Grant's Birthday

I've been seriously behind on my posting... but at least now the numbers have been updated, look! I've doubled my second goal already... and argh! there's only 10 days to go >>>

Okay, back to this post...
13 September 2010

After tasting the mocha cupcakes I made, Grant came over to my desk and asked if I could make a mocha cake for his upcoming birthday. I immediately marked it on my baking calender. On the night of baking, I procrastinated a bit and didn't start in the kitchen until quite late. Having already made the mocha cupcakes before I thought making it into a big cake shouldn't be a problem, except it was, kind of.... the cake crowned and cracked a bit on top, but was nothing some coffee buttercream couldn't fix. I did a simple design with thin layers of melted dark chocolate "plates" and some cocoa dusting, the texture of the cake was moist as it had a lot of almond meal in the batter.

I used to be against buttercreams (some say and thinks it's fake cream), it's the  fat content of butter that turns me off a little, but I have since discovered how butter is made (if you beat fresh cream long enough it turns into butter!!!!) so it's essentially all the same thing, so now I think buttercream can taste pretty nice... especially in the opera cake and this cake :) The coffee aroma was really strong, the birthday boy said he can't resist the smell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANT!

Meanwhile, Sathiya also ordered a random cake to treat the office... okay, maybe it wasn't random, the excuse was to celebrate the approval of his wive's visa to Australia!!!!! I said I wasn't going to take on anymore cake orders due to exhaustion/lack of sleep... unless it was something easy for work. He pretty much let me decide what to make and I baked it with Grant's cake to feed the hungry crowd.

I made my favourite mixed berry yoghurt cake with lemon cream cheese.. it looks darker than it actually is in the photo. Great response for the cakes.

Thanks Sathiya for supporting the campaign :)

The Boss's Birthday

10 September 2010

the boss's autograph

It was Bruce's birthday on Friday. He had commissioned me to cater for the occasion in support of my campaign a month ago but forgot about it and asked me again last week... busy man that one... so I had to remind him that he had already done that and actually wrote it down on a piece of paper with his autograph, luckily I took a photo for evidence.

the line up

Anyway, I had to ensure to cater enough for the whole office which stressed me out a little, unsurprisingly I didn't get much sleep. Originally I planned to bake the opera cake as the "main" cake, except I think I'm a bit over the opera cake having made it twice already... I did a tiramisu cake instead and a couple of cakes I've made previously and had confident they wouldn't fail at 1am in the morning, that would of been a stressful nightmare...

tiramisu cake

So lined up in the board room ready for Friday staff morning tea was the caramel cashew topped brownie cake, everyone's favourite carrot cake with lemon cream cheese (which disappeared real fast), cheesecake with strawberry and mango passionfruit sauce and the pink strawberry lamingtons. I've never made lamingtons from scratch before, but since coming across it on the internet I've been itching to make it and finally got the opportunity to :)))

It was a big turn out at morning tea, we haven't had so many people show up (come down from level 3) for a while now. Good to know, people love their cake!

Unfortunately, Bruce was late for his own birthday being stuck at a meeting, no photos of the birthday boy... He arrived after half of his cakes were gone...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOSS!

strawberry lamingtons made at 1 in the morning..

heidi nomnom nom nom

a line-up!

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Okay, here it is Sushma, recipe for the brownie cake FINALLY.... sorry for the two month delay...
Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan's - Baking
unfortunately the photo is a bit yellow due to the lighting...

gooey caramel ... dangerous!

for the cake
1 cup Plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
115g unsalted butter
300g bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

for the topping
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cup thickened cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup salted peanuts (or any nuts you like)

preparation
preheat oven 180degrees
butter 8 inch round springform mould (I just used a silicon mould butter and lined)

• whisk flour, baking soda and salt together.
• heat in small saucepan chocolate and butter until just melted, remove from heat
• in a large bowl whisk eggs and sugars together until well blended. whisk in corn syrup, followed by the vanilla.
• whisk in the melted butter and chocolate, still working with the whisk gently stir in dry ingredients mixing only until incorporated. you will have a thick, smooth, shiny batter. pour the batter into the pan and jiggle the pan a bit to even out the batter.
• bake the cake for 40-45minutes until skewer inserted in the centre comes out almost clean (okay to have some moist crumbs clinging to the skewer)
• transfer pan to a rack and cool cake for 15 minutes, then run a blunt knife between the cake and the pan and remove it, cool cake to room temperature.
• to make the topping: put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over med-high heat. heat without stirring until the caramel turns deep amber colour, 5 to 10 minutes. Don't be timid about the colour, if it's too pale it won't have much taste. lower the heat a bit the caramel will bubble and spatter, add the cream and butter. when the spatters "calms down" a bit, stir to dissolve any lumps. Stir in the nuts and pour the caramel and nuts onto the cake before serving. You've probably got more caramel than you need, but you want to get all the nuts on the cake. spoon the nuts out of the hot caramel and onto the cake. spoon enough caramel to cover all the nuts.

