Japanese Souffle Cheesecake

I watched Julia and Julie on VCD a couple of days ago. I know, the show is not new anymore. My sister had lent it to me and it had been sitting around for a few weeks until the fateful day 10 August.

In the story, Julie first started her blog on 13 August, *gasp* which is the day I actually wrote this post (but did not publish it)! While I was watching, my blog giveway was going on and I was thinking of what pie to make...and then Julia Child came on screen, talking about a chocolate pie! Oh man, how coincidental! Now, chocolate pie it shall be!

As the story unfolded, I felt like a little like Julie Powell. Like when I started my blog, I wondered whether there are anyone actually reading it, though I didn't start a blog with the intention of having the world read it. Perhaps my sister. Or my mother. But that doesn't count. Only strangers count (like Julie thought so too). Who am I blogging for? No one in particular. I enjoy writing, to put those conversations I have with myself into words. I shall do that as long as I feel like it.

When I got my first comment from a complete stranger, the feeling was quite beyond words. Ok, maybe a little exaggerated, but I was ecstatic! That same feeling came last year, when I received my first order from a complete stranger. Moments like this feel so good.

I saw Julia Child's book at the bookstore yesterday. If it was about baking, I might have bought it. Perhaps someday, if my interest in French cuisine deepens (and I know how to pronounce the names of the dishes properly), I would. Right now, french cuisine to me is almost limited to crème brûlée, choux à la crème and a few others. There is a kind of elegance and sophistication about French desserts that make me shy away from trying to make them at home.

Having said that, I tried a new thing lately. Baked cheesecake.

Cheesecake have never been my favourite, until I tried Oreo cheesecake and light japanese cheesecakes. So this time, I decided to take the plunge and try making a Japanese Souffle Cheesecake.

It is the first time I use a springform pan and definitely the first time I bake with the water bath method.

The cake came out with a lot of cracks on the surface, guess I needed more control over the temperature. I made it look worse by inverting it on my cooling rack and added grid lines to its face (remember, don't do this like me!).

But it tasted good. Light and fluffy like a souffle should. The cheese was not overpowering nor heavy. It is a perfect accompaniment for afternoon teas. Perfect for those times when you mouth feels like eating something but your stomach doesn't really agree.

Try the recipe here, I'm sure you can make it nicer than me.

(I thought this fridge magnet I got from Tokyo fitted perfectly here!)

2-tier Precious Moments Cake

Last week, I made my most satisfied cake by far.

It was a cake to be done in pastel colours, which suited me perfectly, since I usually am rather light-handed when adding colours to my cakes and am not used to making dark coloured ones. Desarae's mum had a Precious Moments topper ready to add on to the cake and she also liked to have an arch and ribbon on the cake. 

Initially I made an arch with pastel pink and green fondant. It was a little like a braid. It was nice and sweet looking, I like it. Unfortunately, the fondant could not dry totally (it kept raining and was humid). I was afraid it would not be able to stay upright. So the day before the cake was needed, I made another one, with gumpaste. This time, no braid, just a single long piece of pastel green fondant. I stuck flower wire in it to make it stay in shape.

The top tier was a carrot cake and the bottom tier a chocolate fudge cake with ganache. This is also the first time I bake both cakes and decorate them all within the same day. I usually split them into 2 days. Though I am pleased, I have to practise making more my cakes more flat. They tend to slope a little and this isn't so nice for doweling.

I hope Desarae's mother and her guests enjoyed the cake. I wish I have smaller hands for making those tiny presents and ladybugs and there were bits here and there that could be done better. But I enjoyed making it and I could not help beaming to myself whenever I see it. This is what cake making gives me :)

Before the topper was added

Closer look at the mat I made with my embossing tools

Final look

2-tier cream cake

2 weeks ago, I made a 2-tier cake for an order.

A 2-tier cake covered with fresh (whipped non-dairy) cream. For a 21st birthday.

