Gateau Napoleon

Recently I have been watching Poh's Kitchen programs on TV and she has this guest chef whom I find very interesting to watch. He is a french patissier who has been living in Australia for a while now. His name is Emmanuel Mollois. His accent is very strong and he has a sense of humour too. But more importantly, the things he bakes and cooks really look scrumptious.

When he made this Gateau Napoleon, my sister said "You have to make this!" and so I did. I followed his recipe which I got from Poh's kitchen website. My gateau didn't look as good as his though. It was a little wonky. He said that this is the traditional version of the vanilla slice that you get today.

First the pastry which was made of butter, flour, egg, salt and cream mixed together and formed into a dough. Then divided into 7 balls and chilled for 2 hours. Then each ball is rolled into thin discs and baked at 230˚C for 10minutes. It was interesting to watch each disc rise so high in the oven. It didn't take long for each disc to bake in the oven but because I baked them one at a time, it took a while to finish all 7 of them.

Dough divided into 7 balls

Crispy layers

 Each of my pastry was a little different in size. Even though I weighted the dough when I divided it, I guess some I rolled slightly thinner than others.

 I am not sure if I was suppose to flatten the pastry before stacking them with pastry cream or leave them tall. Anyway, I left them tall. 

Then I prepared the creme patisserie which was to be filled in between each pastry and stacked them up tall. I only used 6 of the disc for stacking and the last one was crushed up to be used a topping for the outer layer. 

I should have used 2 for the topping because I didnt have enough to cover the whole gateau. The end result was a wonky and rustic gateau napoleon. 

My wonky gateau napoleon

Verdict of the gateau napoleon, everyone said not enough creme patisserie and too much pastry. I think so too. The taste was good but there are a few adjustments that I need to remember to fix for the next time. First of all,definitely more creme patisserie. Secondly, I think the pastry needs to be flipped and baked for a little longer to get the whole thing crispy because the bottom part of my pastry seemed a little soft. Thirdly more crumbs for the outer layer. I know I will try this recipe again and hopefully it will be nicer the next round. 

The layers inside

Pear and Boysenberry Frangipane Tart

I just learnt how to make frangipane in school and really enjoyed the mini raspberry frangipane tart that we made. I wanted to give it a try and make one big tart at home with the poached pears and boysenberries instead. The boysenberries were frozen ones that I bought from the orchard last month. I thought it will brighten the colour of the tart a little. I hope it is a nice combination in taste as well.

The tart case was not blind baked but instead, it was filled with frangipane and topped with fruits before baking. The leftover trimmings of the pastry dough was not wasted, I made a few roses and leaves to decorate the tart. 

Before baking

 When I filled the frangipane into the tart case, I was wondering if I had enough of the paste as it didn't come up to the top. Then I remembered that it will rise a little when baking so I think it will be alright. And sure enough, after topping with the fruits, it came out looking pretty tall. 

Fresh from the oven.

It took a long time in the oven, almost 55 minutes. I left it in the oven for a few extra minutes to make sure that the centre was cooked. The berries tinted the pears and the whole tart looked a little purplish. I like how the frangipane rose up in between the pears. The sweetcrust was a little dark but most said it was actually nicer because it was crispy. So I am happy with the result of my experiment. 

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