Most of the time my baking ideas come while walking through the supermarket to see which fruits are available. One of the (many) great things about Hong Kong is that we get fruit imported from all around the world which means that fruits like raspberries are available throughout the year and usually at a reasonable price. Given raspberries are super cheap at the moment, I decided to make a dessert bursting with raspberries. The elements of this tart are:
Sable base (my first time making a sable and it was super buttery and delicious that I was hoping some of the bases would crack so I could eat them straight from the oven)
raspberry cream
fresh raspberries
chocolate disc
apple chip
Ingredients:
Sable base:
150g butter
70g icing sugar
70g almond meal
100g plain flour
10g salt
Raspberry cream:
300g butter
200g raspberries
150g icing sugar
Chocolate disc:
200g dark chocolate
Apple chip:
1 green apple
20ml lemon juice
40+100g caster sugar
1 gelatin leaf
10g butter
Instructions:
Sable base:
whisk together butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy
sift in the flour, almond and salt and mix until well combined
flatten into a disc on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hours
roll out to ~1cm thick and return to the fridge for another 20 minutes
cut out 12 circles around 6cm in diameter and bake the circles inside the rings at 160C for 15 minutes, removing the rings after around 10mins in the oven
Raspberry cream:
puree raspberries in a food processor and simmer over medium heat until slightly reduced
whisk together butter and sugar then slowly add in the raspberry and whisk until well combined
Chocolate disc:
temper chocolate over a double boiler
spread onto a sheet of acetate
when slightly set, cut out 12 circles, around 5cm in diameter
apple chip:
place apple and lemon in a food processor
bloom gelatin, then drain and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt the gelatin
add the gelatin and 40g of sugar into the apple/lemon then process until well combined
add the apple puree, remaining sugar and butter to a pan over medium-high heat and simmer until slightly reduced
spread the puree over a baking sheet (in different shapes) and baking at 150C for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden
Assemble:
for each sable base: place raspberries around the edges and fill the hole in the middle with some of the raspberry cream
place the chocolate disc on top of each tart then pipe another dallop of raspberry cream
top with an apple chip (or any other decorations) … i also tried decorating it with a chocolate leaf
shaping the apple chips before placing into the ovenAssembling the raspberry tartsThe finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf
Time required: 2 hours over 2 sessions (~2 hour at a time)
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Inspiration:
One of the things I love about entremets is that you can take different desserts, flavours and textures and layer them into a small delicate cake. For this cake, I wanted to “recreate” a lemon meringue pie – have all the elements of a normal lemon meringue pie (buttery crust, lemon curd, meringue) but create it in a different form. To add a twist … I included a bluberry gelee which oozes out when you cut into the cake – the sweetness (but also subtle flavour) of the blueberry is a great contrast to the sour lemon curd.
Elements of this cake:
buttery biscuit base
lemon curd mousse
blueberry gelee
meringue
blueberries and chocolate leaf to decorate
Ingredients:
Tart base:
3 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla
150g plain flour
1 pinch of salt
70g pure icing sugar
120g butter, cold
blueberry gelee:
125g blueberries
30ml water
70g caster sugar
Lemon curd:
200g caster sugar
juice from 3 lemons
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
pinch of salt
50g butter
Lemon mousse:
lemon curd made above
2 gelatin sheets
450ml whipping cream
juice from 1 lemon
Meringue:
2 egg whites
120g caster sugar
40ml water
To decorate:
blueberries
tempered chocolate leaves
Instructions:
Tart base:
whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla and set aside
in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and icing sugar
cut the cold butter into 1cm cubes and beat into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse sand. Careful not to overmix
mix the egg into the flour/butter mixture until just combined
roll into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least an hour
once all the other elements of the cake have been prepared roll the dough to 0.5cm thickness and cut out 16 circles just slightly larger than the round moulds
bake at 170C for 12 minutes until the edges of the biscuit base is golden
Blueberry gelee:
bring all ingredients to a boil and then simmer for ~5 minutes until the mixture thickens
place into a piping bag and then set aside in the fridge to cool as you prepare the lemon mousse
Lemon curd:
whisk together all ingredients except for the butter
place all ingredients (including the butter) into a saucepan over medium heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens into a curd
place three quarters of the curd into the fridge to cool while leaving the remaining quarter at room temperature
Lemon mousse:
bloom gelatin sheets in iced water for 10 minutes
bring the lemon juice to boil then melt in the bloomed gelatin sheets
mix in the room temperature lemon curd and set aside while preparing the rest of the mousse
in a separate bowl, whisk the cream to medium peaks
