Recent bakes 1

So it's been aaaaaaages since my last blog post...whoops. Been on holiday and have been very, very lazy since coming back! Although I also have been rather busy considering how I have started uni since September! Yay~ unis been great, except of course the boring lectures (although there are one or two interesting ones that pop up ever so often) however i've got more excuse to bake now! almost everyone I talk to keeps asking me to bake for them, this request almost never escapes as soon as I mention my hobbies. Anyways! Since my friend Nicole gave me a lil nudge on making a blog post here it is! My recent bakes and possibly will do other posts on some of my old bakes too. 

Chocolate and vanilla checkered biscuits

I made some of William Curley's checkered biscuits! To be honest this was a last minute decision...I baked these for a charity cake sale in raising money for Philipines that a society was holding in uni. It was a horrible day in fact besides the fact that I got to see my friend however this was my first time making these cookies so im glad I didn't fall flat on my face failing aha. 

I made swirly, marbled biscuits with the left over dough that I had, should have been more brave and marbled it more but was afraid that the marbling would look weird, ack next time, next time. 

As you can see in the photo, the 'checkered-ness' of these biscuits aren't so accurate and precise and these biscuits looked no where near as lovely as the one in the photos in the recipe book (obviously) but im still glad the pattern stayed put (ish) throughout although the vanilla bits started blending into each other after cutting through the dough more :(. 

These biscuits have a high fat content and this recipe calls for the butter to be softened, which is why I think requires more chilling time (usually I only chill my dough to around 25 minutes, yes im just impatient and cant be bothered to follow the recipe), so if you have a warmer kitchen then it would be best to chill for the amount of time stated and work fast with the dough to prevent the butter from melting. Since my kitchen is forever cold (besides summertime) the butter didn't melt as the kitchen temperature was cold enough to make the dough sloppy and horrible, it was warm enough but cold enough which made it malleable. 

We have a gate ish kind of door which is awful with keeping warmth, we also have no warming devices (forgot the word for this furniture ahaha) whatsoever besides when we're cooking and the wok hobs are on although even then our kitchen is still cold T__T. So cold that I would consider my kitchen outdoors instead of indoors...a great thing when working with pastry but just awful when working with bread dough :(. 

-recipe at the end of blog post.

First red velvets!

When making this, I thought wow...this..looks like poison. My friends are going to look like strawberries after eating these, and certainly after eating these cakes I noticed that some of them had a red tinge to their lips, hmm food lip tint? c;.

 The recipe called for 1 tbsp of red food colouring but didn't specify which kind of food colouring, if you have tried to put strong colouring in any of your bakes, you would know that the liquid food colouring you get in your standard supermakets are absolute piss -excuse my language-. I would say colouring powder or food gel are the strongest, although I would prefer to use powder as they are highly pigmented once they get in contact with any form of moisture, it's also easy to use, and if you need it in liquid form you could just mix it in with a bit of water and make a concentrated form of liquid food colouring that beats the crappy stuff you get in supermarkets. 

So as I was saying, the recipe called for 1 tbsp of red food colouring, usually I would use the normal metal spoons we use to eat our food, but...I ended up using a plastic chinese tbsp. Now...if you're chinese you would understand the difference. If not..a chinese tbsp is just way deeper, my family would usually use it to drink our soup or any liquidy foods. So..whoops I guess again. tehe.

Finished product! Piping was awful I gotta say. Cream cheese frosting weren't stiff enough I didn't add the second cup of icing sugar because they were already sweet enough and too much sweetness is just uck. I would recommend making the cream cheese frosting at the start before you move onto the cake, this way the frosting has time to set for a bit and would result in a more precise piping. Piping here is inconsistent and rather sloppy. Thank god I had crushed cake to cover up. Aha. Taste wise, moist cake, tangy frosting, I liked it and my friends liked it, someone even asked me for the recipe so i'm happy with the results ^-^. 

Red velvet recipe

Checkered biscuit recipe by William Curley: 

Makes about 25 biscuits

For the vanilla dough: 

• 250g plain flour
• 150g unsalted butter cut into cubes and softened
• 75g icing sugar
• 1/4 vanilla pod split lengthways (can substitute with other vanilla bean paste, vanilla essence if preferred) 
• 25g egg yolk 

For chocolate dough

• 140g plain flour
• 15g cocoa powder
• 90g unsalted butter, softened
• 45g icing sugar
• 15g egg yolk 

And finally egg white to brush between biscuit dough to make them stick. 

