Free Choice: Rose Red Velvet Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, page 83: Rose Red Velvet Cake

After looking at the beautiful and gorgeous wedding cake that Rose & Woody baked for Sarah (Marie's daughter) & James' wedding, i knew i had to try Rose's red velvet cake.  I planned to bake the red velvet cake & bernachon palet d'or gateau that i've missed last week since Friday is a public holiday and i have 3 days of long weekend.  However, i woke up on Friday and couldn't move my head at all..  Quite scary not being able to move my head up/down/left/right and having upper body pain from neck downwards. No clinic available since it was public holiday, unless i check into A&E..which i didn't think it was that urgent.  My friend Angie told me to take muscle-relaxer which she said might help..i searched and found expired ones but since desperate, i took it anyway with painkillers.  :S

Thankfully i felt much better on Sunday (..at least i can move my head not at 90-degrees but at least 45-degrees..lol! ) so i decided to bake just Rose Red Velvet Cake with the Lacquer Glaze on page 109 - also as a birthday cake for my domestic helper too.  Since i don't have a heart shape pan, i baked in 2x 6"round pans.  Instructions pretty easy to follow and even mixing is rather straight forward.  Felt a bit hesitant when pouring the entire bottle of red food coloring into the egg mixture...i had to close both eyes when doing that..lol!  Baked the cake for around 25mins.  White chocolate frosting is quite straight forward too but the only thing was i had to frost my cake with the cake in the fridge cos it kept melting.  The weather has been really hot (32-35c) lately..everything just melts the moment it is out from the fridge in no less than 5-mins. So i couldn't frost very well..i think my cake leaned sidewards a bit because of how i frosted it in fridge and also the frosting was too soft...lol! And me being lazy and wanted to save energy, didn't want to turn on air-con for just 10mins.  After the frosting on the cake has hardened in the fridge, i heated up the lacquer glaze (which was prepared earlier) and poured it over the cake..however, i think i didn't heat it enough cos the consistency was still a bit too thick but i used a spatula to even it out. I tried to copy the decoration that Rose did but the heart shaped fondant kept sliding down the glaze and doesn't stay in place. I wonder why.. perhaps it is the condensation on the glaze that causes the fondant heart accents to slide downwards. *shrugs*  I got quite fed-up with the sliding hearts... so i just took them down and then placed raspberries all over instead. 

VERDICT:   I'm surprised that red velvet cake is sooo tasty and delicious! I always read bad reviews about red velvet cake being dry etc..and the last red velvet cake i made (using strawberry juice) wasn't even impressive. But this, is awesome! I forgotten about the red coloring the moment i took a bite of the cake.  It's soft, moist, crumb is dense and yet delicate.  Yummy!  The white chocolate frosting blends in very well with the cake too..except i think maybe i put in too little frosting..looks like a lot when i frosted though..like it shrank..lol!  Of course the birthday girl loves it..she said it's delicious and very happy with her cake. My daughter and my husband said it is yummy too!  Definitely a keeper and i love how pretty the cake look inside..so red and so pretty! :D  

I brought some to office today (yup, my neck is 90% well now..only cant tilt my head backwards too much..:p) - both my boss and colleagues said it's delicious! :)  I think red velvet cake is meant to be shared with lots of people cos you don't want to eat the entire cake on your own with so much red food coloring..lol! 

I just love how red the cake looks inside! It's soo beautiful, isn't it? :D

MH Birthday Cookies

Made this platter for my colleague MH's birthday. She has a sweet tooth so i hope she'll enjoy it.  At the same time practiced my piping too..lol! :D   Couldn't decide which photo looked better so i ended uploading both...:)   Happy Birthday MH!

Thank you all who left comments earlier on my Ironhot-heart cookies blog post.  All your lovely & kind comments have been most encouraging and gave me much confidence to try piping another batch of cookies this soon. :D  

Ironhot-heart Cookies

The cartoon characters drawn by my daughter. She's entering Uni to study design in a few months' time. I translated her drawings into cookies just for her.  Of course her drawing is much better than what i can pipe. This is the best i can do - for someone (me) who has piped less than 5x! Piping is my nemesis!  

