Black Raspberry, White Peach Jelly and Mascarpone Mousse Cake

This is the third cake in a row last week, out of four (not counting the mini cakes). I almost officially feel like I want to take a break from baking for a week, but of course that'll never happen. There are so many delicious things to try and since time is very precious to me, I won't be wasting it :).

To be honest, I was completely exhausted before starting this cake but there's no way that I would buy a cake for Lawrence, one of our close co-worker friends :). Not having the time to do a full shopping, I tried to use what I had at home. Besides, I almost always have heavy cream, assorted frozen fruits purees, different type of chocolates, gelatin, eggs readily available at home, so I'm good. I had some white peach puree that I froze last summer and also a little frozen black raspberry left in the bag. Remember my depression when I found that Trader Joe's no longer had black raspberry? I was completely devastated, and I saved the last half-full bag in the freezer until now. I figured that sooner or later, it had to be used, it can't stay in the ferezer forever. I did some research and there is two or three farms that sells them frozen, the problem is just that I have to buy it in bulk quantity and there's no way I could use up 10lbs of black raspberry by myself.

Okay, back to the cake. I baked vanilla bean cotton sponge cake and layered it with white peach gelee, black raspberry gelee, and mascarpone mousse. I didn't have enough puree for the black raspberry jelly and I had to add a little red raspberry puree to it. The taste of the white peach is barely noticeable, the subtle taste was completely overpowered by the other flavors. So I probably won't be using it in mousse or jelly form in the future, as a cut-up fruit inside of the cake might be nice. I was using my 8" square cake ring for the first time. It was a little too short, only 2" high, so the cake looked short (or was short). I was going to trim all four edges so that it showed the different layers, but I cancelled that idea since it will make the cake smaller considering the short height. I was completely blank for the decor, I think I came up with this super simple decor about 20 minutes before I had to leave for work.

Although I wasn't too happy with the decor, the most important thing is that everybody loved the cake!! It was indeed a very light cake, far from fulfilling. We are all Asians afterall, so we have the same taste in cake, not too sweet, light as feather, and refreshing :D

More Tiramisu

Just when the world doesn't need another tiramisu post, here I present you with two tiramisu. They're similar in design but for two different occasions. The mould is yet another collection of mine that I haven't got a chance to use. The design is also similar to the previous tiramisu here, except that this one is square instead of round. Since I think I made enough tiramisu already, this one is gonna be a short post. I just want to share this new look of tiramisu with you :)

These two tiramisu's are for different birthdays. One is for my coworker and the other one is for another coworker's girlfriend. The size is pretty small, about 4x8", enough for 6 people I think. I still like to use gold dragees to decorate the top, and I think I will be using them for my tiramisu :). I don't know which design I like better, the first or the second one. I think the first one is neater, although I used chocolate fence+ribbon combination pretty often already. The second one is simpler. Hmm..... decision decision.....

Anyways, since this is gonna be a short post, I'll just leave it at that. I hope you enjoy the pics. Have a blessed week everyone!

San-San's Farewell Party and Desserts

Goodbye is never my thing, I don't think it's everyone's thing anyway. I don't like airports and I really don't like the feeling when I'm seeing that person leaving and walking away to the airport security check-in and I had to say good bye for the last time. It is sad, but I always thankful at the same time that I got the chance to know them for a while. It's San-San's turn this time, she's going back to Indonesia for good and starting her own business there. She's been a really good friend for the three years she spent here in bay area, and I'm very blessed to know her. It really make me sad to see her leave but I'm also happy and wish her for the best for her future. I'm definitely gonna miss her but hopefully I can get to meet her whenever I'm in Indonesia :).

