Cream Puffs with Chocolate Pastry Cream

What does going to Pantry Magic mean to you? For me, it's feels exactly like a 5-year old kid going to Toys R' Us, there is so much to play with! And going in also means spend, spend and spend. I see the colourful silicone baking tools and colourful melamine mixing bowls and just drool. What's the fascination over pots, pans, baking trays..which I have and see everyday? I don't know. The grass is always greener on the other side. I am a big sucker for nice (and sometimes expensive) kitchen stuff. Even if it means not owning them, I have to look at them. I can go to a department store and look at the expensive pots, knives, crockery for the umpteenth time and not get tired of them. But I told myself I do not need a sixty bucks mixing bowl. Therefore, todays's trip to Pantry Magic was a highly disciplined one. I went in without a shopping list, which was very dangerous, but I managed to spend only a little.

I was in high spirits, and still am. My mind is still at my niece's birthday party over the weekend. I reckoned that during parties, anything bite-sized moves the fastest ( at least I personally would rather grab bite-sized food than hold a plate all the time). Moreover, she already had a birthday cake so I decided to make some bite-sized cream puffs filled with chocolate pastry cream.

I had initially wanted to make eclairs. Well, the pâte à choux is the same anyway. But somehow, when I made them into eclairs, the centers did not dry out 100% and my piping skills sucked. They did not look as nice as I wanted them to be. So I made a second batch of the pastry dough and made them into small cream puffs, or also called profiteroles.

The pastry dough was easy peasy. Initially, the instructions for the pastry cream did not go well into this little scatterbrain of mine. I had to read it over and over and over again and all I got was "pour into here...and then pour into there...and then pour in here again...". But once I got into doing it, I wasn't that scatterbrain after all.

The recipe that I used was not the same as I had used in my first attempt. This time, both the pastry and cream recipes are from Pierre Hermé, one of the most famous pastry chefs in the world. It was one of the Daring Bakers' challenges (which I have been dropped as a member since I did not follow their baking schedule), you can do a google search and find it on the blogs of numerous Daring Bakers. I did some slight tweaks on the recipes to suit my guests' palate and my oven's cooking time. I also did not do the chocolate glaze as the Daring Bakers, I used my own recipe and squeezed them out of a squeeze bottle.

Two people found the pastry cream a little too sweet, the others all said they were delicious! They also look a lot better than my first two attempts on cream puffs. This recipe is a keeper!

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Chiffon cakes.

My family is not a big fan of them. Simply because even after eating a few slices of chiffon cakes, they feel like they have eaten nothing.

Me? I like them...even though I have to agree that chiffon cakes cannot seem to make me feel full. I've always wondered why chiffon cakes are usually the cheapest cakes sold at local bakeries. To me, they are the underrated ones. They are not that easy to master and they use a lot of eggs, yet they are only worth two bucks.

A few years ago, I made my first chiffon cake attempt. I remember I bought a pack of pre-mix since it was my first try. I had actually contemplated a long time before buying because it required something like 8-10 eggs? Eventually, I decided to risk 10 eggs. It turned out disastrous. At that time, I did not know how the egg whites are supposed to be. I remembered the batter was still very liquid when I poured it into the pan....and slowly, the batter seeped through the bottom of the pan and made a mess of my oven. It was a nightmare. That sort of gave me a phobia and put me off another attempt for several years....until this year.

3 months ago, I finally plucked my courage for a second shot. I found a recipe for Lemon Chiffon Cake which required much less eggs. It was a good try. The cake was yummy, in fact I would say honestly that I prefer it to this chocolate one below, though this is also yummy. The only problems were (1) my pan was too big for the recipe, thus my cake was not that high and (2) I did not manage to get a good shot of the cake. Therefore, I did not blog about it.

I got the recipe for this cake from a fellow blogger's blog. Generally it was nice, but I think I still prefer chiffon cakes to be pandan flavoured, and I think the amount of baking powder used could be reduced, since there are 4 egg whites. My guinea pigs said the cake was soft and fluffy enough but everyone prefers pandan flavour. It is just like a default flavour for chiffon cakes.

