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2015!

Hello readers!

Happy New Year to all of you (can you believe a year has passed & it’s already 2015?), and thanks for following me over the past year. I know I have been pretty tardy the whole year in terms of posting & I really thank all of you who still comment & try out the various recipes.

I mentioned in my last post that I was planning something for the holiday. This was a collaboration with another baker, my dear friend Jancy, who went to Le Cordon Bleu (my FAQ on LCB) with me. We did this as a sort of taste-test for what sort of flavours people would respond to, as well as general receptiveness on newer flavours.

Presenting to you, our Christmas project, POCO A POCO Patisserie – the Macaron giveaway 2014.

Photo credits: Syazwan Hanif

Photo credits: Syazwan Hanif

L to R: Kaya, Salted Gula Melaka, Lavender Earl Grey & Maple with Candied Bacon

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey & gave feedback on flavours.

Here’s to a new year (and hopefully more new posts) to everyone!

As I type this, I’m letting my curd rest in the fridge, experimenting with something new! Promise a recipe will be out soon 🙂

Love,

Eugenia
– the first CITNB post of 2015

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Earl Grey and Lavender Moomin Birthday Cake!

Hi folks!

So it’s been a month plus since I’ve updated, and about two months since my last recipe post.

Huge apologies for the delay but I’ve been just so caught up with school that I haven’t had time to bake & blog about it. The real reason why I was so busy throughout the month of October was the Citibank International Case Competition. I had been chosen to represent NUS in Hong Kong and just needed to catch up on all my work before I left (just so that I would hand in all my assignments on time) and when I got back.

We did clinch second place so it really paid off! Since then, I’ve been catching up on work and am in the midst of starting a business thing with Jancy (my Le Cordon Bleu buddy). I’ll keep you guys posted on the status of things but you can look forward to local flavoured as well as unique macarons.

Just last week, I also went for a food styling workshop at The Kitchen Society with Elodie B. It was a really good hands-on lesson so hopefully my pictures for 2015 will show an inkling of improvement. Fingers crossed for that.

Since I haven’t had time to update, I’m going to share a cake that I did back in August for a birthday order. The birthday girl really likes Moomin (a Japanese character) so that was the design behind the cake.

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I paired an Earl Grey cake with my all time favourite Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but this time, lavender flavoured.

The cake and the buttercream are both easy to make. Piping the characters in SMBC, though, definitely proved to be much harder than I expected.

The birthday girl really liked the cake & I heard that the whole 8″ cake was finished by the end of the night 🙂

I made the same cake for my good friend Gen when she was back for her birthday this year & everyone enjoyed the cake too!

DSC_1021 Well, without further ado, here’s the recipe for you to try:

Earl Grey Tea Cake with Lavender Buttercream
Makes one 8″ cake, roughly 2-3 inches high

Earl Grey Tea Cake

Ingredients:

  • 6 Earl Grey teabags
  • 160g unsalted butter, softened
  • 500g caster sugar
  • 480g plain flour
  • 2tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 400ml whole milk
  • 4 large eggs

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease two 8″ round tins and line with baking paper.
  2. Heat the milk gently over stove (but not to a boil) and place earl grey tea bags in to seep. Leave aside to cool (with bags still seeping)
  3. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cubed butter in mixer until a sandy mixer is attained. Stop mixer.
  4. Cut the tea bags open (I cut about four, depending on whether you’re fine with the tea leaves in your cake – I personally think it looks quite nice) into the milk and then whisk the four eggs inside.
  5. Turn the mixer on to slow, and slowly add in the milk, scraping the sides of the bowl. Stop beating when mixture is smooth.
  6. Pour half the mixture into one tin and the other half in the other.
  7. Place into oven to bake for 25 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Lavender Buttercream

Ingredients:

  • 2 egg whites (~60-70g)
  • 100g sugar
  • 150g unsalted butter
  • 2 tsp dried edible lavender

Directions:

  1. Prepare dried edible lavender in an empty tea bag
  2. Put egg whites & sugar & edible lavender in a metal bowl & cook in a bain marie until sugar is totally dissolved and mixture is hot to touch
  3. Ensure that you whisk it continuously so that your egg whites do not become scrambled egg whites
  4. Once that is done, whip mixture up to soft peaks (I do this with my KitchenAid)
  5. Add the butter in in pieces
  6. Continue whisking until you get a nice buttercream

Well that’s it 🙂 A simple and yummy earl grey and lavender cake!

If you’ve got any questions, feel free to comment below.

Till my next update,

Eugenia <3

 

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1st Birthday!

Hi everybody!

Cake is the New Black turns 1 today 🙂

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started the blog – the way things are now as opposed to a year ago – everything is just so different.

One year ago, I decided to just jump into it and start the blog. Today, I am just so busy that I feel terrible I have been neglecting this space. To the extent that I wasn’t even able to make something nice and interesting for the 1st birthday.

Just want to say thanks to everyone who’s been reading this space & thank you for keeping up with me this past year. I really hope I’ll be able to keep up with blog posts in the coming months and I promise a whole bunch of better and more interesting posts once I’m done with school.

I celebrated the birthday with a good old-school orange butter cake which was one of the first few cakes I ever baked (by myself) in my life. Unfortunately, owing to the fact that I had no time to do this myself, my mom whipped up this cake for me.

I’ll be taking a hiatus till the end of my semester (December-ish) due to the fact that I’ve got so much on my plate – schoolwork (endless assignments), competitions and just too much. I hope everyone’s been doing well & that you’re having a less stressful time than I am haha.

DSC_1519 Till December, sayonara folks! & once again, thanks for being so supportive.

Love,

Eugenia

 

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