Another Gemini Birthday

Another June birthday.. another attempt in making a croquembouche! 

Never knew toffee can melt that quickly.  By the time we got to A's parents place for dinner, all the spun sugar had melted, and started looking like a pile of profiterole rocks. 

This time it was a mix of normal creme patisserie and some were filled with a chocolate version. 

On other news, I need to start counting down to my Paris adventure.  Exactly 13 days away! Ekkk...  very scared and screwed in my French. Wonder if I can just get by with saying "je ne parle pas francais.

Must bother studying my French. 

xoxo

Mich   

Another Birthday

This weekend was the B's birthday!! Though I didn't make a cake for her... her nephew-in-law was having a kiddie's party the day after. So, I finally got to make pinata cookies. 


I first saw them on pinterest, and tracked them down to finally find the recipe here.  


I couldn't find any cookies cutters of a dog/pinata shape, I just had to make them in boring shapes instead.  But still stuffed them with mini m&ms!! =) 


And an FYI.. bright colouring, sugar, chocolate don't really go well with 4 year olds, seriously they went hyper in 5 seconds. 


Here are pictures of their drugs..

Colouring the doughs

Layering the different colour doughs

Hmm.. actually don't know how to rotate the photos. But here are the doughs cut and ready to be baked. 

Results: all sealed together with icing

Surprise!! M&Ms in the centre

xoxo.. 

Mich

Happy Birthday Iv!!

Apparently my font I usually use isn't good enough and is hard to read, according to Mr A.  So hence, different font it is. 

On other news, Miss Iv chose a Gateau St Honore for her birthday cake.  She rejected my pretty rainbow cake, since she described it as a wedding cake for a gay couple.  

So.. after a burnt finger, here are the results. 

I managed to take some photos of my work in progress.  Except, it just means that my phone gets sticky from my dirty hands. 

1. Choux pastry getting piped on my (flat) puff pastry circle.  I think I won't spike it with so many fork holes as much, so that it was rise like a normal puff pastry.

2. Profiteroles getting piped 

Final results.. the photos can't show the toffee plaque well. But did taste good! 

Forgot to mention, I used the Creme Diplomat, which uses chantilly cream in it.  But, since I left it to the last minute, and needed to get Mr A to do a quick pit stop to the supermarket since I ran out of cream.  The creams didn't set as well as I had hoped. 

And to make it a signature Gateau St Honore, it requires the cream to be piped using a St Honore nozzle. I couldn't find it in any kitchen shops, so hence, its just  flat and boring looking. 

At least its tasted good right.. hahah.. I tried! =)

xoxo 

Mich

Birthdays....

2 birthdays this week, meant 2 birthday cakes to make. 


Since my presentation is not really a strong point.. its always a good thing that in most cases, the taste gets you over the ugliness of the presentation. 


Birthday #1 .. Dave's Tiramisu

Sponge was a good recipe, except it didn't turn out as sweet nor coffee enough for me. 

So it was ok average. The other tiramisu recipe turned out better, but it was too ugly.  

Ribbon turned out to be a really nice touch. Very Blair-esque.

Birthday #2: Cathleen's Cake

I used the Red Velvet cake recipe from Joy of Baking website.  Sponge was good, not chocolatey enough though.  And the cream cheese frosting uses mascarpone in it, so its not as cream cheese as I would like.  Too bad I have no idea where I put the recipe I used last, so that had a nice tang to it.


Anyway, so it was requested that there was chocolate ganache as well, so I tried to use that to cover the cake.  Except, I use those chocolate melts, and it just wouldn't melt well.  I covered it on top of some cream cheese frosting, so therefore .. it was a disaster! 


HENCE.. its all covered up, and you can't see the came itself. 


It was a good cake for asian family gathering, because it wasn't too sweet and I would say, it was a pleasant cake. 
Nothing exciting, nor would I use the same recipe again though.


So.. I think I can finally get to post my first Daring Baker's result tomorrow.  So excited, and it feels like its taken forever this month to go through. 


Anyway, shall post it up tomorrow! 


xoxo Mich