Bridal Shower Cake

Last weekend was one of my friends' bridal shower, Vicky. I'm so honored that I got to make her bridal shower cake. I've never made one before, but it's no different from any other cake.

I decided to make two-tier cake. A little more "grand" than a regular round or square cake, but not as formal as a wedding cake. Although it's a tiered cake, it doesn't mean that the decoration should be the same as a fondant or buttercream wedding cake. I wanted it to look fun but still beautiful.

So I browsed around and fell in love with this design. It's simple, looks so Spring-y, and it's no less than elegant. Instead of the usual round tiered cake, I made the bottom layer square instead of round. The bottom cake is a raspberry and white chocolate flavored like what I've made here, and the top tier is a tiramisu cake with chocolate sponge cake instead of vanilla.
This is also the first time I try using dowels for my cake.

It was not easy finding the right color of tulips that I wanted. I had to go to a couple of different stores with no luck, and I was so scared that the cake inside my car will start to melt (it was quite a warm day). Somehow that day, all stores agreed to carry only white and yellow tulips :(. Luckily, my friend that did the decoration, had some tulips left. Pheewww....

Well, everybody liked the cake and I was quite happy with the result. Of course there are still some room for improvement, such as the white chocolate plates could have been smaller and taller and different heights to show texture, the tulips on the top could have been more, but I think it's pretty good for a first-timer (for tiered-cake).

Desire

This cake consists of a layer of moist chocolate cake, a thin layer of dark chocolate mousse, a disk of jasmine flavored creme brulee, another layer of chocolate mousse, and chocolate glaze. I gave this name "Desire" after visiting Jinpatisserie website and there's a cake similar to this but with vanilla instead of jasmine creme brulee (other than the fact that it looks ten times better than mine). He called it Desire and I thought it's really appropriate for the cake. It's unique and interesting in a good way.

There's no special occasion for making this cake. It just happens that I have a box full of unused heavy cream that's almost expired. It's a pain to waste such a precious ingredient, so I used it to make one of the "to-experiment" cakes, that's been on my list for quite a while.

I've always wanted to use jasmine in cake, but somehow I was too afraid or too confused with the flavor combination that will pair up well with jasmine. This time, I decided to pair it up with chocolate mousse.

Overall, I'm not quite satisfied with the look (obviously, judging from the picture). The chocolate glaze wasn't thick enough to pour and hence, the cake is not as smooth as I wanted to be. This cake wasn't planned to be well-decorated. I just don't want to spend hours of my time dealing with chocolate, but I managed to get some leftover choc. decoration from previous cakes, and put them on the cake, so that it won't be too plain.

Tastewise, I was a little skeptical at first that the jasmine flavor would be over-powered by chocolate, but it wasn't. The taste of jasmine was pretty pronounced and I think jasmine and chocolate are great together. Next time, I might experiment with other combination that goes together with jasmine.

Mini JCC (Part II)

The same thing I made two days ago. This time, I made a couple of 4-in and one 6-in. The 6-in is for my neighbor who was kindly letting me taking her red roses from her garden, when I was desperate to find one to decorate this cake.

I was actually going to decorate some of them differently, using fresh cream and chocolate shavings, also some whipped chocolate ganache, but I was too busy thinking how to put the berries on the top of the cake. As soon as I remember about that, I had no more cake to decorate.

Again, nothing fancy, just a simple cake topped with slightly tart apricot glaze and the crisp, clean and fresh taste of fruits and berries.

Ispahan Cake (recreated)

I made this Ispahan cake for one of my close friends' birthday yesterday. He requested anything but chocolate cake. Fine with me. As I mentioned befre on my previous post, Ispahan is a type of rose. The cake however, was first created by a renowned French pastry chef, Pierre Herme. He's like the master of the masters in pastry. He was first created the combination of rose, raspberry, and lychee (which he named Ispahan) in a macaroon form, and after that, this combination is seen in almost every patisserie in Paris. Pierre never seems to get bored or tired to create more desserts with this combo. In fact, he seems to be excited about it. His Ispahan line includes ispahan cheesecake, ispahan saint honore, ispahan macaron, etc.