Fresh cream? In humid Singapore? Theoretically, it should work. This was what I had thought, though I have only read and seen people using buttercream or fondant. As the date drew nearer, I started to panic. I wonder why I had even suggested using fresh cream. I googled for hours and never seem to find anyone making 2-tier cakes this way. And it was for a 21st birthday! What if I screw up the poor girl's birthday?? You are only 21 once in your lifetime. Oh right, you will also be 8, 33, 47 once. But 21st birthday is like a big milestone in life. I even had stupid ideas like telling her that my fridge has spoilt at the last minute and I could therefore only make fondant cakes. But no, that would be too cowardly.

Honestly, I never felt so stressed up in any of my previous jobs. The thought of screwing up really gave me big jitters. Real big ones.

The baking of the top tier (a 6") was ok. It was the baking of the bottom tier. The recipe I used was usually for a small batch and has never been multiplied so many times before. It seemed to take forever to bake. And when I finally took it out, it was 1.5 hours later and not good. I really hated to waste ingredients but I couldn't possibly use that for someone who had paid for my cake. So, down the bin went a 10" cake. I baked another one again and thankfully it turned out much better. It was midnight, but I had to wait for the cake to fully cool and give it a crumb coat so that the crumb coat can stay the night in the fridge.

Seriously, I have a love-hate relationship with fresh cream cakes. I love the lightness of the cream and that it is so easy to prepare. But I hate it because my hands are always too warm to work with it. In fact, my hands are often too warm for any icing. I used many methods (placing my hands on ice, on ice-pack, wear fabric gloves (?) ) and still nothing works satisfactorily.

For my earlier Elmo cake which I piped stars all over, it was supposed to be a simple task. But because of my hands, I had to return the cake and whipped cream to the fridge/freezer so often every now and then, the simple task took hours instead.

Thankfully, for this 2-tier cake, there was not much to pipe other than the borders.

The birthday girl liked the cascading roses of my other 2-tier fondant cake. But this being cream, the flowers would slide off the sides. So, I made steps and placed the flowers on the steps instead. On the top, there were a few small piped rosettes. Strawberries were also requested. It was a good thing that strawberries are in season!

I assembled the whole cake at home but brought along extra icing, roses and strawberries just in case they were needed when I reached the place.

The journey there was another heart-pounding time. Usually, when I make deliveries, I would be the driver, so that I can drive as gently and slowly as I want to. That day, I decided to hold on to my cake instead. My driver (aka my husband) is not as gentle a driver as me, and it was at times like this that you realise almost all of Singapore's roads are being dugged up to lay cables and are super bumpy. At first, I lifted up the cake box whenever we go over uneven ground so that the fragile cake would not get so much shock. Eventually, I put down the box only when the car is stationary.

I was very relieved when the cake (and cream) made its way to our destination without any problems. I could not wait to hand over the cake. There was no excitement when the birthday girl saw the cake. That got me a little worried. I always look out for people's first expressions when they receive their orders. But it was only after handing over the cake, that my pruned-up face managed a smile, almost a first in 2 days.

This is my first order for a 2-tier cake and even though I put in a lot of effort, I know this cake has a lot of room for improvement. It was because of the amount of time spent on this cake, that I did not have time to make anything for my father on Father's Day though I had many ideas in my head.

The next night, I received an sms from the birthday girl with many kind words of thanks and appreciation and that she really liked her cake very much. The strawberry cake pops I made were also well received by her guests.

When I saw the sms, I felt so thankful. So thankful for the opportunity and thankful for the trust given to me, that I almost wanted to cry. With every cake made, I learn something new and I get better at some things. This drives me to want to work harder to hone my skills and make much better cakes in future. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get more cake orders soon.

Retro time - Classic Fruit Cake

Last week, I bought some really nice strawberries and made a fruit cake.

It's a simple and classic fruit cake you can find in almost all bakeries here. Layers of light sponge cake, sandwiched with layers of strawberry cream and there you go. For the strawberry cream, I mixed whipped cream with pureed strawberries, with a little icing sugar for taste.

It was a small cake, just 6". I cut it into quarters and had them for breakfast for 2 days with my husband. I see so many of novelty and fanciful fondant cakes these days, it's almost nostalgia to see eat the fruit cake. While I was eating it, I thought of the buttercream cakes that were so prevalent when I was young.

