Chocolate Cupcakes & Raspberry Macarons

Today's adventures consisted of chocolate cupcakes and raspberry macarons!


I made the macarons first. I wanted to experiment with a different way to get the raspberry flavor, so far I've tried freeze dried raspberry powder in the shells with raspberry jam in the centre (jam by itself is too tart) and freeze dried raspberry powder in the shells with jam & whipped cream in the centre (whipped cream means it can't mature as it has to be eaten fresh).


I decided that the freeze dried powder might be affecting texture of the shell, so today I used it in a more artistic way, sprinkled on plain shells. I tried out this new raspberry flavoring I bought along with powder in some ganache but it doesn't have the intensity and tartness of the jam. The flavoring overpowered the powder too. 

So in conclusion, I think the best raspberry macaron for me to stick to would be plain shells sprinkled with raspberry powder with plain ganache with a teeniest dollop of raspberry jam in the middle! :)  That shall be Team JJ's raspberry macaron combination!

XS, S, M, L, XL lol! :)

The 100% reliable appearance of feeties :)

Very very smooth exterior when no freeze dried raspberry powder is added.

Today's experimental ganache..

 Can you tell my love for raspberry flavor? I now have powder, flavoring and puree forms of raspberry! Not to mention raspberry jam can be made easily.

Might have to work on better sprinkle technique :P

uh oh! Ganache a bit on the flowy side. Hope it doesn't sink to the bottom!

J does enjoy the occasional brownie so I relaxed my no-chocolate-in-the-bakery rule and hunted for a chocolate cupcake recipe :) Could not decide whether to decorate with the glazed ganache look, ganache frosting or white buttercream frosting. In the end I decided to go chocolatey all the way and with frosting rather than a glaze when I saw lovely fresh new season NZ strawberries at the shop!

Tried dark and white couverture chocolates today.

 The white couverture chocolate used in the macaron ganache today was much less sweeter than the Cadbury white melts I had been previously using. However the couverture chocolate is a bit cost prohibitive for regular every day baking. The dark ghana is worth it as a cupcake topping thou as you can savor the fine taste!

Tried a heaped ice cream scoop and a flat ice cream scoop for quantities.

Ready!

Travel ready!

Next project, little ducky cake pops like Bakerella's! Have my yellow candy melts ready but no idea where to obtain a styrofoam block from...any clues??

Japanese Cheesecake

Finally got round to trying out the Japanese cheesecake recipe and it was worth the effort. Tastes pretty similar to the ones in the shop, if not better because of the added lemon juice. I don't know how to get the top smooth and evenly browned like the shops thou. This one was baked on Saturday and demolished by J after he came home from work.

Beating the meringue

Mixing the cream cheese mixture

Gently folding meringue into mixture. Reminds me of macaronage!

All done!

Soft and fluffy!

On Sunday, a certain somebody went out and bought more eggs coz he wanted MORE cheesecake! ;)

First sunday cake in the oven

Second sunday cake on the bench waiting

I don't recommend letting something this light sit around but I was lazy to make two separately timed mixtures. Second cake did not achieve as much height as expected :) While baking Saturday's cake I also made a batch of creme a l'angliase in anticipation of making ice cream today so I made some ice cream while waiting for the cakes to bake. Here are some pictures to share.

churning churning churning

After adding a punnet of strawberries! Filled to the brim!

Soft serve ready to freeze

I used the French Vanilla recipe from the KA handbook. However I only added 250g rather than 500g strawberries and it was already threatening to overflow! I ended up with two lots of 1 litre pots. Will try some tonight!

 

Lemon Meringue Cuppies

Hi all~ I decided to make Lemon Meringue cupcakes today so I could bring some over to my friend's place - dinner invite. The Japanese cheesecake will have to wait till next weekend. The weather today was glorious! Is it springtime already? My 12 little strawberry plants certainly thought so...

Strawberry fields forever~ 

I had ventured into the garden to harvest some meyer lemon from my lemon tree! The first things I planted when we moved in half a year ago, two topiary meyer lemon trees.

Meyer lemons from garden

At the risk of sounding like a gardening blog! Let's move on to the cupcakes. I used Rachel Ray's Lemon Meringue Cupcakes recipe and doubled it to get 24 cupcakes rather than mini cupcakes.  I shall not link the recipe because... as I sit here typing this blog entry...I've sampled one and I find the taste and texture a let down :(
Argh! Sorry T & C! I will be unleashing some below average cuppies on you.

2 doz LMCs!

Only flavorsome bit is the homemade lemon curd.... That reaffirms that I made the right choice to sit out this year's Cupcake Day for the SPCA! Please support your family and friends if they decide to fundraise for the SPCA!
I will most likely participate next year :) After only 3 batches of cupcakes, not satisfied with my baking quality to be asking money for my cuppies yet!

Some boring vanilla macarons

Dropping one lot at mom's en route :)

And that's all for this weekend! I had a little incident and sprained my neck so am taking it easy! Ciao for now!~

Dare I say it....macarons?

Okay! This is macaron practise done for now. Will try something different next weekend like 'Japanese Cheesecake'. The ones that you get from the local asian bakeries with the light fluffy spongy texture, nothing like a 'proper' / 'real' cheesecake.

Raspberry Macaron with jam filling

 Raspberry ones are a bit wonky because I was trying the batches at different oven temps. 140 (20mins)-160 (13mins) degree celsius. I find the lower temp is better for the less crunchy exterior, wetter interior texture I like.

Batch of shells :)

And we are macaron-ed out for now!

More Macarons~

Did a batch sometime last week, plain shells with lemon curd and ganache filling...
still on baking hiatus so most likely nothing out of the oven this weekend, maybe a small tray of macarons if I feel up to it :)