I mentioned in a previous post that there were more cookie cutters in the mail. I received them not long after and made a few “test” cookies. But with other exciting distractions like fruit ganaches and new macaron flavours, I never got round to writing an entry about them.

So without further ado, I present decorated cookies, part II:

The design ideas for the teapots and teacups came from Peggy Porschen’s delightful books. Browsing through the book, I immediately fell in love with the roses and leaves design. But when I actually got round to decorating the cookies, I found that I liked the ones with the tiny hearts the best.

Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that it was a little OTT to go for the two-toned design, but I think they look so much prettier this way!

These baby-themed cookies were made after a client asked about decorated cookies for her baby boy’s one-month party. Don’t be deceived by the photographs; these cookies are HUGE!

The baby-themed cutters came in a set of 10 different shapes. My favourites were the baby wagon, milk bottle and pacifier. There was also an adorable umbrella shaped cutter, but the cookies tended to break easily because of the slim umbrella handle.

I loved the way these wedding-themed cookies turned out, except that the tuxedo turned out wrinkley. I suspect that I was too generous with the chocolate in the black icing. Any other ideas on why the tux turned out looking like distressed leather are more than welcome! On the bright side, I guess it could work for a rock-and-roll themed wedding!!

Other than that, I was really pleased with the lovely details like the buttons, pockets and lacey swirls on the tux and gown. Design credit goes to Ms Porschen as always!

These deep red cookies turned out so pretty that I couldn’t bear to eat them. I especially liked the contrasting outlines in the lighter shades of dark pink and yellow-green. I think they’re perfect as a take-home gift for a bridal shower or wedding reception.

All the cookies shown in this post and this other post are available for purchase, inclusive of packaging as shown with the rose cookies above. Each cookie is about 3″ - 4″ large. Pricing is dependent on complexity of design.

I’d been planning on making these cookies since late January, but never got round to it. After teaching a one-on-one decorated cookie class (and dusting off my cookie cutters) just last week, I was once again reminded of the plan I’d shelved in favour of Valentine’s Day macarons.

The wonderful thing about cookie decorating is that you’re free to embellish the cookies in any way you please. To me, an undecorated cookie is like a clean sheet of canvas, just screaming to be painted on. And the icing on the cookie (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) is this: If you’re unhappy with your masterpiece, you can just eat it and no one would be any wiser! Absolutely no waste and completely environmentally friendly too. :o)

A simple heart-shaped cookie can be personalised with the recipient’s name, a simple message or ornately decorated with dots, swirls and curls.

Don’t have much time to mess around with detailed icing? Simply flood your cookies with runny consistency royal icing. This lovely idea for a simple trio of baby hearts comes from Peggy Porschen’s delightful book, Romantic Cakes. I think they make excellent wedding favours!

Preferring something a little more ornate myself, I also made butterflies, decked out in pure white. A pair of these would make the perfect wedding favour! And where there are butterflies, there’d also be flowers.

I went with tulips, complete with leaves and stems. These do take a little more time to make, but the dramatic end results are completely worth the effort!

And since I already had the cookie dough all rolled out and the royal icing all prepared, I didn’t think it would hurt to try out wedding cake and birthday cake designs. My favourite detail on these cookies are the candles on the birthday cake. And once again, I have Peggy Porschen to thank for these wonderful ideas. :o)

If you’re already sick of looking at cookies by now, I’m afraid my cookie decorating madness isn’t quite over yet. There are more cookie cutters on their way in the mail. I can’t wait for them to arrive!

I must confess, I’m not exactly crazy about pineapple tarts. Yes, completely inconceivable, I know, given that these tarts are a staple in every household here in Singapore come Chinese New Year. But I have two perfectly valid reasons; my family makes them EVERY year and the process is extremely laborious, especially if one makes the pineapple jam from scratch.

In the past few years, my dad has taken over the time-consuming process that is pineapple jam making. I think it could be because:

a) He actually enjoys the process because I cannot imagine why anyone would otherwise take on a task which consists of grating 8 - 10 ripe honey pineapples by hand and then standing in front of a hot stove, constantly stirring a pot of juicy grated pineapples for 3 - 4 hours until almost all the juice has cooked away and the jam has caramelized to a lovely golden colour.

b) He wants to make sure that his favourite pineapple tarts are on the Chinese New Year baking schedule. There’s no denying the persuasive power of the following argument: “But I’ve already spent hours slaving over the stove making the jam.”