whisk together the room temperature lemon curd with the cold lemon curd until light and airy
gently fold into the whipped cream to form the mousse
Meringue:
place sugar and water over low-medium heat to create a sugar syrup
meanwhile, begin whisking the egg whites in a large bowl
when the sugar syrup is ready, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking the egg whites at maximum speed
continue whisking until stiff peaks
To assemble:
pipe the lemon mousse into the round moulds 3/4 full
pipe in a blob of the blueberry gelee then top the remaining of the mould with more lemon mousse
Freeze the moulds for at least 3 hours, until they can be smoothly removed from the moulds
remove the mousse from the moulds then place each lemon mousse piece over a biscuit base
pipe on the meringue, torch the meringue then decorate with blueberries and chocolate
Tart dough – mixing the butter into the flour. Be careful not to overmixtart dough – pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hourtart dough – rolled out and cut into round discscircle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry geleelemon meringue tart – decorated with blueberry and chocolateFinished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee
Having recently watched the Zumbo Just Desserts tv show, I was inspired by some of the challenges the contestants faced … in particular the Franken-dessert and the Aussie Classics challenges. This is where the “Operington” cake comes in – the elements of an Opera Cake meet the flavours of a Lamington. I always enjoy making opera cakes because there’s so many layers and elements – which also allows for more creativity with flavours and textures
Elements for this cake:
almond coconut sponge
raspberry buttercream
raspberry jam
chocolate ganache
raspberry soju jelly, for plating
chocolate sauce, coconut and fresh raspberries, for plating
Ingredients:
Almond coconut sponge:
9 egg whites
100g caster sugar
300g almond meal
100g desiccated coconut
400g icing sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
100g plain flour
9 eggs
100g melted butter
raspberry buttercream:
200g raspberries
400g butter
200ml thickened cream
200g caster sugar
9 egg yolks
raspberry jam:
200g raspberries
150g sugar
2 gelatin leaf
chocolate ganache:
500g dark chocolate
400ml thickened cream
40g butter
raspberry soju jelly (optional for decorating):
125g raspberries
1 cup water
1 cup soju (or other alcohol)
8 sheet gelatin
Instructions:
Almond coconut sponge:
preheat oven to 200C
whisk egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks and set aside
in a separate bowl, whisk together the almond meal, icing sugar and desiccated coconut
add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined
sift in the flour and mix
carefully fold in the egg whites
gently fold in the butter, careful not to remove all the air in the batter
spread evenly over four trays (roughly 15x30cm) lined with baking paper
bake for 8 minutes until just cooked
remove from baking sheet and set aside to cool
raspberry buttercream:
puree raspberries and place in a pot over low heat until the sugar melts
whisk the egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy
slowly pour in the hot raspberry while whisking the egg yolks to gently heat up the eggs without scrambling them
return the entire raspberry/egg mixture to low head and continue to mix until it thickens
in a separate bowl, beat the butter. Gradually add the raspberry/egg mixture and cream alternating while whisking until well combined
raspberry jam:
puree the raspberries
place the raspberries and sugar over low-med heat until just boiling
add in the bloomed gelatin and set aside to cool
chocolate ganache:
heat cream over med heat until just boiling
pour over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes
stir the cream/chocolate until well combined then mix i the butter
raspberry soju jelly:
puree the raspberries
place the raspberries, water and soju over medium heat until boiling
add in the bloomed gelatin
pour into a container (depending what shape you’d like the jelly) and leave in the fridge to set (at least 3 hours)
To assemble:
place one slice/tray of the cake on a cake board or plate
spread over 1/3 of the raspberry jam
spread 1/3 of the raspberry buttercream then place in the fridge/freezer for 10mins to slightly harden
spread over 1/4 of the chocolate ganache
cover with the next slide of cake then repeat steps 2-4 another two times
when all the cake/buttercream/jam layers have been used up, pour the remaining chocolate ganache over the top layer of cake
leave in freezer overnight to harden before slicing the cake with a hot knife … freezing the cake results in cleaner edges when slicing the cake
defrost the slices in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving
Finished putting together all the layers of the opera cakePlating the opera cake for a dinner partyanother plating option for the raspberry opera cakeclose up of the Opera Cake for InstagramAlternate plating idea for the opera cake
Time required: 3 hours over 3 sessions (~1 hour at a time)
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Inspiration:
Inspired by one of my favourite chocolates when I was young – the iconic Ferrero Rocher. It was something that would feature in almost every birthday party or Kris Kringle … a nicely packaged gift under $20. Since moving to Hong Kong, I’ve slowly been adjusting to the Hong Kong supermarkets, but I still get excited every time I see a product in the same packaging that we get back home in Australia – Ferrero Rocher chocolates being one of them!
