Lemon Curd Layer Cake

Here's a quick post of the birthday cake I made JJ. It's my first 'proper cake' ever! Lemon Meringue Pies and Cupcakes don't count as cakes do they? :)


I used Delia Smith's recipe for the lemon cake and lemon curd. 

Raspberry Macarons with Seedless Raspberry Jam & Freshly Whipped Cream!

Decided to give Guillaume's strange french method recipe another go last night. Strange because he doesn't incorporate sugar into the whites at all. Doesn't that make it very unstable? Since the italian method is supposed to be stable because it binds the sugar with the whites... Food chemistry... let's not go there!


I didn't age my whites... Big NO NO for french method. Sounding like a recipe for disaster yet? hehe! 


So here is my over coloured whipped egg whites...

Pretty rose colour

Macaronage

French method  plus Silpat I find always results in wetter feet, but fret not! Nothing a 2 minute "blast freeze" won't fix say the pros! Obviously I don't have a commercial blast freezer so I used the fast freeze option on the freezer. Give it a go if you get sticky feet, it'll come right off.

Silpat lower, Parchment further away - again not much difference in feet

Made some seedless raspberry jam. Much more enjoyable to eat without seeds!

Sieving out the seeds

Filled them with freshly whipped cream and jam. Unconventional filling because it's too moist~ Eat straight away (french shells don't need maturing imho) or store in the freezer so that the cream doesn't turn the shells to mush :)

I won't be using this recipe again as I find it results in a rather coarse exterior. Guillaume uses commercial almond meal so perhaps his grain is much smoother and it works for him. 

Was contemplating blogging straight away...

The photo just above reminded me of my favourite brand Q Pot. Such a pity I didn't manage to find a store during my flying (3 short days) trip to Tokyo. I hope they still have this design when I next visit!

Q Pot!

Speaking of Q Pot, when I saw Laduree's latest strawberry cupcake design last week, I thought it looked inspired by Q Pot's design!

Laduree Strawberry Cupcake- the swirl, the strawberry and sparkly accent 

Q Pot cream ring :)

With JJ's birthday this Wednesday (just baking a simple lemon cake), my birthday this Thursday and our anniversary as well, parties and dining out are in order so I think I'll take a well deserved hiatus from baking!!!


Ciao bella!~

Saturday Baking Frenzy

Made three types of goodies today! Let's do reverse order for this post!~ Instead of my usual preliminaries-utensils- step by step pics-finished product, would be too lengthy a post.

JJ requested a snowman macaron and here is what I came up with!

Meet Mr Snowman!

Was easy to achieve one piece for this shape~ Pity I didn't have pretzel sticks for arms :(

Vanilla Macarons with Vanilla Bean Ganache

Macaron stack

As you may have noticed, I gave the italian meringue method a whirl this week. This is the more commercially viable method and the method recommended for macaron newbs because it is 'fail proof'. Compared to the french method, italian gives a smoother slightly glossy finish and with a whiter colour is better for coloring. On the downside, it's shell and texture is less delicate and too sugary for me personally. However, prettier for a gift especially to non-macaronites!~ Maybe I should read up on the swiss meringue method as well! Would be interesting to see and taste the difference :)

I wanted to compare Silpat to parchment paper...

Parchment on left vs Silpat

Underneath- Parchment on left vs Silpat

I've seen pictures online that show Silpats usually have a wetter foot but was not the case this time. I will try again when I use the french method to see if the difference is more pronounced.

Macaringues! Team JJ trialed a macaron- meringue hybrid 

Tastes like macarons but with meringue texture~ They strangely even developed feet :O

Finally made the Lemon Meringue Pie!

LMP!

Some shopping after work on Friday, technically not baking related but inspired by the KA stand mixer!

Got the blender~ (and Salter digital scales & candy thermometer that facilitated the macarons above!)

Home made ice cream coming right up!

And.....the freebie that made my day! Thanks Linda and Mr-Nice-Sorry-I-don't-know-your-name!

Got given this hush-hush loyal customer incentive!

Gotta love free stuff!

And that's all for this weekend! Need for foot massage from standing in the kitchen that long!

Macaron practise sessions!

Got some practise on macarons this weekend in between weekend outings! - Saturday : Raspberry Macarons with Raspberry Mascarpone and Sunday : Lemon Macarons with Lemon Curd. Both utilising the french method as I like the less sugary flavor and lighter texture.

