In Love With Baking

Chocolate Strawberry Tart

2011-01-18T09:10:00.002-06:00

Been fascinated with tart shells these days - pate Sucre or sweet pastry crust... yum!

Baking things whose batter require refrigeration has been a challenge for me in Jakarta. The hot and humid weather makes it really challenging to keep the dough chilled while working on it. Thank goodness for air conditioning that helps the process. :) I still find myself going back and forth to the fridge to re-chill the dough during my rolling process. This is part of my reason for my fear of attempting to make puff pastry dough :p

Since I was in the baking mood and had quite a bit of time, I decided that one fine afternoon to make chocolate strawberry tart. I used the recipe from my recently purchased book, the art and soul of baking, and I really like the hint of vanilla in the crust.

6 1/4oz all purpose flour

1 3/4oz granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

4oz cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

2 large egg yolks

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1-3 tsp cold water

Using a food processor, put the flour, sugar, and salt into the bowl and pulse several times to combine. Add the cut butter and pulse again 6-8 times until the butter becomes pea-sized crumbles. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks and the vanilla and stir to combine. Slowly drizzle in the butter mixture while pulsing the food processor until the dough forms small clumps. Test the dough by pressing a handful of the dough - they should stick together. If the crumble and fall apart, add 1 tsp of water and pulse again. Repeat if necessary.

Turn the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to bring the dough together. Shape the dough into a disc and plastic wrap it before storing in the fridge.

Now I use a regular 1:1 ratio for the chocolate ganache and lined the tarts with my homemade strawberry jam before pouring in the ganache. :)

Itadakimas! (so the Japanese say)

Green Tea Dacquoise

2010-12-01T08:47:00.001-06:00

Hello again! I've started this post in December but i've only been able to write up today :p I'm looonnggg overdue on this one. Lately I've been on the baking mood - making cakes, cookies, and verrines - and it has been making me more cheerful and energetic.

These little green tea delights are quite adorable and taste real yummy to those green tea fans. The taste of the green tea is really strong and this little cookies are not too sweet as well. The recipe that I used for these are taken from Okashi, a baking book that I bought in Singapore last year. This book has a lot of asian inspired western desserts and I just love reading the book. This will be the first time I bake anything out of this book though. :p If you talk to my husband, you'll soon discover that I loooovvee reading baking books but I don't really use the recipes in the books to bake my cakes. I usually use my own version of mix and match.

Here's the recipe:

180g ground almonds
80g icing sugar
10g green tea powder
40g superfine sugar
2g eggwhite powder (i didn't use this)
200g egg whites

Preheat oven to 180C and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the almonds, icing sugar, and green tea powder and set aside. Make a meringue using the superfine sugar and egg whites until it's glossy and reaches stiff peaks. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients into the batter. Use round piping tip to pipe out small discs. Dust with icing sugar and then bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the dacquoise rises up and the surface becomes dry.

For the green tea cream,

100g unsalted butter
35g egg whites
35g icing sugar
5g green tea powder

Make meringue out of the icing sugar and egg whites until glossy and reaches stiff peaks. Beat butter in another bowl until softened and smooth. Add the meringue to the butter and mix until well incorporated. Add the green tea powder to the buttercream and mix well.

I also loooveee the green tea buttercream. It's really smooth and the green tea flavor is really strong as well. I chill these little cookies in the fridge for a day before serving for better flavors.

Oh! One more thing... do you remember two bites? Well, I've just recently started two bites here in Jakarta. I'm slowly starting to take in cake orders as well as mini desserts for dessert tables and small parties. It's still a home based business among friends but I'm glad that now I can start channelling all these baked goods that I'll be producing in my kitchen. :) It's always a joy to have others share the taste of the cakes and cookies and desserts that I make. I get that warm fuzzy feelings and I love it!

Okay... back to work now ^_^

White Butter Cupcake with Lemon Mascarpone Cream

2010-12-01T08:21:00.004-06:00

I've been missing for a long time from this blog and I'm sorry for it. I wish I had more time to write and upload pictures and recipes to this site. It's true that the internet connection in Jakarta is a LOT slower than in the States, but that is not enough reason for abandonment. :p

Anyways, I just got this pretty cucpcake tower as a souvenier from a 50th birthday party and I love it? It's really quite a romantic and elegant design. Because of this cupcake tower, I had to make cupcakes just to take pictures of it. And since my sur la table's baking book has been waiting for me to give it a try, I made these white butter cupcakes with lemon mascarpone frosting. I made this cake into a little "diet" version with lite sour cream instead.

White Butter Cupcakes:
6oz unsalted butter, softened
5 1/4oz sugar
4 egg whites (approx. 140g)
1 tbs pure vanilla extract
7oz sifted cake flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3oz sour cream (or light sour cream)

Preheat the oven to 350F and line the cupcake pans with liners.

Cream the butter and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat the egg whites and vanilla extract lightly to blend and then add to the butter mixture a little at a time. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Add the dry ingredients and the sour cream to the butter mixture alternately in addition.

Fill each cupcake hollow with the batter about 3/4 full and then bake for 15-20 minutes until firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted to the center comes out clean.

Lemon Mascarpone Frosting:

10oz heavy cream
1 1/2oz sugar

16oz mascarpone, at room temperature
1 1/2 tbs lemon juice

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and whip until light and fluffy :) As easy as that!

I used my tulip cupcake liners this time :) I think the cupcakes turned out to be rather pretty. I send these away to my friends and I heard that they enjoyed it quite well :)

Sur la table's brownies

2010-11-26T07:14:00.004-06:00

I've been eyeing the sur la table's baking book, titled the art and soul of baking, for a while and it's finally here. Many thanks to Vicky for shipping it all the way from US to Indonesia :) So far I've been enjoying the book very much and I find it very interesting because the book is not simply a collection of recipes but there's a lot of facts and tips about baking. I think this is a wonderful addition to my collection and it's super helpful for beginners like me.

After browsing the recipes, I decided to try a timeless recipe - brownies. This recipe produces the classic fudgy brownies and it's really simple to make. I have to admit, though this is not my favorite brownies recipe, it is a pretty good one :)

4oz unsalted butter
4oz bittersweet chocolate

2oz unsweetened chocolate

7oz granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 oz all purpose flour

a pinch of salt

4oz chocolate chips (optional)

2oz chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350F and line an 8" square pan with parchment paper extending to the sides.

Bring water to a simmer. Place the butter and chocolates in a heatproof bowl and set it over the simmering water until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove the mixture from the heat and whisk in the sugar. Then whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Add in the vanilla extract and then the flour and salt. Stir until the mixture turns from dull and broken looking to smooth and shiny. Whisk in the chocolate chips and nuts, if using.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes (or until a skewer inserted into the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs). Transfer to a rack and cool completely.

I cut my brownies into 16 squares and shared it with my friends and family :)

Mango Mousse Cups

2010-11-26T04:21:00.002-06:00

I used to study in Singapore about 10 years ago and over there I met some really wonderful friends that I hope to keep for life. Aside from friends, I also met a few "sisters" who lived with me and my family while in Singapore. One of them is Beatrix. When I was in Singapore, she was still in grade school... now, she's a lady! She's attending med school and is doing great!

How is this connected to the mango mousse? Well, Beatrix wanted to make a mango mousse cake for her bf with me. In the course of the cake, we had leftover mousse. :) So to make use of every dollop of mango goodness, I spoon them into little cups, added some diced mango in the middle and made myself some mango mousse cups.

I don't have a fix recipe for this mousse, but here's what I use this time:

250g mango puree

75g granulated sugar (my mango puree was already sweet)

125g heavy cream

4 gelatin sheets

In a small pan, warm the mango puree and the sugar until all the sugar is dissolved. In the mean time, soak the gelatin leaves in cold water to soften it. Add the softened gelatin leaves to the puree and stir till dissolved. Leave the puree mixture to cool, as hot sauce will "destroy" the heavy cream. Whip the heavy cream till soft peak and then fold in the cooled mango puree. Viola!

It's that simple :)

Dice up some mangoes, put in the bottom of the cups and then spoon in the mousse. Top the mousse with some more diced mangoes as decor.

Enjoy!

Cupcakes for Filemon's Prayer Warriors

2010-11-25T19:18:00.004-06:00

It's been two months since I update this blog and I'm truly sorry for my tardiness. Despite my absence on this blog, I haven't been absent in my bakings. I have to admit though, I don't bake as often in Indonesia compared to when I was in Houston. Maybe it's the kitchen, maybe it's the ingredients, maybe it's my change of status (married!) - I can't put a finger on the cause yet. :p

Anyways, sometime in September the Filemon's Morning Prayer Team celebrated their birthday. I think it's their 12th or 13th birthday. For the event, I made some cupcakes for the souvenirs. :) The morning prayer team are a group of people who gather every morning at 5AM to pray. They are very dedicated and have such warm and loving hearts. It's really a joy to be in the midst of them.

These are just banana and chocolate cupcakes that we made at the last minutes. And so we didn't have time to take many pictures. :p But we hope that they enjoyed the small gifts that we make for them as a token of appreciation for the prayers that they have lifted up to date.

Cupcakes for Kebon Klapa's Ground Breaking

2010-09-29T01:40:00.003-05:00

In conjunction with the ground breaking ceremony of the upcoming Kebon Klapa Restaurant at Jl Panjang, I made a few mini cupcakes as souvenirs for the guests who came. The restaurant is going to be a comfy garden restaurant that has both indoor and outdoor seating. The plan is for the restaurant to open for breakfast, lunch, tea time, and dinner with different types of food depending on the time of day.

The main attraction for the restaurant will be its massive garden with beautiful landscape, live music, and of course, AMAZING food. The food theme for the day will be Indonesian food and seafood for the night. They had a food testing session the other day and the Rojak Fish is to die for!! The black pepper crab and the oatmeal tiger prawns are just as amazing! Their homemade tofu is so smooth and silky. *Sllrrppp...*

I am really excited about this restaurant and I will definitely give another update for this restaurant's opening.

I made yellow butter cupcakes for these with vanilla IMBC. Thankfully the cupcakes were able to withstand Jakarta's heat and still taste yummy. Since the restaurant's show stoppers are mostly seafood, I had an Under the Sea theme for the cupcakes. There is, however, one off theme cupcake: the fried chicken cupcake! I added it just because I think it looks cute. :p

So if you are in Jakarta and you feel like ordering some cupcakes, give me a call! :p Or leave a comment...

Cheers!

Sexy Lingerie Cake

2010-09-28T23:30:00.004-05:00

If it weren't for my sister, I wouldn't have made this cake. She was the one who pushed for me to take this cake order. Otherwise, I would never had made a sculpted cake. Thanks, De! :)

I also need to thank my friend Kim who was the first person to tell me to make erotic cakes. :p Although this cake is mild, it's the start of an idea that Kim had told me. Thanks, Kim! :)

Even though I really enjoy baking and making creations in my kitchen, I don't really have the creativity to decorate my cakes. But with the help of Alvin, I managed to pull this one through. Thanks, babe! :)

This cake has a story of its own too. My sister told me that her friend's getting married and they're throwing a bachelorette party for her. They wanted to have a lingerie cake for the event and so I made this cake. However, I made a white velvet cake with vanilla buttercream - not knowing that the bride-to-be is more of a chocolate person.

Once again, because I don't really have confidence in the cake I had made complementary banana cupcakes to accompany the cake. I covered it with fondant and decorated it with hearts. :) After all the cake and banana cupcakes were ready to go, I called my sister to pick them up.

My sister then asked, "Ci, these are chocolate cakes right?"

I said, "No... the cake is vanilla and the cupcakes are bananas"

She said, "Err... but my friend likes chocolate cake"

And there I am without anything chocolatey for the bride-to-be. So I rushed to make these chocolate cupcakes to further complement the cake and the banana cupcakes. LOL

Although I had to work a LOT for this cake, I was glad that the cake actually looked like a lingerie and both cupcakes were well-received. :)

It's a Boy!

2010-08-31T02:09:00.003-05:00

This one is long overdue :p I've had the draft of the blog entry done in August, but it's only now that I have time to finish writing it up and posted it up. For those of you who's been wondering about my being MIA, I apologize for the long absence but I really don't have anything to blame. Working and adjusting as a wife plus the slow Internet connection here in Indo makes it harder for me to update blog often.

Anyways, about the cakes and cupcakes...

This is my first fondant cake order in Indonesia and I am very happy with how it turned out although the process was a little chaotic. The story begins with Quincy asking me if I would be able to make a baby shower cake for her cousin's wife. I was so excited that she asked me and it was such an honor because I don't have much experience with fondant cakes and yet for this special occasion, she gave me a chance to challenge myself. :) Thanks, Quin!

The cake that you see in this blog post is actually the second cake that I made for the event. The first cake "melted" under the hot Jakarta weather before it had a chance to make it to the event. See, I made a blueberry cream cheese cake for this event that requires refrigeration. This is a big NO in Jakarta because of several reasons:

1. Fondant cakes cannot be refrigerated
2. If you think that putting the cake in an air conditioned room will work, it won't - it was my experience with this cake

The cake was supposed to be picked up at 9AM Sunday morning and I discovered the disaster at 9PM Saturday night. So I hurriedly baked another cake and buttercream that doesn't require refrigeration. While waiting for the cake to cool, I rushed to re-make all the fondant decorations. By 2AM, the new cake was done :) Yay!! Praise the Lord!!

The cupcakes were for bonus. I was worried that the buttercream cake won't suit their taste, so I made some cupcakes as complements. Plus, I got addicted making the baby's face :p

I hope that there will be more cake orders coming my way :) And perhaps... I can bake often once more

Cheese Chiffon Cupcakes

2010-07-28T09:47:00.003-05:00

July seems to be a wonderful month for me as evidenced by the number of things I've managed to bake compared to the previous months I've been in Indonesia. :) I hope that going forward, I'll be able to resume the same (or even faster) pace in baking at home here in Indonesia as in Houston. You'll also start to notice a lot of this dotted gray table tops on the pictures of my cakes and breads :p It's my new kitchen counter! Yay!

One of the advantages to baking in Indonesia is the abundance of Kraft Processed Cheddar Cheese that was so difficult to find in Houston. In every grocery store that you go to here in Indonesia, you can be sure to find this Kraft cheese. Almost every child in Indonesia grow up with this cheese and so the taste is very comforting to many people here. I'm no exception. :)

These cupcakes here are made with the same batter as my chiffon cake but baked in cupcake pans lined with paper liners. I filled each pan with batter almost to the top - this is because when baked in cupcake pans, I wasn't able to "hang" the cake up and therefore the cake's dome will flatten as it cools. Once baked and cooled, I frosted the top with a little buttercream and generously topped them with Kraft cheese.

I brought these to the office and it was quite a hit! :)

Birthday Bake Off!

2010-07-28T06:52:00.003-05:00

I've reached the age of 26 this year and I'm happy to say that this is also my first birthday as a wife. :) Not only did I get the awesome gift of a new household, I got some other SUPER AWESOMe gifts from my family: Fizzler's Magimix Food Processor and Bosch's Mixer (the mixer I told you about here). Thank you sooooooo much to my family! You guys are the best!

God has truly been good in my life. He's provided all my needs and given me such loving husband, family, and friends in life. What better way to celebrate than bake? <3

My dad's so gracious to have given me the day off to indulge in baking. :)

In the dessert menu:

- fondant covered chocolate cupcakes
- eclairs
- banana cupcakes
- tiramisu

All of my favorite items are in :)

Itadakimasssss :)

Out of This World Brownies

2010-07-28T06:37:00.002-05:00

Someone told me once that brownies is one of the easiest thing one can bake at home. It doesn't require you to use any special equipment, not even a mixer (handheld or stand). However I've yet to find a brownies recipe that's perfect for my taste. I like my brownies be balanced between cakey and fudgy, I like my brownies to have a deep chocolatey taste that is not overwhelmingly sweet, and I like my brownies to have a thin crunchy crust. Well this one covers all my check points. :) Warning though, this one does need a mixer :p

Out of This World Brownies
adapted from Sherry Yard

3/4 cup + 2 tbs all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
4oz butter, chopped
1oz unsweetened chocolate
7oz bittersweet chocolate
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F and line an 8" square baking pan with aluminium foil sprayed with pan spray (ex. PAM). Sift the flour and salt together. Melt the butter, unsweetened chocolate, and bittersweet chocolate in a microwave safe bowl at 50% power for about 2 minutes or in a heat proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool to about 90F.

In a large bowl, beat together the effs and sugar until fluffy using a mixer. Then, gently beat in the butter and chocolate using a whisk. Last, fold in the flour mixture. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.

This is a recipe that's definitely worth trying :) Enjoy!

Back to Bread

2010-07-28T06:17:00.002-05:00

You probably think that I've posted enough breads already and you're probably bored of all these postings of the same things over and over again. But I just have to share this one with you. :)

It was one of those weekends that we spent at my parent's villa in Puncak (puncak = mountains). My family often goes there to relax and escape the madness of Jakarta. However, this specific weekend was a bit more special than usual. Filemon's youth group were having their annual retreat at the villa. There were 60+ youth members that attended and they're hungry all the time. :p So as soon as I arrived in Puncak, I was asked to bake some snacks for them - more specifically, I was asked to bake some breads for them. Awesome!!!

I made about 70 breads that day with my mom's bosch mixer (which is waaayyy more awesome than my KA when it comes to kneading bread dough). Mom's bosch can take about 1 kg of flour when my KA can only take about 250g of flour at one go. It's amazing! I used the same recipe as before but the breads were much better than any I've ever made at home - maybe it's my happy mood, maybe it's bosch, or maybe it's puncak - I haven't been able to decide which. :p

I made these with all my heart and I hope that all those 60+ youth also ate it with their hearts :p It is such a joy to be able to make breads that peeps enjoyed. It's such an experience for me to make so many breads at one time. It's.... *speechless*

Panna Cotta

2010-07-08T07:36:00.003-05:00

I've heard of panna cotta since a while ago but I didn't really pay attention enough to try experimenting with it in my kitchen. But after reviewing the contents of my fridge, I realize that I have leftover plain youghurt and then I start looking around for desserts that use yoghurt. This panna cotta recipe came to mind - one simple recipe that has been tested and tried by a dear friend that I respect and trusted. If she's used the recipe and published it, it means that this is some good stuff :p

She used this recipe to make verine, but I just want to try the panna cotta portion of the recipe.

Panna Cotta by Bertha

200g heavy cream
45g granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeded
3/4 tsp gelatin powder
1 tbs water
100g plain yoghurt

Combine the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla bean in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Bloom the gelatin in the water and melt it in the microwave for about 10 seconds. Once the cream mixture come to a simmer, add in the melted gelatin. Cool the mixture in an ice bath. Once it reaches room temperature, mix in the yoghurt. Pour into the prepared moulds and chill in the refrigerator until set.

When I serve my panna cotta, I poured some raspberry sauce around and topped it with some mixed berries. Yumm!!

