Rosemary and Sun-dried Tomato Italian Focaccia ♡

After watching the contestants making ciabatta and bread knots in the bread episode of The Great British Bake Off , I wanted to bake some Italian bread too! Focaccia came to my mind as it is my favourite and the toppings can be varied :)

Rosemary and Sun-dried Tomato Italian Focaccia

makes 2 flatbreads

Ingredients

For the Foccacia

500g bread flour
15g salt
14g instant dry yeast
400ml cold water
40ml olive oil

For the herb olive oil mix

a few bunches of fresh Rosemary
125g sun-dried tomato, chopped
125g pitted olives, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, sliced
2 shallot, sliced
a pinch of sea salt
a pinch of pepper
olive oil

Methods

For the Foccacia

1. Put the bread flour, salt and dry yeast in a large mixing bowl, slowly add half of the water and olive oil, mix on slow speed with the dough hook attachment of the stand mixer. Gradually add the remaining water and olive oil, mix on medium-high speed for 5 mins.
2. Take the dough out onto an oiled work surface, knead and round the dough until the top is smooth.
3. Put the dough into a large lightly floured bowl and wrap the bowl with cling film.

Leave the dough to rise for about 1-2 hours until doubled in size.

4. Take the dough out and place it on a lightly oiled work surface, knock back the air bubble and fold over the dough.
5. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Divide the dough into two portions, roll each portion into a square/rectangle shape and place it in the tray. Cover and leave to prove for 1-2 hours.

For the herb olive oil mix

6. In the meantime, prepare the herb and olive oil mix by putting all the herbs and seasoning in a small saucepan, warm them up with the olive oil. Turn off the heat and let the oil mixture sit and infuse for 15 mins.

7. Preheat the oven to 200C.
8. Press some holes in the dough.

 Sprinkle the herb and olive oil mixture over the Focaccia.

9. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins until the Focaccia is golden-brown. Serve hot or cold :)

Totoro Cake

I am back! Hope you all are well and had a enjoyable long summer. Apart from holidays and family visiting, I havent stopped baking and cake decorating :) time has been spent on cake making than blogging, there are a lot to catchup! :)

My dear friend Emma loves the Japanese cartoon character Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro となりのトトロ, here was a cake I made for her birthday party a while ago, it was a mocha buttercream chocolate cake.

Our friend Wing took a funny picture of him having birthday candles on his head! lol :-D

Photo Credit: Wing Hym Liu

Topsy Turvy Mad Hatter Teapot and Teacups Cake ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

Sorry for not blogging recently, if you are following my instragram you know I got distracted :-P I will tell you more about it in the next posts :) This was the Topsy Turvy Mad Hatter Teapot and Teacups Cake I made for Regina's birthday a few weeks ago, I was very delighted to be able to make the teacups stand on the teapot :) which matched up with the birthday girl's "Mad Hatter" themed afternoon tea party.

 

The cake inside the teapot and bottom tier was red velvet with cream cheese buttercream filling,

the teacups and decorations were made of fondant/sugarpaste icing, all edible :)

 I love the teacups, I want to make mini ones next time as cupcake toppers :)

An afternoon tea birthday party with a Mad Hatter Teapot Cake - such a great idea Regina got! xxx

Engagement Party Dessert Table

Designing and making dessert table platters is so fun especially as there are several different elements, they look cute and pretty when they are put together. I was honoured to make this dessert table for my dear friend's engagement party. With coconut pineapple cake, mini spring fruit tarts, pistachio and chocolate macarons, passionfruit gelee and strawberry mousse with coconut panna cotta mini dessert pods. 

The coconut pineapple cake was decorated with some swirly rustic frosting and sugar peony. I like the mini dessert pods in different coloured layers :). The mini tarts were with creme patissiere filling which was the best match with the spring fruits and tarts. The most popular macarons were the pistachio and chocolate flavours. 

 Congratulations to the sweet couples, I am so happy about their engagement xxx

Mini Bunny Deco Japanese Sponge Roll Cake

This is another cute thing I wanted to try for a long time - to get smiley face on a roll cake! :-D this is really fun, you can also make hearts, polka dots or stripes pattern on it.

