Since I've been gone...

..not for the first time. Please pardon my long absence. Activities just got more and I just simply didn't have the time, energy and mood for taking and editing photos, much less updating the blog.

I very much wish I had the time and enthusiasm I once had in updating this blog. Don't get me wrong! It doesn't mean I'm gonna lock this blog away in the safe forever but the updates will just come at a much slower rate. As the lack of time has affected my blog updates, so has it affected my baking schedule. Much as I wish to be baking away like a mad woman and updating this blog with tons of pictures and recipes, that's gotta wait.

On a happier note, let me catch up on what I've missed for the period of time I've been gone..

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who came to NUS to support Sweet Couture. My siblings, D and I had a fantastic time selling our goodies to you people and we hope you enjoyed eating them as much as we enjoyed selling them =D Of everything I made, I loved the macaron the most. Experimenting with earl grey and chocolate macarons was somehow quite a breakthrough for me. And, I'm glad it worked out perfect.

Being a chocoholic myself, I couldn't resist putting The Chocoholic cupcake on the menu and it was just as well-received. Needless to say, the cookies were the first ones to be sold out and it was nice knowing that people actually came back the following day to buy MORE! =)

While I thought I needed a break from baking madness, I cam across pictures of cupcake bouquets by chance. They looked SO captivating and I told myself I HAD to make one. Wouldn't it a perfect gift for mother's day? How sweet isn't it?

I caught the flower cupcake making bug that I decided to open a "class" for my friends and invited them over for a session of cupcake flower making!

Check out the variety of flowers we made during our baking session. I love making cupcake bouquets! They're simple to make and to top it up, simple to eat as well! No fuss over having to cut up the cake!! =p

If you havent got an idea what to get for your mother for this Mothers' Day, why make a cupcake bouquet and impress her with edible flowers?

I had meant to post these pictures up a long time back but I got lazy and tired and the pictures were just stored away in my laptop, waiting to be uploaded. Now that I am back from a really GREAT break/holiday, I thought to myself that I shouldn't procrastinate further.

At the boarding gates at the Singpore Budget Terminal. Just before we left for sunny Phuket!

D and I and a bunch of friends took the weekend off and had a really GRRREAT time in sunny Phuket! It was a nice break from work and all other things and now I'm pretty much recharged to be back baking and taking photos and uploading them, I hope. The fantastic shots my friend took with his DSLR captured really nice memories of the trip.

So, I shall let the photos do most of the talking.

Beach fun @ Patong Beach!

 

Street Food

What's visiting Phuket, Thailand without having a taste at their street food. Superb grilled chicken, with just the right doneness. YUMS!

 

Singha

Not forgetting a taste of their local produced, Singha Beer. I'm not a fan of alcohol nor do I even don't mind drinking. But Singha beer has sucessfully made it to my list of permitted alcohol beverages. =D

 

Preparing ourselves for snorkelling!

 

Lush Sea Anaemone

 

Sunset @ Bangla Street. One of the most happening streets in Phuket.

 

Fried rice.

 

Mixed Vegetables sauteed with garlic

The fried rice and mixed vegetables were something familiar, but the great company and a day of fun at the beach made the food seemed especially nice! =)

Clear tom yum soup.

Having tried Thai food in Singapore, I dare say that the Thai food standards in Singapore is as close as it could get as the authentic ones in Phuket.

 

The SUPERB fish

The fish was REALLY good. Nicely done with fantastic-tasting sauce. They even separate the meat out so that you don't even have to remove the bones! One of the advantages of having a friend who's a chef travelling with you is that he can ensure the freshness of the seafood. Especially so when you get to choose your own seafood in Phuket!

 

Fresh seafood

 

Beakfast @ Bodega

Museli @ Bodega

In case you were wondering, Bodega is the place we stayed in during our time in Phuket. An extremely affordable place with SUPER friendly staff. A very very nice place. Plus, it's close to the beach!

Eve of Songkran

To end of the wonderful trip, we managed to catch a glimpse of the Thai New Year, Songkran just before we left. And yes, we got drenched while walking along Bangla Street and went home in the plane with wet clothes!

If' you've persisted reading to the end of this post, I applaud you and thank you for reading this long long post. As with every blogger's wish, I hope to be back more regularly, posting more bakes and recipes!

MORE macarons...

I love love love this picture! =DD BUT, i'm not the photographer. Remember my last macaron post, when I'm supposed to pass them to a friend? Well, those pink sweet things never quite got to where it was supposed to, so I made another batch, experimenting at the same time, since we had a dinner gathering last night! (phew! what a long sentence)

I started the day feeling a little lazy and eventually still got around making these little things. I didn't know where I got the courage from to venture into trying some new flavours other than my usual plain shells + chocolate ganache. So, I tried making some coffee flavoured shells by just adding 2g of instant coffee granules. I'm not sure if it was a mistake or a "blessing in disguise". I naive-ly thought the the granules would break up into powder form when I blended the nuts/sugar mixture, but not they didn't! I was looking for a slight brown tint from the coffee, but it never quite appeared as the granules refused to be grounded fine. And since it WAS intended to be an experiment, i continued. In my urgency to finish baking quickly, I decided to warm the egg whites which were taking forever to reach room temp. And stupid me warm them too long in the microwave and I got half-boiled egg whites. twice. So I finally got the hang of warming them after wasting 70g of egg whites.