Those were in every neighbourhood bakery and I particularly remember sinking my teeth into those from Sweet Ring and Mayflower cake shops. I don't think they still exist today, but someday, I'm gonna make myself some of those buttercream and pipe them in the way that those shops did.

To me, it was not about the taste alone. It was about the look of the cake slices. The buttercream stripes, the colourful dots piped with piping gel. They look so classic and now, retro. Someday, when I make those, I'm gonna enjoy them while putting on my bell bottoms, platform shoes and having my favourite 80s retro music. And, it's not retro without Strange Love by Depeche Mode.

I've digressed. I get so excited at the thought of retro music, of Depeche Mode, that I wish I am in a pub with my friends in Boat Quay right now, blasting Strange Love. During happy hours on a Friday night. Ten years ago. Damn. I think I am hanging on too much to the past.

Back to now. The recipe and instructions for the cake is here. It is a very light and fluffy cake, but you could basically use any Victoria sponge cake and do the same if you want to.

Now, kindly leave me alone for now. I'm blasting Strange Love on my laptop speakers *shakes head uncontrollably with eyes closed*.

Oreo cheesecake revisited

2 years ago, I made my first oreo cheesecake. Recipes for oreo cheesecake are all over the internet, but I tried one from Kraft, whom I thought I should trust, since they make the cream cheese.

There was no regrets in that choice.

Last week, for some reasons, I decided to make it again. I gave it to my good friend who actually celebrated her birthday 1 day before met up. For Chinese, we have this superstition that we cannot celebrate our birthday after it has passed. We can celebrate before the day, but not after the day. It doesn't actually sound logical. Say your 43rd birthday is 10 Dec, and for some reasons you celebrate it on 5 December. In between 5-10 Dec, if anything unfortunate happens and you have to leave this world (*touch wood*), you have not actually reached 43! Anyway, it is a taboo thing and no one questions it. That explains the lack of wordings on the cake and no mention of any reason when I passed the cake to my friend.

I looked back at my previous blog entry on the cheesecake here and was quite grossed out by the ugly cake I made 2 years ago. The picture this time is not perfect still, but is much better than before. (Reminder to self: replace the blog post list with this post asap instead of the one with the gross picture)

No-bake cheesecakes are so simple they just can't go wrong much. This time though, I reminded myself to beat the cream cheese till really smooth, unlike my first try. Do not make the same mistake as me. Beat the cheese real smooth.

So there goes, a smoother and neater looking cake, though the edges could have been better.

The recipe can be found in my recipes blog here.

Cakes for Mother's Day

One of my close friends had been telling me to go find a real good carrot cake. Since I like carrot cakes too, I checked out a recipe that I came across in Mich Turner's book. It turned out to be really good. It was so good that I decided to use it as a base for the 2 cakes I did for Mother's Day. One was for my mother, the other was for my mother-in-law.

I made the cakes, frosted them with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting and then covered them with fondant. This recipe calls for more ingredients than the carrot cakes I have eaten before and the most time-intensive part was grating the carrots, but the result was well worth the effort.

For these 2 cakes, I also made the effort to cover the cake board and use ribbons as part of the decoration. It was a waste of fondant (on the cake board), but it made the cakes looked so much more dressed up, I was beaming to myself with satisfaction when I completed them.

For an amateur like me who had not mastered the art of perfect cake borders, the ribbons were also a life-saver, for they hid all the flaws and unevenness of the fondant around the border.

The cakes were moist, full of flavours and packed with ingredients. I will add the recipe to my recipe blog soon (when I have time to type it out) you can try it out!

Update: The recipe has been added here!

First Tier Cake

Did I mention that I have finished my Wilton Course 3 on fondant and tiered cakes *grinning from ear to ear*? Fondant cakes are not exactly new to me, but tier cakes are....and that was my reason for wanting to take the course in the place. I've seen numerous Youtube videos on how to do tier cakes, but nothing beats having an instructor guiding you along the way and not forgetting, being in the company of wonderful , like-minded coursemates who make the lessons so fun.

