Rose Cupcakes with Light Raspberry Cream and Raspberry Jam Filling

 I've been longing to bake rose flavoured desserts for the longest time, but I couldn't find anyplace in Korea that sells rosewater. So when I was in Australia, a bottle of rosewater was at the top of my to buy list. It was around 2005 when I started to hear about baking with rose flavour. I was really hesitant in trying or tasting it at first because the thought of flowery food doesn't appeal to me at all. I eventually had my first glimpse of how beautiful rose flavour tasted like around 2006; it was during a buffet dinner with my family, and part of their dessert spread was a rose flavoured ice cream. I really contemplated long and hard if I would have a taste or not. Alas I did, and I was surprised on how good rose actually tasted like. So that was that.

2009 was when I officially had my love affair with rose. It was my sister J who was behind it all; she was raving about Laduree's Ispahan so much that she even bought me one as a surprise for me to indulge. My oh my, she was right! It completely blew me away. Pierre Herme's such a genius for creating a perfect harmony between rose, raspberry and lychee.

"So why rose cupcakes as the first rose dessert project?", you might wonder. Well it's simple. When I was in Australia, my Aunt R's neighbour J lent me her Planet Cake Cupcakes book by Paris Cutler, and that book inspired me enormously. There was a design in the book that I absolutely adore; it was the babies in animal suits design. I was so amused by the design that I swiftly decided to make them as soon as I got the chance. So I hit two birds with one stone... Bake with rosewater: done! Make the cute babies in animal suits: done!

Babies in Animal Suits from Planet Cake Cupcakes by Paris Cutler

It took me a day and a half to finish this project. Why? Number one, because I had to alternately do household duties and baking. Number two, I only have primary coloured food colouring. It was hard work mixing colours and getting to the right shade. Good thing my sister J was there to help me with the colour development stage! I also decided to cover the entire cupcake with fondant instead of just covering the top, which wasn't a good idea. It was too much of a fondant for a cup-sized cake. Note to self: follow what the book says! Everyone at home found the babies too cute to eat, so I got a knife and sliced each baby in half. I know it sounds brutal, but there's a lovely blush of cake that's waiting to be admired too!

I also decided to make my own design for the rose cupcakes. I wanted something that is more 'rose related'. With much thinking, I ended up going for bugs theme. It's not as adorable as the babies, but it's my own design, so I'm absolutely delighted by them too.

This project required a lot of manual labour, but was all well worth it. It made everyone at home giddy by just looking at the cuteness that was all over the cupcakes. At the same time, everyone merrily tucked in into the scrumptious rose cupcakes.

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Fondant Cake - Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Filling

I got a good news from my friend recently; she's going to tie the knot this December! Oh, I could see her eyes glow as she was telling me the news over coffee. I was so made up for her, so I decided to make a cake for her (she does love her sweets) to send my best wishes.

This cake is a 2 layered 5 inch chocolate butter cake with chocolate buttercream filling. For the chocolate cake itself, I made use of a third of my Lemon Cake recipe. Then to change it into chocolate cake, I substituted 28% of the amount of flour with cocoa powder, and scraped off all the lemon components in the recipe. As for the buttercream, I used a third of my Swiss Buttercream recipe, and simply added 30g of melted chocolate. You got to make sure though that the melted chocolate is not to hot that it could melt the buttercream, but at the same time not so cool that when added to the buttercream, it would just solidify into tiny clumps.

For the fondant, I used a third of my Marshmallow Fondant recipe. I actually picked out pink marshmallows for this one to give my fondant an instant light pink hue.

So another fondant project, another 'over the moon' amateur fondant cake decorator! I'm really getting so enthused with this; I'm even thinking of buying myself some playdough to practice molding! 

Bisous bisou,

Charlotte

Skoda Fabia Advert - Humongous Car Cake!

I just want to share this extremely amazing car advert. I think this could be my favourite advertisement of all time. When you're feeling sad... you simply tune in to this wonderful ad, and then you won't feel so bad! Enjoy! :)

Behind the scenes.

I hope that one day I could be part of a project like this!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Fondant Cake - Purple Yam Cake with Coconut Cream Filling

So I went into the realms of the artistic side of baking again... My 'July fondant cake project' has completely overwhelmed me; the satisfaction of finishing a work of art was addictive. I have been constantly gushing over my fondant cake for the past two months... I know, I know, self-praising! But hey, people who know me knows I'm very critical of myself, so self-complimenting is a rarity. So I think I have a free pass on being self-absorbed occasionally! Anyway, I've moved on. I've created my new obsession, my teacup cake project!

I have always been fascinated with teacups, or tea sets for that matter. So I took that as an inspiration for my cake. At first, I was being ambitious, and I was thinking of making a floral porcelain like teacup cake. But after some reality check, I settled on a simple casual teacup design.

As for the inspiration of the cake itself, it came from my recent trip from the Philippines. One of my favourite cakes is ube cake (purple yam cake), so when I was back home, I purchased a bottle of purple yam flavouring. The filling, I chose coconut cream filling simply because coconut compliments purple yam really well.

Now for the baking side of this post, you'll need:

• Three inch round purple yam cake; I used a third of the Lemon Cake recipe, and took out all the lemon related ingredients, then replaced it with about 1/2 tsp purple yam flavouring.


• Coconut cream filling; I made pastry cream, but used coconut milk instead of milk.


• Swiss buttercream.

For a quick run through on the cake assembly (Detailed version --> 'July fondant cake project'):

1. Put the filling in between layers of the cake. Make sure to pipe the perimeter of the cake with buttercream as a guide of the thickness of your filling, and as a protection to stop the filling oozing out of the cake.


2. Spread the filling, and make sure it's level with the buttercream guide.


3. Now you have your filled cakes. I suggest chilling the cake for at least 30 minutes to make the whole cake less delicate, but if you're saving time you can skip the chilling part.


4. Carve the cake to your desired shape; in my case teacup.


5. Coat the cake with a thin layer of buttercream; this will help keep the crumbs intact (hence, crumb coating). Chill the cake until the buttercream doesn't smudge on your fingers when touched; maybe around 30 minutes.


6. Do the second coating of buttercream. This time thicker, and the purpose is to shape the cake as perfect as you can, so as to make a nice smooth silhouette once the fondant is draped over. Make sure to chill the cake until the buttercream is set before covering with fondant.

So cake is now done. Time to decorate! I used Marshmallow Fondant for decorating for two reasons. First, it's hard to find the ingredients to make a proper fondant here in Korea; second, I think marshmallow fondant has a nicer taste compared to a proper fondant. Decorating with fondant is almost like playing with playdough. Now I wasn't exactly good with sculpting playdough when I was a kid, so fondant cake decorating isn't exactly an easy task for me. However, I really like playing with fondant; just too bad I don't have many people to feed so I can't really attempt to make three tiers of cakes.

For now, I'm happy with making mini fondant projects. Plus, I have a long long way to go, and loads of improvement to do. I know my teacup cake is not the most polished art, but for an amateur starter, I'm happy with what I've created!

Now I have to consider if I'm going to do more fondant cakes in the near future, because if I am, I have to start thinking of investing on cake decorating tools. Trust me, I don't have any sorts of cake decorating tools in making this project as well as my first fondant cake project; I just made use of whatever I have in my tiny cozy kitchen.

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte