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.

First of all, I’d like to apologize for my tardiness in replying emails the past few weeks. There’s been a sudden influx of requests and enquiries and I haven’t had the chance to sort through all my emails. Please bear with me for the moment!

This post is about another batch of macarons (and a local dessert). The common theme here is the colour purple (or lavender, if you like).

Flavour #4: Lavender macarons with honey vanilla buttercream. I’ve seen lavender used in macarons on several blogs, but haven’t tried it out myself. I wasn’t too sure about this flavour since lavender isn’t commonly used in food around these parts.

The macaron shells gave off a lovely floral scent and I loved the honey vanilla buttercream. But I was definitely too generous with the lavender flowers. Don’t get me wrong; I loved the scent, but once I’d bitten into the macaron, I found the taste too floral. Don’t be fooled by those pretty, tiny lavender buds; they pact a powerful punch flavour-wise. If I ever make these again, I’d definitely be more conservative.

Flavour #5: Violette macarons with cassis buttercream. I was more than happy to finally have an excuse to splurge on some Sevarome natural violette paste, although I wonder if I’ll ever be able to finish the entire 1kg tub. The cassis buttercream, made with pure blackcurrant purée, was wonderfully tart and completely delicious with the violette flavoured macaron shells. This flavour is a definite keeper!

Flavour #6: Ubi (yam) macarons with ubi paste. This flavour was first suggested by one of my students, Maggie. Thank you so much for the idea, Maggie! I hope your macaron adventure is going well.

This flavour is, without any doubt, my favourite of the lot. The yam paste filling was wonderfully fragrant and smooth. But it does have its “issues”.

First, there’s the extra step of preparing the yam paste. This same yam paste turned the macarons shells soft after a day. The filling is also a lot heavier than buttercream and one runs the risk of the delicate shells collapsing under the weight of the filling if they aren’t consumed within a day of being filled.

Still, I find these macarons irresistable and will certainly be making them again. Besides, I have another excusereason for making ubi macarons. I could never use up an entire yam for the macaron filling, which leads me to the perfect solution for all that leftover root: “or-ni” (dialect pronunciation) or yu4 ni2, 蓣 泥!

“Or-ni” is a local Teochew yam paste dessert. It’s made with yam, sugar and oil. The original version of this dessert is served with gingko nuts, pumpkin slices and sugar syrup, although I’ve also seen the paste served with creamy coconut milk.

The raw yam is first steamed and mashed up. It is then combined with sugar, cooked with oil in a wok or large pan until all the ingredients are well combined. By this time, the paste is completely smooth and no longer sticky. The yam paste is then steamed together with pumpkin slices and gingko nuts. Lastly, sugar syrup (boiled optionally with crushed water chestnuts) is poured generously over the paste and served hot. It’s definitely one of my favourite local desserts!

It’s been more than a month since I last made a batch of macarons. The grand macaron recipe revision plan is NOT going according to schedule. Progress is exceedingly slow; yesterday was only revision attempt #1. Verdict for attempt #1: improving these tough cookies (pun intended!) are going to take a lot more work than I thought!

On the bright side, I finally got to try a few macaron flavours that have been on my to-do list for some time now. The common element these flavours have is fruit ganache. The basic idea in fruit ganache is to replace some of the cream that goes into making a ganache with either fruit juice or fruit puree. The tricky part is getting the right ratios so that the ganache will still set and not be too soft.

Flavour #1: Chocolate macaron shells sandwiched with yuzu dark chocolate ganache. Since fresh yuzu is unavailable this time of the year, I went with bottled yuzu. I loved the citrus overtones and the slightly bitter taste of the yuzu peel in the ganache. Just for fun, I topped the macarons with homemade candied orange peels. I was more than happy to finally make use of the citrus peels that I’d bottled more than 6 months ago!

Flavour #2: Passion fruit macaron shells with passion fruit milk chocolate ganache. I’ve longed to try this combination since reading about it on several blogs more than a year ago. After eating Pierre Herme’s Tarte Mogador and milk chocolate & passion fruit macaron at Mezza9 last Friday, I knew I HAD to try this flavour combination at home.

I’d already bought a couple of passion fruits at the local market 4 days earlier with the intent to juice them and make the ganache right away. Except that I had absolutely no idea how to tell if the fruits were ripe. I’d picked darker ones with smooth skins over a pre-packaged bunch with deeply wrinkled skin. When I got home, I did a quick search online and found that if I wanted ripe ones that I could use right away, I should have bought the old and wrinkley looking ones!

When the fruits were finally ripe, I strained the yellow pulp. I was surprised by how a small amount of juice could impart such a deep passion fruit flavour. This ganache is definitely my favourite out of the three!

Flavour #3: Peanut macaron shells sandwiched with banana dark chocolate ganache and a peanut butter centre.