 

 

A few days before our class, we had to make many fondant flowers for decorating our finale cake. I decided my flowers would be lilac....which was also the same colour as my flowers for my finale cakes for course 1 and 2 (how boring I am!). The flowers took me many hours and it was painstaking to make them 1 by 1 and then left them hanging to dry. I tried to make them as big as I could, so that I do not have to make that many, but these are about the biggest I can make.

 

I had visualised my cake to be simple and classic looking. So, that was what I did. I decorated the borders with beads and sides with some smaller beads.

  

  

 

There were parts of the cake I was not 100% pleased with but overall, I was very satisfied with it. But as expected, my cake looked the simplest and least colourful when compared to those of my classmates. I was really amazed at the number of flowers they made for the cake! 

This was also the first time I am using a new recipe for chocolate mud cake and I'm very glad it turned out very well. The chocolate was rich, moist and dense, perfect for fondant and tiered cakes. It had a strong hint of coffee (I used expresso instead of normal coffee), which successfully diverted the sweetness away (though some might find it a little bitter).Only pity was, I do not really like to eat fondant. So peeling all the fondant away made me felt a little wasted...that was a lot of fondant!

My mum's birthday cake

I'm a little behind with my blogging! I have cultivated the bad habit of turning to Facebook whenever I had the time, to check on how my cooking is doing in my virtual kitchen or how my virtual businesses are making me a tycoon. I'm determined to make myself more disciplined this week.

Last weekend, we celebrated my mum's birthday. I was rather tied up with preparations for my cake decoration class, but I did not want to miss out this opportunity to make her a cake. 

I cracked my head over what to do. I had initially wanted to make a chocolate banana layered cake, like the one I did before, and make it look nicer this time. In the end, I decided against it, because many of our relatives are not that young anymore and would be cautiously watching their intake of chocolate, sugar and cream! Besides, I predicted that everyone would be full from the dinner spread, so that cake might be a little too heavy for them.

At the same time, I really wanted to put what I have learnt so far in cake decoration, to good use. I know my mum would have liked the flower basket cake that I did in one of my class. That would however, mean I need to use buttercream or royal icing or fondant for that whole effect of the weaving and flowers, and that would not suit the palate of the people who would be there. 

I considered covering the cake with fruits, but I really wanted to make some flowers, so I finally decided on using fresh (whipped) cream to cover the cake and pipe some simple swirl flowers. Between the layers, I spread a little cream and put slices of canned peach. I still am not able to cover the cake perfectly smooth and my writings could be better, but it definitely looked better than my father's birthday cake from 2 years ago. The top of my sponge cake was even a little a bit burnt, though it did not give a burnt taste. I was afraid on how it would be received and was glad that they liked that the sponge was light and not too sweet. Phew!

I had an observation though...that none of them seem to take notice of how the cake looked. Perhaps it was too simple and they had nothing to comment on. I seem to find it a common scene among the celebrations in the family - that they do not generally notice how the cake is decorated, the emphasis is more on the taste. Perhaps they would, if the cake was made more stunningly and elegant...but I find it quite a waste, because cake decorators (not that I am calling myself one though) do spend a lot of time and effort on planning how a cake is going to look and a lot of hard work goes into the small details. 

I do usually take some time to look at every detail of my birthday cake, not only because I have an interest in it and I will always remember what my instructor mentioned in class - that sometimes we (the ones decorating) can be too hard on ourselves. We might wish we made our flowers a little nicer, leaves a little more pointed, the piping a little smoother and icing a little more evenly spreaded etc....but at the end of the day, the ones who notice it might be only ourselves. Perhaps, perhaps this is why most of the cakes sitting in our bakeries are usually decorated in "simple and safe" designs and it's sad!

My first fondant cake

This is my first cake for this year. I made some cupcakes last week, but this, is my first whole cake.

As part of our Wilton class, we are making fondant cakes this time. I have been playing with fondant for decorating cookies, making small figurines and decorations for cupcakes, but I have not covered a whole cake with it before. Theoretically, I know the steps on how it is done, but I just have not actually gotten down to doing it before today.

I love how smooth it looks, but what was stopping me from covering my cakes with fondant was because it never tasted good in my opinion. Its actually bland and a little rubbery and whenever I see it, I can only think of play-doh. I'm not sure how many people actually eat it. My impression is that nobody does and it always becomes a waste in the end.

