3rd Day at Tokyo - DisneyLand

We spent entire day at Tokyo DisneyLand - from morning till night at 10pm till they closes - they have a shop Bon Voyage near the train station that closes only at 11pm for last min shoppers! Cool ya? I bought Mickey & Mickey's hand (huge) cookie cutters. That's all they had. Weather is rather cold because of the cold wind, pretty windy here in Tokyo.

On our way to Tokyo DisneyLand. Last change of train at subway.

We find it is easier to read the Chinese characters to get your way around the subway.

Queen of Hearts!

Special Assistant card for my son.

Their Customer Assistant spotted my son right away at the Q and gave him this card immediately. Excellent Service isn't it? Didn't even get that when i was in Hong Kong.

Mickey Mouse pastry..sorry..i took a bite before i remembered to take photo!

Mickey-shaped nuggets for my son.

But because it is Mickey-shaped, he doesn't want to eat?!?!

That's my son! He only ate french fries for the entire day since he refused to eat anything else that looked unfamiliar! We can't find any ramen or udon for him. :(

Parade & fireworks at night! Such pretty sight!

2nd Day in Tokyo

Familiarized ourselves with the Tokyo Subway. It's pretty confusing with so many different lines and colors! Went shopping around Tokyo station and walked to Imperial Palace.

There must be a childcare centre near our service apartment.

The teachers bringing out little kids for walk and put them in the trolley..so cute!

Lots of smoking booth at subway for "chimney" smokers!

That's me at the Imperial Palace garden taking photos!

Pine trees behind me - with pine cones! :)

Took a close up photo of a pine cone - for the next HCB baking project..lol!

The breakfast menu at a certain 24-hr cafe. Prices are reasonable too!

What we ordered. I ordered something else but i forgot to take a pic!

Dessert stall! My fave!

Vending Machines again! They are practically EVERYWHERE! :)

What i ate for dinner.

MacDonald's Strawberry Cheesecake McFlurry! Yummy!

Water fountain near the Imperial Palace.

1st Day in Tokyo

Arrived Tokyo in the late afternoon..checked into our service apartment. Very tired.

Vending Machine outside the service apartment.

Our room. Big and spacious.

Not really hotel quality but it's clean although the furniture quite old and run down.

Basically for budget travelers. :)

What's great is that it has high speed internet in the room & its FREE!

Fruitcake Wreath

Rose's Heavenly Cake, Page 79: Fruitcake Wreath.

I couldn't decide if i wanted to bake this since nobody in my family likes fruitcake except me and even i usually couldn't eat more than a tiny slice of fruitcake each time. However, i did soak the fruits 8 days earlier, just in case i change my mind. But as the weekend came, I felt uneasy like I'm not doing my homework if I didn't bake! So i finally decided that i should just go ahead with it. Now i can say for sure that I am very glad that i baked this as this is one of the BEST fruitcake i have ever tasted! Not exaggerating when i say that it is the BEST!

Recipe is simple. The only time consuming part is soaking the fruits in rum for 8 days. Mixing the batter is so easy. Omitted pecans and only added 160g of walnuts (whatever i had left). Did not realised i have to use "dark" brown sugar until i pour all the brown sugar into the mixing bowl with the butter :P. No fruitcake wreath pan so i used my pyrex glass bowls instead. Yield about 7 bowl-cakes for me. I think i overbaked since the top came out a bit too dark and was a bit burnt on top - so i think about 40 mins baking time should be sufficient. Since i didn't have the cake shaped like a wreath, I decided to cover 3 cakes with mazipan & decorate in fondant - into wreaths. :) I did cut the glaceed cherries into tiny pieces (candied peel came in tiny pieces in a pack) & my walnuts was toasted & "de-skinned" (if there is such a word?)

VERDICT: Like i mentioned earlier, this is the BEST fruitcake i have ever tasted. I thought i wouldn't like the rum but the rum compliments the glaceed fruits very well and brushing the cake with rum also didn't make the cake too "rum-my". The glaceed fruits was just right and not overly sweet. Overall, the cake tasted unique and special..not like the usual over-the-top or sickening sweet fruitcake that i've always eaten. The cake is rich & moist but yet you won't feel sick of it. My husband and my daughter usually do not like fruitcake suddenly became fruitcake lovers!! :D I gave my mom and sis' family some to try and they all gave the thumbs up! My mom who's 81 loves it a lot and wanted to keep the cake till Christmas.....I told her to eat it all and i'll bake more for her when i return from Japan (oh..and can you believed it? she asked me to brush more rum the next time Oo). :D

