BEARarons?

TGIF!
i am a bit mac mad lately. have been caught up with for the past few days with macaronic fever. not that we have overly-sweet tooth for these gems but i was just simply hooked in making them. addictive! they can be fun to make albeit the many failures i encountered.
hence after many rounds of playing with it, i can finally call it ENOUGH! 
so today im going to use the yolks to bake cake lapis which i have been craving for it since i dont usually bake it other than CNY. 

I think it makes great gifts too!

Chocolate Macaroons

Recipe adapted from: Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme

Reference: Yochana's Cake Delight

 Ingredients:

140g  finely ground almond
250g  icing sugar
25g  cocoa powder
100g egg white (room temperature)

Method:

1. Blend ground almond, cocoa powder and icing sugar in a food processor till fine. Give it a few pulse.

2. Whisk egg white until foamy and slowly increase speed to high to whip until firm. It should look glossy at this stage. Try lifting up the whisk, the whites should form a peak that droops just a little. Use a rubber spatula, fold in the dry ingredients gently into the whites in three or four additions.  When all the dry ingredients are incorporated with the whites, the mixture will look very much like cake batter, if you lift with your finger, it should form a gentle, quickly falling peak.
3. Transfer mixture into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe into small rounds about 1" in diameter onto parchment paper, leaving about an inch between each round. Rest macaroons for about 20 mins.
4. Bake at 180C for about 10 to 12 minutes.
5. Remove macaroons from the parchment and place them on a cooling rack.
6. Sandwich them with chocolate ganache or your favourite butter cream.

* to pipe the teddy shape, i did the usual rounds for the shell. Just add two dollop on top of the rounds to make the ears. It takes some practise but hey, its fun!

My lapis ingredients are calling out for me in my kitchen. Till then, have fun!

dear diary...

i have been posting almost daily cos I'm trying to fine tune my photography skills.  still cannot get the quality I want. any experts there, please help me.
while playing around with my cam, managed to bake in between. with some left over peach, I used it for my swiss rolls.
with all these activities squeeze in along with my role at home, I'm one busy multi-tasker. enjoying every bit of it. with so many things to do, so little time. I'm posting this on my iPad while taking my 5 minute breather and heading to kitchen right after this to bake 相思蛋糕. looks like this cake is here to stay...

for the love of mac, for the love of photography.

into photography. into making macaroons.
with so many left over yolks, you'll see me churning out more lapis.

-   -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -

i sort of love this shot i took over our Sunday breakfast at the table. 

Have a great week ahead!

the ComeBack

Currently in the baking blogosphere, Other than 相思蛋糕 that is making waves,  there is another come-back. That is the Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes. I had my encore post here. This is the kinda daily cake appears often in my home which has to be light, eaten with minimal guilt.

i have piped some left over fresh whipping cream from my寿桃 for the filling.

Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes

Ingredients:

 (A) 4 Yolks

      70g Sugar

(B) 2g Salt (omitted)

      drops of Vanilla Essence

(C) 80ml Milk

      60ml Corn oil

(D) 135g Flour (i used Cake Flour)

      4g Baking powder

(E) 6 Whites

     50g Sugar

Method:

♥ Preheat oven 180°C

♥ Arrange paper cups on baking tray

♥ Hand whisk (A) till pale in colour.

♥ Add (B)

♥ Follow by (C). Whisk till combined

♥ Sieve in (D). Stir till well-mixed.

♥ Whisk whites till foamy, add sugar. Whisk till medium peak.

♥ Take 1/3 whites fold in with yolk mixture.

♥ follow by folding in the rest of white

♥ scope batter into pre-arranged paper cups about three-quarter filled

♥ baking time est. 20-25mins.

Recipe reference: 不用模型做点心

for the love of my life...

first it was the many nights of cracking mind, researching but none to confirm. Decision decision!
I almost wanted to settle for THIS cake that i saw at Honey Bee Sweets. i was intrigued with the blossom rosette. Is't it absolutely beautiful? Anyone will fall in love with such pretty cake, so will my mum!
But then..., I wanted a cake that signified longevity in the number of 80, just like the unforgettable 21st birthday we once had.
So I concluded, 80 = longevity = 寿桃, at least for the old folks. So, along that line, I finally draft out the image in mind.
I thought it should be easy peasy since i have done many celebration cakes before, what is another!
I'm all so wrong!!!  I went out the whole day shopping and spent my wee hours baking the cakes.
The next day was a big rush in between with kitchen mishap, it always happens when time is running out!  Then, i realised i still have to bake another cake to make up the height of the 寿桃! There goes my poor planning.
When eventually i got to frost the cake, it was a difficult task! To create the different colour tone of the peach, it was another challenge! All in all, by the time i'm done with the cake & snapped pictures of it, i have to rush off for the dinner. I din't bath and i din't had my lunch...
Yet the moment when i saw my siblings took out their cam and all the wow..WOW... snapping away with praises of my cake and THAT heart-felt smile on my mum, all the tiredness just diminished! Hey! its worth every effort!
Present this cake for the love of my life...my mum.

