Hazelnut Macarons

Macarons made with ground hazelnuts in place of ground almonds and filled with a hazelnut ganache.

Mochi

Soft mochi made with Mochiko rice flour and filled with red bean paste. I added matcha powder to the mix for the one on the bottom and coated it in kinako which is roasted soy powder.

Warming Up

The weather the past week has been reported as a "high of 9 degrees" but it really feels much colder. Waiting for the bus in the morning, I'm finding that I really need to pull start pulling out my gloves and scarves. I warmed myself up with the traditional french onion soup topped with toasted bread and melted gruyere cheese. That did the trick!

Pao De Queijo

At the bakery that I used to work at, we used to make pao de quiejo, or Brazilian cheese bread. It is lightly cheesy with a crisp exterior and a soft, chewy interior due to the use of tapioca flour in it. It was quite popular among the customers also because it was gluten free. I remember that none of us in the kitchen particularly liked making it because it was quite laborious and very temperamental (and the fact that our hands smelled like cheesy tapioca flour afterwards).

However, I stumbled upon this recipe on a great website containing lots of asian recipes where the method is super simple and the result is fantastic! I used parmesan cheese this time but I think I may add some cheddar and chopped chives to the mixture next time as well.

Hockey Season

For a hockey fan and a great goalie.

Apples

Apples are so good right now and there are so many varieties to choose from. I remember back when I was a kid, all I knew were green apples and red apples. Now there are Ambrosias, Pink Lady apples, Fujis, Transparents, all with their own unique flavors and textures.

I decided for this dessert to use Fuji apples and Honeycrisp apples. For the Fuji apples, I sliced them thinly and layered them with vanilla cinnamon sugar, baked them with weights for 3 hours after pouring melted butter over it, and sliced it up, reheating later on. I made an apple fluid gel with some apple cider and decided to keep the honeycrisp apples as they were, just cutting rounds to showcase their perfect rawness, and doing some thin sheets for height. I dipped them in some water spiked with citric acid to prevent them from browning. I made cinnamon ice cream and an oatmeal almond streusel for crunch.

I was really happy with the way this turned out. The slow-roasted apples were delicious. Not too sweet and had that apple pie taste but richer. The cold cinnamon ice cream lent a great contrast for the hot apples and the creaminess carried the apple gel well also.

Raspberry Lemon Tarts

These tarts have a layer of crushed raspberries on the bottom, then filled with lemon curd and topped off with luscious whole raspberries. I started running low on them so I did some with just three raspberries on top which I think still look adorable.

Moving On

The best thing to do when something in your life crumbles is to just pick yourself up and keep moving on or at least do your best to. I need to keep working. Keep myself distracted from all the negatives and move forward with the rest of my life.

This wedding cake is probably my favorite of all the ones I've done. Very simple and elegant and above all, clean. Covered in just buttercream, the inside is vanilla sponge cake filled with lemon curd and fresh raspberries. A cascading shower of pale pink rose petals are the highlight .

Here's to moving on and more baking:)

Everyone Could Use Some Chocolate

Chocolate cupcakes with rich chocolate frosting and crunchy chocolate pearls.

Monkeying Around

Vanilla sponge, chocolate wafer, ganache, vanilla mousse (tastes like vanilla ice cream, so good!), chocolate mousse. Covered in buttercream with a semi-island theme. The monkey was the star though:)

Lemon and Vanilla

This is a cake done for a function for tonight. Lemon and Vanilla layered cake. Vanilla sponge, tart lemon curd, topped with a vanilla mascarpone cream. Served with a vanilla crumble and strawberry salad.

A Hawaiian Dessert Buffet

Last night, I went to a fabulous Luau themed birthday party that included, shell leis, hula dancers, fire throwers, and a whole roasted suckling pig! I provided the desserts in a buffet style along with some beautiful fruit platters done by my friend. The birthday cake had a coconut sponge cake, coconut mousse, pineapple lime compote, and coconut cream cheese frosting on the outside and coated with shredded coconut.

These chocolate shells were filled with chocolate mousse and decorated with crunchy chocolate sticks.
I had some strawberry guava sorbet sandwiches and mini banana splits that had a cherry compote, homemade vanilla ice cream, and caramelized bananas. Pineapple macarons filled with a roasted pineapple jam. Coconut marshmallows atop the cake platter.
Mini pavlova shells filled with whipped cream, fresh fruit and passionfruit pulp.

