Living around cupcakes

Hi all, i'm back after what seem like ages.
For the past month, being unemployed has allowed me to dive into the baking business for abit. Thankfully there are people out there who actually trusts me to fulfill their cupcake orders. :)
I had a couple orders for red velvet cake, chocolate brownie and tarts as well but cupcakes being the most.

So here are some of the photos I would like to share.



















Voila!

Most of the cupcakes that I did were either vanilla or chocolate flavored cake with buttercream frosting. Although there were a few orders of red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting and also a coffee cupcake with coffee flavored buttercream frosting.

I really enjoyed the short amount of time that I had to experience the life of having a cake business, even tho it was a very small one I would say. Sadly, I have to stop for now because I'm starting a new job tomorrow.

However, I strongly believe I'll be back in business in no time.

Till then keep in touch and stay tuned! :P

Much Love,
Lovanilla

Cake, cake and more cake

Greetings...

Here's more update from school... :P

Today i will introduce you to some pretty cakes with layers comprising of three or more elements. Feel free to ask me for recipes as it is too much for me to write all of it here. Enjoy!


Three chocolate bavarian cream cake
Starts with a ladyfinger sponge cake at the bottom and then layered with dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate bavarian cream. Finish with cocoa glaze.



Fraisier
Combination of genoise sponge cake in two layers and mousseline cream. The sides and middle were filled with whole strawberries to give a nice effect before and after cutting. Finish with fondant.



Opera
The classic cake of all time. Comprising of layers of jaconde sponge, coffee buttercream, dark chocolate ganache and finish with dark chocolate glaze. I learned that a true Opera has seven layers and it should be in this order. Jaconde-buttercream-jaconde-ganache-jaconde-buttercream-glaze.



Jamaica
Why jamaica? I don't know, maybe because of a tropical feel this cake has. Consisting of a chocolate jaconde sponge as base, walls and separator between the two mousses. Inside of the cake is filled with coconut mousse with bits of poached pineapple and rum. Topped with mango and passion fruit mousse and jelly glaze.



Royal chocolate cake
This cake calls for a thicker and moist sponge which we just call chocolate biscuit. :P Over the first biscuit goes a rocher layer. It's simply made out of milk chocolate incorporated with almond praline and feuilletine. Basically it tastes similar to those ferraro rocher chocolates only mooshed. Obviously a royal chocolate cake has to have chocolate mousse and also glazed with chocolate.



Pleasure
This cake is supposedly created by Lenôtre. I would say it's a simple and elegant cake with good taste. You couldn't go wrong with it. It's a sandwich of jaconde sponge with a vanilla supreme and chocolate mousse. The top of the cake is brushed with a little egg yolk and sugar and then caramelized with a blowtorch.



Chestnut mousse cake
The name says it all. The whole cake is chestnut mousse, layered inside with hazelnut dacquoise and bits of candied chestnuts. After the cake has set, unmould and cover the outside with chestnut cream making a thorny effect by using a spatula. The dome shape is just an option to show that cakes are versatile and the same recipe could be adjusted to fit just any sort of shape mould.



Raspberry and passion fruit cream cake
Here we increase the elements by using two types of 'biscuit'. The wall is made out of jaconde sponge and the base and separator layer are coconut dacquoise. The filling inside is passion fruit cream and followed by a light raspberry mousse on top. Finish with raspberry jelly glaze.



Apricot almond milk cake
Similar to the previous cake above, this cake uses two different types of 'biscuit'. For the walls, pine nut ladyfinger sponge and for the layers inside, pine nut apricot dacquoise. Dried apricot cut into small cubes and grounded pine nuts were used to incorporate into the dacquoise batter. Creamy apricot filling for inside and topped with an almond milk pannacotta mousse. The same mousse is used to pipe decoration around the sides on top of the cake.



Blackcurrant vanilla cake
I call this a ribena jelly cake...hehe because the blackcurrant tastes similar to ribena and the filling for this cake is a jelly layer instead of the normal cream or mousse. Only ladyfinger sponge is used here for both walls and layers. Followed by the blackcurrant jelly and topped with vanilla supreme mousse. We decorated the tops by piping a design or image using leftover mousse and then filling the gaps with more jelly.



Caramel hazelnut mousse cake
Lastly, a caramelie cake..hehe. Very simple and straight forward. Using ladyfinger sponge same as before with a hazelnut chantilly cream as filling which is basically whipped cream with icing sugar sprinkled with toasted hazelnuts. A caramel mousse of course that goes on top covering the cake with piping around the border edge (any design) to create like a shallow 'pool' in the middle. Fill the 'pool' with caramel glaze.

Wow, that's alot of cakes!