Soft Bread

2010-07-07T00:34:00.005-05:00

I'm very thankful for all the support and encouragement that my friends and family have given me to continue doing what I love to do - baking. :) So before I start blabbering about bread, I wanna say thanks to all of you XOXO

Lately I've been quite obsessed with breads, soft bread specifically. I've learnt that the American/European type breads are very different than Asian breads. In Asia, or Indonesia at the least, soft breads are the way to go. A good bread is one that is ultra soft, very light to the bite, and stay that way even after a few days. Some of the very famous bread stores in here are Bread Life, Bread Talk, Pinot Kids, and Shokupan. Most of these bakeries are Japanese bakeries that use special flours from Japan. :) I guess the Japanese have a way with breads. :p

I don't have flours from Japan and I don't know how to make awesome breads like the Japanese, but I have found a recipe for a bread that I really like. It's real soft and it last for days :) I've posted a recipe for a soft bread before but I've made some minor modifications to make the bread more towards my taste buds :p With this basic bread dough recipes, you can make many different kinds of breads: chocolate bread, cheese bread, milk bread, etc.

So here goes the recipe:

250g high protein flour

70g granulated sugar

6g instant yeast

10g milk powder

2 egg yolks

150ml evaporated milk

50g margarine

A pinch of salt

Additional evaporated milk for brushing the bread's top

In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix together the flour, sugar, yeast, milk powder, and egg yolks. As the dough hook turns, slowly pour in the evaporated milk. Continue kneading until all the ingredients are mixed in well into one sticky dough. Add in the salt and margarine and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 30 minutes for me).

Proof the bread in a bowl brushed with margarine and covered with plastic wrap for 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled (or tripled). Then punch the air out of the dough, divide into portions of about 50g each, and proof for a second time for 15 minutes. When the dough has relaxed, fill the bread with whatever filling that you like, and then proof for another 25 minutes until the dough has doubled in size. Brush the top with evaporated milk and then bake for 15 minutes at 350F.

I hope you enjoy the recipe and experiment with the fillings :) I really can't wait to make more breads when I have the chance.

Being a wife

2010-06-24T06:21:00.002-05:00

It's almost three months now that I'm married. Our adjustment to life in Indonesia wasn't as bad as we had imagined. God has been really generous in pouring His grace to us everyday. Both my husband and I had fallen sick this past month but through the experience, we learn to serve each other better. :) During these three months, we also had lots of fun and we get to know each other a little bit better each day. We love to laze around at home and spend some time with our families.

In order to mark our new married life, we decided to invite a few friends over for dinner at home. It turns out that I really like entertaining guests at home. I really enjoyed cooking and preparing the dinner. :) For the special occassion, I made a few Indonesian dishes and closed it up with my favorite Indonesian cheesecake. <3

Hopefully more of this kind of occassion will come up soon :)

Re-learning how to bake

2010-06-24T05:59:00.004-05:00

I soon discovered that baking in Indonesia is very different than baking in the US... for many reasons:

1. The weather condition is different - mostly temperature and humidity level
2. The ingredients - different types of sugar, flour, butter, heavy cream, and even eggs!
3. The tools - the typical oven in Indonesia is not designed for baking because there's no way of setting the temperature steady throughout the baking process. For this, one would need to purchase the expensive convection oven.

With all these changes, I feel that I need to learn how to bake all over again. :p

These are some of the banana cupcakes that I made about a month ago during my re-learning process. Although it's the same recipe that I had used before, the process and result were quite different. It turns out that there are a lot of different types of bananas in Indonesia: pisang raja, pisang tanduk, pisang mas, pisang ambon, etc. Each of the different banana types have varying texture, smell, and taste. After a few trials with the different banana types, I think I prefer pisang ambon for this cupcake. It's the most similar to the banana in the US :p

That's it for now my friends :) There are more baking experiments to be posted and I promise I will catch up with them ASAP.

Got Cup-bread?

2010-05-01T07:47:00.004-05:00

I'm now a married woman with a wonderful husband. :)

The wedding was beautiful and despite my efforts to not cry, the tears just flowed down on my face (see more pictures taken by my wonderful friends, the wagyu story, at their blog). I'm very thankful to God for allowing all things to happen; to my parents who love me dearly and gave their best for me; to my loving husband who has been very patient and caring towards me; and to my family and friends who made the day so unforgettable.

Alvin and I are now back from our honeymoon to North California and we are settling into our cozy home in Jakarta. Today is actually day 2 of being back home and I celebrated the day with baking! :)

I made these breads in cupcake liners for fun and they turn out rather cute :p I feel welcomed and at ease in my new home as I made these cup-breads. I'm still not familiar with the new kitchen and still stumbling around for my kitchen tools (finding out that I'm missing a few VERY important tools), but I really think that this simple baking exercise is a good start to begin my journey here.

I officially start working on Monday and I'm excited. I've been on vacation for far too long :p I do hope that I will keep on baking and creating/exploring new things in my new kitchen alongside my wonderful husband. :)

Apple Tart

2010-02-11T05:27:00.000-06:00

This has been the longest absence I've ever taken in my blogging history. :p I must admit that I have only started blogging a couple of years ago, but I've been pretty constant in providing new entries and updates on my kitchen experiments.

Since my move to Indonesia, I haven't been baking as much. The kitchen is different (I don't know where things are stored), the oven is different ( we only have gas oven and the temperature can't be set), the ingredients are different (not many options are available - even raspberries are hard to find), and the circumstances are different (I'm no longer in my own place, but I'm at my parent's house).

I know... I know.. those are all excuses. :p Despite the many changes I encountered here, I managed to bake a little bit here and there. I took pictures of some of them but the slow internet connection here makes it challenging to post them up on my blog entry. However, I managed to pull it through and here I am sharing them with you. :)

Apple tart for the family :)

One for each of my family members, with much love!

I really want to thank each one of you who are still faithfully checking up onmy blog updates. You guys really motivate me to continue with my passion despite the despites. I hope to upload more for you all. :)

Cheers!

Living in Jakarta

2009-12-21T21:32:00.002-06:00

I've finally arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia about two weeks ago. Life has been full of activities here and being around my family is such great joy. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to bake very much here. The kitchen seemed very foreign and I have no ideas where things are located. :p

Oh well... I'll take my time to learn my way around my mom's kitchen.

I did make some pie crust this morning for an apple pie and I made some pastry cream for my cream puffs. :) Soo... look out for them soon!

Much love,

A Few "MIA" cakes

2009-12-01T23:32:00.004-06:00

Many of you must think that I've abandoned this blog. It's been too long since I last posted something of my baking or even informed you all that I'll be out for a bit. Well, just to give an update of what had happened to me since the last post...

1. I quit my job at KPMG Houston
2. I've packed all my personal stuff and shipped them back to Jakarta
3. I'm now bunking at Jane's place (she's so kind to let me stay at her place these last few days I have in Houston)
4. I'm still in denial about going back home (Jakarta) for good in the next 5 days

That being said, I'm still baking. :) Although I haven't baked as much as I'd like to because of many reasons (my last month at work had been crazy long hours; all my baking tools have been boxed up and shipped off; I have no place to bake), but I'm thankful of the several chances I was provided to make cakes and other desserts. :)

This is a cake for Brian's birthday.

This is a cake for Donna's wedding meeting.

This is a just-for-fun shortbread cookies with fondant.

I can't promise that I'll be able to bake and post as often as I did in the past, but I'll continue to maintain this blog and post as much as I can. I have no idea what life holds over there in Jakarta, but I know that if I hold on tight to God, He will lead my life. :) I really hope and pray that I'll grow in Christ in Indonesia and be a blessing to others around me.

Thanks for being so encouraging all these while... :)

Lemon Butter Cookies

2009-11-02T06:13:00.005-06:00

Thinking about baking makes me happy. Reading good cookbooks makes me happy too. Actually being able to bake something good makes me ecstatic! :)

That is the case with these little rounds of buttery goodness. Since I love my Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, I went ahead and purchased abother baking book by Dorie called Paris Sweets. This book is different in that there were no photographs of the desserts at all but instead, Dorie shared stories of the different pastry shops where the recipes were born. :)
Since work has been really busy these few weeks, I haven't had a chance to try the more elaborate recipes from the book. So I picked this lemon butter cookies recipe to try last Friday. The recipe is really simple and Dorie's instructions are always very clear. So I followed the directions step by step and I am VERY satisfied with the results. :)

The cookies crumbles pretty easily. They are not too sweet and when you bite into it, it almost felt like they were melting in your mouth. Yumm! I didn't have the book right in front of me now, so I don't have the recipe to share. But if anyone is interested, let me know. :)

PS: the pictures are courtesy of Alvin. :)

Opera Cake

2009-11-01T22:09:00.007-06:00

As mentioned in my previous blog posts, I haven't been experimenting much with new cakes lately. I'm leaving my work soon (in 2 weeks, to be exact) to embark on a new journey in life. But there's just so much to do in this last weeks at work and the hours have been escalating. Auditing really takes a good chuck (if not most) of my time and I'm not sure if I'm liking the reality of this. After a very discouraging conference call yesterday morning, I really wonder if I have been giving work more time and priority than it deserves.

As I look around at work these past few days, I saw people giving a lot of their time, their life, and their heart away to work. Pushing themselves very hard to please others, to get the work done no matter what, to (somehow) get a little bit more sense of job security. And I wonder if it's all worth it. I believe that we all have one life to live and I hope that I'm living mine with no regrets. But sadly, I have to admit that looking back at life, there are things that I wished I didn't do and paths I wished I didn't take. :( But I'm thankful for my God who is able to make all things new and who will bring to completion the good works that He had started in my life. :) With that, I look forward to life in confidence - knowing that God is in control of every thing in my life.

I am in good hands. :)

Okay. Now about the cakes. :)

Alvin's cousin had asked me if I'd be willing to bake some thank you cakes for them to give away to friends. After several discussions on the type of cakes, they decided that they wanted something mocha. :)

But I don't really feel like making a simple regular mocha cakes, so I decided to experiment with Opera cakes. I got my inspiration from Joe Pastry and started to build my own components for my Opera cake. For those of you who are not familiar with Opera cake, it's a french gateau that's made of 4 layers of Joconde separated by coffee buttercream and ganache and topped with a layer of chocolate glaze. Since it's coffee + chocolate, I figured it's close enough to a mocha cake. :) I was supposed to make 8 of these, but since work had been demanding more and more of my time, I was only able to make 4 this week. I've got 4 more to make this coming week. Yay! Practice makes perfect.

Anyways, here are the recipes for the components that I used.

Joconde (adapted from Joe Pastry)

100g egg whites (approximately 3 egg whites)
15g granulated sugar

110g powdered sugar, sifted

110g almond flour

3 eggs, at room temperature

40g all purpose flour

25g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 400F and line a 11" x 15" cake pan with parchment paper.

In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and continue to whip the egg whites until stiff peaks.

In a separate mixing bowl, mix the eggs, powdered sugar, and almond flour using a hand mixer with paddle attachment at medium speed until light and ribonn-y thick (about 3 minutes). Switch to a spatula and mix in the flour, being careful not to overmix the batter. Fold in the meringue followed by the melted butter.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 7 minutes or until the top is light golden brown. Let cool in a cooling rack for a minute and then unmold into a parchment paper. Let cool to room temperature prior to using.

Coffee buttercream (adapted from Alice Medrich)

1/3 cup water

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature

8oz (230g) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2 tbs instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 tsp hot water

Boil the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed pans until it reaches 242F. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until thick and pale yellow. When the syrup reaches the desired temperature, slowly pour the syrup to the egg mixture in a thin stream while continuing to whisk at medium speed. Continue to whisk until the batter reach room temperature. Start add in the butter, one piece at a time, until the buttercream is smooth and silky. Pour in the coffee paste and mix well.

Dark chocolate ganache

75 g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
75 g heavy cream

Bring the heavy cream to boil and then pour over the chocolate. Leave it for a couple of minutes and then stir in a circular motion from the inside out until all the cream and chocolate is well combined. Leave to cool at room temperature until the desired consistency is reached.

Chocolate glaze

150g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

85g unsalted butter
1/2 tbs corn syrup

Combine all ingredients in a heat proof bowl set over simmering water until the butter and chocolate starts to melt. Take if off the heat and stir until all is melted and well combined. If necessary, put the bowl back on the heat but being careful not to burn the chocolate.

Coffee syrup

100g sugar

150g water

2 tsp instant espresso powder

Bring all ingredients together to boil. Let cool before using it on the cake.

Assembly of Opera Cake

Divide the Joconde into 4 equal pieces and if you prefer, you can brush the bottom one one Joconde piece with melted chocolate so that it's easier to cut the cake when it's done. Brush the first layer of Joconde with coffee syrup and then slather a thin layer of coffee buttercream. Place another layer of Joconde on top, brush it with coffee syrup, and then apply a thin layer of ganache. Place the third layer of Joconde on top, brush it with coffee syrup, and put a thin layer of coffee buttercream. Last, place the last layer of coffee syrup soaked Joconde on top, apply a very thin layer of coffee buttercream and pour the chocolate glaze on top. Trim the sides to get a clean view of the layers. :)

I hope that you'll enjoy experimenting with the cake as much as I do! :) Four down, four more to go!

Introducing Two Bites

2009-10-30T09:34:00.004-05:00

October is nearing to an end and if you look at the number of blog posts I have this month, it looked like I haven't been baking much at all. Although it is true that I've been trying to cut back on the amount of time I spent baking, I still baked a fair share of cakes and cookies. But since they're simple cakes (like Chiffon or pound cake or black forest cake) that I've blogged about before, I decided to keep them to myself. :p

During the low period in October, several major events happened to the baking aspect of my life. First is the wedding favors that I made for our Pastor's 25th wedding anniversary:

I made about 200 of these cupcake pops as their edible wedding favors. :) This was a very interesting task for me because of many reasons: (a) we're talking about quite a large quantity, (b) it's for my pastor's 25th anniversary, and (c) it's my first "experience" of what it would be to open up my own place.

I started preparing for the cupcakes pops one week before the anniversary. My work had been demanding a lot of my time then (and now still) and so I had no choice but to bake late at night and pull 2:30AM nights in order to finish the order. The strange thing is that I didn't feel tired a all baking the cakes, making the frosting, crumbling the cake, rolling them into cake balls, shaping them into cupcakes, dipping them into chocolates and wrapping them up in their plastics. :) In fact, I felt very energized. It felt like my endorphin levels are high! By the time I wrapped the last of the cupcake pops (with the help of Alvin), I felt very accomplished. :)

Alvin and I couldn't make it to the party since we had to fly to San Jose for our bridal shower; so I didn't get a chance to gauge people's reaction to the mini delight. I just hope that my little pops were well received and well loved. :p

The second big thing that happened this month is two bites.

For now, two bites is an idea, a concept, and a dream.

The idea is mini bite-size desserts that are irresistible.

The concept is two fold: is a small cozy shop that serves mini desserts that are to be enjoyed with a good cup of tea and an ounce of conversations as well as catering for edible favors for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and more.

The dream is for me to bring the idea and concept together as a reality in my life. :)

I need to be praying about this more seriously. I need to be planning about this more realistically. I need to be practicing more often.

If you have any comments/suggestions/ideas about this, please let me know. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. :)

Pistachio Butter Cookies

2009-10-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

I've recently bought a cordless cookie press from Michael's using my 40% off coupon and I am very excited to put it to use. As soon as I get home from Michael's I searched the internet for Spritz cookies recipes and found plenty to experiment with. I started with a recipe from Epicurious and then branch out to make my own recipe. :) And because the holiday season is coming soon, I made snowflakes!

This one is for a Pistachio Butter Cookies:

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
70g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg yolk
140g all purpose flour
25g finely ground pistachios

Preheat the oven to 325F. In a bowl with an electric mixer cream the butter with the granulated sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Then, mix in the salt, vanilla, and egg yolks until the mixture is smooth. Add the flour and pistachios to the mixture and mix in until it is just combined. Pack the dough into a cookie press fitted with the snow flakes disk and press cookies about 1 inch apart onto cool, ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the cookies to the cooling rack to cool.

I brought these little snowflakes for Alvin's nephew and he likes it a lot! :) It makes me feel very happy when he devours the cookies in seconds and then immediately ask for another one. He hasn't learned how to talk yet but he sure knows how to make his parents (or Alvin and I) knows when he wants something. :p

I am very grateful for Alvin's cousin and her family. Ko Yohan, Ci Lia, Ethan, and Andrew have really brought an extra layer of warmth to our relationship. They make us feel at home and have always served us yummy food after work. :) I'll surely miss them when I move back to Indonesia at the end of this year.

I packed the cookies in goodie bags and brought some to church as well to share with my dear friends who always welcome my homemade goodies. :) I am truly blessed to have so many encouraging friends and "family" around even when I'm far from home.

XOXO

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

2009-10-13T10:33:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time since I updated this blog. I apologize for that. It's not that I haven't been baking, but it's just that the things I've baked lately seemed to be simple stuff that's been posted before. :p I've been making chiffon cakes, bolu kukus, muffins, etc but nothing really special. I'm sorry to say that this post is also another simple cookies recipe but I really want to share this with you.

I think I've found my ultimate recipe for chewy cookies. I still remember that I owe someone a chewy cookie recipe and so here it goes. :)

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tbs light corn syrup
1 egg, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup macadamia, chopped
1 cup white chocolate chip

Preheat the oven at 350F. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.

In a medium bowl with a hand mixer at medium speed, mix the butter, sugar, and corm syrup together until light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat till well blended (about 1-2 minutes). At low speed, mix in the flour mixture just until all the flour in mixed into the batter. Stir in the macadamia and white chocolate chips using a spatula.

Using a small cookie scoop or 2 small spoons, shape the batter into rounds and bake for 5-6 minutes. The cookies should still feel soft when you take it out of the oven but the remaining heat on the cookie sheet will continue to cook the cookies after it’s removed from the oven. Leave the cookie to cool a little in the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring it to the cooling rack to finish the cooling.

This recipe will go in my permanent recipe folder. :) I think you can easily play around with the recipe to make this a chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raising cookies, or M&Ms cookies. :) The cookies stayed moist and chewy for days without the need to microwave it. It's really like the Nestle Tollhouse cookies sold in malls. :p I highly recommend that you guys try this. :)

Recipe aside, I want to also share a little about the going-on's in my life lately.

The reason that I haven't been on a baking craze this month is mostly re-evaluation of my priorities. Now that I'm weeks away from going back to Indonesia for good, I'm considering more seriously how I should best spend my time. Although baking is a good thing to do (as it makes a lot of people smile when I walk in with a batch of fresh baked cookies in my hands), it's also taking time away from other more important things in my life. I didn't realize that I've been allocating most of my free time in the kitchen making goodies that I missed out on spending quality time with God and Alvin and my other friends and families. So I've decided to scale back a little on my baking in order to make time for the important things in life (not that baking is not, but it's just not #1 in my list). I need to remember that relationships need to be cultivated and that relationships are the treasures in life. I don't want to miss out on that. :)

For all my family and friends that I've neglected this past months (or years), I'm truly sorry. I promise to spend more time with you guys (and still bring some warm cookies and brownies or cakes and other desserts). :)

Love you all!

XOXO

i heart u

2009-09-30T08:19:00.001-05:00

I can't believe that it's the last day of September. Nine months of 2009 have gone by really quickly. It scares me sometimes thinking about it. Looking back to the months that have passed, I wonder what I had done that made a difference. With much regret, not much comes through my mind. But remembering what the Apostle Paul had said about forgetting what is behind and pushing onwards towards the goal, I hope that the last 3 months of 2009 will be meaningful for me and others around me.

This is another cake pop that I made last week but haven't had the chance to post about. :) I really liked these little balls because they're just simply adorable. Although it's now September, but these pops are just crying out Valentines! :p I made these for my girlfriends in my small group. And I think they were just as excited about the cake pops as I am.

