Victoria Sponge Cake

Meow first learned about the Victoria Sponge from, of all places, anime.  Particularly, while watching Black Butler.

Screenshot of the anime

It looked simple and elegant.  But Meow started wondering "what makes it 'Victoria'?" Was it the particular type of sponge cake used (or method employed to make), or the filling, or presentation, or time of day it was enjoyed...

After a bit of digging, Meow learned that 1) anime fans tried to recreate the tea time treat, 2) it is actually a real tea time treat, enjoyed by Queen Victoria of England, hence the name.

The point of this tea time snack was that it is simple.  Only consisted of a sponge cake with raspberry jam and cream sandwiched together, along with some fruits.

Okay, this looks nothing like the anime screenshot above
but I swear it's essentially the same cake...essentially...

Well, the opportunity to make one never presented itself until now.  I was asked about where to get a cake that is lactose-intolerant friendly.  HAH!  Most commercial cakes are slathered with whipped cream, or even worse, Cool Whip.  I did suggest the friend to pick up an Angle Food Cake or Devil's Food Cake, but that makes a very sad birthday cake.  So, I followed up my suggestion with me making the cake.  Later, Meow learned that the only requirement is just not to go crazy with the milk/cream.

Searching the internets for a recipe (I know I've sworn off using internet recipes), Meow favoured recipes that came from British sites or bakers, because after all, it is a British dish.  Then, I looked at the amount of ratings and reviews and chose my recipe there.  Of course, the method also has to make sense in terms of what is needed to be achieved there.  The recipe I found, the best part I like was that the flour, sugar, and butter is measured against the weight of eggs you have, instead of a set amount.  Which makes perfect sense because eggs come in all weights and sizes.  Three small eggs with 200 g of flour will not be the same as three large eggs with 200 g of flour.

Christmas Macarons

I absolutely find Christmas colored treats nasty.  Probably because of the intensity of the colors to the point where it just seems unnatural.  Kind of like drinking that blue slushie.

So, how else can I bring the holiday flavours without the artificial nastiness?  Well, around that time, Meow's FIL brought back from France two macrons books...

Yes, you may hate me now for owning this

LEGEND...wait for it...ARY book.

Unfortunately, Monsieur Herme didn't have anything inspiring, or rather, easy to make in a home kitchen.  However, there was a recipe in the Macarons et Gourmandises book that seemed intriguing, and it involved this:

You've guessed right if you said "spiced wine"!  Though the recipe in the book lets you make a spiced wine jelly.  Well, jelly is kinda slippery and can't exactly be transported, so I figured if I can make it into a buttercream.  Meow's logic goes that if you can put fruit puree and other goopy stuff into a buttercream to flavour it, then this could work.  So, Mr. Meow got to decipher the French because he was about to clobber me over the head for reading it in an awful accent. 

Red Velvet: Cake Edition

Well, the cupcakes were good so it's time to try it as a big cake.  This time, I played with buttercream as a topping and covered the sides with granola.  I never liked nuts so in order to get a similar crunchy texture, I though granola was a good alternative, and it was!

Maca-lol Supreme

Easter weekend, I had my first paying order for macarons.  I wasn't even offering to sell them...just yet.  But a friend asked and I shall provide.  I made some extra ones and this is what I did with the extras because I had a crazy idea to dip them in chocolate and then roll them in sprinkles.  My friend's kids benefited.

Eeeeeaaaatttt meeeeeeeeeeeee

Maca-lol Supreme

White couverture Callebaut chocolate
Generic rainbow sprinkles

1. Chop up the white chocolate, place in a bowl and gently melt over a pot of simmering water.
Couverture chocolates are already tempered, so there is no need to overly heat/melt the chocolate.  Otherwise, the chocolate will pass its stable point and you will need to temper it yourself by doing a heat/cool cycle.  Pain in the butt.

2. Dip/roll/swirl the macaron into the melted chocolate.
I find it much easier to dip when it's on a stick.  But using your hands is fine because you can hope that some chocolate can get on your fingers and you can lick it off later.

3. Pour sprinkles into a tiny prep bowl, before the chocolate on the macarons has solidified, roll your dipped macarons in the sprinkles. Apply a little pressure when rolling to make it stick.

4. To set, I made a stand and stabbed the macalols on it.  Or you can use a mini cupcake liner to help prop it up too if you're not doing macalols.  Then shove them into the fridge.

 

My interpretation of a Macarons Tree

 

My favourite ribbon: the Meow ribbon

Go figure...

 

------------------------
I was pleasantly surprised that these have an excellent crispy texture and are not too sweet, considering all the chocolate and candy involved.  I've always complained that Callebaut chocolate tastes sweet, as it was when used as a ganache filling, but they were fabulous for dipping.

