This post is a little late, but here it is anyway:

Mad Baker was featured in an article about “online bakeshops” in the weekend edition of a local newspaper, Today, on 22 - 23 September 2007.

I didn’t have time to make macarons for Audrey (Phoon), the really sweet executive writer from Today who interviewed me, but I did manage to whip up a few blueberry muffins for her. I’m really glad that the review was good.

I’ve received more orders for muffins (and macarons) since the article was published. Many thanks to Audrey’s friend who told her about my blog!

Just a photo teaser for now. The plan is to use these pretty butterflies on miniature cakes covered with sugar paste when I finally find some time to bake.

My Nikon D40 has been acting up lately, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to take some photos when I’m done with the cakes.

Outlines.

Filled wings.

Finished butterflies.

Ever since I’d seen the beautiful photograph of raspberry napoléon in Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook, I’d always wondered what the contrasting textures would taste like. The only hurdle in my way was the puff pastry.

I’ve always wanted to give puff pastry a go, but never had the courage to do so. I’ve convinced myself that the butter blocks would just melt horribly in the warm weather over here and I’d end up with a thick block of dough with no layers whatsoever.

So, when my parents presented us with store-bought puff pastry they’d carted all the way back from Melbourne (please don’t ask me how they did this without the pastry sheets defrosting on the flight), I knew right away what to do with them.

The resulting dessert was visually pleasing, but I didn’t like the texture of the store-bought pastry. Although the layers were present, I found the pastry a little too dry and flakey. Fortunately, the vanilla flecked pastry cream, which I’d also infused with orange zest, was lovely with the slightly tart raspberries. It looks like I’ll have to try making my own puff pastry!