I think in my previous posts on cake pops or cupcake pops, I haven't had a single shot on how the inside of these pops looked like. Well, here's one! :)

If you're curious about making cake pops or cupcake pops, check out Bakerella's blog. She has lots of wonderful ideas for cake pops and step by step instructions for them.

Tartine's Brownies

2009-09-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Although I've been baking this past weekends, they were all stuff I've baked and posted about before. So I won't bore you with those anymore. But I still have some baking that I did last week, which I haven't shared with you about. One of them is this Tartine Brownies. :)

So I just bought two new cookbooks and one of them is Tartine. It's a collection of recipes of the goodies that they make over at the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, CA. As I read the opening chapters of the book, I grew amazed at how this bakery has grown in size but still able to maintain its authenticity. This bakery was founded by a couple who loves to bake and they insisted on using only fresh, local, and in-season ingredients. This way, they ensure that all their products have awesome taste and a homemade feel. They also make everything they sell on the same day to make sure that everything stays fresh and customers are able to taste the goodies as soon as possible after it came out of the oven. :) I just love how they run the bakery and I'm truly inspired.

I left the book at home and therefore don't have the recipe on hand to share it with you all, but if you're interested let me know and I'll type it in for you. :) This brownies is another long story though. Here goes...

The recipe stated that this brownies is supposed to be fudgy and as such, you cannot use the "thin knife inserted in will come out clean" test. The way to make sure that the brownies are done is if the top has developed a soft crust. It also calls for a 25 minute baking time at 350F. So I followed the instructions carefully - I waited 25 minutes, ensured that a soft crust has developed, and took it out of the oven to cool on a cooling rack. Well, I was planning to bring it to the office the next morning for snacks only to discover that the brownies are way to fudgy! >_< The batter was still like a thick smoothie and there's no way I was able to cut it up into squares. So I left it at home and baked it again at 350F for another 10 minutes as soon as I get home from work. I waited till the next morning to bring to work and discovered that the brownies were still too gooey. *sobs...* Finally, after a third time in the oven for another 15 minutes at 350F the brownies were cut-able. :p

LOL!

Happy Monday!

Cake Pops

2009-09-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

Remember I told you that I was making cake pops while waiting on my tiramisu? Well, here they are! :)

There are so many things that I want to share with you about in this post. be forewarned that this is going to be a long one...

First is the story about this book called One Month to Live that my girlfriends in San Jose are using for their small group. I first heard about this book on KSBJ a while a go when they were having a 30-day challenge during the beginning of 2009. I was curious about the challenge but I didn't join in because I was very scared of changing my life drastically. Basically, this book asks the question on how would you live your live if you only have one month left to live. The authors said that in that circumstances, we will have a clearer perspective of life. We will be able to better align our priorities and make room for things that matter. You see, I'm currently sitting in a very comfortable comfort zone and I'm really scared to venture outside. I was really hesitant to read the book or even take up the challenge.

Then, a few weeks ago I found out that my girlfriends are using this book and they've been thoroughly blessed by it. From their story, I learn that our lives is really just a little dash. It's the little dash between your birthday and your deathday. And it is what you make out of the dash that makes life matter. The author of the book also said that many people really aren't afraid of dying, but they are afraid that during that little dash, they haven't really lived at all.

Some of my girlfriends are writing about their journey. You can read their journal here: Nana, Yanny, and Nahing. I'm sure Vicky, Della, and Ella also have lots of stories to share about their journey in reading this book. If and when you meet them, ask them about their little dash. :) I'm really blessed and encouraged by their testimonies that I've decided that I want to join in the fun. So I'll be reading the book to - hopefully starting next month. :)

The second story is about a news that I heard today about one of my dear friend. It was a really sad news that my heart broke and I am left speechless for a while. In the email that she had sent to us, she described the rough situation that she's in. And I have to say, it really breaks my heart that she has to go through this. But as I continue to read her email, I was amazed by her faith in the Lord. She remained faithful in believing that in everything, God works for the good of those who love Him. She remained strong in her faith knowing the God is on her side. At this I am greatly encouraged. She, in the midst of her sorrow, has managed to lift my spirit up. You're in my prayers, sis!

My God is a good God who knows exactly what I need. God's words assured me that nothing can happen that is not within his care. Even when the world seemed to be spinning like mad and I just don't know what to hold on to, God is my refuge and my stronghold.

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Lastly, I want to share a story about love. Alvin and I went to our second pre-marriage counseling session with Pastor Somi and we were both very blessed by his guidance and counsel. Pastor Somi has been very patient and loving towards us. :) Anyways, the part that I want to share with you all is his advice to us last Monday in waiting for at least a year after our wedding day before having children. He said that we should enjoy each other first and get the hang of being married. :p I totally agree with that comment! As much as I love kids (and I do love them much!), I want to enjoy being married to Alvin. :) I think that it takes a while to get use to living with another person who has different sets of habits that you do. And that one year will definitely help the transition. :p

Okay.. I sincerely believe that this post is extremely long. I am like Nahing now (i.e. writes a lot). :p

God gives, God takes. God's name be ever blessed. (Job 1:21)

Another Tiramisu

2009-09-23T09:00:00.001-05:00

Continuing on another weekend baking madness, I woke up Sunday morning to make the last of 2 chiffon cake orders that's due that morning at church; rushed to church; thoroughly blessed by God; hang out with friends and played with Ethan for a bit; rushed to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for this cake that's due that afternoon. :)

There's something about this month - I seem to be on a mad baking rush every weekend. Not that I mind it at all. In fact, I'm really thrilled when I have a lot of opportunity to bake. It really makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. :p

Anyways, this cake is for Rachel's 17th birthday celebration. At first I didn't know what to make. Her mom simply said that anything is fine with her. Although I am very honored that she would trust me with such an important decision, I'm really confused on what to make. Many ideas, very little time. I basically have 2 and a half hour to finish this cake from start to finish. On my way to the grocery store, with the help of Alvin, I finally decided to make this tiramisu cake.

I haven't made tiramisu in a while and this cake is always a favorite for me. I did stop for a moment to consider the amount of rum that's in this cake, but then I thought - a little bit of rum makes everything taste better. :p As I was waiting for the cake to bake, I prepared the cream. As I was waiting for the cream to cool, I prepared the chocolate decorations. By the time I'm done with the chocolate, the cake has cooled and the cream has cooled. I assembled the cake quickly and then slid it in the fridge for a little cooling and mingling session. :p

I got so caught up in action that I made some cake pops in between those waiting time. :) I'll post them up soon. I have to say, making cake pops is truly addictive. In fact, I now have an urge to make some more. :p

Orange n Cream Cupcakes

2009-09-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Another dessert that I made this weekend was for the Longhorn game against the Texas Tech. So in the spirit of UT, I made orange cupcake filled with pastry cream and frosted with orange Chantilly cream topped with orange jimmies. Yes, the cupcakes are bleeding orange! :) I'm sure all the longhorn fans will like this. :p

It had been one fun-filled weekend with Ci En-En, Nana, and Tata visiting Houston but as soon as I sent them off at the airport, my body started screaming out loud that it's exhausted. We had probably about 4-6 hours of sleep over the span of 3 days. But that night after they left, the UT game was going to play. I cannot miss it and Alvin, especially, cannot miss it. :) We had made arrangements to watch the game together with a few friends at Handy's house and I can't possible come with empty hands. So as soon as I got home from the airport, I made these quick cupcakes. As soon as I'm done with them, Alvin arrived to pick me up. Phew! What a hectic day!

But the business doesn't stop then...

The next day's chiffon cake orders have yet to be made. So when I get home after the game, I made one chiffon cake, slept, and dreamed about making the second one the next morning. :p

Roti Sosis Keju

2009-09-22T09:39:00.002-05:00

This past weekend is not much different than the last 2 weekends in September. I baked a lot :) It started with the cupcake pops, then continuing on to this sausage and cheese bread. My recipe for these only yielded 8 breads and I regretted not doubling the batch because the bread was very good. It's really moist and soft, even after 3 days and without reheating in the microwave. I would really recommend this recipe for you all to try. :)

250 g bread flour
60 g powdered sugar
10 g powdered milk
1 packet instant dry yeast
1/2 tsp dough conditioner
2 egg yolks
100 ml water
50 g butter, at room temperature
1/2 tsp salt
8 sausages
4 slices cheddar cheese

Sift the flour, sugar, milk, yeast, and dough conditioner together in a mixing bowl. Add in the egg yolks and start kneading the dough using a stand mixer (or hand mixer) with a dough hook attachment. While kneading, slowly pour in the water. Continue kneading until the dough starts to pull from the sides of the bowl. Add in the butter and continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 30 minutes for me).

Let the dough proof in a humid and warm place for an hour in a lightly greased bowl covered with plastic wrap. When the dough has doubled in size, gently punch the air out of the dough and divide into 8 equal portions. Shape each portion into a round ball and let rest for about 10-15 minutes. When the dough is well rested, roll it into the shape of a long log. Take 1/2 slice of cheese and 1 sausage and wrap them with the dough. Let proof for another hour.

When they are ready to bake, brush the doughs with milk and bake at 300F for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Cupcake Pops

2009-09-22T09:25:00.004-05:00

Ever since I first visited Bakerella's blog, I've been dying to try making these cupcake pops. But for those of you who know me, I'm a little scared of trying new things. I think it's due to the fear of failure for the most part. But when my bff and "Mami" told me they're coming to town and needed some props for our fun engagement photo shoot, they had suggested that I made these. I thought for a while and finally decided that if I'm going to make these cupcake pops someday, this would be the perfect moment. :)

Well, let me back up on my story a little bit to give you all background of the story. My "Mami" is really En-En and she has so much talent in photography. During this year's Ramadan holiday, her and her partner in crime, Tata, came to visit the US once more. Now, back in 2002, En-En made a promise to visit me in Texas someday. So in staying true to her words, she decides to drop by Houston during her trip. Since the more the merrier, Tata and Nana (my bff) also came to join the fun. En-En and Tata had offered to take engagement (or pre-wedding) pictures for Alvin and I. :) Yay! And Nana had offered to be the styling director for this photo shoot. :) Double Yay!

Well, apparently you need props to make photo shoots more fun and memorable. Since I love to bake, they told me to make some pretty cakes as props for the photo shoot. Nana, being the creative person, suggested that I made these cupcake pops. :) So I braved myself to the challenge and dipped some cakes in chocolate. :p

We had so much fun during the photo session and I just can't wait to see the results. When the photos come, I'll be sure to update you all on them. :)

During the photo session... well, more like during the trip to Austin, where our photo session was going to be, 2 of the 4 cupcake pops that we brought as props committed suicide. -_-" Yes, they either exploded or fell down from the stick. We panicked but was thankful that we still had 2 that survived. However, as we hurried to unload stuff from the car to take the pictures, one of them was squished! LOL! We didn't know what to say but simply laughed our heads off. Don't worry, we still had one survivor for the shoot. :)

I want to shout out special thanks to En-En, Tata, and Nana... they're very dear to Alvin and I. We are very thankful to have such caring, funny, patient, and talented friends as you are. :)

Hugs!!

Raspberry and Vanilla Yogurt Mousse Cake

2009-09-14T15:49:00.004-05:00

This is my second to last weekend baking projects. A special birthday cake for Cess :)

I can't believe that it's been a year since I made her last birthday cake. Lately I'm starting to realize that things are happening twice in Houston. Time really flies and it just caught me by surprise that I've been here in Houston for almost 2 years now. It's been pretty fun though down here. The weather is quite awful but I believe that as long as you have good friends around, any place is a jolly place. :)

As for the cake, it's made of 4 different components: pistachio dacquoise, raspberry mousse, strawberry sponge cake, and vanilla yogurt mousse. All of the recipes are courtesy of Cannelle et Vanille. :) She has this wonderful blog full of gorgeous photos and wonderful recipes! I definitely recommend everyone to check it out. :)

Here's a picture of the cross section of the cake. :) I think the colors are quite complimentary but I wish there's a little of orange or yellow in the cake. Cess' cousin also brought her a birthday cake from Jungle Cafe and it's just very pretty. The colors are so vibrant and the decorations were real pretty. It's really a reminder for me that I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn. :)

One last note before I leave this post -

In reading my daily devotion today, I came across Deuteronomy 6:5 that says "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." This is the same message that Jesus taught in the new testament (Luke 10:27)! It dawned on me that the message of love is preached throughout the bible and not just in the new testament. :) My God is a good God who is abounding in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6). Amen!

Trio of Mini Cupcakes

2009-09-14T14:02:00.006-05:00

Continuing on my weekend baking, I made tons of mini cupcakes! :) A friend from church is having her baby shower on Saturday and I offered to bring some mini cupcakes. She told me that about 40 people will be coming and that I should bring about 40 mini cupcakes. Because I had fallen so in love with my banana cupcakes, I decided to make more of it! Yes, for the 3rd time this weekend I am making the banana/bluenana cupcakes again!

The recipe for the banana cupcakes was so yummy that I decided to play around with it a little more. So from that recipe, I modified it to make raspberry cupcakes and strawberry cupcakes. I think the results was not too bad. :) I feel quite accomplished with my cupcake project. One batch of the cupcakes make about 50 mini cupcakes. So now I have 100 over mini cupcakes at home (I ate a lot of the bluenana mini cupcakes during the process :p) when I only need about 40 for the baby shower. So I brought the remaining cupcakes to Cess' birthday dinner (I'll post the birthday cake I made for her next).

Anyways, back to the baby shower cupcakes. I mixed and matched the flavors on the cupcakes and decided with these three: strawberry with pistachio, bluenana with vanilla, and raspberry with blueberry. :) I think of the three combo, my favorite is still the banana vanilla mini cupcakes. But then again, I have a bias towards bananas. :p

I'm also excited about this simple cupcake design. It's just a little swirl with my big round tip with a little heart-shaped quins on top but it gives the cupcakes a nice touch of fanciness. :p

And my photographer (Alvin) is back on duty this weekend. :) He took all these gorgeous picture of the cupcakes. He's been playing around with manual white balance and I think he's getting better. We still have a lot to learn about this picture taking thingie, but I'm surrendering the task to Alvin. :p

Even after bringing the cupcakes to Cess' birthday dinner, I still have a few leftover cupcakes. As much as I liked them, there's a limit to the amount of cupcakes that I can consume. So I brought the final remainder of the cupcakes to church for the Sunday School children. Last Sunday was my first time being a Sunday School teacher at IFGF Houston and I love it! The children were awesome and fun - it's such a joy to be a part of their growing up. :)

BlueNana Cupcakes - Unfrosted

2009-09-13T21:56:00.003-05:00

Another weekend has come and gone by. :) Although this one wasn't as long as the Labor Day weekend, I did a lot of baking again. I had 3 different cake requests on Saturday plus I wanted to make something for the cell group on Friday.

So it started with the banana cupcakes I made on Friday. I had found this recipe for banana cupcakes from 4Goodness Cake a while ago but I haven't tried it yet. So when I saw that my bananas had gotten ripe, I decided to try it out. And I have to tell you... it's the BEST banana cake I'd ever tried. It's so good that I decided to make these for two of the three cake requests on Saturday.

And just so that I don't make the same thing twice in a row, I decided to add some blueberries to the recipe to make this BlueNana Cupcakes for Mery & Ryan. Mery had asked me to make a pandan chiffon cake and some muffins for her wedding committee meeting. But instead of muffins, I made these unfrosted bluenana cupcakes. :) After all, the line between muffins and unfrosted cupcakes is really thin. :p

Almost Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-09-10T09:40:00.004-05:00

Today is my last day driving to Galveston for work (at least for now) and I wanted to bring something for my team as a little farewell gift. I left work at 7 last night and went to Alvin's cousin's house for dinner and to play with little Ethan. When I finally get home, it was 11:30 and I knew that I don't have the time to make something fancy. Plus, I ran out of sugar and therefore had to make a midnight trip to H-E-B. And we all know, there's no such thing as a short trip to the grocery store for me. :p

When I went back home, I browsed through my cookbooks looking for easy but yummy goodies. I soon realize that the time I take to browse, I could have used it to bake. :p Then I remembered these NM Chocolate Chip Cookies that my coworkers had mentioned about. I take a quick look at the recipe, then at my kitchen counter - check! I have all the ingredients on hand. :)

When I was baking these cookies, I had an echo going in my head: "Aim to under bake the cookies!" Yes, to get those chewy texture on the cookies, it is very important to under bake the cookies. When I took the cookies out of the oven, the middle part of the cookies are quite mushy. As the cookies cool, they take on more structure.

By the time I get done with these cookies, it was almost 2AM. I quickly took out my camera and snap some pictures. :) I brought this to work today and I'm hoping the team enjoyed it.

Strawberry Cupcakes

2009-09-08T22:41:00.004-05:00

Today is Jessica's birthday and I really felt that time flew by very quickly. I felt that it wasn't too long ago when I baked her birthday cake last year and now a year has passed. In that one year I get to see her grow and mature :) She's also become one very talented baker! This year I didn't bake her a birthday cake because she had baked her own. It's a very nice basket weave cake with lots of pretty flowers and butterflies. I wish I can show you pictures of the cake.

Even though I didn't bake a cake for her birthday, I still felt that I needed to bring something to today's hotpot bible study session. So I rushed home from Galveston and baked these strawberry cupcakes within an hour. I didn't have time to think too much about how the cupcakes will turn out or what kinds of frosting/decorations I will use. All I know is that I need to make something that can be done in a short amount of time and taste and look decent. So I settled with strawberry sponge cupcakes with strawberry Chantilly cream and fresh strawberries. :) It's a very simple cupcake but overall, I think I work rather well under pressure. :p

Vanilla Cake with Cream Cheese Mousse and Blueberry Jam

2009-09-08T00:57:00.002-05:00

I promise that this is my last post on my Labor Day baking frenzy. :p This is the cake that I was talking to you about in my previous post - the first cake that I made for Baby William for which I have not enough faith on and therefore decide to reserve it for the home.

There are several reasons for my doubt in this case:

1. I wasn't able to split the cake layer evenly
2. The blueberry jam that I used tasted too sweet for me
3. The chocolate walls that I used for the cake were very similar to the ones I used for my sis' cake

So Alvin suggested that we just cut the cake and eat it ourselves (and of course share it with our "neighbors"). When I bite into the cake, it really wasn't bad at all. The sweetness of the raspberry jam was toned down by the light taste of the vanilla sponge cake, the tangy taste of the cream cheese mousse, and the fresh taste of the strawberry compote. I actually think that this cake tasted more refreshing than the cream mousseline cake. Although Alvin said that both cakes tasted good in their own different ways. :)

As you'll see in the pictures below, the cake is made of several components. It's made of 2 vanilla sponge cake (there's one cake that was split in half), a thin layer of strawberry compote, cream cheese mousse, and blueberry jam. The cake was topped generously with fresh summer fruits. After I'm done with arranging the fruits on top of the cake, I realized that this cake looks like a typical cake in a Chinese bakery (like Sheng-kee). :p My roommate and Alvin also said the same thing. :)

This was also my first time in making cream cheese mousse. Actually, the ideas for this cake came from my discussion with Bertha a few days ago. She told me that cream cheese mousse and blueberry make a good combination. So I decided to give it a try. I have to admit that it is one good combination and I recommend that others try this too.

Cream Cheese Mousse - adapted from Bertha's advice

225 g cream cheese, at room temperature

75 g powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

150 g heavy cream (yes, the measurement is by weight)

In a medium bowl, mix the cream cheese, salt, and sugar until light and fluffy. Then mix in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk the heavy cream until soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, being careful not to over mix the mousse.