Somehow i find this cake very addictive! The more i eat, the more i want to eat! And after i had a slice, i keep thinking of another slice.... What's so amusing is before this, i had the impression that i had to eat this cake by myself. Now? Everybody in my family adores Rose's fruitcake, so it's almost gone by now as i am typing this! It's amazing isn't it? I have to bake more when i return from vacation (yes, i'm addicted!!). And for those who didn't bake this, you have no idea what you are missing, so better pick up your baking pans, turn on your oven and start baking it now!! ;)

Rose's book, ie, Rose's Heavenly Cake is seriously worth every $$ for all the amazing recipes in there! Everyone should own a copy imo! Disclaimer: opinions expressed here are just my own and i am not in anyway paid, whether in monies or in kind to say good things about her book. :)

Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake

Rose's Heavenly Cake, Page 247: Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust: I didn't make the gingersnap crust. I made digestive biscuit crust instead, cos i forgot to buy gingersnaps! :p i was lazy to bring out the food processor and used my hands to crush the digestive biscuits. I baked the crust for 10mins and put in the fridge to harden a bit.

Pumpkin Filling: While reading instructions for this (ok, ok, i didn't read the instructions prior..i read only last min) I realised by now that i still need to take my food processor out of the cabinet..argghh! Well, at least the next part - making the batter was easy. Rose said to smooth the batter with spatula, but my batter was very liquid..so nothing to smooth and it made me quite worried. But after baking, the pumpkin cheesecake did set, much to my relief. i wrapped aluminum foil over the springform pan which based on my experience, when baking via waterbath, water will leak through the springform pan if it is not covered with aluminum foil (or maybe my springform pan is lousy..lol!). After 45 mins, I removed the waterbath first and baked at 130C for 10mins more (just in case i figured..since my batter was liquid remember?) and then turned off and cooled the cheesecake in the oven for 45mins instead of 1 hour as instructed cos i was too impatient as i wanted to clean my oven asap.

Caramel Piping Glaze: Am I or smart or what? Or shall i say TOO smart? LOL! Instead of making caramel piping glaze, i made caramel candy instead! hahahaha! Look at the photo below. Now i have a batch of caramel toffee instead to go with my pumpkin cheesecake! Seriously, i don't know what i did..but i was happy stirring...more stirring and when i put in the butter i was still stirring over heat..i thought it won't do any harm. Then i added a tsp of brandy...and still stirring..lol! When i thought it was ok..it actually hardens into candy when cooled..and if i knew i was making toffee, i would have added some fleur de sel..would have been sooo good! It's still good now without fleur de sel....sticky, chewy & buttery. ;P See, this is a perfect example of not reading instructions properly!

Too burnt out to redo the caramel glaze, so i melted some chocolate and piped a huge flower on top of the cheesecake and put the pecan in the flower centre and as leaves. The less pecan nuts the better..i don't like them...:)

Verdict: Yummy!! Creamy and yet not too rich! Everyone loved it including my office colleagues. This cheesecake is extremely smooth & it melts-in-your mouth. Pumpkin taste is not so overpowering and blends in really well with the cheese! This recipe is definitely a keeper (minus the caramel glaze..hahaha) and i'll make it again, worth the effort of bringing out my food processor (sometimes i wish i have a bigger kitchen where i can put the food processor, kitchenaid mixer etc, on all the kitchen table..so i don't have to bring them in and out of my kitchen cabinet).

NOTE: Rose left a comment on Marie's blog..i cut & pasted it here as a way to remind myself not to worry about the thin batter...otherwise i might forget..

Rose Levy Beranbaum said...

fantastic job marie and everyone else who posted their versions. it's so fun to see how different they all look.

two important comments:

if the caramel comes off the slice in one gob it's because it was taken to too high a temperature. At a lower temperature a spoon or fork goes through it with ease. but i see loads of comments about thermometers so i'll say no more!

i appreciate the comment about the fear that the cake wouldn't set because the filling was so thin and i wrote to smooth it with a spatula. that's the danger of copy editing! my copy editor suggested adding this to all cakes and clearly it is not necessary for my cheesecake batters that flow into a smooth surface by themselves (note i never wrote this in the cake bible.) sometimes one's initial instincts best reflect what one actually does so i never should have added that phrase and i'm now taking it out for the next printing. thanks for calling it to my attention. it's great that this bake through will help to continue to perfect the book!

