Bourke Street Bakery's Chocolate Ganache Tart

Till date, I have made 3 different tart recipes from Bourke Street Bakery's cookbook. My favourite being the ginger brulee tart. The short crust pastry in BSB's cookbook is one of my favourite as well. Hence, it is only natural that I return to them again. To be honest, I did not enjoy this Chocolate Ganache tart as much as I thought I would....





I think the reason for that is primarily due to the fact that the chocolate ganache used here is made with milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate - supposedly the characteristic that sets it apart from other chocolate ganache tart.  "Milk chocolate isn't as rich, making it possible for even a non-chocoholic to consume a full tart in a few quick mouthfuls..."  My curiosity was piqued by this statement that prefaced the recipe... but this time, curiosity did not pay off for me.
To be fair, I am not a milk chocolate lover. I have always preferred my chocolates to be dark dark dark... with various interesting undertones and overtones... like wine appreciation. Milk chocolate, even one from the industries' best names, just feels flat... all I could taste was a milky sweetness... but different strokes for different folks, I know there are many out there who enjoys their chocolate milky and sweet. Like my boyfriend, who to my greatest surprise, actually likes white chocolates! I am one, who fails to see the point in a white chocolate.

So this is one for those many different folks out there who enjoys a sweet milky chocolate with their tart.


Chocolate Ganache Tart 

Recipe : (From Bourke Street Bakery)
1 qty      Sweet short crust pastry
850g      Good quality milk chocolate, finely chopped.
500ml    Pouring cream (35% fat)

Method:
1.  Follow the instructions here and roll out the pastry and use it to line 8cm round fluted loose bottomed tart tins. This quantity will make 20 tarts. Set the tart cases in the freezer for at least 20mins.

2.  Blind bake the tart cases in a preheated 200C oven for 20-25mins or until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

3. For chocolate filling, put the chocolate into a stainless steel bowl. Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil over high heat- this needs to happen quickly so the cream doesn't evaporate and reduce in volume.

4. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and stir with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until well combined.

5. Pour the chocolate mixture into a jug and pour into the baked tart shells until filled to the brim.

6. Allow the tarts to set at room temperature overnight in a plastic airtight container. 

Baby Doughnuts/Donuts With Chocolate Honey Glaze

As much as I love to play with flour and butter in the kitchen, there are still a couple of very simple and basic items which I have not yet tried. Among them are scones and donuts and one of the more trivial resolutions I have actually set myself in December is to try both this year.

This donut recipe is from an earlier issue of the Donna Hay Magazine. I had bookmarked this for the longest time but like many other little flags that are peeping out from the many cookbooks on my bookshelf, most of them continue to stay... shelved.  My bookmarked recipes kind of remind me of the 1000 concubines old Chinese Emperors used to house in the back quarters of the palace... beauties wistfully hoping to be picked by the emperor to pleasure him...  2 reasons made the sighting of this recipe memorable - the glossy chocolate honey glaze and the fact that these are made into bite sized. (I used a pineapple tart cutter, so you can imagine how small they are...)

Both the dough and the glaze were easy to make. Actual hands on time was less than 20mins and the rest was really leaving the the dough to proof and frying it in oil.


As much as I adore Donna Hay Magazine, I seldom cook or bake from it. I spend more time ogling at the photos than cooking from them... hence I wasn't sure how this recipe would turn out.  The results are pretty good, as far as my limited exposure to donuts can tell. The dough is fluffy and suprisingly, not too greasy. The glaze, as expected, took the whole limelight. I liked it  that you can just pop this into the mouth and not have to munch through a whole full sized donut.

Definitely a great option for kid's parties! So one trivial resolution completed and one more to go!

