Blackforest Cake

For as long as I can remember, D has always wanted a cheese cake for his birthday. This year, he decided to break tradition and asked for a Blackforest cake instead. I have never made a Blackforest cake before, but decided to take up the challenge and started looking for good (and easy) recipe.

The only one that came to mind was the Masterchef Blackforest cake that we have been drooling over on TV. However, after reading through the ingredients list and steps, I have decided to search again for something ... erm .. more time efficient.

A girlfriend pointed me to a recipe at Taste.com which looked really easy and practical, so I decided to do that instead (with a bit of modification).

Ingredients:
1 Chocolate cake
670g jar of morello cherries
2 tablespoons castor sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
600ml thickened cream
1 tablespoon of castor sugar
6-10 cherries with stem
Chocolate Rice or Chocolate Chips for decoration

Note: I use a packed of Greens chocolate cake mix for this recipe. Due to limited time, I divided the steps into multiple days. Of course, you can make this cake in one day, allowing time for the cake and cherries mix to cool.

Steps:
Day 1 - Cake
1. Bake the cake and cut it into 3 layers.

Day 2 – Cherries
2.  Place cherries and 160g of the juice in a saucepan with sugar and cornflour.
3. Stir over low heat until mixture boils. Transfer into a large bowl and leave it to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge.

Day 3 – Cream and Assembly
4. Beat cream and castor sugar until firm peaks form.
5. Place the first layer of cake on the cake board.
6. Spread the cherries mixture and a thin layer of cream.

7. Repeat the cherries and cream mixture with the second layer.

8. Place the final layer on top.
9. Add some cream on top and spread evenly. I have decorated this with piped rosette, cherries and chocolate chips.

And the result was amazing! D was surprised to see that I could pull that off so beautifully. Oh no, does that mean that he’ll give me a harder challenge next year?


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Giggle and Hoot 1st Birthday Cake

Last week, I was approached by a friend to make a single-tiered fondant cake for her daughter’s upcoming 1st birthday.

The brief given was to make a 1 tier cake, covered with fondant. The cake had to be at least 9 inches to fit the toppers provided.

As this was my first cake ‘job’, I was very excited and wanted it to be perfect. I started writing down the order of work and shared the workload with my helpers (a.k.a. my husband and my cake buddy).

I created a 3-layered cake alternating between butter cake and chocolate cake. I used the 5-star Buttercake recipe from my recent cake class and the chocolate cake recipe from inspiredbymichelle.

The cakes were sliced into half and layered with white chocolate ganache.

Then, the whole cake is ganached using the upside down method taught by Eleanor Heaphy.

It was my first attempt ganaching without supervision. I must say it wasn't too bad for a amateur. :)

Next, with the help of my cake buddy, Ingrid, we kneaded, rolled, laid and smoothen the fondant on the cake.

Finally, we got to do the fun part which was to put the toppers on. This is what the end result looked like.

Hope you had a wonderful and blessed first birthday Eliana!


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Lesson 6 ~ The Finale

All good things have to come to an end, so is our favourite cake decorating class.

I am very amazed how much I have learnt in the past 6 weeks. I went from never dealing with fondant, to now fully covering a cake with fondant and making wonderful decorations such as roses and bows. This is definitely more than what I have hoped to achieve in class.

With a last minute change in my cake design (due to an upcoming event on the weekend), I had to scrap my initial ideas and reworked on my design. I wanted the cake to be used for a special event, so I planned a housewarming on the weekend as a ‘reason’ to use the cake.

I started making little head figurines to represent D & I.

However, I went to get a perm and realised the figurines need to be redone. Thankfully, the fix was easy and all I had to do was to add couple strands of curls.

I also really liked bows. So, after a few trials with designs and colours, I decided on a light yellow bow with stitches. The bow I made a home broke on the way to class, so I had to make another one in class. Thankfully, after a few practices, I have mastered fondant bow-making, so it wasn’t too difficult.

The pieces started to come together when the cake was finally assembled. The designed represented D and I looking out the window of our new home.

I was very happy with the cake but was also sad that it was the end of the class. Hopefully there will be more opportunities to practice and create beautiful cakes from now on.

Thank you Eleanor @ CakeAge for your patience and generosity in sharing your knowledge and the incredible 6 weeks experience!