[MacTweets/ma2] Macarons (Three Flavors)

Made 3 different flavor macarons:

- Mango Macarons with Mango Buttercream & Jelly filling. Absolutely love this flavor! I like anything mango, can't you tell? :)

- Matcha Macarons with Chocolate Buttercream & Mango Jelly filling. Not too bad. I like anything green tea too, but i would have loved it better if i paired it with green tea buttercream for that intense green tea flavor. But since matcha is only my fave and nobody seems to like it, i decided to play down the green tea flavor with chocolate buttercream.

- Espresso Macarons with Mocha Buttercream. A bit bitter, i guess a put too much espresso coffee powder! :p But i compensated by making the macarons smaller..ie, like espresso shot! lol!

Please do check out other bloggers' macarons & flavors listed on http://mactweets.blogspot.com!

And a REMINDER to myself: NEVER EVER bake 3 batches of macarons at night the next time, even if i have all the ingredients ready earlier! Didn't finish till 1230am! Dead tired!

Black Bottom Cupcakes

These cupcakes are seriously good! I didn't expect it to be this delicious.. While mixing the batter, I thought that it didn't look right. But in the end the cupcakes turned out one of the best chocolate cupcakes i've ever tasted. The centre of the cake is gooey, creamy and chocolatety due to the mascarpone & mini chocolate chips. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves and adores chocolate..it's heavenly. :) Plus it is terribly easy to make..no fuss & so quick!

Recipe is taken from Jill O'Connor's Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. I've tried 2 recipes from her book so far and they are both hits. I'm quite pleased that i bought this book. Initially when I saw the book i didn't quite like it because all the dessert & cake photos in the book looked just too sweet for me! But i changed my mind and bought it anyway just because i like the look of the book. The design and print was what captivated me..lol! And also i'm addicted to cookbooks..when i see one that i like, i just have to buy it! :S

Catalan Salt Pinch Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 197: Catalan Salt Pinch Cake

When Marie posted this cake as the next cake to be baked, I was expecting some sort of savory cake (is there such thing as a savory cake? *shrugs*) but after i read the recipe did i realised that it was created by a baker of Salt Bakery which was name after the village of Salt. So it's just any regular sweet cake afterall!

Although this cake is easy to make, you must have the patience to stand next to the mixer and add 2 tbps of the 300g egg mixture each time, beat for 2mins after each addition till the egg mixture runs out. So be prepared to stand next to the mixer for like 20-25mins. Of course you can measure out the flour during this time and zest the lemon and cut the parchment for your pan..etc...but obviously i didn't read the instructions properly. I did my usual way, measured out all my ingredients first (mis en place?) and organised them so i won't forget an ingredient (but sometimes it doesn't work cos i still forget oO), hence i had nothing much to do during the 20-25mins except to wait for the next addition of egg mixture.:S Oh wait..i did dance around a little because a hungry mosquito was trying to feed on my legs when i stood too still...

Oh ya....i used store bought ground almond meal instead of grinding it on my own. :p I always have some standby for making macarons. Baking macarons is a good way to get rid of all your eggwhites. :)

Instead of using 9" springform pan, I baked them into cupcakes. So at least i can pinch my own cupcake as i don't want everyone to pinch on the same cake that i'm going to eat (and they can pinch their own too..lol). I used the non-stick paper cupcake cases and pressed a piece of parchment into each of the cases so that batter can 'stick' onto the parchment and rise properly. The total batter yield about 16 cupcakes and i baked them for 15 mins. What's great is i can recycle my cupcake cases...cos they still look as good as new..no oil seepage. Hey, now i realised that there's no butter/oil for this recipe!..no wonder no oil seepage from the parchment onto my cupcake cases..:D

Verdict: Winner! Light, scrumptious, spongy, moist (but not wet) and yet not overly sweet with a tinge of almond flavor. Bite into it and the crumbs of the cake melt into your mouth. This cake is very light and delicious! Of course I loved it! We ate the cake without any whipped cream or raspberries and it tasted just as good. In fact this cake reminds me of the sponge cupcakes that are sold in our local chinese bakeries minus the almond. My daughter said it is so light that she ate 3 cupcakes at one go! I totally agree..i ate 2 and still felt i could eat more..lol! My husband ate 2 too! My son..is the fussy one..he doesn't want to eat any new food..! I'm surprised that without any oil or butter, the cake can still stay so moist. :)

Brought some to office for my boss & colleague to try and they thought these cupcakes were from a local bakery until i told them i baked them and that this is a Barcelona cake, not our Asian sponge cake, although similar in taste. They enjoyed it nonetheless. :D

See the inside of the cake, airy & spongy...