Yes, it is that simple to make cream cheese mousse. You can also adjust the sweetness of the mousse by playing around with the amount of sugar in the recipe. :)

I brought this cake over to Alvin's cousin's place and I think the cake was well received over there. :)

Vanilla Cream Mousseline Cake with Fresh Strawberries

2009-09-08T00:51:00.003-05:00

This is also part of my Labor Day baking frenzy :) I made this cake for my dear friend's baby one month old celebration. His name is William Watson Lim and he is such a handsome baby! His little fingers were perfect and he has thick black hair. He was sleeping during most of his full month's celebration but he remained to be the center of attention that day.

This cake is actually the second cake I made for this occasion. I didn't have enough faith in the first cake that I made (I'll post this cake next) and so I went on to make another cake. :p

This cake is made of 2 layers of soft vanilla sponge cakes brushed with orange liquor, filled with vanilla cream mousseline, strawberries and raspberries, and then frosted with chantilly cream. I decorated the cake with more fresh strawberries and white chocolate walls. :) When this cake was done, I still didn't have enough faith in the second cake but I didn't have time to make another one. :( So I just went ahead and brought this one to the table.

This was also my first time making cream mousseline. I've never tasted it before and therefore I don't know how it's suppose to taste. All I know is that it's basically pastry cream mixed with butter. So when I saw Cannelle et Vanille's post with vanilla cream mousseline, I immediately tried it out.

Adapted from Cannelle et Vanille

250 g whole milk

1 vanilla bean --> I used 1 tsp of vanilla extract

3 egg yolks

40 g sugar --> I used 60 g of sugar

25 g cornstarch

125 g butter, cold and cut into small pieces

Place the milk, vanilla and half of the sugar in a medium saucepan and bring to a light boil. Whisk together the egg yolks, half of the sugar and cornstarch in a bowl. When the milk mixture comes to a light boil, temper it into the egg yolk mixture. Whisk to incorporate and then return this to the saucepan. Cook while constantly whisking until the custard thickens. Remove vanilla bean, if using, and transfer the custard to a clean bowl. Whisk to slightly cool the custard down and start adding the cold butter while whisking. This will cool it down and make it shiny and creamier. Place plastic wrap directly on top of the custard to prevent a skin from forming and chill.

I think the cake was quite well accepted by the crowd that day. I felt so relieved and I can finally breathe. :p The cream mousseline was actually really nice. I think I'll experiment with it more in the future.

Also, my dear friend Yenny Kuncoro sent an email a few days ago with a very beautiful note:

Our greatest pride should not be in never failing, but in always rising up again
every time we fall.

I hope that this will encourage you as well as you go about living your lives.

French Brownies

2009-09-07T10:08:00.003-05:00

With an extra day of labor day holiday (courtesy of my company's newly implemented policy of mandatory PTO), I spent all day Friday baking. Yes... all day Friday :) I've posted the green tea cupcakes that I made and now I'm sharing this French brownies with you guys.

When I was reading through my favorite baking book, this brownies recipe really caught my attention because of several reasons:

1. It's French - anything French sounds fancy
2. It has rum - I believe that everything taste better with a little bit of rum
3. It has raisins - I'm a big fan of these small bites of delight!

Since I have the time and the ingredients ready on-hand, it only make sense for me to put the recipe to test. :) And the results was awesome! Once more, Dorie does not disappoint. The brownies were perfectly fudgy and not overwhelmingly sweet. You can taste a hint of rum and the occasional raisin discoveries while munching away is wonderful!

Recipe adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1/3 cup raisins

1 1/2 tbs water

1 1/2 tbs rum

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

12 tbs unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 300F and line an 8" baking pan with greased foil. Sift the flour, salt, and cinnamon together and set aside.

In a small saucepan, boil the raisins and water together until almost all the water has evaporated. Pour in the rum and let it warm for 30 seconds. Remove the saucepan from heat and ignite the rum to let some of the alcohol burn out. Wait for the flames to die out and set aside.

Melt the chocolates in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, being careful not to burn them (try to maintain the chocolate at about 95F-98F). Take it off from the heat and stir in the butter until all is melted.

In another mixing bowl, mix the eggs and sugar until thick and pale (about 2 minutes). Pour in the chocolate mixture and mix until well blended. Using a spatula, fold in the sifted flour mixture followed by the raisins (along with any remaining liquids). Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted in comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Green Tea Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-09-07T03:29:00.005-05:00

So... this weekend is a super long weekend for me. I'll have Friday to Monday off, thanks to Labor Day (and my company's new policy). And what else would I rather do on a Friday off than to spend the whole day in my kitchen baking?! Well, I actually started some baking Thursday night when I get home from work. :p

I played around with chocolate decorations, experimenting with bread making (with the help of a tip from a Hany), made these cute little cupcakes, and many other things that you will see in my next posts. I also experimented with my little cameras after the cupcakes are done. :p

So these little darlings are green tea cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. I'm starting to think that I need to create short names for my baked goods instead of just putting the descriptions as names. Well, anyways...

The cupcakes are actually green tea sponge cake baked in cupcake forms. I usually bake my sponge cakes for 15-20 minutes in 8" pans but I'm thankful that I checked these cupcakes after 7 minutes because they were already done by then. The tops were already browning and when I inserted a skewer, it came out clean. The texture of these cupcakes are light with small, soft crumbs.

The frosting was also quite delish! But it has to be cold, otherwise, the frosting doesn't taste very good. When it's cold, the frosting has a creamy texture and the taste of the white chocolate and cream cheese really complimented together. But when it's warm and melting, it's just not quite as yummy.

Here's the recipe for these mini cupcakes:

For the green tea sponge cakes

5 egg yolks, at room temperature
3 egg whites, at room temperature
60 g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilli powder or vanilla extract
45 g all purpose flour
10 g powdered milk
5 g green tea powder
3 g baking powder
a pinch of salt
40 g butter, melted and cooled

Preheat the oven to 325F and line the mini cupcake pans with liners. Sift the flour, milk, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.

Using a mixer at medium speed, mix the egg yolks, egg whites, sugar, and vanilli together until ribbon-y thick and pale yellow in color (about 5 minutes). Then fold in the sifted dry ingredients into the batter using a spatula, being careful not to over mix the batter. Last, fold in the melted butter.

Fill in each cavity with the batter until abut 3/4 full and bake for 7 minutes, or until the tops are slightly brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. When done, let cool on a rack.

For the white chocolate cream cheese frosting

225 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

225 g cream cheese, at room temperature
175 g white chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together until light (about 2-3 minutes). Mix in the salt and vanilla extract. Then pour in the melted white chocolate into the cream cheese mixture and mix at medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). The frosting should look smooth and satiny.

Use the frosting immediately or if it's too soft, cool it in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes before using it.

It's been super fun playing around with the photographs this time. Alvin is working that day and so I'm left on my own to take pictures of these mini cupcakes. And since I have the time that day for a splurge, I took some time to put backgrounds into the pictures. :) What do you think?

Roti Boy

2009-08-31T20:40:00.003-05:00

Before coming to San Jose, in addition to my sister's request for cakes, I also wanted to make something for my bff, Nana. She first said that she wanted to cocopandan chiffon cake, but after seeing pictures of the cream cheese buns, she changed her mind. :p

So I decided to make her 2 types of bread (just to be fair, since I brought my sis 2 cakes): the cream cheese buns and coffee buns, also known as roti boy among the Indonesian people. I have to admit that ever since I made those cream cheese buns, I've been in the mood for bread baking lately. This is still true despite the fact that my very first cream cheese buns tasted much better than the second and third ones that I made. I have yet to figure out why my dough have a tendency to crust during the proofing stage even though I've coated it lightly with butter. If anyone knows the answer, please... please... save me from my misery.

Anyways, on to the buns. I really liked how these turned out. The round shape and crust was just what I was looking for. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived in San Jose the appearance of the bread was destroyed. I had put them in Ziploc bags and apparently the bread sweat. The buns looked awfully wet and rather unappealing. I couldn't bring myself to even take a picture of the sweaty buns to show you all because it's really unsightly. Nonetheless, I think the taste is not that bad. :p

Once again, I used the same Japanese sweet bun dough recipe as the cream cheese buns but I didn't put any fillings on the bread and piped swirls of the coffee crust on top of the buns.

Here's the recipe for the coffee topping, adapted from Resep Dekap:

100 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature
70 gr powdered sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
15 gr powdered milk
100 gr bread flour
½ tsp vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and airy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until well incorporated. Mix in the milk and flour to the butter mixture using a whisk just until well combined and then add in the vanilla extract. Pipe this topping batter on top of the buns after the second proofing before baking.

One thing I also found out from my dear friend Ella is that the original Roti Boy has butter as a filling. And it is best when eaten warm, because the butter just melts in your mouth. :)

I'll be sure to keep that in mind the next time I made another round of Roti boy.

Peach Mousse Cake with Strawberry Gelee

2009-08-31T20:15:00.004-05:00

This one is the fruity cake that I made for my sister per her request (see her other cake request here). I saw Tartelette's post of strawberry and peach combo and I just fell in love with the idea. I took her recipes for the peach mousse and strawberry topping and made it into this layered cake. :)

The process began with making my mom's vanilla sponge cake, which has a soft texture with moist crumbs. This sponge cake is also not as sweet compared to the typical American sponge cake but I think it's perfect for this cake, because the subtle peach flavor will not overthrown by the cake. I then make the peach mousse followed by the strawberry gelee. For the mousse, I doubled the portion to make enough for an 8" cake. For the gelee, I took Tartelette's strawberry topping recipe and added an extra teaspoon of gelatin and then doubled the recipe.

Again, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a cross section view of the cake. :) I believe that this cake won my sister's vote for as the better cake among the two that I had brought her. :p

Overall, I had a wonderful time in San Jose. Even though the trip was very short, it was very sweet indeed. I get to spend time with my dearest sis, my awesome bff, my heartwarming sisters in Christ, and I was able to be a part of my dear friend's wedding.

Priceless.

"Reddish-Brown" Velvet Cake

2009-08-31T18:10:00.007-05:00

Nahing reminded me that I haven't been making cakes lately and I realized that she's absolutely right! It's just been simple and easy baking this past couple of months - muffins, cookies, and pound cakes. I don't think that I've lost the appetite to make layer cakes but it's more that I haven't had a chance or a reason to make one. Although I have to admit, during my days of eager beaver baking I would bake layered cakes whether or not there's an occasion for it. Thankfully my sister asked me to make cakes for her as a souvenir from Texas when I went for a short visit to San Jose this past weekend. :)

Maria, my sister, had asked for two cakes: a chocolaty one and a fruity one. I kind of have a few ideas on the fruity cake (shown in later post) but I'm quite clueless on the chocolaty one. I don't know if I should make a true chocolate cake that's super rich and dense and moist or a cake with a twist of chocolate. After several days of brainstorming with myself, I finally decided to make Joy of Baking's Red Velvet Cake again with a slight twist. I had tried this recipe before and I loved the results. So this time, I recycled the recipe and added a few changes to it:

1. Instead of making cupcakes, I made one big cake
2. Instead of using buttermilk, I used sour cream

I actually liked how the cake turned out. Surprisingly, even though I omitted the red food coloring, the cake has a reddish hue to it. :) So I'm naming the cake the "reddish-brown" velvet cake. :p

I'm also very happy that I managed to get a good cross-section picture of the cake. I don't usually have the privilege of peeking inside the layers but this time, I made sure I had a thin sharp knife to cut the cake. I'm pretty pleased with how the layers are quite even. :)

I have to say that the hardest part of this cake is in transporting it from Houston to San Jose. The sides of the cake was quite damaged during the trip but luckily, the cake survived!

Cream Cheese Buns

2009-08-24T01:09:00.003-05:00

Alvin and I went on a date last week at Pappa's Steakhouse and I have to say, they have the best steak in Houston! In addition, they also have this awesome sourdough bread that they serve. Oh my! The bread was awesome! The crust was crunchy and the inside was super soft, moist, and feels so good in my mouth. I asked the waiter for the recipe but no luck there. :p

Anyways, after that bread encounter I became interested in bread making. I've made breads before but I haven't really developed this curiosity in breads before. So I came across a recipe for a cream cheese buns from Corner Cafe, which fits my needs (getting rid of 3lbs of cream cheese and making bread) perfectly!

I highly recommend this recipe to all! The bread was very soft and moist. The cream cheese filling and topping was awesome. And the bread taste best when it's just out of the oven. :) This bread got the thumbs up from Nicky and Hanshuo, Ci Lia and Ethan, and Alvin. It's so good that I had to make it again the following day. :p

I had some trouble trying to wrap the dough back after filling in the cream cheese so I had several unsuccessful looking bread (that taste yummy). Even during my second round of cream cheese buns, I didn't manage to get all the filling wrapped up nice and tight. Oh well... it just means that I have to keep on making these until I get the skills down. :p

Streusel Sour Cream Cupcakes

2009-08-24T01:03:00.005-05:00

I had bought a huge 3lbs tub of sour cream at Costco thinking that I'll need it to make all the cheesecakes for the wedding but I didn't use any of it at all. So now I'm stuck with the sour cream (thank God that it has a few months of shelf life) and I need to use it up somehow. In my research for sour cream cakes, I found this recipe from Epicurious of sour cream coffee cakes in cupcake forms! :) And since I just bought some adorable polka dots cupcake liners, I'm sold on the recipes.
This is also my first time in making streusel. I guess I'm entering some uncharted territory for me. :p The recipe didn't specify the amount of streusel to put on the cupcakes and so I played around with it. Some of my cupcakes have a tiny bit of streusel and some are totally covered in it. I decided that I like them with lots of streusel. :)

The texture of this cake is soft and slightly crumbly. The crumbs are surprisingly very moist. I couldn't taste the sour cream while eating this cake but I did feel a little bit of tangy feeling when I bite into it. The streusel was also a delight! It's nice and crumbly and crunchy. The taste is more on the sweet side but the pecans gave it another side of taste. :p

Once more, the pictures are courtesy of Alvin. :) To take these pictures, he had to search for a place in my apartment with white lighting and the only place was the kitchen. So he lifted the coffee table to the kitchen, set the cupcakes up of the pictures, dragged one of my dining chairs, positioned himself well on the chair, and then took the pictures. :p The whole process was really fun to watch.

To end this post, I want to share this verse I received from a friend:

Jeremiah 17:7 - Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.

Chewy Chunky Blondies

2009-08-20T01:09:00.004-05:00

This week I have been driving back and forth to Galveston instead of staying at the hotel there. I really think I like this better because I can be at home baking and spending time with Alvin. :) This one is my Tuesday baking project: blondies.

When I told Alvin that I'm making blondies, he asked "What's blondies?"

So I told him that blondies are blond brownies. :p I think that's the idea, right?

This one is again courtesy of Dorie Greenspan, from my favorite baking book "Baking from my home to yours." I love how the blondies turned out. It was crunchy on the crust but moist and chewy when you bite on it. Just like the name Dorie gave to these. :p

Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (8oz or 2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup almonds, chopped
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 325F and spray with PAM a 9x13 baking pan and line it with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a larger mixing bowl using a mixer at medium speed, cream the butter and both the sugars together until light and airy (for about 3-5 minutes). Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition (for about 1-2 minutes). Mix in the vanilla extract. Switch to a rubber spatula and fold in the flour mixture, being careful not to over fold the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, almonds, and coconut and stir till incorporated in the batter. Pour the batter into the pan and try to smooth the top with the spatula.

Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes or until the top crust is honey brown color and a thin knife inserted in comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before unmolding and cutting them into squares.

I'm bringing some of these to the office for a taste test. Hope it goes well :p

Vanilla Pound Cake

2009-08-18T01:39:00.003-05:00

For many people, pound cake is one of the basics in baking. It's something you make when you just started baking. It's quite different for me though. After about a year of baking, this is my first ever pound cake. :)

I have learnt to trust the recipes from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. Every single recipes that I tried has been a success and her instructions are very clear and easy to follow. So for my first ever pound cake, I followed Dorie's recipe on the Perfect Pound Cake.

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup (8oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature (very important)
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature (very important)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325F. Butter a 9" loaf pan and place it on top of an insulated baking sheet (or 2 regulat baking sheets stacked together). In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes using medium speed). Add the eggs one at a time, beating them well after each additions (1-2 minutes using medium speed). During the process, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure that all the ingredients are being mixed well. Add in the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Fold in the flour mixture into the batter using a spatula, being careful not to over mix the batter.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake in the oven for 70-75 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted right through comes out clean. Check the cake after 45 minutes in the oven to see if the top is browning too fast. If so, cover the cake with a foil tent and continue baking. When baked through, cool the cake on a wire rack for 30 minutes before unmolding it. Slice the cake anyway you want and enjoy!

This pound cake has a very soft and small crumbs. According to Dorie, the taste of the cake depends heavily on the quality of butter used. Therefore always use the best butter you have available. I made sure that I used a grade A butter for this one. :) Dorie also mentions that it is important to have all the ingredients at room temperature to achieve the best results.

I would make this cake again in the future. Perhaps for the base of an ice cream cake? :p

Again, the pictures are taken by Alvin. <3

By the way, I want to share a verse I receive from a friend today:

Ephesians 4:29 - Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Strawberry Ice Cream

2009-08-18T00:48:00.007-05:00

Alvin got me an ice cream maker (an extension to the KA mixer) for my birthday and I am extremely excited about it. It's been about 2-3 weeks in my possession and I finally had the chance to use it last night. The main reason for the delay is the amount of waiting time involved in the process. The ice cream maker has to be stored in the freezer for at least 15 hours prior to use, the batter has to be chilled for at least 8 hours in the refrigerator prior to churning, and the soft serve ice cream has to be kept in the freezer for another 4 hours to harden. Phew! That's a lot of hours!

I finally made it a point to store the ice cream maker in the freezer for a week (while I stayed in Galveston for work) and start the batter process Sunday morning. I had intended to make french vanilla ice cream to start the experience but seeing the leftover strawberries from the mini cheesecake deal, I just can't let them go to waste. So I decided to use them for my ice cream. :)

This recipe is courtesy of KA:

2 1/2 cups half-and-half
8 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups heavy cream

4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups strawberries, chopped

3 tsp sugar

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat the half-and-half until very hot but not boiling, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.

Place egg yolks and 1 cup of sugar in mixer bowl and mix until well blended and slightly thickened. Very gradually, add the half-and-half and mix until blended. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat until mixture is steamy and small bubbles form around the edge, stirring constantly. Transfer the half-and-half mixture to a large bowl and stir in the heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. Cover and chill thoroughly for at least 8 hours.

Add the chilled batter to the ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions. While ice cream is processing, combine the strawberries and 3 tsp sugar. Let stand while ice cream is processing. Add the strawberries to the ice cream maker in the last 2-3 minutes of the freezing time.

These pictures are all taken by Alvin. :) I really think he's getting so much better at this photography thing. He had learnt so much in the 1 month that we own the Canon. I'm very proud of him and very encouraged by his eagerness to learn.