Happy long weekend!

just some pics to share for my batch of vanilla blueberry cupcakes
have a nice long weekend all! Wishing my muslims readers, Selamat Hari Raya!

1. 
   

你相思了吗?

我相思了...
哪能不相思呢？大家都陆陆续续相思。部落格掀起了一股相思风，谢谢SiewHwei的分享！
先来一个我喜欢的口味，好好地相思；）
你也来相思吧!

recipe reference: 简单生活，随心所欲，快乐充实

     巧克力相思蛋糕

Hearty Bakes @ FaceBook

Hi readers,
LIKE me at FaceBook for more updates.
You can also find my FB badge/widget on the right.

Good Morning World!

A new week has begun after the long extended weekend.
To kick start the week, woke up early to make these pancakes for the boys. 
When the morning is fixed, everything just falls into place.

Serve hot. Drizzle with maple syrup with butter.

Pancakes

Ingredients:

2 cups Plain flour

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda 

1 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup milk

2 yolks

2 whites

1/4 cup melted butter
* i added 1 tsp Vanilla essence

•vegetable oil or melted butter for greasing pan

Method:

♥ Hand-whisk buttermilk, milk, yolks, vanilla essence and melted butter till combine.

♥ Sieve in flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda until all ingredients are moistened. 

♥ In another mixing bowl, whisk whites until stiff peaks form. Fold in lightly 1/3 whites into moistened mixture until well incorporated and add in the rest of whites.

♥ Grease oil and heat up skillet over medium heat.

♥ Scoop batter onto skillet, spreading slightly.

♥ When bubbles are popping and bottoms are nicely browned (2-3min), turn over and cook for another 2-3min.

♥ Serve hot with your choice of spread.

Recipe reference: about.com


Jessie

Hearty Breakfast

a hearty breakfast prepared during the long extended weekend. Nice!
tedious but its all worth the effort. Not one that i will make often unless i need not to get out the house. However, one that i will opt for when i have the whole day playing flour while the children just rest and relak ;)

Have a coffee, have a cake!

This is the kinda cake i like to have along with a cuppa and a good book to read. Good enough to eat on its own with the dominant aroma of the coffee sponge. Chunky walnuts added crunch between sponge with a nice nutty flavor.

Coffee Walnut Cake

Coffee & Walnut Sponge:

180g unsalted butter (room temp)

180g castor sugar

3 eggs

180g Self-Raising Flour

60g Walnut (chopped & toasted)

2tsp instant coffee granules (dissolved in 1tbsp hot water)

Method:

1. Preheat oven 180deg

2. Put butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream together till pale and fluffy.

3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

4. Sift the flour into the butter mixture and stir to combine.

5. Fold in walnut pieces and coffee

6. Pour the cake mixture into a 8" greased baking pan with lined bottom

7. Bake in oven until golden and the sponge spring back when gently pressed or a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

8. Turn cake out onto a wire rack to cool

9. Prepare butter cream for frosting
10.Beat butter and sugar till fluffy and pale in colour
11. Add in milk continue beat
12. Add coffee mixture
13. Frost cake with coffee butter cream

Recipe reference: Coffee & Walnut Cake -Linda Collister

                            Cakes & Bakes from my mother's kitchen

take up the challenge?

very often, i'm approached for sales of my bakes. At all times, offer was turned down. It was flattering tho,  when one's work is being appreciated by another. However, it has never crossed my mind along that line since my dream is working behind the scene, maybe to publish a book one day or when we migrate to some countryside where life is at simplicity form, i just milk the cow,  have my own planting field, probably bake a little for sale to my neighbours *dreaming mode is on*
next, i'm embrace with another challenge. This time, i was contacted by an event company to conduct a baking workshop for a corporate event recently *butterflies in stomach*
Thanks all for your encouraging words when i first posted in my FaceBook timeline.
Infact i still very much consider myself a baking amateur tho i swear hard i'm certainly a baking enthusiast! I bake with passion with my three minions at home being my motivators. However, to teach is a different arena which takes more than passion and the first step, is always the hardest. Mentally preparation is next. i really have to put on my thinking cap since its just not the technicalities behind the scene *keeping my fingers crossed*

to sum up,  for you who sees the effervescence of my passion, who loves my little sharing haven, thanks for always being here...

while sorting out my posts, saw this draft in the box.  I have since long forgotten about it! Need some spring-cleaning here. If only i can seat here whole day get all the labels up, write out my draft, reply all mails, type out my recipes and get all posted! 

24 hours aint not enough for me... but, TGIF!

Starter for the day...

白土司变变变!