So, being lazy, again, I'm still with the french method. Although it did cross my mind to try the italian one again, but the thought of boiling the sugar syrup, plus, a dinner appointment later in the evening kinda just made me blow that idea. So, it's still french. I can safely say I got the hang of whipping just 35g of egg white in my kitchenAid mixer pretty well =))

Surprise surprise! While folding the nut/sugar mixture into the whites, the nice pale brown i was looking for sufaced! While there were still some granules not broken down, they actually became quite a pretty sight with speckles of brown scattered randomly in the "macaron batter".

Since I was on a coffee theme, I decided to do "opera macarons". So I made a coffee swiss meringue buttercream and chocolate ganache. I piped a ring of coffee buttercream and filled the hole with dark chocolate ganche.

I'm glad it all went well and the shells were more "sturdy" this time though I didn't try out on myself personally. I've actually been trying to make heart-shaped macarons but sad to say, my piping is a little irregular and I always can't find a match size! So, no pics and no filling for those heart-shaped ones =(

Nonetheless, I really like that I've ventured into flavouring the macarons and hmmm maybe I'll try....hazelnut shells next?

sweets for the very sweet-toothed

Anna's recent write-up on her macaron making journey made me think of mine. Like her, I went through many many macaron making attempts in search that perfect macaron. A macaron with 'feet', slight crispy shells with moist, slightly chewy interior and dry and smooth bottoms.

I must say I have quite a little 'luck' making macarons as my very first attempt already had feet! Well, sad to say the oven temperature was too high and they brown SO quickly, they almost got burnt so I was left with no choice but to pull them out. As a result, the bottoms weren't dry enough and they left their sticky bellies on the parchement.

A quick check at my macaron picture folder did I realise it was almost a year ago when I first attempted to make these temperamental, fussy little sweets. I very much believe I went through almost all the various problems anyone who attempted making macarons would have came across. Cracked tops, fat feet, no feet, sticky bellies, air pockets, you name it, I did it.

I have since tried the italian meringue and french meringue method which oddly, I very much prefer the french meringue method! For some very very odd reasons, italian meringue-made macarons left me with either with no feet or very small feet. No only that, the shells were a tad chewy and SUPERLY sweet. Not to mention a HUGE mess to clean up with the sticky sugarly pot and tons of perspiration =X

However, the french meringue method seems the most vulnerable and most often leaves me with air pockets. But, i guess that could be solved when it's filled with filling isn't it?

I'm pretty satisfied with today's attempt after a horrible, demoralising one last night. Though not perfect, but I think it's one of the best to-date. The shells were a teeny weeny bit too soft in my opinion (which i think will further soften with the filling filled) but i liked how the interior was soft and so very slightly chewy. I had quite a bit of leftover cookies and cream filling so I decided to fill them all with that. It was a pretty good combination i must say IF you like cookies and cream.

Although I did leave the macarons out to dry, they didn't really form a "skin". I didn't really bother and just chucked them into the oven and boy was I glad that the feet bubbled away and no cracks! The feet was a little high in my opinion, which might be because I underfolded it by just a few strokes, i think.

Other than the pretty feet and nice dry, smooth bottoms, it's my first successful attempt at making coloured macarons! So, I'm pretty satisfied despite the shells that are a tad too soft. Probably bake them longer..? I don't know!

I know I kinda promised a friend some macarons a LONG time ago. So, here they are, all packed and awaiting collection. =D

using up my egg whites part V: macarons

Another macaron attempt to finish using up my egg whites and of course, to improve on my macaron skills.
I'm am still not satisfied with the attempt this time round although it did not crack at all - not a single one, had nice high feet - every single one of them, but they had air pockets!

I have no idea why, but this has ALWAYS been a problem whenever i do the french meringue method. I remember leaving a comment on tartelette's blog about air pocket issues. She mentioned that it might be due to one to many folds, right between the perfect and seriously overfolded stage. What puzzles me is the super high feet which is a sign on underfolding..hmm. However, she did mention to ensure that i tap the tray before letting it dry out, which i so totally didn't do for the fear the the batter would spread =X maybe i really should have tapped the trays.

These small round things were really sweet as always and i probably would give up making these since my mum keeps complaining about how sweet and unhealthy and how this is really bad to make and eat etc etc.. oh wells..I wouldn't consider this a horrible attempt, just hoping that the airpockets disappears! or that i'd be able to find out what exactly went wrong and then, i think i'd be pretty much satisfied with everything else =)

[update]: As much as i complain and rant about my not-so-satisfactory attempt, a friend just really made my day and commented how well baked it is =D Thank you ZW! I'm glad you and your friends liked it =))

using up my egg whites part I: swirly macarons

After some kueh lapis and pineapple tarts, im sure many others who attempted those common cny goodies face the same problem as me - many leftover egg whites!