Elements for the cake from centre to outside of the ball:
Inner dome: hazelnut vanilla mousse
Inner coating: Nutella and crushed wafer
Outer dome: chocolate mousse
coated in chocolate and hazelnuts
Although every element of this cake is very easy to make, it does require preparation to make and freeze each of the layers
Ingredients:
Hazelnut Vanilla centre:
150m cream, whipped
100ml milk
1tsp vanilla bean paste
100g hazelnuts, crushed
1 gelating leaf
2 egg yolks
Nutella and wafer coating:
100g nutella
100g wafers, crushed
Chocolate mousse:
400ml cream, whipped
100g dark chocolate, melted
100ml milk
2 gelatin leaves
Chocolate hazelnut shell:
400g milk chocolate
150g hazelnuts, roughly chopped
Instructions:
Hazelnut Vanilla centre:
whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale
bring milk and vanilla to a boil
pour half the milk into the egg mixture while whisking then return the egg and milk to the pot and bring to a simmer, while still whisking
remove from heat and stir in the gelatin
once cool, gently fold in the whipped cream and hazelnuts
pour mousse into 12 small dome moulds (~2.5cm in diameter) and set aside in freezer
Nutella and wafer coating:
once the hazelnut and vanilla mousse is frozen, unmould the domes
heat the nutella in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften it
working quickly while the mousse is still frozen, spoon the nutella over each dome and dip it into the crushed wafers
immediately return the domes to the freezer
coating the inner domes with nutella and crushed wafer
Chocolate mousse:
bring milk to a boil and pour over dark chocolate to melt
stir in bloomed gelatin
when slightly cool, fold in the whipped cream
pour the chocolate mousse into large dome moulds (~8cm in diameter) around 3/4 full then place one of the smaller mousse domes in the centre of the larger dome
place the domes in the freezer to set for 5-10mins and when the mousse as slightly set, join the moulds together to create a sphere/ball. Use some leftover mousse to help stick the domes together if needed
fill the outer domes 3/4 full with chocolate mousseplace the frozen hazelnut vanilla domes in the centre
Chocolate hazelnut shell:
melt the chocolate over a double boiler and stir in the chopped hazelnuts
unmould the mousse balls and roll this in the melted chocolate, covering the whole sphere and return to the freezer immediately to harden the chocolate shell. After several minutes, take the balls out of the freezer and spoon more chocolate over any gaps in the shell
set aside in the fridge for the mousse to thaw before serving
Time required: 2 hours + 2 hours for unicorn decorations
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Inspiration:
Very excited to have baked my first cupcakes in Hong Kong, which was an order of 20 unicorn themed cupcakes for a 4th birthday party. As someone who has barely worked with fondant in the past … and especially not during the Hong Kong summer where the humidity impacts the texture of fondant, one of the challenges for these cupcakes was figuring out how to make the unicorn horns.
Elements I settled on for the cupcakes:
vanilla cupcakes with raspberries and white chocolate chips
cream cheese frosting – I chose light pink, bright pink, turquoise and purple as my unicorn colours … later also realising that the turquoise and purple I used are the same colours as Sully from Monsters Inc.
