Where's the Polar Bear?

I feel miserable, hesitant, and busy these days.

Ever since I started taking baking and cake decorating courses, and have my own kitchen, my life has been changed dramatically.

I used to be a stylish girl who enjoyed going to the malls every weekend, spending money and time on cosmetics and reading fashion magazines every month. It's only normal to bring home at least 1 new piece of clothing every month. (No, I was never a big spender) When I was in University, going to the mall is a weekly event. My shopping buddy and I would go to a different mall every weekend to shop. Things only get worse when I rented her basement in my master years that if one of us wake up in the morning and felt an urge to spend some money, we would go wake the other up, get dressed, and jump in the car. I love the non-existent schedule. Those were the days.

Ever since I own my kitchen, things have changed. I started to spend my time and money on groceries and preparing dinner rather than clothes. I started this blog. I stopped shopping at the mall but end up spending my time looking every where in the city to buy plates, cake stands, and flatware. Things definitely started to get worse when last weekend I actually allowed myself to dress in an old t-shirt, jeans that doesn't fit properly and unmatched shoes when I go out. I would never let myself out of the door dressed like that 3 years ago. The only chance that might happen to me, I thought, might be when I have a kid. I was surprised when I looked into the mirror later that day to examine my fashion faux pas. My passion for baking has engulfed me and has taken all my personal time. I am afraid these days that sooner or later my passion for cakes will die down, probably because I hated that there's no time to take care of myself anymore.

That's just my little worry these days. Yet I know this won't happen anytime soon. I still stay up late at night to finish a cake, and sacrifice my sleep to finish icing some cookies. I have no regrets, but maybe drink a few more coffees than I should be.

It's mom's birthday in a few days. Last year I did a mango galette for mom. Since my recent purchase of an ice cream machine, I have decided to make a baked Alaska for mom.

I knew of Baked Alaska when I was little. To me, it's a mountain of ice cream flambe with alcohol. The fire and ice combination fascinated me. Do you know what a Baked Alaska is?

Ok, maybe my version is far from Heston Blumenthal's version. That's just a little bit time consuming to my busy schedule. But here's my simplified version:

Doesn't it look like a burnt floating island? Ah yes, this island has pokey spikes! (C beside me: "where is the polar bear?")

8" Dome Shaped Baked Alaska with Mango Ice Cream
Sponge cake
3 eggs, separated
1.8 oz sugar
0.2 oz cocao powder
1.6 oz all purpose flour
Instructions here.

Mango Ice Cream
Ice Cream base:
8 egg yolks
3/8 cups suar
2 cups milk
1-1/4 cups whipping cream
3/4 cup mango puree
2 tbsp raspberry liquor
Follow your usual ice cream making instructions. When the ice cream is done, hand mix is 1/2 cup mango puree mixed with 1 tbsp liquor of your choice.

Swiss Meringue
5 egg whites
200 sugar
Heat up egg whites with sugar over a hot water bath until it reaches 60C. Mix occasionally. The mixture should feel smooth to touch. Transfer to a mixer and whisk until stiff peaks, 5 to 10 minutes.

Assemble
Cut the cake into 2 layers. Pick one of the layers and trim to fit the top of your dome shaped mold. (You can omit this step and use the whole cake if you want.)
Line your mold with plastic wrap. Put the smaller piece of cake (if used) at the bottom and put in your prepared ice cream. It's best to coordinate your time and put the ice cream in the mold directly from your ice cream maker. Put the big piece of cake on top of the ice cream, and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for at least 2 hours.
Fill your pipping bag with meringue. Take out your cake from the freezer and flip it over a cake board/serving dish. Unmold and take away the plastic wrap. Pipe the meringue on top of the ice cream to cover it entirely. Using a hand held torch, lightly caramelize the meringue. Serve immediately.

M for Mango

This was how the story goes:

I was at the supermarket doing my weekly grocery shopping and I saw beautiful mangoes on sale for $0.59 a piece. "It's only March, sure mango season starts earlier every year." I thought to myself. I resisted the temptation and walked pass the sea of mangoes.

