Christmas is coming....

Its been a while i have blogged, as i have been tied up over the few months with travelling, family and friends, a baby shower, a baby christening, weddings etc. Plenty of fun, but tiring as well!


Well am back now, and before you know it Christmas is just round the corner! The last i checked it was still August. How time flies. 


There have been many opportunities (yay!) for me to practice baking and decorating my cupcakes. NEXT on the December calendar - being the charity bake sale at the office. I decided to contribute 12 cupcakes. Why only 12 you might ask? Well, i didnt have much time (i baked, iced and decorated them just the night before!) and because i tried to make it look quite nice, it did take a considerable amount of time.


I started off baking some lemon cupcakes.


I found the recipe from this website kitchenwench, and it turned out really yummy! See recipe below:


Ingredients for cupcakes (makes approx. 16 medium sized cupcakes)
90g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1/2 lemon (or 1 lemon if you like)
Juice of 1/4 a lemon (about 3/4 - 1 tbsp)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 tsp baking powder
225g all-purpose flour
3/4 cups whole milk


Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C, and using an electric mixer, cream together your butter and sugar till creamy.

2. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder and continue beating till the mixture is light and fluffy, then add your lemon zest and juice and beat in for another few minutes.

3. Add your milk and flour in 3 alternating batches, beating well after each addition. Once all the milk and flour has been added, beat at top speed for about 30 sec – 1 minute or till the mixture is smooth and shiny.


4. Line your cupcake baking tray with cupcake liners and fill each liner about 1/2 full. 


5. Remove them from the oven and place on a cooling rack till they have completely cooled. While they are cooling, start to prep your lemon buttercream.


Ingredients for lemon buttercream (makes enough to just cover the tops of about 16 medium sized cupcakes)


175g icing sugar
85g slightly salted butter
zest of 1/2 lemon 
1 tbsp lemon juice


Method:
1. Cream icing sugar and butter with an electric whisk. Start on low speed to prevent the mixture from going everywhere.


2. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, increase speed of mixer and beat the buttercream until it becomes pale, light and fluffy.


*note: you can store the buttercream for up to 2 weeks in the fridge in an airtight container.


Now, the hard, but really fun part - decorating the cupcakes! After much consideration, i decided on the following patterns.

Close-ups of illustrations v the actuals:
First up, the Christmas tree cupcake 

Next, the snowman 

Then, santa

Then the starry-eyed cupcakes

 And lastly, the buttercream swirl cupcakes

Now for the packaging!

It was nice to be able to do something for charity especially at this time of year! Hope that the collection from my contribution was able to help someone less privileged out. 

A surprise Baby shower followed by a hen night

Yup, you read it right!

Due to time constraints (as most of us were back in Malaysia for my friend's wedding), we decided to split the weekend to be able to have a double celebration i.e.  a baby shower and a hen night (just to clarify it was not for the same person!)

Basically, the cupcakes you will see below are a collaboration between my friend (a keen baker) and myself.

We started off the afternoon with the surprise baby shower first for my unsuspecting friend who was 7 months pregnant then! We rented a few villas to stay the night and decorated one room for the baby shower (See below)

A close up of the cupcakes

And another room for - the hen night! The theme was Japanese night (As the bride is totally in love with all things japanese, including her husband to be who looks japanese). Thinking back, she might have enjoyed herself too much!

And, the cupcakes for the night (Theme: think naughty!)

Woo hoo....

Fun fun fun...

Had a blast catching up with my friends! Miss ya girls...

Macarons part 8: Pink October (Mac attack #24)

My all-time favourite colour of macarons ? Pink!
This month's Mac Attack http://mactweets.blogspot.com/ challenge? - Pinktober macarons
Perfect...

Using my usual macaron recipe, i whipped up a batch of dusty pink macarons with white chocolate ganache and homemade hazelnut praline.

I started off by making my homemade hazelnut praline. I picked up the recipe from http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/04/macarons-101-french-meringue.html (who makes absolutely perfect looking macarons) although i slightly modified the recipe, ie i omitted the caramel bit.

Firstly roast the hazelnut in the oven and then spread it out in a pre-buttered shallow dish.

Next, over medium heat, combine the granulated sugar, water, salt and golden syrup (i didnt have corn syrup) into a small pan. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Let the sugar mixture come to a boil. 

The water will boil away and the syrup will start caramelizing. Remove from heat, once it changes to a medium amber colour like below.

Give it a quick swirl, and pour over roasted hazelnuts. Leave to cool and set.

Once it has set, break into chunks and process it through a food processor till it is fine and has a nice crunch.

