San Churro… Spanish Doughnuts!

 

Talk about having indulgence, luxury, creamy, heavenly flavours all in one cup … that’s what you get in a sip of San Churro’s Hot Chocolate!   This is not for the faint hearted!

On Friday afternoon, I thought I would make A’s wish come true for a cup of this hot chocolate!  So I asked The Memoir and her husband and our friend G to come along for a night of chocolate adventure.  It has been awhile since we headed into a “happening” spot like Fremantle on a Friday night – JUST for the fun of it!  (Made me realise that we should do this more often!  We are young, we are free, we haven’t got kids yet, we should get out more!!! Haha!)

We had to wait around, despite it being about 9.30pm, and had to hawk around like hungry vultures waiting for a table.  The place was buzzing!  With the deep brown wooden furniture, nicely displaced chocolates lining up the shelves and the energy of a friday night, it felt like a big city cafe!  I really liked the atmosphere!  The service was really quick too!

A ordered the Couverture Dark Hot Chocolate, and oh my, talk about a serious chocolate hit – more like a smash and a bang!!!  It’s like a chocolate bar, melted and sipped!  Even for a chocolate fan like me, I found it too rich – I think shared between two would be perfect! 

I had the Mint Spanish Hot Chocolate – it was nice actually!  It felt a lot less rich than the dark hot chocolate, but if you want a true chocolate hit, go for the pure hot chocolate!!!

We ordered a set for 2 and shared it amongst 5 of us…. it comes with 2 types of melted chocolate and 6 of these spanish doughnuts!  I think it could be more soft and fluffy to be honest!  I still remember having some of these at the Bluewater Grill buffet once, and they were actually better!  These were a little too tough and crunchy!  However, having never actually been to Spain or known a Spanish person, I’m not sure I am a good judge on what it is meant to be, since we have been more exposed to the american type of doughnuts!

Now… Im thinking I should research on how to create these doughnuts!  Yes, just deep fry them – but I’m wondering how do we make them extra tasty!  I expected the doughnut to be more flavoursome – perhaps I should add in some vanilla bean or extract if I ever make it myself!

This says it all…………. !!!  Always enjoy your chocolate!!! 

I shall be back to visit San Churros – if not to have a chocolate feast, but to enjoy a true cafe atmospher (you would struggle to find this type of cafe on a Friday night in a suburban cafe! )

FREMANTLE

91 Market Street,
Fremantle, WA. 6160
p 08 9336 7557

(Thanks to A for these yummy photos!!!)

Sun-Thu 8:30am-10pm
Fri-Sat 8:30am-11pm

Baby Cupcakes!

I’ve received a couple of comments lately that I haven’t been blogging!  Hehehe that was nice to know actually – that meant that people read my blog!  Yes, sometimes I feel like Julie in the movie “Julie & Julia” (btw, you should watch it – sooooo good!  Inspirational and just utterly delicious!), where you write into this empty space out there and you feel like you are talking to yourself!

I love these cupcakes!!!  Thank you to all who gave feedback on them as well!  I was rather pleased that my new recipe created these rather moist little mini cutey cupcakes for R&C’s wedding last friday!  These days, I scribble my recipes and tips on paper around the kitchen – I find that when playing around and experimenting, you never know when exactly that one thing does the trick! 

R&C had the lilac colour theme going!  I made a white chocolate ganache and mixed in a bit of red and blue colouring.  Go easy on the blue – otherwise at first it looks grey!!!  But don’t panick!  Just add in more red till you get the purple shade you want!  I promise you, it will turn purple

I loved the chocolate ganache more than the lilac white chocolate ganache – it was incredibly rich, smooth and creamy, a softer ganache than I normally make – but I think it worked really well with the pale yellow vanilla cupcakes.  Trick is if you want a softer chocolate ganache, go with the single cream/whipping cream.  The thickened cream will make a much stronger and stable ganache, but it is a lot firmer and not as easy and delicate on the tastebuds!!!

*Yawn*  Time for bed – yay tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!  Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the warmer weather that is sweeping over Perth!!!

P.S.  Big Thanks to The Memoir who took these pictures for me!  Aren’t they fantastic?!

A Heartful of Cupcake!

Congratulations Yau Hing & Edwina!

