Homemade Oreos

I have an addiction with oreos..lol!  I love oreos..esp. the mini ones.  They are very addictive.  

I came across Joanne Chang's homemade oreos recipe in her book FLOUR and had to try it since she said it is sooo good and even her mom approved of it, so i have to try it.  Well, i have to say i'm totally impressed that they are really yummy. The cookies are very chocolaty and goes extremely well with the buttercream. At first i was skeptical with the buttercream as it was just butter & icing sugar combo and i usually don't like this icing as it is too sweet. However, paired with the super chocolatey-shells, it is not as sweet and surprising quite good.  These cookies are not exactly original oreos but they do come quite close...probably better since it's homemade  with no addictives..etc?   

Link to the recipe can be found here :- http://mobile.boston.com/art/21/lifestyle/food/articles/2009/07/08/recipe_for_homemade_oreos/?single=1&p=2  

Happy Baking! 

Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream

Rose's Heavenly Cake - Free Choice:  

Southern (Manhattan) Coconut Cake with Silk Meringue Buttercream

I had church fellowship gathering at my house the weekend so i thought this was great cake to make since i can taste a tiny slice and everyone else too. :D  As you know by now, i'm not really a fan of coconut-in-desserts except coconut fruit and drink itself and in curries.  

I decided to make 2 coconut cakes one using freshly squeezed coconut juice and the other using canned coconut.   The process of making the cake with freshly squeezed coconut juice is documented with photos..and here they are (so means i can write less right?)....:-

The freshly grated coconut for juicing.. the coconut milk..

Then i put them in the muslin bag (specially for this purpose)..

I told my domestic helper to squeeze the coconut milk out of the bag since i have to take photos. 

After, just follow recipe instructions in the book and it's pretty straight forward...

This first cake is made with canned coconut milk.  Notice the dome?  And notice my 2.5 year old oven still very new and clean?  Seriously, it is still very spotless and grease-free.  I'm a bit sad that I have to let go of it despite it is in good working condition...wonder if anyone would buy it from me...

This is the cake make with freshly squeezed coconut milk..less dome..

This is my coconut creme angliase and is made with fresh coconut milk. I didn't have coconut extract, so i used pandan coconut essense.. Pandan coconut essense is really good! Brings out the smell totally!  Anyway, after spending all the time making this..i was disappointed that it tasted like Kaya to me and it then dawned on me that Kaya uses the same ingredients too!  (Kaya is a local coconut jam that is very tasty on its own and with bread...but i don't like it....LOL!).  

After mix the coconut creme angliase with the buttercream..and frost..4 layers of cakes and you have a tall cake like this.  The bottom 2 layers are the ones made with canned coconut  milk and the top 2 are the ones made with fresh coconut milk. LOL! Oh..in case you all are wondering why i stack them up like this....That's because i have very limited fridge space and I have another 4-5 more dishes to cook...hence vertical upwards is more space-saving compared to having 2 cakes sitting separately in my fridge.  

I like how tall my cake turned out..:D  Since i was going to cover it with fresh grated coconut, i didn't really smoothen out the buttercream.   I forgot to add the grated coconut in the frosting layers! 

Here's another bag of freshly grated coconut..this the 'cleaner or prettier' version (see above first photo) and not usually used for juicing.  I added a bit of salt to the grated coconut, as what my mom has always taught me.   I'm glad I remembered because the slightly salted grated coconut compliments very well with the overall sweetness of cake.   

Here..the final cake..sorry for the bad photograph.. i took it in a hurry.

And here's the inner cake layers taken with my phone.  

VERDICT:  The cake was a hit. Everyone liked the flavor but the general consensus is it is very sweet.  Some couldn't tell the difference between the top 2-layers and the bottom 2-layers.  Some told me that the top layer is less sweet compared the the bottom layer which i tend to think so too.  The bottom layer, ie, the cake made with canned coconut milk is much sweeter.    Overall, it tasted much better than i thought it would be. My only complain is that it is very sweet...too sweet for my liking...and i have a sweet tooth by our local standards.  If i'm ever going to remake this, i'll probably use fresh coconut milk and not the canned ones.  (A friend told me that there's fresh coconut  milk in carton in the fresh milk section of the supermarket and i didnt know that...i'll have to try that the next time..)

Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, page 99: Devil's Food Cake with Midnight Ganache

I'm a little late on this post, but i figured it's better late than never.  I've always wanted to bake this since everyone raved about how awesome this is.  I made the cognac cherries and ganache 8 hours ahead.  

I'm not sure if i like the ganache or if i used 70% chocolate instead of 60%, the ganache ended up quite bitter.  But i added more sugar though or could it be the cherry congac that i added that causes the bitter taste? Or the cocoa powder with water instead of cream causes the bitter taste?  I really don't like it at all. So i added white chocolate to it to mellow it down and sure tasted much better after.  :0   The ganache didn't hardened up at room temperature but only when i placed it in the fridge overnight.  

Making the cake is easy..instructions pretty straight forward.  However, what bugs me the most is that the cake shrank drastically from the sides of the pan. Ok..drastically means about 1/4" from the sides of the pan?  I noticed i have this problem with Rose's chocolate cake recipe. I don't have problems with others but only with Rose's.  Normally that doesn't bother me cos it's for my own consumption, but this time, i wanted to make a box cake with it and it shrank till it doesn't really fit my cake board.    I had the same problem when i baked white velvet cake in the non-stick souffle cups but when i rebaked using APF instead of cake flour, the shrinkage is minimal or rather, normal for what i call cake shrinkage..and not 1/4" away!       

I thought it was me using a 3" high pan instead of 2" so I FB Monica to ask her and she said she has the same problem too.   So can anyone tell me why?  Weak cake structure due to cake flour and mixing method?    I weigh ALL my ingredients and i even time the mixing time mentioned.  So only thing that is wrong is the 3" high pan...

See how far the cake shrank?  

Cognac Cherries.. taste better than i expected! 

See my cake layers...the sides are all so uneven! I never have this with other chocolate cake recipes! Uneven like this means i have to spend a LOT of time trying to get a perfect square with the ganache!   This cake was suppose to be 3 layers (i baked 2x batter)..with one layer for my own consumption. But because the cake shrank from the sides, i had to give up my layer...and make it a 4 layer cake.

So after, spending 3-4 hours ganaching my cake...here it is...as close as perfect square i can get!  

If you are keen to find out what happened to this cake above and what it was decorated into, please check out my other blog post at faithybakes.blogspot.com  to find out what i made with this cake..:)   I post my decorated cakes in the other blog. This blog now only documents my baking experience.  

VERDICT:  I don't know..i gave up my layer so i didn't get to taste it. :((   I only know the cognac cherries tasted great on its own, the cake scrape tasted great on its own and the ganache too..     Conclusion: I HATE HATE HATE shrinking cake!  

Karmel Cake

Rose Heavenly Cakes, Page 31: Karmel Cake

Marie said Woody is going track me down with his tai-chi sword if i don't start baking, so i better move my lazy butt and start baking! LOL! Honestly i've not seen such a long large sword before..i wonder if it is allowed here in Singapore to begin with? Perhaps only if you registered it or have some sort of approval? Not sure. 

I came home after work at 8pm..read the recipe and seems fairly easy and something that i can get it done in an hour or so.  I got my ingredients ready and made the caramel. Ok..i think i must have mis-read the caramel making..i think i'm suppose to stir it but i didn't..i was distracted with other things..and i think i burnt my caramel because i didn't stir it because the temperature didn't register at 114c and yet  my caramel started to have black bits... looked ugly but tasted quite nice and sweet..lol!  I tried to cheat by eating up all the black bits but they were too much..so i gave up.    See the bowl of caramel below..looks like satay peanut sauce to me.    Oh..in order to speed things up, i cooled the caramel in ice-water..just like the book said i could do...and place it directly under my aircon.. it worked cos it took less than 10mins to cool down. 

I think this recipe is quite forgiving because even with my slightly burnt caramel bits, the cake turned out great.  Again..i don't know what i was doing..i baked it in an 8" pan instead of 9".   The cake baked for another 10mins more than the stated time and registered with a slight dome, but other than that, the cake turned out pretty ok. 

VERDICT:  Yummy! Very moist and soft.  Has a distinct caramel taste..very unusual but yet interesting.  Love that i have that caramel bits so there's a slight crunch to it.  Everyone in my family said it's great. Not too sweet either.  I didn't have ice-cream or cream..but would have been a great pairing imo!   

