Wedding Candy Buffet: Turquoise/White/Nautical

Our second wedding candy buffet gig.

By the end of the gig, our boats, shells and decor were mostly gone. I think the kids took them.

But it’s okay 🙂

I just couldn’t be any happier to be a part of both my friends’ beautiful wedding day. Congratulations, you guys!

Wedding Candy Buffet: Blue and White

So this was how I spent the Chinese New Year holiday:

Made LOADS of cake pops and oreo pops for  upcoming wedding candy buffets

Then we were off to Julianah’s wedding for her blue and white candy buffet:

Congratulations to the happy couple and thank you for engaging in our services 🙂

[DISCLAIMER: Macarons were provided by the bride from macarons.sg]

Chocolate salted caramel cupcakes

In our house, my sister has always been the one to make salted caramel. Not that I hated it, it’s just that I’ve never tried making it. I only ate them when she made salted caramel rice crispies treats. She did warn me that making the caramel from scratch wasn’t easy, but did I listen?

Obviously not.

I was so determined to prove her wrong.

Well, after one failed attempt, I found another successful recipe which shall be my go-to recipe from now on.

Not bad for a first attempt, but I wish it was more salty.

FOR THE SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE
2 cups granulated sugar
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1 tablespoon flaky sea salt

Directions:
Place sugar in the bottom of a medium-sized heavy saucepan and place heat on medium-high. Stir the sugar frequently with a wooden spoon as it begins to melt. It will eventually completely liquidise and turn amber.

When the sugar reaches the colour you’re looking for, add the butter all at once. The caramel will bubble up when the butter is added. Use your whisk and whisk butter into the caramel until it is completely melted.

Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour the cream into the caramel. (WARNING: Make sure that the cream is at room temperature, otherwise the caramel will harden and the cream will not be incorporated with the caramel. I learnt this the hard way. So I heated up the whole mixture until the caramel melted and could dissolve in the cream.)

Whisk until cream has been incorporated and sauce is smooth. Add the flaky sea salt and whisk to mix in well. Set the sauce aside to cool for 10 to 15 minutes and then pour into a glass jar or heavyweight plastic container and let cool to room temperature. Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks but warm the sauce before using.

Salted caramel buttercream

400g unsalted butter
2 cups sifted icing sugar
2/3 to 1 cup salted caramel sauce (up to you)

Directions:
Beat butter until soft. Add icing sugar and beat until soft and fluffy. Add salted caramel sauce and beat again until well incorporated.

Pipe buttercream onto cupcakes and drizzle with extra salted caramel. Sprinkle with more flaky sea salt if desired.

No bake cherry cheesecake

 

 

Spent a couple of Sundays ago baking with my sister for some much needed bonding time.

 

We were so sure we were going to fail, but they turned out pretty good 🙂

Should have made a topping which was less runny though

Little Things

Baked these  little Chanel gems as a wedding present.

“I won’t let these little things slip out of my mouth..”

“But if I do, it’s you.. ”

“It’s you, they add up to..”

“I’m in love with you..”

“And all these little things.”

Thanks Jaja for the order 🙂

Salted caramel cookie bar

I love the combination of sweet and salty in my desserts. It’s my thing now.

Just like eating McDonalds fries with hot fudge sundae. Or chocolate coated potato chips. Or Ben & Jerry’s Chubby Hubby. Sinfully perfect.

My sis made these horribly delicious salted caramel cookie bars.

 

So horrible that I could eat everything in ONE sitting. Especially when drizzled with that additional salted caramel sauce.

I should be ashamed of myself, but I’m not. Not even a little bit.

Gym?

What gym? What calories? What clean and healthy eating?

RECIPE COMING SOON.

 

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Lemon+meringue+cake = MEGA LOVE ❤

All I could ever ask for in a dessert. Except maybe when I’m in a chocolate kind of mood.

These took me a while to make since prep work had to start a day beforehand for the lemon curd. Which was totally worth the effort 🙂

Baked regular vanilla cupcakes with cored out centers

 

The leftover cores, which are perfect for making future cake pops

 

Filled with lemon curd

Frosted with 7 minute frosting and here comes the best part –Using the chef torch. I tend to burn the meringue frosting longer than required because I love the brown toasted colour. And it reminds me of toasting marshmallows during barbeque picnics.

Pre and post torched.