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Recipe :
Baby Donuts With Chocolate Honey Glaze (From Donna Hay Magazine) 

1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tbsp lukewarm water
1/4 cup lukewarm milk
1 tbsp caster sugar
25g butter, melted
1 1/4 cups (185g) all purpose flour
1 egg

Vegetable oil for deep frying

chocolate honey glaze
30g butter
1/4 cup (90g) honey ( I used only 30g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g dark chocolate

Method :
1. Place yeast, milk, water and sugar in a large bowl and set aside in a warm place for 10mins or until bubbles appear on the surface.
2. Add the butter, flour and egg to the yeast mixture and using a spatula, mix until a sticky dough forms.
3. Turn out into a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
4. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean, damp cloth and set aside to proof for 45 mins.
5. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 mins or until smooth and elastic . Roll out to 1 cm thickness and using a 3.5cm round cutter , cut 25 rounds from the dough.  Using a 1 cm round cutter, cut a small hole in the center of the donuts.
6. Place the rings on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and set aside for 10 mins or until risen slightly.

7. While the donuts are proving ( I did this during the 45 mins proofing) , melt and mix chocolate , honey and butter in a bain marie (water bath) until smooth and glossy. Set aside.

8. Heat up oil in a deep saucepan until temperature of oil is 180C.  Fry the donuts in batches, giving roughly 3 mins on each side of the donut. Remove donuts from oil and place on oil absorbant paper.

9. While the donuts are still warm, dip them in the chocolate haze and place on a wire rack until set.

Chocolate Rum Balls

First, a shout out for my giveaway of 4 Le Creuset Mini Cocottes. If you have not entered, please check this out.

Rum balls may be a popular Christmas confection but to me, they are one of my favourite childhood treats. They used to be the most coveted item in the my childhood neighbourhood bakery. Dense and sweet, rich and chocolatey, they were possibly the closest to a real chocolate truffle I had ever tasted when I was a child.
Strangely though, they are not such a common sight in bakeries anymore. Well, time changes, it is what it is... the younger generation today will probably grow up reminiscing about Barcook's Cranberry Cream Cheese buns and Bakerzin's macarons (?)......


The traditional rum balls were made with crushed wafer biscuits and nuts but the version I grew up with in Singapore is more cake like and coated with the signature chocolate rice. As I searched through the internet for a recipe, this one, shared by Rima of Bisous A Toi appears to be the closest to what I used to eat as a child.

A no-bake confection, this is totally achievable if you have some left over chocolate cake. I had some left over chocolate pound cake in my fridge and their buttery and rich texture is absolutely perfect for this.
So there you have it, a childhood and festive favourite that can be whipped up easily even by a non-baker. Life seldom comes so easy :)

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Recipe :  (Adapted From Bisous A Toi )

50g           Chopped raisins
60ml         Dark Rum
65g           Desiccated coconut
300g         Chocolate cake crumbs
60ml         Sweetened condense milk
Chocolate rice sprinkles

Method :
1. Place chopped raisins and 1 tbsp dark rum in a small pot and heat gently to simmer.
2. Turn off heat and let raisins macerate for 5 mins.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together cake crumbs, rest of rum, dessicated coconut, condensed milk and rasins. Mix well until the cake crumbs are combined together.
4. Use a small ice cream scoop, portion out the cake dough, shape and coat with Chocolate rice sprinkles.
5. To store, keep the rum balls in air tight box in the refrigerator.

Pierre Herme's Sichuan Pepper Chocolate Truffles

We are down to the last 2 months of the year. Isn't it boggling how each year seems to slip away faster than the last? In theory, with all the tools that we have now to make life easier and make us more efficient, shouldn't time be stretched to linger just a bit longer? Perhaps, just like the way nature abhors vacuum, we feel compelled to rush in and fill up every available time slot with extraneous activities.... many of which ,as we shall eventually discover,  will distract us from our real priorities...

For those who count holiday gifting as a serious annual priority, it's probably time to ponder over the possible options. I baked something for my colleagues last Christmas but I honestly cannot recall what I had baked for them.... I will need to remember to check with them when I get into the office next week...  goes to show how much I value the tradition of gifting.
This is the first time I am working with chocolates and am hoping to churn out something decent enough to be given out as Christmas treats.

Chocolate truffles do not require tempering so that really makes it the entry level chocolate assignment for anyone who is looking to create their own chocolate treats. I found this recipe in Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme. What intrigued me was the incorporation of Sichuan Pepper in the recipe. As the recipe accurately points out, Sichuan pepper has more flavour than burn, more sweetness than heat, so what you get from this truffle is a very mild exotic zing at the tip of the tongue. A taste more suited to one with a more adventurous palate but I do find myself enjoying it.

