Chinese New Year 2012

The Year of the Dragon is here and I would like to wish everyone a Happy and Properous Chinese New Year!

Wishing everyone 年年有余，心想事成，身体健康!

A birthday cake

Just completed making a birthday cake for my domestic helper's sister. Her sister's birthday is tomorrow and she is going to celebrate it with my helper tomorrow. When my helper saw the cake I was decorating, she said to me that blue and pink are her sister's favourite colours. I guess I made the right choice with the colours, hehehe ...

Mango Mousse Cake

I made another mango mousse cake for a sweet young lady for her 19th birthday. The cake was well received. Thanks Joyce for taking this picture for me.

Mango Mousse Cake

My colleague asked me to make a mango mousse cake for her to celebrate her mother's birthday. I am not sure why but I really like piping roses so I piped roses again to decorate my mango mousse cake. I had balance left of the sponge cake and mango mousse so I did some mini heart shape one to give to my colleagues.

Rose Cake

Just completed decorating a yam cake for a lunch gathering later. This is for a friend's mother as we are celebrating her birthday later. Hope they will like it. It has really been a while since I have decorated a cake. Have been trying to pick up the mood to bake again and it is slowly picking up momentum. Kekeke...

Baking session with my colleagues

A few of my colleagues came over to have a baking session last weekend. We had a good time baking and eating. We managed to bake three types of cakes in one afternoon. Here are what we have baked.

Mango Mousse Cake












Brownie Cake/Muffins




Pandan Chiffon Cake

Tiramisu

Tiramisu

44-48 lady fingers

Syrup:
100 ml water
100 ml milk
120 ml liquor… cocoa or coffee (I prefer cocoa)
50 ml rum (alcohol not essence)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons melted chocolate or chocolate syrup

For the syrup:
Place all the ingredients into a measuring cup and warm 30 seconds in the MW. It doesn’t need to be hot, just warm.

Cream:
450g mascarpone cheese
450g liquid whipping cream
3 egg whites (I used egg whites but if you want to avoid using ... disregard this ingredient)
If you don’t use the egg whites divide the sugar half for the cheese and half for the whip cream.
180 - 200g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
30 ml liquor… cocoa or coffee

Roast the lady fingers in the oven at 160°C for about 5 minutes. (Optional) could be done without. Roasting the ladyfingers will give the cake a better flavor.

First make the cream and place in the refrigerator:
Beat very well the egg white + 1/3 sugar, until this is dissolved and egg whites appear very frothy as a meringue, next beat very well the whip cream + 1/3 sugar until sugar is dissolved, make sure you don’t mix it too much (whip cream can turn to curd if over beaten), and last… beat very well the cheese + 1/3 sugar until smooth. Combine together the eggwhite, cream and cheese and add vanilla and the liquor… cacao or coffee.

(If you don’t use the egg whites divide the sugar half for the cheese and half for the whip cream.)

Assemble the cake:
Place a layer of lady fingers on the bottom of the baking pan, using exactly half the liquid sprinkle all over the lady fingers, make sure you don’t put too much in one side and less in other areas.
Take a tea strainer and powder with cocoa (about 1 full teaspoon-if needed more add as desire) all over the lady fingers.
Take 1/3 of the cream and place over the sponge fingers. The cream must touch the walls all around, and make sure the cream is spread well all over and there are no holes. We don’t want any liquid to go to the layer bellow.

Place next layer of lady fingers over the cream, sprinkle the rest of the syrup, sprinkle with cocoa and place the rest of the cream on top of everything. Level well and leave the cake to refrigerate overnight. Unmould cake and sprinkle the top of the cake with cocoa powder.