Tri-Color Mousse

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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.