For those who are keen to try this recipe, take advantage of the 20% discount on all Valrhona chocolates at Shermay's Cooking School now until the end of this month.


Recipe :

260g         Bittersweet Chocolate, preferably Valrhona Caraibe.
250g         Heavy cream
2tbsp        Sichuan pepper, crushed.
50g          Unsalted butter, at room temperature. Cut into 4 pieces.
Dutch processed cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona for dusting.

Method :
1. Please chocolate in a heat proof bowl and set aside.
2. Place cream and crushed sichuan pepper in a heavy saucepan and heat to boil. Remove from heat and cover tightly with a plastic wrap and let the cream rest for 10 mins to infuse it with the pepper.
3. Pour the cream through a strainer. Return the strained cream to the saucepan. Add in 1/3 of the pepper in the strainer and throw out the rest. Heat up cream to boil again.
4. Strain the cream into the chocolate. Slowly stir the cream into the chocolate until well mixed.
5. Rest the hot mixture for 1 minute. Add in butter one piece at a time and stir until fully incorporated.
6. Cool (5) in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Cover chocolate with a plastic wrap and chill for 3 hours.
7. Shape the chocolate ganache into balls using a a spoon. (Shape does not need to be a perfect round)
8. Place (7) into a shallow tray with cocoa powder and coat each truffle with cocoa powder.

Bourke Street Bakery's Chocolate Sour Cherry Cookies

If ever there was a fraternity devoted to cookie lovers, it would most likely be split into 2 sects, the chewy diehards and the crispy advocates.  I, for one, belong to the latter union. I have never quite learnt to appreciate the fudgy texture that the chewy cookie lovers so swoon over. I like my biscuits/cookies light and crisp...as exemplified by the sables featured here and here.

Having said that, I do wish to pay tribute to Bourke Street Bakery's Chocolate Sour Cherry Cookies.  These are super-rich chocolate biscuits that when baked to perfection, is crisp on the outside and fudge-like in the the center - a clever recipe that not only addresses the needs of both sections of the fraternity but hold all chocolate lovers captive as well.

An easy recipe to follow, this has been tried by many. Ellie of Almost Bourdain/ Gourmand Recipe had first strongly recommended me to try this when I was gripped by the Bourke Street Bakery fever a while ago.


A great basic recipe, the flavours can be tweaked by modifying the level of bitterness in the dark chocolate, injecting more tartness with tangy fruits or imparting textural crunch with nuts. Absolutely delicious eaten on its own, I was equally besotted when I dunked it in milk. A cookie and a glass of milk - I get enough energy pow for the whole morning!


Recipe : (Adapted from here )

235g           Dark Chocolate
150g           Plain flour
40g             Unsweetened cocoa powder
1.5 tsp         Baking soda
1/2 tsp         Salt
100g           Unsalted butter softened
240g           Soft brown sugar
2                 Eggs
85g             Dried sour cherries

Method:
1. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Melt chocolate over a ban marie.
2. Set oven to 165C.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and creamy.
4. Add in eggs one at a time until well mixed.
5. Add in (1) in 3 additions, mixing well after every addition.
6. Add in melted chocolate.
7. Fold in sour cherries.
8. The batter will be quite sticky. Refrigerate for 10mins and shape the batter with ice-cream scoop or spoon onto a cookie baking sheet - ensuring enough spacing between cookie for spreading.
9. Bake at 165C for 15-20 mins until risen and quite cracked on top. Cool on the trays and eat. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 days.

Sweet Soft Bun Roll With Chocolate Ganache

As much as my blog is my own indulgent space and that I can choose to be cavalier about it if I wanted to, I do find myself wanting to believe that as I continue to leave little toe prints in the blogosphere, I am bettering myself at the same time. I have learnt heaps since I have started blogging, and have been inspired by many great fellow bloggers who have displayed such mind boggling dedication in the ways they manage their own spaces.