Marzipan and pocky sticks for the horns and ears. I chose marzipan over fondant for the horns and ears as it seems to hold up better in the Hong Kong humidity. I also used pocky sticks over toothpicks to hold together the horns – baking for a kids party I wanted to make sure everything within the cupcake was edible
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
200g butter
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
300g all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
300 ml milk
30g white chocolate chips
50g raspberries
Cream Cheese Frosting:
500g cream cheese
200g butter
300g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp lemon
Unicorn decorations:
200g marzipan
edible gold spray paint
1 pack pocky sticks
pink/pearl sprinkles
Instructions:
Cupcakes:
preheat oven to 190C (170C fan forced)
beat butter until smooth
add sugar and beat until light and fluffy
mix in the eggs one at a time and vanilla
add in the sifted flour mix (flour, baking powder, salt) and milk alternatively (around a third at a time) and mix until just combined
spoon the mixture into lined muffin tins with the cups around 2/3 full
top with raspberry pieces and white chocolate chips
bake for 20 minutes until golden and let cool before frosting
Cupcake ingredientsCupcake batter with raspberry and white chocolate chips
Cream Cheese Frosting:
beat cream cheese and butter until smooth
slowly beat in the sugar until light and fluffy
mix in the vanilla and lemon
divide the frosting into several batches (uneven in volume) and colour each batch a different colour. I chose light pink, bright pink, turquoise and purple
Unicorn horns and ears:
cut the pocky sticks ~3cm in length (depending how tall you want the unicorn horns)
take a small amount of fondant and roll it into a cone shape over the pocky, leaving ~1cm of the pocky stick hanging out the bottom which you will later use to poke into the cupcake. To create the ‘horn’ look, gently run a toothpick spiral around the marzipan cone
spray over the horns with edible gold dust
for the ears: roll out the fondant and roughly cut small triangles
take two corners of the triangle and press them together to create the ears
Decorating:
place each colour of the cream cheese frosting into a separate piping bag fitted with different sized star tips
pipe one colour of frosting at a time onto the cupcakes. I started with the light pink frosting as I wanted light pink to be the dominant colour
finish the cupcakes by placing on the horns and ears. I also added pink and pearl sprinkles to add more texture and sparkle
piping the unicorn one colour at a timefinished piping the unicorn hairTopped with the unicorn horn and earsUnicorn cupcakesUnicorn cupcakes ready for instragramUnicorn cupcakes packed and ready to go for the birthday party
Having never made crepes or pancakes before (well … not cooking much in a pan at all), I was keen to try making a crepe cake. I’ve always loved the crepe cakes from the famous Lady M – stopping by the Lady M boutique on 40th street each time I’ve visited New York and I still remember how excited I was to stumble across a Lady M on a trip to Singapore where I got to introduce my sister (who is a huge fan of matcha) to the matcha crepe cake.
Initially, given it was my first time making crepes I wanted to keep the cake simple – like the Lady M ones – by just making it layers of crepe and cream. However, after exploring the nearby wet market in Hong Kong for fresh fruits I came home with a bunch of passionfruit and decided to incorporate those into the cake. I ended up with a crepe cake layered with passionfruit custard and chocolate ganache – as you could probably guess from my previous posts (passionfruit & chocolate eclairs, passionfruit & chocolate tart …) it is one of my favourite flavour combinations!
Elements of this cake:
24 crepes (~8 inch in diameter)
passionfruit custard
chocolate ganache
The Famous Lady M crepe cakes in New York
Ingredients:
Crepes (makes ~24 depending on the size of your pan)
600ml whole milk
1tsbp vanilla paste
2tsbp brandy
5 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
90g butter
300g all purpose flour
Passionfruit Custard:
700ml whole milk
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
200g caster sugar
65g cornstarch
1tsbp vanilla
85g butter
4 passionfruits, seeds removed
Chocolate Ganache:
100g dark chocolate
100ml cream
Instructions:
I’d recommend making the custard first, so it has time to cool in the fridge while you’re frying the crepes
Crepes:
place all the ingredients except flour into a blender and blend on med speed
add in the flour and blend again until well combined
refrigerate for 2 hours (or overnight)
lightly spray or grease a small pan (~8inch in diameter) and fry the crepe batter on medium heat. I used around 1/4 cup of batter for each crepe
allow the crepes to cool by spreading on parchment paper while making the rest of the crepes
My first time frying crepes
Passionfruit custard:
place the whole eggs, egg yolks and cornstarch with 20g of the sugar in a bowl and whisk until smooth
in a large saucepan, combine milk, remaining sugar and vanilla and bring to a boil
remove from the heat and slowly pour in half the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking to avoid cooking the eggs
pour the milk and egg mixture back into the pot and heat until the mixture lightly bubbles
remove from heat and stir in the passionfruit and butter
pour the custard through a fine mesh and plastic wrap with the plastic touching the surface of the custard and store in the fridge to cool
Chocolate Ganache:
bring cream to boil
poor over chocolate and set aside for 2 mins. Stir together the melted chocolate and cream
Assembling the crepe cake:
take one crepe and place it on a 8 inch cake board
spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache over the crepe
follow with a thin layer of passionfruit custard
place the next crepe over the top and repeat until all the crepes are used up
You could also trim the edges of the crepes to a 8inch cake tin if you want cleaner edges, however I preferred the natural rough edges on my cake. I also coated the top of the cake in sugar and torched it for a bruleed finish
Thin layer of chocolate ganachethin layer of passionfruit custardrepeat until all layers of crepes have been assembledtorching the crepe cakeexperimenting with decorating the crepe cakeMy instragrammed crepe cake
Inspired by another one of my favourite chocolates – the Mango & Vanilla chocolate from Koko Black back home in Melbourne. Every time I used to visit Koko Black I would buy at least five of these Mango & Vanilla chocolates in addition to several of the Passion flavour (I have also baked a cake inspired by this chocolate with recipe here!) and then try a range of other truffles and chocolates.