Angry Birds Part Two

Another take on the Angry Birds Cake I did before, this time with more pigs and obstacles. The interior is a fluffy red velvet cake with lots of cream cheese frosting.

Crab and Salmon Cakes

Crab meat, salmon, mayo, green onion, finely diced red onion, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Panko crusted and pan fried.

Japanese Cheesecake with Sauteed Cherries

Making the most of the B.C. cherries right now, I sauteed them with some butter, sugar, and a splash of cassis. Served over a slice of soft Japanese cheesecake.

Steamship Cake

Every year, Theatre Under the Stars puts on amazing shows. This year was "Anything Goes" and takes place on a ship. This was a huge cake I might add, and probably weighed close to 40lbs! The base "waves" were made from royal icing and the cake was a hazelnut cake with chocolate mint frosting. I really wanted to add the rails so I made them out of isomalt. The steam columns were rice krispies squares ( I had fun eating the trim).

My First Car!.....Cake

This cake was for my friend who loves his car very much. So much so, that he hesitated when cutting into it. This was definitely a good practice at shaping cakes and I admit I struggled a bit with the inset wheels ( I made the wheels the day before out of rice krispies but ended up making them bigger, then smaller, to get the right size) though I think the car being a sports car that is lower on the ground is easier to make than a regular car that would have to be lifted up somehow in the centre.

Inside is chocolate cake with ganache and peanut butter icing. I'm happy with the result and hope that I can improve on more of my decorating skills soon.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter

Like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in food heaven. Inside this cake are layers of peanut dacquoise, chocolate mousse, chocolate cake, and peanut butter ganache. I went a little chocolate curl overload here but I wanted something really showy and this is definitely it. Milk chocolate curls of different sizes with peanut butter truffles scattered on top add texture and interest to the design.

Strawberry Season

Right now, it's the perfect time for B.C. strawberries. When I was at the market yesterday, I could smell the strawberries as soon as I arrived so I knew I had to get them. Not only are they adorably cute, they are bright red, juicy, and sweet, not at all like the watery large ones one would get from the grocery store. I put these on some chiffon cakes with whipped cream. Super simple yet delicious.

Chocolate Bars

If you've never tried bacon and chocolate together, you're missing out. I know it sounds weird at first but the saltiness and slight smokiness from the bacon really goes well with the chocolate! Here I tempered a mixture of dark chocolate and milk chocolate, and mixed in some crispy, chopped bacon.

Vancouver Weather

So it's almost the end of June and yet just yesterday morning, it was pouring rain. Today was also rainy for a bit but thankfully cleared up. What's going on with the weather? Where's my summer? I'm still waiting for all day sun and hot weather with just a slight breeze. Sigh.

I'm glad it stopped raining today so that the delivery of this wedding cake went quite smoothly. Champagne background with darker curlicues and accents highlighted with gold dust. The topper was made with white and pink peonies, orchids, and roses. Fresh flowers are so beautiful.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

It finally feels like summer so I've been craving barbeque lately. After watching Top Chef Canada last week, I was really craving pulled pork. I've never made it before and the only times I had it were at Memphis Blues, and at a friend's who made it in her slow cooker. I have neither a slow cooker nor a barbeque so I had to go with the oven route. I used the recipe here from Top Chef but ended up swapping the vinegars since I didn't have sherry vinegar (I had sherry wine though). Mine also seemed to have a very large liquid to meat ratio so I cooked it some more after I took it out of the oven on the stove to reduce it. I added brown sugar as well as it was quite acidic. Overall though, it was delicious! I have some sitting in my freezer for future use too!

Ruffles

Another mango mousse cake. All I can say is, the mandoline is a wondrous tool!

Nemo Cake

A "Finding Nemo" cake for a friend. It only needed to be a small cake so I decided to make it a jellyfish and have it on a pedestal. The tentacles are made with ruffled fondant and pulled sugar to give it more texture and interest. I was really happy at how these turned out. Inside is a devil's food cake with hazelnut feuilletine and buttercream. For the Nemo, it was my second attempt as the first one looked a little wonky. I guess fish isn't really my forte. The mini birthday cake was my sister's favorite.

