#47: Assorted Truffles - Italian and White Chocolate Truffles

Been a while since I was last having fun at kitchen and now I'm back. Baking was  much easier  when I was in Melbourne cause I had plenty of time to do baking. I got an oven in the apartment and baking ingredients are so easy to find. I was having troubles finding some dried nuts such as hazelnuts or macadamias since I am in Malang. And I don't have any proper oven. I got a very old one which requires a stove and put the oven box on top of it (no temperature of timer so you have to adjust it yourself - pretty hard for an amateur baker like me!). I am planning to renovate the kitchen at this house and buy a proper oven. I need to save up money for all this so it's gonna take some time :(. This is a time where I wish I was a billionaire. If I were one, I'd be spending my time baking all day and all night long.

Anyway I decided to make these truffles, they turned out great they made my day :)

#46 : Croquembouche

Croquembouche is actually just profiteroles assembled as a cone. I've done profiteroles before but I had never assembled them. I really wanted to make this so here it is :) Last week I tried to make them but everything turned out to be just so wrong. The choux pastries wouldn't rise well and I messed up the filling cream. I was so sad that I threw everything away. Well this time I asked my sister to assist me during the whole thing. I used her recipe too which was actually quite the same with the profiteroles that I've done before. This time I didn't make them in a hurry. I took as much time as I needed. I gave enough time for the cream to cool and I baked the profiteroles just well. The only problem with these profiteroles was that they were not as crunchy as I thought they would be. I used melted chocolate as the "glue" to hold the profiteroles together.

Today, which is May 15th is my friend's birthday : Gonk. So I might as well dedicate this croquembouche to her. Happy birthday, Gonk!

#45 : Homer Cake

It was not my first time working with fondant but it was still not perfect :( I tried hard to smooth the surface but as you can see it was still ugly. Well I really hope that practice makes perfect for I will try to do better. It's Homer on a doughnut enjoying a doughnut and drinking Duff.

#44 : Coffee Liquor Cheesecake

For my friend's going away party, I was planning to make a croquembouche : a pile of choux pastries assembled as a cone and the plan couldn't go more wrong. Everything was ruined so the only thing that I got in the fridge is this coffee cheesecake that I made the day before. After that choux pastry disaster, I attempted to decorate the cake. Everything was okay but when I tried to write on the cake using the writing gel, I accidentally wrote "FARWELL BIORKA". I misspelled "FAREWELL". I felt so stupid. 

But in the end I was happy with the cake though. The recipe is good and can be found here

#43 : Tea Party Cake

I baked the cake and my friend made the cake toppers. They were too cute that I could stare at them all day! Working with fondant still intimidates me. I had troubles in just making the table cloth. I did it five times and it wasn't perfect :( Thanks to my friend who did the damage control. The cake is just a basic sponge cake. I didn't bother to layer the cake.

#42 : Black Forest Cake

I had several disasters baking this cake. I was planning to bake this for my sister birthday. I decided to bake this two days before serving, you know so that the kirsch syrup could absorb in the cake and all. I bought all the ingredients and was ready to bake. It was a bit complicated though. First : bake the cake. The recipe used a devil's food cake. Devil's food cake is a moist coffee-chocolate cake and rather heavy. My pan was a bit too small so I used my new small pan for the excess. Everything went well until 30 minutes later. The recipe said to bake the cake for 15 - 20 minutes. It had been 30 minutes yet the batter was still in liquid. It needed almost an hour in the oven. I don't remember exactly how long. While doing that I made the syrup. It was kind of scary when I put the kirsch into the boiling syrup. It sounded like small explosion. But it was okay. I tasted the syrup and it was weird. I was impatient to wait for the cake to completely cool. So I tried to cut it into 3 layers. I've done it before at William Angliss and it was quite easy. I thought it should be easy too. Well I was completely wrong. The cake was so moist that when I unmold the cake from the pan, the crumbs were falling down and it cracked. First disaster. I got so annoyed and kept thinking what the hell I did wrong. Maybe it wasn't cool enough. Maybe it needed more time in the oven. Lots of maybes. I continued with the cutting and it was terrible. It was like I was assembling puzzles. Put the cake crack by crack into a round shape. It was silly. After that I made the whipped cream. It needed the cream to be boiled and I was like "huh?". I didn't know this technique before. But I did it anyway. Again, I didn't know what I did wrong but the cream turned out weird. Did I overwhip it? Second disaster.
Then it was time to assemble to cake. I really had a hard time doing this. I really did. Because the cake layers were cracking everywhere, the shapes weren't event. And the cream was really weird and everything went just fucking wrong. The worst part of it all was when icing the cake. Crumbs were everywhere and it looked like a complete shit. The small cake turned out fine though. I could cut it into 3 layers and there were no problems at all. But I still had the problem with covering the cake with the whipped cream. I was so annoyed that I threw away the big cake once it was done and continued with the small one. I left it overnight and the next morning tried the cake. Surprisingly, despite all the disasters it taste really good. So I decided to give it a try once again.