Mini Bunny Deco Japanese Soufflé Roll Cake

Ingredients:

For the Sponge Cake

4 egg

75g caster sugar

3 tablespoon milk 

60g plain flour

butter to grease

1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

a few drop of raspberry fruit juice or pink food colouring

For the Filling abd Decoration

200ml double cream

3 tablespoon icing sugar

200g diced mango cubes (or fruits of your choice)

50g modelling white chocolate

50g modelling pink strawberry chocolate

Equipment

large baking tray

electric mixer

parchment paper

2 small piping bags

Method:

Sponge Cake

1. First draw up a 24cm x 30cm rectangle template of the smiley faces pattern on a large parchment paper. Measure and divide it into 8 smaller rectangles of  6cm x 15cm. Draw the smiley faces in the middle of each small rectangles, flip the paper, fold along the outer line into a large paper tray, fold and staple the corners together so the batter will not leak out of the paper tray. Put this paper tray onto the baking tray. Set aside.

2.. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).

3. Beat eggs and sugar with wire whisk in a metal bowl over a pan of hot water. 

4. Beat the batter on high speed for about 7 minutes until white and fluffy with an electric mixer. 

5. Add milk and fold together until combined.

6. Sift in flour and whisk for about 3 minutes on low speed to incorporate.

7. Take out 1 tablespoon of the batter and mix with the cocoa powder to form a chocolate paste, this will be used to pipe the features of the smiley faces. Put the paste into a small piping bag.

8. Take out another  tablespoon of the batter and mix with the raspberry fruit juice or pink food colouring to form a pink paste, this will be used to pipe the cheeks of the smiley faces. Put the paste into a small piping bag.

9. Pipe the features and cheeks on the paper according to the template drawn in Step 1.

10. Bake for 2 mins and remove from oven. You can see the features are set.

11. Spread the remaining batter in the baking tray and drop the tray lightly on the counter to raise the air bubbles out of the batter.

12. Bake at 180C (350F) for 12 minutes till lightly brown. (cooking time may differ depend on the heat of the oven)

13. When it's done, drop the pan lightly to prevent shrinking. Remove the sponge cake from the pan by lifting the parchment paper and place it on a wire rack to cool. 

14. When it's cool enough, remove the parchment paper and place the sponge cake on the parchment paper with the brown side up.

Filling and Decoration

1. Roll out the modelling chocolate into 0.5 mm thickness, use an oval cookie/petal cutter to cut oval shaped bunny ears. If you dont have modelling chocolate, you can melt the white and pink chocolate, draw ovals as ears and put them into the fridge until set.

2. Whisk double cream and icing sugar on high speed in a bowl until it forms a soft peak.

3. Dice the fruits of your choice.

4. Cut the sponge into half along the template so we have 4 smiley faces in a vertical column.

5. Coat the surface of the sponge cake evenly with the cream. Line the fruits in the middle over the creamed surface.

4. Roll and wrap the cake in the parchment paper and put in a fridge for at least an hour to set. Repeat the same for the other half of the sponge cake.

5. Remove the parchment paper.

6. Cut them into individual portions.

7. Decorate with the chocolate ears and enjoy!

Chanel Handbag and Louboutin High Heels Shoe Cake

This was a Chanel Handbag and Louboutin Shoe Cake I made for Miss Sarah Ayo Rose's brithday a few weeks ago, it was such a great cake idea from Lade for the fashionista's "ever-so-fabulous" birthday party! They look so classy :) and they are all edible.

This time the Christian Louboubin high heel shoes are peep toe and are in pair, it was quite tricky to make both shoes identical :-O

The Chanel Handbag was a red velvet cake, the Louboutin Shoe Box was a carrot cake.

The gold chain of the handbag was trickiest to make!

Chanel Handbag was one of the design I wanted to make, I am so glad I got to make it for someone so special <3

Iced Easter Bunny, Chick and Egg Lemon Cookies

I have been looking forward to Easter to come, not just because of the long weekend, I wanted to use my Easter cookie cutters to make some cute bunny rabbit and chick cookies ღ

Iced Easter Bunny, Chick and Egg Cookies

Make about 12-15 large cookies, depends on how large your cookie cutters are.