More Roses

Inside this rose covered cake is mango mousse with fresh mangoes and vanilla chiffon.

Earl Grey and Hazelnut Chocolate

Earl grey mousse, hazelnut chocolate mousse, flourless chocolate cake, feuilletine base. This cake has been made before but I did some tweaking and made some improvements. I love this log mold and think I'll be putting it to good use from now on.

Bibimba

This was a packet of Bibimba mix that I bought from the Muji in Hong Kong. I love Bibimba! For those who don't know, it's a fried rice mixture, usually a little spicy, that they put into a very hot clay bowl so that the outsides sear making it crispy. I made this with some egg, shrimp, green onion, and shiitake mushrooms, added the packet into it, and then placed it in a frying pan to mimic the sear from the clay bowl. It didn't quite do the trick with the crispness but the flavor was very good.

For All the Twilight Fans

This is a recreation of the cover of the first "Twilight" book. I admit I struggled with the hands but they turned out pretty good! I wanted to make a stiff top so that they could just lift off the cover and cut into the cake so I decided to decorate the inside "front page" as well so it's not too plain when they cut it. Not having read any of the books myself, I had to look online to see when the 1st page looked like.

Hong Kong Part 1

I didn't take many pictures while I was in Hong Kong being worried of coming off as too "tourist-y" but these are some food-related ones.

The great thing was the variety of bottled fruit juices that would be available at the grocery store, Starbucks, and in this case, food court restaurants. Watermelon juice with your ramen?


When I first saw this at the local grocery store, I was surprised and kind of chuckled in my head. Then I thought that it does make sense and would be convenient for people who don't like crusts on their bread.


Pretty self explanatory:


These are just 3 of the rows and rows of dried seafood stalls in the Sheung Wan area of Hong Kong. Everyday I would see them dry out assorted seafoods by the side of the road. It definitely makes me think twice next time I eat dried seafood when I think about how polluted it is and all the exhaust fumes the seafood must absorb while drying.


More to come!

Angry Birds

I've finally had some time to post up this cake that I made before I went to Hong Kong. Inside this was a chocolate cake with hazelnut buttercream and caramelized hazelnuts. We've got all the angry birds characters plus some piggies as well! I think it's adorable.

That Dreaded Day

Last weekend was the annual Quady Dessert competition. The Quady winery asks competitors to create a dessert that will pair well with their wine; this year being the Essensia that has an orange blossom flavor.

Let me get one thing straight: I don't do competitions. I wouldn't say that I'm not competitive but I hate people watching me and argh...judging me. I'm a nervous wreck when it comes to reviews, tastings, and meetings already so entering in this competition was completely out of character. I wanted to just try it out, to see if I could handle it, and to see if maybe, in the slightest possibility, I might create something that may be in the same league as some of the best pastry people that are up and coming in this city.

This is what I did: a roasted almond sponge layered with a white chocolate peach mousse, stewed peaches, peach gelee topped with a bruleed roasted peach, an orange yogurt sorbet, and an orange tuile. I made a few mistakes that I kick myself for (like choosing peach when it's not in season, and not making the tuiles perfectly straight) but it's done and over with and I can't change what I did. I learned a lot though and saw some amazing stuff!

Would I do it again though? Not quite sure. I couldn't sleep the night before (I kept worrying that my tiny ice cream machine wouldn't be frozen enough to churn ice cream and lo and behold, the morning of, I was right!) I ended up using a backup that I wasn't too happy with. Couldn't sleep well for at least a week leading up to it. As I predicted (though I hoped I wouldn't fall into my usual self), I was a ball of nerves and my hand was literally shaking as I was placing the tuiles on the plates. I remember driving to the location and getting closer and closer to it and thinking, "oh, god, I don't want to do this. Why did I do this?" It was a learning experience and I'll leave it at that.

More Fondant Fun!

A "train-themed" cake was what was asked for and it was for a two-year old so I wanted to do something fun and colorful that would definitely draw a kid's attention. The bottom was just a sheet cake and the individual trains were sculpted cakes. It was a lemon pound cake with vanilla buttercream icing. I added the pig and lion peeking through the windows because I thought it needed an extra "oomph" to it and kids love animals anyways!