This flavour was made on a whim, inspired by a dessert created by Amrita for her stint at House @ Dempsey. Her inspiration, in turn, comes from Elvis’ (yes, THAT Elvis) favourite dessert of peanut butter and banana sandwich. In my opinion, it’s a combination of flavours that’s completely American (think Reese’s peanut butter cups and banana muffins). I doubt I’ll make this flavour again, although I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the shot glass version that Amrita made!

Next up, purple macarons: lavender, violet and ubi! I do hope the shells turn out better …

It’s been more than a month since my last post and I’ve received several e-mails from concerned readers, asking if everything’s fine. I’m extremely grateful for your concern and am glad to report that all is well!

I’ve just been a little pre-occupied with other matters and haven’t had much time to bake something interesting enough to blog about this past month. I’ve also been revising my macaron recipe, which is why they are currently off the menu, but more about that later on in this post.

The main topic of this post isn’t entirely baking related, but it is food-related, even though it’s not the sort of food that’s edible.

Ever since I read about food miniatures on Carol’s (Paris Breakfasts) blog, I’ve been fascinated by them. When they started popping up not long after on several other food blogs, I knew I had to own a set (or more) of these adorably diminutive toys.

Too impatient to order them online and wait for shipment, I did a little research online and found several shops in Singapore that carry Japanese anime products. Most of these shops also sell Re-ment and MegaHouse miniatures.

While I got my hands almost immediately on the Re-Ment ones, the widely-coveted MegaHouse Pierre Hermé Collection seemed to be out of stock at every store I called. Fortunately, I found a local online seller and I have my own set now.

I have to say that I prefer the Re-ment miniatures over the MegaHouse ones. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the novelty of owning cute tiny food toys had already worn off by the time I received the MegaHouse ones in the mail. I also found the miniatures in the MegaHouse PH Collection much smaller than the Re-ment ones, making them difficult to handle.

As for macarons, I haven’t had as much time to spend on the recipe revision as I’d hoped. So far, I’ve only had time to make peanut macarons sandwiched with dark chocolate and jelly. I preferred the ones with jelly, but I found that the filling tended to turn the macaron shells soft very quickly. Many thanks to S for the peanut and chocolate suggestion!

Other flavours, several of which are courtesy of Pierre Hermé, on my experiment list include passionfruit (with passionfruit milk chocolate ganache), chocolate (with dark chocolate yuzu ganache), violet (with cassis), lavender and ubi. I’m also contemplating the white truffle and hazelnut combination as well, but I’m not convinced yet.

I’m pretty excited about these flavours! I just hope I’ll have enough time for all of them.

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!

While on vacation last month, I had this grand plan to bake Valentine’s Day themed cookies when I got home: hearts, roses, butterflies, the works. But Chinese New Year celebration (and of course, the mandatory recovery period from all the over-indulgence festivities) got in the way and Valentine’s Day has come and gone with no cookies in sight.

To make up for the slack, I decided to try baking heart-shaped Ispahan macarons, something I first saw on Flickr (at Pierre Hermé) and then again at Carousel at Royal Plaza at Scotts. I also wanted to try out the age-old flavour combination of strawberries and cream with this Pierre Hermé inspired dessert.

In keeping with the original PH Ispahan flavours, I paired fresh raspberries with raspberry cream (instead of the usual rose cream) and lychee bits. For the experimental version, I used fresh strawberries with vanilla cream and buttery shortbread pieces in the middle and assembled this combination with both 3″ heart-shaped and 3.5″ round shells. I even managed to put together a small heart-shaped macaron.

I’m completely thrilled with the results; the visual impact of both raspberry and strawberry versions is undeniable (in my opinion anyway)! I’m also very glad to report that both versions are equally wonderful tastewise! Afterall, how can one go wrong with strawberries and cream?

I definitely won’t be waiting for Valentine’s Day to roll around before making these gorgeous little desserts again!

With Chinese New Year baking completed and no baking schedule for Valentine’s Day, I finally had some time to make caramel fleur de sel, something that I’ve been wanting to try for the longest time.

I used Chef Pang’s recipe, found on Chubby Hubby’s blog, but found the resulting caramel way too salty on its own. It might have something to do with the accuracy of my digital weighing scale (I rounded up the amount of fleur de sel from 3.75g to 4g), but the next time I make this, I’m definitely cutting the sea salt down to 3g or maybe even 2g.

I really couldn’t bear to throw all that caramel away and turned it into a buttercream filling for macarons instead. I also used vanilla flavoured macaron shells made with hazelnuts instead of almonds.

I have to say that I loved the resulting flavour; slightly savoury with a deep caramel flavour that still shone through the buttercream. I included them in a box of macarons I’d made for a dinner party at WL’s and they quickly became the most sought-after macarons, beating even the ever popular dark chocolate and opéra flavours!

