Strawberry Cheese Cake

Densed chocolate cake

French Lattice design on a densed chocolate cake.

latest chocolate designs

dark chocolate flower with edible gold dust

triple alternate layers of white and dark chocolate

white rose - milk chocolate filled with cripies
heart - dark chocolate filled with caramel
shell - milk chocolate with almond
dark choc rose - filled with caramel

Fish - Dark chocolate filled with rice crispies dusted with edible gold

dark chocolate filled with caramel

Sunflower - dark chocolate filled with caramel

Mothers Day Cakes

combined theme: Ben10 and princess

Combined theme : Ben10 and Princess

cupcakes in floral design

Butterfly fairy cakes

butterfly fairy cake. Chocolate cake iced in buttercream
The doll's dress and shoes are in icing too.

Mariposa Doll Cake

birthday girl in fairy attire, slicing her cake

Birthday Cup Cake

A closer look on a cupcake in Mariposa theme

New Year Cake

New Year cake - Chiffon cake iced in buttercream.   Embroidery scrolls, balls, vines, flowers, mistle toe, candy cane made with buttercream.  All decorations are edible except for the christmas ball at the center of the cake. Cake border is dar-to-faded colors of red, green and yellow.

Beef Burger with Flat bread stuffed with cheese

There is something special about this burger. Flat bread stuffed with cheese. Yes, crazy as it sounds but it's a no brainer bread that is developed by accident.  The patty is ready made, i know a deli shop who makes good burger patties; well seasoned and less fatty, i can tell from the color. I like it because its not frozen which means it is freshly made for the day. All I have to do is to cook them nicely.

The flat bread is made simply with 1 cup all purpose flour, 1tsp. salt, 1 tsp. olive oil and 1/3 cup warm water. You may use additional flour for dusting. Put the flour in the mixing bowl, make a well add salt and olive oil and warm water. Mix with chopstick by stirring the liquid and slowly incorporating the flour till the dough comes together. On a flat working surface, knead the dough until until smooth and elastic. Flatten the dough with a rolling pin as flat as you can. Cut the dough with a circular cookie cutter . With one circular dough, place a slice of cheese and put another dough on top.  Pinch the edges to seal the cheese. Heat a heavy bottomed frying pan, put 1 tsp oil and wipe with a kitchen towel. Cook the dough with the heat of the pan on both sides until you see charred sides.  Assemble the burger with lettuce and tomatoes.

This may seem long on the procedure but i did it in less than 20 minutes, I made two burgers and I still had remaining dough. My point is, don't be intimidated by the long procedure. It's quicker than you thought.   For the extra dough, I made some more cheese-stuffed bread and my daughter just loved it for snacks. As you can see in the picture, the bread is very thin, thats because the burger patty is thick. I don't need a thick bread.  I got thicker love handles :D, if you know what i mean. :)

Mothers Day Special

Mothers’ Day Special

I’ve been wanting to make these cakes long time back, but it was just a project in my mind waiting for an occasion. Mothers’ Day seems to be perfect for this project. 

Originally the project was mini cakes covered in fondant, but I personally don’t like the taste of fondant icing, however they really look neat and majestic.  I’m more considering of the consumption of the icing rather than seeing the icing on the side of the plate uneaten. That would break my heart to see that.  Of all the effort you’ve spent making the cake beautiful, they are not eaten in most cases.  This is why I prefer tasty icing on my cakes and try to make them look beautiful as I can. But for this project, I have put myself up to the test of making my own fondant flowers. This took so much of the time making individual flowers but it was worth the effort when I saw them on the cake!  I searched high and low on how-to videos how to do them, some are really great instructional videos in YouTube.  Thanks for that.  I really plan to make my own how-to videos one of these days as some of what I’m doing I’ve learned from other crafts in other medium like soap moulding and most of the time playing with play-dough with my daughter.

The idea of small baskets is inspired by the theme, mothers day.. I just think a bouquet of flowers is just wonderful for every woman, hence I made these little basket filled with fondant flowers of carnation of different shades, roses, drop flowers and calla lilly.

The cake is made of madeira cake, as it last long without the need of chilling, iced in butter cream.  The handles are in fondant.

Where do these cakes ended up? Nope I didn’t eat all of them.  I gathered some mommy friends around, had tea at home and gave each one edible bouquet of flowers in a basket.  We had one of the cakes to go with the tea, I kept the pink rose basket for my daughter and gave them the rest.  I can't be happy enough for this project.

Tiramisu

TIRAMISU

make the swiss roll and leave it in the oven
until it cools down to room temp. Do not roll it up

Tiramisu is a famous Italian dessert made of layers of coffee soaked savoiardi biscuit (popularly known as Lady Fingers)or sponge cake and eggs mixed in whipped cream with mascarpone cheese. 

Warning:  This Contains Alcohol.  Not suitable for minors! however, alcohol can be omitted if desired.

Hundreds of tiramisu recipe are around the internet to choose from, but I personally prefer the one that doesn’t contain raw eggs.  As part of the tiramisu evolution, hence this is my home made version.

Making this tiramisu is a result of a frustration from what I bought from a cake shop, which I thought tastes heavenly as it looks.  Actually I bought it for Hubby hoping it would make him feel better as he wasn’t in good shape that day, but was so disappointed with that heavenly looking tiramisu.  That challenged me to make tiramisu on the weekend. There’s nothing better than making something the way you like it.