We were planning a farewell for her before she leaves. We don't want to call it a party because it certainly wasn't something that needs celebration. But we want to show her how much we love her and how much we're gonna miss her. So we bought some of San-San's favorite food here in the bay, invite some close friends, which turned out to be 50+ people (see San, we love you so much), and what gathering without some dessert? I certainly didn't want to make it over-the-top as again, this is not a bridal shower, baby shower, or a birthday, it's a farewell. I know she likes mascarpone cheesecake that I made so that one is definitely on the menu. Tiramisu was also in the menu as it is easy to make and fast, it is one of my go-to dessert whenever I need to make something good in a fairly limited time, although it might not be the cheapest dessert selection menu :)

Since tiramisu can be made ahead of time (and recommended too as the lady fingers need some time to absorb the moisture and to blend all the flavors), I decided to make the third dessert, which is a passion fruit silk pudding. The texture is very soft, similar to those asian almond pudding texture without the almond flavor (yes, I dislike almond extract) and you don't even need to use your teeth to bite into it. I used passion fruit syrup for the sauce as this is the only flavor available in a couple of different asian grocery store. I was actually looking for mango syrup, but since passion fruit is the only one they have, that'll do then, besides, I'm all for passion fruit anyway. I don't have a closer picture of the pudding as I wasn't taking these pictures, but I will be making it again next week for another event and will take a better close-up picture so that you can see it better and I'll make sure to post the recipe too.

For the cheesecake, I put some raspberries I froze in summer and put a good doze of meyer lemon zest too, these two makes a great pair. I drizzled the top with nutella dark chocolate ganache and put fresh raspberries on top. I was so glad that I could find beautiful red plump raspberries in this time of the year, although it is true that I live in California where berries are available all year long, but they don't always look like these ones. The ganache was delicious on its own, you can't really tell the hazelnut flavor when biting into the cheesecake though but since I kept licking my finger (and continuously wash them with soap and water afterward), the hazelnut flavor was definitely there. I'll probably add more nutella next time, it's good for glaze or filling or just as a spread on a toast.

(the pudding is the yellow one in the back)

We had a good time together, it's not a celebration but it's not a sad party as well. We certainly didn't want to send her off with a bad feeling, we want to send her off with cheerful feeling :). We set up a photo booth in the corner of the room and we had some funky props too to take pictures with San-San. It was a good night and I'll just leave it at that.

It's not a goodbye San, but it's an "I'll see you again next time". I wish you the best in Indonesia and we miss you :)

Strawberry and Pistachio Mousse Cake

This cake followed a few days after the previous cake, which was for another friend's birthday, Annette. This was one of those time that I had no clue of what cake I would make. I guess all my energy was spent on thinking the different components of the previous passion fruit cake :D. I just bought heavy cream on Friday night after work thinking that 99% chance I will need it for whatever it is I will decide to make the day after.

I was hoping that I could use some of the precious stuff I had in the freezer so that I won't have to buy something. I still have a large ziploc bag full of very ripe summer strawberries that I kept since summer and since summer this year is only a few months away, I decided to put them to use. The cake consists of two layer of sponge cake (already available), strawberry mousse for the bottom layer, a layer of cream cheese mousse layer hidden inside the strawberry mousse, and pistachio mousse for the top layer. I made strawberry gelee for the top layer too to brighten the color. The kitchen smells really good when I cut up the strawberries and pureed it, I felt like summer already. And the strawberry tasted exactly just when I bought it in summer, very ripe, juicy, tasty and sweet. The pistachio mousse itself was from pistachio mousseline that I lightened up with some whipped cream and I added more pistachio paste to it.

The end result looked a bit too tall for me, especially for 8" round cake that's not too big. I think the decoration for this cake is very different than my other cakes. I usually like simple, elegant decor, but surprisingly this time, it turned out so bright and cheerful, hahaha.... I did decide to put some red ribbon to match the red gelee and the strawberries on top, making it look even brighter :D. Oh well, in this middle of winter, we all can use some bright color to brighten up our life, don't we? :) Have a blessed week everyone!

Tropical Gateaway in A Cake: Passion Fruit and White Chocolate Mousse, Mango, and Raspberry Jelly Cake

It has been pouring down hard and heavy these past couple of weeks in California, San Jose to be exact. It seems like there are five storms passing with heavy rain one after another (so I've heard). I think this is the longest rain I have ever seen in this area for the past eight years if I remember correctly, when I moved here. I have never liked cloudy, rainy weather. Weather affects your mood, well, at least for me :). While on the other hand, I'm all about sunny warm weather. Sun makes me happy (not scorching hot though) and excited. But fortunately (or is it?), I'm inside an office building with a stable temperature everyday, so the rain doesn't really affect me all that much, except when I'm going out to lunch, weekend, and when I got home from work of course. Believe it or not, I woke up earlier than usual when it rains at night. The sound of the rain hitting the window next to my bed easily wakes me up bright and early in the morning (in this case, dark and early :D).

