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.

Sweet round

Macaron, chocolate brownie, vanilla ice cream and creme patissiere filled puff pastry. These are probably one of my favourite sweet treats. I mean you cannot go wrong with any of these. I have been trying to perfect my 'quenelle' shaping which is a really good technique to master for dessert plating- ice cream, sorbet or whipped cream. I do not always get it right, kind of still a tricky business for me. You need to place a spoon in hot water, tap excess water and roll the cream in an upward motion. The hot water will give a shiny finish. It demands lot of practice to get it right.

However, I am very pleased with my macarons. The ones in the photos are filled with buttermilk creme patissiere. This made the macaron soft with a slight bite from the crust- just the way I like it. What can I say about the brownies? Almond filled with a gooey centre. 

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.