Next - start preparing the macaron shells.

Pink shells are the order of the day..

To spruce it up abit, i tapped abit of gold dust powder over the macaron shells.

Leave to rest. After 45 minutes, pop one tray in the oven @150 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.

Once ready, leave to cool, sandwich with the filling, end result:

Macarons part 7 - Ginger buttercream

In the quest for yet another unique but distinctive Macaron flavour, i have ventured on to ginger buttercream....Mmmmm...This was also due to my parents being around, and i knew my mom would like the flavour as firstly she loves ginger and secondly because it would not be as sweet as some of the other flavours.

Using the usual macaron recipe, i start off with preparing the macarons shells. In order to get a more intense ginger flavour, i added in 1/2tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/4 tsp mixed spice to the macaron icing sugar and ground almond mixture (correspondingly, i reduced the amount of icing sugar to ensure the proportion of wet to dry ingredients remain the same).

Once all piped and at the resting stage, i start with the ginger buttercream.

I usually use this buttercream recipe:

170g slightly salted butter, softened
340g icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp water
1 tsbp vanilla essence

To further enhance the flavour of the ginger, i also added in 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of mixed spice whilst reducing the proportionate amount of icing sugar.

Results:

Mmmmm.....

Pierre Herme Macarons

So...FINALLY, i decided that it was time for me to try some of the famous Pierre Herme macarons and see what the fuss was all about. I went to their counter in Selfridges and despite the price tag £1.85 per macaron, there was a line which gave me some time to decide on my flavours! There were so many and they all looked so pretty! I manage to decide on 3 flavours i.e. passionfruit and chocolate, coffee and liquorice. I was abit disappointed at the packaging where the macarons just came sealed in a plastic food bag despite it costing so much.

There were gift boxes you could get which looked lovely and would make a nice gift but as i was just going to eat it myself, figured i would do without it (for now at least)..

Now, the experiments begin!

First, the "look" test..

In an attempt to better myself, i compare my macarons to Pierre Herme ones (very daring i know!) I figure everyone has to start somewhere!

Can you spot the home made one yet?

Now?

I sent these photos to a few of my friends and family members, and i am quite pleased to say that they had difficulty identifying which one particularly was mine and which was pierre herme! i am sure with closer scrutiny and in person, they could have identified it, but that made my day!

Second test - the "taste" test

I cut the macarons into bite sized pieces and distributed them round the room at my sisters'. I guess its abit hard to do a real taste test, as all the macarons were different flavours, so you would basically choose the ones you fancy! whoops...didnt think this all the way through..

Verdict: The Passionfruit & chocolate flavour was a winner! Closely followed by my rum and raisin chocolate..woo hoo!

We found that the Pierre Herme macaron shell itself was quite dense, and wasnt as crunchy/chewy as mine was which was preferred (yes, that was just amongst my family members though!) I guess its a very personal preference. The flavours were very nice though..

Oh well, am happy with this batch definitely, but i have a lot of work to do to get my macarons consistent.Will enjoy the journey though..

For your reference;

Pierre Herme macarons i bought were the passionfruit and chocolate (i.e. the yellow one with chocolate flecks right on top in the photo), coffee (bottom left in photo) and the liquorice violet (the one with the pink and black shell, bottom right of the photo)

Luxemburgerli

Sometimes asking questions can be a good thing.. :) 

When i brought my lychee and rose macarons to work one day, one of my colleagues who was worked in Switzerland said to me that it looked like a bigger version of something he used to have in Switzerland called luxemburgerlis. I was baffled. I have never heard of luxemburgerlis ever! Googling it up i realised he was right! It looks so similar to macarons but they are tiny! I was quite curious and asked him how it tasted, what sort of fillings were usually used etc. Turns out, luxemburgerlis are only made in Switzerland and are produced by Sprungli (http://collection.spruengli.ch/luxemburgerli.php?lang=en&cat=). Sigh..

Turns out though, my colleague actually asked his friend that was visiting from Switzerland to get a box so he could bring it to work.... :) 

Here it is, all the way from Switzerland...!

Looks so cute, almost too good to eat!!

i said ALMOST! i was the only one admiring them and taking photos...the rest of my colleagues were chomping away..it was goooood....

And because i was the one who asked for it, i could take the balance home...YAY! :) 

yummm...

Look how it compares to a macaron in terms of size..

how cute...! So whenever you are in Switzerland, you know what to go try!

Macarons part 6: Rum and Raisin macarons (MacAttack Challenge #22)

Since i had some rum and raisin leftover from the ice cream i made, i decided to venture on to make some Rum and Raisin macarons.