This time I used my own cream chantily cream. I used the leftover syrup that I made the day before. And I baked the oven long enough in the oven. I also waited for 3 hours for the cake to completely cool (well it wasn't completely cool though). I still had problems with cutting the cake into 3 layers. The middle layer was a disaster but I could handle it.
Well then it was time to cover the cake with the cream. AGAIN, because the middle layer was cracking, the shape of the cake was weird. It made the icing part hard. It looked ugly so I decided to cover the side of the cake with some chocolate squares. I didn't have all the tools, so I used baking papers to shape the chocolates. But I wasn't happy with the result so I decided to cover the cake with dark chocolate. I melted it and cover the cake with it using the baking paper all around the cake. Still not happy because the chocolate cracked a bit when I peeled off the baking paper. Then I was back with chocolate squares but not happy with it still. There was some white chocolate left so I decided to cover the cake, once again, with that. It was the last ingredients I had on hand. So that was it. I wasn't really happy with the decorations though. You could see the sides of chocolate cake because I used white chocolate. Not pretty. My sister told me it looked good though. When she tried the cake, she said it taste so good, but she left the cherries. She hates the cherries, she told me. Well I was happy that she enjoyed the cake. Happy birthday! :)



PS. Next time I make black forest cake, I'm gonna try with other devil's food cake recipe.

BLACK FOREST CAKE
Makes 9-inch three-layered cake

Cherries and syrup:
2 cups jarred sour cherries in light syrup, drained with 1 cup syrup reserved
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar
1/2 cup kirsch or other cherry flavored liqueur

Whipped cream frosting:
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
3 cups heavy cream, chilled
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 recipe Devil’s Food Layer Cake, baked and cooled, but unfrosted, recipe below
Chocolate shaving (see note), for serving


FOR THE CHERRIES AND SYRUP: Reserve 8 of the prettiest cherries for garnish in a small bowl. Slice the remaining cherries in half and place in a medium bowl. Simmer the reserved cherry syrup and sugar together in a medium saucepan over medium heat until mixture is thickened and measure about 1/2 cup, 8 to 10 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the kirsch.

Toss 1 tbsp of the syrup with the cherries reserved for garnish. Toss 3 tbsp more syrup with the halved cherries. Poke the top of the cake layers thoroughly with a wooden skewer and brush with the remaining syrup.

FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM: Whisk the sugar and the cornstarch together in a small saucepan and slowly whisk in 1/2 cup of the cream. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickened,2-3 minutes. Let the mixture cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, whip the remaining 2 1/2 cups cream and the vanilla together with an electric mixer on low speed until frothy, about 30 seconds. Increase the mixer speed to medium and continue to whip the mixture until it begins to thickened, about 30 seconds. Slowly add the cooled cornstarch mixture and continue to whip until the mixture forms soft peak, 1-3 minutes.

Line the edges of a cake platter with strip of parchment paper to keep the platter clean while you assemble the cake. Place one of the cake layers on the platter. Spread 1/2 cup of the whipped cream over the top, right to the edge of the cake, then cover with half of the sliced cherries. Repeat with another cake layer, 1/2 cup more whipped cream, and the remaining sliced cherries. Place the remaining cake layer on top and press lightly to adhere. Frost the cake with the remaining whipped cream.

Refrigerate the cake until it absorbs the soaking syrup, at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. Before serving, let the cake sit at room temperature, 30-60 minutes, then gently press the chocolate shavings into the sides of the cake. Evenly space 8 small pile of chocolate shavings around the top of the cake and top each with a cherry. Remove the parchment strip from the platter before serving.

NOTE: Be sure to buy jarred or canned cherries packed in syrup, not water. You will need about 7 ounces of chocolate for the shavings to decorate the sides and top of the cake. Letting the cake to sit at least 2 hours before serving allows the soaking syrup to sink in and the flavors to meld; however in a pinch, you could serve it right away.

