Creme Brûlée

Creme Brûlée has been on my list of things to bake for a while now. The first time I made creme brûlée was in school where it was a no bake creme brûlée. Since then, I have searched for other recipes which were the normal baked creme brûlée and bookmarked one which I thought was good. This is recipe is from George Calombaris from Masterchef Australia.  There is a video where he shows the step by step way of making the creme brûlée which I found was really helpful.

 I bought these ramekins a few months back with the sole intention of making creme brûlée and also invested in a small little blow torch to have a blast with torching the sugar! Then it took me so long to find the butane gas to fill the torch. Finally everything I needed to make creme brûlée were ready. Then they sat in the cupboard waiting to be used for almost a month! hahaha..... 

Finally I did it. Made them one afternoon and had them for dessert after dinner. I was doubtful of the creme brûlée when I took it out from the oven. It looked a little overcooked but the centre was still a little wobbly. I cooled them in the fridge for almost 4hours and then torched the sugar to create the hard sugar layer. Put it back in the fridge for a short while before eating it.

The texture was smooth and taste was not too sweet. I love the little specks of vanilla seeds in the custard. Real vanilla bean is really much nicer than vanilla essence. Then the caramelised sugar layer had the crack sound when I knock the spoon into it. Yum! The recipe was quite simple but I am not sure if it is really easy or I was just lucky. Hopefully next time I make it, it will still be as good as this. So happy!!

Road track birthday cake

I love making birthday cakes. I will be thinking of what flavour cake to make, what decoration will suit the cake and what design the birthday boy or girl will like. This here is not a recent bake, in fact it has been more a while ago. But I just want to have it in my blog for me to remember how much I enjoyed baking this cake.  

This is one of my favourite cakes that I made. It was for my 8 year old nephew who loves little toy cars. He was turning 8 years old, his mom suggested a cake in the shape of the figure 8. 

I wasn't sure how to combine 2 round cakes together to make an "8" but I think I somehow managed. haha....Then I covered it with fondant and made a track for the cars. Decorated it with little traffic lights and cones. This was my first time using fondant and it was like I went back to kindergarten and was playing with plasticine.

joining the cake to make a figure '8'

Little cones and danger zone signs

I covered the whole cake with the ready-to-roll green fondant. It was quite difficult to smooth out the edges of the cake. There were some small cracks on the fondant. Maybe I dusted too much cornflour on the workbench and dried the fondant a little. 

Rolling out the fondant to cover the cake.

It was so difficult to move the black coloured fondant tracks on to the cake. I had to make it align and make sure it doesn't tear. I couldn't find any tips on youtube on how to do that, so I had to use my own method and hope for the best. Luckily it wasn't too bad. 

The cake is also decorated with his new toy cars.

My nephew decorated the cake with his new toy cars. He was so excited to cut the cake because then he can play with his new toy cars! haha.... I was so glad that he actually enjoyed eating the cake. He ate quite a lot of it, according to his dad. 

With a lot of help from watching Youtube, I managed to complete the project and didn't disappoint my nephew. I am glad I accepted the challenge! Spent days watching Youtube and it all paid off when I saw the smile on my nephew's face.

Double Chocolate Cupcake

Chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting. The frosting looks a little soft, well that is because it was. I chose the hottest day to bake. It was 38˚C , the whole apartment felt like an oven. It was really quite chocolatey! Only for those who really like chocolate, I guess. 

Christmas cakes

It was a hot summer Christmas here in Melbourne but I tried to make it cooler with white christmas snowmen cakes. 

I spent one whole morning making the snowmen and the rest of the little decorations. These little figurines will sit on top of fondant wrapped chocolate mud cakes, some on little cupcakes and also fruit cakes. 

My first snowman was a little short and it took a while to make. By the forth and fifth snowman, it was much easier and also they looked cuter too. All my snowmen had blue eyes and a big smile. Some had green scarves, some blue scarves and some red ear muffs. I made little trees and presents too.

I baked a few small chocolate mud cakes for friends. Each cake had chocolate ganache filling and covered with ganache before being wrapped with fondant. Each cake was a little different but all had the same theme of snowman sitting with presents. 

