Bride and groom cake

This is the second cake I made for the witness at my sister's wedding. I really glad with this one. I really liked it. It's an almond cake decorated with fondant and royal icing. The little cute mice are all made up of sugarpaste. Don't you think they're cute? :)

Baci rose cake

This cake is a baci cake. It consists of a fudgey chocolate cake with lots of chopped hazelnuts and covered with chocolate ganache. From all the cakes I make this is my favourite cake. I'm practising on making sugarpaste flowers so you'll see more cakes with flowers :) I think it turned out pretty nice this one.

Koala chocolate cupcakes

These are chocolate cupcakes decorated with chocolate ganache and with some Koala cookies. Aren't these cute! I made a normal sized one for the mummy Koala cookie and a mini cupcake for the baby :)I received the most amazing package and it came all the way from Japan. Thanks Angela. I'm so happy with it. It consisted of various treats and things. These Koala cookies were in the package too, I also had some green tea latte sachets which I really wanted to try and never found any. If you wish to visit her blog just go to http://creatingastir.blogspot.com/

My little pony cake

This is my latest addition to children birthday cakes. This is a vanilla cake filled with chocolate ganache and covered with sugarpaste. The hair and tail are made of royal icing. It's not perfect I know but I say it's a good attempt and anyways practice makes perfect :)

Taiwan red bean mooncake

At last I had time to make some experimental baking. These are puff buns filled with Azuki bean paste. Azuki beans are cery small red beans popular in asian countries. Originating in China but also very poplular in Japan these beans are made into a paste by boiling them with sugar for about an hour. This paste is widely used especially in sweet recipes as filling and topping. There is two versions of this paste the chunky and smooth. To achieve a smoother version the boiled beanes are mashed through a sieve so that the bean skin is left behind.

This is a Japanese recipe I found on Sahm's blog. These are Taiwan red bean mooncake. I'm posting the recipe with slight modifications however the recipe along with some photos of the process can be found on Sahm's blog Here's the linkhttp://sakura-lovebaking.blogspot.com/2007/08/red-bean-paste-cookies.html.

To make the red bean paste I used this recipe http://www.applepiepatispate.com/japanese/sweet-azuki-red-bean-paste/ This site is really interesting.Taiwan red bean mooncake

Ingredients (A)

180 gm Flour
50gm Butter/30g Shortening
60gm Water
10gm Sugar

Ingredients (B)
140gm Flour
90gm Butter

Ingredients for filling
500gm Red Bean Paste

Rub in all the ingredients(A) and let rest for 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into 20 pieces.
Mix all the ingredients (B) together by rubbing in method and divide the dough into 20 pieces.
Wrap dough(A) around dough(B) and roll it out into a thin strip.
Roll the strip into the Swiss roll shape, and roll it in a thin strip once again and in Swiss roll shape.
Press dough with palm and roll out into a circular sheet.
Place filling in the center and pleat it together to form a ball shape.
Egg wash with egg yolk 2 times. (Decorate with sesame on top)optional

Bake at 365°F for 20-25 minute.

Rose cake

I made this cake for my sister's wedding. It's not the wedding cake it was a gift for the witness. It's an almond cake and it's decorated with fondant. The roses are all hand made sugarpaste roses.

Hello Kitty cake

I don't like cats but I surely have a soft spot for this one :). This is a my favourite chocolate cake (as usual) decorated with a handmade fondant picture of Hello Kitty. Cute eh!

Diving cake

This was really an unusual order. But I enjoyed making this cake. The cake base is a chocolate cake covered with chocolate ganache and crushed biscuits and the diving tanks are also chocolate cakes with chocolate ganache but decorated with fondant. the presure gauge anf the pipes are all made from fondant.

Mother's day cupcakes

These are some of the cupcakes I made for mother's day. These are vanilla cupcakes filled with a white chocolate and hazelnut mixture and covered with dark chocolate ganache or white chocolate ganache. The decorations are all made with fondant and the truffle is a made from white chocolate and hazelnut cake.

Tres leches cake

I was searching for an nice recipe which uses condensed milk. I came across this recipe. I ve neve made Tres leches cake but surely the mixture of three milks intrigued me. So I tried this recipe. Here's the link to this fantastic blog from where I copied the recipe. http://www.tasteandtellblog.com/2008/05/post-cinco-de-mayo.html Although I don't like condensed milk I like this cake. (surely I would prefer a chocolate cake though :) However it's quite yummy :)

Tres Leches Cake

adapted from allrecipes

5 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups white sugar, divided

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Grease and flour one 9x13 inch baking pan. Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside.

Cream butter and 1 cup of the sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla extract, beat well. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture 2 tablespoons at a time, mix until well blended.Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Pierce cake several times with a fork.Combine 1 cup of the cream, evaporated milk, and condensed milk together. Pour over the top of the cooled cake. Refrigerate cake for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. Whip whipping cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup of the sugar together until thick. Spread over the top of cake. Keep cake refrigerated until serving.

Boat cake

This is my latest cake. This was really a challenge. I've never made a boat cake especially with sugar paste figures. Well poor man he's not the most handsome man on earth but anyways. I m quite happy with this cake although next time I would surely improve on the finishing touches. This cake consists of vanilla cake layered with chocolate ganache.

Power rangers cake

My last addition to children's cakes. These are the power rangers.

Baby shower cupcakes

These chocolate cupcakes were served along with the baby cake. These are decorated with some royal icing.

Cantucci or Cantuccini

These biscuits are known Cantuccini or Cantucci. They originated from Italy. These almond flavoured biscuits are usually served with a glass of wine. Cantuccini are baked twice and that's what gives them their fantastic crispiness. Make sure you have good teeth though since if they're not dunken in wine they're very hard to bite. I game along this recipe in Linda's blog. Here's the link http://linda.kovacevic.nl/archives/191-Cantucci-revisited.html I didn't make any changes to the recipe this time but I have also tried making Cantuccini with lemon zest and aniseeds. They were both yummy :)

Here's the recipe as coppied from Linda s blog.

Cantuccini

200 g (7 oz) flour

125 g (4 ½ oz) sugar

100 g (3 ½ oz) almonds

1 ts baking powder

2 ts anise seeds

2 eggs

Preheat the oven at 160ºC (325º F) Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the eggs and mix. Knead it through (if it is very sticky, add a little flour). Put the dough on a floured surface and shape into a log that is about 1 ½ -2 cm high and 12 cm broad.Put on a buttered baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake for 35 minutes. Allow to cool completely.Cut the log into ½ cm slices and place them on the baking sheet. Bake for another 15-20 minutes.
Makes about 20 Cantuccini.