The only thing i thought of was macarons, since those are the only things i knew used egg whites only. Upon surfing the net and reading up on other food blogs, i realised that there are much more recipes that uses egg whites only.

For a start, i still did macarons, for a simple reason, i hadn't experimented enough with it and since i have spare egg whites, why not make use of the opportunity? This time, i'm sticking back with the french meringue method. The italian meringue method experiment left me with sticky pots and perspiration all over (due to the boiling of the sugar syrup). The french meringue was sooo much simpler and yielded better results.

Once again, i used the recipe i did for the french meringue method i did, adding a little twist to it, thanks to Tartelette who inspired me to try out what she did.

it was abit of a frenzy, trying to separate out some batter and add colouring to the remaining ones and..i might over-mixed the colour batter in the process =X or rather, i might have mixed correctly, but, due to the fear of over-mixing, i had streaks of coloured powder they weren't incorporated carefully enough.

my first fear was removed when i saw those pretty feet bubbling away..however...the tops cracked all overrrrr. =((( brrr

I had extra plain batter left, and realised the consistency was much thicker and might be less overmixed den the blue ones. so i piped 4 of them, yes just 4 of the plain ones just for the sake of comparison. and boy, was i glad i piped the plain ones.

2 trays of blue ones and ALL had cracked surface. I began wondering why. 1. i left them out to dry. so i don't think it's because of the skin-forming problem. 2. i had an oven thermometer and the temp was kept under control. 3. ah ha! the cracked parts were on portions that the colouring streaked! hmm..so was it or was it not the colouring? the answer could only be solved by checking out how did the plain ones fare.

ta da! the plain ones look great! thought i thought they were a little under-mixed. the feet looked a little to big and tended to spread more outwards than the blue ones. nonetheless, i'm pretty happy with the outcome as the feet did not spread so much outwards like my first french meringue attempt.

The bottoms of most came off beatutifully, but the plain ones had sticky bottoms that left their bellies/insides on the parchment paper. =( maybe because they weren't cooled enough before i removed them or...?

conclusion:

1. i might just stick to the french meringue method for good, seeing how easy and that it works fine for me.

2. if only the blue colouring was evenly mixed, i might have just ended up with pretty looking macarons.

3. no more blue macarons for me, they look abit too coloured to be eaten. though, really pretty to look at.

4. i quite like the recipe as somehow, it didnt taste as overly sweet as the ones made with the italian meringue method.

5. **something to improve, the macarons were a little too crunchy on the sides. like biscuits. hmm..that i'll have to troubleshoot over again.

back from a break..

i've been away for quite a while, not because i'm too lazy to update my bakes alr, but simply because i was away!

it was a a trip i pretty much looked forward to and well, though i had not enjoyed it tremendously, i still had a fun time.

My greatest regret is not being able to visit Laudree while i was in paris.
I passsed by it several times but just did not make it into the shop. sigh. While i managed to try some macarons from another shop in interlaken, switzerland, i must say i was pretty impressed and surprised that it didnt taste annoyingly sweet! it had a nice thin crisp shell on the outside and my teeth sank into the soft,moist center. lovely! it was more of the texture i made using the french meringue method (minus the air pockets i had)

Now, i have more reasons to experiment more!

With cny just around the corner, it's time for me to start baking up cny goodies. I missed giving out some christmas bakes and missed the opportunities to bake more christmas stuffs so i must make the most out of chinese new yr. I hope i will!

=D Glad to be back!

macarons

stacked macarons

This is my third attempt at macarons using the italian meringue method. The previous 2 were a flop! but the second attempt was better than the first of course..

1st attempt (added liquid purple colouring):

-the batter spread quite abit

-and i knew almost immediately that batter was highly overmixed (based on my attemps using the french meringue method

-and so..it WAS a flop..cracking and failing to dry even after an HOUR

-NO FEET! =((

2nd attempt (added liquid pink colouring):

-batter didn't spread out as much as the first time

-STILL overmixed..the batter took a LONG time to dry out. I had a few trays and deliberately left one tray to dry for A FEW HOURS!

-although that tray was finally dry, it still cracked

-this time, it struggled to form feet, but those cute tiny feet disappeared towards the end of baking *sad*

-nvm! i'm one step closer

in the oven with feet that disappeared after it was taken out

I started wondering if the liquid colouring was the culprit as i have read elsewhere to use powdered food colouring and not liquid. I verified my fears when i came across a blog stating that liquid colouring changes the structure/texture/whatever of the batter.

So, as much as i struggled through wanting to make pink/purple (pretty coloured) macarons, i decided finally to go ahead with the original,plain ones. following the recipe to the T.

3rd attempt:

-i purposely folded less

-the first tray turned out kinda "underfolded" they had peaks which wouldnt settle

-the subsequent trays were better

-they formed feet! yay!

-BUT, they were tiny and uneven i.e. kinda lopsided

-they DIDN'T CRACK!

right side up with a small tiny peak which didn't settle back completely

filling it up with chocolate ganache
playing with different piped shapes

more importantly, they didn't have the air pockets that appeared in those done with the french meringue method. though, the french meringue method had much much higher feet.

french meringue method with much higher feet