Gingerbread cookies

 

The time has come and lets start off with some Christmas cookies.

This year I have bought some mini cookie cutters and want to make tiny cute little gingerbread cookies.

Christmas tree gingerbread cookies

 

Bake some gingerbread cookies and you need green fondant, I used ready made fondant.

Royal icing and small edible balls for the lights.

 

Gingerbread cookies recipe here

 



Spiderman cookies

My little boy is having a birthday party and this year he knows exactly what he wants.

He said he wants a Spiderman cake and cookies.

Hmmm... ok, shall we start with some cookies first?

I love making cookies but I've never made Spiderman ones?

I remember seeing a photo on Pinterest and they used an egg shape cookie cutter to make the Spiderman's head. Great!! I have an egg shape cutter which I bought during Easter to make e

Egg shaped cookies.

So I drew around the cutter as a template and copied a photo I saved from Pinterest

I drew the lines that goes on Spiderman's face. It's not that hard really?

So, lets bake some cookies first.

M&M's cookies

I have totally forgot about updating this cookies recipe, I made this after my kids demand for cookies in the supermarket. The kids have been off school for the summer holidays, so food shopping means taking them with me. We always come home with lots of junk food.

I rememeber that we had a bag of M&Ms at home so rather buy the cookies, I decided to make it when we got in.

These are really easy to make and the kids had fun helping me.

Well, that did help kill some time too.

Oreo chiffon cake

 

After seeing a few post of a chiffon cake sent in to me by my readers, I couldn't resist on making one.

I haven't made a chiffon cake for a while so I decided to make an Oreo chiffon cake.

My kids loves Oreos but daughter isn't too keen on chiffon cakes.

But my son who loves Chiffon cakes and Oreo's can't wait to eat it!

Here's my version of the Oreo chiffon cake, I hope you like it as much we did.

 

Orange Madeleines

Orange madeleine's

 

You will need a Madeleine cake tin, grease and dust with flour.
You can get 12-14 small madeleine's with this recipe. I have got my tin from Daiso in Malaysia.

Chewy Hazelnut & Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

300g plain flour 

1/2. Tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2. Tsp salt

170g unsalted butter (melted) 

160g light brown sugar

100g white sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2. Tsp vanilla extract

100g dark chocolate chunks

50g chocolate chips

50g chopped nuts for topping

Method:

Preheat the oven at 180c

Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda & salt together. 

Line the baking tray with parchment paper. 

Whisk the brown & white sugar with melted butter.

Add in the egg yolk, whole egg & vanilla extract and mix well.

Fold in the flour mixture to combine. 

Add the chocolate chips & chocolate chunks.

 

Scoop equal portions of cookie dough onto the baking tray.

Sprinkle some chopped nuts on top. 

Each cookie dough don't need to be flatten as it would spread out once it goes into the hot oven.  

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the cookies gets golden with crispy edges. 

Let the cookies cool on the parchment paper as it is very soft to move. 

 

Mini Orange Macarons

 

As sugar plays a big part in macarons for structure & texture.

 I've been wondering why 2 different types of sugar is used. I have been doing my research and have found that increasing the ratio of icing sugar produces a higher feet with the macaron. Caster sugar produces a harder shell and stronger structure where as the icing sugar gives a higher feet but weaker structure.

In my experiment, I have used a higher ratio of icing sugar and as the structure will be weaker I made mini ones & normal size ones to compare whether size of the macarons will be effected.

 

 

The larger ones (pictured above) actually looks really good.

Though the shell isn't shiny but overall it has lovely feet & they are chewy.

The macarons were left in an airtight container overnight and the colour & texture have improved. 

The shell was still hard and the texture was still chewy! 

If you would like to try this recipe, here are the ingredients. 

70g ground almonds

90g icing sugar

50g egg whites (aged* optional) 

20g caster sugar

Pinch of cream of tartar 

Few drops of orange food colouring

* I've used aged egg white where I left out in the room for 2 days. 

For the method you can follow my step by step guide here but as the ratio of icing sugar is higher you would only need 25-30 folds. I have found that using less caster sugar in the meringue, it won't whisk to shiny stiff peaks. Just whisk until you get firm peaks even though it looks matt.

As soon as the dry ingredients mixes in with the meringue, you can see it changes in texture immediately, if you have made macarons before then you will know what I mean. Just be careful not to over fold at this stage. 

I made lots of  mini size macarons in preparation for a mango mousse cake. 

For the filling, I will be using orange curd, just want to keep a fruity flavour to go with the fresh fruits in the cakes I'll be using. 

