Lemon Danishes

6 May DSC_2041

May 6th, 2012
This post is a week late, as I made these delicious danishes last weekend, but didn’t have time to post until now. What enticed me to make these? Well, a few weeks ago I received a bunch of lemons from someone at work who was trying to get rid of them. It was like hitting the jackpot for me! Free lemons!?! The endless possibilities of what I can do with them! I whipped up a batch of lemon curd and they have been sitting in the fridge waiting to be used. So I decided to make fruit danishes last weekend so that I can fill them with the lemon curd, and indeed it was a brilliant idea. Making these danishes also allowed me to work with yeast again after the buttery croissant experience.

This was definitely a more time intensive project compared to making the croissants, in my opinion. The dough had to be rolled out, rested, shaped, proofed and filled before finally going into the oven and then glazed once they were done baking. I’m glad I made the lemon curd in advance, otherwise it would have been an entire day project!

I was a happy camper with all these lemons…and they were free!

Tangy lemon curdFigure 8-shaped danishes filled with cinnamon sugar.

Spiral-shaped danishes filled with lemon curd and topped with raspberries.

Pinwheel-shaped

A platter of tangy, sweet, delicious danishes!

Tags: , , ,

Chocolate Buttercream Easter Cake

8 Apr

April 8th, 2012

I can’t believe it’s already April and Easter is here! Seems like a lot of people took advantage of the nice weather to celebrate the Easter holiday because when I went out to run a few errands the streets were pretty quiet. Plus, a lot of stores were closed today. Besides going out for Easter breakfast and an afternoon run, I made an Easter Cake and decorated it with a cute Easter theme. The cake is chocolate genoise, filled with vanilla buttercream and iced with chocolate buttercream. I played with marzipan to make the Easter eggs and little chicks- aren’t they cute?

Easter chicks and eggs colored and molded with marzipan.

Piping a basket weave pattern all around the side of the cake.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe Easter Sunday!

Chocolate Genoise Recipe:

  1. 70g cake flour
  2. 15g cocoa powder
  3. Pinch of baking soda
  4. 15g butter
  5. 3 whole eggs
  6. 75g granulated sugar

Directions:

  1. Butter 6-inch cake pan. Place parchment at the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
  2. Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda three times.
  3. Melt butter in microwave.
  4. Place eggs and sugar in a mixer bowl. Heat over a double boiler, while whisking continuously.
  5. Once the mixture reaches about 110 degrees Fahrenheit remove it from the heat. Place a dollop of the egg mixture in with the butter, mix and set aside.  Whisk the rest of the egg mixture with the mixer on high speed for about three minutes.
  6. Fold 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the egg mixture using a spatula.
  7. Fold another 1/3 of the dries into the batter. Also add the melted butter. Fold until streaky.
  8. Add the last 1/3 of the dries and fold until incorporated, while being careful not to over fold the mixture.
  9. Pour the batter into the 6-inch cake pan and bake immediately at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I set the timer for 20 minutes and checked at every 5 minutes. Total time before the cake was done was about 32 minutes.
  10. Immediately invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Allow to completely cool.

Tags: , , ,

Buttery Croissants

7 Apr

April 7th, 2012

I’ve always been afraid of baking with yeast because of an incident an old roommate and I had when we attempted to make challah bread. That was a few years ago and since then I never really dared to use yeast. However, I think I’m a changed person now.

Even though it is easier to go and buy these, I decided to make croissants. It was a risk because I don’t have the required proofer to allow the dough to rise, so I had to get a little creative. I created a warm and humid condition in the oven, where I preheated it to the lowest temperature, turned it off, then placed a bowl of very hot water inside. I then monitored the temperature so that it was at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The warm and humid environment allowed the dough to properly rise after it was shaped.

Croissant dough is definitely a multiple-step process and takes time because of the numerous steps involved, which include folding the dough, resting it between folds, and rising the dough before finally baking them. However, the outcome is a payoff– a batch yielded plenty of croissants!

Regular Croissants:

Chocolate Filled Croissants:

Mint Macarons for St. Patrick’s Day Weekend

18 Mar DSC_1979

March 18th, 2012

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Weekend! I was debating on what to make for this occasion, and finally decided to go with green macarons filled with mint chocolate ganache. Previously, I have made macarons using the Italian meringue method, which required heating up sugar and water to a ‘soft-ball’ stage and adding it to whipping egg whites and whisking until a stiff meringue was obtained. This method takes a bit longer time and requires more precision, but often yields good results. This time around, I whipped egg whites and powdered sugar until it was dry and stiff, which was then folded into the dry ingredients. The macarons still turned out with the little ‘feet’ around the edges, but I think I’m a fan of using the Italian meringue method.

I love the vibrant green color, and to add an extra touch I used green shimmer before putting the macarons in the oven. Aren’t these fitting for St. Patrick’s Day?

Tags: , , ,

Mini Carrot Cake Cupcakes

4 Mar DSC_1867

March 4th, 2012

Carrot cake is one of my all time favorites. It’s something about the combination of carrots, raisins and cream cheese frosting that makes this my preferred flavor. Not to mention, the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves give off an aromatic scent. A lot of recipes use only cinnamon, but I prefer to use all four spices.

These were made for Chloe’s birthday bash this past Saturday. Baby Chloe had her 1st birthday party and her mom asked me to make some carrot cupcakes. To play up the cupcakes I made edible carrots out of gum paste…don’t they look so real?

Tags: , , ,

Chocolate Genoise Cake with Chocolate Buttercream

11 Feb

February 11th, 2012
Happy Birthday, Herman! It was actually on February 8th, but we had a celebration dinner with friends on February 7th. Instead of going out to buy one of his favorite types of sponge cake from the Asian bakeries I decided to make his birthday cake.  I went with a chocolate genoise, which is a lighter, airier cake.  It was soaked with a subtle rum flavored syrup, filled with chocolate ganache and frosted with chocolate buttercream. On top of that I drizzled the entire cake with melted white and dark chocolate. Yes, it was a choco-a-holic type of cake!

Chocolate Genoise Cake

Filled with Chocolate Ganache

Frosted with Chocolate Buttercream

Drizzled with melted chocolate

Tags: , , ,

Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Jan

January 2nd, 2012

Happy 2012!

In celebration of New Year’s Day, I made a strawberry cake yesterday- inspired by the Prom Queen cupcake that I recently tried at That Takes the Cake in San Francisco’s Union Street location. The strawberry flavor was so strong and pungent that I wanted to recreate my own!

I found Sprinkle’s strawberry cupcake recipe via Martha Stewart’s website and modified it a bit. Unfortunately, strawberry season is over, but I was able to pick some up at Sprouts Farmer’s Market. Though not the biggest or sweetest strawberries, they did the job. I pureed the strawberries until I got very fine pieces. I used the fresh strawberry puree in the cake batter, as well as for the frosting. Since I’m not a big fan of plain buttercream, I made a cream cheese strawberry frosting. Slices of strawberries are packed in the center of the two-layer cake.

The cake definitely satisfied my strawberry craving! I’m looking forward to strawberry season in the spring- can’t wait for all the strawberry creations.

Hope everyone is having a great start to 2012. Here’s to a new year of baking and blogging!

Strawberry Cake

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Filled with fresh Strawberries

Surrounded with vanilla wafers



Tags: , , ,

← Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.