My cake journey:
Lesson 1 ~ Cake Decorating
Lesson 2 ~ Piping Techniques
Lesson 3 ~ Roses, Strawberry and Letters
Lesson 4 ~ Cake Designs & Fondant
Lesson 5 ~ Chocolate + Cream = Ganache
Lesson 6 ~ The Finale


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Lesson 5 ~ Chocolate + Cream = Ganache

Ever wondered how to perfectly ganache a cake? This week we learnt how to cover a whole cake with chocolate. It was a bit messy, but definitely Yum!!

The technique we used is very similar to the links below:
How to Make Chocolate Ganache
How to Ganache a Cake

To achieve a perfectly ganached cake takes a lot of practice and time. The chocolate also needs to be the right consistency and temperature to aide with the process.

One of my classmate injured her shoulder and creatively came up with an extreme ganaching technique. Good work L! :-)

At the end of the class, we have all create a sharp-edged perfectly ganached cake (with the help of our wonderful teacher, of course!)

My cake journey:
Lesson 1 ~ Cake Decorating
Lesson 2 ~ Piping Techniques
Lesson 3 ~ Roses, Strawberry and Letters
Lesson 4 ~ Cake Designs & Fondant
Lesson 5 ~ Chocolate + Cream = Ganache
Lesson 6 ~ The Finale


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Lesson 4 ~ Cake Designs and Fondant

We are now officially halfway through the class and it is time to start thinking of our final cake design. At the end of this six-week course, we will take home our own fully decorated single tier cake. It is quite a big deal for all of us to create our own ‘perfect’ masterpiece.

I have been going through pictures on Pinterest, looking for inspirations. For some reason, I can’t seem to take my eyes off Cotton & Crumbs designs.

Source: cottonandcrumbs.co.uk via ckd on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Sacha on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Robin on Pinterest

This week, we practiced covering an entire cake with fondant. It sounded simple, looked simple, so how hard can it be? Well, a lot can go wrong. Firstly, if the fondant is too thin, it might tear and you will end up covering the cake with holes. On the other hand, if it is too thick, it will be harder to work with and it will end up cracking. It does require a lot of practice to get it perfectly smooth.

I am quite happy with the result of my first trial.

I even had the chance to play with a stamped pattern.

Stay tuned in the upcoming weeks for the masterpiece! (fingers crossed it’ll turn out well)

My cake journey:
Lesson 1 ~ Cake Decorating
Lesson 2 ~ Piping Techniques
Lesson 3 ~ Roses, Strawberry and Letters
Lesson 4 ~ Cake Designs & Fondant
Lesson 5 ~ Chocolate + Cream = Ganache
Lesson 6 ~ The Finale


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Lesson 3 ~ Roses, Strawberry and Letters

Week 3 is where all the fun and intricacy begins.

We spent the entire time doing sugar art. Starting with leaves, we progressed to roses and letters. After looking at a cut-out green flower, someone had the brilliant idea of doing a strawberry. I was more than happy to take up the challenge and created one for myself :)

The art of sugar crafting was delicate, but certainly not impossible.

After the class, I decided to practice on roses.  An hour later, this is what I came up with.

I must that I’m very pleased with the results.

What do you think of the two-toned roses?

My cake journey:
Lesson 1 ~ Cake Decorating
Lesson 2 ~ Piping Techniques
Lesson 3 ~ Roses, Strawberry and Letters
Lesson 4 ~ Cake Designs & Fondant
Lesson 5 ~ Chocolate + Cream = Ganache
Lesson 6 ~ The Finale


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Lesson 2 ~ Piping Techniques

I think I may have found a cure to Monday blues. Our Monday cake decorating class has certainly brought excitement to start off the week.

I was nervous about baking in my new oven and took the advice to do a test cake. The cake turned out perfect and didn’t last very long in the house.

The ‘homework’ cake was a 5-star buttercake. The recipe was simple and straightforward; mix everything in a bowl, pour mixture in the baking tray and bake for 1 ¼ hours. We even had extra batter to make 2 mini cakes.   The result was a high, moist and evenly cooked cake. I am very impressed with the new oven!

For lesson 2, we learnt basic piping techniques such as star, flower, shell, swirl, letters and dots. It looked easy but requires a lot of practice to get it right.