It was so difficult to find the right boxes for the cakes. The cake is only 4" wide but the height was about 5" with the snowman sitting on it. We went hunting for the right box one whole afternoon and couldn't find one that was right. In the end, we decided to just have them in food containers. Not very pretty presentation but no other choice. 

I got to see the inside of one cake and I am pretty happy with the layering. Seems quite even and the ganache wasn't too thick. The cake was quite moist too. I hope they enjoyed the cake. 

The inside of the cake

My cousin's son who turned 3 in December told his mom that he wanted a purple donkey cake. He has pretty good imagination and was very sure of what he wanted. I thought I will give it a go at making a purple donkey for him. It wasn't perfect but I think it looks pretty much like a purple donkey. It was hard to make the figurine when the weather outside is 35˚C. The donkey keeps getting fatter and flatter. I think the birthday boy liked it so that is good enough for me. 

The last batch was for Christmas fruit cakes. There was a request to make a layer of marzipan and then fondant. So that was exactly what I did. Instead of using raw eggs in the marzipan, I used meringue powder and also added some brandy into the marzipan. The cake disappeared quite quickly on Christmas day. 

It was great fun making the cakes. If only the weather was a little cooler, I think it will be easier to make the fondant.

Christmas Fruit Cakes

Igloo fruit cake

Week 20 - Assessment Day

Last day of school for the year 2012. This is our assessment day. We had to make 7 items for assessment. Some things were pre made and some had to be made fresh. 
There were so many of us in one tiny kitchen and it was quite stressful because you are always worried that you can't get the equipments, oven space or ingredients. 

I was partnering with Susy and I think we work well together. We have a good rhythm and flow to our work. At the beginning of the day, we were a little stressed because we couldn't find our pre made sweet crust dough. We were a little disorganised and made some mistakes here and there. But after a while, we got our rhythm back. 

First thing that we started was the Mango Cheesecake. The base of the cake was a sweetcrust pastry which we couldn't find. I wonder how our dough disappeared! Anyway, luckily we got some from a friend, otherwise it will take too long to remake it. The mango cheesecake was a no bake cheesecake and is set with gelatine in the fridge. It takes a long while to set, that is why it's the first thing we made. 

Mango cheesecake

 Ok, you are probably wondering why there are canned peaches on a mango cheesecake. Well, we wondered as well. The school was cutting cost and didn't get us real mangoes, will be my guess. We got canned peaches! It was so frustrating. 

Apple Strudel and Cherry Clafoutis

 Our apple strudel came out pretty OK, i guess. No big issue with the apple strudel except we nearly forgot to add in the egg when making the dough. Ha Ha... Luckily we realised in time. Cherry Clafoutis are little tarlets with cherries and custard filled and baked. They came out quite nice looking.

Linzer Torte

Linzer Torte, the finishing doesn't look very nice. Why was the icing sugar so uneven on top? well it is because the sift that we were using was broken. It had a big gap between the net and the ring and once Susy dusted the icing sugar on the torte, the icing sugar came out from the big gap. She didn't know it was broken. 

Sacher Torte

 Sacher Torte was probably the one that I was most unhappy about. First of all, the cake was baked and frozen a few weeks back. We thawed the cake but somehow our cake got stacked on while storage and was flat on one side. That means we had to cover it up with thicker apricot jam and ganache to make it even. Then I made a mistake by pouring the chocolate glaze which was not warm enough on the cake. It was so hard to spread the glaze and make it even. To save the cake, we had to freeze it quickly and pour another layer of glaze over it. That makes it 2 layers of chocolate glaze on an already very thick ganache cake. Oh well, at least I am happy with the butterfly that I made to decorate the cake. 

Tart Marguerite

Tart Marguerite was an interesting dessert. The base was made of puff pastry and the top was choux pastry that was piped on top to make little cases to be filled with cream patisserie and fresh fruits. At least for this one we got fresh berries. 