Ironhot-Heart is the name of the robot (in case you don't know that's a robot..since a friend of mine thought the head looked like a monkey & the arms like prawns! :( Guess must be my bad piping skills for her to think that way!! lol! ) my daughter gave her cartoon characters.  And also to clarify that girl on the flower cookie is not a robot girl (which i thought it was initially and met with much protest by my daughter) but Marshmallow Girl....*roll eyes* 

Baby Lemon Cheesecakes

Rose's Heavenly Cake, Page 327: Baby Lemon Cheesecakes

Recently, i've been sick...from stomach flu, to cold, to a very bad headache on Sunday. Finally managed to find time today after work to bake these.  Since I had little time to bake these, instead of baking the sponge cake, i made gingerbread cookie crust (recipe page 252).  I baked them in non-stick paper souffle cups, so i'll have less to wash up after..lol!   Paper cups cannot be submerged into water, so i place a huge tray of water below the baby cheesecakes - my logic is that the water below will create steam similar to that of waterbath.  

I baked at 170c for 20mins..but judging from the tray below, i think should be just 15mins cos the right side cheesecake is over baked.. a bit sink at the centre but the ones on the left side is smooth and nicer..(uneven heat in my oven..)

Once the cheesecake cooled, the sides will move away from the paper and there's no problem removing the cheesecake after cutting away the paper.  

Oh, and i forgot, i didn't make any lemon curd.  Instead i used the orange curd (recipe on page 180). 

I made extra batches of orange curd a while back and kept it in the freezer.  

VERDICT: It's sooo yummy! The chewy cookie base and the soft cheesecake and the sweet orange curd blends in really well.  Not sure if it would taste better with lemon curd, but i have to say that i love the orange curd flavor paired with this.  My family loves it! :D  Definitely a keeper!

Toy Car Cake

I'm really happy how this cake turned out esp when I wasn't feeling well and didn't really feel like making this cake.  However, after reading Friday's daily bread devotion (http://odb.org/2010/05/07/becoming-inclined-to-god), i managed to complete this cake. Thanks to God & Praise the Lord! :) 

Cake alone is 16" x 12" and it's quite huge & very heavy.  Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream.  

Happy Birthday Daniel! :D

Saint-Honore Trifle

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 227: Saint-Honore Trifle

I had a hard time finding a trifle bowl..i thought of using my glass mixing bowl but decided  against it as the  gradual round up won't be easy to cut imo. So in the end, i finally opted to use a disposal plastic container instead..LOL!

Somehow this weekend, i was feeling quite lazy. Not sure if it is because i just recovered from stomach flu and feeling the lack of energy.  The recipe called for clarified butter..i was too lazy to clarify butter so i used the Ghee in my pantry instead.  Surprisingly the cake turned out quite well..:p  Also i didn't do spun sugar even when i had initially planned to do (i actually had my new whisk cut off for this purpose)...cos my very efficient domestic helper cleaned up my kitchen & stove so quickly and i didn't have the heart to mess it up again - we all know spun sugar can be messy and attract ants...

Instead of baking the cake in 9" round, i baked it in a jelly-roll pan for 10-15mins.  The cake turned out even and flat.  After this photo, i forgot to take anymore step-by-step photos..lol!..it's definitely not easy to take photos while baking at the same time... 

Cut the cake into 4 rectangles..and layered as instructed. I omitted the syrup since i didn't want a too sweet cake.  Somehow the top cake layer ended up too small for the container so i crumbled it and place it on top of the strawberries & chiboust cream.   The good thing about using this disposal air-tight container is that i can put the lid on and place it back in the fridge - locking in the moisture (i think).. :D!  Also good idea if i had to carry this cake off for a potluck dinner/party.  But definitely not as pretty though..would have been much prettier & classier if in a trifle bowl.

Er.... so now how do i cut this cake?!? LOL!  

Verdict: Since i wasn't sure how to cut this..i just used a large ladle to spoon the layers out.  The Chiboust Cream is to die for..yums! I could just eat the chiboust cream on it is own!  To me, this trifle tasted like the french version of strawberry shortcake (with genoise sponge cake & chantilly cream).  I love strawberry shortcake, so of course, this is delicious! Everyone in my family adores it..esp. my domestic helper..her fave so far cos it has loads of strawberries in it and her birthday is coming soon, so i might make this again for her birthday...:D