The cake turned out very high, because my pan was a little too small this time. The pictures managed to hide a few cracks but it was a satisfied and good attempt.

My next attempt will definitely be pandan flavoured.

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

Banana Chocolate Bread

After missing out on the previous 2 bakes from Sweet and Simple Bake, I'm back in action for January's bake! What a better way to start the year with the most wonderful combination - banana and chocolate?

I almost forgot about the bananas I bought...and in the end, I could only use half of them, as the other half of the bunch had began to rot.

As I went through this recipe, I was a bit unsure...at the part on adding the butter and rubbing it in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Maybe I am too narrow in my knowledge, isn't this supposed to be for pastry making? Nevertheless, I followed the recipe exactly, except that I had to half the portion (since I did not have enough bananas). The other change I made was to add extra chocolate chips.

The fragrance of the banana filled the kitchen after half an hour, and by the time it was almost cooled, we just had to take a slice.

Mine turned out a little too moist and crumbly, other than that, the taste was definitely awesome.

Go on, give yourself a little banana treat today, the recipe is here.

Chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Today is my cousin's daughter 16th birthday and she held a BBQ celebration this evening. October also happens to be the month of the birthdays of my godbrothers, as well as my cousin's other daughter. I made them a handful of cupcakes and hope that they will like them.

Using the fondant skills I have just acquired, I made some fondant stuff 2 days back (giving them time to dry). My godbrother is born in the year of the pig, so I made him a pig face. My niece Peiwen, gives me the ever-relaxed, happy-go-lucky feeling, so I made her a pair of flip flops. For my other godbrother Wilson and other cousin's daughter Michelle, I am not sure what they will like (on hindsight, the pair of flip-flops should be for Wilson instead..), so I put cheerful flowers next to their names.

Last year, I gave Willie some cupcakes for his birthday too, I hope this year's cupcakes are an improvement. They are made with a different recipe, and I hope he finds them delicious. The chocolate cupcake is from Donna Hay's book named Chocolate. Willie will be back tonight from Hong Kong, so I guess they will be a surprise for him.

I am not sure how they will like the cupcakes, because buttercream is not something everyone likes. I find that the locals do not favour buttercream because of the sweetness and high calorie count. That is why I tried to frost them as thinly as possible, instead of making nicer and higher swirls. I would have liked to keep them to a common theme, but the fondant figures that I made cannot belong to a common theme...so I guess..until I master more fondant figures, then I will try to make the colours and figurines to a common theme next time.

The youngsters sure had a good time this evening. Seeing them makes me feel old...I am not as energetic as them anymore...I need to get my beauty sleep now..zzzzzzz

Recipe for the cupcakes has been added here!

My birthday (chocolate) cupcakes

This evening, I came back later than usual from work. So, we had dinner later than usual. By the time we cooked, ate, and washed up, it was about 8pm.

Still, I wanted to make cupcakes. It was quite a wrong decision, in the sense that I stood there to make the cupcakes all night long. Making the cupcake and making the frosting is so tiring.

By the time I'm done with washing up (there's so much to wash for cupcakes! And so oily!), it was just nice, 11.59pm. When I snapped the picture, it was 12 midnight, MY BIRTHDAY!

Happy birthday to me!

I wanted to bring a few to the office for my colleagues, but dear said why give to the people who do not appreciate them? Let's keep them for ourselves, haha. It's quite true. He loves the buttercream....my colleagues would have scrapped them all off, even though I had already spread it very thinly.

*notice my silly penguins making their rounds again*

Double chocolate chip cookies

I was wanting to buy bananas today to bake a banana bread for the banana bread bake off organised by Not Quite Nigella. Can you believe it, I cannot find any ripe bananas!! Have all the monkeys gotten them? Haha.

In the end, I decided to make something chocolatey. I seem to be in a chocolatey mood. I just bought a pack of M&M to snack on in the office today, and I am not usually a snack person, though chocolate is my weakness. I took out my Donna Hays recipe book and chose the double chocolate chip cookie.

