happy new year, lunar new year and valentines day as well! yet another 8 months have passed, no idea if anyone still reads this blog but my new year resolution is actually to come back to blogging, and to do it more often. and nothing beats starting a new year with a macaron post, something that i've been making for 12 years now. the only difference is i now use a built in oven to bake my macarons. it was finicky in the beginning since it took alllllot of figuring out the temperament of my oven. turns out that the temperature display isn't that all accurate. i had to attempt lots of trial & error as well as using two oven thermometers to help figure things out. my ovens are way too hot so i'm now baking my macarons about 20-30 degrees lower than shown on the display.

i've taken a couple of macaron orders as well, its heartwarming to know people still remember my macarons.





















i will be doing up my catalog menu on dessert couture and it will be up real soon. i forsee i will also be making more macarons this year, so stay tuned!

i bought these rose shaped silicone molds and was so eager to use them so i made these cranberry rose teacakes. i was never a fan of silicone molds since they give baked goods a weird sheen. luckily these did not! i added dried rose petals, nielsen massey's rosewater extract, rose syrup, vanilla bean paste and a touch of pink food coloring. paired them with my favorite TWG's bain de roses tea and they were so good!


this is essentially a pound cake, and also my first time use a pound cake recipe to make them into other shapes. apart from some weird air bubbles at the bottom (or top, after turning over), they turned out really well. you could also use your favorite pound cake or sponge cake recipe.


rose shaped silicone mold, pretty versatile and very essential for afternoon tea! can also be used for puddings, jellies, even non edibles like soaps and candles.

i used the same recipe for the tri colored pound cake two entries back and did some tweaks. makes exactly 6 teacakes.

ingredients :

100g butter, softened
60g sugar
2 eggs
100g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp each of rosewater extract, rose syrup, vanilla bean paste
5 dried rose buds, ground
handful of dried cranberries or craisins, chopped
pink or red food coloring

method :

1. preheat oven to 170C.
2. in a bowl cream together butter and sugar until pale.
3. add in eggs one at a time and whisk until combined. add in rosewater, rose syrup, vanilla and food coloring.
4. sift together cake flour & baking powder and add into the above.
5. fold in dried roses and cranberries and mix well.
6. pipe or spoon batter into the rose shaped mold. i find that piping is less messy, you could also use an ice cream scoop.
7. bake for 18-20 mins until cooked. let cool.

made something really interesting today. a matcha ombre rare cheesecake with a matcha chiffon sponge base. i think this is so pretty seriously. how is it i've never seen such a design made using matcha? i think the zebra/bullseye design is pretty common, especially the rainbow one but not this, so i'm pretty impressed!


recipe is taken from xiachufang, a chinese recipe community. think of it like cookpad, but chinese. in there you can submit your own recipe, post creations that you tried using other people's recipes, subscribe to paid lessons or shop for groceries. its become my frequent haunt these days because the recipes are aplenty and they're all pretty good. i've tried a couple of them such as the lemon earl grey madeleines and earl grey cookies and they were sooo good.


this is very simple to make and yields spectacular results. slightly more work and more bowls to wash but well worth the effort. you can also make different versions of it using coffee, chocolate, raspberry or strawberry. i think a bamboo charcoal version will be pretty awesome as well if you're into that monotonous black grey or marble look.

recipe source : amanda @ xiachufang

(makes one 6 inch cake)

ingredients :

for the matcha chiffon sponge :
3 eggs, separated
60g caster sugar
1 tbsp matcha powder
pinch of salt
25ml salad or neutral tasting oil
60ml milk
60g cake flour

for the cheesecake filling :
125ml milk, heated
100g cream cheese or mascarpone cheese, room temp
175g whipping cream, whipped until soft peaks and chilled for use later
70g sugar
6 gelatine sheets, softened in ice water
1 tbsp matcha powder

method :

