Friday, January 28, 2011

Star Wars Cake, Cupcakes & Cookies

These are what i have been so busy with. My friend Angela (Sweet-Tooth-Fairy) asked me to take on her client in her absence and she "pushed" me to accept it...knowing that i need to stop watching too much TV and get some work done. LOL!   

R2-D2 CAKE

Front View of R2D2 Cake

Side View of R2D2 Cake


R2-D2 & R2-M5 CUPCAKES

mini R2-D2 & R2-M5

mini R2-D2 & R2-M5
These are my diy cupcake wrappers in case you all are wondering..:) 
I downloaded a file on papercraft from a Japanese website and edited them in photoshop and adjusted to the size that i wanted for my cupcakes.  


STAR WARS  CHARACTER COOKIES

Star Wars character cookies. 
These cookies are harder to ice than i thought! I had a hard time trying to ice them esp. Boba Fett..took me a really long time that i almost tear my hair out..lol!

Many thanks to Angie (another friend name Angela..lol!) who carried the cutters all the way back from US. 

Misc Star Wars logo cookies
Just playing around with some designs with my extra cookie dough
These are totally inspired by Angela of Sweet Tooth Fairy and Callye of Sweet Sugar Belle. 

Cookies packed.  I did the labels on my own. :D 


Now i'm taking a break from baking...and a break from Star Wars...

Even though i didn't join HCB this week for the Genoise Tres Cafe, i did bake part of the cake and cupcakes from HCB recipes.  For cupcakes, i had to experiment & weigh the batter to the exact grams a bit to get a dome..and realised that flour (cake or all purpose) makes a difference to the texture and the density of the cake and the shape as well!

The only thing that didn't work from Rose's recipe was the pastillage taken from Cake Bible.   Not sure why but i made it twice and it was too wet, and i add lots of icing sugar before it even become a dough and it became crumbly later so i had to discard. 




Monday, January 17, 2011

HCB Free Choice: Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 104: Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache

We had a fellowship gathering at a friend's place so I decided on this, simple cake..and only 2 pages long..and look fairly fuss free too.  The recipe is pretty straight forward.  After i baked the cake, i realised that my cake layer is not very tall, so i wonder how to split it into two..and i'm more cake person than frosting.. so i gather my ingredients again and baked another layer. 

The caramel ganache is another story..LOL! It didn't turn out caramel because somehow i stopped the sugar syrup at 120c (instead of 188c) and poured in the heavy cream!  At that point, i wondered by my caramel looked so white...but it didn't occur to me that i read the temperature wrongly. I think i was probably in auto mode for making italian meringue!  Instead of throwing away and starting all over again.. (heavy cream very expensive here ok..and i had to use 2 tubs of it..), i decided to just use that milk syrup..:p  I boiled it further for another 15mins or so and then pour into the 99% Lindt chocolate.   Turned out quite good..my ganache looked very shiny and smooth and tasted like ganache except no caramel taste. 


Oh...the thing about room temperature. I have now concluded that room temperature mentioned in any book is not the same as our room temperature here in Singapore.  Even though our thermometer states 25-26c at home, somehow, the oil in the ganache separated when i try to frost the cake..the more i stirred it, the worse it became.  In order to salvage it, i turned on the aircon, and waited for a while and miraculous, it turned back to it's original smooth state.   I managed to frost the cake really nice with sharp edges....here it is...


I regretted that i didn't have enough time to cover this cake with fondant because this base now is perfect for just that as taught by Planet Cake. 

I brought the cake to the gathering and everyone LOVED it.  Everyone said my baking skills improved. I tried to explain that it is not my doing and it is because of a great recipe written by Rose Levy (i don't like to claim credit when it is not mine..lol!)...but nobody really seem to understand....*shrugs*....so i just ended up saying "thank you" when someone complimented how yummy my cake was. :)

Verdict:  LOVE! Extremely moist, soft crumbs, rich and chocolatey. Well, i still have to try the caramel ganache again, but this ganache which was a mistake turned out to be really good too. lol! I'm sure the caramel version will taste even better, so i will have to attempt this cake again!


I had to take a quick photo of the inside of my cake with my phone before the cake disappeared..lol!  

Side note, my son has been asking me to buy Pinky and The Brain's toy figurines for him.  He hardly talks or communicate, but when he does i find it hard to say No to him.  This cartoon is not even popular anymore, so i had to make them out of clay. I just made them today during my lunch hour in the office with just a ball point pen and a pen knife. If i had my clay tools with me, would have been better imo, at least will have smoother sides etc. 


I hope he'll like them. If he plays with them means he likes them a lot. If not, he will not even look at them.  Buying presents for him is a difficult task!  It's either a hit or a miss!   The things he likes, are usually not available.  So, if he comes across anything he likes and i can afford it, i would usually buy for him...(well, if not, i'll make for him..lol).  Oh..there's one thing i didn't buy for him and couldn't make for him, he always wanted the foreign exchange rate chart (like numbers lego pieces) at the department stores.. my husband found out a distributor that sold it, but it was way too expensive and the only part that my son liked about it was the "Visa", "American Express", "Mastercard" tabs!?!  LOL! Strange isn't it? I don't understand it myself what he sees in them..  But that is what makes him so special. :)   Oh..i did end up cutting up the logo out from my expired visa, american express, mastercard cards as an alternative...lol!





Saturday, January 8, 2011

White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache



Rose's Heavenly Cakes, page 17: White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache

I realised that the white velvet cake recipe is the same recipe on page 298, ie white velvet butter cupcakes.  So I decided to bake cupcakes instead of layer cake (no baking mood).  I figured that cupcakes bake faster in the oven and i don't have to cut the round parchment etc.  Since the beginning of the new year, I have been feeling extremely tired because i have to get up early to get my son ready for school in the morning. Age is certainly catching up I have to say...

I searched my entire pantry and i don't have a single milk chocolate bar!?!  Only 60%  and 99% bitter chocolate.. So in my desperation (or shall i say laziness..because now that there is a huge shopping centre near my neighborhood within 10mins walk and a 24hr supermart....ok..maybe one of my major distraction for not baking too..i've been shopping all the time.....lol!), I decided to mix 70% chocolate bar with milk chocolate. I can't remember what was ratio used as i just eye-balled it.  Turned out quite good..maybe it's still a bit dark but just the way i like it. :p

Didn't frost the cupcakes with lots of ganache. Just dipped the cupcakes when the ganache is still 'watery' and gave it a thin coat on top.  My husband doesn't like too much frosting on cupcakes.   


VERDICT:  Totally yummylicious!  I love the "whiteness" of the cake.  So pretty!  Cake texture is soo soft with such delicate crumbs. I love it. Very moist too.  Everyone enjoyed it!  And did i mention i totally adore how white the cake is?  Definitely will be in my baking repertoire. 

 

diary of Faithy, the baker Copyright © 2009 Cookiez is Designed by Ipietoon for Free Blogger Template