After working all day in the bakery today..went for dinner with my parents and family friends and for some reason while we were driving home i really wanted to make pandan cake! really miss it and you can't really find good pandan cake here... i tried the T&T kind before and i was so disappointed on the amount of artificial pandan flavour they put in it...it tasted horrible.. so today i was determined to make some good pandan cake..from the real pandan leaves!
So i started off first by blending around 10 or so pandan leaves with my inversion blended with a little bit of water to get it started..you can't get it fresh here so you have to buy frozen pandan leaves....it still has some aroma but of course not as good as the real stuff back in Asian... anyways i love the inversion blender by they way (thanks to my awesome friends who got it for me last birthday).. i use it for everything smoothies to soups..whipping cream..and it even came with a food processor attachment.. lol its the Kitchen Aid stainless steel one! i highly recommend it.
anyways back to the sponge cake...so you make like a pulpy slurry of pandan leaves and water..and then you squeeze out the juice... so i thought i could use my usual sponge cake recipe from work and add in the pandan water instead of evaporated milk... then instead of using so many egg yolks i was like ehh ill just use the whole egg..cuz i had egg whites already from a carton... and was lazy to crack and separate all the eggs hahhaha that was probably the first bad idea... i don't even know if you can use those egg whites from a carton in baking..but i did anyways.. in the ingredients it just says egg whites.... then i used self raising flour instead of cake flour... i don't know if that was a bad idea too... then... after i had my batter ready i noticed i forgot to pre heat the oven!... ok already did three questionable things...but i was like meh should be fine.. while it was baking it looked gorgeous was browning nicely and it was risen ..it looked amazing....
4th mistake i opened the oven to check if it was done when for sure it wasn't yet... i was just too anxious... left and came back and saw that the cake sank a little.. it was still looks good... 5th mistake.. didn't really know how long it should take... so after 20mins or so i took it out.. poked it with a cake tester and nothing stuck so thought it must be done.. so i just let it sit to cool in the pan... btw i was using a bunt pan...6th mistake don't think bunt pans are a good choice? i don't really know... then i didn't turn it upside down to cool...everyone knows that when you cook sponge cakes you should turn them upside down.. i don't know why i didnt do it.... soo in the end my pandan cake sank.. it takes like pandan kueh.. lol not pandan cake..its like an eggy pandan kueh... it tastes really good but just not what i wanted!
this shows that even ppl who bake a lot have their days... not everything always turns out the way you want it...and i have so much respect for those aunties that always hang out with my parents for karoke parties that make amazing sponge cakes all the time
after this cake fail i went online to check out other pandan cakes ppl made and came across this awesome blog that will be following now.. so cool that she is from south east asia!!
http://pickyin.blogspot.com/2011/03/pandan-chiffon-cake.html
man i know what i did wrong... i just under cooked it ...cuz i just tried this other part i made in a smaller pan cuz it didnt fit all in one bunt pan.. and it tastes light and fluffy! sigh
Saturday 28 May 2011
Thursday 19 May 2011
Passion & the Food Industry
"if you don't have passion then what's the point"
sometimes I loose heart and really question having a career in the food industry and doing the whole cake thing ..is this really a passion of mine?.. or do i just do it cuz i have experience and am not bad at it?
remember those questionnaires back in CAPP where you write down where you see yourself next year, five years, ten years from now? ..I wish I knew where that was to see what I wrote down before LOL.. cuz if you asked me now where i see my self next year..or 5.. or 10 years from now.. i have no idea!
Some possibilities:
Go to VCC for pastry arts
Seminary School
Find a Job
Do a Masters
Go learn Chinese in Asia
Get married LOL
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11 (NIV)
sometimes I loose heart and really question having a career in the food industry and doing the whole cake thing ..is this really a passion of mine?.. or do i just do it cuz i have experience and am not bad at it?
remember those questionnaires back in CAPP where you write down where you see yourself next year, five years, ten years from now? ..I wish I knew where that was to see what I wrote down before LOL.. cuz if you asked me now where i see my self next year..or 5.. or 10 years from now.. i have no idea!
Some possibilities:
Go to VCC for pastry arts
Seminary School
Find a Job
Do a Masters
Go learn Chinese in Asia
Get married LOL
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11 (NIV)
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Helen & Keith's Wedding Cake
Over the past weekend I was busy working on Helen and Keith's wedding cake.
It's a chocolate and vanilla layer cake with butter cream and fondant.
The fondant this time actually wasn't the hardest part.. it was assembling and making the cake inside.. i ran into so minor details along the way.. for example running out of oil while i was making then cake! i totally for got to make sure I had enough at home .. that was dumb cuz i already whipped up a batch of egg whites and it had to just wait there..and by the time i got the oil for the rest of the batter those egg whites where flat....and was also having some baking issues lol..wedding cake with one oven isn't so smart.. all in all though i think it worked out...learned a lot from this cake! Thanks Poli for coming over to help me with the fondant...made cutting circles out a lot funner!..At first i put flowers on the top as a topper because wasn't sure if Helen got toppers made...but then found out before the ceremony that she did and we replaced the flowers with those really cute cats! they matched perfectly with the cakes colours....anways i never did get to try the cake though cuz my parents had to leave the wedding already... i hope it tasted as good at it looks! ... lol more than 60 eggs, tons sugar, tons of butter..... in the end i wanted to weight the cake to see how much it weighed cuz it was pretty heavy ..was like 25lbs! hehehe... Praise God for such a beautiful wedding! Congratulations Helen and Keith God Bless <3
It's a chocolate and vanilla layer cake with butter cream and fondant.
The fondant this time actually wasn't the hardest part.. it was assembling and making the cake inside.. i ran into so minor details along the way.. for example running out of oil while i was making then cake! i totally for got to make sure I had enough at home .. that was dumb cuz i already whipped up a batch of egg whites and it had to just wait there..and by the time i got the oil for the rest of the batter those egg whites where flat....and was also having some baking issues lol..wedding cake with one oven isn't so smart.. all in all though i think it worked out...learned a lot from this cake! Thanks Poli for coming over to help me with the fondant...made cutting circles out a lot funner!..At first i put flowers on the top as a topper because wasn't sure if Helen got toppers made...but then found out before the ceremony that she did and we replaced the flowers with those really cute cats! they matched perfectly with the cakes colours....anways i never did get to try the cake though cuz my parents had to leave the wedding already... i hope it tasted as good at it looks! ... lol more than 60 eggs, tons sugar, tons of butter..... in the end i wanted to weight the cake to see how much it weighed cuz it was pretty heavy ..was like 25lbs! hehehe... Praise God for such a beautiful wedding! Congratulations Helen and Keith God Bless <3
more photos are on facebook
Monday 2 May 2011
The Cake Pop
I think that the cake pop is the next big thing in the cake world. A cake pop is simply a small piece of bite size cake that is dipped in chocolate on a stick like a lollipop. I've only heard of a cake pop last year because my friend Helen wanted to use them as wedding favours but now they are increasing in popularity since even Starbucks has started selling them! On the weekend I made some cake pops just because I was bored, done exams and wanted a small sweet snack..plus I had some cake scraps around and chocolate.. I wrapped this one up all nice to give to my friend Emily cuz it was her birthday but when I left the house I left it at home..so its sitting in my fridge right now! hahaha I don't know if it will make it to her now... Anyways a simple rectangular pop with a vanilla cake center, dark chocolate coating and a sprinkling of rainbow sprinkles at the bottom =)
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