Dora The Explorer Cake for my Princess

The time has come for me to make a cake for my princess. Just a week before her birthday, I asked her what cake would she wants me to make for her and without a thought, she said - Mummy, I want a Dora Cake and it has to be like my doll. I was in a panic....her birthday is smacked right around my exam time. But, I told myself that I will just have to burn "midnite oil" and get her Dora cake done before the sun comes out.  So, I baked, assemble and decorate the 3D cake for nearly 4 hours.  Here's the result of it.  I was so worried that my princess will NOT recognize that this cake is a DORA cake but....phew!!!!.... when she laid her eyes on the cake, she shouted...Mummy, Mummy...its Dora, Dora, Dora!!!!  That made my day....

Here's a photo of my 3D Dora The Explorer Cake for my princess.

Now...another round of headache...my prince's birthday is just around the corner...what will he wants this year....oh dear, oh dear, oh dear....

Our Bread Buffet, Present Dessert Buffet and Gateaux, Torten & Cakes Buffet

Wohoo...its buffet time for our three classes.  We are all excited indeed. This semester has come to an end and we end it off with a buffet finale...awesome!!!  We had the best of times, best lecturers...what more can we ask for....

Present Desserts Buffet

Gateaux, Torten & Cakes Buffet

Bread Buffet

I really learnt so much from my lecturers...thank you so much!!!

Plating Up Dessert...a new and exciting class...

This is an interesting class...it teaches you how to plate up desserts and get every inch of your artistic side of your self into the plate and allow the plate to speak volume. Here's what we did for the whole term and here's some of the photos which I took in my plating up...

Ice / Frozen Desserts (Ice-Cream & Sobets)

Frozen & Cold Set Desserts (Parfait, Bavarois & Sabayon)

This is what my bench partner and me came out with for our springrolls for the dessert buffet

My simple springrolls plated dessert ...

Meringue Based and Fruit Desserts

Tarts

And lastly, our dessert buffet......

I really enjoyed this class...my lecturer is fabulous!!!

Honey Saffron Torte

Another exciting class...this time we made Honey Saffron Torte.  It consists of Lemon Madeleine Base, Peach Flambe & Honey and Saffron Bavarois. This is quite a nice torte indeed..yummy!!!  Here's some photos I took:

Here's where I laid some sliced caramelised peaches on the bavaroise.

Here's a photo of the torte after it came out from the blast chiller

Here's the end product of my Honey Saffron Torte...

Another awesome class indeed!!!

Raspberry Douceur

This is another awesome cake which I have never made or tasted before...its called the Raspberry Douceur. We had to make the almond dacquoise and chibouste cream.

Here's how the base looked like which is the almond dacquoise.

This is how it looks like after it came out of the blast chiller.

Here's the final outcome of the Raspberry Douceur...we blow torched the top...nice!!!

Basic White Bread, Vienna Loaves, Buns, etc

Our bread making class is just awesome!  We made a basic white bread and our lecturer even showed us what happens to the breads if its not full fully proofed. Here's a photo of it. You can see that the colour is different and I can tell you, the smell is also different...yes siree!!!

Besides the basic white bread, we made vienna loaves, buns, etc. Here's some photos which I took in class:

You know the best thing about our bread classes, we can take home our goods!!! Wohoo....

Oyaku Donburi

My whole family loves donburi especially oyaku donburi. This time around, instead of cooking for each individual person, I decided to cook for a giant (family of 4). My prince asked me before what is oyaku donburi and I explained to him that its a japanese one bowl meal which consist of chicken and egg over rice. However, instead of an oversize bowl, I used a rice pot...cooking for a giant..ha!ha!

Guess what? I still taste as nice and its a hit in the family...wohoo!!!

Passion Fruit Gatteaux

It was another exiting class...passion fruit gatteaux.  This is the first time I tried using a spray gun filled with shiny icing...it was exciting.  We had to make the coconut haystack base, the passion fruit mousse and passion fruit curd to complete the assembly of this gatteaux.  Here's a photo of all the gatteaux that my classmates made and the next one is made by me, myself and I.

We tasted one of our cakes and boy and boy...its quite yummy!!!

Cheesecakes (Baked and Unbaked)

Who loves cheesecakes?  I guess almost everyone!!! Some people loves baked one and others love unbaked ones...and the rest, it does not matter...its cheesecake, baby!!! It seems that baked cheesecake has been around for hundreds of years, believe it or not. Here's some of the cheesecakes that we made in class...Ricotta Cheesecake, White Chocolate Cheesecake,Vanilla Cold Set Cheesecake and Lime Cold Set Cheesecake. Here's some photos which I took in class.

You know, after that class, I could not eat anymore cheesecakes for a month...ha!ha!

Hello Kitty & Dear Daniel Swan Lake Theme

I was pondering what I should do for my marzipan plaque and since my kiddos love Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel, I thought I might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone...ha!ha! My princess love ballet and my prince loves drama...so tadaa...Hello Kitty & Dear Daniel Swan Lake Theme. Here's the result of my plaque.... I forgot to take some photos before putting it into the box...oophs!!!

I was over the moon when one of my friends wanted to use my plaque as a cake topper for her cake...wohoo!!!

Macaron or Macaroons?

Macarons or Macaroons? Does it really matter....these babies taste delicious. Having said that, Chef Zumbo did commented that these 2 are indeed different... "He said a macaron is characterised by a dome-shaped biscuit made of egg whites and almond meal, hard to the touch with a chewy interior and a macaroon is a small meringue cake, typically made of coconut and often dipped in chocolate"

We had a ball of a time making macaroons in class and not forgetting eating one in every 10-15 mins...ha!ha!

Tadaa....that's it...lovely macaroons for your eating pleasure!!!