Anyways, the bad weather makes me longing for something summery, or maybe tropical. Although it wasn't too long ago that summer had passed, but I already miss the smell and taste of berries, cherries, peaches, mangoes, ... It also happened to be San San's birthday last Wednesday. Although weekday birthday is never good for me (if I'm making the cake), but I tried my best to plan my schedule accordingly. I had also been wanting to lay my hands on passion fruit, in terms of creating something with this tropical and exotic fruit. Back in Indonesia, we can easily find this fruit at the grocery store, but it was a pain to eat or to extract the juice, so I didn't really care so much about it, but that was before I started making cakes. I couldn't even cook rice in a rice cooker at that time (can you believe that?)! Now that I'm into cakes and desserts, passion fruit has been one of my most-wanted items :D and I was so excited that I found a baking supply warehouse near San Fransisco and they also sell to individuals! They do carry passion fruit puree as well as tons of many other stuff, so I got that a week before the bday.

It only seems appropriate to match passion fruit with mango, and raspberry was also came to mind. Mostly because they have floral-y or tropical smell that I think compliments each other a lot. I also paired it with white chocolate mousse to balance out the flavor and two layers of almond joconde that have been brushed with Grand Marnier as the base. It might look like too many things going on in one cake, but I love texture and complex flavor combination, although at that point I really don't know how well it will turn out.

I was pretty surprised to find out that the passion fruit puree was really sour and very liquid-y in terms of texture, almost like water although not as much. I have never used passion fruit in any of my baking before so I didn't know what to expect. I put LOTS of sugar to sweeten the puree but it seems like no matter how much I added, it was never enough and I didn't want to add more to it as it was almost the same amount of the puree itself. I had so many difficulties making the mousse as the mixture was so thin (before the gelatin sets) and the mousse was leaking from under the cake ring. After much frustration, remade the mousse to made up the lost amount and put it in the freezer to set, I went to sleep as it was already late.

The big cake for birthday

As predicted, the mousse was on the tart side, a little to tart for my taste in fact. The mango wasn't helping either as it wasn't sweet enough, which is expected I guess since it's not the season for it yet. Good thing the birthday girl likes tart stuff, but it might be too much for some of my friends :D. The gelatin wasn't quite enough to set the mousse as it was a little too soft. So, I put white chocolate fence and a ribbon around it to hold the mousse. At that point, it didn't look too bad, in fact, I think the white chocolate and the green ribbon added another dimension to the tropical theme :D. My friends were all agree that the cake was tart overall. I guess, it wasn't an ultimate success, but hey experiments don't always turn out so perfect, do they :D? I definitely want to play more with passion fruit and still curious with it, somewhere along passion fruit chiffon, or mix it with white chocolate ganache for macaron filling, somewhere along that line and I can't wait to have the ultimate passion fruit cake/dessert!

I brought the mini cakes to work and let my coworkers tried it and surprisingly, they liked it! The textured firmed up a little more and I guess the flavor blend in more after a few days.

I don't have the picture of the inside of the cake, but I left one cake "undecorated" so you can see the layers that made up the mini cakes. There's white chocolate mousse layer in the middle of the passion fruit mousse, you can probably see it from the white streaks in the picture below.

White and Blue Wedding Cake

Remember this? Yes, they are officially married now! They got married in Indonesia back in December, but they were also having a little celebration with their friends here back in the States last week.

I was so excited when Kathy asked me if I would and could make the cake for her mini wedding celebration. The party was for about 50 people so I didn't have to worry about making a huge cake to feed them all. And the most important thing is, I didn't have to worry as well about what cake I want to make as Kathy was dead-set of having her favorite Indonesian cheese layer cake with pandan and vanilla sponge cake. This took a huge weight off my shoulder as deciding on the cake flavor is the most difficult thing to do when making a cake, at least for me :). So, all I needed to worry was the cake design.

