Devil Chocolate Cakes with Salted Caramel

Hi all, an update after so long.

Time seems to fly, I started working last summer & was thinking I would get into baking soon.

Obviously this didn't happen as you can see there hadn't any update until now.

Hopefully, I will bake more often from now.

To get myself back to baking, I started with my all time favourite, salted caramel cupcakes.

After making caramel & frosting, I realised I didn't have a muffin tray but loose-base mini cake pan I've bought from Lakeland for a long time.

The chocolate batter is not the best for this mini cakes as it's not firm enough, but divinely rich & moist.

Very pleased with it after all.

Lemon Cheese Butter Cake

Hello, sorry for being absent for these few months.

I hadn’t been baking much recently, I’ve been travelling while job hunting.

I will update more travel photos here after sorting them out.

Here comes the recipe update of a simple lemon cheese butter cake.

Simple yet delicious, tangy & refreshing.

Chocolate, Earl Grey & Hazelnut Gateau

This was the chocolate & earl grey gateau I made for my sister's birthday back in August.

I know it’s end of September & I could have posted the recipe ages ago.

It seemed like I always have too many things to do like travelling, making hand creams, cross stitching e.g. & baking seems to be the last on my list.

It’s a rich chocolate mousse cake consists of 6 components:

1. Chocolate cotton cake

2. Hazelnut praline coated puffed rice

3. Hazelnut praline mousse

4. Chocolate mousse

5. Earl grey creme insert

6. Chocolate glaze

It took me 2 days to finish this & it was absolutely worth as the cake was delicious with wonderful combo of flavours.

Caramel & Pear...

I went to Venice with my family as a celebration of passing my PhD viva.

These are the scenes from Venice, it’s a pretty city.

I baked a Japanese cotton cake before going to Venice & immediately fall in love with the light & spongy texture.

I baked it again when I got back to England but a plain & simple sponge cake wouldn’t satisfy my obsessions with photo & food styling.

I poached some pears with white wine then I whipped some cream with salted caramel I made from last time.

My decorating skills become worse… Luckily I bought some shimmer sprays last time when I visited a supermarket.

Shook the can & sprayed on, the cake was covered with a gold shimmer, the photo couldn’t really show the shimmering effect but it does look much prettier.

Cake Roll with Earl Grey Poached Asian Pear

After reading the newspaper on pear desserts, I was craving for pear mousse dessert.

My sister has been making cake rolls & chiffon cakes, so I wanted to make something different but ended up making cake roll as well because of its simplicity.

Cake roll can be simple filled with some whipped cream but I wanted something more & it ended up with a caramel mousse & some poached pears as the filling.

The recipe for the cake base is from a chinese website.

It’s called japanese cotton cake, as the name said it’s indeed very spongy & light.

For the choice of pears, I prefer Asian pear as it’s juicy & crunchy with a refreshing fragrant.

I’ve used oolong tea to poach Asian pear for the oriental theme, this time I used earl grey tea instead. 

Everything goes wonderfully together & the caramel mousse doesn’t overtake the delicate note from the earl grey tea & the Asian pear.

Just to say hi.... with a recipe

 Hello readers.

I’ve been away from baking & blogging for a while as I’m writing up my thesis for my Ph.D.

I'm not even halfway yet with my writing…

Writing up is such a long & boring process, sometimes I wish someone can write it up for me, which is totally impossible...

To break it from my boring writing, I thought I should update the blog & let you know that I haven’t abandoned this site.

Just that I can only focus at my thesis, it’s probably one of the most important piece of writing in my life.

I hope next time when I blog, I would already submit my thesis :)

Also a quick update of the recipe, I baked this for my niece’s 1st birthday in early February.

It’s gorgeous yet simple & easy to bake.

Chocolate Torta with Chocolate & Coffee Ganache

It was my sister Kelly's birthday so I wanted to make her a mascarpone mousse cake filled with fresh raspberry.

However, the supermarket closest to my place wasn't open on Easter Sunday.

Instead I baked this decadently dark chocolate torta with the bittersweet chocolate & coffee sauce.

The recipe is adapted from Willie's Chocolate Bible which has been in my collection over 2 years now.

I absolutely adore this cookbook as it includes a variety of savoury & sweet recipes for chocolate but I had to say this is the first time I've baked something from it.

This italian chocolate torta is heavenly smooth & chocolatey, simply divine.

It's very rich so I would suggest you to have it in smaller slices.

When ready to serve, make yourself a nicely brew coffee.

If you're not a coffee lover, tangy fruit tea is also a good choice which will ease the richness.

Now, have a small bite & let the chocolate torta slowly melt in your mouth, enjoy the velvet texture & allow your palate to take in the flavour.

Take a sip of the hot coffee/tea, sigh with satisfaction & enjoy the rest of the day.

Cadeau

March supposed to be spring time but in London the weather is freezing cold.

My mum's birthday and mother's day are in March so we always celebrate together.

For this reason, I flipped through a few cookbooks & wrote down a recipe even though I didn't feel like baking recently.

To suit my mum's taste bud, I made this entremet with crunchy streusel, nutty praline genoise, tangy raspberry jelly & smooth cream cheese mousse.