YH & Edwina are dear friends of ours!  We have had many fun double dates, and we were so happy to hear they were getting engaged, and now having an engagement party!  A couple who are so generous, thoughtful and helpful and who know how to enjoy great food and laughter!  It has been particularly fun exchanging wedding stories and tips with Edwina!!! 

I had been thinking for awhile what to bake for YH and Edwina’s engagement party!  They both like chocolate and like the colour red!  So I was on a chocolate mission!

Anyway, this idea hit me whilst busy at work last week!  Perhaps it was my brain trying to calm me down whilst the tasks seemed to go on forever, spreadsheets and documents opened at maximum capacity, when the inbox never seems to decrease in size!  Yes, cake is perspective.  Pretty yummy cakes are great “distractions”!

I baked about 50 mini chocolate cupcakes with double chocolate ganache (Lindt swiss chocolate is the very best!  However, go easy if you use the 70% cocoa, it can get rather bitter – by the way, whilst reading up on the chocolate ganache and properties of this frosting, I found out that dark chocolate is what stabilises a ganache!  How interesting is that!).

I used my previous mudcake recipe for these cupcakes, however very interestingly enough, they came out quite differently!!!  They were more fluffy and light than dense!  Goes to show that depending on the tin sizes etc, it will change the composition and texture of a cake!

We bought red paint and the wooden letters from Spotlight (no we didnt carve it! Haha!) which A carefully painted!  The mini cupcakes and wooden letters were secured with blue tack!  It seemed to do the trick – very stable!!!

Congratulations again, YH & Edwina!  We wish you every happiness and joy for your future together!  Happy wedding planning!!!

P.S.  Stay tuned for this Friday’s wedding sweets creation!!!

Strawberry Heaven!

I love strawberries!!! :)  As I called them in one of my previous entries, they are like “happy fruit” to me!   I love their vibrant colour, their heart shape, their very sweet aroma, it’s like no other fruit!  They are great with almost every dessert and my favourite way to decorate my cupcakes and cakes! 

It was such a different thing to do on a Monday night – to decorate this sponge!  I really enjoyed it!  What a luxury to be able to create cakes on a week night!  I made the sponge the day before but dressed it up after dinner on Monday, before we gave a couple of slices to our flowergirl’s family! (She is super cute!!!)  It was absolutely the best way to start the week and a great way to enjoy a weeknight!

I made the sponge from scratch, using an asian style sponge recipe!  I was inspired,  after stumbling upon Crummb’s “Perfect Sponge Cake” blog entry quite a few months ago.  She totally convinced me to give it a go!  I have made sponges a couple of times, and although they are one of the most common cakes that you can think of, and can buy from any deli and supermarket, to find a truly moist and yet light and fluffy sponge is not an easy task!  The asian sponges are really nice – light and slightly sweet and yet not too airy, and are quite moist!

Here is a slice of the cake, sandwiched with a nice light, slightly sweetened vanilla bean fresh cream, with slices of fresh strawberries! 

Hmmm… how would I rate my sponge… it had a nice texture – light yet the crumb quite close, however it could have been a bit more moist!  I’m not sure how to make it a bit more moist… I wonder if I should brush some sugar syrup on it?

Anyhow – it was a pretty good sponge cake!  Simple and easy on the eye and the tastebuds!

Stay tuned… for last night’s creation!!!

Baking Cupcakes

 

 

 

Hehehe… this is going to be me tomorrow night!!!

Stay tuned!!!

Cupcakes on Show

Why do I like cupcakes? Do you like cupcakes?

As I was thinking of what to write today, I thought of this question! 

Personally, I find cupcakes so cute and pretty, like your very own miniture cake! Literally a mouthful of cake!  Haha!  They are also quicker to bake but in fact are probably more time consuming to decorate!

However, to be honest, I have never actually purchased a cupcake before!  The one time I was going to, the shop was closed    The thought of the sweet, thick sugary topping always put me off, I can almost imagine it permanently sticking to my hips!  EWww!!!

So I hardly ever ever make buttercream (however my Mum tried this recipe that made me change my mind about it!  One day I shall have to make it!)  or those really sweet frostings that is just made of butter and sugar and either milk or water – one look and I flip the page!  I prefer the more creamy and tasty ganache or fresh cream frostings (even though they are no less in calories I’m sure!).

