Miffy Birthday Cake

There is no better way to spend the weekend than to bake a birthday cake. Since my dear friend Cannie is a huge Miffy fan, what better way to celebrate than with a Miffy cake.

It was a great joy to make this cake. The cake is 5" in diameter, which to me is a great size. As I am honing in my cake and fondant skill, I find working on a smaller cake to be easier to handle, not to mention being less stressful comparing with working on a bigger size cake. Maybe with more practices, I will go higher up in the cake size ladder.

So back to the cake, the inside is a simple vanilla cake, and top with salted caramel buttercream. As it is one of most requested flavour in my macarons, it is natural to top this cake with salted caramel buttercream.

The cake is decorated with fondant bunting flag, fondant flowers and a 3D Miffy figurine. I am happy with most part of the cake, although given another go, I will like to make a more trimmer Miffy, but oh well...  who doesn't like a fat rabbit.

Miffy Cake Front

Miffy Cake Back

Miffy Close Up

Chocolate Chip Cookies

What better way to beat the typhoon blues by making some classic chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are a huge favourite in the Koneko household. These sweet cookies could even entice the usually non-sweet tooth hubby to have one or two.
The recipe is quite simple, and are taken from one of my favourite baking sites Joy of Baking.com I have taken the liberty to alter the ingredients a bit (especially the sugar portion), so it will be not as sweet for the Asian palette. The outcome of these cookies are quite chewy, and it totally melts in your mouth.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen cookies (each 3.5 inches diameter)
(adapted from joyofbaking.com)

200g Unsalted butter (Room temperature)
90g Caster white sugar
130g Light brown sugar
2 large eggs (Room Temperature)

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

295g All-Purpose flour

1tsp Baking soda

1/2 tsp Salt

270g Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer beat the butter until smooth and creamy (Around 4 minutes).
3. Add the white and brown sugars and beat until fluffy (about 2 minutes).
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
5. In a separate bowl, sift and combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat until incorporated, adding the chocolate chips about half way through mixing. If you find the dough very soft, cover and refrigerate until firm (from 30 minutes to two hours).  
6. For large cookies, use about a 2 tablespoon ice cream scoop or with two spoons, drop about 2 tablespoons of dough (35 grams) onto the prepared baking sheets. 
7. Bake about 10 - 14 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. 
8. Cool completely on wire rack.

Baking in progress

The final product

Lemony-lemon Macarons & Rose Macaron

So over the weekend I continued with my quest for the perfect macarons in my tiny kitchen. As many of you will know, macarons are a fincky little thing.  Even after I have mastered a smooth top after a year of experimenting, I am still striving for the perfect macaron with even colouring, consistent height and of course balanced flavours.

This weekend I chose to make lemon macaron and rose macaron.  These are quaint essential classic macaron flavours.  Whilst the shell of both macaron have similar ingredients and should in theory taste the same, it is the filling that gives each one their distinctive taste.  To enhance the lemon flavour, I added 1 lemon zest and 1 tsp of lemon juice to the Italian-meringue buttercream.  By adding lemon juice to the buttercream, it helps to give the macaron a more authetic sour taste, which I found most people like. The rose buttercream was made by mixing the Italian-meringue buttercream and Rose jam that my dear husband got for me from the Mandrian Oriental.  I think the aroma and taste of the rose jam compliments really well with the buttercream.

The piped macarons

Lemons are in the oven. Look how puffy they are, but once out of the oven they deflate at little bit.

Rose Macarons

Lemon Macarons

Cupcakes and Macarons

 

So I made these classic cupcakes and macrons over the weekend. The cupcakes were vanilla cupcakes topped with Italian-meringue buttercream in various colours. I am still trying to get my buttercream to a consistency in which I can pipe a perfect buttercream swirl. Or maybe I just need to make more cupcakes so I can practice more. I love how nice and colourful the cupcake turned out. Taste wise I really like the texture of the cupcakes, but I think I still need to reduce the sugar by about 10% as I think the average Asian taste tend to be less sugary.

A cupcake gathering

The lily behind was one of my final piece that I made in my last Wilton course 4 class

 

The macarons were from a recipe from Pierre Herme. It was salted butter caramel and green tea topped with red bean buttercream.  I think I will make the salted butter caramel much more darker next time, because I think it is too pale at the moment. I am determined to get the perfect macaron out of my little oven!

Classic: Vanilla Cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

This is a classic vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream. I have accented the cupcakes with little fondant flowers. I love these cupcakes cause they were not too sweet and were fluffy and taste delicious.