Trying all the chocolates from Koko Black and Xocolatl in Melbourne
The elements of this cake include:
Vanilla cheesecake centre
Runny mango jam
Mango mousse dome
Mango mirror glaze
caramel biscuit base
Ingredients:
Vanilla Cheesecake centre:
225g cream cheese
200g caster sugar
1 egg
100ml thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 lemon
Caramel Biscuit base:
1 pack caramel flavoured biscuits (can use other flavours, e.g. Arnott’s Nice biscuits are a good alternative)
150g melted butter
Mango jam:
200g mango puree
200g caster sugar
2 gelatin leaves
Mango Mousse:
200g mango puree
250ml cream, whipped
200g sugar
3 gelatin leaves
Mango glaze:
200g mango puree
200g sugar
4 gelatin leaves
200ml condensed milk
150g white chocolate
Instructions:
Vanilla Cheesecake centre:
Preheat over at 150C
beat the cream cheese with sugar until smooth
whisk in the egg until well combined
fold in cream, vanilla and lemon until just combined
pour into a 8 x 8 inch square tin (or any other baking tin of similar size)
bake for 20 minutes
once cool, cut out 12 circles, around 2-3cm in diameter
Caramel Biscuit base:
blend the biscuits in a food processor until there are not big lumps
stir in melted butter
spread over a large flat tin (ensure this is spread evenly enough to be able to cut out 12 x 6cm circles for the cake base) and bake at 150C for 10mins
while still warm, cut out the 12 circles and set aside to cool. The 12 circles will be used as the base of the mousse dome, however do not discard the rest of the cookie base as this can be used to decorate the dome
Mango jam:
heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
while the mixture is still hot, stir in bloomed gelatin and set aside
once cool, place the mixture into a piping bag
Mango Mousse:
heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
stir in gelatin and set aside to cool
once the mixture is at room temperature, fold in the whipped cream to form the mousse
To Assemble:
gather 12 circle dome moulds, each around 6cm in diameter
fill half of each dome with the mango mousse mixture
carefully pipe around 2 teaspoons of the mango jam on top of the mango mousse (be gentle as we don’t want to jam to sink to the bottom of the mould)
push a piece of vanilla cheesecake into each of the domes on top of the mango jam. We want to push the cheesecake in just far enough that the edges of the cheesecake are surrounded by mango mousse. Add a bit more mousse into the dome if needed
lastly, place a disc of the caramel biscuit onto each of the domes, sitting the biscuit base on top of the mousse
set aside in the freeze for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight to harden
Glazing the cake:
Mango glaze: (make this the following day once the mousse domes are frozen)
un-mould each of the mousse domes and place back in the freezer
place mango and sugar over medium heat until the mixture thickens
remove from heat and add the bloomed gelatin
stir in the condensed milk
while still hot, pour over white chocolate and stir to melt and incorporate the chocolate
when the glaze cools to 35 degrees, pour over the mango mousse domes
crumble the off-cuts from the caramel cookie base and coat around the base of each of the cakes
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie
After brainstorming ideas for an upcoming birthday cake, I decided to draw inspiration from one of my favourite snacks at work – banana & chocolate croissants from the amazing Joel Robuchon. The croissants are a great afternoon snack – deliciously flaky pastry, filled with light banana custard … lightly sweetened with chocolate.
