#32 : Black Forest Gateaux

I always dream of making the BEST Black Forest Cake ever but I've never baked any yet.. until this morning. It's not the best but it's quite a breakthrough for me : it's MY FIRST BLACK FOREST! And it's layered! Woo hoo!
Why do I have such a special feeling towards Black Forest Cake? It's simple : when I was still a young little fatso, my cousin who loves baking so much, made this UNFORGETTABLE Black Forest Cake. The taste was so amazing that it left me this feeling of fondness of Black Forest (and a lil bit of obsession).

I've been a pretty much self-taught baker until this morning. I took a baking class! Yeay! It was quite intimidating since all the other students there were professionals. Yet it was exciting! Even though I had to be the slowest poke in the class. Oh well who cares I just baked my first Black Forest! :D



One of the best part of this Black Forest making is the decorating! I was blown away when I witnessed the chef did the chocolate thingy on the cake. It was so looking good and everyone was WOW-ed. Mine was so ugly (but who cares? It's my first Black Forest Cake!). The chocolate was cracking everywhere and I think it was due to the temperature of the chocolate.

I am so happy with this Black Forest cake and it's the only cake that I can say "I'm proud to bake it". I am going to keep baking Black Forest Cake until I find "The One".

Recipe? Msg me!

#31 : Le Matthieu

I don't know how to pronounce the name of this cake. Anyway, it's just a layered cake using sponge cake filled with cream and some gelatin. And the best part of this cake? It's the crunchy puffed wheat! (the chocolate-y crunchy base - see pic)! I LOOOOOVE it!

#30 : Chocolate Butterfly Cupcakes

I omitted the lemon rind and juice for the cream and it turned out to be too sweet. I love the texture of the chocolate cupcakes. Next time I'm gonna reduce the amount of sugar for the buttercream.

Ingredients :
- 125g margarine or butter, softened
- 125g caster sugar
- 150g self raising flour
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 25g plain chocolate, melted

Cream:
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 225g icing sugar
- grated rind of 1/2 lemon (omitted)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (omitted)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line paper muffin trays with muffin papers.
2. Place margarine, caster sugar, flour, eggs and cocoa powder in a large bowl and beat until the mixture is smooth.
3. Beat in melted chocolate.
4. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, filling them 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 15 minutes (mine took 20 mins) or until well risen.

Buttercream:
- place the butter in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice.

6. Cut the top off each cake. Cut each cake top in half, spread the buttercream over the cut surface and push the two pieces of cake top into the icing to form wings.

#29 : Flakey Cupcakes

Warning to you all dieters : these cupcakes are meant to really make you FAT! (mind the amount of butter and sugar)

One thing I need to improve is to put the right amount of batter in each cup so that they won't be too full. I tried to put all the batter in 12 cups and realized that it was too much so I needed to trim the cupcakes once they were baked.


Ingredients:
- 175g butter
- 175g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 55g ground almonds
- 150g self-raising flour
- mini chocolate Cadbury flakes to decorate
- sprinkles

Buttercream topping:
- 225g butter, softened
- 1 tbsp cream or milk
- 350g icing sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. Gradually beat in the eggs, then fold in the almonds and flour.
3. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
5. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Spoon the buttercream using a piping bag with a large star nozzle over the cupcakes. Press a Cadbury flake into each cake and scatter a few sprinkles on top.

Buttercream:
- place the butter and cream in a bowl and beat together. Gradually sift the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

#28 : Chocolate Cream Muffins

Too bitter and chocolate-y. I am a big fan of dark chocolate with its bittersweet taste but I think these muffins were a bit too bitter. But my sister said they tasted great so I don't know.

Ingredients:
- 225g plain flour
- 55g cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 115g soft light brown sugar (I used brown sugar)
- 150 white chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chips)
- 2 eggs
- 250ml double cream
- 6 tbsp sunflower oil or 85g butter

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line 12-hole muffin tin with 12 paper cases.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and white chocolate chips.
3. Place the egg in a bowl and beat lightly, then beat in cream and oil.
4. Pour the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients - stir gently until just combined - do not overmix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until well risen.
7. Leave to cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

#27 : Bow Cupcakes

I got the recipe from Erika's book because it's easy and I got all the ingredients on hand. I wanted to try another recipe from the Planet Cake book but I didn't have the complete ingredients. Well it's the decoration that mattered to me for this one so I think whatever the recipe is, is good.
The thing with working with fondant is that you need the thickness consistency - therefore I know I am gonna need a pasta machine. I haven't bought one because it's too expensive! $149.95?? My hand mixer which I used all the time only cost 10% off it ($14.95). So I delayed the purchase.
Another problem came up with bold coloring like black. I think it was not black after all, it's more like dark gray. The more you put coloring paste to the fondant, the more sticky it gets. I used the trick that Veli told me the other day, which is to put the coloring paste using a toothpick. I didn't have any so I used the thing to check the baked cake (Oh well I don't know the name). I also didn't have a fondant smoother so they're not smooth! :( But I was quite happy with the result. They made my day :)

I didn't color enough fondant so I didn't have enough to make the bow. The result of not being careful in spooning the batter - leaving the burnt marks on the edges! :(

I used the left over fondant to make this. Oh how I hate the burnt marks on the edge!

Ingredients :
- 115g butter, softened
- 115g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 115g self-raising flour

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line muffin trays with cupcake/muffin papers.
2. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and beat them until smooth.
3. Spoon the batter to the muffin hole and bake for 15-20 minutes depending on the oven. (Be careful in spooning the batter. If it's messy, it's gonna leave burnt marks on the paper muffin and that's not going to be pretty. Also the batter you put had to be 2/3 of the muffin papers, so it's easier to decorate with fondants)
4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely

Note : cupcakes are easily dried out. To prevent from drying out, make some holes on the cupcakes, brush with some syrup generously then cover with fondant.

How to make syrup : mix 100g apricot jam with 100ml boiling water and whisk them - remove any lumps

#26 : Double Heart Cookies

Baking these cookies is one challenge to me. I've read about the problem with rolling out cookies, especially with ones that need to be chilled first. At first I thought that I did something wrong with the dough because it was too sticky. Once I took the dough out from the fridge, I really needed to stamp out the cookies real fast because it got sticky quite quickly. By far, this is the longest baking I have ever done. By the time I am writing this post, I still have some of the dough in the fridge.
The taste is quite good and the baking time in the oven is much less than what's in the recipe. I got the recipe from the recipe book from Erika.





Ingredients:
- 1 sachet instant latte
- 1 1/2 tsp hot water
- 225g butter, softened
- 140g caster sugar
- 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
- 250g plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Place the instant latte into a small bowl and stir in the hot water to make a paste.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and then beat in egg yolk. Divide the mixture in half.
3. Sift 140g of the flour and a pinch of salt into the mixture and stir until combined.
4. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.
5. Beat the vanilla extract into the other dough, then sift together the remaining flour, the cocoa powder and salt into the mixture. Stir until thoroughly combined. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap it in clingfilm. Chill for 30-60 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 190C. Line tray with baking paper.
7. Unwrap both flavors of the dough and roll out each between 2 sheets of baking paper.
8. Cut out cookies with heart-shaped cutter and place them on the baking sheets, spaced them apart.
9. Using a smaller heart-shaped cutter, cut out the centres of each larger heart and remove from the baking sheets.
10. Place a small chocolate flavored heart in the centre of each large coffee-flavored heart and vice versa.
11. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes (depending on the oven, mine took 5 minutes). Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.