Then I walked near the potatoes and then saw boxes of mangoes for $6.99. There's 16 in each box and much bigger than the 59 cents version. I have never seen them that cheap before. That I couldn't resist. I picked up a box and went to check out.

Then the cashier found out that there's no bar code on the box.
Cashier: "There is no bar code on the box, do you still want to buy it?"
Me: "Of course!" (Thought: "hell ya it's not my fault the box didn't carry a bar code!"
Cashier: "I can't scan it, do you want to buy it per piece."
At this point I am getting angry. Are you serious? Really. You can scan 16 mangoes individually and you can't find a box with bar code. And you dare ask me if I want to spend $9.44 to buy something that should only cost me $6.99?

She eventually got smarter and asked for assistance. Turns out that there are no bar codes on any boxes.

The mangoes were pretty raw when I brought them home. I like to wait until they mature a bit and starts to develop wrinkle skin. They are really sweet by the time I use them in the following recipe. Make sure you taste test to adjust the sweetness to your liking.

Mango Ice Cream
1 cup of 35% cream
3/4 cup half and half
3/8 cup sugar
2 eggs
a pinch of salt
4 medium sized mangoes / 2 cups puree

Method: Make creme anglais with the first 5 ingredients, cool the creme on a water bath. Follow the instruction of your ice cream maker to churn the ice cream. Add the mango puree at the last 5 minutes.

*Note: this recipe is best eaten fresh out of the ice cream machine. Due to the fruit content, the ice cream freezes very hard in the freezer. I had to defrost at room temperature for 45 minutes to be able to scoop it into a ball.

Puff!

 I haven't been post much since Christmas. I had been busy honing my savory skills. I had made some crazy 4 course new years eve dinner, attending parties and celebrating chinese new year. Now that it's February things should get better right?

I came across Ms. Humble's Raspberry Marshmallow recipe last week and decided to try it out. Of course C likes mango much much more than raspberries so that's the way to go. Oh, did I mention I hate to strain seeds from raspberries? Using mangoes just makes things so much easier. No straining required!

These marshmallows contains real mango flesh. Wonder how I could get ripe mangoes in February? These are actually frozen Taiwanese mangoes that I found from an Asian supermarket. They came in peeled and seeded. Each pack weights 500g and has 4 halves of mangoes. Compared to the Mexican frozen mangoes from Caucasian supermarkets, these taste sweeter and intense, while more elegant and delicate compare to their Philippine and Indian siblings. Now I just keep a pack in my freezer all the time.

As a bonus to this post, here is my first attempt with modeling chocolate. I know the colours aren't that great. Not sure why the edges of the petals kept breaking and leaking oil.  I think it looks like a hybrid of roses and carnations with the broken petals, don't you think?

In Disguise

Sometimes what you see is not what you get.

The same applies to daddy's birthday cake.

It might look like a strawberry charlotte, but it's not.

Maybe it wanted to be a strawberry charlotte, that's why it was covered in strawberry.


No, this is a mango charlotte.

I had no idea why I arranged to meet up with my friends on Wednesday night, when clearly I need to make a cake for Thursday. I needed to make something that is not labour intensive, and I can make part of the cake ahead of time. I decided to make a charlotte as I can bake the cake on Tuesday night, freeze it, then make the mousse quickly on Wednesday night after dinner. The plan was to make strawberry mousse, but it was getting late and making seedless strawberry puree was not an option. I opted out and changed my mind to make mango puree instead.

I was looking for a recipe for ladyfingers online and I found one from Le Cordon Bleu.  The recipe seems easy but I couldn't figure out how to get 6 tablespoons of icing sugar on top of the batter.  I had to stop at 2 tablespoon, wait for 5 minutes, then sprinkle 2 more tablespoons over the top. It is just impossible to get 6. The overloaded sugar helped create a slightly crunchy surface, but it also melted during baking and sat between the ladyfingers. It made curving the cake difficult. Next time I will only sprinkle 2 tablespoons before baking and sprinkle the other 2 after they come out from the oven. That way the cake surface should stay dry and crunchy.