A typical weekend.....

hazelnut opera cake

Guess what I did on the weekend? I baked! ta da~

jess took some cross sections for me last night

I made a hazelnut opera cake for Eric's birthday that Jess ordered last week as a surprise for her brother. It was my first time making an opera cake, quite an exciting process and it wasn't as daunting as I had thought it would be to make :) and the clients were super happy.

six layers :D!

There was some freestyle involved, as an opera cake is not normally round, but this was a birthday cake so I made it round for the occassion, also a normal opera cake doesn't have dusting (which I regret putting on just before I rushed out to see the 15th anniversary demo of my aikido dojo).... I seem to be constantly in a mad rush even on weekends!!!!!!! also, I regret putting on the caramel coated hazelnuts in such symmetrical order, but again time didn't allow me to think..... still, the feedback was really flattering. Jess said "it tasted exactly like the opera cake we had at le bon choix except your layers are spongy and not crunchy wafers"...

a happy birthday boy

Thanks Jess!!! ofcourse mine is not as fancy and pretty as the one at le bon choix but I do prefer spongy joconde over crunchy wafers which was what I didn't like about the opera cake I had tasted. And I was able to adjust the sweetness to something bearable and balanced it with crushed hazelnuts in the butter cream layers :)))

I had a few orders outstanding and thought I could clear a few over the weekend... except my attempts to multi-task failed miserably... I basically passed out on Friday night and got up early Saturday morning to do the mini cheesecakes for Edith, but due to the rush I misjudged the cooking time and the centres weren't cooked grrrrrr it was impossible to fix. Luckily, Edith didn't need them urgently and was very understanding of my situation lol... so I have postponed them for a remake another day....

caramel and chocolate eclairs

Meanwhile, I was mega stressed out that I had to do Winnie's Caramel & Chocolate eclair order by Saturday arvo....in between going out to vote and driving parents around... eventually I got them done, a few hours behind schedule, but it was good to get them out!!! Took a night shot before they were picked up. I'm glad Winnie said they were the best eclairs she's tasted for a long time... !! awwwwwwww~ ok maybe the mad rush panic was worth it. Her mum upon pick-up thanked me for giving them the opportunity to donate to the cause :) it's my pleasure.

But, I still had to postpone a carrot cake order that's been on postpone mode for a month already!!!!! Bad idea to bake multiple things in one day...

Day 14 - Ksenja's Birthday Cake + Penguins!

22 July 2010

I'm not a cheesecake!

Today was Ksenja's birthday, she casually wheeled over in her chair to my desk on Wednesday afternoon and asked me to make her birthday cake in exchange for $50 donation towards my campaign... although it was SHORT NOTICE! 


I couldn't turn my back on a cake order!... Ksenja's a reknowned chocoholic so naturally her cake would be chocolate themed. 

Should've centered the white choc cream layer...

I thought I'd try making bitter sweet and white chocolate pastry cream layers sandwhiched between choc sponges with a choc crumb base... it was another nightmare making it last minute without planning or testing beforehand. 


I wanted to pour ganache over it all and make it all glossy but unfortunately I had to wake up at 5.30am to get to a breakfast talk.. ARGH!! only managed to squeeze in 3 hours of sleep last night... not to mention the added stress with cake orders... 

Birthday Girl with her CAKE!

There were a few stares when I carried the cake uncovered on the stand like this from the convention centre to work... I was paranoid about people wanting to deliberately trip me, or me tripping on my own, that would be epic...


I think people generally like chocolate anything, and they were gone pretty fast. Ange was already queuing in the kitchen at 10.05am with her donation money!!!!! and was delighted to find out cake was on Ksenja today! The rest vanished pretty soon after. Free cake is always popular!

I really wished I had more time to test recipes before diving straight into them half asleep. But Ksenja was happy, that's most important! Amount raised today was the $50 for the cake order. Thank you for supporting my campaign!











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PENGUINS FROM STRANGERS




Today, I also received some donations from "strangers". Sipen came by and said she found some sponsors for me! and gave me this envelope from her sister and brother in law! 


How cute is the card!!!!!!???!!!


Sipen said her sister used to cook for her church for fundraising and knows exactly what I'm going through. This is really nice of them I thought, really made my day!


Thank you so much if you're reading this!!!

So, I'm nearly through my third week! Time really flies after work...10pm already, groan... better fire up the oven now for all the stuff on the menu tomorrow!! 


P/S I've noticed there was an anonymous donation on my campaign page of $10... with no message or anything... wonder who the person is...