My mum prefers open-faced tarts to rolled balls of pastry with pineapple filling, so the next steps are making, kneading, rolling and cutting the tart dough. The small tarts are then brushed with egg yolk, filled with pineapple jam and finally topped with strips of pastry, which are then also brushed with egg yolk. It may sound easy, but I’m usually pretty tired by the time we get to the 4th tray of tarts.

Every year, after the last tray of tarts comes out of the oven, I tell myself that I won’t make pineapple tarts next year. But deep down, I know that we’d still end up doing it because my brother, who’s a really picky-eater and who’d travel miles for good food, tells us that he’s yet to taste any pineapple tarts that are as good as these.

Here’s wishing everyone a very Happy Chinese New Year!

The idea for these very pretty looking cookies comes from Delicious Days, a delightful blog owned by a German couple living in Munich. I was so inspired by the gorgeous photographs of Nicky’s Brombeerbusserl that I couldn’t wait to make my own version.

I finally got a chance make them with a slight modification to the recipe last week (more than a year after I’d first read about them!). The cookie dough was simple to make, but required some strength to pipe through the nozzle onto the tray. They had a thin crunchy shell and a soft centre fresh out of the oven. I’d expected the cookies to stay crisp on the outside, given the drier climate here in Germany, but they were melt-in-your-mouth soft by the next morning.

The only dilema I faced while making these cookies was selecting an appropriate jam. And what a wonderful dilema it was, for I was completely spoilt for choice; there were more than 30 bottles of jams and preserves (black/red currant, blackberry, raspberry, quince, apple) stored in Harald’s family home cellar, every one of them homemade in summers past!

I finally settled on a raspberry jam filling. The end result was a delightfully melt-on-your-tongue soft cookie with a hint of fruit. Although I’d have preferred a slightly crunchier cookie, I’ll definitely be making these again, perhaps with a further modification for more crunch and a little more jam for more fruity flavour. Sandwiched with a suitable jam filling, these may just be perfect for the coming Lunar New Year. I’m thinking homemade pineapple jam or orange marmalade. More suggestions, anyone?

The first time I ever had Lebkuchen (German gingerbread) was back in 1997. Harald was visiting me in Berkeley and had brought homemade ones all the way from Germany. At that time, I had no idea what these round, fragrant, nutty and soft cookie-like snacks were, but they were the most delicious things I’d tasted in a long time. Sadly, they were impossible to find outside of Germany.

Lebkuchen is most commonly available in Germany around Christmas. These wonderfully aromatic spice cookies, whose main ingredients are spices, flour, ground almonds/hazelnuts/walnuts, eggs, candied orange and lime peel, can be found in supermarkets in the couple of months leading up to Christmas with the most common brands being Bahlsen and Wicklein.

Our favourite Lebkuchen manufacturer is Lebkuchen-Schmidt. Their Lebkuchen products are so popular (in Bavaria, anyways) that they can afford to have seasonal shops that are closed all year round except for 3 months in winter. Fortunately for us (since we aren’t always here around Christmas), they also have shops that are open all-year round. Whenever we visit Germany, we’d make a trip to one of their shops in Nürnberg and end up carrying at least a kilogram of Lebkuchen home.

The homemade Lebkuchen featured here, which I made together with A, are just as wonderful as the store-bought ones, if not better. I’ll definitely be making space in my luggage for these “(home)made-in-Germany” cookies, along with all sorts of confectioneries and baking ingredients that I’d be hard-pressed to find back home!