In class, we made our cakes to look like a present. It is pretty simple but there was quite a bit of rolling of fondant to do and my wrists still could not be exerted too much. So as expected, I could feel the strain when I came back and it is supposed to take a few more weeks before my wrists can be normal again.

We covered the cake with the rolled fondant, do the ribbons, set them in place and ta-da, that's it! It is not the nicest of cakes, but our class did pretty well and everybody was proud of their own cakes. (I still have not tasted it though :p) Since I now have my first fondant cake, I shall do something I have been planning for the longest time...mini fondant cakes....and you shall be the first ones to see them when they are done. :)

I graduated again!

I survived Course 2 of my cake decoration class! I got a Certificate of Merit! Well, everyone's certificate is the same, hahaha.

For our finale cake, we had to make a basketweave cake. That is the whole intention of me taking course 2 - the basketweave.  While learning the basketweave, there was so much laughter and fun in our class. We made blunders and many times, we just froze in action, thinking what we had to do next.

This time, I was the lazy student. The whole week, I did not have much time to prepare. For 2 nights in a row before that, I slept only 4 hours and my hands ached so much from fulfilling an order and preparing for the finale cake. I planned to have the cake full of pastel pink roses. Only roses. Not the other flowers we were taught. And only in pastel pink, for that romantic, dreamy effect.

I did make some pastel pink roses though, but they were not enough to fill the cake. So, I had to put in my "black" roses. They are made by mixing blue with red, hence the very dark and unfriendly looking colour (ok, I finally managed to get Violet gel colour, so you probably won't see this unfriendly, mysterious-looking colour again).

I saw my classmates decorate their cakes with lots and lots of beautiful and colourful flowers. It was as if spring was in our class! They were really really pretty, and looked like they were the cakes that appeared in our coursebook.

So, I took my yellow rose (the brightest flower I had) and put it on my cake. It looked weird. That bright colour just did not feel like me. I took it off and replaced it with my "black" rose and that made me feel better.

After class, I had to go to the Immigration Department to collect a document. I could not leave the cake in the car which was under the hot sun. So I took my cake carrier, which had transparent sides. The lady at the counter saw it and complimented it. She asked if I made it and YES! It made me feel so proud of myself that day.

But I have got to remind myself not to feel attached to my cake. I should be able to put a knife through it without feeling sad and thinking of the effort I put into it. A cake is a cake. It's meant to be eaten. Now, I'm looking forward to course 3.

Mother's Day - Mango Mousse Letdown

It is a Saturday morning at about 6 am right now.

On normal weekdays, I would probably need a bed full of nails to get me up from it...nowadays, I have the habit of pressing the snooze button on my handphone alarm every morning. Is this a sign of getting old (lack of energy)? Yet on a weekday morning like now, my mind is so active I have trouble sleeping. This is the second time it has happened. I hate it totally, aarrrrggggh!

I decided to catch up on my blogging and post some long overdue pictures, hoping that you guys out there still remember me! The past few weekends had been a little busy with family BBQ, watching numerous movies and my usual pilates classes.

Some time back, I was looking forward to this year, because I will be turning 30! The big three! You know how female magazines publish articles which make you feel like turning 30 is the greatest thing in life...a woman in her 30s is a confident, sexy woman, blah blah blah. I think that worked on me. I was looking forward to the big 3....until lately when I think I really see changes.

My skin is getting more sensitive than ever, giving me rashes everywhere, probably due to hormonal changes? I am beginning to consider "upgrading" all my skincare products to the anti-aging range. I used to like my freckles but now, but now I feel I am beginning to look like a strawberry...and I've never seen a more obvious effect of gravity in any of my science lab classes than on my body. That's not all, sometimes I feel like having a kid!

Now that is something. I do not always come across as someone who loves kids, not screaming kids especially. I used to glare (with my goldfish eyes) tell off ill-disciplined or screaming kid in public...and probably even glare at their parents for not discipling them. But I have enough incidents in my life to tell me that karma will befall me, so these days, I am more tolerant, as I am afraid I would be glared at in future hahaha. But honestly, I am beginning to realise it really isn't easy being a parent at all.

