Work Catering #38: Thème français

A belated post because I've been on a mini holiday ^_^ 
Went to watch the LION KING :D it was soooo awesome!! Brought me back to my childhood~ with all the songs.. Hakuna matata!

Anyways back to the baking! Last week a french reporter from France24 came to work to film a documentary about our head of Immunology Department (who is French).. something to do with French people coming to Aus for research! So I decided to have a French theme to my bakes =) and of course the first thing I thought of was MACARONS! 

I wanted to experiment with colours and tried to make a French flag themed macaron! As you can see the colours are a bit off... the red could have been redder.. and the blue.. darker! But oh wells! I tried XD

You can find the recipe for the macarons here. I split the batter into 2 parts and added blue dye to one and red dye to the other. I think a gel dye rather than a liquid dye would probably work better. The macaron shells are sandwiched with white chocolate ganache which can be made by mixing 50ml thickened cream with 100g white chocolate in a bowl over a double boiler.

They may not look like white chocolate flavoured but they are sandwiched with white chocolate ganache~

Kind of uneven sizes :/

There are many fancy french pastries that I could choose from but decided to go for the safe option of Palmiers! Delicious puff pastry sprinkled with sugar, rolled up into a pretty heart shape and baked in the oven until caramelised! MMmm...

Just caramelised!

The only danger is not to bake them for too long or else the toffee will burn and become bitter.
Cinnamon Palmiers
Recipe adapted from Jessica Gavin

Circle of.... palmiers~~~

Ingredients
1 cup caster sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 sheets puff pastry, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 200oC and line 2 large baking trays.
2. Combine sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. With a rolling pin, roll out the puff pastry sheet to create a slightly flatter and even surface. 
4. Sprinkle surface of puff pastry with cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated. Using rolling pin, roll over the sugar surface to help mixture adhere to puff pastry.
5. Flip pastry over and repeat step on the other side. 
6. Fold sides of puff pastry towards the centre so they go halfway to the middle. Fold them again so the two folds meet exactly at the middle of the dough. Then fold 1 half over the other half to resemble a closed book.
7. Chill dough for 15 minutes to allow the butter to harden slightly before cutting and prevent melting into the dough.
8. Slice the dough into 1.5cm slices and place on lined baking tray. For a more heart shaped palmier, slightly separate the tops of the cookie dough to resemble bunny ears.

Little bunny ears

9. Bake for 12 minutes then turn over and bake for another 4 minutes or until lightly caramelised.
10. Transfer palmiers to a cooling rack.

Different carmalisation :/

But deliciously crunchy and sugary :D

I'm having a break from catering the next two weeks... but will update you on some other bakes soon =) Till then, HAPPY BAKING!!!!

Cupcake baking with Special guest: Cakestory!!!

I am so thankful to have the opportunity to work with Wen from Malaysia who is the founder of Cakestory in Malaysia ^__^ A cupcake catering business! hehe! Found out we have a lot of things in common (mainly baking) and I hope that I can set up my catering business one day! Or maybe even a collaboration~! You guys should check out her facebook page! Many yummy cakes there :D

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes (with Cream cheese frosting)
Recipe adapted from Cakestory

Ingredients

Cupcakes
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups (195g) cake flour (I just used plain flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Lemon zest for decoration

1. Preheat oven to 180oC and line 18 holes of muffin pan with cupcake cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar with electric beater until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture in three additions, beginning and ending with flour.
5. Toss the blueberries in 1 tsp plain flour to coat - this helps the blueberries maintain their shape. Fold the blueberries into the cake mix.
6. Fill cupcake cases with batter (~2/3 full) and bake for 15 minutes or until skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack.

Cream cheese frosting
500g cream cheese, softened at room temperature
160g soft icing sugar
160g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
Juice of 1/2 lemon

1. In stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add in icing sugar and butter and beat until smooth.
3. Squeeze in juice of 1/2 lemon and beat until incorporated.

Assembly

• Fill piping bag with frosting and pipe swirls of frosting onto cupcake. If you have star tips, it would look even prettier! unfortunately I don't :(
• Place blueberry on the top together with a sliced lemon zest.

Pro piping skills =p even without a tip!

pretty in blue :)

BakingTray & Cakestory

We had a great day baking! Also used the leftover cream cheese frosting for macaron filling~ Coffee flavoured macaron shell with cream cheese frosting! YUM! If you guys come up with any suggestions on what to call this new flavour... leave a comment below! We wanted to call in "Tiramisu" but realised that uses mascarpone cheese
.. not cream cheese! Oops!!

New macaron flavour that needs a name!!

Check out our feast!!! :D

Thank you Cakestory for sharing your knowledge and tips =) Hope to use this recipe again and try out other flavours!

Wen from Cakestory and her delicious cupcakes ^_^

So that's all from me in 2013!!! Off to Brisbane tonight! cannot wait!! :D

Still have so many posts yet to publish but that shall wait till next year =D 

Happy baking people!! 