[Edited Mar 21, 2008 to include translated recipe]

Classic Lebkuchen (Adapted and translated from Lekuchen Rezepte)

Yield: ~ 30 Lebkuchen
Ingredients
200g sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar (~10g)
1 tsp cinnamon
One pinch each of ground cloves, allspice and cardamon
200g almonds (ground)
50g candied orange peel (chopped)
75g candied lemon peel (chopped)
Zest from ½ lemon
250g flour
4 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
30 round wafer sheets (~ 7cm)
Sugar glaze (see recipe below)
Whole blanched almonds for decoration (optional)

Method
1. Mix the flour and baking powder together.
2. Place the eggs with the sugar and vanilla sugar in a bowl and beat until foamy.
3. Add in the flour mixure, spices, almonds, lemon zest, candied orange and lemon peel. Mix to form a dough.
4. Preheat the oven to 175 – 200 degrees C. (I use 180 degrees C for lebkuchen)
5. Spread the dough on each wafer sheet and bake until golden brown on an ungreased baking sheet for 15 to 20 mins.
6. Allow the lebkuchen to cool and glaze with the sugar glaze. Decorate with the whole blanched almonds as desired.

Sugar Glaze
Ingredients
200g confectioner’s sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice (alternatively, use 2 tbsp rum)
2 tbsp hot water

Method
1. Mix well for 5 – 10 mins. The glaze should be fluid with a thick consistency.

After an insane 20-day-long Christmas baking schedule, I’m ready for an extended break.

Baking this year has been loads of fun, but at times, it has also been extremely challenging and exhausting, especially in the last 3 weeks. I suppose it was inevitable, with 418 macarons, 250 gingerbread cookies, 6 gingerbread Christmas trees, 30 cakes on the Christmas baking schedule and just one oven and one pair of hands!

Looking back, I’ve realised that this past year held several “firsts” for me; 1st press interview and press mention, 1st blog award, 1st corporate order, 1st time taking Christmas orders. I’m not sure if next year will be as exciting, but I’ll be beginning 2008 by teaching my 1st ever individual hands-on baking class!

None of these would have been possible without you (my dear blog readers and generous clients), so here’s a big thank you to all of you, for your support, wonderful comments and feedback this past year!

For now, Harald and I are off to Germany (and London) for a month of R&R! So here’s wishing everyone a happy Christmas and wonderful New Year!

In my opinion, gingerbread cookies are to Christmas, what pineapple tarts are to the Chinese Lunar New Year. But to be perfectly honest, I didn’t make any last Christmas and the main reason why I’m making them this year is an order for a corporate client.

When I do make gingerbread cookies, I actually find the entire process of kneading, rolling out, cutting and baking the dough a lot of fun. But the most enjoyable part for me is the decorating. There are really so many different ways to decorate a gingerbread cookie and every cookie represents a chance to try out a new idea.

This year, I came across the idea for an edible Christmas tree in several places. I first saw it on the Wilton website, subsequently on Jocelyn’s blog and most recently on Lynn’s blog.

It seemed like an easy enough project with impressive looking results, so I went ahead and made one (ok, two) small tree(s) as well. The icing turned out a little more time consuming than I’d expected, but the finished product certainly justified the effort.

There’s no denying that a large edible gingerbread tree would make a wonderful table centrepiece for that Christmas brunch or dinner party. It would also make a lovely gift, but if you do decide to give it a go, be forewarned that while the piping process isn’t rocket science, it does require some patience!

Despite the laborious process that is macaron making, I can never stay away from these petite French confections for long. This time it was the glowing reviews on Pierre Herme’s Arabesque and Pistachio & Griottine macarons that I’d read on other food blogs that sent me off to the nearest supermarket for almonds, pistachios and apricots.

PH’s Arabesque macarons (based on the various descriptions I found) are supposed to be pistachio dusted macaron shells with apricot cream filling and pistachio praline. Not being a big fan of pistachios, I left out the pistachio on the shells and replaced the pistachio praline with almond & sesame praline.

The texture of the apricot macarons was amazing – chewy macaron shells with smooth apricot cream and crunchy, nutty praline. I’ll definitely be making these again. The only problem I had was that the macaron shells turned out somewhat on the flat side because I’d overmixed the batter.

The other PH macaron (pistachio & griottine) which I wanted to try recreating at home is supposed to be filled with pistachio paste and have an alcohol-soaked griottine in the centre.