A few weeks ago, it was Mother's Day. Some cynical people would say that this day is a commercial gimmick, every day should be Mother's Day. I agree to some extent, but then again, it is a good excuse for people like me (who does not openly show my appreciation usually) to do something for the great person who has always put us in priority.

Since mangoes are in season now, I made a mango sago dessert which my family likes about 3 weeks back, and also decided on making a mango mousse cake for Mother's Day. I had planned to make it a surprise, since my sister told me not to make any cake, we will go out for a celebration meal instead.

The net came in handy and I saw a recipe on a fellow blogger's blog which received many comments how good the cake looked (on hindsight, none of the comments were on the taste)

I replaced the sponge cake recipe with my own (since hers contain some ingredients which I would prefer not to use). For the rest of the cake, I followed the recipe exactly and made the cake the night before Mother's Day.

The cake tasted so bad I almost wanted to cry. I was truly disappointed. For this cake, I was ripped off by the mango seller, bought a new cake ring and larger tin, spent many hours on it and yet the end result is probably the worst I have ever made, in terms of taste.

I could not figure out what went wrong because the ingredients and instructions were followed exactly. Perhaps it was the recipe? I'm not sure. For this reason, I will not list the recipe here, I do not want you guys to try it and turn out to be a flop as well.

My mother was happy to see the cake, but of course, no one could be so untruthful to say that it tasted good. I told everyone to scrap off the mousse, and we ended up eating the sponge cake only. 2 slices of the cake were still in my mum's fridge a week after Mother's Day (and I went to threw it away), so you can imagined how much we enjoyed it.

Our celebration meal also did not happen because my father was unwell, and we had to drive down to his office to pick him and his car. So, instead of jostling with the crowds at restaurants, dinner was a simple affair at our favourite hawker center where he can have some bland and healthy fish soup, while I chomped down a bowl of prawn noodles with huge prawns.

Nevertheless, here's how the mango mousse cake looked. The words on the candy say Happy Mother's Day in Chinese.

My 100th post - Chocolate Banana Layered Cake

Hi!

You might have thought that this blog is dead because I seemed to have abandoned it. The truth is, after I wrote my last post, I realised that was the 99th post, which makes this the 100th post!

I was cracking my head how to make it a little more special, it took me quite a while to reach 100 posts, and there will be more to come! Then I remember there is an important day in March. So, I decided to coincide my 100th post with my post on the cake I made for dear's birthday.

I decided to make Chocolate Banana Layered Cake. We like the one from the eatery Secret Recipe, so I tried to imitate it, though mine still looks quite far from it. As you can see, the layers are not equal, and the bananas were beginning to look like they were too heavy for the sponge.

I covered the whole cake in Chocolate Buttercream, and then followed by a layer of Chocolate Truffle Icing from Donna Hay's recipe book. I did not make the whole cake in a single day, but all in, I spent about 5 hours on it. The chocolate truffle icing was delicious and the cake tasted better than it looked. I'm glad the birthday boy liked it and he had 2 servings of the cake at one go :)

I'll be sure to make it again and take a nicer picture next time! :p

Sweet & Simple Bakes - Vanilla Apple Cake

I am late I am LATE!

I baked this vanilla apple cake a few weeks ago, looking forward to the end of the month...and then in the midst of doing my stuff, I forgot about posting it!

Without further ado, here is my vanilla apple cake!

It is was terrific when moist and warm. My only regret is not putting more apples, as the apples shrank when baking. It doesn't look like the most beautiful thing, but it is one of the most comforting foods! Once out of the oven, it was gone in a jiffy! :)

The great recipe can be found here.

My father's birthday cake

It was my father's birthday on Sunday. After making the muffins on Saturday morning, I spent the rest of the afternoon making a cake for him.

Ever since I attended the lesson to make birthday cakes, I made only 1 attempt to make a sponge cake, and that was not too successful. I folded the egg whites too lightly and resulted in large air pockets and egg whites still being seen after the cake was out of the oven.

