Frasier with Pistachio Creme Mousseline

At least this time, it's not a raspberry post, but I won't be far from all things berry at least until summer ends :D.

Ever since I started going to farmers' market two years ago, after I moved back to California, it was an instant love. I don't know how many times I've been saying this, but I'll say it again, once you buy fruits from farmers' market, you won't go back to grocery store. Especially in summer, where we're blessed with abundant ripe and sweet berries, fragrant stone fruits, deep-purple cherry, and so many other things. I used to think that berries are all tart and they're just pretty, not good to be eaten just like that, but obviously I was wrong!! I tasted my first SWEET raspberries and strawberries at farmers' market and I was really surprised that I can munch on them just like that without adding any sugar. Since then, I have been a firm believer that you shouldn't buy your berries or fruits in season at grocery store. Plus, you can find fresh produce, great food, and much more depending on how big the farmers' market is. When berries is this sweet, you gotta make a cake with it!

Anyways, onto the cake now. It was one of my dearest friend's birthday a month ago (yes I know, I need to update sooner :D), and he requested a birthday cake for his birthday about a week in advance so that I could have enough time to prepare everything. He understands me well enough to know that I need plenty of time or notice way in advance to make a cake. So, he gave me what he thought was enough time so that I won't have one of those "oh no, I don't have time to make it" kinda excuse, smart guy :P. And without a doubt, I used this opportunity to try out some things new and I decided on this fraisier.

Fraisier is not new to me actually as I made it a few times before. It's like a French style of American strawberry shortcake. Traditional fraisier has two layers of genoise, soaked with Kirsch syrup, filled with creme mousseline (a combination of pastry cream and buttercream), and finally topped off with green/pink marzipan. The version of the fraisier I made before did not have this exact components though. I used Cointreau or Grand Marnier instead of Kirsch (not a big fan of it), and I used vanilla bean creme diplomat (combination of pastry cream and whipped cream) as I like everything light texturewise, and I skipped the marzipan too. There is another version of modern fraisier, which I saw in Pierre Herme's book and some French websites., which uses pistachio-flavored creme mousseline as the filling. Pistachio and strawberry is one of those pair that you cant go wrong with, they go really well with each other. Some version also uses blow-torched italian meringue to decorate the top instead of marzipan.

I've never made creme mousseline before and so I didn't exactly know what is the ratio between the pastry cream and the butter. I read some books and website but they're all suggesting completely different proportion. So, there I was creating my own ratio, which suits my taste. I started with my usual vanilla bean pastry cream, added pistachio paste and weighed it as I kept on tasting it until it tasted strong enough (it is easily overpowered by other flavor, so need to make sure that the flavor is pronounced enough). Same thing with the butter, I kept adding it a little at a time and weighed it until I got the right consistency and taste. I also made italian meringue that I burned with blow torch to create the burnt effect for the top part, while the pattern was created using a metal spatula. I got a little bored with glaze and wanted to do something different :D.

The final result was a success, although I think it's a little bit on the sweet side for me. I guess it's predictable from the syrup (I made it sweeter than usual unpurposedly), the mousseline was also a tad too sweet (an experiment, remember?), but it adds up to the sweetness too, and lastly the italian meringue. Italian meringue has always been too sweet for me and that's why I don't use it that often. I reduced the amount of the sugar in this from my previously reduced-sugar recipe, but it still contribute to the sweetness level. Sadly, I forgot to write down the recipe while it was fresh in my memory :(, and now I have to do it all over again to get the right proportions. Oh well, I guess it's another reason to bake another cake!

Black Raspberry, White Chocolate, and Cream Cheese Cake

No, I don't have a husband, if you might asked :D. It's for somebody else's husband.

It all started when I was asked to make a cake for a friend's birthday (she never had any of my cakes before) and turned out she liked it so much that when her older sister was visiting her from Indonesia and was looking for a cake, she mentioned my name. I have never met her sister before, she told me that her sister and the husband were about the pickiest couple when it comes to food, more over, dessert. You see now how much pressure I had when I heard that.