1. preheat oven to 180C. to make the matcha chiffon sponge, whisk together egg yolks and half the caster sugar until combined. add in oil and mix well.
2. add the matcha powder into the milk and whisk well. make sure there are no lumps.
3. add the matcha milk mixture into the yolk mixture then sift over cake flour & salt.
4. make meringue with egg whites and the rest of the sugar and beat until stiff peaks. fold whites into the yolk mixture and pour it into a 20x30cm rectangular tray or jelly roll pan.
5. bake for 15 mins, let cool then cut into 6 inch round.
6. to make the cheesecake filling, add the softened gelatine into the hot milk, whisk well to combine.
7. lightly whisk the cream cheese or mascarpone in a bowl then add the above milk & gelatine mixture in. stir in caster sugar and mix well until sugar is fully dissolved. fold in whipped cream.
8. prepare 5 small bowls. in each bowl add in 1 tsp, 3/4 tsp, 1/2 tsp & 1/4 tsp matcha powder respectively then add in a few drops of water to dissolve. the final bowl will be the white mixture hence there is no need to add matcha.
9. in the bowl with the 1 tsp matcha, add in 60g cheesecake mixture, to the 3/4 tsp matcha add in 80g cheesecake mixture, 1/2 tsp matcha to 100g mixture and finally 1/4 tsp to 100g mixture. the final white mixture will be 125g.
10. place the sponge cake into the bottom of a 6 inch cake tin with removable base or a mousse ring. pour the white filling onto the sponge followed by the lightest green mixture directly on top. the sequence is lightest to darkest so keep pouring one filling directly on top of the other to create a zebra or bullseye pattern.
11. chill cake for at least 4 hours in the fridge then use a blowtorch, hairdryer or hot dishcloth to loosen the sides of the cake tin.

not sure if anyone still reads my blog but i took an (almost) 2 year hiatus and i've settled into my new home, finally! so i've decided to come back to blogging at least for now and will be sharing recipes once again. so if any of my followers are still here, a big HELLO to you all!


as always spring is my favorite season at least when it comes to sweets making, so i've decided to start my series of hinamatsuri/girls day/hanami spring sweets with a tri colored pound cake! this turned out beautifully with a split down the center top. i used raspberry powder for the pink layer and it has a nice tangy taste to it not unlike yogurt. the 3 colors from bottom symbolize grass, snow followed by flowers, very apt for spring.


i've stopped using my DSLR & pc for awhile now. they're still in storage so im now using my phone solely to blog. hopefully my photos still look fine. the web version for blogger is not exactly user friendly but this will have to do, for now.

recipe is from cookpad

(makes 1 loaf)

ingredients :

100g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp matcha powder
1 tsp strawberry powder (i used raspberry powder)
100g butter, softened
80g caster sugar (i reduced to 60g)
2 eggs, room temp

method :

1. preheat oven to 170C.
2. sift together cake flour & baking powder.
3. whisk together butter and sugar until pale, then add in eggs one at a time. whisk until combined.
4. fold in flour mixture.
5. separate mixture into 3 equal portions then add in matcha powder & strawberry powder into the 2 portions respectively..
6. put batter into piping bags and pipe the matcha batter in the bottom of the loaf tin followed by the original then the strawberry batter.
7. smooth mixture with a spatula with the two ends taller than the center, like a concave shape. this is to ensure that the cake rises evenly with a crack exactly in the center. that way you dont have to draw a line down the middle like some recipes do.
8. bake for 40-50 mins, remove cake from tin and leave to cool.

and bonus pics! a preview of my kitchen :


my kitchen is relatively small this time round, but i do have dedicated prep areas for baking (two, to be exact) which is great. they're not in the pic because i didnt take pics of them yet.


sink area. totally digging the black granite sink and champagne gold faucet.


i also have two built in ovens now since i make lots of macarons. have got a couple of orders since i moved in and the ovens really made a helluva difference! makes me life so much easier.

no matter where i'm at or how busy i've gotten, i always make it a point to make spring desserts. i love desserts associated with spring because of the beautiful colors and combinations. here i revisit a recipe that i made 4 years ago, the sakura white chocolate rare cheese dessert, with some slight tweaks. i remember this one being really popular with my readers and i got tons of people telling me how good it was. i wanted to go big initially ie. make an 8 inch one, or go real small. decided on the latter as i really wanted to use these cute square cups i bought recently. i think they look better than the round ones to be honest!


i also need to mention how much i love shopping at the dollar store recently. they've got tons of confections, snacks and chocolates not available at the mainstream grocery stores. in there i found tons of stuff, such as the bounty coconut chocolate, creme brulee and purple sweet potato kit kat, mint m&ms as well as these cheesecake flavored digestive/graham biscuits. i'm not usually a fan of grocery store cookies (i hate oreos), and the only kind i would eat are the lotus biscoff/speculoos, stroopwafels or the high end ones from marks & spencer, harrods or crabtree & evelyn so i was surprised i really liked these. the strawberry cheesecake flavored ones were pretty good, and i thought it would be great if i made the crust using these, cream and all. best decision i made so far. these were amazing! if you're familiar with japanese desserts rolled out during spring time, strawberry and sakura seem to be one of the more popular pairings - such as the sakura strawberry mont blanc so i'm not surprised it worked beautifully.