On a random note, we are 221 days away from our wedding! :)

Celebration of Mini Cheesecakes

2009-08-16T17:33:00.009-05:00

It's truly a celebration and a milestone for me. These mini cheesecakes are my wedding gift for Carrie and Jim last night. I really have to thank them for trusting me with such an important mission and for displaying my results in such a beautiful manner. :)

Okay, so last night was Carrie and Jim's wedding and Carrie had asked me months ago if I would make cheesecakes for them as after dinner desserts. I was not very sure about it at first because I hadn't made a lot of cheesecakes in the past and I don't have much experience in mass producing my desserts. But I know in my mind that I can't forsake this opportunity. It's really an honor that she trusted me to make these desserts and I really shouldn't waste it.

So the planning for these started right after the request. I researched many cheesecake recipes and put them to practice runs. I brought some of them to work to see if they would suit the American taste buds (I found that Americans like sweeter desserts than Indonesians). I also had a taste test with Carrie & Jim themselves. :) It was a long process, but it was definitely worth it.

I had so much fun baking these mini delights and I really hope that everyone at the wedding enjoyed it too.

Here are some close-ups of the cheesecakes:

Mascarpone Cheesecakes w/ Graham Cracker Crust

Mango No-Bake Cheesecake w/ Graham Pecan Crust

Dark Chocolate Cheesecakes w/ Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust

There was a lot to learn with these cheesecakes. Making 150+ of them forces me to plan ahead for the schedule. Being in Galveston also made it harder to make these little goodies but thanks to all the support and help from Alvin, we made it! :)

I'll definitely start picking up on my baking in the future. Thanks for being so patient and encouraging through all my baking journey.

Cheers! :)

Cocopandan Chiffon

2009-08-05T08:35:00.004-05:00

I think making chiffon is part of my comfort zone. It relaxes and calms me down. :) I have to say that this is the one recipe that you almost couldn't fail - it's foolproof. I give ALL the credit to my dear mom. I used the basic recipe that I used here and added 1/2 tsp of cocopandan extract for this one.

I had brought this to church on Sunday and it received a very warm welcome by my friends there. This is what makes me really happy... when my baked goodies can put a smile on some one's face. :)

There's been a lot on my mind lately - wedding preparation, engaged life, marriage preparation, moving back to Indonesia, work-life balance, work-hobby balance, and all kinds of other stuff that crowds my brain. I want to be a good daughter, sister, friend, fiance, christian, and coworker. And I'm trying real hard - but I was reminded that I can't do all that on my own. I was reminded that I need to constantly be recharged in God's grace.

Especially with the big day (wedding day) and the bigger day (moving to Indo/Singapore with Alvin) coming up, there's been quite a bit of things that I need to think and pray about. While I was at Sunday service, God reminded me in my heart of this verse:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

:)

I'm in good hands. Are you in good hands?

Snickerdoodles

2009-08-02T19:26:00.005-05:00

Hello!

It's been such a long month of July. I spent 3 weeks in Indonesia taking care of wedding stuff and since I came back to the States, I've been spending my weekdays in Galveston at the client's site. And so I wasn't able to cook or bake anything during the weekdays. I tried to make the best out of my weekends, though. :)

To start me back on my baking momentum, I tried something simple: snickerdoodles. :)

The recipe for these snickerdoodles is courtesy of Joy of Baking. Stephanie Jaworski has some really awesome recipes on cakes, cookies, bars & squares, biscotties, and so many other goodies. The beginning of my baking frenzy started with her Raspberry Sponge Cake. I highly recommend her site to everyone. :)

Anyways, on to the snickerdoodles...

I really like how my cookies turned out. I made half a recipe and I got about 24 snickerdoodles. I kind of overbaked my first batch that went in the oven and it made the cake crispy instead of chewy. I baked my first batch for 8 minutes, according to the recipe, but I didn't really like how it turned out. So for the next batches, I reduced my baking time to 7 minutes and lowered the oven temperature to 375F instead of 400F. With these modifications, my snickerdoodles were just right! A little crunchy on the sides but soft and chewy on the middle. I'm now a firm believer in underbaking cookies. :p

On a side note, my trip to Indonesia was really fun even though I had a mile-long list of to-do's for the wedding preparation. I never thought that it's so much work. Thanks to my awesome mom and encouraging friends, I managed to tackle the list one item at a time. :) I'll tell more stories about the trip in my next posts.

I also still remember that I owe a couple of people recipes: the chewy chocolate chip cookies and the very strawberry cake. I promise I'll get to it. Sorry for the delay.

Absent for a while

2009-07-10T20:46:00.001-05:00

I've been absent for a while now because I'm on vacation in Indonesia right now. :) I promise I'll try to catch up with more posts of baked goodies right after I come back home.

I'm having lots of fun over here learning to cook with my mom and preparing for my wedding. I have to say, wedding prep is a LOT of work. So I'm taking things slowly, one thing at a time.

Thanks for dropping by my blog for a visit.

Blueberry Muffins

2009-06-28T12:04:00.002-05:00

I just got back from a 2 day 1 night trip from Vegas for Alvin's cousin's wedding (which was a lot of fun!) and got a chance to meet adorable little Jeff (Alvin's nephew in SF) one more time! :)

Before I write about the muffins, I've got to gush about this little boy for a bit. He is THE happiest baby I've ever met! He wasn't afraid of strangers and was comfortable playing with us from the first time we met on this trip. He loves to dance to hip hop music and his eyes twinkle a lot when he laughs. He got super excited over bananas and was just very easy to feed. He would walk/run, stumbled, and fell a little, but he would stand right back up with a smile on his face. Simply said, I fell in love with this little boy! :) I can't wait till we get to see him again.

(breathe in... breathe out...)

Okay... now about the muffins:

It started at H-E-B when blueberries were on sale for $1.50/pint and I immediately thought of making a blueberry dessert. :) I'm not as big a fan of blueberry as I am a fan of raspberry but since I've never really given this berry much of a chance to shine in my kitchen, I thought that I should open up some doors for these round purple thingies. :p SO I browsed through all my baking books in search for blueberry recipes and there were several that caught my eyes: blueberry crumble coffee cake, blueberry plain cake, blueberry ginger muffins, and good 'ol simple blueberry muffin. And as you may have guessed, I stick to the basic and therefore chose this simple blueberry muffins as a start. :)

I used the recipe from Baking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America and I really liked how the muffins turned out. The texture was really tender and the crumbs were really small and moist. My only regret was not filling in the muffin cups with enough batter and therefore did not achieve the little domes that muffins typically have. Anyways... here's the recipe:

2 cups + 2 tbs all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 cup milk

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

8 tbs unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 400F and line the muffin pan with paper liners. Sift 2 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, blend the milk, egg, and vanilla extract.

In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and smooth in texture (about 3-4 minutes). Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating it with the milk mixture, mixing at low speed until all the ingredients are blended together. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the batter is very smooth (about 2 minutes).

In a bowl, scatter the 2 tbs of flour over the berries and toss to coat them evenly. Using a spatula, fold the berries into the batter, working just long enough to distribute the berries evenly.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin pans and bake until the top of the muffins spring back when lightly pressed (about 18-20 minutes).

Let the muffins cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and remove it from the pan to finish the cooling process.

They're now ready to be consumed! I hope y'all enjoyed the muffins as much as I do. :)

Mini Mango No-Bake Cheesecake

2009-06-26T12:06:00.001-05:00

I had a really fun experience last night with cheesecake. Well, the experience actually started the day before yesterday but the time of event depends on the grand finale, in my opinion. :p

Carrie and Jim are getting married soon and they had asked me if it would be possible to have mini cheesecakes for after dinner dessert on the wedding day. I had never made mini cheesecakes before and so before I said yes to the major task, I had asked them to come for a taste test. :) They wanted about four different flavors of cheesecakes, bite size. I had a lot of thoughts about these and asked many people's opinions on the different flavors. I finally settled on mango, white chocolate blackberry, dark chocolate, and plain vanilla.

I started the process on Wednesday and finished everything on Thursday night. I really had lots of fun with the baking process. I managed to decorate each cheesecake pieces to the best of my abilities and then forgot to take pictures of them all! >_< And I realized this after I had given all the left-over cheesecakes away to everyone.

Thankfully there are some faithful mango cheesecakes left. So Alvin and I were able to take some pictures to share. :)

Again, we were playing around with our Canon. We still have some difficulties with focus and lighting, but I believe that we will learn with time. :)

Brown Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese Mascarpone Cream

2009-06-21T16:38:00.004-05:00

I haven't been making cupcakes in a while, it seems. In fact, I feel that I haven't been baking as much this month. I wonder why. I hope that this is not some kind of indication that baking is just another fleeting hobby that I happen to catch for a little moment.

Just to share a little about me: I have a lot of dreams and I have a lot of interests. However, I am also easily entertained and easily bored. I tend to start many things but I don't always finish what I start. I'm trying to be a better person in Christ and I am aware that I am a work-in-progress in God's hands. I've been questioning on what it is that God wants me to do in life with all the interests and passion that He had placed in my life but I have yet to find a conclusive answer.

I know that God placed the love of baking in me for a reason. Just like He placed the love of children in me. I'm just not sure on how He's going to use me for His glory.

Anyways... moving on to the cupcakes. :)

I think I've said this before, but I've always been curious about the red velvet cake. I've made it once before but I wasn't completely satisfied with the results. The color was not red enough and the frosting did not have enough "emph" (whatever that means to you :p). I was also rather disappointed to find out that much of the color in red velvet cake actually comes from food coloring. Traditionally, the red color in the cake was produced by a chemical reaction of the baking soda, vinegar, and cocoa powder. But this reaction alone does not yield a red-enough color for the cake. Therefore, many people used food coloring to "help" the process.

When I saw the red velvet cupcake recipe from Joy of Baking, I became really curious and interested to try. So when I had the opportunity to put this recipe to the test, I did! One little tweak I made to the recipe was to omit the red food coloring. Whenever I can, I try to cut back on the amount of chemicals in the cake. So instead of a red velvet cupcake, I made a brown velvet cupcake. :)

One comment that I got on these is that the frosting is REALLY good! Everyone who tried it, loved the frosting. I loved it too! I personally think that anything with mascarpone is good. :)

Another current hobby and past time for Alvin and I is photography - well, it's more of fun picture taking. We both have a lot of fun with out Canon and since Alvin just bought this new prime lens, I just had to show off the results. :p LOL

I know... I know... we are so far off from being perfect or even artistic. Hahaha... but nonetheless, we had fun taking these pictures. I hope you guys enjoyed it too!

For anyone out there who are good at photography and would love to share some tips for us, we will greatly appreciate it too! :)

Basketball Shortbread Cookies

2009-06-21T16:34:00.002-05:00

This is the 3rd time I've tried making cut-out cookies with royal icing. The first was for fun as a practice run for Eva's bridal shower cookies. The second was with Cess - and she can attest that it was not as fun as we thought it would be. The third, which is these cookies here, was actually not bad at all. :)

I made these for Ko Yohan's birthday gift. I usually like to bake birthday cakes for my friends' birthday as a birthday gift, but Ko Yohan had mentioned that he didn't want any cakes. So I thought of another baked goodies to make as a gift. :) You see, whenever Ko Yohan and Alvin met, they always talked about basketball. And Ci Lia also mentioned that he spent a lot of times watching NBA games. So I thought that these basketball cookies would be a good gift for him.

I used the shortbread cookies recipe from Joy of Baking and I really liked how it turned out. The cookies don't taste too sweet and it crumbles in your mouth when you bite into it. I would definitely stick to this recipe going forwards. :)

As for cookie decorating, I'm still new to it and definitely have a LOT of room for improvements. Next time, I'll be more patient when decorating - to make neater outlines and patterns. And I will also learn to use a smaller tip for piping patterns to make more intricate designs. :)

"Surprise Me" Cake

2009-06-16T09:38:00.003-05:00

Last week, before I went for my one-week training in Dallas, Suha asked me to make a cake for him. He didn't give any specifications on the kind of cake that he wanted but he only said "surprise me!" So I turned the wheels in my head, trying to come up with a cake that will really surprise him. When I made the cake, I had no clue as to whom the cake is for... is it for a boy or a girl? is it for 5 or 20 people? does he want fondant or no fondant? I was very confused. Thankfully, after I returned from training I had the chance to meet and asked Suha these questions. :p

It turned out that the cake was for a birthday boy and it'll be consumed by quite a few people. So Suha decided that he wanted a 10-12" fondant cake.

The cake itself is made of 3 layers of vanilla sponge cake filled with orange-infused buttercream and lots of jackfruit. I've never made nor tried this flavor combo before but I'm pretty sure many will be surprised. LOL. :p It was very difficult for me to decide on the kind of cake to make because there are too many possibilities!

I also had a hard time deciding on the cake design. You see, I'm not a very creative person and over the past fondant experiences, I realized that I may not been very good at it. One of the biggest challenge for me in working with fondant is covering the cake with it. It seemed like a simple step and one of the basics of using fondant. But somehow, I'm not very good at it. It's always such a challenge to have a smooth cake. This has been a particular challenge since I started using Satin Ice fondant.

But something was different when I covered this cake with fondant. I remembered my mom's words: "If your heart's not in the right mood, you can't make a good cake." So I calmed my anxious heart down and I felt relaxed and at peace. I started weighing the fondant, then rolling it out, and lay it on the cake - and everything went very smoothly. I didn't have any cracked sides and the caked looked alright. :) Thanks, Mom!

After passing the most difficult stage of the fondant process, I played around with some decoration ideas. I know the cake is for a boy and so flowers, pink stuff, and hearts are out the door. Since this is a gift, I decided to make the bow and some contemporary polka-dots. I choose the ivory and dark brown color combination for the cake because I believe that they really compliment each other. I think that the cake looked simple and rather elegant. What do you think?

This cake will be picked up later tonight, so we'll see how the taste test went! :)

Coffee Break Muffins

2009-06-16T09:11:00.004-05:00

Lately, I've been in the mood of muffins. They are very simple and easy to make. You don't need mixers and you don't need measuring scale (for this one, at least). All you need - as far as hardware goes - are 2 mixing bowls, muffin pans, and muffin liners. :)

This coffee muffin was made using a recipe from Baking - From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. I receive this book as a birthday gift from Ci Lia, Ko Yohan, and Ethan. :) It's one of my favorite baking book of all time! There isn't a recipe in this book that I tried and didn't like.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbs espresso powder

Wet ingredients:
1 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
1/2 cup melted butter, cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

Making muffins is basically a 4 step process:
1. Mix in all the dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Mix in all the wet ingredients in a bowl
3. Mix the dry and wet together - don't over mix the batter, it should still be lumpy
4. Pour the batter in the muffin cups and bake at 375F for 20 minutes

I really like how this muffin turned out, especially when it's still warm. :) The top part of the muffin is crispy and the inside is soft and moist. Alvin and I ate it again when it's at room temperature and they're still pretty good. I highly recommend this recipe to those who are looking for something simple to make in the morning. :)

As I was making this cake, I had this thought that I would love to be making breakfast goodies for my future husband. :p It's funny how Alvin and I learned to cherish each other more these few days - especially after the stolen purse incident. It gives me a warm feeling in my heart. :) It also reminded me of how much Jesus loves me - I may not be able to make him breakfast muffins everyday, but I am learning to give Him my time in the morning (and throughout the day). I wish that everyone can share this warm feeling as well.

Love,

Chocolate Chip Cookies - the chewy kind

2009-06-12T19:12:00.004-05:00

Wow! This month sure pass by pretty quickly. Many things happened this month: my purse was stolen, I went for a rushed inventory, I went for a week-long training, I learned to two-step, and I had a fun photo session with Ci Lia. :) In the midst of all these, I still had some time to bake little goodies here and there. I haven't been very good at updating my blog lately but I promise that I'll try harder in the future.

Last week, I had the opportunity to work with a new team that are filled with fun and energetic people. I had lots of fun with them and really enjoyed the working environment. So I decided to bake something nice for them. When I asked them on what they want me to bake for them, one of them voiced out "chocolate chip cookies." :) I don't make cookies very often and I've never been really successful in making the chewy kind of cookies - so I was a little anxious when I baked this batch.

I had read in Professional Pastry Chef, that there are 2 main factors that contributed to chewy cookies:

1. the development of gluten (i.e. use of bread flour is preferred than all purpose flour)
2. under baking of the cookies (i.e. don't let them dry out in the oven)

So, I took these 2 points and took them for a test run. :)

I don't have the recipe of the top of my head (and I don't have the book right in front of me) , but if you are interested, let me know and I'll post it. :)

I really like how the cookies turned out. I had baked it at 375F for 10 minutes. The cookies are slightly browned at the edges and very soft in the center. And even when the cookies are cool, they are still very soft and chewy. :) Yay! Mission accomplished. :)

These pictures are courtesy of Alvin. :) He is really getting good at using our SLR, don't you think?

Kue Lumpur

2009-06-03T07:58:00.003-05:00

Lately I've been in the mood of Indonesian dessert. Perhaps it's because my mom had been making me some yummy Ronde and Martabak Manis. I really miss those yummy after dinner snacks that reminded me of home. Or maybe it's because I had just gotten a birthday present from Tante Helen - a cast iron pan with 7 mini round molds! Thanks, Tante Helen! :) So I browsed through one of my favorite website for Indonesian food, Resep Nugraha, and found this recipe for kue lumpur.

I had never actually tasted a kue lumpur before, so I don't really know if what I made is what it should be. :p But when I brought it to my girls' bible study, they all liked it.

I also found, in my research of recipes for kue lumpur, that there are several different ways of making it. Some recipes require the use of potatoes, and some use fermented cassava, and others use only coconut milk. This one that I made only uses coconut milk for the batter. It's really simple to make and it taste good. :)

Oh! I forgot to share this with you guys... for my dad's 50th birthday, he received 2 nice DSLRs from his friends - a Nikkon D90 and a Canon 450. So in his awesome kindness, we were given the Canon one to play with. :) Alvin and I really enjoyed our new toy! Thanks, Dad!

Under Water Themed Fondant Cake

2009-05-27T07:11:00.005-05:00

Yay! Another fondant cake for me :) I have to recognize all the people who contributed to this cake:

My mom and my aunt - thanks for baking such delicious Spekoek for the cake
My bff, Nana, and my fiance, Alvin - thanks for your labor in coloring the fondant
My dad, my mom, my aunt, Nana, and Alvin - thanks for triggering my creative vibe :)

Alvin's nephew was turning one (yes, his first birthday!) and I was given the honor of making the birthday cake. :) The request from the mom was really simple. She wanted Spekoek for the cake and she wanted an under-water themed cake. I had never made spekoek before and the number of egg yolk used in making that cake is really scary for me (about 20+ egg yolks!!). Thankfully, my mom was visiting from Indonesia for the week and she is a PRO at baking spekoek. My aunt, who was visiting from New Mexico (to see my mom), was her right had assistant in the process. :p

The timeline for the cake is really interesting:

Friday - Mom and Aunt made the Spekoek; I made the fish (Daddy fish, Mommy fish, and Baby fish)

Saturday evening - I made the rest of the decorations; Alvin and Nana helped color the blue fondant

Saturday night - Mom, Aunt, and I rolled the blue fondant to cover the cake (thanks mom for your patience with me); Nana and I arranged the decorations on the cake

Super late Saturday night - Nana and I colored the remaining blue fondant to a darker shade and tried very hard to make the "happy birthday Ethan" letters and then arranged them on the cake

It's really a lot of fun making the cake with a lot of people, but it can also be very frustrating (for me, at least). It's really worth the frustration, though :p The cake turned out to be really cute and exactly what I had imagined it to be! I am 100% satisfied.