Yay..i finally got my HCB assignment done. *phew*...  I have so many cakes i want to bake..Devil's Food Cake, Orange Chiffon... next please...  

Faithy Bakes

Sorry for the lack of posts because i have been busy at work and home.  I've decided to move my creative cakes and cookies to another blog at http://faithybakes.blogspot.com.  Please hop over if you would like to see my creations.  Thank you! :)  

I'll still be documenting new bakes and review on this blog.  

  

Photo Tutorial: How to (Core) Remove Buds from Pineapple

Photo Tutorial esp. for Vicki.  

My domestic helper coring the pineapple..:)  

Star Wars Cake, Cupcakes & Cookies

These are what i have been so busy with. My friend Angela (Sweet-Tooth-Fairy) asked me to take on her client in her absence and she "pushed" me to accept it...knowing that i need to stop watching too much TV and get some work done. LOL!   

R2-D2 CAKE

Front View of R2D2 Cake

Side View of R2D2 Cake

R2-D2 & R2-M5 CUPCAKES

mini R2-D2 & R2-M5

mini R2-D2 & R2-M5

These are my diy cupcake wrappers in case you all are wondering..:) 

I downloaded a file on papercraft from a Japanese website and edited them in photoshop and adjusted to the size that i wanted for my cupcakes.  

STAR WARS  CHARACTER COOKIES

Star Wars character cookies. 

These cookies are harder to ice than i thought! I had a hard time trying to ice them esp. Boba Fett..took me a really long time that i almost tear my hair out..lol!

Many thanks to Angie (another friend name Angela..lol!) who carried the cutters all the way back from US. 

Misc Star Wars logo cookies

Just playing around with some designs with my extra cookie dough

These are totally inspired by Angela of Sweet Tooth Fairy and Callye of Sweet Sugar Belle. 

Cookies packed.  I did the labels on my own. :D 

Now i'm taking a break from baking...and a break from Star Wars...

Even though i didn't join HCB this week for the Genoise Tres Cafe, i did bake part of the cake and cupcakes from HCB recipes.  For cupcakes, i had to experiment & weigh the batter to the exact grams a bit to get a dome..and realised that flour (cake or all purpose) makes a difference to the texture and the density of the cake and the shape as well!

The only thing that didn't work from Rose's recipe was the pastillage taken from Cake Bible.   Not sure why but i made it twice and it was too wet, and i add lots of icing sugar before it even become a dough and it became crumbly later so i had to discard. 

HCB Free Choice: Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, Page 104: Chocolate Layer Cake with Caramel Ganache

We had a fellowship gathering at a friend's place so I decided on this, simple cake..and only 2 pages long..and look fairly fuss free too.  The recipe is pretty straight forward.  After i baked the cake, i realised that my cake layer is not very tall, so i wonder how to split it into two..and i'm more cake person than frosting.. so i gather my ingredients again and baked another layer. 

The caramel ganache is another story..LOL! It didn't turn out caramel because somehow i stopped the sugar syrup at 120c (instead of 188c) and poured in the heavy cream!  At that point, i wondered by my caramel looked so white...but it didn't occur to me that i read the temperature wrongly. I think i was probably in auto mode for making italian meringue!  Instead of throwing away and starting all over again.. (heavy cream very expensive here ok..and i had to use 2 tubs of it..), i decided to just use that milk syrup..:p  I boiled it further for another 15mins or so and then pour into the 99% Lindt chocolate.   Turned out quite good..my ganache looked very shiny and smooth and tasted like ganache except no caramel taste. 

Oh...the thing about room temperature. I have now concluded that room temperature mentioned in any book is not the same as our room temperature here in Singapore.  Even though our thermometer states 25-26c at home, somehow, the oil in the ganache separated when i try to frost the cake..the more i stirred it, the worse it became.  In order to salvage it, i turned on the aircon, and waited for a while and miraculous, it turned back to it's original smooth state.   I managed to frost the cake really nice with sharp edges....here it is...

I regretted that i didn't have enough time to cover this cake with fondant because this base now is perfect for just that as taught by Planet Cake. 