SWISS ROLL, which is never rolled. Cut into the same
width of the pan.

line the pan with aluminum foil for easy removal of the cake

I’ve searched a lot of tiramisu recipe but most of them have raw eggs, which I wasn’t keen to eat raw eggs on the cake.  I have got a good recipe from a friend with egg too but cooked, so I was supposed to give it a go but couldn’t find mascarpone.  Anyhow, I have found an easy recipe in epicurean.com but the portion is in goblets; which is not the kind of serving I have in mind.  I like that perfectly rectangle or square slice which you can see layers of goodness in it, topped with dark cocoa powder.  That is exactly the picture of tiramisu I have in mind.  The one I was addicted to in Rennaissance Hotel – Mumbai.  They serve a real slice of heaven for me.

Most of the home made tiramisu are placed in a dish. Though it tastes good, it lacks the element of presentation when you serve a slice.  It just gets disintegrated specially for left-over.  You don’t see the beauty of it unless you have that slice on your plate which is somehow deformed by the time you like to take a bite. My point is, even if things are home-made, you can make it look as appetizing as the commercial ones. And why not? “The Eyes eat first” according to a friend.

Spoon over coffee mixture onto the cake
(this is the middle layer, the layers at the bottom
are cake,cream and cake again, cream will be the
last layer

So, it takes a little cake engineering  (winks J) to achieve that precise layers of cream,coffee,cocoa and cake, I’ve got to make my own cake that would work well with the flavors.  I think swiss roll recipe would go with it because it’s dry, spongy and tastes close to lady fingers which is the authentic ingredient for tiramisu. This time, I didn’t roll it.  I kept it flat and let it stayed a little bit longer in the oven until it cooled down to room temp.  The best thing is, it is so quick and easy to make and I am sure it is at least half the cost of that pack of lady fingers. 3 minutes of mixing and 10 minutes of baking, that’s what it takes.

Sprinkle cocoa powder on top of the cream layer

The proportion of the ingredients of this tiramisu is just by luck, I crossed my fingers at the beginning if it will work or not on actual; because it works in my imagination only.  And luckily it did, that’s why I’m itching to post this for reference before it gets off my mind.  Which is the purpose of this kitchenjournal.

Note, I added cognac because me and hubby loves it, and I didn’t had the time to look for a coffee liquor.  Therefore, this tiramisu contains alcohol.  You may skip this ingredient if you intend to serve to kids. (I just told my 3 daughter that it is spicy and its only for mommy and daddy.  She is not keen on cocoa powder, its bitter for her).

After Chilling for atleast 4 hours,Remove tiramisu
 from the pan and ready to be sliced

For sure I will be visiting this post every now and then because this will be my basic proportion as it has proven its deliciousness.  Honestly, this tiramisu vs. cheese cake is a close call to us couple. It’s tough to judge which one is faved. I voted TIRAMISU, my other-half is still undecided but indeed he admits that the two cakes are rivals as to our taste.

The recipe:
Yields two 4x4x8 loaf pans

Swiss Roll

3 eggs

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Whisk the eggs until pale and soft peak forms, continue beating while adding the sugar teaspoon by teaspoon.sift together flour and baking powder and fold-in into the egg mixture using a wooden spoon.  Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and then smooth the surface, being careful not to press out any air. Bake in the center of the oven for 12-15 minutes.  To test if cooked,lightly press the center of and if it springs back, it is done.  Turn off the oven and leave it there until the oven cools down.  You must have a crispy crust and pungent spongy texture in the middle.

cover the sides of the remaining tiramisu with plastic
before storing it in the fridge. This will keep the cream
from absorbing odor and bacteria in the fridge.

400 g cream cheese

400 g. whipping cream

1 cup icing sugar (sifted)

cognac (optional)

cocoa powder

1 cup espresso coffee

Make the swiss roll, but don’t roll it up, just let it cool down in the oven until at room temperature.  Cut it according to the size of your dish or pan, in the picture, I’m using 2 loaf pans; so I cut 4 rectangles.

Whip the whipping cream until soft peak, add icing sugar slowly whilst continue beating until stiff.  Do not over-whip the cream; it will turn into lumpy butter! Place the whipped cream in the fridge while preparing the other ingredients.

Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until soft and creamy; add in cognac (optional) until well blended. Fold-in the cream cheese to the whipped cream until well combined.

To assemble:

Place a foil on the pan contouring the shape of the pan and overlay at least half of the opening of the pan. Place 1 slice of  the cake at the bottom, spoon over coffee mixture evenly on to the cake. (if the coffee is still hot, let it cool down before adding the cream). Add cream mixture and evenly push it gently with the back of a spoon to make a layer of cream. Sift cocoa on top of it. Add another layer of cake soaked in coffee, add another layer of cream and lastly dust the top with cocoa powder. Cover the cake with the foil and Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.  Keep the tiramisu chilled.

Enjoy a slice of tiramisu with a cuppa coffee.

To serve:

Trace the sides with a spatula to separate the cake from the foil. Remove the tiramisu cake by lifting the foil and transfer it on to a cake board. Gently remove the foil. Cut in slices and serve.  When the cake is not consumed in one setting, cover the sides with plastic. This will prevent the cream from absorbing the odors and bacteria from the fridge.

I think a cuppa coffee is a must.

Note, thanks to that cake shop who sells nice looking tiramisu, I made one myself the way I like it.