DEVIL’S FOOD LAYER CAKE


1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups boiling water
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 tsp instant espresso or instant coffee
10 tbsp (11/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 3 9-inch round cake pan, then dust with cocoa powder and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk the boiling water, chocolate, 1/2 cup of the cocoa powder, and instant espresso together until smooth.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla until incorporated.

Reduced the speed to low and beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the chocolate mixture. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture and the remaining chocolate mixture. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just incorporated.

Give the batter the final stir with a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, smooth the tops, and gently tap the pans on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 15-20 minutes, rotating and switching the pans halfway thorough baking

Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Runs a small knife around the edge of the cakes, then flip them out onto the wire racks. Peel off parchment paper, flip the cakes side up, let cool completely before frosting, about 2 hours.

#41 : Leftovers Chocolate Cookies Cake

I know the name is lousy. I'm not good at naming things. This cake (if you wanna call it a cake or not - that's fine since I myself didn't know if it's a cake or not) was made on impulse with all the ingredients on hand and there was no recipe for this. It was really easy to make.
There were some cookies leftover from the Mudcake Cookies Sandwiches that I made the day before. At first I thought maybe I was just gonna put some chocolate ganache but then all of a sudden I remembered about a dessert that Daniel made last year. It looked like a cake, well maybe it was but I wasn't sure. It was made with cookies - assembled & covered with whipped cream. So I tried it. I had all the ingredients on hand. There were some leftover thickened cream in the fridge too so I was happy to be able to use up everything. I didn't know the exact measurement of the ingredients that I used for this one. I whipped the cream and put some icing sugar and vanilla essence. Then I assembled the cookies into a log. I tried hard to make the cover smooth but it was hard. I did my best though. I decorated the cake with chocolate compound - inspired by the coffee swiss roll made by my sister at school.
The taste of the cake was good. I liked it. But it was still a bit hard - maybe because I put some ganache between the cookies (there was some ganache leftover too). Ganache will harden if put in the fridge. Maybe it was hardened before the cream could soak the cookies. But when I put the cake out of the fridge and left it for several hours, it became softer. Well I was really happy with the result :) :) and the fact that I didn't let anything go to waste :D

#40 : Mudcake Cookies Sandwiches

I knew when I first saw these cookies, I had to make them. They were so cute with the heart-shaped cocoa powder. It was the main reason I bought the recipe book. Then I went around to look for the heart templates and finally found it. These cookies sandwiches were actually easy to make. They just needed a quite long process : baking the cookies, making the ganache and baking the mudcake. My apartment really smelled chocolate last night when I made these babies. My sister loved them. Well for me they were just okay. Too chocolate-y. Or maybe it was because I made them and the smell of them made me kind of sick.
Another thing which was quite tricky was the cookie cutting. The batches needed to be really cold and stiff, otherwise you can't cut them properly. First batch that I baked were lousy. It was getting better and better after a few batches (My oven is small so I can't bake them altogether).

#39 : Tiramisyu - Tiramisu Cake for Ayu

I decided to make this for my friend's birthday and I was nervous when making this cake. I wasn't sure if the cake was gonna turn out well since I couldn't get a slice of it to try it first. But I am quite happy with the result. This recipe is definitely going to be a keeper :) It was me and my friend Evelyn who made this cake. It was really easy to make and no baking was required. The only thing that got me worried was dipping the lady fingers into the coffee liqueur. I watched the video of Gordon Ramsay doing it and tried to do just like the way he did but my ladyfingers were still too wet. I did try the taste of the filling but I thought it needed more sugar but I left it just the way it was. Thank God! Because when I tried a slice of it, it was sweet enough.

The birthday girl :D

#38 : Bees Cupcakes

One thing I hate about gumpaste/fondant is coloring them dark. I used the gel coloring and if I put too much of them on the gumpaste/fondant, it will change the texture - it will get so sticky and hard to be kneaded. I did my research and it turned out that we would have to store them overnight as the colored fondant will get darkened overtime. I didn't have the patient to wait so I just used them right away. I was pretty happy with the result of the bees even though I know they weren't perfect - you can see some cracks in the gumpaste. I regret using white fondant to cover the cupcakes. I should have used yellow instead. Anyway for the cupcakes I used the same old recipe Iced Fairy Cupcakes. The taste of the gumpaste is just so bad. I wouldn't recommend anyone to eat it. I bought the ready to roll gumpaste from the store.