1. To make the vanilla dough, sift the flour into a bowl. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl, scrape in the seeds from the split vanilla pod and cream together until light and fluffy. Mix in egg yolk and beat until smooth. Add the flour and mix to form a homogenous mass. Wrap in cling film and rest for at least 1 hour in the fridge. 
2. Repeat what you did with the vanilla dough, once the egg yolk beaten in and the mixture is smooth, add the flour and cocoa powder and mix to form a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least an hour in the fridge. 
3. To assemble, set aside one quarter of the vanilla dough. Roll out the remaining vanilla dough and all of the chocolate dough to 1cm (half an inch) thick and cut into 1cm wide strips. Carefully place a strip of the chocolate dough in front of you on the work surface. Lightly brush with the egg white and place a strip of the vanilla dough alongside it. Lightly brush with the egg white again and place a strip of the chocolate dough against the vanilla strip. 
4. Repeat with two more layers on top, alternating the flavours in a checkerboard fashion until you have a block of dough, three strips high and three strips wide. 
5. Roll out the remaining vanilla dough on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thick and about 12.5cm wide. Trim to neaten. Place this is on top along the edge of the dough rectangle and wrap it around the checkerboard filling, joining neatly. Trim to neaten. Transfer to a baking tray (sheet) lined with silicone (baking) paper, loosely wrap in cling film and chill for an hour in the fridge. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4)
6. Cut the log into slices 1cm thick, place on a baking tray lined with a non-stick baking mat and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden. 

Image shown in the recipe book

I find it easier visualizing what I'm suppose to be doing when working with more technical bakes, so here is a scan from the book to help. 

Technique for marbling (properly xD), scanning for images only as most of you probably won't be able to understand chinese. 

I will post some of the equipment I bought from my vacation in Hong Kong~ when I get around to it... 

Croissant! attempt 3...

Third time trying with the croissants! Last two times in smaller rolls. The last time I tried the butter was far too cold to roll out, which allowed the butter to be unevenly distributed through the dough :/. if only I had been more patient -__-. 

This time round, the dough was the best out of all the times i've tried, the taste was right, not too sweet (ditched the new scales and went back to my old trusty one), and just the amount of salt. The butter was evenly distributed through the dough and didn't seeped through - was one of the problems with my first attempt. 

This time the fermentation process was also better, they puffed up nicely~! :D My final problem when making these croissants was, the dough was not roll thin enough (i'm guessing), which could of been why they weren't completely cooked through? I've revisited many recipes online and all of them states to bake the croissants from 180°C to 200°C! I lowered the temperature of my oven to 180°C so they would cook thoroughly, but again, they browned awfully quick...so I wondered if it was because the dough was rolled out too thickly? 

Matcha chocolate truffles!

MMMmm. Another matcha dessert/snack, yummy yummy. These were so smooth and soft and I used dark chocolate for coating, which suited the matcha pretty well~ a lil bitter with more bitter? 

Matcha chocolate chips! I made them at the very start of my summer holiday after my A level exams, spent an hour+ dotting these chocolates!; holiday time preciously spent haha. about a few weeks later I finally have something to make with these choco chippies!; matcha chocolate truffles! mm. 

As you can see I didn't bother tempering the chocolate and even if I did it would have ended up looking the same anyways- fat bloom or sugar bloom? can't tell the difference~!

 Matcha ganache

Tried drawing faces and eventually I just gave up with the rest and just sprinkled matcha powder over, haha. Siblings decided to join in a draw one each too...the criss crossed one is without surprise by my biggest brother; the one who posses very little creativity (drawing/art wise). 

My mum also made a pandan cake~ two types of green flavours~ 

Possibly what I might be making next? -baking notes-

Matcha truffles recipe

Matcha chocolate chips

Croissants! First attempt

Croissants! A definite bake most likely to be seen in Parisian cafes and loved by many including my granny. Truth be told i'm not the biggest fan of croissants...they've never really appealed to me and I would always turn my head away from them no matter how delicious and flaky they looked. My family however, grandma in particular loves them to death! When she lived here in the UK for 2 years in the past she would have a croissant and tea for lunch almost everyday. My dad would bake her pretty little ones fresh from the oven and she would loathe over them. xD. Nowadays we just buy them from costcos because they're hella cheap and huge!

