Dessert time

After everything that's been happening lately, one needs sweetness in their life. I am always reminded of the quote, 'when life gives you lemon, make cake', just to say that when life gets bitter, turn it into something sweet. So, I have been baking. I love chocolate, macarons and enjoy making them. I'm also into gluten-free cake at the moment, making cakes using almond meal instead of flour. This gave a more nutty consistency to the cake, which I like a lot. I have just started my second semester, and oh does time flies. It's been such a constant ride since the beginning of the year, but experience drives learning and I am trying my best to sink all in. 

So here are a few of the desserts I have produced over the last couple of weeks. Note that I have been using lemons and of course, my favourite combo right now: matcha and red bean. I also made a dessert in a glass which I have always wanted to. Let's not forget chocolate brownies because they are simply pure decadence. 

Smiley face lemon macaron with lemon buttercream

Lemon cake with lemon drizzle and candied lemons

Poached mandarin and kumquat with spiced syrup and yogurt and nut

Chocolate brownie

'Lego' Birthday cake I made for my cousin

Matcha greentea swiss roll with red bean filling

Matcha macaron with red bean filling

Another sweet round

So much has happened lately as per usual. Sometimes it's hard to believe how I made it. Some days are plain tough and then it gets better. Some days are long and some are super short. It is what you make of each day that counts. I like to bake during the weekend because I have ample time. Sometimes all you need is something sweet to cheer you up.

I have been following Masterchef and I am always amazed by the level of knowledge, creativity and cooking skills shown by the contestants. It's incredible to be able to cope under the pressure and present beautiful dishes with this incredible level of plating. #platinggoals

This is a group of desserts I have prepped and been compiling over the few weeks. I shall be posting more soon. 

Matcha custard tart with red bean filling

Macaron with lemon buttercream

Pandan cake layered with coconut cream

Mini carrot apple and sultana muffins

Mini chocolate tart with mini macaron

Anzac cookie

Almond flourless carrot cake

Sweet/ Dessert Round

This week has been unpredictably busy and I have not been able to post regularly. I originally planned to catch up on a few posts, but will have to keep it simple. I have to learn to juggle with 'my list to do', especially when things seem to pop out of nowhere. Anyway, I still managed to cook and produce some sweet treats. I made taro balls, pandan cake and chocolate brownie - three of my favourites.

Nectarine peach mousse tart (Recipe)

We are officially in Summer and nectarine is in season. Following my frangipane tart, I had an urge to make another tart. However I was juggling among so many choices of flavour. My mind was set for a matcha white chocolate tart, but then after some 'googling' around, I came up with the idea of making a peach mousse tart. This mousse is fresh, light and summery, not overly sweet and slightly tart and goes perfectly with this sweet shortcrust pastry. To make it extra special, I covered it with sliced nectarines and some flaked almonds. After this success, I'm planning to make more of this fruity tart combination. We'll see.

Recipe:

Sweet shortcrust pastry 

250g AP flour
125g cold butter
1 egg
1-2 tbs of cold water

Pulse the flour and butter in a food processor,then  add egg and water until just combined. Do not overmix.
Transfer to a clingfilm wrap and then let dough rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Roll dough into your tart mould.
Blind bake in the oven at 180c with the pie weights for 15 minutes and another 15 minutes without. Cover the edges with aluminium foil to prevent the pastry from over-browning if necessary.

Let cool and start making the mousse.

Peach mousse
450g of sliced canned peaches
300 ml of heavy cream
3-4 tbs of sugar
1 packet of gelatine
Zest of one lemon
Juice of half a lemon

Drain the canned peaches, reserving the liquid. Blend the peaches in a food processor. Leave aside.
Whipped cold cream until soft peak, adding the sugar in the process. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Carefully fold in the peach puree into the cream. Taste and adjust for sweetness and tartness accordingly.
In a small pan, heat 5 tbs of the reserved peach syrup, until boiling point. Mix in the gelatine with 3 tbs of the syrup and then mix in the mousse. Reserve 2 tbs of syrup for the glaze.
Dollop on the cooled tart case.

Topping and glaze
3-4 nectarines
Juice of half lemon
1 tbs apricot jam
2 tbs of syrup, heated above
Handful of toasted flaked almonds (optional)


Thinly slice nectarines. Drizzle with lemon juice. Cover the entire surface of the tart with the nectarines.
Mix the apricot jam and syrup and then brush over the nectarines.
For an extra special touch, finish off with some flaked almonds.

Place in the fridge to set for about 2 hours or so. Enjoy!

Matcha Crepe Cake (Mille-Crepes cake)

I first came across this 'cake' from Eugenie Kitchen. She has made several variations and I finally made my mind to make one myself. This cake is essentially made from 15 to 30 crepes staked on top of each other with cream filling in between each crepe. I have seen many flavours including plain one with whipped cream, nutella ,strawberry, custard, matcha and oreos. 

I decided to make a green tea one. I used Eugenie's recipe but incorporated some matcha powder into the batter instead of the colouring. I also made some matcha cream for the filling. Simply whipped some cold cream with some sugar and some matcha powder. It was actually not hard to make, you just need some patience in making the crepes and layering each crepe with the cream filling. The result is quite worth the time though. 

I started with making the batter the previous night. The following day, I made the crepes. I got 15 layers for this one. I trimmed the edges, whipped the cream, then layered each of the crepe and finally cover the whole 'cake' with the matcha cream. For a finished look, I dusted some matcha powder on top. I took me roughly 1.5 hours. 

Matcha (random food items)

Matcha powder or more commonly known as the green tea powder is basically fine, powdered green tea leaves. The flavour is stronger than what you would normally taste from green tea. I love drinking green tea because of the aroma and the benefits that it encompasses. I can see lot of sweet snacks with matcha flavour nowadays. I used to look for the matcha powder in the Asian grocery stores and would not find them. Now I can see them almost everywhere, so there. I definitely think it has grown in popularity. I also saw green tea noodles in a magazine which you can find in Japan, which means that matcha is not only associated with sweet food.
So I have combined a few items green tea flavoured I bought and made.

These are items I did not make:

Green tea mousse cake with red bean

Green tea crepe cake

Hello Panda with matcha filling, they also have matcha pocky

Green tea icecream mochi, my favourite

Now, those are the sweets I made:

Green tea cookies

Lady fingers

Matcha cheat's icecream

Raw matcha brownie

I also made mini matcha cheesecake which must be somewhere in this blog already, but could not find the photo for some reason. Anyway these are ideas of what you can make using matcha.