#37 : Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberries

"The cream ruined everything!" said my sister. I should have used my sis' recipe instead. I had whipped the cream but it was runny. I didn't know if it was because I didn't whip it long enough or because I kept the cream in the room temperature while I was busy learning to decorate with chocolate. But I didn't think that the cream was too weird or anything. But I gotta admit that my sis' cream recipe was much better. The cupcakes tasted just okay I think. Nothing so special except the chocolate decorations! Yes it was my first time doing chocolate decorating and I loved it! Thanks to my sister who patiently taught me how. I made flowers, names (Billie Joe Armstrong :P), wings and etc. She also taught me how to dip strawberries into the chocolate. She taught me how to melt chocolate properly. I tried to melt Home Brand cooking chocolate and it turned out weird. But when I used the ones I bought in my fave baking supplies store, it worked out! I didn't really know if it was because of the quality of the chocolate or if I did something wrong during the melting process. Despite the runny cream, I was happy just to bake! :)


Ingredients :
- 70g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
- 140g butter
- 140g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp brandy (I used kirsch)
- 175g self raising flour
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Topping :
- 200ml double cream
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 tbsp brandy (I used kirsch)
- 9 large strawberries

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with 9 paper cases.
2. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, set the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until melted. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
3. Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in the eggs.
4. Stir in the brandy, followed by the melted chocolate, then carefully fold in the flour.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and springy to the touch.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. To decorate, place the cream, sugar and brandy in a bowl and whip together until just stiff.
9. Spoon the cream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and pipe a generous swirl of cream on top of each cake, then place a strawberry on top and sprinkle with grated chocolate.

#36 : Fluffy Sheep Cookies

I tried to make fluffy sheep cookies. But my friends told me that they looked more like turtles. My sister even said that they looked like dinosaurs. The first batch that I baked looked much more like dinosaurs, I admit that. They were so weird that I ate them all. Second batch I baked was pretty good. Well I was pretty happy with the result though, even though they tasted just average. Not bad but not so good either.


Ingredients :
- 9 oz unsalted butter, softened
- 9 3/4 oz caster sugar
- 1 lb plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- food coloring
- writing icing (I used my color gel)

Method:
1. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy
2. Gradually add the eggs and beat to combine, then sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix to form a dough.
3. Wrap the dough in clingfirm and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 160C. Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.
5. Divide the dough into half and knead in different food colorings.
6. Shape the dough into sheep shapes. Different colorings for the head and the feet. Use the writing icing to make the eyes.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

#35 : Kurt Cobain Fondant Cake

Okay I do know that it doesn't exactly look like Kurt Cobain but I want to think that's him. :) Anyway, this is quite a breakthrough for me indeed. First of all, I'd been trying to bake a sponge cake three times and they weren't successful. Got a problem with the folding technique, with the eggs temperature and other things. And this time, I conquered the damn sponge cake. I was really nervous when putting the batter into the oven. I kept staring at the oven the whole time! Secondly, working with fondant has been really intimidating for me. It has always been, especially when covering the cake. I've read everywhere that the most tricky thing is when covering the cake. It could crack or get torn apart. Luckily, I did it well even though it wasn't quite neat. Thirdly, I was intimidated too with making fondant figurines. Coloring fondant has been a challenge for me too! So everything was so challenging.


At first I wanted to make the decorations as simple as possible because I knew it was my first time doing a cake and working with fondant is still scary. I was thinking to stick some colored-dots fondant all over the cake. But then my sister told me that it looked kind of empty. So I tried to make what I call as Kurt Cobain figurine (I wanted to make a Billie Joe but I knew it was going to be much harder - I'm gonna try it someday I swear). I was really nervous that my heart was beating so fast. My sister was laughing at me the whole time for being so insanely nervous. And when the cake was done, I felt like crying (I was not being a drama queen - I was just so happy). I got my passion for baking back again! You know I've kind of lost it lately. But now I already got my to-bake-list again and there are a lot! :)




With the cake I did put some Chantilly cream and put some strawberry jams with strawberry pieces. I covered the cake with the remaining cream and chilled it in the fridge. After that I got worried with the cake storage. Fondant cake cannot be kept in the fridge because it would get dry and would sweat by the time it is taken out from the fridge. But I got the cream and strawberry filling inside the cake - and it should be kept in the fridge. Damn. So what I did was I covered the cake with cling wrap and kept it in the fridge. I hope it wouldn't ruin the fondant.
The recipe for the sponge cake can be found here from Happy Home Baking
I added some lemon zest but I guess I put too much of it - the fragrant of the cake was too much like lemon. My sister was a fan but I wasn't. I'm gonna use less lemon zest next time.

