Chocolate Strawberry Mousse Delight

This cake is for a friend of my cousin, Florence. This friend likes chocolate and strawberry. I thought of a chocolate filled and frosted cake immediately and decorate it with strawberries. But I wanted to do something different instead of all chocolate sponge layers, filling and frosting. Strawberry mousse sandwiched in between the chocolate cake layers came to my mind. The tartness and lightness of strawberry mousse with the chocolate frosting seem like the best combination to me.

Petit Gateau : Cafe, Chocolat Caramel, Peanut Butter

Hubby's birthday is just round the corner. What should I bake? I actually thought of baking a simple cake after spending some time and effort in making the wedding cupcakes. Making fanciful cakes with different components can be tiring at times, not just time consuming. But passion, love and interest will triumph eventually.

Wedding Cupcakes

It was a pleasant surprise to me when the bride, Jia Ying, daughter of Janet, my golf "kaki", asked me if I could bake cupcakes for her wedding cocktail reception. I was both excited and a little anxious as this was my first time baking cupcakes for such an important occasion - a wedding.I started trawling the internet and books for ideas on how to frost and decorate the cupcakes. Pink is the favourite color of the bride. Thus I decided on a white and pink theme. Next, what cupcake flavours should I bake? That's any easy one - good old vanilla and chocolate cupcakes to go with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. The recipes are taken from Rose Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes book. The cupcakes turned out to be soft, moist and flavourful, especially the vanilla ones.

Coffee Swiss Roll

Does the frosting look like a caterpillar? It looks like one to me, except it is not a green caterpillar. Haha ...........

How about a cup of freshly brewed coffee with a slice of coffee swiss roll on a lazy afternoon? This coffee roll is frosted and filled with coffee-flavoured swiss meringue butter cream. Definitely for coffee addicts. 

Light Butter Cake

The year-end final exam for my son, Ryan, is finally over. What a relief! I can bake again and update my blog. What to bake? I wanted something simple that we can eat during tea time or any time of the day. Classic butter cake comes to mind. I've baked a rich yellow butter cake before. It's rich and sinful because only egg yolks are used. Too much saturated fats and cholesterol from egg yolks and butter. No good for the arteries and heart. This time, I wanted to try a lighter version of butter cake. To do this, I used whole eggs and separated them. I whipped up the egg whites chiffon style to lighten the batter and thus created a lighter cake. The texture is fine and light and that's what I wanted. I'm going to stick to this recipe now.

"King of Fruits" - Durian Cake

Durian - the king of fruits in tropical Asia. Most people will either love it or stay miles away away from it. It has a very strong, fragrant (to durian lovers) or pungent (anti-durianers) smell that seems to linger on forever. It's bizzare food for those who hate it. Lucky for me that my family are durian lovers. There's no "No durian in the house" rules.

Classic Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

I believe the majority of people from young to old love chocolate. Chocolate is such a versatile ingredient. It can be used to make wonderful desserts from the simple chocolate icecream and brownies to the decadent chocolate cakes and pies. We can have a cup of piping-hot chocolatey drink on a nice, rainy, cold day. The best chocolate drink I had was when I was at Stanley Park in Vancouver many, many years ago. It was cold and wintry. The cup of hot chocolate in my hands then was simply heavenly.