Ube Macapuno Cake

One of the things I miss about home (Cebu City) is the taste of purple yam or ube. Purple yam is a root vegetable of Asian origin that has a natural shade of lavender or purple. The real purple yam doesn't look pretty on the outside but they do taste divine and make good for desserts. Filipinos love it, or at least I haven't known any who doesn't. It can be flavored in ice cream, cakes, cookies, jams, you name it!  Any purple-colored food would immediately be associated with it.

In Finland, purple yam is never heard of, and I would assume the Finns will find it weird to eat something purple other than blueberries! I once found a very pricey bottled ube jam (and the last one standing) at an asian shop which tasted like there would only be 20 percent ube content and the rest is artificial flavoring and sugar! Nevertheless I am just thankful I was able to lay my hands on it.

So what would I do with it? I was thinking of making hopia ube.. Ughhh the thought of it is salivating. I remember Baker's Fair ube hopia where I would get them still warm and I always bring a box with me to Cebu every time I visit Manila. I wonder why they never had a franchise in Cebu? Hmmm... Then my thoughts shifted to making puto ube, ube maja, ube ensaymayda, but hey, I only have one bottle and there's no room for failure right now. If there's anything I'm good at, that would be making cakes. So why not hack a Red Ribbon Ube Macapuno Cake? A fluffy ube chiffon sponge filled with cream and mascarpone cheese with macapuno bits! I just had to make it! So off to google to search for some serious food hackers and voila I found Heart of Mary. She shares her recipes and gives great tips for home bakers. All credits to her. If you want the recipe, kindly visit her page at http://pinoyinoz.blogspot.fi/2010/08/ube-macapuno-cake-recipe.html

I did follow her recipe but somehow got a very thick egg yolk batter. So I added a bit more milk to it before folding the egg whites.  The cake was rather pale in color because I didn't use too much food color in it. However I did add more color to the cake crumbs to make it look exactly like Red Ribbon's! This was really good and I will definitely make it again!

Customized Cakes 2

 1. Corset Cake / Korsettikakku

 2. Football Themed Cake / Jalkapallokakku

 3. Cigar Cake / Sikarikakku

4. Drum Set Cake / Rumpukakku

Customized Cakes 1

1. Minnie Mouse Cake / Minni Hiirri-kakku

 

2.  The ever popular Doll cakes aka Princess or Barbie cakes / Prinsessakakku tai Barbie-kakku

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3. Hello Kitty Cake in 3D / Hello Kitty-kakku

4. Cars Theme Cake / Cars-kakku

5. Muumi Cake in 3D / Muumikakku

6. Robin Hood Cake / Robin Hood-kakku

7. Touho-kakku

Your fantasy is my reality

Fantasy cakes, I mean! I have always been fascinated of how cakes are turned into a work of art. I knew that there's an artistic side of me but I never really paid attention to it until I started decorating cakes. I had some basic training of cake decorating years ago when fondant covered cakes were never heard of. I only knew boiled and royal icing then. But nowadays these fondant, gum paste or airbrush thingy are very new to me. So I merely rely on youtube videos and countless bloggers for tips and tutorials on how to create artistic cakes. A big thank you to these people for sharing their knowledge to the world.

Here's my first character cake for my godson on his first birthday, followed by a 3D cake for his second birthday.

Muumi themed cake

A bold attempt in basket weave piping with very shaky hands! LOL

There you go!

Garbage truck cake

Back view

Dirty-faced driver :)

Hit or Miss?

It's-just-not-my-day. The words I often say when my freshly baked goodies went  flop and head straight to the bin. Heartbreaking and even depressing! I told myself countless times I could never be good at baking and I should just give up. But how can I give up something I really LOVE doing? Just keep in mind... Shit happens, get used to it!! :D

So here are some of my hit-and-miss cakes. Although most of my "miss" cakes didn't actually make it for pictorial out of frustration, I don't want to take pictures of them sitting ugly from the bin!



1. Red velvet cake (I made them into cupcakes). Taste was okay (without the cream cheese frosting) and definitely better with the frosting, until my poop became red for three damn days I was dead worried! I have always wondered why so many people swore by this cake and consider it as  "to-die-for". Yes you will definitely die because of the amount of food color in it!! Jeez!
Verdict- MISS. I prolly won't make this again but If I somehow find a way not to use any food color in it then I might change my mind.