I realize my post this time around is kinda boring. Just straight forward information. I guess it has to do with the fact that i'm feeling kind of blue today but felt the need to blog. Now isn't that weird? Haahhahaa...well i'll be back with more posts soon. I feel my vibe on blogging is coming back...3 posts so far in less than a month. That's progress!

Till then, see ya and Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all those celebrating in a couple days time. Maaf Zahir + Batin to all readers and of course my babes here at virginredvelvet.

Salam xx

Sawadeekaa...

*mula-mula tu terkejut biler bukak blogger tengok semua dalam thai.mampos mcm mane nak baca ni...hahaha

Sawadeeka, sa bai di mai ka to everyone. Greetings from Bangkok. It's been 2 weeks now and i'm adjusting well. Missing nasi lemak already!!! I don't know how i'm going to survive without it. On the other hand everything else is great here.

My latest updates on food or should i say DESSERTS!!! sorry nothing Thai inspired today but i promise in my future posts.

First up, i came acroos this ice cream parlour called Cream & Fudge and fell in love with it. I'll have to add it to my lists of Haagen Daz & Swensens. It literally took me about 15 minutes standing there deciding on which flavour and concoction i wanted. I fianlly settles on this...feast your eyeballs...


oooohhh aaahhhhhh i want more!!!

Here, the rival for Dunkin Donuts is Mister Donut...ahahha (kelakar tak kay?) anyways i had already took out my camera to snap away but they wouldn't let me. Boo :( I can't say they taste better but their products sure do look interesting and mostly cute. They have mini donut lollipops, bunny shaped, donuts on sticks and more.


Sorry as i only have a photo of the packaging. Was awwed with the smiley face i totally forgot about the actual donut. Hahahaha.


Mini donuts i bought at the market...not bad and inexpensive as well.


Random fact...i love the coconut ice blended here....very refreshing.

One of the specialties here are these...


It's balls of deep fried rice noodles with a meat filling. Could be chicken but most of the time it would be pork and this particular one happens to be the latter. So boo hoo to me...it looks yummy ha? I forgot what's it called...(thinks for 10 minutes) damnit still can't remember...

Finally we go to school...will show you a few of what i've made since i arrived.


Shortbread cookies... very rich and nice (mcm butter cookies yg dlm tin biru tu)


Fruit Cake


Almond sponge cake with almond fondant flower and leaf


Tarte aux Pomme....apple tart..my favourite....pomme tart :)


Mini Fruit Tarts...these are like to die for...i just love em. Filled with pastry cream and topped with any fruits to your liking....*drools*


Same fruit tart but bigger version with more mixed fruits...i still have half of it in my fridge. Mmmm *winks* (kay, ummi, nanie...want some?)


Lunettes...a softer version of the shortbread cookies with strawberry filling.

That's all for now...will go jalan-jalan around Bangkok and hope to write a more thai inspired post. :)

A treat after long absense

Hello everyone...i'm back after so long of not posting anything. I didn't stop cooking, baking or anything like that is just that i've been really busy lately and just couldn't bring myself to sit in front of the screen long enough to put up a post.

Anyways, this come back entry is just gonna be very short, sweet (literally) and simple.

Cupcakes....yessss i just love the look of them. I've always been a fan of cupcakes and i believe that cupcakes shouldn't just be nice on the outside. Reason is cupcakes are known to be pretty and cute to look at but taste wise......nah, (showing thumbs down) you know what i'm sayin rite?...well not until now where cupcakes seems to be the craze these days and it has very much improved in quality and easily found in your nearby cafe or restaurant. :)

Welp, i'm gonna leave you with photos of cupcakes that i had made during these past months. Enjoy!!!


Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Frosting


Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Filling & Frosting


Vanilla Mini Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting


Vanilla Cupcake with Buttercream Frosting

Glazed Mango Sponge Cake

Tak sedap sangat... :(

Okay, maybe that's an over statement... But to me, i think it could be better.

Reason behind making this cake is because Z's mum had purchased a new Reader's Digest hardcover thick baking book. I was browsing through and Z said why don't i make something from it. The thing is his sis had already tried couple of recipes and it didn't turn out that good so now it's my turn to test and see if the book was just full of bad recipes...hehe. I had lots of mangoes at home hence the mango cake.

Glazed Mango Sponge

1 ripe mango
170g (3/4 cup/6 oz) caster sugar
2 eggs, lightlybeaten
125g (1/2 cup/4 1/2 oz) natural plain yogurt
125ml (1/2 cup/4 fl oz) sunflower oil
finely grated zest of 1 lime
185g (1 1/2 cup/6 1/2 oz) plain all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
30g (1/3 cup/1 oz) desiccated (sweetened shredded) coconut
2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted

1. Use a 18-cm (7-inch) square, deep tin with a loose base or a 20-cm (8-inch) round, deep cake tin. Grease tin and line the base with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degree C (350 degree F/gas mark 4).