After a few emails and phone calls, she decided to try the black raspberry cake I made here since she's never had it in Indonesia (raspberry is very hard to get in Indonesia, and therefore not a common fruit or flavor). It was actually for her husband's birthday who is a chocolate addict, but she decided on trying something new, something they've never tried before (FYI, her husband is a chocolate lover :D). It was just such a really short notice though.

So, this is what I can come up with, in such a short notice. I think I only had one day to make this. And when I said one day, that means bright and early in the morning, and at night after work around 9pm (oh, and another morning on the day itself before work :D). I hope I can do much better with the decoration though, although I'm not sure what would I do differently if I had more time. But anyways, I'm always happy and grateful for every opportunity I get to contribute something for a special event :)

Mango Entremet

You see, mango is one of my favorite all time fruits (other than raspberries, and some other fruits). My eyes would lit up everytime I heard a mango cake, mango dessert, mango this, mango that and it's definitely one of the cake flavors that I would pick up if I'm in a pastry shop. You can understand how excited I was when I saw Helen's post about her Chocolate Mango and Coconut Cream Cake. I absolutely LOVE LOVE what she did with the cake. It looks gorgeous, clean, neat, superb! I've always wanted my cakes to look like that, but I guess I have a long way to go :(. Ever since I saw her post, I wrote it down in my "to-make" list, that I need to make something with mango and it has to be square and it has to show the different layers. Helen kindly has her recipe on her blog, and I could just follow that, but you know me, I'm a rebel :D. So, I decided to experiment and make a new recipe for a mango entremet, thinking what layers can go along really well with mango. Mango and coconut are often put together, but I'm never a fan of coconut flavored cakes, so coconut is out of the question and so is chocolate.

After some scribbling, I decided that my mango cake would consist of sponge base, mango mousse, vanilla bavarian cream, and thin raspberry gelee in the middle. I waited for the perfect occasion to make this cake and my sister in law's birthday was coming up, so yay! Just like me, my family loves mango, so this is the perfect event to try this. There's not much can be done earlier except the sponge base. Everything else pretty much has to be made just before you use it. I wanted to make 8" square, but my cake ring can only measure 9x10 at least, so I tried a new method using an 8" square baking pan. I lined the inside of the pan with plastic wrap and let it hang on the side, and assemble everything in it, then into the freezer it goes. After it looks strong enough, lift the plastic wrap and trim the sides. It sounds easy enough on my mind.

Since this is a trial recipe, of course everything will not be perfect. My mango mousse is too strong and too soft, my bavarian cream layer is too thick and needs more gelatin, my glaze was not perfect, etc. I only freeze it for less than 30 minuntes I think before pulling the plastic wrap up and it did not completely set yet. You can probably see that the sides are not straight, etc. I was having a hard time trimming the side of the cake while the cake is still soft, not solid. Oh well, lesson learned: do not rush things! I wasn't 100% satisfied with the look of the cake, I imagined it would be shorter, the layers are thinner, the mousse and the cream are stiffer, etc.

But I was really glad that the whole family liked it! We only have 7 people (5 adults and two kids) and they easily finished everything off! Everybody had second except my little niece, I was surprised enough to see her finished her own cake. This cake surely is a winner, I just had to work more on the recipe (and the looks) :)

1st Birthday Cake!

I was asked to make a 1st birthday cake for a little girl a few months ago. At that time, it sounded easy, she picked the decoration from a picture and it didn't look complicated at all. The process of making the cake was pretty easy too and straight forward. The top 6" tier is blueberry-vanilla cake, and the bottom 8" tier is "lapis surabaya" cake, which has 2 layers of vanilla and 1 layer of chocolate (made from all egg yolks and lots of them!).

I mentioned this a few times before and if you know me well, you would know that I'm not really good at cake decorating. I always have trouble when it comes to decorating a cake. My mind goes blank everytime a cake is finished and ready to be decorated. I think mousse cakes are easier though, just throw some fresh berries, glaze, chocolate, and voila! you got a nice-looking cake. But with fondant, nu-uh! I've never had the patience of making little figurines or decoration that usually go into a fondant cake. I love making wedding cakes or bridal shower cakes, that don't require much; in fact, for me, less is more for those types of cake. I always adore the simplicity and cleanliness of a wedding cake.