Dedication, passion and discipline play vital roles in what we do in our life everyday. They are, for example, the fuel that powered my mother's ability to stay at home full time to bring up her 3 children without any dosmetic help. Whether it was a chore or a joy, she had played her role remarkably well and I know, because we are the results of her effort.

I have to believe that, if my mother can juggle her roles so well, then surely  I, as her daugher, should  be able to do so with something as trivial as blogging and working...  

I have been traveling for a week now and am glad that I am now back in Hong Kong where I have free access to Blogger. Once I run back into Mainland China tomorrow, I can forget about even leaving a comment on blogger. I had prepared 3 dishes before I left home to be posted while I am on the road - a silent commitment I have made to myself to be consistent and dedicated.

When I had decided to make this chocolate soft roll, I had thought that it would be easy for I already had the full-bodied chocolate ganache from my chocolate macarons sitting in my fridge. However, little had I known that shaping the dough into a cone shape could be more tricky than I had thought.

Rolling out the bread dough into long strings without them breaking apart requires the dough to be perfectly proofed and the seams of each piece of dough well tucked. The final shaped buns did not manifest the tapering snail-shell appearance I was hoping for. The buns made from my original sweet soft buns was soft and fluffy. Filled with the full bodied chocolate ganache, it was difficult to stop at one bun. So till I get back from my travels to share more goodies, I leave you with these chocolatey tea time treats.

Recipe :

Sweet Soft Buns Recipe here.

Dark Chocolate Ganache Recipe here.

Method:

1. After the first proofing (40mins), divide the dough into 40g portion.

2. Let the portioned dough proof for 10 mins.

3. On a lightly floured board, shape each piece of dough into an oval football shape.

4. Flatten (3) with the palm of the hand, fold the dough into half, length wise. Tuck in the seam to close it.

5. Roll (4) on a lightly floured board.into a long noodle like string until it is about 40cm long.

6. Twirl (5) round a cornette mold and let the dough proof again for another 40mins.

7. Brush with egg wash and bake for 12-15 mins at 175C until golden brown.

8. Remove from oven, cool down completely, demold and pipe in Dark Chocolate Ganache.

Pierre Herme's Macaron au Chocolate Amer

A while back, I was on a roll with Pierre Herme's sables. I was so entrenched in those recipes that for a while I thought I had found a new defining moment for myself.  You've probably noticed that I am currently in the mood for macarons and what better way to merge the two obsessions than to experiment with  the Macaron Master's recipes?

Pierre Herme's macarons have to be the most celebrated in the pastry world. My first encounter with the Macaron was at Laduree when I was in Paris for the first time almost 10 years ago. At that time, I was staying at a hotel at Champs Elysees and I was ignorant about Laduree's fame. I ventured in one Sunday morning because it was a pretty restaurant/ cafe and I wanted to have breakfast.  I recall being overwhelmed by the queue and the crowd hovering over the pastry counter. It was then that I spotted these colourful, gem-like pastries.  I  joined the queue and bought a gift box of macarons which I brought back to the office as souvenirs.

When I returned to Paris again 2 years ago, I could have gone to Pierre Herme's Patisserie, but strangely, I didn't feel compelled to do so. Perhaps it was because I had already seen his creations in Tokyo or perhaps I had other higher priorities like shopping for cookware at E.Dehillerin...

Whatever it is, it has not stopped me from lusting after his coveted cookbook Macarons. Available only in French now, I am waiting fervently for the English translation. In the mean time, I have tried to search for others who may have baked from the book. 2 recipes stood out, one is a Ketchup Macaron recipe which is too unorthodox for me. The other is this Macaron au Chocolate Amer which incorporates melted 100% Chocolate.  Chocolate has the infamous reputation of destabilising meringue and up till now, I have never quite come across any recipe that calls for the use of melted chocolate in a macaron biscuit or even a chocolate chiffon ( I have only come across one recipe). Cocoa powder is most commonly used and a good quality cocoa powder like Valrhona will give a deep rich chocolate hue to the pastry.