 

 

RECIPE COMING SOON!

Earl grey cupcakes with honey buttercream

I went tea crazy at Fortnam and Mason on my last trip to London.

Like “I bought a party pack of different types of tea” crazy when I don’t really appreciate tea.

Or have the patience and time to brew different types of tea and different water temperatures.

Except when I’m at TWG with my girls and we pay $20 for a pot of tea, and pretend to be upper class ladies.

Whatever.

They have really awesome scones and tea jelly.

And macarons.

But I’ve digressed.

Earl grey tea is the BOMB! But I’m not too sure about the honey buttercream this time round — gazillion mixed reviews on this.

People told me the earl grey flavouring should be stronger, so maybe I’ll try this again with loose tea leaves instead of those little baggies.

Taking a photo of me taking a photo of my cupcakes. PHOTO-ception!

 

 

 

 

Recipe will be up as soon as I get the perfect combination!

Baking courses

So I finally signed up for baking classes (Thanks Groupon!) to learn to make macarons, after failing for the gazillionth time.

We started out the day learning to make seafood quiche pie and dark chocolate tart using different techniques to make the crust. Who knew that the rubbing method and creaming method would yield different types of dough?? Well, maybe you did, but I didn’t!

It was great to learn from basics and understand the chemistry of everything. Yes, I am that much of a chemistry geek. Hehe.

I had to partner this girl, who happens to be my junior back in college. How much of a coincidence is that? Then we started talking to the 2 girls beside us (who didn’t know each other either), and exchanged numbers in case we wanted to sign up for more baking classes together. SCORE!

A general shout out to the world: If anybody wants to sign up for baking classes together, contact me!

So here’s the pre-baked seafood quiche pie topped with mashed potato. Doesn’t look as great because the mashed potatoes were dry so it was hard to pipe, but whatever.

And the pre-baked chocolate tart shell which had to be baked blind for 10 mins, followed by another 10 mins to dry them out

FInished product:

Not bad for a start. I loved the chocolate tart! Dark chocolate is mega love ❤ Didn’t really like the seafood quiche filling and mashed potato but the crust recipe is a keeper 🙂

Then it was macaron making class in the afternoon. We had to pipe them out and let them dry in an air-conditioned room for about 1 hour, and learnt to troubleshoot some of the typical problems faced by macaron bakers.

Some of mine still cracked but at least I managed to get those with feet 😀

Final product: Chocolate macarons with chocolate passionfruit ganache and mango-passionfruit custard

My verdict: Macarons are like the princess of cookies, and require sooo much attention and preparation work. I doubt I would attempt this anymore unless I have nothing better to do, or I find a fail-proof recipe.

If I want to eat one, I’m just gonna get it from TWG. Like a normal person.

You can’t stop the beet!

There’s this attractive quality about cocoa dusted chocolate cake.

DOn’t ask me why but they just are.

Seeing as I’m always on some kind of exercise craze or healthy food craze, which I admit, doesn’t last long, I tried to make healthy cupcakes.

You know, getting the best of both worlds.

But for as long as this clean eating phase lasts, I might try experimenting with clean and healthier cupcakes.

For now.

Till I figure that butter is always the better choice. 🙂

Here’s my version of fudgy vegan beet chocolate cupcakes. Fudgy and a little bit chewy but could do with a ganache frosting instead.

Adapted from here:

INGREDIENTS

2 medium beets
1 cup skimmed milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp pure vanilla essence
1 cup + 1 heaping Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
 + more for topping
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt

  

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 160 C, scrub and wash beets underwater until clean.

2. Wrap beets in foil, drizzle on a bit of oil, wrap tightly, and roast for one hour or until a knife inserted falls out without resistance. They should be tender. Set in the fridge (in a bowl to catch juice) to cool to room temperature.
3. Once cooled, puree beets in a blender (adding orange juice or water to encourage mixing). Measure out 1/2 cup and set aside.
4. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.
5. Whisk together the milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil, vanilla extract, and 1/2 cup beets and beat until foamy.
6. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a sifter and slowly sift it into the wet ingredients while mixing with a hand-held or standing mixer. Beat until no large lumps remain.
7. Pour batter into liners, filling 3/4 of the way full. Bake 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Do not try and unwrap them or they’ll stick to the wrapper.
8. Once cooled, dust with cocoa powder and store in an airtight container to keep fresh.