Oh yeah, the friend didn't like my macarons, she *lurved* them.  :D

Happy Macarons Day!

Apparently Saturday (March 20th) was Macarons Day (I didn't even know until I saw Humble's blog post).  And it just so happens that I made macarons on a Sunday.  I had planned the macarons for a week because there were mangoes sitting on the kitchen counter screaming "uuuuusssee meeeeee".

So I think Thursday night, I ask Mr. Meow,
       "Does mango go with coconut?" and just as I finished my question, "Nevermind!  Mangoes and coconut sticky rice!  DUH!"  and Mr. Meow pats me on the head *sigh*.

I couldn't just use mangoes, one flavour is boring when I'm on an adventure to put it all together like some Cantonese dish.  There are also strawberries that needed to be used up, courtesy of Meow MIL.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to add strawberries in, but mango-strawberries combo has been proven to be good and so is mango-coconut, though what about coconut-mango-strawberries??  Skeptical.  As I was browsing on how to add flavours to the macarons shells, I saw that mango-coconut combo has been done by somebody else already, now I feel that I have to one-up them.  Screw it, coconut-mango-strawberries it is!

Coconut-Mango-Strawberries Macarons


3 large eggs (I got 109g this time)
147g of confectioner's sugar
100g of almond flour
47g of coconut shreds

Following Duncan's 1.35 x egg whites formula at Syrup and Tang.

147g of confectioner's sugar
36g of water

Water is 0.33 x egg whites according to Duncan.

Method is essentially the same as all previous posts about making Italian Meringue macarons.
Key here is to decrease the amount of almond flour for each gram of dry flavouring you put it, while still achieving a tant-pour-tant (1:1) with the confectioner's sugar.  


Grind the coconut shreds in the food processor to as fine as you can get it.  I achieved dandruff flecks.
Watch out for the coconut turning into a paste because of the oils coming out.


Mango-Strawberry Buttercream


Same as previous buttercream recipe

2 egg whites
35g of sugar
30mL of water
15g of castor sugar
120g of softened unsalted butter (about 3/4 cups)
1/4tsp of salt
Mango puree
Strawberry puree

Petit Cakes

4" Little Tiny Cakes


These were done sort of as a grand opening to my new Kitchen Aid Pro 600 mixer.  I pawned them off on my parents.  Actually, I asked them, rather, forced them to choose a cake for me to make.  Meow Mother only asked for a Raspberry Bavarian Cake, the Orange Buttercream cake was my idea for Meow Father as he's lactose intolerant and I have leftover orange buttercream from my maca-lols.

Personally, this is more for me to play with decorating cakes.  I know I have a long way to go in that department.

So here we go.

Raspberry Bavarian Cakes
adapted from Baking by James Peterson


According to his book, Bavarian Creams is one way to make a fruit mousse.  You can substitute any fruits in there, just be careful about tropical fruits such as pineapples or kiwis.  They have enzymes that breaks down gelatin so your mousse won't set.

Part A
Cake base

See my recipe on mini cupcakes here.  I used the same vanilla cake layer recipe for these mini cakes

1. Bake for about 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

2. Remove cakes from cake pan.  Slice the cake lengthwise with a long knife to make layers.
I made 2 sheets of cake from 1.

3. Wrap the cake sides with a strip of acetate collar (or wax paper) at least 14" long by 3.5" high.  Secure the top with a stapler or paper clip.
Wax paper is a pain in the ass to secure with tape.

4. Line the inside of the cake pan with plastic food wrap to prevent leakage.

5. Put the cake with its collar back into the cake pan.

Yield: Four 4" cakes

--------------------

Macarons au Sucre Cuit & Maca-lols

Blue Maca-lols

I talk about macarons enough maybe I should stop being a tease and let you know technically how it's done.  I was fooled at first by the simplicity of the recipe and techniques, but making macarons is almost like you need to pick an auspicious day upon consulting the almanac, and then praying and performing some paganistic ritual beforehand just so that your macarons will turn out perfect (inline feet, non-sticky bottom, non-hollow body, leveled shells...)

So here it is.  As far as I know, use real eggs - none of that liquid egg whites please.  If you don't know what to do with leftover egg yolks, make a French buttercream filling out of it.

Macarons au Sucre Cuit (Italian method)
adapted from myfoodgeek.com

60g of egg white (about 2 large eggs)
Pinch of salt or dash of lemon juice (optional)

60g of egg white
150g of almond flour
150g of castor (confectioner's) sugar

150g of castor (confectioner's) sugar
50mL of water
Candy thermometer

See SyrupandTang.com for Duncan's ratios on egg whites : almond flour : sugar if you want to double or half the recipe, or if your egg whites amount aren't exactly this.