This combo turned out wonderfully well, almost everyone had 2 slices to be satisfied.

The recipe is adapted from a chinese cookbook "Japan Cake Boutique", I switched the almond genoise to praline & also added the raspberry jelly.

The cake is different from the cookbook so I renamed it 'Cadeau', meaning gift/present in French.

Tie a ribbon for the cake & it's a pretty present :)

Featherlight Chocolate Cake

I'm in the middle of downturn in my life, I'm feeling I can no longer cope with any more stress & pressure.

When I should go to the college, I stay in my room shutting myself up.

Unable to tell, unable to refuel, as time slips away, I'm getting ever more suffocated.

I want so much to escape from here, there's no exit I can see of but I can only stay at a hopeless corner.

I hate myself being like this, I know I have to change but I'm not brave enough.

Being obsessed with baking, I can at least hide in the kitchen for a quiet moment.

Unable to make any complicated entremets, but a simple chocolate cake that I've picked from my pile of baking books.

Simple ingredients, simple steps, just enjoy the process of baking.

When baked in the oven, the room was full of sweet chocolate which warmed my heart & calmed my mind… at least for a moment.

Chocolate Cake Pops

Can't believe Christmas is one week later, it felt like times had gone so quickly.

When I think of last year Christmas, it's almost like it's yesterday.

Before Christmas, I've finally made some cake pops which I always want to try.

I wrapped the cake pops & macarons baked by Jenny with cellophane & ribbons, & turned into nice little Christmas presents :)

Be Jenny's Guest at Le Cordon Bleu

This post isn't about me, it's about my sister, Jenny.

I was invited to be her guest to the afternoon tea party at Le Cordon Bleu in London.

A place where she has trainings to become a superb patisserie one day.

On that special day, I went to Le Cordon Bleu with my mum & brother just for the tea party.

Indulgent entremets, lovely pastries & freshly baked scones with home-made jam & clotted cream were offered, along with a selection of teas.

Apart from enjoying the cakes, I had also taken some photos showcasing those pretty cakes made by the students on the day. 

Gateau a la Pistache prepared by Jenny

Chocolate & Coffee Bean Macronade prepared by Jenny

Rosy - Rose & Lychee Entremets

On the train back home, I was thinking of baking rose & strawberry streusel bars.

But, when I got home I realised my mum had throw away my rose jam.

So, I changed my mind & made these rose & lychee entremets.

You might have noticed I've already made few lychee entremets.

Yea, this is another one :P

It's a little difficult to see from the pictures but there're 5 components:

1. almond pate sablee

2. lychee jelly

3. rose white chocolate mousse

4. lychee mousse

5. lychee milk glaze

Rose & lychee is always a perfect couple & the result is satisfying.

Earl Grey Poached Pear Entremets

I realised I haven't made entremets & mousse cakes for a few months now.

Making delicate & pretty entremets is one of my passion in baking.

It feels amazing the moment I finish the decoration, take a photograph, then taste it, and of course to share the joy with you here.

Have you noticed whenever I make entremets I like to combine different flavours & ingredients?

The most recent one was poire vin blanc using white wine poached pears & caramel, then chocolate & passionfruit.

I'm lack of inspirations recently, instead I like to bake some simple & delicious snacks.

Last week I was craving for pear mousse cake & pear is certainly one of my favourite fruit.

 I decided to bake these earl grey poached pear entremets using the recipe of oolong & asian pear entremets.

It's simply delicious, the mousse is light yet fragrantly rich & the taste nicely balances with the rich chocolate brownie base.

Cranberry Caramel Madeleines

Hi all, I have to apologise for my absence for the last few weeks.

I was injured on a hiking trip in Wales & took a week resting.

After that, I'm busy with my Ph.D project so I don't really have time for baking & I'll do my best to keep this blog running.

I've never used a madeleine pan to bake madeleines… because I didn't think there's a need for it.

However, when Jenny baked some vanilla madeleines at home, I couldn't forget the moist & crumbly madeleines when they're freshly baked.

So, I decided baked some myself & continued my obsession with caramel I've baked some caramel madeleines using Pierre Hermé's recipe.

The recipe requires inverted sugar which retains moisture & softness.

However, I didn't bother with that & used honey instead.

Also, I didn't have dried apricot so I used dried cranberries soaked in Kirsch.

The madeleines are tender & moist. Yummy!

Pudding Cake, Rose or Caramel?

Continuing with my favourite flavour--caramel, I baked a 6" caramel pudding cake but I didn't take photos of it as I wasn't really satisfied by the look.

I love it very much so I baked it again in the weekend.

The roses are blooming in the garden so I also made rose petal jam.

The colour was gorgeously vibrant, just like a red jewel under the sun.

To some variations, I made some pudding cakes with rose petal jam.

Both taste fabulous after chilling, it's a yummy treat in the summer.

What is your favourite flavour? Rose or caramel?

Carrot, Salted Caramel & Macadamia Nuts

In my last post, I made the salted caramel frosting for chocolate cupcakes.

I really like the frosting so I decided to bake a carrot cake for that.

After frosting, I also made some spiced caramel macadamia nuts for garnish.

On a rainy day, enjoy the cake with a cup of coffee for an enjoyable tea time :)