When it comes to decorating a cake for a small kid, I was really confuse. I tried to remind myself over and over again that it has to be colorful, not plain white or ivory, so I did my best to make it cheerful (although I think I overdid it :( ). It took me probably a good 6 hours total to decorate this! I know I know, I'm slow, I don't even remember or know why it took so long. I guess I underestimated the time it needs for kneading the fondant, coloring each one of them, shaping them, letting it dry, etc etc. I was pretty happy with the top tier, it looks spring-y (which really suits the season at that time) but I was not for the bottom tier :(. I gave up at the end and just let it be the way it is. I guess I REALLY need to practice my fondant skill.

The surprise came in a day later. The mother emailed me that everybody at the party LOVES the cake!! An hour later, I got a call from a friend who attended the party and he (and his wife) confirmed how good the cake tasted. Although I think they're a little exagerating, but it really blew me off. The disappointment I got from the day before for not being able to make a perfect cake, has been replaced by the relieve feeling after hearing and reading the comments. Phew..! As long as everybody happy, then it's all that matters :) (oh, and sorry for the ugly pictures :D).

Seeing Green!

This was actually made a while ago, in May I think.....

It all started when a dear friend, Putu, contacted me and asked me if I would like to make a cake for her birthday, and of course I would!!! without a doubt! She knew what she wanted, and that made it a lot easier for me. She knew she wanted an Indonesian cheese cake, and she showed me a picture of a green cake that she liked.

Green is her favorite color (obviously :D), and I have become a green-fan these past few years. You see, green is used to be my least favorite color, but once my adult life had started, the love for green has been growing stronger and stronger in me :P. It was a little hard to copy the picture she gave me, not just because the picture was small and I couldn't see the detail and everything, but it's also because my lack of skill to do cake decorating :(. I was never an expert nor I was into cake decorating, like making a perfect basketweave cake with buttercream roses, making small fondant figurines, and all that. But it's not me if I just gave up and say I can't ;).

The pictures of the cake here may look simple, and it is simple. I've never said that she asked for too much or anything, in fact, she was nothing like that. She said just do what I can do, if I can't do roses, then that's fine (she's just a sweetheart :) ). The original pic had a lot more green buttercream roses and more buttercream leaves. Since I don't trust myself to make buttercream roses (plus the weather was too hot to hold my buttercream stiff enough to make the roses), I attempted for fondant roses instead. The side wall is just a simple green-colored fondant to make a smoother finish on the cake, or more like to cover my imperfect skill to smooth out the sides :P.

Overall, of course mine didn't look anywhere close to the original picture, but at least I tried my best and there are still lots of room for improvement.

Raspberry Tiramisu Cake

I warn you, with the abundant amoung of berries showing at the farmers' market and grocery storess, you would see a lot of berry-flavored cakes showing often :D. I'm such a sucker for berries, especially raspberry. It's really hard for me to resist really good-looking raspberries, super sweet strawberries, deep purple color cherries, fragrant stone fruits. I could very easily pass those things in grocery store, but when it comes to farmers' market, uh oh... I would be in a really big "trouble" :).

Again, I also made this a while back for my dear friend's birthday. I always use every opportunity I got to experiment with type of cakes I've never made before. I mean, this is the best way to learn new stuff, plus you have the people to eat it, right??? (assuming the end result is edible :D). Fortunaltely, I have friends who are willing to eat anything including failed or ugly-looking cakes (well, most of them at least).

I was determined from the beginning to make raspberry tiramisu cake. My other option was mango tiramisu cake (my two most ultimate favorite fruits or cake flavors). I believe that there are things that are meant for each other (flavor or ingredient-wise :P). This includes raspberry-mascarpone, raspberry-white chocolate, dark chocolate-rum-coffee, mango-mascarpone, I could go on and on and on about this. So here's a way to combine them, raspberry tiramisu cake.