#34 : Iced Fairy Cupcakes

I'd been having this kind of weird feeling. I wanted to bake but I didn't know what to bake. Everything seemed to be just dull. I'd been flipping recipe pages to find things to bake somehow everything seemed so out of reach. It felt like I couldn't bake this and that because it looked damn difficult even though I knew it could be done. I wanted to learn cakes decorating so bad but I felt like it was so hard :(
So I grabbed a recipe book that Erika had given to me and did the very first recipe in the book: No 1 - Iced Fairy Cakes. I had all the ingredients and started baking.
For decorating I found these flowers decorations I had forgotten about. It was so easy. So easy even a 7-year-old could have done it. But it made me really happy again just to bake.



Not long after that I realized that I've baked the recipe but with different decorations. When I saw back what I baked long time ago, I realized they were so messy. Arghhh.. Anyway the recipe is here

#33 : Cinnamon Swirls

So it was my first time baking in the year of 2010. And it was terrible. I picked "Cinnamon Swirls" from my recipe book. I bought everything I needed at supermarket but I forgot the milk (I wonder why somehow I always forget one or two things). So I had to buy the milk at the convenience store downstairs (which is more expensive). I've read the instruction well except for the part where it says "Rub in the chopped butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs". What I did, I just mixed everything all together. Fortunately, my sister, who is taking baking course, came and read the whole recipe and pointed out my mistake. There's nothing she could do, so I just continued with what I had already done. Then when I started to mix the milk and egg, everything got worse. It should have resembled a bread dough by now, but it was too wet and sticky. So I threw everything away and started all over again. This time I did it right by rubbing the butter with my fingertips and I slowly poured the milk and egg, ended up not using the whole thing as stated in the recipe (damn you, bloody recipe!)

After finished baking, I tried the swirls and it was fairly good, not great though. My sister kept telling me that it was great. The whole room smelled good anyway. But I had a little doubt about the swirls. I thought that it was good because it was fresh from the oven. I was sure that once the swirls got cold, it wouldn't be as good as now. I was right. The next morning I ate a bite and it was hard and crunchy. I didn't like it at all so I threw away the whole thing. I couldn't figure out what went wrong. Anyway, here's the recipe :

Cinnamon Swirls
(makes 12)
Ingredients :
- 25g butter, cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing
- 225g strong white flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 7g easy blend dried yeast
- 1 egg (I used probably about 3/4 of it)
- 125g (I used less than this) lukewarm milk
- 2tbsp maple syrup, for glazing (I used golden syrup)
filling :
- 55g butter, softened
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 50g soft light brown sugar
- 50g currants (I used raisins)

Method :
1. Grease a baking sheet and a bowl. Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and stir in the yeast.
2. Rub in the chopped butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and milk and mix to form a dough.
3. Form the dough into a ball, place in the greased bowl, cover and leave to stand in a warm place for about 40 minutes, or until doubled in volume.
4. Punch down the dough lightly for 1 minute, then roll out to a rectangle measuring 30x23 cm.
5. For the filling, cream together the softened butter, cinnamon and sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Spread the filling over the dough, leaving a 2.5cm border. Sprinkle the currants evenly over the top. Roll up the dough from one of the long edges and press down to seal.
7. Preheat the oven to 190C. Cut the roll into 12 slices and place them, cut side down, on the prepared baking sheet. Cover and leave to stand for 30 minutes.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until the swirls are well risen. Brush with maple syrup and leave to cool slightly before serving.

My Sister Also Bakes

My sister came home one day from her school with these gorgeous cakes (She is studying patisserie). These cakes for some reason inspired me to start baking again. Yes, I'd been taking a break from baking due to the hot weather and I have no air conditioner at home. It would be crazy to bake in these heat of the summer. Since the weather is a bit cooler now, I'm back! Anyway, here are my sister's cakes :

1. Chocolate Mudcake
Not a fan of this cake. It was okay but I didn't really like it

2. Strawberry Cake
It is the best cake anyone I know has ever baked! The texture was soft and light. I had been looking for some light cake recipe and now I have it!

3. Carrot Cupcakes
Ta-da! I'm saving the best for last. I LOVE these carrot cupcakes. I really do. I fell in love with this cupcakes at first sight. I fell in love with the decoration. I've always wanted to be able to work with marzipan/fondant and I'd been clueless about it. Well now I have my sister who can teach me how :D
What I love about these carrot cupcakes is that they were moist and the taste of the cinnamon is just so good. There were also pieces of walnuts and shredded carrots. God I just loved it! I will be making these very soon!