Since my grandma now lives in Hong Kong, she always says how Hong Kong's croissants are no match for ones you in the UK because people in Hong Kong are conscious of their health and most baked products are low in fat, most probably sugar and salt too therefore they lack in flavour. So whenever we go to visit her in Hong Kong we will bulk buy her packs of costco croissants xD 

Even though we give her these croissants, I would still love to be able to bake a perfect batch for her, so she can enjoy properly fresh made ones. 

My first batch of croissants! Completely flopped face down...they were too sweet and I didn't bake them for long enough :/. Totally forgot they needed longer in the oven when I saw that they had already browned evenly and took them out of the oven and was rather excited. ==''...after realizing I chucked them back in the oven, but they still needed longer, but I could no longer be bothered to turn the oven back on...hehe. -forever under baking stuff...especially bread types of bakes- 

They puffed up nicely, but deflated a little the next day, and was a little rougher than I had hoped, very buttery though! The toughness might have been because I under proved the dough? I was pleasantly surprised by the aroma that came out whilst these croissants were baking, soo delicious! the combination of the yeasty, bread smell and a rich buttery smell. Mmmm. Luscious. 

How it looks inside...definitely needed more baking!

Lil before and after gif to finish off! Will watch more videos, recipes and study how to make croissants harder... haha. There will be more posts about croissants! Hopefully I will be able to bake a presentable croissant by the time I fly to Hong Kong to see my granny~ 

This is the recipe I used, a very detailed and well presented one.

Trip to William Curley's boutique

On a Tuesday I ventured to Richmond to find William Curley's boutique. It was about a 5 minute walk from the station (probably less if we knew our way properly). I was so excited to be there seeing as I'm quite a big fan of his...I was honestly thinking if I should bring my book (well, his) just incase I see him and then hopefully return with a signature on the book haha. His boutique was among all these other cute shops, there was a tea and coffee specialist kind of shop next door, a restaurant opposite, a clothes boutique and various other shops. The whole atmosphere of the place was a calm, relaxed and jolly. 

Honestly, it was very weird to see all the desserts displayed in front of me when I went into the boutique as I usually see them in his chocolate recipe book. It felt...surreal? haha. A bit like when I first went to a concert of this Korean pop band, a sort of 'wow, I never would have expected to have this kind of experience' feel. The boutique was actually smaller than I expected it to be, but it was better this way because I wouldn't feel overwhelmed and out of place in a high class environment. I felt like it was just right, it was in a cosy, small side street with a few seats outside. As I'm use to big restaurants and maybe some cafes (usually ones in central London) with various seating and huge spaces coming to this boutique felt like a special find, despite the fact that I had previously researched on how to get there exactly...hehe xD. 

Anyways, these were the desserts we chose, also with a salted caramel bar and 2 scoops of ice-cream, but we never got to photograph it because we were lazy :D. My sister chose the top left, yuzu praline tart (if i remember correctly, forgive me if I'm wrong), I chose the top right, a raspberry and chocolate slice, a mango and passion fruit entremet and a cassis taecake. They were all so scrummy as I expected *-*, as a chocoholic and a huge lover of raspberry, the slice was just right for me, it was the right amount of indulgence though I should've ordered a colder, fresher drink to wash down the rich chocolate, Matcha latte would be better suited for a colder weather. The mango and passion fruit entremet was extremely light and flavoursome as well, it was sooo delicious. 

