Teeny Tiny Apple Pie

(Super flaky pie crust + apple & raisin compote) x baked in muffin tins = the very last thing I made in 2009!
Happy 2010, everyone!

Gingerbread Cake House

I decided to make something fun for the nabe party hosted by my friends Mr. & Mrs. T... and here it is! My version of Gingerbread Cake House from Martha Stewart Holiday Sweets 100.

Since I don't have two 9-inch square cake pans, I used two 9-inch round pans instead and cut round cakes into squares... so the final product was much smaller than the original one in the magazine.

5 gingerbread kids represent my friends' kids - S-kun & K-kun of the T family, T-kun, L-kun & L-chan of the A family. It was so rewarding to see them excited to find their own gingies!

L-chan is in charge of decorating their Christmas tree ;)

Wishing you all and your loved ones a happy, safe holiday season from my teeny tiny kitchen!!

Christmas-y Bread Pudding

I used a day-old panettone instead of French bread that's called for in this recipe, which added extra Christmas-iness to this bread pudding.

Napa Cabbage Mille Feuille

Winter has come! This is one of the dishes perfect for a cold winter night. Leaves of Napa cabbage and ground beef are layered alternatingly à la mille feuille.

The sauce is seasoned with soy sauce and dashi. I love the "warmth" given by the thickened sauce.

Spuma di Mele Cotogne (Quince Mousse)

Here's my quince experiment part II: sweet.
The recipe is from Chef Mario Batali.

Quinces.

After 50 minutes in the oven.

The skin and cores, removed. The flesh, sieved and cooked with brown sugar and lemon juice. I just love how the colour changed after heated/cooked.

The cooked quince + whipped cream + a bit of rum = spuma di mele cotogne a.k.a. quince mousse, served here trifle-ishly.

Quince mousse, quince jam (made by my friend V!), and plain white sponge in layers on spoon.

Chicken Tagine with Quinces

My friend V kindly shared several quinces with me. (Thanks, V!) This is my first time in the kitchen with quinces - part I: savoury. I tried this recipe I stumbled upon online a little while ago.

It was very tasty!! A bed of couscous plays a supporting role really well here.

The dish is supposed to be "pretty darn hot", but I didn't find it so at all. My tolerance for spicy food might have changed a bit lately... wonder why?

Apple Cinnamon Muffin

Apple compote, cinnamon and toffee bits - together they made my entire apartment smell very autumn-y.

California Roll (Ver. D)

"D" as in Deconstructed (breaking down a dish into its essential components, then serving the parts as a whole) and/or Donburi.

Cucumber, imitation crab, avocado, nori, and toasted white sesame seeds on sushi rice.

Tiramisu Eclairs

I moved from Vancouver to Coquitlam two weeks ago, and here's the very first thing I made in my *new* teeny tiny kitchen. Filling is made from mascarpone cheese, whipping cream, icing sugar, and instant coffee granules. I wanted to add some vanilla extract but couldn't find it (I'm still unpacking & organizing...). Eclair shells turned out pretty well, I think.

Green Tea Chiffon cake

This is the first chiffon cake I baked in almost 12 months, and probably it'll be the last chiffon cake made in this teeny tiny kitchen...

I used the instant green tea powder from Itoen.

Avocado Coconut Ice Cream

When it comes to avocado, it was all about savoury application for me, such as california roll and guacamole... until my friend Eli introduced me to the sweet side of avocado, and now I'm totally hooked! (The recipe is from YumSugar. I added some coconut flakes to the mixture for extra flavour and crunchiness.)

Mini Cake for Yoyo

On the last day of my work experience (practicum) at Luscious Creations, my classmate and I got to design and decorate mini 4" cakes... on the spot à la Food Network Challenge :) We decided to make ones for each other, which made this assignment even more like FNC where you have to design a cake for a client you'll meet just before the challenge begins!

