'Kirby and Super Mario at the Beach' Strawberry and Dark Chocolate Macarons

I had fun creating this scene for a fan of Nintendo games 😊.

Kirby and Mario at the beach with some sea creatures! The rocks, sand and sea are all edible and not made out of fondant! 

I used the Swiss meringue method to make this batch of macarons along with another request. It was a whooping 12 colours from one batch of macaron batter! I worked till past midnight for this one, which isn't usual for me. You may refer to this post for the macaron shell recipe. Just to share some pictures of the process... 

Piping the coconut trees. It was a foolish move to make the trunk so long and thin 😅. But I found a way around working with such fragile structure. Not thinking straight when I was designing this 

Piping Super Mario. This was actually piped last so I was pretty tired by then 😴

Piping the sea creatures and Kirby in a float! 

Freshly baked shells along with the other set! 

Decorated macaron shells! I used black edible marker, some royal icing and white sprinkles with black royal icing in tbe middle (for some of the eyes). 

The macarons were filled with firm strawberry ganache or dark chocolate ganache. You may refer to this post for the dark chocolate ganache recipe. I was hard pressed for time so I didn't make the strawberry ganache by using homemade compote. I used freeze-dried strawberry powder instead, which still tastes great! But more costly. Using freeze-dried strawberry isnt what I usually do so I will share the recipe in this post. You may refer to the version using homemade jam/compote in this post.

Firm strawberry ganache (using freeze-dried strawberry powder) 

Ingredients:

66g White chocolate, chopped or chips or courveture

12g Unsalted butter 

18g Heavy cream

1/8 tsp Salt

8g Freeze-dried strawberry powder 

1/8 tsp Strawberry paste (optional) 

Steps:

1. Place white chocolate, butter, cream and salt into a microwave-safe or heatproof bowl, depending on how you are melting the mix. Use medium-low power at 10 sec bursts to melt or set heatproof bowl over pot of freshly boiled water without water touching the base of the bowl. Be careful not to overheat white chocolate. 

2. Add freeze-dried strawberry powder and mix well. Add strawberry paste and mix well. 

3. Chill in freezer for 1 to 2min and use spatula to mix well. Repeat freezing and whipping until buttercream-like. Transfer to piping bag to fill the macaron shells. 

Strawberry and dark chocolate ganache

Filling the macaron shells! 

If you google for how to make edible rocks, you probably come across recipes that call for white chocolate/candy melts, condensed milk and crushed oreo cookies. My version uses either 2 or 3 ingredients, depending on whether you are doing the conventional way or my short-cut method. 

I made some rocks by kneading in crushed oreo crumbs into white modelling chocolate but realised that you can do a shortcut of simply kneading white compound chocolate chips together using heat from your fingers, and then kneading in the crushed oreo. If you are interested in the firm white modelling chocolate recipe, you may refer to this post. I reduced the amount of corn syrup by 1 gram as I wanted it firm and easy enough to work with. Always use cling wrap as a barrier between your fingers and the chocolate, to make it easier to work with. 

Ta-dah! It looks so real but you can make this in less than a minute!
I made the pearl in a similar way. Just roll 2 white chocolate chips together to form a ball then brush on some silvery lustre dust.
I used lighly toasted ground almond for the sand and stiff royal icing for the sea.
I hope this creation brought a smile on your face as it did mine 😊.

With love,
Phay Shing

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Mushroom, Panda and Rainbow Chiffon Cakes

Which cake will you pick? =)

All made entirely of soft fluffy chiffon cake!!


I'm still on holiday, so this will be a short post, so sorry about it..

For those interested in making them:

Recipe for Rainbow Chiffon Cake has been shared in my first book Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes.

Recipe for cute Mushroom Chiffon Cake has been shared in my 2nd book Deco Chiffon Cakes.

Lollipops (on the rainbow chiffon cake) are also in Deco Chiffon Cakes book.

Recipe for Panda Chiffon Cake has been shared in my 3rd book Deco Chiffon Cake Basics.

Just so happens they are from my 3 different cookbooks.. I actually made these for filming a while back.

Have a blessed family time too!

With lots of love,
Susanne


PS: I just got a question --> Book availability are in the links in the book covers =). The books are available at all major bookstores or online on book depository and Amazon.

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Super Mario Chiffon Cake!

This is a Super Mario cake made purely out of vanilla and pandan chiffon cake for my dear Kaai Zenn who turned 5! Time really flies.. when I first met him he was just 2 and he has grown so much and so well! I missed those playdates very much. I really wasn't confident doing the Super Mario face so it was supposed to the Super Mario Mushroom cake until the Elmo chiffon cake came along when she asked again whether possible, and after having tried Elmo which also involves baking the nose in an egg, I finally thought to give it a try.