She mentioned that her theme would be blue and silver and she wanted the base to be off-white color. White and blue is easy but incorporating silver? hmm... I have to think extra hard and even tried to find inspiration everywhere. I looked at probable hundreds of pictures for inspiration. I was originally planning to use diamonds or crystal to put on the cake but I canceled that idea last minute (umm... the night before) since the crystal will not be edible and I'm afraid someone might accidentally eat it. Besides, I was afraid that the cake will look too "bling-y" (if this is a word).

I started making the sponge a few days before for three days at night after work and the morning before work. This was the only time I could spare since work was so busy that week. I tried to do as much prep as I can to avoid rushing things on Saturday (the party was on Saturday evening). Not to mention that I had to make another cake for Sunday the day after. Luckily, my sister in law and her brother helped me making the figurines. It was so hard for me making the glasses for the boy since it was so tiny, and my hands were shaking, but finally we managed to pull it off after a few hours (yes, we're still amateurs at making figurines :D). All of the filling, frosting, assembling, and decorating were done on Saturday. The design wasn't actually planned, except for the top tier part. It was kind of an instant idea, which I don't think turned out so bad after all :). Even the heart idea came up half an hour before I had to get ready. It was a crazy day, or crazy week I should say as I was on a rush the whole time. The cake was done VERY last minute, and I was about 30 minutes late than what I had planned.

Luckily, the cake landed fine on the table. It was really heavy and I could barely carry it. I had to brush the ribbon and the hearts with pearl dust on the little venue, with some guests watching (which are my own friends too). Overall, I was pretty happy with the look. I was worried that white and baby blue color combo would make the cake looks like a baby shower cake. But I think it turned out okay, sweet and simple. Sure it's not elegant, just like any traditional wedding cake should be. But I didn't want it to be traditional, I wanted it to be fun and I was so glad that the bride and groom were happy with it.

Here are some pictures of the bride and groom. I have to say though, I think Kathy is the most beautiful bride I have ever seen. I wish you could see her wedding pictures when she was in her wedding dress. She looked really pretty, and not just pretty, but really beautiful. Richard surely is a lucky guy, not just because he has a beautiful wife on the outside, but also beautiful on the inside. CONGRATULATIONS for the newly wed! Wish you a beautiful life together and may your marriage be a blessing for other people around you :).

ps: Photos are courtesy of San2, a talented photographer friend of mine (I'm surely gonna miss you San when you're leaving :( )

Another Year, Another Tiramisu

This is the first tiramisu of the year. Although it wasn't too long ago that I made Baileys tiramisu, but oh well, it's another year and tiramisu is a perfect start to a new year.

This was actually a request from a friend for a birthday, so I had no choice and I didn't get to argue or persuade her to request something else :). I guess I do enjoy making tiramisu as it is easy to make, tastes good, and make the house smells like coffee and rum, hmm....

The cake in the picture here was actually made with leftover tiramisu cream from the big cake. I didn't get to take a picture of the big cake because it was so... last minute. The person was almost arrived at my house before the cake was done. Good thing it finished just in the nick of time that she didn't have to wait and watch me decorate it, that would be a nightmare in any way. So yeah, too bad although it was not that special, it's still square, brown colored, chocolate fence, ribbon, gold dragees, textured sheet cake, but I would really like to remember what I made a few years from now :)

But at least I got this picture here. I had some leftover cream and there's no way that it was going to waste. Worst case, I probably going to freeze it, but fortunately, I had some chocolate sponge cake that I then drenched it in the coffee-rum mixture and I had been dying to try one of my newest baking tool collections :D. I used what's called cake transfer sheet. It is basically a textured mold made from clear plastic, about 1.5" high. I did have some difficulties unmolding it after taking it out from the freezer (I have to freeze it before unmolding), but it works great afterall. I used the leftover chocolate squares from the big cake. I used my arabesques chocolate textured-sheet for this one. I'm starting to really like putting gold dragees on top of tiramisu. I think it makes the cake looks elegant :D, but it's just me though :)