The marshmellow in the teacake was so vibrant with a sprinkling of the purple/pink ish hisbicus powder (if that's correct?) was so pretty. And then deeper with a darker tone from the blackcurrant jam. Mmm yummyy~~

Later on the day we went to went to a restaurant in Piccadilly called Shoryu where they were doing a 2 week offer of only £5 a ramen bowl *0*, bargain! Usually everything in London is ridiculously overpriced. But of course, we ordered dessert which added to the overall bill. The starter and the main course was soo delicious. They even have garlic crushers on the table along side with fresh garlic bulbs for people to crush into their mains. I love it when restaurants do this haha, a kind of 'add your own touch' feel despite it just being raw garlic and maybe a splash of soy sauce... c:

The desserts? Not worth it in my opinion, the matcha roll cake was much too sweet from the anko and the matcha couldn't be tasted much since the cream was too much and it was rather hard to get into. The Japanese cheesecake, the cake should be light and fluffy but the cake was more damp than fluffy. The mochi however, was the best out of all the desserts as well as the matcha ice cream (didn't get to take a photo of it either), I guess the simpler desserts wins?

Hopefully I will be taking a trip to William Curley's boutique sometime soon, or maybe his dessert bar this time? Next place that I will most probably be visiting; Lanka in Finchley!

Mactcha, rose, chocolate and vanilla viennese cookies.

Mmm. I really love baking at night, it's when it's most quite and I wouldn't have to rush handing the kitchen over for my parents to use for the takeaway (I love behind a chinese takeaway shop). It's so calming but when whenever the clock strikes 4am+ I start to get freaked out that there may be ghosts are lurking around haha. Probably should fix my sleeping time and bake in the morning instead ==''. merh. 

So i've always wanted to make these biscuits, they look elegant and delicate and have the richest buttery taste with the lightest crumb. MMMmm. yummmyy. :D This post is partly inspired by the anime I mentioned previously; Yumiero Patissiere. In the anime there are 3 characters called the 'sweet princes'. 3 of them would have their own flavour that they 'own' or is the flavour that is just their 'thing'. One of the sweets prince's called Kashino's flavour would be chocolate, Andoh's would be anything that is traditionally japanese based flavoured (anko, matcha and yuzu etc.) and lastly; Hanabusa's would work best with any candy art, as well as that he has a crazy obsession with roses, so rose flavoured desserts appeared a lot too. 

I never really liked the flavour of roses in anything edible, roses just weren't for me. But the anime really changed my view towards it and I started getting intrigued by using rose in desserts, still not a favourite of mine and wouldn't be one of my first choices for anything to do with food but I certainly have come around it and have been more fond of eating rose flavoured products :). The rest of the flavours I really like, the anime got me into using matcha more too. But hell is it expensive! I like my matcha strong so I tend to use a lot in my desserts. It hurts me when I use so much T^T. my matchaaaaa ahh. 

The dried rose flakes didn't really affect the biscuits much to be honest, I just thought the biscuits would looked nicer with the bright rosey flakes marbled through :), though I think it did contribute to some of the flavour, same principle with using lemon zest I presume? 

Going clock wise- Vanilla, matcha, rose and chocolate. 

As you can see from the photos, the vanilla and rose dough was the smoothest, which meant they were both the easiest to pipe, however after baking they lost their shape and were quite flat =^=~ The matcha however was smack bang in the middle, the consistency was just right for piping (although I did need to microwave the dough to soften the dough a little for ease of piping) and the shape didn't change or anything. The chocolate one however...ohhh, what a bother this one was. the dough was so stiff my piping bag exploded because I applied too much pressure to try and ooze the dough out. The dough was stiff despite microwaving a few times .__. so I ended up just rolling the biscuits out. 

Rose flakes! Some of the flakes I crushed too finely so they kind of 'dissolved' in a way into the dough. 

The matcha cookies were much easily pipe-able, stayed in shape and all~

The matcha cookies had the strongest taste out of all the cookies, I was quite surprised because usually the taste of matcha doesn't always come through, it might've actually been too bitter for my taste too and I prefer my matcha to be relatively strong too. The taste of the rose delicate and weren't too strong. I would count the matcha and the rose cookies to be the 2 most successful flavours :D.

I was hoping the butter would be richer, but I could barely taste much, might add an egg yolk or something next time I make these vanilla cookies to make it richer in flavour. The chocolate cookies were strong too like the matcha ones, though it was more acceptable because I like my fari share of chocolate xP. 

An awfully shaky video because I couldn't be bothered to get the camera stand haha. Oh well, Just a little clip. 