I made the ganache extra “sturdy” this time!  It had to endure a photo shoot!!!  Chocolate to thickened cream 2:1 ratio.  My favourite chocolate ganache still has to be those made with about 70% cocoa type of chocolate!  I used Cadbury’s Old Gold Dark chocolate this time, whilst not bad, it wasn’t as rich and as tasty and satisfying as using Lindt or Green & Black’s.

Thanks to the memoir who took a picture of my cupcake, I present to you my version of a white chocolate mudcake buttercake!  These were the cupcakes I baked for our pre-wedding shoot.  They were more like a vanilla cupcake – but guess what – it was a stir through recipe!  I’m now thinking whether this was any much different to my vanilla cupcakes that use the creaming method!

Photo taken from my iphone…  lately my favourite ingredient has been buttermilk – they seem to tenderise and fluff everything!!!  These were made with buttermilk and cake flour.  They came out nice and light and fluffy – considering it was all stirred together!   I think I should have taken them out of the oven 5 mins earlier, although my bro who is not a cupcake fan said he really enjoyed these ones (because it had a crunchy top, haha!)

Next entry will be on my Strawberry Shortcake… created on a Monday night… the perfect de-stressing after work activity…!

Chocolate Hit!

Your chocolate hit!

Yes this is what you call a piece of chocolate cake!  A yummy, unmistaken piece of “happiness”!  My kitchen hasn’t got the best of lighting so it made it hard for A to take the picture, but here it is…. a chocolate mudcake with a double chocolate ganache!

Thank you to all my tasters who went through my grilling process on the texture, taste, moisture level and richness of this cake!  Haha! 

I’m baking a two tiered wedding cake for my colleague in December, and he requested for a chocolate mudcake.  So I baked this cake for him and his fiance to try – and they loved it! PHEW!!!  To be honest, this is my ONLY recipe that I have now - so I was glad that it seemed to tick all the boxes

What I loved about this mudcake was that it was undeniably a chocolate cake (I know I keep talking about this, but to be honest, I taste too many cakes out there that are supposed to be chocolate but the look and flavour do not match!  I actually am starting to avoid chocolate cakes at cafes these days!  Unless it is a reputable place!) – the richness of a chocolate cake solely lies on the type of chocolate you use… do not be stingy here – if you are, you wont get that same deep flavour!

It was slightly dense as a mudcake should be, yet not too heavy that it gets stuck in your throat, it still had some air in the crumb, so you could eat it comfortably, and the double chocolate ganache truly had the intensity to seal the deal  

Quality of ingredients was not spared haha….. it just isn’t the same without using good quality chocolate and cocoa.  I now use dutch cocoa for my chocolate cakes and high cocoa percentage chocolate bars!  I was telling my friend the other day I might go broke baking for a living!!!  Haha!

Will be baking this chocolate mudcake for E’s engagement party next weekend!   But it will be decorated to her theme colour! Will blog it next weekend!

Next post will be on a white chocolate butter cupcake I made for our engagement shoot……..

Cupcake Heaven!

If you have ever googled about cupcakes, you will see a million blogs, sites and companies that do cupcakes!  It is amazing – there is this whole cupcake empire and world out there… I have just found some really amazing cupcake sites… truly amazing.. truly inspirational

Check out this gorgeous cupcake tier design… I love it!  I found it on “Cupcakes Take The Cake” blog (which looks like an awesome blog – I have only just had a quick look through it!), and they have a post about a reality TV show called “The Cupcake Girls” – how cool!!!  Wonder how I can catch an episode of this!

 

THE CUPCAKE GIRLS

Think running a bakery is a piece of cake? Well, try out this recipe: Two best friends, one set of bickering parents, 50 young, unpredictable female employees and a team of franchisees with differing opinions. Stir in a healthy dose of high maintenance customers and a handful of miserable contractors, and you’ve got a day in the life of The Cupcake Girls.

A 13-episode docu-soap, The Cupcake Girls follows entrepreneurs and best friends Heather White and Lori Joyce on a deliciously dysfunctional and often hilarious journey to build a cupcake empire. Produced by Force Four Entertainment in association with W Network, the series starts production this June and will premiere in early 2010.

This picture makes me totally totally excited!!!   I’ve a few cake projects coming up before the end of the year *gulp* – so you’ll start to see the pieces all form together on this very blog!