For the macaron shells, i used the same recipe i have been using in my previous posts. I used "caramel" colouring to get the brownish-hue as i will be using a chocolate rum and raisin ganache which will be relatively dark.

I start off by making my chocolate rum and raisin ganache.

Ingredients:
180g white and milk chocolate mix
25g rum
60g raisins

Method:
1. Heat rum and raisin puree in a saucepan until boiling
2. Add chocolate and leave to stand for 1 minute
3. Whisk to obtain a smooth mixture
4. Transfer to shallow bowl, cover with clingfilm and refridgerate overnight.
5. Before using, heat ganache in microwave in 2-5 second bursts.
6. Whisk on high speed for 30 seconds

Next - the macaron shells!

As per usual, beat the egg whites till foamy, add the dehydrated egg white and sugar and beat till stiff peaks form. I added some caramel colouring into the meringue mixture before stiff peaks form.

Mix the meringue mixture together with the sifted ground almond and icing sugar mixture. Once macaron mixture has reached the right consistency (usually after 50-60 folds), fill up a piping bag, and start piping onto trays lined with parchment paper.

Let it sit for 45-60 minutes until the macarons are no longer sticky to touch.

I honestly can say that i still wait anxiously for my macarons to rise and for the pretty ruffled feet to form and when they do, i still get excited! Woohoo!

Leave to cool, and then remove from parchment paper, match proportionate sizes together and start piping the filling and sandwich together.

Pop into the fridge in an airtight container and wait till the next day to sample it.

What a coincidence, just read on the Mactweets blog http://mactweets.blogspot.com/ that the Mactweets Mac Attack Challenge #22 is to do with liquor! perfect timing..

Macaron part 5 - Lychee and rose macarons

Yes, i am at it again!

This time i have tried the recipe from http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/08/macaron-troubleshooting-new-recipe.html. which is as follows:

5g dehydrated egg whites
28granulated sugar
225g icing sugar (sifted)
125g ground almond (sifted)
100g egg whites

The main difference between this recipe and the one i use normally (besides measurements) is that this recipe uses dehydrated egg whites.  I bought mine from Sainsbury's.

So off i went..

1. Use a fork to mix the egg white powder and granulated sugar till thoroughly mixed through.

2. Sift the icing sugar and ground almond in the same bowl.

3. Beat the egg whites till frothy and add in the egg white powder and granulated sugar mixture slowly. Beat till stiff peaks form.

4(a) This is how the stiff meringue mixture should look like.
4(b) Mix the ground almond and icing into the meringue mixture and start folding.
4(c) I read you should aim to approximate about 50-60 folds, so far i personally feel its a good guide) You will get a smooth mixture.
4(d) The mixture is ready once you have a "thick ribbon/lava" consistency.

5. If you want to add in colouring (i usually use gel based colourings as it is not too liquid), best to split the mixture into several bowls (depending on how many colours you are intending to have) during the 40th fold i.e. before it looks like 4(c) above. The continuous folding will ensure colour is mixed thoroughly, and not over mixed.

5(a) When i made my batch of pinks, i added in the gel based colouring into the meringue mixture (just because i was just making one colour). Plus its obviously easier to get the colour thoroughly mixed in.

6. Once the mixture reaches the right consistency (ala 4(d)), fill up your piping bag and start piping!

If you want to decorate it with shimmer, this is the time to sprinkle some on..

7. Let it rest for 45-60 minutes until a crust forms.

8. Pre heat your oven 150 degrees celcius after 20 minutes into the "resting" time. (If in doubt, invest in an oven thermometer - i bought a Tala one from Robert Dyas for gbp5.99).

9. Touch shells lightly with your finger after letting it rest for approximately 45 minutes, a crust should have formed and the shells are no longer sticky to touch.

10. Pop in oven for around 21-22 minutes.

11. Once ready, remove from oven and lightly touch the tops of the macarons, it shouldnt wobble on its feet.

12. Pop the next tray in, and make sure the oven is still at 150 degrees celcius.

13. Once they are cool, peel the parchment paper off the macarons slowly.

14. Match tops and bottoms together (by size)

 

15. Pipe the filling* right in the middle, and sandwich the tops and bottoms together.

   * For the filling, i used the standard buttercream recipe, but substituted the water with lychee juice and
       the vanilla essence with rose essence.

16. Pack into air tight containers and put into the fridge for 24 hours.

17. Before eating, let it defrost and dig in once at room temperature. mmmmm

Ta dah...my lychee and rose macarons..