This is the one I made for my classmate Yoyo. I wish I could have made a Transformer cake for her but there's no way I could make it without some reference to look at :( So I combined her favourite colours: pink & black, one of her favourite decorations on cakes: a bow, and "Frog Prince" :)

Lime-themed Cake

I had an opportunity to work on a "free reign" dummy cake during my work experience (practicum) at Luscious Creations. It was meant for some charity event and their theme colours include lime green. I took the word 'lime' literally and designed this very lime-ful cake.

Each tier is 'double-height' (approx. 6"-7" tall) and I had a hard time covering those with rolled fondant :(

"Revenge Of The Sushi" Threadless Cake

Here's my second entry into Threadcakes. This time I chose "Revenge Of The Sushi". Check out my entry here :)

The cupcake batter recipe is from シンプルスポンジケーキ (Simple Sponge Cakes) published by Daiso.

I added cocoa powder to the 'nori' (black) frosting to avoid using too much black gel food colour.

Rolled fondant was used only to make 'Gari' and the weapons (a knife and a pair of chopsticks).

Chopsticks to eat a cupcake...?

"Hey, Mr. Blue Sky" Threadless Cake

 

I entered this cool online cake-baking contest called Threadcakes. The t-shirt design that I chose is "Hey, Mr. Blue Sky"... Check out my entry here :)

I cheated a little bit and used Betty Crocker Super Moist :) I picked Rainbow Chip because I thought it would be cute some rainbow colours underneath the blue sky, yet underneath the dark, gloomy sky.

Frosting is homemade :)

Grey rolled fondant isn't very appetizing :(

Strawberry Chips

Since my oven was set perfectly for slow roasting, I decided to make strawberry chips. The recipe is from (yet again) Wild Sweets Chocolate.

Slow Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Roma tomatoes were on sale, which urged me to try this simple yet wonderful recipe. I might have given them more than a few twists of black pepper, but they still taste great. I've been fighting temptation to eat them all at once.

Plated Dessert Diagram

This is my plated dessert diagram for the final practical test. I wish I could have taken a photo or two of the finished item :(

The red tuile was not a coil on the plate. It was more like a group of the big alphabet C's.

I used the Almond Glass recipe on Wild Sweets Chocolate which I love!

Please click on the above photo to read descriptions of the dessert...

Wedding Cake Ver. 4

The fourth and final wedding cake that I made at school was a part of the practical test. I gave myself a plenty of time (two hours, excluding time to make a batch of rolled fondant), and this time I swore to myself (as well as St. Honoré!) that I'd finish the decorating within the self-allotted time. No overtime. No mistake should be made again.

Just like the last one, there were quite a few criteria that needed to be met and, of course, the time constraint. I wish I could have a pastel-coloured cake with all-white decorations, but the cake itself had to be white. (Thanks for reminding me of the criteria, EU!) Besides, colouring rolled fondant takes long, and colouring rolled fondant the way I really want takes even longer; hence all white.

Trio of Summer Berries

Each student was assigned to present a summer-themed plated dessert to Ms. M, our instructor, as well as the entire class.

L to R: dark chocolate strawberry ganache, fresh strawberry slices, roasted almond slices, tuile rounds; white chocolate mousse, raspberry compote; mini fresh bluberry cake with lemongrass-flavoured whipped cream.

The recipe for dark chocolate strawberry ganache is from this awesome book called Wild Sweets Chocolate. (Thanks UW!)

I was aiming to achieve the flavour transition from rich ganache to lighter mousse to super light cake...

Wedding Cake Ver. 3

The third wedding cake that I worked on at school - all on my own this time. Well, this wasn't the first time to work on a wedding cake by myself, but I must say it was pretty challenging due to all the criteria to be met and the time constraint...

I'm happy with the crimped edges... (Thanks a lot for your books, Chiho!)

I'm happy with how the colours worked out, too.

There's always something to think "shoulda woulda coulda" about, but I had a great time overall :D