I did not succeed during my first attempt because I had been too confident and had gone ahead to bake it at 155C like I have done before.  The shell of the macaron,  though looked smooth and lovely in the oven turned out to be quite soft. Upon cooling, this immediately turned all puny and wrinkled.  Luckily, with macarons, I have cultivated the habit of piping a few macarons on 2 small sheets for test baking. This allows me to check for proper drying which can be reflected in the proper development of the macaron feet.
I reverted back to the instructions in the recipe which called for baking the macarons at 180C with fan mode.

This time round, the macarons turned out well. The shell is not as crisp as the last 2 recipes but  slowly crystalised over time to yield a very delicate thin shell with a sponge-like chewy center- most fascinating.
The beauty of this recipe is that the 100% Cocoa is so bitter,  it actually neutralizes the sweetness of the meringue quite effectively.


Recipe : (from here) 
Shell
150g       Almond Meal
150g       Icing Sugar

55g       Egg White A
2g         Red colouring

150g       Castor Sugar
2.5 tbsp   Water

55g         Egg White

60g         100% Dark Chocolate

Ganache Filling

180g       70% Dark Chocolate
20g         100% Dark Chocolate
200g       Cream
70g         Butter (room temperature)

Method :
To make the shells

Line 2-3 baking sheets with baking parchment. Mark the parchment with circles 1½in/3.8mm wide (I drew around a piping nozzle of the correct diameter), spacing them ¾in/2cm apart. Turn the paper over (the circles should show through).

Sift the icing sugar and ground almonds (you’ll need a fairly wide mesh sieve for this) into a large bowl.

Chop the 100% cocoa solids chocolate and put it in a bowl over a pan of just-simmering water, leaving it to melt and reach a temperature of 122F/50C.

Divide the egg whites into two equal portions.

Mix the food colouring into one portion and add to the bowl with the icing sugar and almonds (no need to mix it).

Put the mineral water in a small pan and add the granulated sugar. Heat gently until the sugar dissolves, then boil the syrup using a thermometer to track its temperature.

Meanwhile, put the other half of the egg whites in a bowl and plug in the electric beaters. When the syrup reaches 240F/115C, begin to beat the second quantity of egg whites to soft peaks.

Once the syrup reaches 244F/118C, pour it slowly on to the whites, beating all the time. Keep beating until the mixture returns to a soft peak consistency and has cooled to 122F/50C. (This egg white-syrup mousse is what chefs call an Italian meringue.)

Add the beaten egg whites to the bowl with the icing sugar and almonds.

Mix, then add the melted chocolate. Once it is incorporated, beat the mixture hard with a wooden spoon for a minute or so, without trying to incorporate more air.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a ³/8in/10mm plain tip. (Depending on the size of your piping bag, you’ll probably need to do this in three or four batches.)

Pipe the mixture onto baking sheets lined with the parchment paper marked with circles. Using a sifter, sprinkle lightly with powdered cocoa (you’re aiming for a few freckles, not an even dusting).

Tap the baking sheets on a work surface covered with kitchen towel.

Let the shells stand for half an hour, until a skin forms on the surface. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F/180C/gas mark 4.

Slide the baking sheets into the preheated oven. Bake for 12 minutes, quickly opening and shutting the oven door twice during the cooking time to let the steam escape.

Take the baking sheets out of the oven. Slide the sheets of parchment paper with shells onto a work surface and leave to cool.

To make the ganache

Cut the butter into pieces.

Put the chocolate into a bowl. Boil the cream and pour about a third at a time onto the chopped chocolate, mixing each time. The mixture will separate and look grainy, but keep mixing and it will come together.

Allow the chocolate mixture to cool to 122F/50C.

Add the chopped butter and beat until smooth.

Pour into a wide dish. Press clingfilm onto the surface of the ganache and refrigerate until thick enough to pipe.

To assemble the macarons

Spoon the ganache into a pastry bag fitted with a ³/?in/10mm plain tip. Pipe a generous mound onto a shell, then top with another shell, twisting lightly so that the filling spreads and bulges enticingly.

Store covered in the fridge for at least 24 hours to allow the inside of the macaron shells to soften.

Bring back to room temperature before eating.