2. Banana-chocolate chip muffin
 It was very easy to make. It smelled divine after coming out from the oven. However a day after it became dense and I needed to pop it in the micro soften it up.
Verdict- Still a hit for me :)

4. Pineapple Upside-down cake
A miss for me. Too sweet and dense.

5. Custard cake

HIT. A flan with a cake. Need I say more? 

6. MIL's birthday cake

MISS! I will never use store bought whipped cream spray for cake decorating. Sorry MIL!

7. Steamed Rice Cakes

MISS. On the left side were steamed and on the right side were baked. And these are really meant for steaming. I just wanted to experiment to get the consistency I wanted. But surprisingly both were flop.

My blogging hiatus

It's been 2 years since my last post. *sigh*  So much has happened. I went to school to become a chef in finnish language and it was quite a challenge really. The class were packed with Finns except for two aliens who speak funny finnish (one was me of course!). Despite the language struggle I made it through anyway!  After 15 months of theory and internship, I was able to graduate. A pat on the back for me, I say! :)

Then there was the biggest reason. I finally got what I have been wishing for a long time. A mini me!!!!!!!!!! I was pregnant half the time of my studies and my little angel came to life on January 2013. This was how he looked liked then..

And this is  a year and a half later...

QUACK QUACK!!!

We named him Aaron and now he is my reason for breathing! (- ö, -)

My first attempt on French Macaron

After reading countless of blogs about these little minions, I finally joined this crazy trend.
Although I made a promise that my first macaron bite has to be the ones from Pierre Hermé, I got a little too impatient of waiting for the day I will set foot in Paris. *sigh* So here I am breaking my own vow.
Although only few and very simple ingredients are used, It's quite interesting how many were unsuccessful at their first, second, even third attempts in making macarons. So It got me curious than intimidated. For starters, many advised to use the French method than the Italian counterpart. Everyone has their own preference and even swear by them. Then there is the "aging" of the egg whites. What does that mean? Well it means allowing the separated egg whites to dehydrate both inside the fridge and in room temperature for up to 5 days before incorporating them with the rest of the ingredients!! Now that sounds ridiculous. So since it's my first time, it wouldn't hurt that much to fail if I try the simplest procedure I could find.
First I searched for a video about the "macaroonage" step in making macarons to know the consistency I should be aiming for. It should be lava-like or molten.Then  I came across a video of Lorraine Pascale and fell in love with her in an instant! I like her approach in keeping everything simple. Like just what she said, baking is not always fast, but it's always easy! :)

Ingredients:
125 grams fine ground almonds
125 grams powdered sugar
40 grams egg whites
Sift the ground almonds and powdered sugar into a bowl. Add the egg whites and mix together into a paste.
Add the color of your choice.

In another bowl:
40 grams egg whites
110 grams sugar + 2 Tbsp water boiled together.

Boil together the sugar and water in medium heat without stirring. Meanwhile whisk  the egg whites to a medium peak. When sugar syrup reaches a 110° C, remove from heat and with the mixer still on, gently add the sugar syrup in a thin stream while constantly beating the egg whites. Mix until stiff peaks form.

** Because in the past I have had my fair share of failed boiled sugar and I still don't have a candy thermometer (I cannot stress enough how vital it is in baking), I did not use this version.
And like what I said, I'd go for the easier way. Therefore whip the egg whites till foamy and gradually add the sugar (omitting the water of course) until stiff peaks form.

Now the macaroonage step: Add the meringue to the paste and mix the batter only in a maximum of 50 turns. The consistency must be lava-like.
Place inside a pastry bag with a 10mm tip and pipe small, evenly spaced dollops on a baking sheet.
Tap the baking sheet against the counter few times to ensure the shells are smoothed down.
Leave the macarons to rest at room temperature, uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until the batter does not stick to your fingers when you touch them.
Bake for 12-15 mins at 170 with the oven door slightly ajar.
Cool completely before adding the filing.

For the filling:

150 grams of semi sweet chocolate
 50 ml cream
2 tsp instant coffee powder

Melt altogether until smooth.

This recipe makes 30 macarons. They came out lovely and the feet!! oh they had feet!! :)