NOTE: Comment by Rose left on Marie's blog. I'm elated that Rose said she loved my baby cakes. :) I'm a huge fan of Rose and totally admire her! Her one comment meant a lot to me, so i have to cut & paste it here..like her autograph, since i can't get an autograph from her..:(

Rose Levy Beranbaum said...

p.s. the book will have to include some photos and comments from the other participants. i'm reading through them now ad wow! LOVE the individual ones from 'amateur baker' and seeing them in the oven is stunning. that's as far as i've gotten...

Shoes & Shoe Box Birthday Cake

I made this birthday cake for my friend Emily. Her birthday is only in December and i know it's a bit too early, but i will be away during her birthday and i since i promised her that i'll bake her a birthday cake, i thought it would be better to be early than later. Hope she'll like it. :)

The shoes i made from gumpaste (Size 6.5). The right shoe on the top of the box is the one that i had to refix cos my dog ate up almost the entire shoe when i left it to dry (thankfully she didn't have a tummy ache - it's too much sugar for her!!). I had to refix the right pair & because i rushed to fix it, there's a lot of cracked lines on the shoe...not as nice & neat as the other left pair imo.

The Box is Devil's Food Cake with Light Chocolate Frosting covered with Chocolate Fondant. Light Chocolate Frosting i created on my own tastes similar to that of our famous local bakery Awfully Chocolate's chocolate cake". My box is not very well done..looks more like a pillow imo. :( But that's the best i could do..it's my first time anyway and it's not easy when i realised my cake was too soft.

Cottonballs are made from marshmallow fondant. These were added because i messed up the white board with chocolate frosting..:p..so had to cover up with something..and came up with this design last minute...lol! The more i look at them, the more they look like popcorns to me! :S

Sugar Rose was the one i made earlier...in my earlier post. Didn't have use for it till now. :)

Woody's Lemon Luxury Layer Cake

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 43: Woody's Lemon Luxury Layer Cake

This cake i realised is very rich and extremely high in cholesterol. So many egg yolks + eggs!! In the batter as well as in the buttercream & lemon curd! Making the lemon curd & buttercream is extremely tedious!! I spent like the whole Sunday baking this cake from 3pm till 10pm! And honestly i didn't really like the buttercream cos it's just way too soft, unless i am doing it wrong..but seriously..it's again one of those not good for hot & humid weather buttercream. I did turn on air-conditioning just to frost the cake but it didn't really help much cos i think i turned it on only just when i was about to frost the cake. I should have turned it on earlier so the room would have been colder. And one other thing, i cut my little finger while chopping up the white chocolate...thank goodness i was using my ceramic knife otherwise i think would have been a deeper cut...that's for being careless!

And besides cutting up my finger, i made another mistake.....i forgot to add sugar in my cake batter and only realised it after i tasted the batter and it's not sweet! I turned around saw the bowl of sugar at the side table! Arggh..i forgot to add it in with the flour..:P!! I didn't want to waste the 6 egg yolks, so i just add the sugar into the batter and turned on my mixer to full blast for 5 mins! The cake turned out ok, but i think it's a bit too 'heavy' in texture because of my last min addition of sugar, i'm no physicist or chemist but i'm sure it has got to do with some science thing.. See my cake in the pan..quite ugly looking..all the bubbles because i over-beat the batter (no choice when i forgot to add sugar till last min) lol!

Can you see from my photos below that i got really lazy and tired towards the end that i didn't even bother to trim the crust top and sides of my cake? My cake looks like egg/ham sandwich more than a cake! LOL! The brown crust looks like ham, the lemon curd like egg benedict, the buttercream like mayonnaise/cheese..hahahaha..i find it quite amusing! LOL! When my daughter saw my cake, she exclaimed "hey mom, why is it you've got ham sandwiched in your cake!" and we both burst out laughing!

We couldn't wait for the cake to be completely cold to try it. Hence you see the lemon curd oozing out and also the buttercream pretty soft. Look at the photo above, doesn't it looks like egg, cheese & ham sandwich? hahahahaha

Verdict: I don't like this cake. I tried to like it but i don't. My cake maybe 'heavier' than it should be, but don't think it changes the overall taste of the cake. I find the white chocolate buttercream + lemon curd + white chocolate cake way too much for my tastebuds...rather overwhelming. And also..this time i find the cake too sweet (cos of white chocolate...and sour too) for my liking! I adore Rose's Lemon Poppyseed Cake though, so it is not lemon that i don't like, but the combination of both the sour lemon & sweet white chocolate. I like the cake on it's own, i like the lemon curd on it's own and i also like the buttercream on its own but somehow when they are all combined together, i don't quite like it anymore! oO.

PS: the next morning - the buttercream on cake finally hardened! Yay!

