A Night of Cake Boss & Cake Decorating

Meet Buddy Valastro. An award-winning pastry chef & cake artist in the United States, master baker of Carlo's City Hall Bake.

CAKE BOSS takes you into Buddy's kitchen, where you can witness behind-the-scene processes of creating edible art out of flour and sugar, churning out old-school recipes and remarkably modern cakes. It's gonna get unimaginable... all baking-enthusiasts should catch this!

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As part of CAKE BOSS's launch, i was invited by Discovery Travel & Living to attend a cake decorating session at the Creative Culinaire School. That night we had 3 hours of fun learning basic buttercream piping & fondant techniques from Chef Judy Koh.

refreshments from Cafe Pralet

smoked salmon sandwich & Pralet's signature cake

Lesson begins...

Chef's demonstration, then hands-on!

Bloggers that night: Julia (Aromacookery), me & Keropokman

i like the cheery yellow colour!

my Sunflower Cupcakes with cute ladybugs

the fondant cake i designed.

eeks sorry for amateurish workmanship x)

For real decorating action, be sure to catch CAKE BOSS every Wednesday at 7pm, only on Discovery Travel & Living (Starhub Channel 16). Encores every Wednesday 5am/1pm, Thursday 1am & Sunday 4am/12pm/6pm.


My special thanks to Discovery Travel & Living Asia, and Weber Shandwick for the invitation.

K ki ケーキ

K ki houses a couple's sweet dreams.

I simply enjoy inhaling the innocent air of K ki. Rustic woodsy simplicity. Passion & love in the cakes. It's contagiousness will get anybody infected.

Husband-and-wife team Delphine & Kenneth runs this little patisserie. The man's a self-taught baker, uncannily Japanese-looking, who puts much doting love into producing the dainty cakes. You'll feel it.

Oooh check out the heartthrob! Antoinette ($8) helms white chocolate mousse at its most pleasurable texture, flawlessly tamed in optimal sweetness. I'm not normally fond of ivory but this totally pulled me over. It's bliss in every bite, bliss every second of those bites.

Not only the fairy mousse & feathery sponge worked wonders.. right from its center gushed a lovely mango insert. Heavenly. For Antoinette i'll always say, "I do."

Mona ($8) depicts seduction in a different fashion. A condensed milk chocolate mousse is subtly infused with the psyche of fresh bananas, paired over moist dacquoise. No airy fairy clouds here but the invisible banana soul is bound to cajole the banana-ramas.

Delphine kindly offered us cocoa & coconut sable samples too.

Coconut rocked. The tiny coins laced with sugar crytals are coconutty, buttery good and crumble away in delight. Tasted a fraction like Kueh Bangkit but 10 times yummier. Seriously, they make excellent cny nibbles!

K ki spells sweet love. And i'll be back soon for more... Just watch me.

K ki + the little drom store

7 Ann Siang Road

6225 6650

Bakeeelicious Christmas

So what's baking this christmas?

X'mas is all about our annual family get-together, with me contributing some sugary treats to the party spread. This year's desserts is no grand affair, nothing fanciful or complex, just edible bites to appease the sweet tooth(s) of both young & old.

On a side note, Dad requested for some cookies as gifts for his colleagues. Shed some sleep to bake an assortment of pinwheel, checkerboard, chocolate-chip walnut & winnie-the-pooh danish cookies, then packed them into little snowman bags ready to give away. Childish, but i like them cute this way!

Pinwheel Butter Cookies

Chocolate-chip & Walnut Cookies

Cookies N' Cream Cupcakes w Buttercream

Cranberry Orange Cupcakes w Rose Icing

Macha Madeleines

Chocolate Walnut Brownies

Duo-tone Strawberry Marshmallows

Each of them had their share of supporters phew. And the feeling of watching others chow down your food with glee is simply contenting! For a moment, all the invested money, efforts, forfeited sleep & time gets effaced (:

My personal favorite had to be the walnut brownie. Totally loved the way it turned out- crisp flaky crust, soft moist interiors (without the irksome brownie-stickyness), starring plenty of walnuts. I used a mix of semi-sweet chocolate and cocoa powder in my batter so the sweetness is controlled. yummieebrownieelicious~

And what's christmas without a requisite logcake?

Forget the swissroll & buttercream tales from before. This year i attempted a french-style Chestnut Yule Log, assembling a few of my own unprofessional & haphazard ideas...

French chestnut mousse, vanilla bavarian cream, praline crunch, almond succes, candied roasted chestnuts. Tasted real sweet.

bite in.

With a wink, christmas is history & a brand new year approaches... Time to round up my best meals of 2009 and start on new year resolutions.

Have a blessed festive season!

Axis Lounge, Mandarin Oriental

You know you've found the right companion when a girlfriend speaks your language...

We share the love for idle sundays.

We share the love high teas.

We share the love for every congenial edible.

Call us the tai-tai wannabes.