These are definitely going onto the menu!

Caramel Fleur de Sel Recipe (adapted from Chef Pang’s version)

Ingredients
200g sugar
Sufficient quantity water
1/2 tsp pure vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla pod
200g whipping cream, warmed
3g fleur de sel
140g unsalted butter, well-chilled and cut into cubes

Method
1. Place the sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Add just enough water to dampen the sugar.
2. Cook the sugar to 160 degrees C without stirring. The sugar syrup should take on an amber hue.
3. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the vanilla bean paste or the scrappings from the vanilla pod.
4. Add in the warm cream a little at a time - be very careful here as the caramel will foam up and sputter. I recommend wearing an oven mitt.
5. Add the fleur de sel and stir to make sure that all the caramel has dissolved.
6. Allow the mixture to cool to around 40 degrees C.
7. Add the cubes of butter and blend in the butter using an immersion blender until you have a smooth glossy paste.
8. Line the surface of the caramel with cling wrap to prevent a layer of skin from forming and chill in the refrigerator until needed.

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!

It’s been a little past a week since I got home. Several cakes and many macarons later, I found myself staring at 20 egg yolks in my refrigerator. With no ice cream maker, absolutely no desire to make crème brûlée and the Lunar New Year just round the corner, I settled on the most logical solution: kueh lapis.

Kueh (possible spelling variation: kuih, kway, kue) Lapis, also known as ‘kek lapis’, ‘kueh lapis legit’, ’spek koek’, ’spekkuk’, is a traditional Indonesian layered spice cake, baked with an insanely unhealthful amount of butter and egg yolks.

The heading on my mum’s recipe said “Kway Lapis Spekkoek”. I was intrigued by the term ’spek koek’ and did a little research. It turns out that ’spek koek’ stems from the days of the Dutch East India Company and Dutch colonization of Southeast Asia. In Dutch, ‘koek’ translates to cake and ’spek’ translates to lard or bacon. It is conceivable that the term ’spek’ refers to the cake layers, which resemble the layers in pork belly. But perhaps ’spek’ refers to lard as an ingredient. This leads to another question: Was ’spek koek’ brought by colonists to the Dutch East Indies or was ‘kueh lapis legit’ an indigenous sweet given a fancy Dutch name?

To make things even more interesting, kueh lapis is similar in concept to the German Baumkuchen (literally translated as “tree cake”), so named because the cake was traditionally made on a rotating spit and the cake’s cross section resembled the age-rings in trees. These days, the cake is more commonly made in a ring pan. The last paragraph in this Jarkarta Post article has a really interesting take on the origins of kueh lapis and even manages to link it with Baumkuchen. I’m not entirely sure if there aren’t several leaps of faith in the theory, but it is nonetheless a fascinating read.

Whether Dutch, Hungarian, German or Indonesian in origin, baking kueh lapis is an extremely time-consuming task - each layer of cake batter is spread thinly onto the previous layers and baked for several minutes. Being a slow worker in the kitchen and it being my first attempt meant that I spent several hours (with my mum) baking this particular cake. I’m relieved the cake turned out well, but I’m not sure if I’ll be baking it again anytime soon!

[Edited to include recipe, Feb 17, 2008]

Kueh Lapis Spekkoek

Ingredients
20 egg yolks
4 egg whites
500g salted butter
3 tbsp condensed milk
340g sugar
200g plain flour
2 tsp ground mixed spices
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp rum or brandy
90g pitted prunes, sliced into thin strips (optional)

Method
1. Butter the base of an 8″ X 8″ X 2.5″ pan and line with baking parchment.
2. Pre-heat your oven, selecting the grill function.
3. Sift the plain flour and mixed spices together.
4. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale yellow, thick and creamy
5. Cream the butter and condensed milk together until soft and fluffy. Add the creamed butter to the egg yolk mixture and mix until combined.
6. Beat the egg whites until medium firm peaks.
7. Fold in the egg whites, followed by the flour mixture into the rest of the batter.
8. Stir in the vanilla essence and rum until well-combined.
9. Spread a thin layer of batter onto the parchment paper.
10. Grill for 7 - 8 mins on the lowest rack in your oven or until lightly golden brown.
11. Remove cake pan from oven and press the baked layer down lightly with a metal fondant smoother. Prick all over the layer of cake with a toothpick.
12. Repeat steps 9 to 11 for each layer. (Optional: Add prunes on every second or third layer).
13. For the last layer, turn the oven down to 180 degrees C and bake on middle rung for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
14. Remove from oven and run a paring knife along the edges of the cake pan.
15. Turn the kueh lapis out of the pan and remove the baking parchment.
16. Flip cake back upright and let cool.

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?