Pierre Herme's Vienesse Chocolate Sables - Chocolate Cookies Simple & Sophisticated

I first started to read about Pierre Herme when I went  through my macaron obsession phase many years ago. That was the time when macarons were still not readily available in Singapore - before Bakerzinn and Canele Patisserie became the rave of the town. It was a time when very few would attempt to bake macarons at home and the secrets/techniques of baking macarons were more elusive. How a few short years have changed everything. Now, it seems like everyone I know can make a macaron - even my order fulfillment colleague who does not bake!

We undoubtedly have to thank Pierre Herme for the Macaron Revolution. Dubbed as 'The Picasso of Pastry' , PH leads the new trends in the pastry world. May it be unusual flavour combinations in macarons or brilliant flavour pairings such as the Rose/Lychee/Raspberry in the Ispahan, Pierre Herme never fails to awe and inspire.


I was flipping through his Chocolate Desserts (a collaboration with Dorie Greenspan) to find something to bake when this simple recipe caught my eyes. Contrary to what many think, a pastry guru's recipes need not  necessarily be difficult and tedious. The Vienesse Chocolate Sable must be the most easy cookie recipe I have come across and till now, 24 hours after I have finished baking and tasting it, I still find it hard to believe that such a simple recipe could have yielded something so sophisticated and so good!

Light as air to the core, the cookie grazes the palate like delicate lace before spreading out like sand. The texture is sensational, the rich chocolatey airiness - addictive.

You most likely would have all the ingredients in the pantry. I urge you to whip this up and experience it for yourself.


Recipe : (From Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme, written by Dorie Greenpan)
Ingredients
260g           All purpose flour
30g             Dutch processed cocoa powder
250g           Butter
100g           Powder sugar, sifted
Pinch          Salt
3 tbsp         Egg white

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Whisk together, flour and cocoa powder and set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk butter until creamy. To ensure that the recipe succeeds, the butter needs to be very soft. (not a difficult thing for us in Singapore)
4. Add in powder sugar and salt to butter and continue to whisk until light and creamy.
5. Whisk in egg white until it is well combined with butter cream.
6. Add in (2) and mix until well combined.
7. Spoon dough into a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe dough into W shaped cookies. (mine are still not as pretty - needs practice!)
8. Bake cookies at 180C for 10-12 mins - no more. The cookies will be delicate - transfer carefully into cookie jar after cooled.

Trying To Create The Lana Chocolate Cake

First and foremost, my apologies for the uninspiring photos. We had a flash flood inducing downpour this afternoon complete with menacingly dark sky and heart stopping thunderous sound effects...Dismal lighting conditions kill all traces of enthusiasm.

Those who have grown up in Singapore would probably know about the famous Lana Chocolate Fudge cake. For the longest time, the Lana Chocolate Cake has been considered THE ULTIMATE chocolate cake in Singapore. This was before more modern and popular chocolate cake outlets like Awfully Chocolate started their business. Both establishments sell their signature chocolate cakes only in the big formats. You can't get just a slice - you will have to buy the whole 6" or 8" cake. These are simple no frill chocolate cakes drenched in dark chocolate fudge. I was attending Joycelyn's Ultimate Chocolate Fudge Cake class last weekend when I was reminded of  the old time favourite Lana Cake. ( For those who are curious about the Lana Cake, please see this write up by Indulgence after Workout)
The hands on class provided us with a recipe pack with different fudge frosting options for the cake. However, as we had to frost our cake almost immediately after baking it, we were not able to work with a butter cream or chocolate ganache frosting. (the cake would have been too warm and the frosting would have runneth over) The hands on exercise had us working with a Chocolate icing sugar cream frosting. I chose to skip that as I knew it would have been too sweet for my palate. Instead, I lugged back the plain chocolate cake and decided that I would try to prepare my own frosting at home.

It was then, that I started wondering about Lana's mysterious chocolate frosting. A little springy with a jello like texture, this had become its signature. After a quick search on line, I found an interesting lead for the recipe here. Thickened with corn flour and solidified with gelatine, the formula looks promising. The recipe had called for some strange chocolate coating. I simply replaced that with melted dark chocolate.