I faced three problems in this quest. The first being that I had no idea how to make the smooth jade-green pistachio paste I’d seen in the few photographs of these macarons, so I improvised and made the pistachio paste with ½ cup of finely ground pistachios, ½ cup of confectioner’s sugar and a few tablespoons of water, which I then blended together with some buttercream.

The second challenge is that griottines in glass bottles are impossible to find here in Singapore. I’d only seen them on supermarket shelves in Germany. The only things remotely close to the small sour cherries over here are canned dark sweet pitted cherries in heavy syrup. I didn’t think that these syrup laden cherries would be a suitable replacement and went for a praline centre instead.

The last small problem I had was not knowing where to get powdered colouring (dark pink) for dusting the macaron shells and ended up using cocoa powder, which wasn’t the best replacement since it has a slightly bitter taste. [Latest Update: 13 May 2007] I’ve since been told that powdered colouring can be found at B-I-Y.

As an experiment, I used dried apricot bits for the centre in some of the pistachio macarons. I preferred the nut praline version - it went very well with the pistachio filling. The version with the apricot bits was a little strange - the apricot flavour was too intense and didn’t go as well with the pistachio cream.

Taste-test conclusion: The apricot macaron with its apricot and praline centre is something I’d definitely make again. I really liked the pistachio macaron with its pistachio cream and praline centre as well. Next time I’d probably experiment with a cherry centre when cherries are in season.

Available for purchase: 1.5″ - 2″ macaron @ S$1.50 each (min purchase of 28, choice of 3 flavours per order of 28). Listing of flavours here or here. Gift box packaging available @ a nominal cost.

For details on how to place an order, please click here.

These delightfully pale macarons were inspired by the opéra cake, a cake made popular by the well-known Dalloyau Parisian pâtisserie more than 50 years ago.

The opéra cake, or Clichy cake (named after Louis Clichy who supposedly created this cake), is an elegant mulit-layered cake made up of several thin layers of joconde (an almond sponge cake), a layer or two of coffee buttercream, a layer of chocolate ganache and a topping of chocolate glaze.

Since macarons have at least 2 similar components (almonds, buttercream or chocolate ganache) to the classic opéra, I though it would be an interesting experiment to “port” the combination of flavours in the cake to macarons.

For the shells I experimented with ground hazelnuts, which have a much stronger flavour than almonds. I especially love the contrast of the tiny flecks of dark brown hazelnut skin against the pale creamy colour of the shells. The macarons were then sandwiched with an expresso-flavoured italian meringue buttercream and a chocolate ganache centre.

The resulting macaron was a wonderful combination of flavours and textures - nutty & chewy hazelnut macarons, aromatic & fluffy expresso buttercream and decadently rich dark chocolate ganache. Wildly addictive, even for a non-coffee drinker like me!

[Latest Update: 1 May 2007] Available for Purchase: 1.5″ - 2″ macarons @ S$1.50 each (min purchase of 28 macarons, choice of 3 flavours per order of 28). Please see this post for other flavours or click here. Gift box packaging available @ a nominal cost.

You can now have these delicate and elegant French confections at your next tea party, birthday party, picnic, office event or simply because they are so wonderfully addictive! They also make perfect gifts for your friends or family for that special occasion.

Flavours Available: Chocolate (with dark chocolate ganache), Hazelnut (with hazelnut chocolate buttercream), Lemon, Rose, Raspberry (with a light lemon, rose and framboise buttercream respectively), Opera (with expresso buttercream and a dark chocolate ganache centre), Apricot (with apricot cream, studded with plum apricot bits and a nut praline centre), Pistachio (with pistachio paste and a nut praline centre), Blackforest (with dark chocolate ganache and a cherry centre). Custom flavours available on request.

Chocolate Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache:

Hazelnut Macarons with Light Chocolate Hazelnut Buttercream:

Lemon Macarons with Tangy Lemon Buttercream:

Rose Macarons with Delicately Scented Rose Buttercream:

Raspberry Macarons with Fruity Framboise Buttercream:

Available for Purchase: 1.5″ - 2″ Macarons @ S$1.50 each (min purchase of 28 macarons, choice of 3 flavours per order of 28). Elegant gift box packaging available @ a nominal cost.

For details on how to place your order and full listing of available macaron flavours, please click here.