Cafe Deluxe

Cafe Deluxe was a mousse gateau. The side was a jaconde and inside were layers of coffee sponge cake and coffee mousse. The mousse set nicely and was smooth. So it is considered a success. 

So many cakes to take home. Luckily I had friends to help me eat them. I didn't eat any of them. Ha Ha. 
Term has ended and now it is time to enjoy my Christmas break. There will be more baking at home during this break! Happy baking everyone! 

Raspberry & Pear Butter Cake

I think I am addicted to this recipe book - Bourke Street Bakery. I have tried a few recipes from the book now and so far they have been pretty good. The only thing is I always reduce the sugar, but that is just me. It will probably be tasteless if someone else ate it. 

I had a couple of pears in the fridge that were too soft to be eaten fresh so I decided to keep them until a recipe which requires poached pears appears. Once I saw this recipe, I bookmarked it for one fine day when I can give it a go.

 So, one night at around 9pm, I suddenly felt like baking and remembered this recipe. I quickly took the ingredients out from the fridge to bring them to room temperature while I started poaching the pears. I had to soak the eggs in warm water to bring it to room temperature faster. 

Raspberry & Pear Butter Cake.

 The picture in the recipe book had the pears inside the cake but mine just stayed on top of the cake. Ha Ha.. maybe my batter was a little too thick and the fruits just can't sink in. I don't blame the recipe because I tweaked it a little, I didn't want to throw out or keep the extra 20g of sour cream that I had. I wonder if that is why. But it still looks good right? Probably more appealing because you can see the fruits. 

The inside of the cake.

The cake had fine crumbs and quite a buttery flavour. The fruits gave it a nice balance with its slight sourness and sweetness from the cake. Ha Ha... look at me, analysing a cake. Anyway, I am very happy with the cake. My sister and I shared a slice once the cake cooled down. By then it was already midnight. 

A slice of cake.

How nice if I didn't have to return the book to the library. It is a hot pick book, it is always being reserved by someone and I am definitely one of them. However, I am not complaining, I am very happy and grateful to be able to use the library facilities. It is great! They have a wide selection of books.

Week 19 My wedding cake

Today is the day that I have been waiting for, for so long. The day we make our wedding cake. Since my partner is married, this will have to be my wedding cake then. For the past 8 weeks, all we have been doing was baking cakes and pastry and now comes the time where we get to decorate the cake. 

It is a chocolate mud cake with ganache filling and has chocolate glaze over it. It is not exactly how I would like my wedding cake to be but it will have to do for now. 

Ready to glaze with chocolate.

One big bowl of chocolate glaze.

 We had so much fun covering the cake with chocolate ganache, concentrating on getting the ganache as smooth as possible before we chilled it again. Then only we poured the chocolate glaze over the cake to get a nice smooth even shiny chocolate. We then chilled it again to set the chocolate. 

Practise piping.

For our summative exam , we need to make a cake for a 40 year old person. So here we are practising our piping skills. Ha Ha.... as you can see, I need more practice. 

More practise.

 Here comes the fun part, chocolate decorations. We were shown a few ways of playing with chocolate. How to get the marble effect, how to get chocolate shards and others. My partner and I quickly decided on which design we wanted to try and here are some of the chocolate designs that we did. 

Chocolate designs.

Glazed chocolate mud cake.

 We decided not to use all the chocolate designs to decorate the cake because we wanted to try to make roses with fondant and marzipan. The roses were the centre piece for our cake. I practised so many rounds , trying to get it right. I finally got it to look like a rose after 4 attempts. 

Chocolate designs for decorating the sides of cake.

 We used the marbled chocolate decorations for the side of the bottom cake. There was a support that was placed into the cake to hold the top cake. We were suppose to pipe ganache around the bottom of the small cake to cover the gap but in the end we didn't because it was running late and we were planning on separating the cake and we each take one home. Susy gave me the bigger cake to take home. 

Marzipan roses

My first wedding cake. 

So here is the end result of our wedding cake. It looks quite simple and definitely not good enough for a real wedding. I am still happy with the end product, after all this is our first attempt in making one and people enjoyed eating it.