Recipe: 
vanilla version: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 
• 90g plain flour
• 1tsp vanilla essence - add however much according to how strong you like the vanilla

Chocolate: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 
• 90g plain flour
• 9g cocoa powder 

^with this version, I suggest using less flour so the dough is easier to pipe with

Rose: 

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream 90g plain flour
• 90g plain flour 
• 2 drops of rose essence 
• 2 tbsp of crushed, dried rose flakes

Matcha

• 60g butter 
• 30g icing sugar
• 50ml single cream
• 90g plain flour
• 9g matcha powder

Directions: 

1. Bring butter to room temperature. Whisk the butter with icing sugar until light and fluffy. 
2. For vanilla and rose cookies, add the essence at this stage. Whisk to combine. 
3. For the matcha and chocolate cookies, sift the powder with the flour before whisking in the flour.
4. Add the sifted flour to the creamed butter until fully combined. 
5. Pop the dough into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe out whatever shapes you desire for these cookies onto a greased baking sheet. 
6. Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes at the top rack of the oven. 
7. Once cookies are done, Slide them onto a cooling rack to cool down. 
8. Store in an airtight container or whatever container you have; enjoy!

I recommend adding maybe a pinch or half a handful of flour more to the rose and vanilla cookies, the essence could have been the reason why they lost a little shape as the consistency of these were like cake batters than thin dough. 

Carrot half-entremet?

Studying food tech for GCSE and A levels really gave me an excuse to polish up and try out different recipes I wanted to. Most of which I would have to make changes to because I would have to look at the nutritional aspect of the product as well -it was such. a pain in the neck! xD I would spend hours researching on the internet for inspiration because food tech was probably the only time I get to bake (my home oven is so big that it wastes so much gas when I bake so I would always bake several things at once or just not bake at all so less gas is wasted). Today's post is about one of my design ideas which I 'recreated' from a drama called Zettai Kareshi/Absolute Boyfriend. The main character, Riiko and her boss goes through trials to make this delicious looking carrot cream which is used for the main component of this carrot entremet Riiko later finished off. The way they filmed it made it so special that I wanted to try it out, not to mention because carrots are included which ups the health factor? :D 

Watching the drama the first time was also when I was introduced to these cute silicone  sphere molds. I was totally like ''*0* omg this is how they make round desserts?'' haha, major noob times. 

Tada! This is my take on that carrot dessert xD. Totally no where near as fancy and polished up as the one shown in the drama. When I tried to make the pieces of carrot toppings I had difficulty shaping them, they needed to be softened which would take quite a while and I just didn't have that patience at that time, so slices of par-boiled --> baked carrots it was! Was originally going to make carrot twirls, but the carrots just wouldn't stay in shape and I didn't have all night, so carrot curled coins it was! 

Originally, this was how the dessert was supposed to be like, bare without it's frilly skirt. Wasn't too happy with this so I added more :D. 

I found a recipe that had similar cooking shown in the drama, well, the boiling carrots part only really. ^^;. The carrots in the mousse couldn't really be tasted, though I would have probably added more for a brighter colour as well as flavour. It tasted more of orange because of the outer gelee layer- I used orange extract and colouring for the vibrant colour, though sweetened orange juice would be a better alternative, I just had some extra plain gelee to hand. In the center, I added a set lemon curd (for the presence of vitamin C haha and also because of the recipe I looked at used it too ) it was really nice and made the dessert creamy . 

I guess this would explain why I called this dessert a 'half-entremet'. An entremet contains quite a few layers which usually includes textures like crunchy, crispy, silky, smooth, aerated etc. 

Recipe

Click here for the full recipe. I replaced the glazing and didn't include the sponge, however I do think it's a nice touch and would give the dessert added depth of flavour. 

I definitely will try more entremets, they're fun and quite straight forward to make. :). 

Baumkuchen

Baumkuchen, or 'the tree cake' (because of the rings/layers the cake has, which resembles a tree cut open), is originated from Germany however is widely popular in Japan. To be honest, I would think even more popular in Japan, but that's really just my own opinion, but also probably because I knew of this from a Japanese outlet; anime^^''. Speaking of which, I first stumbled upon this cake when I was watching Yumeiro Patissiere (amazing anime, I LOVE it.), although it didn't look as fancy and dressed up as the other cakes shown in the anime it was special because it looked so simple and looked delicious despite it being in an anime; though I must admit, almost all food in animes looks ridiculously mouth watering =^= like a simple onigiri, gah. 