My after-thought: for amount of effort & time put into this cake (or rather the buttercream), i doubt i wanna bake this again...too tiring...worse than decorating a cake imo. But i do like the cake on its own..maybe just paired with lemon Italian meringue buttercream when i bake it again.

Please do check out the others HCB bakers listed on my sidebar - I'm sure their cake will turn out looking more like cake than a sandwich! LOL!

I'm Back!! (from Bangkok)

Just back. Went for a short weekend holiday to Bangkok. We did nothing much there, just eat and shop. Initially this trip was meant to celebrate my sil's birthday but she wasn't feeling well and hence can't make it. :( The plane tics can't be cancelled or postponed, so we decided to just go and enjoy the weekend there on our own and mainly because my son loves to travel now. He use to hate changes in routine, but now he loves traveling which is great..an improvement imo, since there's no fix routine when you travel. :)

I forgot to take photos of what we ate..too hungry to remember that i had to take photos before i plunge in...LOL! So here are my "damages" instead....!

Yay! I finally found the rectangular shaped silicone cake pan @ Siam Paragon..so i bought 2 just in case! ;p The digital weighing machine was selling at 45% lower than what i bought in Singapore! Argghh..@#(*U%#(%!!! Yup..so i had to even out my cost and buy another one! Is this good logic or what? LOL! Also got the non-stick rolling mat, icing sugar shaker & tart temper. :)

Paul Frank's hoodie jacket & iPhone cases for my daughter. She couldn't join us as she is having her A-level exams now. I'm a fan of Paul Frank's monkey!

2 dresses i bought for myself. These are made by local designers. But their sizes are really small. I wear their size medium..so anyone larger than me, can't fit into their clothings..cos there's no large size. I suppose Thai girls are generally very very petite!

I bought a couple of Kiew Savoy mangos as well..Thai mangos which can be eaten when it is not ripe - crunchy & yet still sweet. Great mangos to use for Thai's Mango Salad. (no photos..)

Oh..another note, i met a very rude woman who sat next to us at a coffee place. My teenage son has typical (low functioning) autism, so although he looks normal on the outside, he has autistic behaviors which people who doesn't know what autism is but at least have common sense will know that he is some one with "special-needs". So there we were seated and my son as usual, laughed out really loud all of a sudden, flickered his fingers and made tics action. This Thai-Chinese woman who spoke very fluent English (perhaps that's why she thinks so highly of herself) went on to tell to her friend in English that she thinks my son is weird, that he laughs so scarily & loudly because he listens to music too loudly on his earphone...blah..blah.blah.. Duh...hello..we are Singaporeans and our first language is English, obviously we can understand every single word! I wanted to tell her off, but then decided against it, since we were on holiday so no point letting this woman gets us all upset for nothing. Some people think they are smart when they are actually quite an idiot.

Baby Chocolate Oblivions

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 371: Baby Chocolate Oblivions

I'm a certified chocoholic, so obviously i LOVE these baby cakes! LOL! These are solely for the chocolate lovers cos' they are intensely rich & chocolate-ty. :D Feels almost like eating chocolate truffles instead of cakes. Also, they are gluten-free baby-cakes, ie, no flour.

These baby chocolate oblivions are very easy to make and baking time only 15mins. There's an instruction which i don't quite understand..ie, put the 9x13 pan over the cupcake pan resting on its edge or something. Must it be resting on edge upside down so it will leave some gap or just rest the entire pan on it so it falls flat on the cupcake pan? Anyway, so in the end, i just put a huge piece of aluminum foil over..*shrugs*. I didn't have 60% chocolate, so i mixed 394g of Valrhona 66% chocolate + 60g of Valrhona white chocolate + increased sugar to 60g. Turned out alright..and not too sweet either.

Ok..i admit, i didn't use the silicon pan, not that i don't have the silicon ones, i have but just too lazy to dig it out..so i used my non-stick metal cupcake pan which is easily accessible. (When you have a tiny kitchen like mine, you'll have to hide a lot of things away..sometimes i hide them in such a safe place that even i can't find..lol!) Hmm..yes, the cakes did get stuck to the pan despite me greasing it, but it was easy to "fix" the problem. I took a spatula and "frost" back the gooey underside stuck to the pan back to the cupcake and smoothen them into shape..hahahaha..see my photos above, doesn't look like the other half the cake was broken off and stuck to the pan right? ;P

I brought some to the office and everyone loved it..and everyone means they are chocolate lovers too. I'll definitely make these baby cakes again but i'll use a mini-cupcake pan instead. These baby cakes are so rich, it's probably easy to 'overdose'..so the smaller the better..:) These baby cakes taste great with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream! :)