Faces are actually among the most difficult cakes and require the most work and attention to detail because even a slight shift in a feature may result in a different-looking person. The Super Mario face was carved and cut out from a vanilla chiffon cake baked in an oval glass bowl. Instead of piping the hat in like My Melody Chiffon Cake, this time round I tried cutting the Mario hat out from a separate cake (also baked in oval glass bowl) and then joining both together using melted marshmallows. The nose and ears were made from vanilla chiffon cake baked in two eggs: one for the nose, and two halves for each ear. His hair was cut from chiffon cake colored lightly with cocoa powder baked as a layer in a baking tray. His moustache and eye brows were colored with a combination of charcoal and cocoa powder similarly. The recipes for vanilla and cocoa chiffon cake can be found in my Super Mario Mushroom cake post (vanilla scale to 2 egg recipe and chocolate, 1 egg recipe). It may appear simple but is actually quite complicated to assemble. It took some trial and error to get the proportions right especially because it was 3D and I couldn't use a direct template to pipe.

The base is pandan chiffon cake colored naturally with pandan juice and pandan paste, and this is also a pinata cake in which I hid some surprises under the face!

Here's a side profile of the cake.. hope it can pass!

Happy birthday to dear KZ!!

With lots of love,
Susanne

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Super Mario Mushroom Neopolitan Chiffon Cake

This is a Super Mario Mushroom cake created specially for my jc friend's son and wife's birthday as mummy. He told me she really loves mushrooms so he really wanted to give her a special surprise (so super sweet ;)). The Mushroom cake is made completely out of chiffon cake and tri-flavoured (Neopolitan): strawberry (head), chocolate (base) and vanilla (patches).

I didn't have a round cake mold big enough for the head of the mushroom so guess what I baked the mushroom head in... a stainless steel mixing bowl! LOL. I'm serious, and it worked! The base was chocolate chiffon cake baked in a 15 cm chiffon tin, and the patches were cut-out from layer vanilla chiffon cake and glued on with melted marshmallows.

Strawberry-Vanilla Chiffon Cake (in 21 cm mixing bowl) – For head

4 egg yolks

27g sugar

53g vegetable/corn oil
47 ml boiled water
8 ml vanilla extract
72g cake flour
8g red yeast powder
1 tsp strawberry paste

drop of red food coloring (optional)

5 egg whites
56g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water, vanilla extract and strawberry paste.
3. Add in sieved flour and red yeast powder and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Scoop the batter into the bowl and gently tap the bowl on table to remove air bubbles.
7. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 30 min at 150°C and then 25 min at 140°C.
8. Leave to cool on cooling rack once out of the oven to cool.
9. Unmould after the cake is cool.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake (15 cm chiffon tin) – For base
2 egg yolks
14g sugar
26g vegetable oil
24 ml boiled water
5 ml vanilla extract
30g cake flour
10g cocoa powder
¼ tsp baking powder

3 egg whites
30g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour, cocoa and baking powder and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Scoop the batter into the chiffon tin and gently tap the tin on table to remove air bubbles
7. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C then 25 min at 150°C.
8. Invert immediately once out of the oven and leave to cool on cooling rack.
9. Unmould after the cake is cool.

Freshly unmoulded chocolate chiffon, with a colorful surprise!

Join the head and base chiffon cake together, and you get a mushroom! The base will be slightly compressed but it looks more mushroomy! And if you bake a good chiffon cake, the base should spring back once removed.

Vanilla Chiffon Cake (9-inch square tray) – for patches
1 egg yolks
7g sugar
13g vegetable oil
12 ml boiled water
2 ml vanilla extract
20g cake flour

1.5 egg white
10g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale yellow before stirring in oil, water and vanilla extract.
3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found.
4. Meringue: Beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till stiff peak, mixing in caster sugar in 2 additions.
5. Fold in the meringue gently into the batter 1/3 at a time.
6. Gently scoop and level the batter in a baking paper-lined 9-inch tray and gently tap tray on table to remove air bubbles.
7. Bake the cake for 15 min at 160°C.
8. Leave to cool on cooling rack once out of the oven to cool
9. Unmould after the cake is cool.

Decorate with white vanilla patches, and you get a Super Mushroom!

Thank God my friend and his wife shared that the cake was "delicious, yummy, light and spongy, and a dream come true!" (these were their exact words, thank God :)).

And here's the mushroom peeking at you! :D Baking for them was really joyful!

Happy birthday to Danzel and Jan!

With love,

Susanne

For more creative ideas from my chiffon cake cookbooks, check these out =)

For beginners: Deco Chiffon Cake Basics

More 3D designs: Book 2 Deco Chiffon Cakes 

More rainbow cakes: Book 1 Creative baking: Chiffon Cakes.

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