2. Peel the mango. Cut the flesh away from the stone and slice thinly. Arrange over the bottom of the prepared cake tin.

3. Place the sugar, eggs, yogurt, oil and lime zest in a large bowl and stir until smooth and mixed thoroughly. Sift flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture, alternating with the coconut.

4. Spoon mixture over the sliced mango and smooth the to. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Check after 30 minutes and cover with foil if the cake is browning too quickly.

5. Leave cake in the tin for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto the rack of a grill tray, mango-side up. Peel off baking paper. Preheat grill. Dust cake thickly with icing sugar and place under the hot grill for 3-4 minutes or until the sugar has melted and is golden. Leave to cool on the rack.

6. Transfer the cake to a plate for serving. Any leftover cake can be covered with cling film and kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Verdict is it's just so-so. I wouldn't look forward to eating it and probably won't make it again. The texture is crumbly and dense. I think the mango just on top is not enough as you don't taste much of it. Overall i would rate it 5 out of 10. I'm thinking of using it as a base to make trifle, that is if i don't see anyone eating much of it.

Devil's Food Cake

I've been meaning to try this cake out and thankfully i finally did as it turned out well i would say. One mistake i made was that i made the cakes a day ahead and had left them inside the pan till the next day. So, when it was time to frost i realised that the cake was stuck to the pans and i had a hard time trying to get them out. There were crumbs everywhere!!! Anyway i made do with what i had left which ended up as a very messy cake. This cake has a different texture from normal chocolate cakes. Well duh, of course because it's a devil's food cake. It's more coarse, light and fluffy but somehow dense at the same time. (*pening, anyway for kay, i think it's similar to red velvetnye texture) I guess others had a hard time explaining how it really tastes as well as my dad said it's very nice and moist, mum says could be more moist and bro = "i don't like coarse looking cakes, i have a feeling it will be dry." (i'm like...ooooookay then) But after he had some he agreed with my dad. And personally i liked it as well.

Devil's Food Cake
200g butter, softened
1 1/2 cup castor sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup hot water

Chocolate Frosting
5 oz chocolate, chopped
250g butter, softened
2 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180 degree C (350 degree F). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.
Beat butter until creamy and gradually add sugar until incorporated and smooth.
Add the cocoa powder and beat for 1 minute.
Beat in the eggs one at the time and then add the vanilla.
On low speed, sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in three additions alternating with the hot water. Beat till smooth.
Pour batter into prepared tins and bake for 50-60 minutes or until set.
Remove from pan after letting cool for awhile and then continue to cool completely before frosting.

For frosting, melt chocolate using the double boiler method. Remove from pot and allow to cool.
In a bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually, add the sugar and beat at high speed till smooth. Beat in vanilla about 30 seconds. Lastly at low speed add in the chocolate and beat till well blended. Frost the cake and eat!

Ice-Cream Cookies???

Made these at random just because they looked so pretty!!!

I was just surfing the net when i came across these cookies at williams sonoma website. First thing it reminded me of was ice-cream and then candy and then just all things wonderful, sweet and nice. :)
The soft colours and the thought of cookies just brings you into a comfort zone...aaahhhhhh.
SO I HAD TO MAKE IT!!! :P

Neapolitan Cookies



16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room
temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped, melted
and slightly cooled
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
1 or 2 drops red food coloring
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg



In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on high speed until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is no longer gritty when rubbed between your finger and thumb. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the egg, vanilla and salt until well blended.

Over a sheet of waxed paper, sift together the flour and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until blended.

Divide the dough evenly among 3 bowls. Stir and knead the chocolate and pecans into the first bowl, the food coloring into the second bowl and the nutmeg into the third bowl.



Line a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with a sheet of waxed paper, overlapping the long sides by about 3 inches. Scrape the nutmeg dough into the pan and, with a small offset spatula, press to the edges in an even layer. Smooth out the dough with your fingertips. Drop the pink-tinted dough by teaspoons onto the nutmeg layer and press into an even layer. Smooth with your fingertips. Repeat with the chocolate dough. Fold the waxed paper over the top and press to smooth and compress the layers. Refrigerate until firm, at least 24 hours or up to 2 days.

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Lightly butter 2 baking sheets or line with parchment paper.

Use the paper to lift the dough out of the pan. Invert onto a wooden board and remove the paper. Using a long, thin knife, cut it in half lengthwise. Cut crosswise into slices 1⁄4 inch thick to make striped cookies.

Place the slices at least 1 1⁄2 inches apart on the prepared pans. Bake the cookies until set and pale gold on the bottom, about 15 minutes. Transfer the pans to wire racks and let cool for a few minutes, then transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely. Makes about 72 cookies.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Collection Series,Cookies,by Marie Simmons (Simon & Schuster, 2002 ).

Crunchy, aromatic, light and basically just very very yummy!!! :D