So, on Saturday, I tried again, and was careful with the folding as I did not want to disappoint myself and having to buy a cake from the bakery in the end. The mixture was great. I whipped the egg whites very carefully, watching them closely. When it was in the oven, I was excited. But my excitement soon turned into a little worry. About 10 minutes after I put the cake in the oven, the top started to burn. Yes, I put it on the correct shelf, so that the cake was right in the middle of the oven. I quickly put a piece of aluminium foil on top. But opening the oven at 10min would very likely make me end up with a deflated cake. With deflated hopes, I sat there to wait for the cake to be baked before I started making any preparations for frosting (in case the cake turns out a total flop).

When my cake was out, I couldn't wait for it to cool. I was anxious to see how it was. It seemed to take so long to cool, I turned on the aircon. Well, I had to turn it on soon when I prepare the frosting, so I might as well turn it on earlier to cool my sponge. It was flat but only a little deflated, but after cutting the top, I got myself a nice flat sponge and felt so pleased.

The silly thing came up when I was trying to slice it in half horizontally. I did it slanted, and it looked ugly, though the frosting would cover it.

For the frosting, I simply whipped some whipping cream spreaded all over the cake. It seemed to have a not so nice taste at first. But after the whole cake was done and refrigerated, the weird taste was gone, it was just how fresh cream tastes like.

The uncreative me did not know how to decorate the cake. Draw a cartoon? Nah...it's for my father. Add lots of fruits and chocolate? The do not like things which are too sweet. So, my cake turned out incredibly simple. I was also lazy to mix too many colours (well, in actual fact, my colourings were at my mum's place and I had forgotten to bring them over), so I only used my green colour paste...which has been recurring in whichever of my bakes which needed colour. The pastel green never fails to remind me of mint taste, but this cake has absolutely nothing to do with mint.

As you can see, I did not cover the cake nicely. The frosting was also too stiff, so it was not smooth. That is also why my pipings were breaking. And knowing my family would want to eat less cream, I tried to cover the cake as thinly as I could.

Despite all these, when my family came over on Sunday, my father was happy with my cake. Perhaps it's the first time we have a home made birthday cake in the family. He eagerly cut the cake and took a slice. He even used his finger to wipe off the last bit of cream left on the plate. Since it's only a 6" cake, the 6 of us quickly finished it in no time. I know it looks far from store bought cakes, at least it tastes decent. Ok, I'm ready to practise again whoever's birthday is coming up next!

And yes, unfortunately the recipe comes from a lady who conducts lessons on cake making, it would not be nice of me to share the recipe.

Victoria Sandwich Cake

This month's Sweet & Simple Bake is Victoria Sandwich Cake.

I baked this last night, and was pleasantly surprised to realise how hassle-free this recipe is. The ingredient list is short, the amount of equipment and utensils used are washup-friendly. More importantly, my mixture did not curdle (like they usually do) when I added the eggs in, as I did exactly as instructed and added the eggs 1tsp at a time. I'm so glad to pick up an important tip.

Though my cake did not turn out a nice even brown as the cake in the SSB website, I am pleased with this first attempt. And I only have one 6" tin, I baked the whole thing in one tin instead of 2 tins. Then I sliced it in half and spread the strawberry jam. As soon as the cake was filled with the strawberry jam, I ate a slice, and so did my husband. It was yummy! My cake was a 6" one, with 2 slices gone, it looked like half the cake was gone.

This morning, I googled the origins of Victoria Sandwich cake. Sprinkling sugar on top is quite an important part! I did not sprinkle sugar on top last night, as I thought it would be too sweet. After googling, I went to sprinkle sugar on the remaining cake and took some new pictures, haha!

I brought 2 slices for my parents to try and they liked it. When I came back just now, there was none left for me. I sure will be making this again! And I will be getting a 8" tin or another 6" tin, so that I can have more cakes!

chocolate sponge cake attempt

last sunday i tried to make sponge cake, to see if i can replicate the results i achieved at the class i attended.

conclusion, i overwhipped the whipping cream, and so it could not be used for coating the cake. the sponge cake itself was rather fluffy and light, although there were patches of white, which was the meringue which i was afraid of overfolding.

so the following mornings, i had plain sponge for breakfast!