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
125g sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp lime zest, optional (or lemon/orange zest or vanilla bean paste)
1 egg
250g flour, plus extra for dusting

Equipments

Easter Cookie cutters of your choice, I used Bunny, Chick and Egg Cookie Cutters
Writing Nozzles Wilton size #2

Methods

1. Cream butter, sugar, salt and zest together until pale and fluffy. Add egg and beat until combined.
2. Sift the flour in and mix until just combined.
3. Cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.
4. After chilling, roll the dough into 5mm thick on a lightly floured surface.
5. Use cookies cutters to cut the dough into your desired shapes, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet, chill them for 30min or until firm, this will prevent the cookies from spreading.

6. Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes. Cool the cookies with the baking tray on a wire rack.

Royal Icing

Ingredients

450g icing sugar
30g egg white/meringue powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
vanilla or lemon extract
150ml warm water
a few drop of yellow, pink, blue and lilac food colouring

Methods

1. Put icing sugar, egg white powder and cream of tartar in a large grease-free mixing bowl, beat with a hand-held electric mixer until well blended.
2. Add in water and extract gradually, beat on high speed until icing is very thick and glossy, about 5 minutes.
3. The soft-peak icing can be thickened with more icing sugar to pipe the outlines, and the runny icing can be loosened with a few drop of water to flood and fill the outlined shapes.
4. Keep icing covered in damped towel at all times when it is not being used.
5. Divide into a few bowls for different colour, add food coloring and mix well with a teaspoon.
6. Use a piping bag fitted with size #2 nozzle to pipe the soft-peak icing around edges of cookies and make designs.
7. Flood (fill) the cookies with the runny icing, allow the icing to dry completely before adding the next layer.
8. Draw the eyes with edible food colour pen, pipe some patterns with some royal icing, decorate with fondant/icing flowers.

All done! they are so cute :) The lemon extract in the icing taste like lemon drizzle :-d 

Have a Happy Easter Long Weekend : )

Giant Red Velvet Cupcake

This is a giant red velvet cupcake I made for Aleha's birthday a week ago, Sal let me choose the design, I picked this sweet rosy frosting with sugar rose to match with the birthday girl's personality :-D It was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, all decorations are edible : ) 

I am sure the birthday girl had a great time with her family xxx

Japanese Cherry blossom Sakura Mochi 桜餅 (easy recipe) ❀

Spring is here! There are a lot of cherry blossom across London's street and parks, the lovely pink bloom make me happy :) In Japan, people go picnic and celebrate under cherry blossom trees day and night, I would love to go there for the Hanami festivities! I am making these Japanese Cherry blossom Mochi to go with the season :)

Japanese Cherry blossom Sakura Mochi 桜餅 (easy recipe)

makes around 10 pieces

Ingredients

10 Cherry blossom sakura pickled leaves 塩漬け桜葉

10 Cherry blossom sakura pickle 桜の花の塩漬け

200g Red bean paste あんこ

240 ml Water

2 tablespoons Sugar

a few drop of Pink food coloring

115g Sweet glutinous rice もち米/道明寺粉

Method

1. Soak the glutinous rice, the sakura leaves and blossom seperately in cold water for 10 minutes to remove the salt.

2. Divide the Red bean paste into 10 parts and roll them in circles (I find it easier to scoop them out into little balls with 2 teaspoons), chill in the fridge for a while.

3. Put the Water and Sugar in a microwave container and microwave for 2 mins until the sugar is dissolved.

4. Drain the water from the Sweet glutinous rice. Add a few drop of Pink food coloring and the Sweet glutinous rice to the sugar water and mix well. 

5. Cover with cling film, cook in the microwave for 3 mins, take the container out and stir with a spatula. Cover and leave it to steam for 7 minutes.

6. Spread a full tablespoon of glutinous rice on the cling film, gently press in into a circle disc, place a red bean paste ball in the centre, wrap and shape into a ball.

7. Drain the water from the sakura leaves and blossom, gently pat dry them with a kitchen towel.

8. Remove cling film and wrap a sakura leaf around the mochi. Decorate with a blossom on the top and serve at room temperature :)

A few pictures of cherry blossom arcross London :)