In Search for Perfection

I have been using fresh fruit and blend my own fruit puree for my cakes so far. This was the first time I use store bought fruit puree. The verdit? I absolutely adore it! Just look at the colour of the mango mousse and compare to the fresh version I made, the yellow is so much more vibrant.

The bad thing is that the only places I found that carries this product only sells in 6 or 12 kilos. I certainly don't have the space in my freezer to keep all that fruit puree. But look at the cake! How can you not love it and get hooked to the product?

The search continues...

Mango Opera Cake - the Architect's Ensemble

Yesterday was a long day at work. I felt like I was in a pressure cooker. Feeling so unproductive yet stressed is not a good thing, so I had to do something. After considering between breaking a few glasses in the kitchen or scream out loud, I chose the latter. I went to the bathroom and close all the doors tightly, and "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh~~~" That felt good. I felt so much better and cleared up my mind so that I could work through the rest of the day.

I must be extremely loud as my co-worker said she can hear me at her desk, and our washroom is outside our office and we turned on our noisy AC.

After the scream it all went well. I got through my job, made dinner in a jiffy and still have time to bake. It's my boss's birthday so I can't miss the excuse to make a cake.

Consider the limited time I had before bed I made an easy sponge cake with mango buttercream and mango jelly. I started baking the sponge cake just before 9pm and finished it in 2 hours!  That's setting a record in my portfolio.

I used one of the recipe book by a Japanese author and base on the recipe of a raspberry buttercream I gave it my own twist.  Consider the amount of time and availablity in my fridge I cheated a bit and used canned Alphonso mango puree. I have heard good praise about alphonso mango but this is the first time I try to use it for my cake.  Being familiar with Philippine mangoes I think I still prefer Philippines than India.

I got an interesting comment by the architect who came back from a site visit this morning, saying that the cake cross section looks extremely like the soil section he saw this morning. Concrete, sand, aggregate, contaminated soil, asphalt, sand, aggregate, etc, etc... Only my cake looks and tastes better of course!

Mango Opera Cake (5" square)
You will need:
1 recipe of sponge cake, bake in one 30cm x 40cm sheet pan
1 recipe of mango buttercream
2 recipes of mango jelly
simple sugar syrup for brushing
1 fresh mango
fruit glaze

Mango Buttercream
Ingredients:
15g water
35g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
90g soften butter, lightly whisked
60g alphonso mango puree

Method:

1. Boil water and sugar until 118 degrees celsius.
2. Gradually add hot sugar mixture while whisking egg yolk vigorously with an electric mixer.  Whisk on top of a water bath until 82 degrees. Continuously whisk until it is cooled to touch.
3. Add softened butter until incorporated.
4. Add mango puree.  Keep in the fridge until ready to assemble.

Mango Jelly
Ingredients:
100g mango puree
2g gelatin
1tbsp cold water

Method:
Soften gelatin with water and microwave for 9 seconds or until gelatin has dissolved. Add to mango puree and leave at room temperature until ready to assemble.

Assembly:

1.  Trim sponge cake to the size of a 5" square mousse mold. You will need 4 pieces and there will be leftover.
2. Wrap the bottom of the mousse mold with saran wrap. Thinly slice mango and arrange on the saran wrap.
3. Spread a layer of butter cream evenly on top of 1 piece of sponge cake. Flip over and lay it on top of the arranged mango slices. Brush sponge cake with sugar syrup.
4. Pour one recipe of mango jello on top of the sponge cake. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
5. Lay another piece of sponge cake over the chilled jello. Brush again with simple syrup.
6. Spread butter cream evenly and put in another piece of sponge cake. Lightly press it down to level.
7. Repeat step 4 and finish with a layer of sponge cake. The cake should now be level with the mold. Wrap it with saran wrap and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight.
8. Flip the cake over and remove the saran wrap on the fruit. Apply fruit glaze. Wait until set and remove the mold. Trim off the cake edges to reveal the lovely layers.