It was really nice! Though I wish they were a bit more chewy than crispy. Instead of dark chocolate chunks, I added the remaining of my Hersheys chocolate chips into the final mixture. The kitchen was filled with the aroma of chocolate. The recipe says it makes 16 cookies. They must've been giantic ones, because I made more than 40 cookies, and they are already bigger than what I usually make.

I wish I am having these cookies with my husband, with a hot steaming cup of hot chocolate, while chatting into the night..

*pokes my dream bubbles* reality is....I have to go to bed now, and turn up for work tomorrow. But hey, tomorrow is Friday!! Yeah!

Maybe if I have the time over the weekend, I might still make it for the Bake Off!

Chocolate mania

Bought a new recipe book yesterday. Sometimes I wonder why there are still so many recipe books being sold, because everything can be found on the Internet. I contradict myself...haha..because I actually bought another recipe book when there was a 30% discount coupon I could cut from the Saturday newspapers and use at Borders.

Pictures, pictures! I am attracted to nice pictures of food. I would flip through the book. If it's one of those "500 recipes for everyday cooking" and there are no pictures, I would not even think of it.

I bought a book on wholly chocolate by Donna Hay. Looks fantastic and just makes me drool. Chocolate cakes, cupcakes, muffins, panna cotta, biscotti, brownies, cookies... The close-up shot of the double chocolate cookies with melting chocolate in the middle...heavenly! I wish I have a camera like this...and photography skills like this too. It makes the most normal food turn into heavenly tantalising craves. Soon, I shall try something from this book soon. Just wait for my pictures! :D

Duo chocolate cupcakes (yinyang) with chocolate frosting

it's gonna be my godbro's birthday in a few days' time...and i thought ok, since I haven't been giving him any presents for years, how about making something this time?

so i decided to make yin yang cupcakes, with both white and black chocolate.

the frosting was made with some nice semi-sweet chocolate, with some kahlua...i coated a thick coat and then decided to melt some white chocolate to write 'Happy Birthday".

As you can see, the words look like of wriggly and ghostly. i thought they look more suitable for Halloween instead, hahaha!

So, with some sprinkles, and a silly looking penguin, i am set to give him this box of cupcakes tomorrow, hoping he will like them!

Next time, i will make buttercream frosting instead. I always think that swirls always look nicer and more elegant than chocolate frosting, of course, minus the ghostly words :p

My cupcakes!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm back! OMGoodness, I am bouncing with excitement. I was about to take more pics of my cupcakes when the battery of my digital camera ran out...I will let it charge for 5min and then take more pics...though I have already taken quite a few during the class.

The class was fun! It was like a dream came true, or rather it was like living in my dreams!

Working on a big island kitchen top, with blocks of professional expensive knives, using Kitchenaid (OMG...I can't get more excited than using this...I have always yearn for it...will buy one for myself one of these days when I have saved $749)..using Scanpan pots, silicon bakeware (you know how expensive these are??), under light jazzy music, in rainy weather where the pitter-pattering of the raindrops make you float in a light romantic mood. It was nothing to complain about. Ok, maybe I am overdramatizing it...but how often now do I come back and blog about something that has just happened??

When I drove back, I was careful to drive slowly, especially when going over humps and bumps, so that the frosting on the cupcakes will still be pretty when I reach home. Ok, it is not much compared to those made by professionals, but I am really glad at the outcome. Only thing is, I think there are not enough cupcakes for me. I brought back 18 cupcakes, 6 Opera ones (with chocolate flowing from inside) and 8 Carrot with cream cheese frosting.

I loved every minute of it. From the mixing of ingredients, whipping, piping (especially excited at this, since I have always wanted to try at home)..to trying to steal secrets out from the teacher.

Just this morning, my dad asked my mum what's up with me, and I going to open a bakery? I hope so, but not up to mark yet. Maybe it's my calling..haha!

Bear with the for the number of pictures, I am totally thrilled. The joy of the baking process is always greater than the anticipation of eating it.

filling with chocolate ganache

all topped with frosting

my group and our cupcakes..mine's the tray in the middle

you don't always see my face in my blog, but here goes..beaming with joy

closer look at my carrots..

all home safely, looking pretty...ok beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder..

see the chocolate inside...the moist part..

my carrot!! ok, think you get the idea..