It took me quite a while to decide what cake I wanted to make. There are a couple of flavor combinations that came up in my mind. One was a cake with pistachio buttercream and some kind of vanilla bavarian cream maybe, and chopped pistachio for texture. Another one was charlotte aux poire that I've been dying to make for a long time but never come to realization due to the expensive cost of pear eau de vie ($40 for 375ml. Any donation would be greatly appreciated :) ). The last cake that I was thinking to make is jasmine flavored creme brulee, jasmine flavored cream, and chocolate mousse. I can't think of any other flavor that can pair up with jasmine other than chocolate. So, that option was eliminated since chocolate is present.

Until the last minute, I decided not to make all those three (what a waste of time for all that brainstorming time). I really didn't have time for experimentation. So, I went ahead and played it safe with something that I've made before that he'd never tasted.

I made Ispahan cake twice in here and here. Both had good reviews. The cake consists of sponge cake, rose flavored mascarpone mousse, fresh raspberries and lychees, and raspberry glaze. For this cake, I used a softer sponge type cake instead of genoise that I used the first time. I modified the filling a little, as well as the decorations. I also tried to make wood grain pattern on the chocolate sheet. I bought the tool a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't wait to use it. I think it looks anything but wood grain pattern. I read all the instruction, but I still couldn't figure out how it works. I'll practice more next time until I get the hang of it.

Actually, I didn't eat the cake the first two times that I made it. Yesterday was my first time eating the whole cake all together. Usually, I just taste each component. The cake yesterday was a bit on the sweet side for my taste. I should reduce the amount of syrup next time.

I liked the appearance of the cake a lot, especially with the deep red color. With the flavor combination, I think it only make sense to use rose petals and raspberry for the decoration. So, in the morning, I had to hunt some red roses around my neighborhood and finally fine one house that has it. I didn't steal it by the way in case you're curious, I asked nicely to the owner.

Mini Japanese Cheesecake (JCC - Part 1)

I've been wanting to make something for my co-workers at work. I used to bring something at work quite often, but not for the past couple of months. Besides, most people in my team that I'm working closely with are new, so I would like to give them something as a nice gesture.

I immediately thought of JCC. It's simple, yet still looks fancy, especially if you decorate it with fresh fruits. Besides, I just bought a couple of mini 4-in springform pan and I couldn't wait to use it. So, yesterday was my first time using it. I loved everything about small desserts. Somehow they just look better and more inviting. The only thing I hate about them is the washing part. Instead of washing one bottom and the side part, I had to repeat it seven times and it wasn't very fun. But, after seeing the cute little cheesecake, although I still hate the washing part, I think they're worth it.

I gave two of them to my friends, two for each my nephew and my niece (can you believe that they can finish it by themselves??!!! and they're only 2.5 and 5 years old), and the rest for my co-workers.
I had to buy a couple of different fruits just for these and I still have lots of leftover at home. I was thinking of making another set of theseto give to some other people too.

Here are the close looks for some of them

Choco-Banana Muffins

It's been a long time I haven't made these muffins. These muffins were (and still are) one of the favorites among many of my friends and family. One of my friends even requested it for her birthday present last year :). It's so easy to put together, doesn't require a mixer, it's very moist and fragrant.

I don't normally eat plain bananas, but I really like them on a cake or any kinds of desserts. Besides, I don't eat muffins that much, except for these.

Although the title is choco-banana muffins, I also mix some of them with shredded cheese and some of them with the three combinations.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

This is the first time I post this chiffon cake here although I've been making it at least a million times before. Lately, I got tired of all the mousse type cakes, or any of those cakes that has multiple layers of fillings and take up the whole day or even more to finish. I just wanted a simple cake that I can enjoy for snack or breakfast (although I don't normally eat breakfast).

Don't be fooled by the size of the cake. Sure it's huge. It's a 10-in chiffon cake with approximately 4 inches in height, but it's as light as air. It almost feels like you don't eat anything (makes you feel less guilty this way). And I absolutely love the green color.