Below are some close up pictures of the figurines :) I think Baby fish is just adorable!

Here's Daddy fish, surrounded by anemones and starfish.

The birthday celebration was at church and the little kids loved the cake. :) This makes my heart even happier. I told everyone that my mom made the cake and they really enjoyed it. What can I say - my mom taught me how to bake. :)

When I took a picture of the cake at church, the color of the cake looked a lot brighter than it was at home. I guess lighting played a great role in how the cake turned out. I shall bear that in mind in the future. :)

If you're wondering why some of the pearls at the bottom of the cake came loose - well, it's damage due to travel. The cake was moved around quite a bit at church and I guess all the commotion caused the cake to "break a sweat." :p Nonetheless, I am very happy with how the cake turned out.

Hmm... I wonder what my next fondant cake would be?

My Second Tiered Cake!

2009-05-27T00:04:00.003-05:00

This cake is truly inspired by Bertha's Spring Themed Cake. She makes such wonderful goodies and is very knowledgeable about baking. I learnt a lot from her. :)

When Eva told me that she wanted to order a birthday cake for 3 people's birthday that'll be celebrated at church, I got really excited! Eva was very flexible on the cakes too - there was no specifications of the kinds of cake that she wanted, I could choose to make 3 small cakes or one large cake, and I can dig my imagination for the design of the cake. At that time (which was about 3 weeks ago), strawberries were still in season. They were again at $0.97/lbs, had deep red color, and were super sweet! :) Of course, I had to buy them and use it for the cake.

After much thought, I decided that I wanted to give tiered cake another try. The first one that I made looked like 2 stacked cakes and was not how I had imagined it to be. So I learnt from my mistake and made this second cake a little better. :) I used a 12" cake for the bottom and an 8" cake for the top, giving them about 2" difference when stacked.

The top layer was made of 3 layers of vanilla sponge cake filled with chocolate pastry cream and covered with white chocolate mousse. The bottom one was made of 2 layers of vanilla sponge cake filled with mango mousse and lots of lychees and pinneaple.

The chocolate "walls" surrounding the cakes was one of my favorite part of the cake as well as the hardest challenge for me. As I've mentioned several times before, chocolate decorations have always been a challenge for me. Ask Cess and she'll tell you. :p

But I had just bought a book by Bo Friberg called Professional Pastry Chef and inside there are clear instructions on how to temper chocolates. So I followed the instructions step by step and managed to somehow temper my chocolates! :) I have to tell you, tempered chocolates are great! They harden quickly and easy to peel off from the acetate/parchment paper. I made a bunch of milk chocolate and white chocolate rectangles with my tempered chocolate for this cake.

Just when I thought that everything was going smoothly, the strawberries that I had stuffed between the top cake and the bottom chocolate walls pushed the chocolates out, causing my walls to crumble and fall. >_< This happened about 1 hour before the cake was due. I calmed myself down and thanked God for the extra chocolate rectangles that I had made. :p I replaced them all and took out ALL of the strawberries that caused the trouble.

Transporting the cake from my apartment to church was also one frightening trip. Apparently, I had cut one of the dowel a little higher than the rest causing the cake on top to be wobbly. This really adds a lot of shaking-factor on the cake. Alvin and I were very much under a lot of stress during that trip. Praise God, we made it safely there. :) And the cake was enjoyed by all.

Dark Chocolate Cake

2009-05-26T23:57:00.002-05:00

This is another short blog entry. I really apologize for not putting much effort into the blog lately. Things have been moving at such fast speed in my life that I haven't had a chance to look back and ponder.

I honestly don't know the recipient of the cake but I know the friend who ordered the cake from me. This is the second time that he requested a birthday cake and he wanted a similar cake to the one he had ordered before - with slight changes.

So I made the cakes a little different this time - with 2 layers of chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate IMBC and covered with dark chocolate ganache. It's a simple cake but it has a really rich flavor (lots of chocolaty goodness). :) I hope that this cake can be a blessing to the birthday girl and everyone who had a bite of it.

Black Forest Cake with a Story

2009-05-25T10:17:00.003-05:00

This one is going to be a short blog post, since I've posted several black forest cakes already. A friend of mine ordered a birthday cake for her husband a month ago and I made her this cake. What I want to share with you about this cake is not so much the cake, but the story behind the cake.

You see, this friend ordered the cake and told me to write some message on it but she didn't specify the actual words. So when I made the cake, I thought about what to write and somehow I wrote "Love Never Fails" on the cake. Then, the morning before the cake was picked up, I read a message from her asking me to write "Happy Birthday, Say" on the cake. I felt terrible that I had written something different than what she had requested, but since the words were already written and it's too late to change, I just left the message as it is.

Two days after the cake was picked up, I got a message from her telling me that the cake was good :) and that the message written on the cake has been a blessing for her. Reading her message was such a great blessing for me because I've been praying for a while on the purpose of my blog/hobby. I wanted my baking to be more than activities and my blog to be more than informational. I know God has a purpose in my life, and it sure includes my hobby. And knowing that what I bake blesses others was an answer from God on my prayer. I'm very grateful that the almighty God is still willing to use me as his tool. :)

I am really thankful for all my friends who had prayed for me and who had encouraged me all this while. :) *Muach*

Triple Dessert Day

2009-05-10T21:59:00.001-05:00

This weekend was wonderful! All of it was wonderful! :) Here are some glimpses of joy I experienced:

1. I had the chance to bake a lot for my friend's dad's retirement party

2. The weather was just gorgeous - sunny and clear skies

3. Alvin took me on a nice date in Kemah

4. Alvin proposed in Moody Gardens - the place where "us" began

What more could I ask for, right? :) I am truly blessed.

I do want to share with you in greater detail the bake-off I had this weekend. :) Laura's dad is retiring and they wanted mini desserts for the retirement party. We had quite a few discussions about which desserts to make for the event. We finally settled for petite tiramisu cups, mini neapolitan cupcakes, and cream puffs. She told me that she wants about a couple dozen of each and I am truly excited. :) I mean, when else am I going to have the chance to make so many mini desserts?

The picture above is the tiramisu cups. I made the tiramisu with sponge cakes instead of lady fingers and I baked them on mini cupcake tins. The size fits perfectly on the glasses. :) I topped each cup with cocoa powder and some dark chocolate curls. Alvin tried the tiramisu and said that the rum was very strong. *_* I hope that it's okay for Laura's party. I think next time I will cut down on the rum a little.

This is the mini neapolitan cupcakes I made for the event. I used the same recipe as I did here, but I made the mini version this time. I think that mini cupcakes is the best service portion for a cupcake - not too much, but just enough to enjoy the taste. :) It was challenging for me to pipe 3 different batter on such a small mold though because you can only put a little bit of each batter so that the cupcake won't spill out when baked. Of the 36 mini cupcakes I made, only 24 came out decent looking (i.e. without a shitake mushroom top). So I ended up giving Laura only 24 of the 36. What did I do with the other dozen? I brought it to work. :p

And these are my cream puffs. For Laura, I modified my cream puff a little bit. I typically use egg-yolk only wash, which gives a deep brown look to the choux, but this time I used whole-egg wash with a little bit of milk, which gives a lighter golden look. :) I think I like this shade a lot better. Also, for the filling, instead of using the Indonesian-style custard or Western style Chantilly cream, I used diplomat cream. Diplomat cream is just custard lighted with whipped cream. I brought some over to my friend's house on Friday night and they liked it a lot. :)

So, overall, I'm quite satisfied with the outcome of my weekend bake off. All that hours were worth it! :)

Result: 24 mini neapolitan cupcakes, 30 petite tiramisu cups, and 40 cream puffs. :)

Baileys Espresso No-Bake Cheesecake

2009-05-08T00:11:00.006-05:00

I wanted to make a dessert for the girls in my small group on Thursday but I have another cake to make that was going to be picked up on Thursday as well. So I needed to make something that is quick and relatively simple. :p So I browsed through my recipe books and my recipe collections and noticed this Baileys Espresso No-Bake Cheesecake recipe from my dear friend Bertha. :) I glanced through the list of ingredients - I've got everything I need in my kitchen :) That's always a good start.

When the girls and I tried this last night, our comments were that the texture of this cheesecake is like a mixture of mousse, cheesecake, and pudding all together. :) I guess the best word to describe it is "interesting" - in a good way. :)

Here's the recipe from Ms. Bertha (I made slight modifications to it):

Base
1 thin layer of chocolate sponge cake (I used chocolate graham cracker crust)

Filling
1 block Philadelphia cream cheese, softened (I used 8oz cream cheese block)
1 tsp vanilla
30 g Baileys (I used 50g)
50 g strong espresso (I used 30g)
200 ml whipping cream
100 g sugar
1 Tbs. gelatin powder (I used 1 Knox gelatin envelope)
3 Tbs. cold water

Swirl
A little white batter
Chocolate paste/cocoa powder/melted chocolate, whatever works

How

1. Whip the cream until medium stiff peak form, set aside.
2. In a mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth
3. Add the Bailey's and espresso, mix well.
4. Sprinkle the water over the powdered gelatin and let it bloom. Melt in a microwave for a few seconds. Don't let it come to boil.
5. Add the gelatin to the cheese mixture, stir to mix.
6. Fold in the whipped cream to lighten.
7. Place the sponge cake base in the bottom of a cake ring. You can moistened it with espresso and/or Bailey's if you want
8. Pour the batter onto the ring.
9. Take a little of the white batter and mix it with chocolate paste/cocoa powder and make a swirl/marble pattern using a toothpick or a skewer

I'm still new at this swirl thingie but it was really fun dragging those lines down to create a pattern. :) Here's a closer look at the "swirls."

During bible study last night, we were discussing about prayer and having a prayer-led life. I find it really difficult to commit to prayer despite knowing that that's the building blocks of my relationship with God. I think the reason is just pure laziness on my part. I really need to work on that. Please pray for me... that I will be in constant awareness of the fact that I am living in the presence of God almighty.

Thanks! ^_^

Summer Fruit Cake

2009-05-07T00:15:00.001-05:00

I haven't made layered cakes in such a long time! There has just been not much opportunities or reasons for me to make one. That's why I'm so glad when Sylvia called for a birthday cake. :) It was also a very fun process thinking through the many different kinds of cakes that could be made: rich chocolate torte, strawberry shortcake, mango mousse cake, blueberry and mango mousse cake, mocha cake, plain vanilla cake, mango cream cake, etc... The options are endless! Sylvia finally decided on a fruit cake. Now, this is not the western fruit cake where you mix in raisins and other kinds of dried fruits in the cake batter. This is more of the fruit cake you would find in an Asian bakery.

The cake itself is made of 2 layers of vanilla sponge cake moistened with some mango compote. I wanted a good mix of fruits that have different vibrant colors as the filling, so I picked some fresh strawberries (they are in season!), mangoes, mandarin oranges, green grapes, and blackberries. I then frosted the whole cake with Chantilly cream. Sylvia had requested for the cake to not be too sweet - so I cut down on the amount of sugar for the cake and for the cream as well. :)

The most dreading part about making layered cakes for me is the decorating part. I think that this is the only dreading part about baking. If you know me back when I was in grade school and even secondary school, I am not a very creative person. If you see my report card, the bad grades would be in art and PE. Thankfully, I have a creative director next to me when I was making the cake. :p Alvin helped in arranging the fruits on the cake so that it doesn't look too heavy and the cake looks balanced. This creative director also happens to be extremely talented at dish washing. :p Thanks, Alvin! :)

I also learnt a new tip in preparing my cake for frosting: to stack the cake inside a 3" cake pan lined with plastic wrap. You can follow the instructions from Cake Journal here. I works great for me! :)

Well, the cake will be picked up tonight. I'm crossing my fingers hoping that they'll like it. :)

Strawberry Cream Chiffon Tarts

2009-05-03T14:38:00.002-05:00

I'm in the mood for tarts lately. I had bought a bunch of mini tart molds from Indonesia and have yet to find the chance to use them. Making petite desserts takes a lot of time because each small tart requires the same amount of effort to make as a large one but I have to make a lot of them. So when work slowed down this past weekend (we filed the 10-Q!) and I have a short day on Friday, I decided to make these mini strawberry tarts.

I started with pate sucree for the crust the night before and chilled it in the fridge overnight. After work on Friday, I started to roll out the dough and mold them to each mini tart molds. I have to say, this is quite challenging for me. First, rolling out the dough when it's still chilled is quite difficult because it's hard as stone. But when the dough started to warm out, it sticked to my rolling pin! >_< I found a solution for this though: I rolled the dough between 2 sheets of cling wraps. It worked perfect!

Second, trying to pit the rolled out dough on the mold was really tedious. I had to make sure that the dough was pressed to the sides and bottom on the mold. I'm not sure why, but it's a difficult process for me. :0 I guess I'm just not patient enough for this. :p

When all this is done, I had to cover each one with aluminium foil and weigh them down with rice grains. Then I had to bake them in the oven! :) I like this part best because it's the last step in the process. :p

Even after the crusts were ready, I still wasn't sure on the filling. I couldn't decide whether to make a fruit tart (with custard), mango chiffon tart, or strawberry cream chiffon tart. After browsing through my fridge, I scratched off fruit tart because I don't have many different kinds of fruit at home. But I have both mango puree and strawberry puree sitting in the freezer. I also have fresh mangoes and strawberries at home. It was a tough battle, but I finally decided on the strawberries. Why? Because the strawberries wouldn't last longer in the fridge compared to the mangoes. :p Plus, strawberries are in season now and the ones I had at home were just the reddest and sweetest strawberries ever (all for just $0.99/lbs).

I promise to make something mango next. :)

I brought these for the bible study session Friday night. :) I love bringing desserts to my bible study group because I know that they'll eat it all - with a big smile on their faces. This is what makes all that effort worthwhile.

Here's a little glimpse of the tarts before I filled them up with the strawberry cream chiffon filling. :) Aren't they cute?

Now, for the strawberry cream chiffon filling's recipe:

450g strawberry puree
8g cornstarch dissolved in 60ml water

30 ml lemon juice

7g powdered gelatin bloomed in 120ml water

60g egg whites

60g granulated sugar

125ml heavy cream

Bring to boil the strawberry puree and then stir in the cornstarch mixture. Stir until thickened and then add the lemon juice and the softened gelatin. Continue stirring until all the gelatin is dissolved. Chill until thickened but not set.

In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until it reaches soft peaks and then slowly mix in the sugar while whisking at high speed until you get a glossy meringue. In another bowl, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks. Fold the meringue into the chilled strawberry mixture followed by the whipped heavy cream.

At this stage, you can fill the tart shells with the strawberry cream chiffon filling and decorate as you desire. :)

Strawberry & Cream Pudding

2009-05-03T14:32:00.002-05:00

This is my second attempt at pudding making. I used the same recipe as the mocha pudding I made previously and modified it to make a strawberry one. :)

The changes that I made to the recipe were as follows:

- I substitute 1/2 of the milk with strawberry milk
- I did not use any of the cocoa powder or coffee bits
- I add in some coconut jelly in the pudding

I still use the same recipe for the vanilla sauce, but I decreased the sugar a little bit (the last one I made was a little too sweet for me). :)

After filling up the main mold, I still have some leftover pudding mixture. So I pour them to my mini tart molds. :p

Mocha Pudding

2009-04-30T08:07:00.004-05:00

I've been inspired by Eva, who is the master at pudding making, to actually make my own pudding. :) I believe that the last time I made any form of pudding would be with Nutrijell read-made and fully flavored packages. But this time it's different, I made these from "scratch."

I had looked through a few recipes on mocha/chocolate/sacher puddings, but since this is my first time making my own pudding, I wanted to try a recipe that has been proven to work. So I finally decided on Ci Sukma's Mocha pudding recipe (which I found from Ci Kiki's blog). It's really easy to follow recipe and since Ci Sukma and Ci Kiki (both are awesome cooks) approves of it, I'm very sure that it's going to be good. :)

I have to warn you though, this is an Indonesian pudding - not the pudding that most Americans know of. I learn about this when I brought this mocha pudding to work. My coworkers were very confused and had funny looks on their faces as they tried my pudding. :p This pudding is made using agar-agar and has a sturdier texture than jello. The pudding that they're used has more of a custard-like texture. It was a really interesting after-lunch dessert for them and we sure had lots of laughs trying the "Indonesian pudding."

Kue Pukis

2009-04-24T00:41:00.003-05:00

I am VERY excited when I saw this recipe on Resep Keluarga Nugraha! This (and kue laba-laba) is one of my favorite snack when I was still in primary school. I think they're about Rp. 500 for 3 back then. :)

I went home from work last night at about 9:30PM. It's not too late, but it's also not too much free time left for me to make a multi-component cake that I had been wanting to do. So I browsed through Resep Keluarga Nugraha's website to look for some yummy recipe to try and I came across the recipe for Kue Pukis. At first I didn't know what Kue Pukis is, but as soon as I saw the picture, I knew what it was! I quickly glanced through the list of ingredients to make sure that I have all of them on hand. :) I don't have the right mold for it but I have this awesome half-dome one as a gift from Aunt Helen (thanks a lot, Tante Helen!). So... here they are!

I gave some that we're right out of the pan to Alvin for a test-run and he loved it! Yay! These Kue Pukis are mini two-bite sizes and I think that they are perfect snacks for the night. :p I didn't feel too guilty gobbling up 2-3 pieces of them yesterday night. I packed some for Alvin to bring to work (for him to snack on) and I packed some for my coworkers as well. :)

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but my coworkers have started to grow suspicious of anything "Indonesian" that I brought to work. They were not too crazy about the Indonesian Cheesecake, and the steamed cupcakes (bolu kukus), and the Kaastengels that I had brought to work previously for them to try. So when I told them that these were "Mini Muffins - Indonesian Style," their eyes narrowed a little. :p BUT they actually liked this one! Yay!

So, the moral of the day is: Don't give up when others don't like what you bake. Just keep on trying until they do. :p

Want to also do a little shout-out in my blog today...

Jesus loves you! If you fall, He'll pick you back up and love you still. So don't run away from Him when you mess up; run towards Him.

I ran away from Him before but I find myself in a deeper hole than I was before. So now I'm learning to run towards Him, who is slow to anger and abounding in love.

Cheers! And Happy Friday to y'all!

Strawberry Tart

2009-04-22T13:45:00.003-05:00

I made these sometime last week but I've been procrastinating in updating my blog for it. This is actually a milestone for me because it's the first time for me to make tart shells. :) I grew up with fruit tarts at home and I've always wanted to be able to make my own.

The main reason that I'm making a strawberry tart instead of a fruit tart is the fact that H-E-B was selling strawberries for $0.97/lbs!! Yes... I know... it's such a good deal and I just can't resist. The strawberries were so red, fresh, and smelled so sweet.

I read a lot about tart shells before I actually made one. Some of the lessons I learnt from my research are:

1. Don't over mix the ingredients as it will result in tough tart shells
2. keep it cold to prevent shrinkage
3. brush a thin layer of egg whites while baking the tart to keep it crisp

I brought this over to my friend's house for a potluck and I think it was well accepted by the group. :) I only had 15 minutes to assemble the whole tart (including slicing the strawberries) and thus the messy look on the tart. I think I'll give myself more time in the future so that I can have a perfect little strawberry tart. :)

My First "Tiered" Cake

2009-04-12T22:26:00.006-05:00

I had the opportunity to make a birthday cake for 6 people this past weekend. The event was hosted by my girlfriend who had just bought a beautiful house and decided to celebrate the birthdays along with her housewarming party. :)

I thought a lot about this cake and I had a very difficult time trying to decide on the kind of cake to make. I was initially planning to make a half sheet chocolate cake, but then realized that this was an opportunity to make a tiered cake (since there'll be lots of people available to eat the cake). This is my first time ever to make a tiered cake and I make lots of mistake on this one. >_<>
One thing I love about this cake, however, was the flowers. I made tons and tons of daisies for this cake. I wanted to make a spring cake that looks simple but also elegant. I don't know if I really achieve that look, but I'm very satisfied with the field of daisies that I made. :) Each one was made with love (and lots of patience).