I brought the cake to the gathering and everyone LOVED it.  Everyone said my baking skills improved. I tried to explain that it is not my doing and it is because of a great recipe written by Rose Levy (i don't like to claim credit when it is not mine..lol!)...but nobody really seem to understand....*shrugs*....so i just ended up saying "thank you" when someone complimented how yummy my cake was. :)

Verdict:  LOVE! Extremely moist, soft crumbs, rich and chocolatey. Well, i still have to try the caramel ganache again, but this ganache which was a mistake turned out to be really good too. lol! I'm sure the caramel version will taste even better, so i will have to attempt this cake again!

I had to take a quick photo of the inside of my cake with my phone before the cake disappeared..lol!  

Side note, my son has been asking me to buy Pinky and The Brain's toy figurines for him.  He hardly talks or communicate, but when he does i find it hard to say No to him.  This cartoon is not even popular anymore, so i had to make them out of clay. I just made them today during my lunch hour in the office with just a ball point pen and a pen knife. If i had my clay tools with me, would have been better imo, at least will have smoother sides etc. 

I hope he'll like them. If he plays with them means he likes them a lot. If not, he will not even look at them.  Buying presents for him is a difficult task!  It's either a hit or a miss!   The things he likes, are usually not available.  So, if he comes across anything he likes and i can afford it, i would usually buy for him...(well, if not, i'll make for him..lol).  Oh..there's one thing i didn't buy for him and couldn't make for him, he always wanted the foreign exchange rate chart (like numbers lego pieces) at the department stores.. my husband found out a distributor that sold it, but it was way too expensive and the only part that my son liked about it was the "Visa", "American Express", "Mastercard" tabs!?!  LOL! Strange isn't it? I don't understand it myself what he sees in them..  But that is what makes him so special. :)   Oh..i did end up cutting up the logo out from my expired visa, american express, mastercard cards as an alternative...lol!

White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache

Rose's Heavenly Cakes, page 17: White Velvet Cake with Milk Chocolate Ganache

I realised that the white velvet cake recipe is the same recipe on page 298, ie white velvet butter cupcakes.  So I decided to bake cupcakes instead of layer cake (no baking mood).  I figured that cupcakes bake faster in the oven and i don't have to cut the round parchment etc.  Since the beginning of the new year, I have been feeling extremely tired because i have to get up early to get my son ready for school in the morning. Age is certainly catching up I have to say...

I searched my entire pantry and i don't have a single milk chocolate bar!?!  Only 60%  and 99% bitter chocolate.. So in my desperation (or shall i say laziness..because now that there is a huge shopping centre near my neighborhood within 10mins walk and a 24hr supermart....ok..maybe one of my major distraction for not baking too..i've been shopping all the time.....lol!), I decided to mix 70% chocolate bar with milk chocolate. I can't remember what was ratio used as i just eye-balled it.  Turned out quite good..maybe it's still a bit dark but just the way i like it. :p

Didn't frost the cupcakes with lots of ganache. Just dipped the cupcakes when the ganache is still 'watery' and gave it a thin coat on top.  My husband doesn't like too much frosting on cupcakes.   

VERDICT:  Totally yummylicious!  I love the "whiteness" of the cake.  So pretty!  Cake texture is soo soft with such delicate crumbs. I love it. Very moist too.  Everyone enjoyed it!  And did i mention i totally adore how white the cake is?  Definitely will be in my baking repertoire. 

Cakes in Japan

Now that i have some time to sort out some (only some) of my 3,000+ photos.. here are some of the cake photos that i took at Takashimaya in Osaka and wondering how these cakes are made. If there are anyone who can tell me how these cakes are done, i'll be so grateful..:D

These are cakes hanging up in rods..i think they are baked in factory and then sent down to the store where they brush syrup over the rotating cakes cos there is an outer layer of sugary crust on the cake...and i saw this lady brushing and brushing and brushing..over and over...

I bought a small version of the round cake (above) to try.  Does anyone know how this is done? This looks just like our local Kueh Lapis (layer cake) in term of layers but this Japanese version taste lighter and more like sponge cake.   

This is the bigger ring cake but i bought half..as i don't think i can finish so many slices after a huge dinner. 

These Chiffon Cakes..Japanese Chiffon Cakes.  No ring in the centre and it looks so pretty, tall and neat too! How did they do it? Anyone knows? It's so tall too!  I had a sample piece and it tasted very good too!  I wanted to buy it on the last day to bring back but i forgot about it! 