the dessert itself is as good as i remembered. even though this is a non-baked cheesecake, the use of egg yolk and white chocolate made it denser than the usual non-baked versions. some can be rather light on the palate, like the tofu cheesecake, but this is as close as you can get to a baked cheesecake, without the hassle of baking. the strawberry flavor from the crust is also quite prominent. and since i added the cream filling from the cookie as well, i only used half the butter. i also added slightly less sugar overall. since these cookies are smaller than the usual digestives, they're also easier to break apart so its win win situation all around.

for the recipe, head over to my entry from 2012, i linked it to the original recipe from cookpad.

i've been very inspired by all the beautiful eclairs i'm seeing on instagram, namely the ones at maitre choux by joakim prat as well as l'eclair de genie's by christophe adam. of course, how could i forget sadaharu aoki's? his are amazing as well. i don't think i've ever blogged much about eclairs coz i usually shy away from making them. like frosted cakes, they're not my forte. but i think i'm definitely getting better at this.



for this attempt, i used strawberry creme diplomat for the filling. i added strawberry puree into the creme patissiere, then folded in creme chantilly. so basically, creme diplomat is pastry cream lightened with whipped cream. and for the glaze, it was strawberry flavored white chocolate ganache. i don't fancy pouring fondant that much, so white chocolate glaze is the way to go. i also decorated some with a sprinkling of raspberry powder and fresh raspberries. they were soooo good.



in the past, i've always used dorie greenspan/pierre herme's pate a choux recipe. this time i decided to use chez shibata's recipe, i've had chef takeshi shibata's book for the longest time and it was only now that i'm beginning to look at it. chef shibata has pastry shops in japan as well as in places like shanghai and bangkok, and his salted caramel eclairs adorned with cubes of butter is one of the best sellers. i think his eclair recipe is far better compared to the others because it uses bread flour as well as baking them on low heat (150C for 55 mins). as opposed to those baked on high heat from the start, baking them on low heat for a long time ensures they're baked thoroughly so you get really crisp and hollow shells. whenever i try the other methods in the past, my choux would brown too quickly and i get soggy centers. not anymore! i also used a fluted piping tip (wilton 8B) for piping these. using tips like these ensure even baking. if you don't have such tip, you could get one, or use a fork to score lines after piping. i also like his creme patissiere recipe, it uses cake flour to thicken instead of corn starch. i think the texture is way better, not thick and gluey but smooth and glossy.



recipe is from a book, so i won't be posting it, as usual. the book シェ・シバタ スイーツのエスプリ can be found on amazon.co.jp.

christmas is just around the corner. whats more apt than a christmas wreath cake? before making this, i did my research looking at pictures of christmas wreaths, not the kind with fake decorations like baubles but those made with real flowers so i came up with this. i adorned my wreath cake with twine, red roses, raspberries, holly berries, pine cones and noble fir (or something along that line). i feel that among all the flower cakes i've made, this one is the most true to life because of the colors.


my favorite part would have to be the raspberries. they're so lifelike i'm surprised myself!


for the cake itself, i made a four layer red and white genoise sponge cake. i need to talk about this cake because i learned a new method in torting/cutting it into layers and it was pretty easy. maybe not new, but for me, it is. previously i tried methods like using the wilton layer tool (the kind that looks like a hanger), placing two wooden board strips by each side of the cake, or even the cake cutting "thingies" where you clip at both ends of the knife, i even tried using a dental floss! but i find that using a ruler to mark around the cake and then cutting along the markings with a very large and heavy knife does the trick. i bought a huge serrated cake knife and its very heavy so the knife does not slant when you slice with it.


i had fun making this cake and its really simple to put together, unlike one adorned with flowers. for the genoise sponge, i used the recipe from here. its a pretty good recipe though it didn't rise much for me. i did do the hot water bath thing and whisked the batter til ribbon stage so i have no idea! i only managed to obtain 2 slices so i would suggest making the 18cm one and doubling the quantity if you intend to do a 4 layer cake like mine.

over the past few days i learned to pipe a ton of new flowers. it was really fun so i'm here to spam some pictures! i actually had plan to make a round cake but i thought cupcakes would be more interesting since i've never tried making flower cupcake before. they all turned out very romantic shabby chic, it reminds me of an english rose garden! the pic above shows ranunculus buds and english/david austin rose.


to be honest i have no idea what this flower is but the koreans do it, ALOT. it might be another type of ranunculus or ribbon rose. i also did baby's breath as a filler, for the first time. previously i did larger buds but i think the smaller ones are way prettier.


my favorite - open rose, hydrangea and apple blossom.


pink and white (actually very light minty green but it doesn't really show) hydrangeas. i love hydrangeas and these have become my favorite flower to pipe now.


full shot of all the cupcakes


packed in a kraft cupcake box. i think some of the flowers were too huge to use on a cupcake. thats because i originally made them to be placed on a cake. definitely needs some scaling down.