Mandarin Oriental's teatime deal is quite a catch. For $32++ you get to enjoy a stunning triple-tier stand cramped with goodies for 2, amidst hushed ambience and an esplanade view unobstructed. There's both sweet & savories neatly decked, a bowl of mini pastries on the side, plus two Ronnefeldt teas of your choice. Unbelievably value for money.

smoked salmon+chive+creamcheese on pumpernickel is a combination to keep!

smoked salmon pumpernickel

roast beef crostini

cucumber open-faced

egg mayo sandwich

madeleine

forest berries tart

chocolate macaron

mango cheesecake

plain scones

cranberry scones

cream puff

canele bordelaise

carre grand cru

ispahan

1001 leaves

I love tarts & i love berries hence the forest berries tart naturally became my fave. Greenish pistachio custard smeared over an ultrathin shell, lavishly stacked with an avalanche of berries too much for its dwarfy base. None of the rest shone too spectacularly.

Our greatest disappointment came from their scones. Both way too dense and lacked the butteryness a virtuous scone ought to have. After the cranberry i found absolutely no incentive to reach for another plain... That's how uninspiring they were.

Hightea is one of my bestest friends (:

Axis Lounge

5 Raffles avenue

Mandarin Oriental Singapore

6885 3098

Raspberry Rosewater Roll

The next pink thing.

It thrills me to blog about another pinkie idea... Raspberry pink is perfect in giving desserts that rightful touch i lust after. When raspberry meets rose, the word is alluring.

What i tried this time sometime back was a Japanese souffle cake recipe which destines at a dulcet soft sponge with the shade of pale cream. A fraction like towel rolls; 5 times more refined than generic spongecakes. I'm glad my attempt pulled through.

Once the oven tinked i cautiously removed the cake to prevent overbrowning (color is crucial for this)... But not all blunders were evaded- i realized i had no buttercream on hand! So with limited time to marshal a rollup before my cake stiffens, i grabbed a pot of mascarpone cheese from the refrigerator and lashed up a simple spread. Whipped it icing light and trickled some sensual rosewater to scent...voila!

I'm sharing the recipe for the souffle sponge roll. Fillings are self-explorable from flavored buttercreams to creme Chantilly; or even a frantic whip-up like mine would work fine. Basic swissroll techniques still apply. (Pardon my lousy rolling skills cos i'm no swissroll expert)

Biscuit Roulé type Soufflé

makes 1 regular roll

190g egg yolks

50g caster sugar

vanilla essence

230g egg whites

100g sugar

100g cake flour

25g butter

55g fresh milk

In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar and vanilla essence until thick & creamy.

In another bowl whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, adding sugar in 3 additions. Fold a third of the whipped whites into the egg yolk mixture. Sift in the cake flour and incorporate well. Fold in all remaining whites and mix well with a spatula.

Place the butter and milk into a microwaveable bowl and microwave until both melts (approximately 70C). Gradually pour it into the egg mixture and fold into a smooth, glossy batter.

Tip the batter into a lined and greased rectangular pan, then even the surface with a scraper. Bake at 180C for 15 minutes or until cake has set & resistive to touch. Immediately remove from oven & lightly knock tray on a work surface to release any trapped air. Unmould the cake while it is warm but spread your desired fillings after slight cooling (but still pliable).

Raspberries, rose & mascarpone.. this ain't solely about the color anymore. It's feminine fragrance seduces. And beware, i may just pounce in with another heavily-pinked entry lol.

With love,

the girl loving her raspberries always.

Officially 19

Fifteen October 2009, Eighteen no more.

Strawberry Sensation Cake

Umpteen The Patissier cakes for occasions already (& counting) but i'm not complaining. This one's a visual sensation with its most unorthodox layout... myriad of Earl-grey infused strawberry mousse crammed between chiffon sponge layers and a supporting royaltine chocolate base. One slice's not quite enough.

The Patissier

4 Mohammed Sultan Road #01-01

6737 3369

http://www.thepatissier.com/

Raspberry & Poppyseed Loaf

Poppy seeds.

You heard them right. The one seed breed you rarely encounter on our sunny island (thanks to Sihan for sharing!). Dad once told me that poppy seeds are banned in Singapore because of their pedigree from opium pods.... Really, are they?

Fact or myth, i can only vindicate that the seeds themselves contain very low levels of opiates. Hence non-detrimentally edible... but not exactly addiction-free. Cos they furnish such unique minuscule popping! No wonder you see them in bakes everywhere outside Singapore.

I loved this cake. Not merely for poppies but the overall goodness it swanked. Obediently use buttermilk, trickle in some wonder seeds, plonk the batter into a pound cake tin & watch it grow. The loaf emerged soft and loose, rupturing in the middle... fragile to handle but moistly rewarding. Raspberries offered replete elevation like it always does. Very scrumptious when eaten warm off the oven.

Raspberry and Poppyseed Cake

makes 1 large loaf

170g butter, softened at room temp

250g sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

180g buttermilk

180g cake flour

4g baking powder

3g salt

7-8g poppy seeds

100g fresh raspberries (mine were fresh but stored in freezer to lengthen shelf life)

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and pale in color. Add the vanilla extract evenly. Add in the eggs one at a time, scraping with a spatula to incorporate well after each addition.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sift into the butter mixture and mix. Gradually stir in the buttermilk, followed by the poppy seeds and raspberries.