Just in case you are curious, the top cake was a vanilla cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting while the bottom layer was a red velvet cake with vanilla bean frosting (recipe from Bobby Flay).

I will definitely give tiered cake another try when I have an opportunity for it. Next time, I'll make an 8" and a 6" cakes so that the tiers can be more obvious. :p

As a farewell note on this blog, I'd like to share this video with you guys: http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8616c1559ab4221b3910.

I've been so blessed and encouraged and rebuked at the same time. Hope it brings hope to your lives too! :)

Chocolate Black Forest Cake

2009-04-07T23:46:00.002-05:00

I really enjoyed my work schedule this past 3 weeks up till yesterday. We would start work at 7 and go home at 5. Of course there are days where we have to take work home, but it's usually not more than 2-3 hours of work from home. :) I think the 2 best thing about coming to work early are:

1. Seeing the sun rises in the morning
2. Coming home when everybody else is

Now that I'm back to my other client, my work schedule changed back to normal again. But, I have nothing to complain about because I am thankful that I still have a job and that I have people who love me. :) Yay!

So far this week I've only made these 2 black forest cakes. They are cake orders coming from a friend I met over facebook. I've never actually met her in person, but it's nice to know more people and meet new friends. These cakes are 2 layers of moist chocolate sponge cake brushed with rum simple syrup, filled with rum chocolate cream and generous servings of dark bing cherries, and wrapped with bittersweet chocolate. I really think that I have put too much rum on this cake. >_< But it's too late - I've mixed it all in the cream and there's no turning back. I just hope that whoever eat this cake likes rum.

My friend requested that I write "Happy Easter Birthday 2009" on the smaller cake and this got me really nervous. I'm not very good with cake writings and I'm very nervous about the idea. I prepared myself for failure and made 4 chocolate plagues to write on. I wrote the blurb on each plague and, crossed my finger, hope that at least one will come out to be decent looking. :p The words were a little slanted, but at least it's legible. :)

I still have lots to do this weekend. 2 more cake projects due and it's already Thursday! Eeksss! But despite my busy work schedule and limited cake-time, I really enjoyed every moment I have baking in my kitchen. :)

Indonesian Cheese Cake

2009-04-07T23:32:00.005-05:00

I have baked a lot of cakes for a lot of people and I am very grateful for every single one of my friends who are always eager to try my new experiments. :) But in the midst of my business baking cakes for other people, I forgot to bake for Alvin. I suddenly realized that I wasn't being fair to Alvin, who has always been encouraging me and supporting me all the way. So I decided to bake him a cake that he's been wanting for quite a while now - Indonesian Cheese Cake - for his birthday. :)

This cake is made of two layers of extra soft and moist vanilla sponge cake (recipe courtesy of Bertha), filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting, and covered generously with processed cheddar cheese (Kraft). The recipe for this cake involves mixing the butter until it turns white and the folding it to the sponge cake batter at the end. It's a really interesting method and this is the first time I've heard of it as well. But since Bertha has tried the recipe and highly recommends it, it is definitely worth a try. :)

We shared the cake with my roomie and her boyfriend and they both liked the cake. :) I am also very happy knowing that Alvin liked the cake as well. I'm glad that I was able to do something for him today. After all the things that he had done for me, making a cake for his birthday is really the least I can do.

*Cheers to Alvin* Happy Birthday, Vin! :)

Tres Leches

2009-04-06T18:47:00.004-05:00

I first heard of this cake during my lunch interview with KPMG back in April 2007 at Artista. Last weekend, when my friends from Calif came to town, we went to Artista again and we had some of their Tres Leches. It was amazing! I really liked it a lot. Also, the night before we went to Artista, we had chocolate tres leches at the chocolate bar (another one of my favorite dessert place in Houston) and it was so good! And so now, I am in the mood to make some tres leches myself. :)

Tres leches is really a Latin American cake (since I've never heard of it when I was still in Calif) and I really don't have much experience with Latin desserts at all. So after doing some research on the cake, I decided to try Alton Brown's recipe. It's really simple to make. Bake the base cake, make the three milk mixture, soak the cake, and decorate it with some sweetened whipped cream. I like simple cakes because I have a tendency to make cakes on the fly - and thus, I don't usually have time to make cakes with lots of components. (Note to self: please learn to start planning your cakes to achieve better results.)

After tasting the cake, I find that I really liked the texture of the cake but I find it a little too sweet. I'll definitely make this cake again, but I'll cut down on the sugar. :) It'll save me some calories, which is very important for me right now. :p

Pistachio Macarons

2009-04-05T18:49:00.003-05:00

Since my last batch of macarons was quite a success, I decided to play around with it one more time. Unfortunately, my macaron batch wasn't quite as successful this time. For one recipe, I was able to make about 5 cookie sheets worth of macarons and of those 5, only 1 yielded pretty macarons. The other 4 had either cracked shells, no feet, or both. >_< I still won't give up on it, though. I'll try again next time. :)

This week has been a great week for me. Many pleasant events occurred and I really feel blessed and loved. :) I also learnt that harsh words is sometimes good for me. It shook me up when I heard it, but it opened my eyes to the mistakes I made and gave me an opportunity to be a better person. I want to say thank you for those friends who have spoken the truth to me in love. I also want to apologize if I ever offended anyone in the past. I hope that no friendships were lost along the way.

Meringue Kisses

2009-04-03T08:33:00.004-05:00

What to do with a 40% off coupon for Borders? Buy an awesome cookbook! I got myself this textbook-looking cookbook on baking and it's truly a textbook at heart. The book has chapter expectations, chapter summary, and questions. There's not many pictures and lots of formulas. I'm not so sure I made the best choice of book, but it sure has a lot of information. :)

The first chapter was on the history of baking. And the next one was on food sanitation and care. Yep.. if you know me, I fell asleep a lot during classes throughout high school and college. And this one, was no different. :p I fell asleep reading the history chapter and when I tried to wake up and continue reading, I feel asleep again. LOL.

Anyways, this meringue recipe is taken from the book. It's really simple and easy to make. The book doesn't really give much instructions on how to do things but it gives you general guidelines on what to do. The author of the book says that in a professional environment, recipes typically only come as a list of ingredients and a professional pastry chef would know what to do given the list without much instructions. So that's the approach that the book has taken. :p I got a list of ingredients and a general instructions on meringues. So I experimented a little with the recipe.

The results: some were successful...

And others were not... :p

Oh well... I had fun with it! :)

For those curious minds who would like to experiment as well, here's the list of ingredients:

100g egg whites

100g + 100 g powdered sugar

method: common meringue

Whip the egg whites till it reaches soft peaks and then start to add the first 100g of sugar a little at a time until it reaches stiff peaks. Then, fold in the remaining sugar using a spatula. Pipe into desired shape and bake in the over at 175F-220F for about 1-3 hours.

For me, the combination that worked best was 175F for 1 hour. I first used 200F for 1 hours and my meringues cracked. But the lower temperature helps mitigate that. :)

Blackberry Mousse Cake - 1st attempt

2009-04-02T19:44:00.004-05:00

I really liked Cocola's Blackberry Mousse Cake in San Jose. :) It's so pretty and it tastes so yummy as well. And it so happens that this is Nana's favorite cake there too! Right, Na?

So when Irene and Bule came, I thought - let's make a blackberry mousse cake and bring it back to Nana! :) Yay!

Unfortunately - in my eagerness to make the perfect cake - I used way to much gelatin. The funny thing is that I realized it as soon as I poured all of it in the mousse base. *hiks...* This is what I get for not planning for the cake. I now believe that there are 2 very important factors that affect my baking result:

1. my mood while baking
2. the amount of planning I do for the cakes

I was in a good mood while making this cake (although slightly sleepy as well) but I didn't plan for it at all. I just happened at the spur of the moment. :p Oh well... One thing for sure, I learn something new from this experience.

I have to give credit to Bule for the cake decorations! :) It's all her! I almost gave up with the cake, but she saved it. :) The small details on the ribbons, the strawberry slices, and the chocolate twists - very complementary. :) Good job, Bule!

I also want to extend much much much thanks to Irene - who were so willing to carry the cake back to California. :)

Tiramisu Chiffon

2009-04-02T19:36:00.003-05:00

If I'm not mistaken, a while ago someone had asked if I've ever made a tiramisu chiffon. I had never done it before and it sounded like a good idea to put to practice. My first thought was to use tiramisu paste/extract to give the flavor, but it doesn't feel like I'm making a tiramisu chiffon at all. So I decided to try my own concoction. :p I thought about the components of tiramisu: strong coffee, mascarpone cream, and rum. So I took my mom's to-die-for chiffon recipe (in my humble opinion) and played around with it. Here's the result:

Some of the changes I made on the recipe:
- I used espresso instead of milk
- added 1 tbs of dark rum
- use diplomat cream to frost the cake (instead of buttercream)
- added some mini chocolate chips in the batter

I think overall the cake was okay. It tasted more like a mocha chiffon rather than tiramisu chiffon. Maybe it's the chocolate chips. Or maybe there's not enough rum. Or maybe, I need to use the tiramisu paste. I still haven't found the right combo for this yet. I'll continue on my search... and I'll keep you guys posted. :)

Finally... Macarons :)

2009-04-02T19:24:00.003-05:00

I was asked over this past weekend of the one type of cake/cookies/bread that I think is the most difficult to make so far. My answer is plain and simple - macarons! Of the 4 times I made macarons, I had a 50% success rate. >_< href="http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2008/04/macarons-101-in-desserts-magazine.html">Tartelette's Demystifying Macarons, I have some idea of the chemistry behind macarons and the tips on baking a good batch of macarons. But even though I followed every step of the instructions, I still wasn't able to be successful the last 2 times I made it. So when this batch developed macaron "feet", I was EXTRA HAPPY! :)

I had some awesome help from my dear friends from California who came and visited Texas. :) I felt very sorry that there's not much to see in Houston (compared to the beauty of California), but I was extremely happy having them here. We had lots of eating going on during that weekend, and of course, lots of baking as well. :)

I think that one of the most fun thing about macarons (aside from seeing the feet developed), is stacking them. It's always such a challenge for me. :p I think the white ones that I made was a little too stiff and therefore did not have a flat shell like the pink ones. But somehow, Irene and Bule were able to stack them high! I bet they're awesome at Jenga. :p

Anyways... I just wanted to share these with you. I know I haven't been blogging for quite a while. My computer was attacked by a virus a while ago and had just recently been restored. And work has been taking so much of my time that I don't really have much time to bake or post blogs. :( But this weekend is a relaxing one for me. I was rewarded with a Friday off. :) I need to start thinking about my plan tomorrow. :p

Blackberry and Strawberry Napoleons

2009-03-23T23:25:00.003-05:00

It may be too soon to post an entry on the same kind of dessert within a week, but I'm crazy about Napoleons right now. They're so simple to make (thanks to Peppridge Farm) and so yummy! You almost can't go wrong with these. :)

As mentioned in the previous post, I made the Strawberry Napoleon for Sylvia last time and while making it, I had cream to spare for 2 and a half Napoleons. I gave two of them to Sylvia and left the half at home for my roomies and Alvin to try. It turns out that Mery (my roomie) likes it so much that she wants more. :p Of course, I had to make some more. :)

Now. I've only seen regular Napoleons and Strawberry Napoleons in La Madeline and the other dessert places that I've been too. But blackberries are in season right now AND they are 5 for $5 at H-E-B. It's a MUST BUY for me when those berries are on sale. :) I ended up with 3 boxes of blackberries and I had absolutely no idea what to use them for. So I thought, why not use them for Napoleons? So I did - but I haven't tried it and so I don't know if they'll be a good combo. :p But, they sure look cute. :)

I don't know how fast/slow these will be consumed at home but if there's still some in the fridge and you're interested to give these a taste, let me know. :)

Also, I was listening to KSBJ on the way back from work yesterday and the lady was talking about how people nowadays have the wrong image of God and men. She pointed out that we need to look into God's words to find the right image of God and the right image of ourselves. She also mentioned about a verse in the book of Peter (I forgot which chapter or verse) that said:

"Jesus was rejected by men but chosen by God and therefore precious."

Her words really hit me that night (and I still feel the impact right now). I realized that my self worth doesn't depend on how others view me; it depends on how God views me. I may be rejected by men, but I am loved by God and therefore I am precious - not because I'm worthy of His love, but because while I'm still a wretched person, He first loved me.

I just thought to share this thought with you and maybe, just a little bit of maybe, it will encourage somebody else.

Cheese Chiffon is Back!

2009-03-23T23:10:00.003-05:00

Yep, the cheese chiffon craze is back for me! It's been so long since I made these, my favorite cake of all time. :) I've been so caught up with chocolates, fondant, and other cake experiments that I forgot to make this simple cake. Several incidents that caused me to bake chiffon cakes are (1) a request for the recipe and (2) a request for the cake.

The recipe for this cake is really simple actually. It's just like any other chiffon cake recipe where you beat the egg whites separately and then fold it into the egg yolk mixture. In the many times I made this cake, I've only ruined it twice. :p I don't know if the probability is good or bad, but it is what it is. :)

My Mom's Famous Chiffon Cake

8 eggs, separated

50g + 150g sugar

100 ml milk

100 vegetable oil

140 g all purpose flour

20g cornstarch

20g milk

1tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

Processed cheddar cheese from Kraft, shredded to cover the cake

Buttercream, any kind that you like

Heat the oven to 350F and get ready your chiffon cake pan. In a large bowl, combine the milk, oil, and 50g of sugar and mix until well combined using a hand mixer (1-2 minutes). Add to the liquid the flour, milk, and cornstarch and mix until well combined. Then add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

In another large bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy and add a pinch of salt. Continue whisking until you reach soft peaks. Add the sugar slowly and continue to mix at high speed until you get a glossy meringue with medium peaks.

Fold the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture in additions, being careful not to over deflate the batter. Add some of the shredded cheese in the batter if you like. Pour the batter to the pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until tester inserted to the center of the cake comes out clean. Once the cake is fully baked, take it out of the oven and hang it upside down (my chiffon pan has feet - if yours doesn't, just hang it upside down from a narrow necked bottle) until the cake cools to room temperature (I usually just leave the cake hanging overnight).

Unmold the cake, frost it with buttercream, and cover it with the shredded cheese. Ta-da!!

I had lots of fun with the cake and it's always been popular among my Indonesian friends. Give it a try - my mom's recipes are treasures to be cherished. :p

Tiramisu

2009-03-21T12:34:00.003-05:00

According to Kim, "tiramisu" is my favorite word and it's one that I would say at least once a day. I have to admit, the word does feel good in my mouth and the cake is one of my favorite as well. :) The last time I made this was with Velina when I was in Austin last weekend and now I have a chance to make another one for Ko Haniel's birthday.

I once again used my favorite tiramisu recipe from Joy of Baking, which uses a custard based cream instead of using whipped cream. I liked the custard-based tiramisu because I think that custard has less fat than whipped cream and it also has more textured flavor. After lots of times making this dessert, I've made very minor changes to the recipe to make it "healthier" for my personal psychological benefit (it means that it's okay to eat more). I highly recommend this recipe for you to try if you're a big fan of tiramisu and if you're a big fan of rum. :)

Lately I've been reminded of a saying: be slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to become angry. I just thought to share it with you all. :)

Strawberry Napoleon

2009-03-19T02:23:00.005-05:00

The first time I tried this dessert was in La Madeline, one my favorite cafes in TX. :) I've tried making a replica once before and it's far from the original Strawberry Napoleon from La Madeline. This time, I have another opportunity to make the dessert for a friend. :) Overall, I think that I learn a lot from this session (i.e. there's quite a bit of disaster involved in the process hahaha).

I initially wanted to make the dessert Tuesday night, since it's due on Thursday and I was going to the Rockets game Wednesday night, but the Napoleon I made on Tuesday was not up to standard at all. :p The puff pastry didn't puff up evenly and it just didn't look very nice. So I made it again Wednesday night after the game (btw, it's a really good game - I love watching the Rockets life in action!). I think that the ones I made last night was better than the first try. :)

The key for me this time was to cut the puff pastry dough in one clean move and therefore the dough will rise beautifully (instead of sticking together at the ends). I also put a second baking pan on top of the puff pastry to add some weight and helped in ensuring even heights for the pastry. I filled the dessert with Diplomat Cream (my favorite cream of all time made from custard lightened with whipped cream) and slices of fresh strawberries. I sprinkled the top with some chocolate sprinkles I brought from Indonesia.

Just to give an image to compare, below is a picture of the first try in making the Strawberry Napoleon. It's messy and has uneven pastry layer. I'm not too happy with the look of this one.

I gave the imperfect one to Sylvia to bring home and enjoy. Because even though the appearance may not be too good, the taste is yummy! :)

Mini Vanilla Cupcakes

2009-03-17T18:48:00.005-05:00

My life at work is now slowing down. No more tight deadlines and no more late nights in the office working. It's really nice to relax after 2 full months of straight work. :) I must say though that somehow things always come up to fill up my days - and I am thankful for these as I would've been bored with nothing to do. :p

I made these for fun last night, realizing that I had leftover IMBC from my cakes last week and I'd rather put it to good use than waste it away in the fridge until it turns bad. I also spent some time last night practicing to make buttercream roses (thanks to Shiendry who taught me how to make the roses - I need plenty of practice though >_<). It's really fun playing around with buttercream and being amazed at how stiff my hands are at making roses. :p

I used Tartelette's recipe for these cupcakes and they are yummy! I really liked her recipes and the beautiful pictures she posted on her blog. I really think that these are worth to try at home. The recipe is simple and it makes a LOT of mini cupcakes in one go. :)

I also had some chocolate IMBC leftover and I used them to frost some of the cupcakes as well. I brought the chocolate ones to work today and I think my coworkers liked it. :) It's always a nice feeling when other enjoyed something that I baked.

Also, I've been asked by several people for the recipe of the chiffon cake and the very strawberry cake. I'll be posting those real soon - I don't have them together in one file and so I'll have to compile them before sharing it with all of you. Sorry for the delay.

Teddy Bear Cake

2009-03-13T01:43:00.003-05:00

I've made cakes in large quantities before, but nothing compared to this cake order. :) Last month, Ellen called me about making the cake for Baby J's first birthday. She had seen some of the fondant cakes I made and asked if I could make one for her baby boy. It's such an honor for me... I'm a novice at baking and even more with fondant, but to be given the opportunity to explore and learn, I am really grateful.

We spent some time discussing how the cake should look, the theme of the party, and the flavors of the cake. As we keep in mind that little children will be consuming the cake, we can't have any alcohol in the cake. So, tiramisu is out and so is black forest cake (my 2 favorite cakes). We also can't have cakes with caffeine, so coffee and mocha cakes are out too. Green tea is not quite good for little kids too, so it's out. *sigh* We finally settled on good old fashioned vanilla chocolate cake for the 8" round cake and chocolate vanilla cake for the half sheet cake.