Oh..hahaha..i had to sneak in this..my dessert at macdonalds which was a daily affair..as you know my son loves macdonalds! 

and this food-strap set i bought at Macdonalds (the one below) in Osaka.  The bears are the Singapore version..which i just bought it a few days ago. 

And this little fish staring at me at the aquarium in Osaka.  Very cute isnt it?  I love this shot that i took of this fish... of course there are other fishes too but i doubt you want to be bored with fishes and crabs and penguins..lol!

Happy New Year to you my friends! 

Banana Pajamas Cake

My son's birthday is on boxing day and we usually celebrate his birthday on Christmas Eve with logcake as his birthday cake.  But this year, I decided to bake a special cake for him.  Initially I thought of just baking a normal quick and easy chocolate cake (like last  year) or go down to the bakery to buy him a cake...but guilt got the better of me.  Even though I am not certain if he knows what or when his birthday is (and he is still rather confused as to how old he actually is), I should still make him feel special by baking one of his favorite character cakes.   I figured Banana Pajamas is probably quite appropriate because whenever you ask him to sing a Birthday Song, he would sing it as "...Happy Birthday B1 & B2.." and not his name or any other person's name...because he is replaying this episode of Banana Pajamas in his mind - of them celebrating their birthday with Morgan, Lulu & Amy with a cake, munchy honey cakes and yellow jelly.. 

This design is taken from Debbie Brown's book. Of course her Banana Pajamas character cake is way way way better than this.  That's because i didn't follow her instructions and I used my own cake base and thus resulted in a not-so-great Banana Pajamas. But inspiration and design is from Debbie Brown.  

Again, i couldn't decide which photo i like better, thus posted up both of them.   Since this cake wasn't exactly planned for and last minute i rushed through, i felt that i didn't really do a very good job in carving or fondant work..but at least they still look like Banana Pajamas since my son is able to identify them..and he seems pretty happy when i completed it.  We have yet to cut the cake, so not sure if he will be upset if we cut it tonight though..

Happy 18th Birthday to my son Joel! Yes, he is 18 already and i can't believe it....i  keep forgetting at times and still sees him as my little boy..  

Updates: [He didn't want to cut the cake at all...probably he doesn't sees it as a cake and doesn't want to destroy it........hmm..maybe i should just bake him a plain cake next time so at least he knows a cake is a cake..hahaha]. 

Wedding Macarons

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my earlier post re the wedding cookies i made for my friend.  All of you are always so encouraging and kind with your words.  Thanks! :D   Without further ado, here's the second installment of the wedding cookies..this time round in the form of macarons.  Macarons are also cookies correct?  Not so sure..but i think so.  As my friend's wedding theme is pink, so pink and white macarons (white looking more like champagne color actually) it is.. I hunted for THE cute ribbon for the longest time and managed to find the one that i like but it's sooo expensive...what to do, i needed to have that ribbon to complete the entire look for the macaron-lollipops, so not much of a choice. 

Tying the ribbons was hard work..believe me..trying to get those little dots facing the correct way was a pain..i actually took 1 hour just to bag and tie 35 of them!  Thankfully only 35 of them in lollipops..the balance 100+ are just normal macarons...*phew*..

I set these up for my amateurish photoshoot..hahaha.  I can't decide if i like the dark background better or the white one. So i posted both here. As you can see, my Macdonald's coke glasses are in action again. Sorry folks, i really don't have any vase or nice flower pots or proper glasses at all.. i only have these free coke glasses..and i have a LOT..yup..i spend every weekend at Macdonalds because that is my son's favorite place.  

In case you all wondering, i baked the shells before i left for my hols to Japan.  I must say macaron freezes very well.  Thus, I just spend the whole of last night after work filling them.  Otherwise, i don't think i can do all 140+ macarons in just a night...and find time to take photos.. :D 

I'm pretty pleased with how my macarons turned out..so sweet and pretty in pink and white.  :D   The pink ones are strawberry macarons filled with strawberry jelly and buttercream. The white ones are rum and raisin macarons filled with "rum-mish" raisin jam and rum buttercream.  Both flavors are the Bride's favorite! :D 

Merry Christmas everyone! :D