My hand-me-down-but-brand-new scale unfortunately has to go as it only has marks at 20 gram increments while the recipe requires precision to 5 grams, so I will not be attempting macarons again till I get a digital scale as we all know precision makes or breaks a macaron! Also, I'm using starched sugar, after all No So Humble Pie gets beautiful macarons using starched sugar.

For the raspberry macarons, I used Tartelette's recipe here, followed the recipe as closely as I could with the exception of using 1 teaspoon raspberry powder instead of 1 tablespoon coloring. I used a smaller amount as I wasn't too sure how the freeze dried powder would react- tends to draw moisture.

Double sifting is hard work, will be getting a blender to help in macaron quest soon!

Opps! Forgot to sift in the raspberry powder, so just dumped it on top!

Beating the whites..

Never quite know when to stop, so I always turn the bowl upside down, when it stays: STOP!

Took it too far! About 55-60 stirs. Tartelette recommends no more than 50.

Could not control the flow!

There you have it! Overmixed sloppy mixture! But baked it anyway and the result was...

Raspberry mascarpone

Tadah! Flat almond biscuits ;)

 While the raspberry powder smelt divine, it loses it's vibrant hot pink colour on baking. So perhaps, 1 teaspoon raspberry, 1 teaspoon coloring might be a compromise.

On Sunday, I wanted to try Tartelette's recipe again without the overmixing. I counted 45 stirs this time, even then it was a little sloppy but I'll put it down to my guesswork with the measurements.

No yellow food coloring this time... still learning to be consistent with piping.

Lemon curd- at least this is super easy to get right every time!

Finished product

Shells were still a little brown despite using a lower rack in the oven than the raspberry attempt. Guess all was not lost thou, as of Monday afternoon, my chief taste tester had polished off all of the weekend's efforts! He is enjoying my new hobby :) Looking forward to next practise session when I have a proper scale and a blender! Might even try parchment paper as it gives neater feeties than silicon mats. Now...I still owe someone his Lemon Meringue Pie...

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

My ribbons arrived this morning! In theme with today's decorations. I love grosgrain ribbons with saddle stitch! At least...I think it's called saddle stitch.

Momma! There are little birdies on the paper!

Momma! Can we keep the packaging paper?

Chief Box Inspector reporting for duty!

Ribbons!!~ Doesn't everyone love ribbons?

I thought the packaging paper (actual proper wrapping paper) used to pad the inside of the box was a bit fancy smancy. Maybe it's their way of advertising their products :) Oh! While we are off topic, here's a pic of the cupcake inserts and macaron boxes that arrived late~

Macaron box to the right. 

While laying out all the equipment and ingredients on the bench, I was thinking about how my mum bakes without so much as a scale or measuring cup/spoon in sight :-\ She doesn't even own a spatula! HMMmmm....

So much stuff!

So I used this Chelsea Sugar Red Velvet Cupcake recipe as I love how it omits cocoa powder. I used self-rising flour and omitted the baking soda & salt. Substituted raspberry flavoring with Monin raspberry puree- 3 tablespoons, added 1/4 cup of flour to balance the added liquid. Used lemon juice instead of vinegar as I wasn't too worried about making the red colouring bright red. I didn't dare to swap the oil with butter as I read that you shouldn't change the consistency even thou they are both fats- one is a solid and one is a liquid. Using a cream cheese frosting so as to use minimal sugar.

Here's the goop! I refrained on the coloring.

Cut white fondant circles to go on top of the cream cheese frosting.

Got lazy trying to flush the edge of the white fondant with the cases...

Will use Wilton circular cases next time I want a fondant top! Probably made it harder having domed cupcakes! I shall have to research more  if I want to attempt it again :) *update* just looked at Bella Cupcakes and realised she cuts it larger than the cases and leaves it circular. So... there isn't actually a technique to flush fondant. If you like flush, you have to compromise and leave it as a frosted top!

Made the fondant ribbons last night before going out drinkies~

Gotta love inserts for driving purposes!

Boxed and fridged -ready for delivery!

So Team JJ had a taste test and found the cuppies really light and refreshing. Complete opposite of last week's sugar fest- the Magnolia Bakery vanilla cuppies. Next weekend's adventure will probably be Lemon Meringue Pie as J has been repeatedly requesting it! :) Gotta find a recipe for the pastry base- no more store bought short cuts in this kitchen! x