I made the mistake of not cooling the fudge enough before frosting and hence had a difficult time applying it over the cake. Joycelyn's chocolate cake was definitely more moist and fluffy compared to Lana's. The frosting was delicious but I am still not too sure if it has quite the same jello-like texture. 

I will probably continue to search for a gelatine based fudge and experiment again with different flavours such as banana or raspberry jelly....

I shall not publish Joycelyn's recipes but if you are interested, I would suggest that you use this recipe as a starting point.



For recipe please refer to this site.

Easy Cake Pops - From Scratch

Cake pops are not common in this part of the world. I may be wrong, but from what I have come to understand from my limited surfing experience in the blogosphere, it was Angie of Bakerella who had almost single handedly created the trend around these portable, pretty little treats. Bakerella's creation are adorable and delightful - they evoke sweet childhood lollipop memories and have the power to make the most apathetic adult squeal 'So CUUUTE!!'. These clever little sweets have become so popular that even Starbucks in the US are selling them now. Perhaps, soon, very soon... we will get to see them here at our local Starbucks stores too..

When I learnt that Jeroxie's theme for the International Incident Party Event this month is Cake Pops, I thought it would be a perfect excuse to try my hand at making them. (Only, I have just found out that I have missed the dateline.. I never seem to be good at this. Last month, I failed to read the instructions carefully and published my article too early. This month, assuming the dateline is the same, I have only now discovered that the event was closed yesterday.... sigh)

Most of the recipes published in food blogs seem to use Cake premixes and canned frosting. I prefer to attempt this from scratch. The recipe I have chosen is the very easy Martha Stewart One Bowl Chocolate cupcake. Reason being, it is simple, moist and fine crumbed. Cream cheese frosting is not difficult to make as demonstrated in my Peter Rabbit Carrot Cupcake. I took the easy approach towards dressing up the pops. Not one to fiddle with cartoon characters or other cutesy shapes, I chose a very safe and adult approach - coating them with Valhorna Bittersweet chocolate - which was easier than I had expected.


The biggest challenge, to my chagrin, was photographing these cake pops. I was trying to figure out some way to get them to stand up stylishly for the photos and had been exhausting all the bric bracs in my cabinet... I have never had such a messy photo shooting session ever and had to spend a good hour cleaning up afterwards.

So here, I am, late for the party but as Xiaolu of 6 Bittersweets had quite sweetly put it - I can just be fashionably late for the party... I only hope these are fashionable enough!

Please hop on over to Jeroxie's website to check out the other cake pop ideas at the party!



Recipe : (From Martha Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook)

1 1/2 cups              all-purpose flour
3/4 cups                 unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup               sugar
1 1/2 tsp                baking soda
3/4 tsp                   baking powder
3/4 tsp                   salt
2                           large eggs
3/4 cup                 butter milk
3 tbsp                   vegetable oil
1tsp                      vanilla extract
3/4 cups               warm water

Cream Cheese Frosting (refer to here)

Embellishment : melted semi sweet chocolate, chopped roastd peanuts, cocoa powder, tinted melted white chocolate

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Line a cake pan with parchment paper.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocao, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Reduce speed to low. Add eggs, milk, oil, extract and water.
4. Mix well until smooth. Pour into cake pan and bake for 20-30mins or until an inserted testing skewer comes out clean.
5. Cool down the cake completely.

Assembly & Embellishment :
1. Crumble the cake into a mixing bowl. Add cream cheese frosting to the cake crumbs and mix well. ( I use 80g of frosting to bind 300g of cake crumbs)
2. Bind the cake crumbs into little balls. Each of my ball weighs about 30g.
3. Place the balls in the freezer for about 15 mins. (important! This will make it easy when you coat the balls with chocolate)
4. First dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate.(see tutorial here)
5. Push the lollipop stick into the cake balls. Dip the cake pop into the melted chocolate to coat the cake ball. Tap off excess coating.
6. Let it dry a little before coating it with peanuts or cocoa powder. Stand the pops in a styrofoam slab and leave it in the fridge.