Pour the batter into a lined and greased loaf pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool completely before slicing, for neater cuts (i was impatient for warm cakes & got them all rubbly messy haha)

Entries will be slowing down these two months... its the (most dreaded) ALevels plus i've got some buzzing personal matters to settle. December comes, i'll be as freeeeee as a bird can't wait! Kyushu! And i seriously need to replace my faulty cake mixer!

Raspberry Coconut Rhapsody

Raspberry Mousse. Raspberry Gelee. Coconut Dacquoise. White Chocolate. Pistachio.

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Pink is alluring. Raspberries are love. With a few punnets of raspberries piled in the refrigerator, i had a sudden idea of colluding them with..... coconut! Imagine. Senses-awakening tartness paired with musky depths of the tropical fruit hmmmm.

No use of coconut cream here. I trickled it in through the form of a dacquoise made with dessicated coconuts & a small proportion of ground almonds. The alloy actually turned out softer & airier than regular, replete with coconutty fragrance.

Ever since i started using dacquoise i never wanted to revert to sponge cake dependance anymore. There's so many reasons in it to love: extra texture, fuss-free to prepare, oil-free- which meant less probability of feeling queasy.

If you've noticed... i also decided not to strain the berry seeds away, for a verifiable reason. My family is fond of having some nitty crunch in their desserts and retaining them would please the folks better. Try offering them a chocolate brownie vs a chocolate walnut brownie... & you'll see what i mean haha.

The combination was palatably genial!

If you are highly receptive to coconut transformations (like mummy), or share an undying love for berries as i did... you'll likely not reject this Marriage-in-pink (: A whole load of fresh raspberries invested in there!

Mango Mousse Cake

mango mousse. mango jelly. almond dacquoise. pineapple & mango compote.

A simple mango mousse cake brings back chunks of memories for me. I could count a million times i had it since a child.

It was the failproof cake for most of our family occasions (either mango, pandan or chocolate)

It was the first ever cake i bought on my own at the age of 7. A classic Jack's Place mango mousse for Mum's birthday.

It is the cake i'll pick at Bakerzin when feeling undecisive; which always happens.

It is one unerring flavour suitable for folks of all ages. Mangoes are nothing new right?

In my version i hosted fresh mango mousse with mango jelly slices on almond dacquoise instead of a sponge base. The jelly was prepared in a separate mould, chilled to solidify before embedding it within the mousse. No use of mango essence or extracts here cause i believe nothing beats the goodness of real fruits.

So glad to have mastered this! For a while i've been attempting various recipes in search of a good & unfailing method. The cream-based mousses are often too mushy and shortlived, whereas this had a lasting form and great texture. Gonna stick with this custard-based technique period.

No need for Bakerzin's mango dosages anymore!

Canele Dessert Outing: A Pictorial

Blackforest

Chocolate genoise with kirsch, layered with 66% dark chocolate mousse, chocolate crumble, kirsch chantilly and dark cherry

Sometime back, a group of us headed to Canele and filled our table solely with entremets. Chef Pang's 2009 Collection divulged a couple of new surprises so copious of his ingenius creativity. I've held no qualms about his talent since day one.

Barcelona

Almond chocolate sponge layered with orange caramel mousse, dark chocolate orange mousse and feullietine. Decorated with chocolate macaron and blood orange jelly

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Walnut chocolate fudge cake, chocolate chip cheese cake and dark chocolate chantily

Raspberry Cheesecake

Chocolate fudge cake, velvety smooth vanilla cheesecake glazed with raspberry jelly and rosemary-infused creme chantilly

The ten of us picked 9 cakes to engage in our very own dessert merry-go-round. Though mostly familiar to me, it was a virgin experience having sooo many of them to savour at one go! My favourites stood out almost immediately... loved the chocolate takeover in Blackforest, brilliant citrus shot in Barcelona, rich harmony in Triple Chocolate Cheesecake & the uplifting rosemaryness of the Raspberry Cheesecake.

Tiramisu

The Italian classic, made with marsala mascarpone mousse, finger sponge soaked in coffee, white rum and brandy

(clockwise from top left)

Jupiter

Parfait Manjari, exotic caramel and pecan nut nougatine on a flourless chocolate sponge with exotic coulis

Macha

Delicate green tea mousse and chestnut cremeux layered with green tea biscuit and almond crumble

Gateaux Chocolat

Dark chocolate cream, flourless chocolate sponge decorated with triple chocolate shards

Tarte Citron

Almond tart filled with lemon cream, torched Italian meringue and candied lemon peel

Canele has it all to hit bull's eye for any dessert softspots... my stand is strong on this. Had wonderful company and sweets that afternoon, thankyou all for the great time spent!

Canele Patisserie & Restaurant

252 North Bridge Road

#B1-81/82 Raffles City Shopping Centre