Feelings right now:  Excited, scared and feeling quite daunted but still very excited!  Such opportunities do not come everyday, and I believe this was answer and opportunity from God, so let’s see how it all goes!

Next post… will be on my chocolate mud cake – and I think my best chocolate cake so far… truly chocolatey… moist…compact texture, yet not too heavy or dense, just the right height, totally comforting… the way a chocolate cake should be!

Double Vanilla Cupcakes

Since I’m going to be baking cakes for some upcoming weddings, I decided to trial out a couple of recipes that I have been hanging out to do for a very long time!  Last weekend I trialled 2 recipes out – the double vanilla pound cupcake and a mudcake!  (mudcake post will be next!  This was a winner!)

Okay back to my double vanilla pound cupcakes… so what exactly is a pound cake?  I found a common description for it to be:

Pound cakes were the cakes made by our mothers, our grandmothers, and our great-grandmothers. The name ‘pound’ was given to this cake because the original recipes contained one pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. 

My own mother makes a fantastic, rich buttercake that gives no consideration to your hips but every contentment to your lips!  (Ahh I just rhymed haha!)  However, I notice a lot of pound cakes these days actually are not as rich, including this recipe that I trialled.  However, I was really happy with it, as it turned out better than my previous cake – there was no oozing of the butter from the cake or extremely oily patty cases.  I have decided it is to do with the creaming method.  I used to not give this creaming method much consideration, but I love it now – and whilst it takes patience and it may seem tiring and annoying as you have to wait till the butter and sugar has been creamed till it is almost white, and then alternate the flour and milk, it is so worth it!  You get this really nice fluffy, even textured cake! (Read my previous entry on the creaming method here)

Some creaming method tips from the Joy of Baking that really work:

“It is important to have the butter and eggs at room temperature so the maximum amount of air can be beaten into the batter. There is a tendency for the batter to curdle when adding the eggs but having the eggs at room temperature and adding each egg separately will help to prevent this. But don’t worry if there is curdling as once the flour is added the batter will smooth out. ”

Back to my cupcakes.. the recipe actually asked for sour cream but I used buttermilk instead (my latest fave ingredient!!!), and used vanilla bean paste and vanilla essence.  Hmmm… I think there was a bit too much vanilla essense… so I think I should tone down on that – I felt it was a little too overpowering.

The pictures aren’t too appetitising – I didnt bother to decorate it, and I purposely wanted it to be a pale colour since this would be the perfect shade if it was going to be decorated into a pretty cupcake!   So… yes… I think perhaps I will use it for R & C’s wedding in Oct… something to consider…

Close, fluffy and delicate crumb!

Shelf life for such a cake is about 2 days only – so eat it whilst it is fresh!!!

2 Years this week!

The gentle humming of my washing machine in the background, the swish and slosh and the feeling that yes, I am in control of the basic hygiene necessities in life!  This morning I read an email from my friend who said that doing an MBA seemed like a luxury in life sometimes (totally fascinated at this line – but she makes a good point!).  Doing laundry at times actually seems like a luxury for me these days! :)

***SCREAMS!***  My post just disappeared again!!!!  I cannot believe it!  I wrote a heap below and when i clicked on “Save draft” it totally disappeared!!!

I’m just going to have to post the pics now then!

Dozen long stem red roses!

We had dinner at Yu Restaurant at Burswood!  (I had a good narration of this BEFORE my post disappeared!  I wonder if it’s to do with my internet connection?) – anyway conclusion was, it was disappointing!!! Lovely atmosphere, and it was nice to be eating chinese food in such a civilised environment, however for the price and taste of the food – you’ll be more satisfied eating at your local chinese restaurant!

A also bought me a lovely BB to add to my collection!   THANK YOU!!!

So what did I give A, you may ask?  He got this!!!

Multi Function Pizza Oven!

It’s really cool!  No matter how juicy your toppings are, the pizza base comes out really nice and crisp!!!  Used lebanese bread as the base – perfect!!!   We tried this on Friday night for dinner, and it turned out really good – the photos are not on my camera though.  If there was KFC on top of the pizza – A would have been in heaven!!!  Haha!

Hope you all in WA are having a nice weekend!  The washing machine has stopped - next load coming right up!!!   See ya!