Work catering #28: Inspiration from desserteries - Zumbo Patisserie and B&P sweet studio

I've been eating wayyyy to many sweets recently >____<" but all in the name of research ;P haha! Adriano Zumbo has opened up a pop up shop recently selling his "Chouxmacas - choux pastry topped with a macaron" and I've somehow become a regular customer =p" 

Pina coloda chouxmaca! so cute ^^

taking a look inside the Banana cheesecake chouxmaca! my favourite one~~~

Masterchef has also made Burch & Purchese sweet studio quite popular too! So went to visit (again) and the desserts were AMAZING!!! =D =D =D!!! Oh and I met a former Masterchef contestant -> KYLIE :) she was lovely ^^

Delicious desserts!! love all the layers and textures and flavours! <3

Kylie! super nice :) Has the dream job at B&P!

So those desserts have given my inspiration for this week's work catering =) I made lychee and coconut pannacotta - inspired by B&P's multi-layered desserts; and chocolate macarons - inspired by Zumbo's macarons!!
Lychee and Coconut Pannacotta

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups thickened cream
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 tsp gelatin
1 can lychees 
1 packet (85g) create-a-jelly (Aeroplane brand)
1/2 cup shredded coconut

1. Place cream, milk and sugar in saucepan over medium heat. Stir till sugar dissolved.
2. Add 3 tbs boiling water to gelatin in small bowl and mix to form a gel. Add gelatin mix into cream mixture and stir till gelatin dissolved.
3. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
4. Pour into jug and pour into plastic shot glasses (~3/4 full). Drain canned lychees (reserving 200ml lychee juice) and cut each in half. Place lychee half into each glass and refrigerate for around 1 hour or until set.
5. Empty jelly powder into separate jug, and add 1 cup (250ml) boiling water. Stir and dissolve well. 
6. Add 200ml of lychee juice and stir well. Remove pannacotta from fridge (once set) and pour lychee jelly into each shot glass. Return back to fridge and allow to set.
7. Place shredded coconut on lined baking tray. Bake for around 10 minutes at 200oC or until toasted. Sprinkle coconut onto pannacotta and serve.

I wanted to create different textures (creamy pannacotta plus crunchy toasted coconut) and also add an element of surprise (the lychee in the middle). I'm really happy with this one! The flavours complimented each other really well, no ingredient overpowering the other (HAHA! sounding like a Masterchef judge). I was really happy because many people gave great comments ^___^" Like "this is the best thing you have ever made" - whoa... and "who bought these?" =D The only complaint was "you should make the glasses bigger" hahaha

Since I was making a an order of macarons, decided to make extra for work! Haven't made them in a while and glad they turned out well! No strange/creative flavours like Zumbo does, just simple chocolate :) You can find the recipe for my Chocolate Macarons here. Still my most visited recipe ^_^"

Oh and EXCITING NEWS! ADRIANO ZUMBRO TRIED THESE MACARONS!!!! Yes!!!! He came to his pop up shop for the last day and so i brought some of these for him to try XD XD while most people were asking for a photo and autogtraph, I stood there holding my box of macarons and asked if he would try one! XD XD! He said "a bit too crunchy, they should be softer..." i think because they weren't freshly made and dried out a little! but happy to get some feedback from the Macaon Master himself!! hehe... oh and I did get a photo too ;P

with the macaron master Adriano Zumbo!

Macarons finally making an appearance for work catering =p

close up of macarons! see the "feet" hehe

Wedding bake: iheart macarons

Just a few pictures of some iheart macarons I made for a wedding I attended last month. 

Congratulations Austin and Sharon =)

L-O-V-E

Was a lovely wedding :) Glad to share it with you guys!

A <3 S

Thanks for the invite and was so happy to share the special day with both of you ^_^
Stay tuned for the next event I have to bake for :)

High Tea at home and other (non)baking sweets

I had the opportunity to use my cake stand a few weeks ago =D I had some relatives over from Malaysia so wanted to make something special :) I've also always wanted to go to high tea ... but its always been so $$... so why not do it at home ^_^"

I made chocolate macarons and berry and nut brownies. Glad that my relatives liked them~ I even had to "replenish" the levels xD hahaha!!

Other non baking sweets I've made are Tiramisu and Blackforest cheesecake. The weather had been so hot lately to actually use the oven.. but thank God it cooled down and I could use it today for catering!

I've also just recently come back from Sydney for a friends wedding but also took a day off to explore and eat around Sydney! And I finally got to go to ADRIANO ZUMBO PATISSERIE: Balmain lab! YAY!!!! got to try Adriano Zumbo's yummy pastries and cakes!!! However I didn't get to meet him or see inside the kitchen because th glass was frosted due to renovations :(... next time next time... So I'll end off with some of his yummy pastries, cakes and ZUMBARONS!!!!

The famous graffiti!!! =D outside the zumbo lab~

delicious crossiants!

CAKES!

PEPTIO: Puff pasty filled with raspberry and white chocolate.. a healthy brekky =p

Mocha, almond crossiant and peach ice tea macaron

Berry brioche! Just exploding with berries!

Assortment of ZUMBARONS

CAKES!!!! so many choices~~

fancy tarts

Mr Tom Brown - milk chocolate coconut mousse, mango compote, milk chocolate ginger cremeaux, coconut ginger cake & milk chocolate glaze

Jun and Jill - pistachio & mint creme chantilly, apricot compote, apricot & saffron creme, pistachio dacquoise, pistachio crunch & pistachio glaze 

Eric is a bananaman3 -chocobanana mousse, lemon & banana creme, flourless chocolate cake, caramelised almonds, salted dark caramel plaque