I thought of regular tiramisu components, mascarpone, cream, savoiardi (italian lady fingers), coffee, rum, coffee soaking mixture. I want this rasp. tiramisu to have the same components that make up a tiramisu, a tiramisu :P. I decided to use the soft lady fingers, instead of the hard ones like savoiardi as I don't think that making a raspberry solution to soak the lady fingers is going to be as good as the original tiramisu with coffee. So I made my own lady fingers or what French called biscuit a la cuillere. Instead of piping the batter one by one to look like a "finger", I just spread it all in a sheet pan. It'll be stacked together anyway, so no one will notice :). The lady finger is then brushed heavily (not soaked) with raspberry solution with lots of framboise (clear raspberry brandy), just like you brush a cake with simple syrup. Then, a thin layer of raspberry jam that I thinned out a little with framboise goes on top of the lady finger, a layer of mascarpone cream, and lots of fresh raspberries inside. This process is repeated twice. I didn't use egg yolk for the mouse as I don't usually use raw egg yolks to make a fruit-based mousse/cream.

The end cake is a lot higher than I would have liked. After a quick trip to the freezer and trim all of the sides, the cake is now ready to be glazed. Now, this is where the problem started :(. I always have problem with glazing a cake, especially if I use Oetker clear glaze. I followed the direction carefully, but it just set up like a jelly in a minute after taking it off the heat. I kept reheating it, adding more water and raspberry puree, adding my own homemade glaze, etc but nothing works. You can see the really poor glazing on top. I was really frustrated, and I was already late to the dinner (hence the poor decoration :( ). I was a little disappointed with the height and the glazing and the decoration, but hey, this is an experiment, I should have expected something like this.

But unfortunately, that's not the end of the problem. The real disaster followed 30 minutes after. As I mentioned, the oetker glaze set up like a jelly layer on top of the cake that wasn't really "glued" to the cake. I wasn't really paying attention to this as I drove really fast (a little speeding and maybe juuussttt a tad "zig zag-ing" :P to the dinner place where all of my friends were waiting. When I opened up the box after I arrived, I was just speechless. The glaze/jelly layer on top was sliding down the cake and it looked like a mess!!! I just couldn't say anything at that point.

Here's a picture of the cake after the "accident":

I made a good note of the ingredients proportions (that I might need to try next time), and I will definitely make the lady finger layer thinner. But I'm not done with raspberries, I mean how can I be with lots of them lying around everywhere I go, tempting me to pick up a basket or two (maybe four). So, more raspberries or berry posts comiinnggg :)

Spring-Themed Birthday Cake

It seems like this blog has been more like a weekly update rather than a blog. My apology for not replying your emails immediately or your comments, but I'm working on it as well as posting more posts and recipe including the past recipes that I promised on the previous posts.

I think you know pretty well already how excited I am at this time of the year (despite the fact the I mentioned it over and over again :D). I've been going to farmers' market every Sunday for the last 1.5 months or so. Not that I always needed to buy something, but I just love being in the crowd, watching the fresh produce, sampling different things, especially under a warm California sun (although it has been raining lately :( ). Strawberry has been showing up everywhere and it's always hard for me to resist them everytime I go, but I've been good so far in terms of self-control.

For the past two years, I've been buying strawberries from the same stall every summer. They sell the best, the sweetest strawberries I've ever had, but I've been disappointed this year. Everytime I visit their stall, I expected the strawberries to be the same as the year before, but they're not as sweet anymore :(. Nonetheless, I will still excited anyway to see and always eager to make something with them everytime I see them. You see, strawberry is the kind of fruit that I enjoy more when I'm making something with it instead of eating it straight. Don't ask me why, but that's just the way it is. The same thing goes for raspberries, hmm... I guess all berries?? I always think of different ways, flavor combination to use berries for dessert.

Now, last Thursday was my boss' birthday. I've always wanted to make a birthday cake for him and so I did. He was a little shy about his birthday but we all had a short little celebration for him. The cake itself is a two-tiered cake, the bottom is 8" square and the top is 6" round. I thought it's gonna take me quite a while to make this, but surprisingly it wasn't. The top 6" tier has two layers of vanilla sponge cake that I already had on hand with mango cheesecake layer as the bottom filling (from the chilled mango cheesecake leftover filling the I froze in a 6" mold). I just made a layer of strawberry flavored cheesecake for the top layer and to cover the sides of the cake. The bottom tier has two layers of cream cheese cotton cake that I flavored with lemon zest, thin layer of fragrant blueberry filling and cream cheese mousse on top of each cake.