Day 7 - three birthdays = three cakes

13 July 2010

This morning at 6am I only had the carrot cake ready... the pavlova was sitting sadly naked (meringue only) in the oven while the yoghurt bavarian needed the berry additions... and I needed to transport all three cakes safely to work...  

PAVLOVA WITH A LOT OF FRUITS

So many July babies in the office!! Three birthday cake orders for the same day... crazy! I don't think I sleep anymore.

The plan was to make some things over the weekend, but baking was the one thing I didn't feel like doing AT ALL! So I left it till last night...

Today must've been healthy tuesday!

Irish Dave wanted a Pavlova - apparently it's his favourite food. I didn't tell him I've never made a pavlova before incase he changed his mind. It was interesting to finally make one! It's simple yet takes a lot of oven time and patience. Not to mention how fragile the meringue is to transport and I'm sure it squealed a few times on the way to work (while I drove one handedly trying to balance the two other cakes!).

Dave was thoroughly happy with his cake, and I was just happy the centre was still there! It's been experiments for the past two nights testing out things for the first time... I get nervous when it's serving time.

CARROT CAKE IN SESAME STREET OUTFIT 

Ian said he doesn't like a lot of icing on cakes, but cream cheese icing on Carrot Cakes is not considered "icing" to him. So I made a carrot cake from Dorie Greenspan's book that I've been working my way through. The cake looks hairy with the roasted coconut shreds that I decided to dress it up in - reminds me of a sesame street character.

Ian missed his own birthday morning tea coming out of a meeting late but here's a photo to prove it was there.

YOGHURT BAVARIAN WITH MIXED BERRIES

Katharina's order description was "Something refreshing and healthy"... Knowing she likes fruits and is quite health conscious. I ended up making this yoghurt bavarian with mixed berries using low fat greek yoghurt! Possibly the skinniest cake so far! Yet another first attempt and I hope it tasted alright.

Katharina also missed the morning tea... and didn't see the cake before it vanished. Probably a good thing that level 3 people didn't all come down or there wouldn't have been enough for everyone.

and a shot taken in between chaos...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE, IAN AND KATHARINA!
AND THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MY BIRTHDAY CAMPAIGN!

Amount raised today $50x3 = $150


I really neeeeeed to sleep tonight!!!!!!!!! but naomi came by and said I need to update my blog.......

Day 6 - Naomi & Luke's Birthdays

12 July 2010

So I managed to get some sleep over the weekend! Knowing I had 5 birthday cake orders to make for Monday & Tuesday I was excited yet dreading to go back into the kitchen... I procrastinated, and procrastinated, and procrastinated some more.... until 8pm on Sunday night I had a panic attack and forced myself to preheat the oven.

The request from Naomi was "Something Chocolate!" so I suggested I'd make the chocolate mousse layer cake I've been wanting to make... Which turned out to be a rather challenging experiment. I was in the kitchen until 2am making each component of this labour intensive cake. It may look humble and "plain"... but I had a series of nervous breakdowns throughout the night and feared my expensive chocolate would all go to waste.

It is actually the first time I made chocolate mousse!! and there are so many versions around, I had to make up my own to suit the quantity I needed.... Although I'm obsessed about making desserts, there are too many "common" things I haven't made before (my family doesn't eat this stuff!). I thought I should take this chance to make everything on my forever growing to-bake's list. 

Luckily the cake turned out to be a hit with a very happy birthday girl who claimed it was the best birthday cake she's ever had - my effort well worth it I thought :)

On the way up to the office, the chocolate letters wowed a few people in the lift. Unfortunately some letters broke apart during transport.

Some people have asked for the recipe, I will try to recall what I did and the amounts I used (very late at night without measuring cups...but did involve EIGHTEEN EGGS and a lot of chocolate!). I took recipes of the different components from different sources and just went by feel. A big gamble. Fun though.

I'm sure I'll be making more of chocolate mousse cakes in the future now that I got my head around it. Hopefully it'll turn out how I want it to be next time!

And here's a cross section of the cake during all the action at morning tea - cut artistically by Naomi. Dark chocolate and walnut base, chocolate sponge layers, chocolate mousse to hold it all together and creme caramel centre. Woke up a bit earlier to finish the cake off with dark choc ganache glazing and piped the choc letters...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAOMI!

Thank you Luke for requesting a savoury party-pie-and-sausage roll-tower! Unfortunately I couldn't put it into a cake shape as they needed heating up in the oven beforehand.

But this took some burden off my shoulders!! And everyone cleaned up the savouries super fast. Think everyone's a bit over cakes already!

If you look closely, I piped a few words with the sauce!

Anyway, thank you guys for supporting my birthday campaign with these cake orders! Although a challenge for me time wise, but I really appreciate and enjoy the experience :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUKE!

Amount raised today was $50x2 = $100