i'm not really adventurous when it comes to the color combination, choosing to be in the safe zone still, such as using pink, white and green shades. i did experiment with different tone so i think the flowers look more life-like now. i've seen the dark red, blue and turquoise flower cake on instagram and they look amazing. can't wait to try experimenting with more flowers!

i had a couple of orders for these buttercream flower cakes for the month of nov, and because this is not something i do on a regular basis nor did i openly say i'm taking orders for them, i'm surprised people would ask. i also felt the need to tell my customers i have very limited knowledge on piping flowers so i'll not be very good at it. heck, i'm not even good at frosting whole cakes but my customers were really nice about it, so i went ahead. it must be a good 6 months since i practiced piping any flowers, and i was a little apprehensive to be honest.


for this bouquet cake i did roses, ranunculus and some buds/berries. having gone overboard with the leaves for my first attempt on my wedding anniversary cake, i learned that "less is more".


for this wreath cake, its several styles of roses plus chrysanthemums and buds. not being very satisfied with the previous leaf color, i simply added matcha powder to the buttercream this time, its a lot lighter in color but also more natural.


another perspective.



and finally, a buttercream tulip cake. this is the first time i'm using such strong colors in cake decorating but i think it turned out pretty well.

if anything for these couple of attempts, its that i'm really getting better at piping roses (i think). i also realized that piping flowers is really more about the technique, variety and color combination than "which tip to use". its a challenging thing for me since i don't attend any classes for these, not even the wilton method. not 100% happy with my attempts of course, but with constant practice, i know i can be better.

a new japanese grocer/live seafood place called "emporium shokuhin" opened in town and i was there a couple of days ago. basically its a high end japanese supermarket with a huge live seafood section that houses crustaceans like the alaskan king crab (it was humongous and probably costs $400 each), blue abalone, brown crab etc. theres also a very cool aged beef facility, plus restaurants/bakery littered along the perimeter of the place. friends who've been there said it was "nothing much" and that there "wasn't much to buy". on the contrary, i bought lots of stuff like octopus leg for takoyaki, king crab legs, mentaiko, hokkaido milk, beni shoga, yuzu yokan, ume plum somen and even macarons. i also bought these fresh yuzus. i find it less expensive compared to isetan's which is $9.90 a pop. these go for 2 at $7.80 which i think is pretty reasonably priced.


the first time i made yuzu chiffon i did it with a friend at her place so i didn't take a photo of the fruit. its a japanese citrus that is yellow skinned and very perfumy. the smell is like a cross between a pomelo and tangerine but the taste is extremely sour, like lemon. there is also a ridiculous number of seeds. i counted like 20-25 seeds in one small yuzu. i like that the recipe uses both the zest and juice and also utilizes the korean yuzu marmalade called citron tea. the marmalade i used is more expensive (gold grade) as there aren't any seeds or membrane in it, plus the peel is finely sliced. appreciate that there are no seeds, but not the thinly sliced peel as i prefer mine with more of a bite.


since i was meeting a friend, i made two cakes and one of it was for her. i used two different chiffon tins and mine (the taller slimmer one) turned out horribly. the sides were charred and due to the height/thinness of the cake, it was hard to slice and it kinda threatened to collapse. i have no idea why since the tortoise shell chiffon i made before actually turned out quite nicely. maybe that cake was drier and this is more moist. luckily the one i made for my friend turned out pretty ok as you can see from the first pic.


for my friend. happy she enjoyed it! the recipe is taken from junko's chiffon cake book. since its from a book, i won't be posting it, as usual.

i made matcha milk jam yesterday and wow, this is probably one of the best things i've made in a while! milk jam is something like a dulce de leche or confiture de lait where milk and sugar is cooked to a caramel-ish consistency. i was wondering if it would turn out like matcha flavored condensed milk but heck no, it was so much better. japanese milk jam don't come cheap and its probably around 10-15 bucks a 200g bottle. with something so easy to make, there's no reason to buy at all.


left : freshly made and right, where it has been refrigerated overnight and spread on toast. it was soooo good! the jam firmed up substantially and it became somewhat like a paste and is less runny. the taste is amazing, its like matcha caramel, very creamy. with so much sugar and so little matcha (i only used 1/2 tsp), it was suprisingly not as sweet as i expected it to be.


making this requires some patience, since you need to stir it constantly on low heat for 15-20 mins until the mixture thickens but its so easy to do. basically you add hot water to the matcha to dissolve it, then add cream, sugar and milk and bring it to a boil. you can have it on toast, scones, or add it to milk to make matcha latte. you can even use it as a macaron filling so its pretty versatile. the recipe makes way too little by the way, it barely fills half a jar so feel free to double it.