The decoration didn't take too long either. I just made white chocolate fence early in the morning, put them on and stacked the strawberries (this turned out to be the start of a disaster later on). So I drove away with the cake, thinking that everything is gonna be alright. When I got to work, the chocolate fence were falling off the cake, some of them were broken, the strawberries were all over the place, it was ugly. I tried to calm myself down, I didn't have time to fix it as I had work to do and I was late already (as usual). When I had the chance to fix it, it wasn't as pretty as it was before. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I thought they looked ugly, the strawberries were dirty from the cream, the chocolate fence wasn't straight anymore ; ;. I knew that I shouldn't put the strawberries at home, they're just too heavy, but I did the best I can to make it look acceptable.

Despite all the mess, it was very well-received by the crowd :P. I like how it looks, it doesn't look over-the-top, but simple and clean, and definitely scream Spring! I'm submitting this cake for Spring Cake Event for Monthly Mingle #32 hosted by Meeta. You can view the event on her blog or the official page of Monthly Mingle

Pink Swedish Princess Cake

I think I need to remind myself over and over again, no more weekday cakes please, but I just couldn't resist. There were times when I just wanted to quit when I was making a cake in a time crunch. When you only have an hour everyday to pull together a cake, your planning must be good. But I'm no quitter, even if it means that I have to wake up super bright and early for a few days to finish it, you can't quit what you have started (there are exceptions of course :D).

Now, the cake. It was a request from a friend who likes princess cake so much for another friend's birthday (talking about selfish :P, j/k). Boy, do we have lots of birthday celebrations lately. The request was that it must be pink because it is the birthday girl's favorite color, despite the fact that traditional princess cake is green. If you follow my blog, you would see that I made this cake a few times before and everytime, I kept changing something whether it's the type of the cake base, the simply syrup, the proportions of cream and/or pastry cream, etc.

This time is no difference. I decided to make my own raspberry jelly instead of the usual seedless raspberry jam used in a princess cake. I always find that store-bought jam is way too sweet to my liking. Although, looking at the economical point of view, making your own is not too beneficial though as the cost of the raspberry itself is equal to the cost of a jar of jam (not to mention the time and labor put into it). Plus, you would still have plenty of jam leftover if you buy it. But I am such a hard-headed or stubborn person if you may call it, that I'd still make it myself despite that I know all the plus and minus behind it. It's not too difficult, just a little time-consuming because you have to puree the raspberries and strain it (the part which I like the least everytime I pureed something --> takes too much time and more dishes to wash) then heat it, add the gelatin, and finally let it cool down to thicken (may take a while). I didn't even use a measurement, just kinda go for it.

I followed the traditional filling for princess cake, which is three layers of sponge cake (usually genoise type), simple syrup to moisten it (I flavored it with raspberry puree-->can't you tell how much I love raspberry already?), a thin layer of raspberry jam (made my own) and cream for the bottom filling, vanilla bean pastry cream as the second layer of filling and more cream on top to cover the cake and to form the dome, and finally enrobed with marzipan. I can never get a soft pastel color for the marzipan, it has a natural brown almond color that whatever color you color it with, it will always be darker. But I found some white marzipan somewhere online the other day, had to try it someday. It's not a difficult cake to make as each filling is pretty straight forward. You don't even need a particular recipe, you just need to know the components that make up the cake.

I wasn't 100% satisfied with the decoration as I think I rolled the marzipan too thin that the cake inside is showing (you can tell from the picture). I also did a poor job on covering it. You can probably notice it too that the bottom part has some wrinkles. I just use the leftover marzipan to make pearls for the bottom border and brush it with pink luster dust to make it shiny. I also had to hunt for the roses though, luckily we have a mini rose plant at the front yard so I just had to pick out the best ones to put onto the cake.

I couldn't make it to the birthday dinner though as work was calling. But I was so.....glad and relieved after I heard that the cake had rave reviews, everybody really liked it. Pheeww.... talking about pressure. I was afraid that I would mess up something in the proportion since I keep changing something everytime I make the same type of cake. Unfortunately I couldn't taste it myself, thanks to my friend who forgot to save me a slice :P, but as long as everybody likes it, that's all I need :D