We then moved on to decorate our cake with buttercream icing. The piping technique used was called the pretty petal effect. It was quite simple and yet looked beautiful.

My bow from last week broke and we had to salvage it by cutting off the top of the tail. It looked slightly distorted, so I decided to remove the tail completely.

And here’s a picture with my cake buddy.

I also found several sites with online tutorials on this pretty petal effect technique:
Sockerrus
My Cake School

My cake journey:
Lesson 1 ~ Cake Decorating
Lesson 2 ~ Piping Techniques
Lesson 3 ~ Roses, Strawberry and Letters
Lesson 4 ~ Cake Designs & Fondant
Lesson 5 ~ Chocolate + Cream = Ganache
Lesson 6 ~ The Finale


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Lesson 1 @ Cake Decorating Class

I am starting a 6 weeks cake decorating class with CakeAge. The first lesson on Monday was fun, exciting and we have learnt more than we imagined in the first 2-hour session. Our teacher, Eleanor is very patient and definitely talented at making the lesson easy and enjoyable.

For our first lesson, we learnt how to colour the fondant, cover the cake board and make a big bow.

I am very impressed that I was making bow on my first class.  It looked like the one I had on my wedding cake!

At the end of the lesson, we were given ‘homework’ to bake a cake for the next lesson. I am very excited and can’t wait to see what we will learn next week!

Yes, and the Internet was finally installed yesterday. Phew, at least we don’t have to wait 8 years for it!

My cake journey:
Lesson 1 ~ Cake Decorating
Lesson 2 ~ Piping Techniques
Lesson 3 ~ Roses, Strawberry and Letters
Lesson 4 ~ Cake Designs & Fondant
Lesson 5 ~ Chocolate + Cream = Ganache
Lesson 6 ~ The Finale


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Baked Cheesecake

I love baked cheese cake. It is not too rich but still tastes good. This simple ‘mix-everything-in-a-bowl-and-bake’ recipe came from my previous Japanese housemate. I have slightly modified it to my liking.

Dan had it almost every year for his birthday and hasn’t complained yet. :-) So, I guess it must be really good or he is being very polite.

Birthday 2008

Ingredients:
1 box of Philadelphia cream cheese
200ml of thickened cream
80-120 grams of castor sugar
1 tablespoon of milk
2 eggs
3 tablespoon of flour
* Fruit is optional: Passionfruit, mango, berries, etc

1. Preheat oven at 170°C.

2. Beat cream cheese and castor sugar until light.

3. Add in thickened cream, milk, eggs, flour and fruit (optional) and continue mixing until well combined.

4. Pour mixture into a greased cake tin a bake for 30-40 minutes.

5. Let the cake cool before removing from the tin.

6. Refrigerate for at least ½ hour before serving. Top with any type of fruit or cream to your liking.

Birthday 2010

Birthday 2007

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Tiramisu

Tiramisu is definitely one of my favourites. Not only it is easy to make, it is very tasty too. What can go wrong with mixing coffee and cream?

I found pictures dated back in 2005 where I made the first Tiramisu for Christmas. Since then, it has been my tradition to have it every year....almost! Here are some pictures of Tiramisu I have made recently.

I am quite pleased to see the improvement in the cake presentation.

This is the adapted recipe from Y3K Cookbooks.

Ingredients:
1 packet of sponge fingers

Coffee mixture:
75 grams of instant coffee granules
500 ml boiling water
50 ml of Kahlua liqueur

Tiramisu Cream:
5 egg yolks
250 grams of castor sugar
250 grams of mascarpone cheese
500 grams of whipping cream

1. To make coffee mixture, dissolve instant coffee in boiling water. Mix in Kahlua liqueur after the mixture has cooled down.

2. To make the Tiramisu cream, beat egg yolks and sugar on high speed until soft peaks form. Add in mascarpone cheese and beat on medium speed until well-combined.

3. In a separate bowl, beat whipping cream until firm.

4. Fold in whipped cream into no 2.

5. To assemble the cake, dip sponge fingers in coffee mixture. Place in a single layer over the loose-bottomed baking pan.

6. Spread half the tiramisu cream over sponge fingers.

7. Repeat layers with sponge fingers dipped in coffee mixture and tiramisu cream.

8. Refrigerate overnight and decorate as you wish.
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