Hmm, more practise is needed huh? sure! i have bought more ingredients, ready to practise and make more mistakes! by christmas time, i should be good at it i hope!

My first birthday cakes!! *so satisfied*

Yippie! I graduated yesterday, with a certificate of attendance for Basic Sponge Cake and Decoration class. The cert is in dear's computer, I shall load it another day.

In the class of only 6, there are all females, and we all stood there, making cakes, from 1pm till 7pm!! It was supposed to end at 6pm but I tell you, you can't learn from scratch to make 2 cakes AND decorate them in 5 hours! I haven't stood for so long in a long time!! I think the last time was when I was working at part time sales person in the PC show a few years back.

We did 2 sponge cakes, and decorated them. The class is not cheap, but was fantastic. It precisely taught what I wanted to learn. Before I attended the class, I tried making a birthday cake once, and it was a flop. I had a few questions about frosting, and the sponge cake itself. The class answered my questions!

Here is a vanilla sponge cake with blueberry inside.

It was supposed to be a Miffy picture. Ok I know. I have seen Miffy before and she does not look like this...You know why? We used chocolate to draw a Miffy and let it set in the fridge. The design I drew was actually like the one on the left in the above picture. But my chocolate design was too thin and did not come out of the plastic sheet, and thus could not be transferred to the cake. So, I have to use another classmate's Miffy, which was not exactly very well drawn...and I was lazy to fill a piping bag with chocolate just to draw a cross as her mouth.

For the other cake, we played with clowns. We practised piping. I think I was not too bad, because I had learnt piping myself beforehand, some months back actually, by always surfing the net. But it was really tedious to smoothen the cream on the cake. And for beginners, it is not easy, because once you have done the top, you realised the sides are need to be worked on...and when you have done the sides, you need to work on the top again. We were all very quiet when doing this part. And we did it 4 times in all (for the 2 cakes), so by the second cake, we were better at it already. :)

Here is the second cake! I like the pastel colours! I mixed them myself! This one has cherries inside, like blackforest cake.

The sponge cakes were really light and fluffy. You will not have the full feeling after eating it. It was too bad that the sponge cakes 3 of us made were deflated in the middle. That is because the 3 cakes were placed in the same oven, and somehow the temperature was not even. That's why it is risky to make more than 1 cake at a time, because the more you put in the oven, the more it affects the evenness of the temperature.

And here is a picture of some our my other classmate's efforts! Yeah I know the one with the boy looks cute. But there is only 1 stencil for that, so only 1 of us used it.

After the class, I went to my aunt's house. One of my cousin's son was simply ecstatic over the moon in Miffy Cake. He insisted on taking a portion of the cake home, and of course I was glad to oblige. The rest of the Miffy cake went to dear's and his mum's stomach, and they gave it thumbs up. The clown cake is for my family, and it was thumb's up too! So happy!! :D

Birthday without cake

Just in case you are wondering, I was not sitting around and neglecting my oven, although my blog has not been updated for a few weeks.

In fact, last week, I tried to make a birthday cake for my dad. Ambitious wish, since I have not made any proper cake complete with frosting. The end result, was nothing like a birthday cake you see in the shops. So, in case you see my cake and never want to celebrate any occasion with cakes again, I shall spare you the torture. You shall see only the sponge cake that was in it.....haha!

Yesterday, I tried to make double chocolate chip muffins. Ok, you see the word tried and you know the result. I did not even take any pictures of it. The first time I tried this damn recipe, it was too wet. So yesterday, I haved the amount of milk. Still there was too little flour and the muffins caved in a little in the middle. I was pissed at whoever shared the recipe, because there was defintely some mistakes in it. I was reading the recipe again and again before I began and I sensed that something was not right, but I decided to give it a second chance.

It was a wrong move and I wasted my ingredients again. They were edible, but not like muffins because they caved in. I had wasted my good chocolate which was quite expensive compared to what you get in normal supermarkets. On the bright side, the taste was quite nice, a very chocolatey taste. I had given my dear almost half of the total number of mini muffins, and I am left with about 20 of them. Sigh...gonna get fat again!