In terms of design, Ellen wanted a teddy bear themed cake with blue as the background color. I think I managed to hit the high points in the request with this cake. :) The idea for the cake started with the desire to make a teddy bear birthday cake that is unique but at the same time, kid-friendly. I've seen a lot of teddy bear cakes and they are all cute and adorable, but I wanted to make one that's slightly different. So I thought of Care Bears (a cartoon I watched growing up) and I thought that bears sitting on a cloud would be cute. Alvin further expanded the idea to include rainbows with Baby J's name on it to make the cake merrier.

The half sheet cake was supposed to be a simple buttercream cake but as I'm in a fondant mood and the fact that I was running out of unsalted butter to make the second batch of IMBC, I decided to make this a fondant cake. However, this cake was a LOT of challenge for me.

First of all, the cake was huge. I've never had to cover a cake this size with fondant before and I had a lot of trouble trying to roll out the fondant quickly enough before the fondant dried out. I was also difficult to roll out even thickness of fondant for such a big cake. I also felt that I burned lots of calories just rolling out the fondant - this is good for me. :)

The original thought for this massive cake was to make it into a gift box for Baby J. I guess the creative mind was redirected to bees during the process. :p

There were times when I was feeling frustrated with the cakes because decorating cakes is really not my expertise. I can say that I am not a creative person. But a wise advise from Bertha for me was to take it easy and enjoy the process. :) I'm really thankful to have friends that encourages me! Thanks, Bertha!

Tri-Color Mousse

2009-03-11T00:40:00.003-05:00

The first time that I saw a tri-color mousse was in a pastry shop in Jakarta where layers of dark chocolate, milk chococlate, and white chocolate mousse were put beautifully together creating a gradation effect and decorated with chocolate cigarettes. :) It's really pretty and I've been wanting to make something like that for the longest time. A few months after that, I bought a cook book, Cocolat, by Alice Medrich and in there it was! Now is a few months after I bought the book and I finally made it.

The cake is made of dark chocolate marquise, milk chocolate mousse, and white chocolate mousse. The dark chocolate marquise was really rich, heavy, and dense - a little too much for me. The other two mousse layers were lighter and I think that they have more of a mousse-y type texture. The recipe calls for lots of chocolates, so if you're a chocoholic, you might want to try this dessert. :) I decorated the cake with white chocolate mousse kisses and a twirl of bitter chocolate.

When I tried to lift up the cake rings, some of the milk chocolate mousse smeared over to the white chocolate mousse and destroyed the image of the tri-color mousse. I managed to scrape some of it off, but it's still not clean enough. >_<>

I made this cake for my co-worker's birthday and therefore I brought it to the office to share. I think they liked the cake overall (yep.. no funny comments such as "Yossi, are you trying to choke me?" on this one). I wish I had some raspberries though for the cake as it will definitely compliment the richness of the cake. Well... maybe next time! :)

The recipe for the cake is rather long for me to type in (I'm on a lazy mood now) but if you are interested in making this cake, please let me know and I'll email you the recipe - or even type it on the blog as an update. :)

I also want to share some things that happened to me this week with you. As I mentioned in my previous blog entries, I was just done with my work's "busy season" and I really worked hard during those two months. I put in a lot of effort to get my work done and finish the tasks assigned to me as soon as possible. However, I discovered that what I did was not enough. And it's really a humbling experience for me.

Growing up, I had always been a good daughter. In school, I had always been a good student and even earned the title of a valedictorian. At work (up to now), I had always receive positive feedback from my bosses. I guess in the midst of all that, my pride grew. And let me tell you, pride is an ugly creature. I was feeling down when I heard the review, but I am really thankful that God allowed me to go through this experience. To humble me and to remind me that all is in His hands and all is by His strength. I will work harder and smarter in the future. I will not let this bring me down, but instead, I will use this experience to lean more on God and to be a better blessing to the company that I am working for.

I want to tell the world (and all the readers of this blog) that in God you will find strength and rest. God is good, all the time. :)

Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes

2009-03-08T21:51:00.005-05:00

I've been into the chocolate mood lately as you can see in my recent blog posts. I've been intrigue by chocolate for a while now and have started realizing the goodness that chocolate brings to people. :)

The story of these chocolate-chocolate cupcakes began on Friday when I was helping Alvin move to his new apartment. I took Friday off to help with the move (after going to the dentist to get my crown done >_<) and I really enjoyed the "exercise" I did that day. However, we weren't able to finish the move that day as the large furniture needed to wait for the U-haul truck on Saturday. So to prep for the second day of moving, I baked a vanilla rum cake in the morning. I thought that morning dose of baking will give me enough "high" for the whole day. But after lots of moving, packing, and cleaning, I desperately need a second dose of baking to keep me on the high notes. :p

After browsing my favorite recipe book, I decided to make this chocolate-chocolate cupcakes. It's real simple to make but at the same time, it has a sophisticated look (at least the pictures in the book was sophisticated). I had lots of fun using my my ice cream scooper to measure out the batter in each cupcake and dipping the cupcakes into the chocolate glaze.

The cake recipe yields me 12 standard size cupcakes and 6 mini cupcakes. Here it goes...

For the cupcakes,

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

8 tbs unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Line 12 regular-sized cupcake pan and 6 mini cupcake pan with paper mold (I fill the rest of the empty ones with water).

Whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Beat the butter at medium speed until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat for about 2 minutes, until it is blended into the butter. Add the egg, then the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, then reduce the speed to low and add half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear. Add the buttermilk and mix until incorporated and then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Add the melted chocolate and mix in with a spatula. Divide the batter among the cupcake pans and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centers comes out clean.

Transfer the cupcakes into a cooling rack and let cool for about 5 minutes before unmolding them. Cool to room temperature before glazing.

For the glaze,

3 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 tbs confectioners' sugar, sifted

2 tbs cold unsalted butter, cut to 6 pieces

Melt the chocolates in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Once melted, remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes. Using a spatula or small whisk, stir in the sugar and then the pieces of butter. Stir until all the butter is melted and combined into the chocolate.

To glaze the cupcakes, dip the top of the cupcakes into the chocolate glaze and give it a little swirl. Let the excess chocolate glaze drip back into the bowl. Let the glaze set at room temperature, or in the fridge, if you're in a hurry.

I have to make a comment about Alvin. He too, was very tired with the move. If I have sore arms this morning, I can bet that his is worse. He had to carry lots of heavy loads and he worked really hard both Friday and Saturday. But in the middle of those tiring times, he took the time to take care of me, making sure that I wasn't working to hard or injuring myself. He also accompanied me in baking these cupcakes. He even volunteered to wash the dishes for me. When all those was done, he then willingly took the role of my promoter. :)

Two thumbs up for Alvin! I really feel blessed to have him in my life. He always encourages me and pushes me forward to be a better person. I thank God for him everyday. :)

Cake Truffles

2009-03-05T19:52:00.002-06:00

A while ago, my coworker told me about a cake that was mixed with frosting, rolled into a ball, and then coated with chocolate - and it sounds yummy! Then about two days ago, I saw a recipe by Su Yin in Desserts Magazine of cake truffles, which was cake mixed with frosting, rolled into a ball, and coated with chocolate. What a coincidence!

The ones made by Su Yin on the magazine looked so smooth and pretty, but mine was bumpy and not so pretty. I was a little sad that night seeing how my cake balls turned out to be cake lumps. I think it was because the temperature of the room last night was a little cold and the chocolate thickened rather quickly, making it more difficult to coat the cake balls with chocolate.

I was going to bring it to the office today but I left it in the fridge this morning. So it's now up for grabs. :) Anyone interested?

Espresso Mocha Cake

2009-03-02T22:31:00.006-06:00

I got a call Sunday night from a friend asking me if I can bake a cake for his aunt's birthday on Tuesday. It's always one of those calls that I've been waiting for. :) Since the birthday was on Tuesday, I had to get the cake done on Monday. Thankfully, I had Monday off. It's such a perfect timing. The specification for the cake were for the cake to have espresso and dark chocolate components and to have lots of chocolate decors. So here it is...

The cake is made of 2 layers of espresso cotton cake, filled with mocha mousse, and covered in dark chocolate ganache. I have to admit that this was the first time for me to make an espresso cotton cake and it is also the first time for me to make a mocha mousse. I guess this is one of my experimental cakes. :p Since this was for 5 people, I made a small 6" cake. I'm also still experimenting with ganache - as evidenced with my use of ganache in almost every cake I made. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but at least, I was able to cover the cake with it "rather smoothly." One thing that I wasn't pleased with in the cake is my writing. The letters didn't come out very smoothly and although it is legible, it's not very nice. I'm really sorry for this oopsie.

As mentioned in my previous post, I had been playing with creating chocolate decorations since Friday and made a little progress with it. I was finally able to make chocolate curls, which I used in this cake, and chocolate loops, which I also used to make the heart. I'm very excited about these and I think I'll be playing with more chocolate from now on. The trick for me is to keep the room temperature cool - 70F or less.

With the cake batter, I was able to make two 6" cakes and one 4" cake. I used the small cake to make a mini version of the espresso mocha cake. :) In this one, you cake see the difference components of the cake.

I would like to give credit to Cocolat by Alice Medrich for the mocha mousse and the clear step by step instructions to make chocolate curls. :) This book has a lot of good standard recipes for chocolate desserts and give you ideas on how to combine them to make plenty of eye-catching chocolate creations.

Now, for the recipes...

Espresso Cotton Cake (adapted from Bertha's Blueberry Cotton Cake)

50 ml milk

75g butter

50 g cake flour

5 g espresso powder

7 egg yolk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

7 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

175 g sugar

Heat the oven to 350F and line two 6" pans and one 4" pan (or two 8" pans) with parchment paper. Sift the flour and espresso together. In a heatproof bowl over simmering water, heat the milk and butter until all the butter have melted. While still hot, pour the flour mixture to the milk+butter and whisk till well combined. Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the egg yolk one at a time. Then, stir in the vanilla extract.

On a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy and then add the cream of tartar. Continue whisking until soft peaks form. Slowly add the sugar to the egg white mixture while whisking until you get a glossy white meringue.

Fold a quarter of the egg white to the egg yolk mixture to soften it and then fold the rest of the egg whites into the batter. Pour into the prepared pans and bake in water bath for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in came out clean. When done, cool the pans on a cooling rack for 5 minutes and invert to release.

Mocha Mousse (adapted from Cocolat)

125g milk chocolate

2 tsp instant coffee powder

175 ml heavy cream

On top of a double broiler, melt the milk chocolate and espresso powder together. Be careful not to scorch the chocolate. Once melted, take if off the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Whisk the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Fold a quarter of the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate mixture to soften it and then fold in the remaining cream. Pour the mousse into the mold and cool in the fridge until set.

Dark Chocolate Ganache (adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours)

120 ml heavy cream

110 g dark chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

2 tbs unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

Heat the heavy cream in a heavy bottomed pan until boiling (be very careful as the cream rises very quickly once it starts boiling). Pour half of the cream to the chocolate, let sit for 30 seconds, and slowly whisk in a circular motion (start from the center and move outwards). Once the mixture is blended, pour the other half of the cream into the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the butter one piece at a time and stir until combined. The ganache is ready to be poured on the cake.

I hope you all enjoyed baking the cake! If you do try this recipe, please let me know your feedback on it so that I can improve.

Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Mousse Cake and more...

2009-03-01T03:23:00.005-06:00

It's a weekend of baking for me! :) It's been a while since I had a crazy baking weekend and this one was awesome! I had Friday off and I started the day by sorting through my recipe collection to see which ones to bake for the day. I decided on baking some simple Indonesian desserts, kue sus and bolu kukus, and one fancier mousse cake.

The weather was just perfect outside and my mood was in an all time high. :) I checked out my supplied at home, made my grocery list and head out to HEB for some fun shopping! Once home, I started off with bolu kukus and then I moved on to kue sus. I planned to bring these to church that night to share. :)

Then I moved on to making my multi-component mousse cake. I had been wanting to make this cake since I first saw it on Tartelette's blog and finally I did it! I started off with the brownie base, the milk chocolate and salted caramel mousse, and finally on Saturday morning, I finished it off with the dark chocolate ganache. :) This cake took much longer to prep and assemble than the two Indonesian desserts together.

I also played with chocolate decorations on Friday morning, following the instructions of Jean-Pierre. I was really anxious about it as I never really had much success with chocolate decorations. So, to create a more choco-friendly environment, I turned the AC on in the apartment. :p It worked though! I managed to make some chocolate twists and chocolate loops. I used 2 of the loops to make a heart and used it on the cake. :)

Then on Saturday morning, I continued my baking session with some Cat's tongue. :) It's one of my favorite Indonesian cookies and I used my mom's recipe for this one (it's going to be a family recipe from now on :p). I brought it to church to share again Saturday morning for the people who helped in preparing for the food sale. :) I really liked bringing my goodies to church because they always finished it off. I'm really happy when others liked my cakes and desserts and finished it up. That's why I'm always looking for "victims" to share my cakes with.

I'm really blessed with this rest that God gave me over the weekend. I wasn't thinking about work at all and I just get so much energy from baking. I didn't bake anything on Sunday though because I think I owe it to Alvin to spend some time with him (instead of being busy in the kitchen all day). It truly is a wonderful weekend for me.

I also want to share a verse that has been true for me. It's from Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I came and I was given rest. :)

We have good initials

2009-02-26T05:19:00.003-06:00

It's finally over! Yes - my crazy and unbelievably long work hours are finally over. :) We filed the report yesterday and now my life is back to normal. The past two months really came and left in such a hurry. Those of you who are fellow auditors know how it is to go through a "busy season" and the hours that we are required to put in to meet the deadline.

I am especially thankful that in the midst of that busy life, I am given time - still - to bake some simple goodies. :) I had bought a set of alphabet cookie cutter from Martha Stewart's collection last month and I've been wanting to use it for a while. Finally I did! I have to say, Alvin and I have good initials together. :) We make positive messages with our initials and I am here to share it!

I also want to share with you what I had done with fondant since my first fondant cakes. It's nothing complicated or fancy, but I really adore each one of these little creatures. :) And now that my work is back to normal, I can't wait to play around with fondant even more!

Before I end this post, I really want to thank God for the strength that He provided throughout those long days. Every time I thought that I couldn't take it anymore, every time I thought that I'm missing on life by working such long hours, He reminded me of verses that encourages me. He sent friends who cheered me on. He gave me coworkers in the Lord who reminded me that there is a purpose for me here. I really am thankful. There is a purpose in whatever it is that we are doing when we are in God's hands.

Raspberry Mascarpone Cheesecake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

2009-02-16T01:12:00.004-06:00

This is another one of my cheesecake try-out. :) I've been experimenting with different cheesecake recipes lately and I really liked the outcome of this one. The base recipe is from Giada's Mascarpone Cheesecake in Foodnetwork. Instead of 2lbs of cream cheese, she substituted 1lbs of it with Mascarpone cheese. I folded in some fresh raspberries inside the mixture just before baking it in a water bath.

I brought this cheesecake to my office and my coworkers liked it! I must say that they are quite the critics and so when they say that the cheesecake's good... I'm good. :)

I also want to share something with you guys. I emailed an old friend last week and she told me that she too keeps an online blog about her family (she just had a super adorable baby boy!). So I went to see her blog and just from 5 minutes of reading, I can feel warmth, love, and joy just flowing out of the words written by her. I thought in my head, "this must be how it is if you walk side by side with Jesus." It's amazing how much she can bless others through writing a blog.

Since then, I began to think of how I can bless others through my blog. I haven't figured out how yet, but I really hope that others will be blessed through the posts in this blog.

Carrot Cake

2009-02-08T22:30:00.005-06:00

I had a blast this past weekend. I have a carrot cake order, a black forest cake order, a pandan chiffon cake order, and I'm making some fun cupcakes! And they're all for Sunday. Yay! I get very excited when I have the chance to bake a LOT. I really enjoyed baking and more than that, I really enjoyed the feeling when others enjoyed the cakes that I made. I'll post the entries for my weekend baking separately.

Here's the carrot cake entry:

This is the second time I'm baking for a first birthday. I am very excited about this cake and I'm really glad that everybody enjoyed it as much as I did.

The last time I baked carrot cake was back in May 2008 - the beginning of my baking frenzy. I really liked carrot cakes, especially when it's made from freshly grated carrots. This cake is made of 3 layers of carrot cake and it's filled and frosted with cream cheese icing. Before I came to the US, I've never heard of carrot cake as a dessert. When I was in Singapore, I use to eat carrot cakes , but it's a savory dish and it's nothing like this one that I baked. :p

The ideas for the decoration came mostly from Eva and Cecyl. They said that I should make a turtle that has the same expression as the birthday boy, Hayden. I tried my best to make the cutest turtles for his birthday. :) I also made several little details for the cake: carrots, birthday cakes, birthday presents, and a toy car. They are far from perfect, but I think if you zoom out enough, it'll look perfect. :p

PS: Thanks Cecyl for the pictures! You (your camera, I mean) saved my cakes! :)

Another Black Forest Cake

2009-02-08T22:29:00.004-06:00

Here's the black forest cake that's part of the weekend baking frenzy:

This is a 2 layer black forest cake with chocolate-rum Chantilly cream and lots of dark chocolate shavings at the top. I've never been good with chocolate designs and I have yet to uncover the secret to chocolate decorations (chocolate fans, chocolate cigarettes, chocolate curls, etc). But this cake is my small step into chocolate decorations.

Here's a close up of the chocolate wall. It's made of dark chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate.

Neopolitan Buttermilk Cupcakes

2009-02-08T22:29:00.003-06:00

Here are the cupcakes - part of the weekend baking:

I found this fantastic website that has awesome cupcake recipes and I've been baking a couple of cupcakes from this collection. Both times the recipes call for buttermilk and that's when I discover the beauty of it.

This one is a 3-flavor cupcake: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. I first made the cupcake batter in one ig batch, then divide it into 3 and flavor them individually. Once done, I pipe the chocolate batter at the bottom, followed by vanilla and strawberry batters. I baked them in the oven and tadaa!

The recipe uses a cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes, but I've used up enough cream cheese for the carrot cake that I decided to do something else. The birthday boy's mom suggested making a tiramisu cupcake. So I decided to make a tiramisu italian meringue buttercream for the cupcake frosting. I added a little rum to the buttercream to kick it up a notch. :p

And this is what I do with the leftover batter. I made mini cupcakes! I brought all these to church and they were gobbled up pretty quickly. :) It felt so good to have others try your baking and enjoyed it well.

Dark Chocolate Espresso Cake

2009-02-06T02:56:00.003-06:00

I'm very happy when my friends asked me to bake a cake for them. It means a lot to me that they trust me to bake something nice... for a special occasion. This time, my roommate asked me to bake a cake for her boyfriend's birthday. It's the first birthday for Ryan after they are together. We talked about the kind of cake that Ryan would like and Mery's request to me was to make a rich chocolate cake. :) So here it is...

This cake is made of 2 layers of dark chocolate cake, 2 layers of dark chocolate espresso mousse, a layer of black raspberry jam, and topped with chocolate rum cream. :)

I really wished that I had more time to do the cake. I wanted it to be extra special for both of them, but I had to work late these days and I didn't have much time to decorate the cake at night.

Again, I couldn't make it to the birthday surprise because of work, but I'm glad everybody enjoyed the cake. :)