If you like to follow me for regular updates of my baking, click & like my personal blog at  https://www.facebook.com/mandysbakingjourney

 

 

 

Valentine's Day bake off 2014

 

 

Valentine's Day, few days before this day my daughter fell ill. I really thought I won't be able to make any cakes this year. It was actually easier as she was sat in front of the tv with a hot drink and resting, so I took the time quickly baking up some cookies and muffins.

Luckily, she was back to school the next day, so I managed to squeeze in time to make a Valentine's Day cake.

 

This is my first two tiered cake, a Black forest made for my husband. His favourite cake.

Recipe is link is here for this cake.

 

Walnut Cookies 核桃酥 (hup toh so)

Walnut Cookies, you can find these in chinese bakeries and they are huge cookies! 

I prefer them small as my kids can enjoy a couple of these cookies as treats.

 

They are called Walnut Cookies but all the recipes I have seen don't contain any walnuts! I guess they are called that as they wrinkle up during baking so it looks like a walnut after they have been baked.

I had plenty of walnuts in the cupboard so I might as well add a piece in the middle of the cookies.

Sugee Cookies

Busy, busy day today, I have been baking, and these are Sugee Cookies, recipe courtesy of Carine Chew at Leluscious Cheesecake & Pastry. https://www.facebook.com/leLuscious

  I never tried Sugee cookies before but Carine kindly shared her recipe with me so that I can bake these for Chinese New Year. But as she's in Singapore and I'm in UK, I couldn't try her homebake cookies in person.

Sugar cut out cookies

 

Here's a recipe for Sugar cookies, its very simple to make and tastes really good. 

I have used Christmas cookie cutters to make Christmas cookies with my children. 

But you can use these as normal cookies or we would call these biscuits in England.  

 

 

We decorated it with royal icing and edible decorations.

Making of the French Macarons

 

French Macarons, is this one of the hardest cookies to bake? 

 

Well, I would say yes as I have failed a few times when I first made them. 

When I have finally made my first successful batch, I stuck to the same method all the time and now I can say 'I can make them!'

 

But at times I still get one or two imperfect ones out the oven.

But hey, it is one of the hardest cookies to bake after all!

 

I have created a step by step guide of how I made mines, I hope my method is made simple for you to follow. I still follow it closely as it has worked for me all the time now.

Just want to share with you what to look out for and what you must do! 

 

So here it is, my guide to the French Macarons. 

Recipe is here so good luck and have fun! 

French Macarons

 

Before you start, if you prefer a step by step guide which I have made for reference.

Click here to take a look at my method to the making of French Macarons. 

French Macarons recipe:

You need  a template of circles drawn about 3.5cm, I drew mine with a piping nozzle.

Place it under a piece of baking paper on a baking tray.

 Ingredients:

50g ground almonds

40g icing sugar

7g cocoa powder 

(or just replace 7g of almond meal if you want all white macarons)

45g caster sugar

40g egg whites (*aged for 2 days, optional)

Nutella for the filling

Method:

Sift the ground almonds, cocoa powder and icing sugar together and discard and large bits of almonds that don't pass through the sieve. Set aside.

Whisk egg whites till soft peak then gradually add the sugar and whisk till you get stiff peaks.

Add your dry ingredients to your meringue and now you have entered the macaronage stage. 

Now for the macaronage technique, which I have learned to follow carefully after I failed my first batch by over mixing. 

They say this is the crucial part of the process, under or over mixing your batter can affect the results of your macarons.

You need to mix the batter and spread it against the sides of the bowl to deflate some of air in the meringue, keep mixing until you get a smooth, shining batter. 

Around 40-50 folds and you should have a batter that flows like volcano lava. 

If you get this right, then feets should appear on your macarons when baking. 

Now fill your piping bag and pipe onto the baking paper with your template under it. 

Once it's done, tap the macarons on the work top 2-3 times to remove any trapped air bubbles.

Let them rest for 30 minutes or depending on the humidity in your room. 

They need to form a skin so they no longer stick to your fingers when you touch it. 

This is also another crucial part which I have  learn from my mistake because if you don't dry it out it will crack in the oven. 

 Bake in a preheated oven at 130c for about 15minutes.

Let it cool before you remove it from the baking paper.

Match up your macarons to the same size then pipe Nutella and sandwich together. 

 

* you can use fresh egg whites with this recipe, I have tried both and leaving my egg whites out in a bowl covered with kitchen towel in room temperature for 2 days. I can't really see the difference or maybe I just haven't noticed it! The reason for this the experts say is to evaporate the moisture in the egg whites which results in a stronger shell and better texture. 

You can try this and tell me your findings. 

Happy baking. :)