into the fridge for a day of maturation before collection!

My sister also sneaked in a request for 30 cream puffs and I just couldn't say no! After completing the wedding order, boy, I was up for anything! 20 durian cream puffs (which seems to be a pretty hot seller!) and 10 hazelnut chocolate ones were filled and packed up just in time for her to pick them up!

With that, the kitchen/oven closes for 2013! I never thought when I began this that I'd have pretty much any orders. But friends and family have really surprised me with their support and willingness to give my creations a try..and that meant the world to me!

A whole new year of bakes and hopefully new creations and opportunities awaits! 

First Wedding Order!

When I was asked to make desserts for a wedding reception, I was pretty hesitant as it would probably be the biggest order I've ever taken. And weddings are no pushovers - everything has to be prim and proper as for some reason, people always seem to remember the stuff that goes wrong at a wedding!

Anyway, I took the order as it seemed pretty manageable and it would be quite an experience to cater for an event like this. By a stroke of good fortune, I didn't even have to take days off work as I - thankfully - already had a week off for the Christmas and New Year holidays! After weeks of giving samples of the stuff that were ordered and waiting for comments and tweaking the recipes accordingly, the time had come to get down to it for real.

D-day was Christmas itself, and I had the television tuned to Home Alone to keep me company as I set about working on the Red Velvet cupcakes...it was good that I had a tried and tested recipe so I was done quite quickly. The frosting went on only the night before the reception as I didn't want to risk the cream cheese frosting tasting stale in the guests' mouths!

My Mum had so graciously volunteered to make 40 Almond London cookies so that was a huge load off my mind and hands! Thanks a million Mum!! She was already done with those by Christmas morning..all that was left was to dip them in chocolate and finish them off!

Boxing Day was set aside for the macarons and I had my fingers and toes crossed for a good consistent batch. As luck would have it, the weather turned for the worst a couple of hours in, and the humidity began to skyrocket, resulting in macarons that just wouldn't dry. Somehow, they turned out alright after extended periods of drying and the unfilled shells went into a jar for filling and maturation on the next day!

The eve was a hectic day indeed. With a failed Lapis (which is really no fun at all), the whole schedule I had planned went straight out of the window. I was just thankful that I had a good looking Lapis cake and 30 Choux buns at the end of the day! But I wasn't done yet...up ahead lay the filling of 20 Lemon macarons and another 20 Pistachio ones...not to mention frosting the cupcakes!! To cut things short, I hit the pillow at 1 in the morning...

On the day itself, all that was left to do was fill the Choux buns with custard and complete the packing for everything else and I was all but done at long last!

What an experience!

All Hail The Queen!

So here I sit, on Christmas Eve, with a stuffed nose and burning eyes, wondering where I should pick up from!

Such a long time since the last post and so many bakes in between...I don't know where to start.

Against my better judgement (and a growing hole in my wallet) I've been experimenting with macarons...there're just so many factors that can contribute to having either a failed batch or a successful one that it seems necessary to offer a prayer to the Macaron Gods before starting on them! What a fuss pot.

Italian macarons aren't the favourite of the purists but I don't care...it works for me and is a lot more practical for the home baker with limited resources. Leaving the French macaron batter lying around waiting for its turn in the oven isn't exactly advisable...

It was a crazy long journey from macaron Frisbees to decent looking ones worth taking pictures of, but there's still loads of room for improvement. Would be awesome to take some classes if only I had the time now!

Ganache fillings seem the best for macarons that need longer storage as cream based or worse still - custard ones - will completely soak through them and leave you with a soggy, sorry batch of macarons after a couple of hours of maturing in the fridge.

Three flavours have passed the cut after being in production for some time. Lemon seems to go awesomely well with a creamy white chocolate ganache with the sour, tartness of the lemon cutting through the cloyingly sweet white chocolate.

Pistachio's oily nature lends itself well to being combined with white chocolate after being made into a paste. It doesn't overwhelm the milkiness of the chocolate but complements it with its nutty aroma. There's a reason why the pistachio macaron is a staple in every bakery these days!

And lastly, the dark chocolate macaron. Sweetness, and bitterness all in the same bite! Nothing makes you feel less guilty about chomping down on a calorie laden macaron than a dark chocolate one. The bitterness from the chocolate immediately mutes the extreme sweetness of the macaron shell and leaves the palate free for another bite!