Baumkuchen is usually made with this special spinny oven, where the batter would either be poured on, or rolled in. 

So even after watching the anime, this cake was one of the cakes that was imprinted in my mind, I never thought I would be able to try it unless if I traveled to Germany or Japan or found special places where they sold them, so I was really surprised when I found quite a variety of baumkuchen cakes in Muji during my holiday at Hong Kong (which backs up my point about the Japanese loving this cake as Muji is more popular with their stationary and furniture stuff). Bought an original flavoured mini baum cake home and after one bite I simple couldn't stop, I was like ''*0*, so this, THIS IS THE TASTE OF BAUMKUCHEN?''. It was sooooo good! Buttery goodness and all, ahhhh. Bliss. 

Mini Baumkuchen from Muji! 

Well after tasting a baum cake I could understand why it is so popular, it most definitely bumped up to my top favourite cakes of all time. As London would never have a place that would sell baum cakes (although there could be, just never got round to baum cake hunting :P) I'm pretty much stuck with having to make it myself but being a home baker obviously I wouldn't have these ovens ;w;. So I decided to adopt the method that was used in Yumeiro Patissiere. 

^screenshots of the main bits that teach you how to make it at home. The rest was finding a suitable recipe and  using my own common knowledge! :D 

 Yumeiro Patissiere episode 22 - Baumkuchen

My first attempt on a Baum cake! Far from being as perfect and as fine as the one that can be bought but I definitely will try again, this time making the layers thinner and getting a bigger pan so we get more..==. My hopeless, tiny square pan only managed a cake around 15cm probably? And only 4 proper nice cuts! (Chomped on the trimmings of course). The taste of the cake was actually very nice, in the original recipe I replaced the ice cream with more butter as the cake I bought from Muji had a rich buttery taste, and I didn't want to lose that, I also thought that the cake was going to be too wet from the ice cream too. I was worried that the cake wasn't going to be sweet enough, but it turned out to had just the right amount :D, not too sweet and not too bland. The corn flour really gave the cake an interesting 'crumb', it also made the cake a little like a soft, biscuit? 

After slicing the roll, I was surprised at how the cake didn't fall apart and weren't all flimsy because when I tried to make egg rolls with it, it was possible the most easily separable thing I had made ==. I figured that the loose bits of cake that won’t stick properly together were the bits that was thoroughly cooked through, in which I realized that this method needed the cake to be only half done or at least a thin layer of cake batter left uncooked to act as an adhesive in addition to other rolled layers. 

Ingredients: 

• 60g plain flour 
• 40g corn flour
• 80g sugar
•  60g butter
• 2 eggs 

-As the batter needs to be quite thin (so that it'd be easier for to spread around the pan) the butter can be melted in advance. As I made this at night and my kitchen is rather cold, the butter in the batter solidified after a while after being left alone. If the batter turns out to be at a thicker consistency or the butter has solidified a bit, place the bowl over a bain-marie being careful that the bowl is not touching the water. Keep stirring the batter so the batter doesn't cook. This method is just used to make the batter thinner by melting the butter. 

-Make the foil roll in advance; adjust the size of how big you want the middle of your cake to be by adjusting the width of the foil roll. Trimming may be needed to adjust to fit your square pan. 

1. Cream the room temperature butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 
2. Incorporate the eggs in one at a time (the batter can split and curdle if the eggs are added all at once)
3. Sift the cake flour and corn flour into the batter and whisk lightly. No folding is needed as the air isn't really important in this cake, though you don't want to over mix the batter so all air is knocked out, some will help create a fluffier cake. 
4. Heat the pan up and brush a light layer of butter in the pan to prevent sticking. Pour a thin layer of the cake in the pan; wait until each layer is nearly cooked through. Place the aluminum roll at the top of your square pan, and gently roll the cake towards yourself. Make sure the layer of cake is quite tightly rolled around the foil roll so ensure no loose bits. 
5. Carry on with each layer until the outer layer can no longer wrap around the the entire cake roll. 

The original recipe I got was from here. Do check her blog out if you're interested in Japanese food and cooking. 

^leftover batter: a Baum sqaures? haha.