It have been a crazy week and more to come too! I had 2 cupcakes order this week and the 2nd one left me with less than 24 hours to prepare, these are the times which I wish the body won’t feel tired and keep going on! There are just too many to-dos and planning on the plate. I happily went on to register for a baking class sometime back, didn’t expecting a busy work month in the office. I hope I will find some time to write more about the class I attend as I find very little information available on the web. And there is a work trip end of the month so lots of preparation work too. Well, I guess it’s good to be busy

The customer is really nice, she leave the design to me just that it should not be too girly and heart shape around.

Happy Birthday to Nic!

It’s the cake decorating month! This month we have pretty embossing stick, patchwork cutters all the way from UK.

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Order Closing date : 11 Nov 09

This is a project that went the wrong way.  I prepared some chocolate cut-out cookies for another project, no sweat … it’s only a test-bake for me to have an idea how the whole thing will work and look like. Sadly that idea didn’t turn out the way I “imagine” it should be

Trying out the new set of nesting flutted cookie cutters and remember seeing Elisa Strauss have done something similar in her book Confetti Cakes, I am glad I did cut out which is how this post came about. Of course, I didn’t do a good job like her, I tried thou

The cookie is baked using Valrhona Cocoa powder and has a little bitter-sweet taste which will work well with the royal icing. Each layer of cookie is put together with royal icing and the pink icing is using Wilton Decorator Icing that I bought earlier. I think they come in really handy when you need a little of this and that icing.

Will be giving it to a colleague who is getting married soon!

We’ve a shipment coming in 2 weeks time and these plunger cutters are available so we would like to do a quick round and see if you’re keen to order these. Prices is at S$16.50 for either set of 4, 3 or 2 plunger cutters.

lease send your order to shopbake@yahoo.com.

Order closing this Sat, 24 Oct 09.

Just a note that I’ve put on on an additional page to put up new and preloved books for sale. Take a look and email me if you are keen.

I have been waiting patiently to use the Wilton Cookie Press I bought earlier. Waiting patiently because there is the mooncake season earlier then followed by the order last week and the right recipe. I don’t have very good experience using cookie press, it could be the press, it could be the dough. I would say I’m happy with the cookie press at the price tag less than S$20.  It serve it’s purpose, easy to use but the tricky part would be if you’re piping on baking sheet, the cookie will tend to stick the baking sheet up so hold down the baking sheet when you press.

Well, this round I took the recipe from trusted Martha Stewart’s Cookies : The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share. It’s a lovely book to own and on my next-to-buy book list I like that the recipes are simple and the pictures are big and clean.

I halved the recipe and again I don’t have large eggs in the pantry so I adjust the proportion slightly. I also cut down the proportion of cinnamon. The cookies aren’t too sweet, too buttery with a light tinge of cinnamon, it’s lovely!

Vanilla-Bean Spritz Wreaths
190g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
80g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter
1 medium egg yolk

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Whisk together flour, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
2. Beat butter and 1 cup sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
3. Add egg yolks, beating well. Reduce speed to low.
4. Add flour mixture, and beat just until smooth.
5. Divide dough into 3 portions. Pack 1 portion into a cookie press fitted with wreath disk (cover remaining portions with an inverted bowl or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature before using), and press shapes about 2 inches apart onto baking sheets. Bake until edges are just golden, 9 to 12 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, combine remaining 2 teaspoons cinnamon with remaining 4 teaspoons sugar. Sprinkle over hot cookies. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Repeat. Cookies can be stored in a single layer in airtight containers up to 4 days.

I’m very grateful for every order I received as it mean a level of trust that the customer have. I received a call from customer-turn-friend one afternoon and ask if I can do wedding cake! I want to be frank and let her know I’ve not done any whole cake covered with fondant before so I suggest cupcakes instead. I really hesitate about taking on the order but she is really nice and encourage me to give this a trial and ask me not to get stress over it. And all I had was 5 days before delivery so it was planning and planning, lots of browsing and discussion with K.

The customer ask if I could do eggless cakes which I have never done before too! She have some colleagues who doesn’t take eggs and I really hope everyone have a slice of cake so I went round searching for an eggless cake recipe. I was lucky to pick up a vegan baking book from the library and the recipe look good, did a test-bake and got positive reviews from colleagues, they couldn’t tell that it’s eggless! The cupcake is moist but has a slight baking soda aftertaste which I adjusted on the actual day baking. So I have shortlist the recipes, have an idea how the cake should look like (I wanted to do sketch but didn’t have time) and so it’s now to action time! The flowers and butterflies are cut out 2 days before to leave it dry and the butterflies are brushed with luster dust to give the sweet shiny look.

It’s a butter cake based with orange flavoured buttercream and covered with fondant. The cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes (eggless).

I kept the color theme simple to just peach/pink and white with silver dragees.

And this is the center piece of the cake!

Wishing the couple a happy and blessed marriage!

Working hard on a new project and trying out new toys!

I’ve read very good review of Aunty Lucy’s Banana cake but my family including myself is not a fan of Banana cake, we will not buy this cake from outside bakery shop as the banana essence is so strong that it smell like banana perfume (if there is one)!

My mum was skeptical when I said I want to bake a banana cake but the bunch of bananas is going into the bin! I promise I will not add banana essence which I shld have added 1/4 tsp instead of the 1/2 tsp.  I thought a little pinch of cinnamon will be good too, then I will have Banana Walnut Cinnamon Cake! While we try to bake with natural flavours, I think a little is still good to enhance the original flavour. I could not get large eggs also so I reduce the recipe slightly to fit the 2 medium sized eggs I have. I didn’t have whipping cream so I replace with low fat milk. I also added a handful of toasted walnuts for the crunch!

The recipe is so good!! The cake is so fluffy and soft! I didn’t tent the cake as I wanted a crisp texture on the outer layer.

Ingredients:
160 gm Butter
140 gm Fine sugar
2 Eggs – beaten lightly
225 gm. Cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. Bicarbonate of Soda
220 gm. Bananas – mashed
50 gm milk
1/4 tsp. Banana essence

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar till light and creamy.
2. Pour in eggs gradually and beat till creamy.
3. Add in whip cream, mashed bananas and banana essence and mix well.
4. Add in cake flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and beat for a while only.
5. Pour into an 8″ round tray, and arrange sliced bananas on top.
6. Bake at 175C for about 50 to 60 mins. or until cooked.

This will be my last post for this year mooncake making! Most of the time I don’t get to take a shot of the inside of the mooncake as they are for orders. The skin is too thin … should have it slightly thicker.

Last set of snowskin mooncake – Yam snowskin with Yam Paste. The snowskin is done in duo tone.

There are still some mooncakes which I haven got a chance to try making and in the meantime, time to give the moulds a good wash, air dry them properly and keep them till next year!

Wishing everyone a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!