preheat oven to 180C. Butter two 8 inch round baking pans
mash ripe banana with a fork and set aside
whisk together the flour, almond meal and baking powder
in a separate bowl, beat butter until smooth. add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy
add eggs one at a time into the bowl and whisk to combine
add in vanilla and combine
mix in half the dry ingredients
mix in sour cream
fold in the remaining flour mixture
fold in the banana until just combined
divide the cake batter evenly into the two tins and bake for 25 minutes
place the baked cake on a wire rack to cook and then turn out after 10 minutes to cool completely
Banana cake ready to go into the oven
Almond Dacqouise:
preheat oven to 200C
sift almond meal with icing sugar and cocoa powder
in a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks form
gently fold in the almond mixture
sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts
pipe the mixture onto a baking sheet (make 3 x 8 inch discs to layer between the banana cakes) and bake for 24 minutes or until the dacquoise doesn’t sink when touched
Almond dacquoise with banana cake
Chocolate ganache:
bring the cream to boil over low-med heat
pour boiling cream over the chocolate and set aside for 2 minutes
mix together the chocolate and cream
Meringue buttercream:
bring the sugar to boil with 1/2 cup water
while whisking the egg whites on maximum speed, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream
continue to mix on high until the meringue cools and forms stiff peaks
whisk in the butter until well combined
add vanilla and cocoa powder and whisk to combine
Chocolate drip:
melt chocolate over double boiler
stir in butter to melt
Assembling the cake:
layer the cake in the following order from bottom to top:
banana cake (cut each of the 8 inch cakes in half to create 4 layers of banana cake)
chocolate ganache
almond dacquoise
meringue buttercream
repeat until all layers of banana cake are used
coat the entire cake in the meringue buttercream – to create an ombre/rustic effect, split the buttercream into 3 batches and colour each batch a different shade of brown
pipe on the chocolate drip
top with decorations: dried pineapple flowers, torched meringue, chocolate triangles
Assembling the layers of the drip cakedifferent shades of brown buttercream to create a rustic effectApplying the chocolate dripChocolate driptorching the meringue
slicing the chocolate banana drip cake. Photo credit: IG lilaughs
Having completed my practice croquembouche in Hong Kong several weeks ago, it was time to bake another croquembouche for family Christmas dinner. See earlier post for the full recipe and croquembouche made in Hong Kong.
For this croquembouche for Christmas day, I made several adjustments to the decorations – instead of randomly scattered profiteroles coated in coconut and crushed peanuts, this one contains layers of coconut and plain profiteroles.
My practice croquembouche also didn’t have any spun caramel as I wanted to keep the tower relatively neat. However, after several complaints about it not being a ‘real’ croquembouche without the spun caramel, I did manage to drape some caramel neatly around the profiterole tower. This caramel later melted due to the 35degree heat in Melbourne on Christmas day 😦
Overall, the family was very happy with Christmas dessert – from admiring the tower during dinner to eating the 80 leftover profiteroles several days after Christmas. The only bad feedback was from my sister-in-law who wasn’t too happy that I took the tower apart.
Now, to decide what to bake for Christmas next year …
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆ … – gingerbread itself is very simple … the more stressful parts are designing the template and waiting for the icing to set to hold the house together.
Inspiration:
Growing up, my childhood dream was to become an architect. I’ve always had an interest in buildings and construction (having studied Civil Engineering), so baking a gingerbread house was a very exciting Christmas project for me.
The inspiration for this gingerbread house? The French Provincial houses of the leafy Eastern suburbs of Canterbury and Kew in back home in Melbourne – featuring symmetrical proportions, steep roofs and a balcony. The Civil Engineering degree definitely came in handy when designing the house and roof dimensions and building a cardboard template.
Cardboard template
Ingredients:
Gingerbread (for a house ~ W30cm, H20cm, D20cm in size):
500g butter
400g dark muscovado sugar
10tsp golden syrup
1.2kg plain flour
4tsp bicarbonate soda
10g ground ginger
10g cinnamon powder
Royal Icing (made in 4 smaller batches):
4 egg whites
1kg pure icing sugar
To decorate – free to use whatever candy you can find, however this is what I chose:
maltesers as the rocks lining the side of the footpath
pastille lollies for the ’tiled’ footpath
rice paper sheets for the windows
marshmallow snowman
pocky sticks for the snowman arms
sour strap candy for the garage door and Christmas tree stars
almond flakes to line the ‘stone’ porch
preztels for the balconies and driveway
m&m Christmas lights
chocolate wafer roof
plain wafers for the corner detailing
Instructions:
Gingerbread:
Preheat oven to 200°C
Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup over low heat until all the butter has melted
Sift the flour, bicarbonate soda, cinnamon and ginger in a separate bowl
Stir melted butter into flour mixture to make a stiff dough
Divide the dough into 3-4 smaller batches and roll out to 1cm thickness
Tracing the cardboard template made earlier, cut out each piece of gingerbread
Cook in oven for 12 minutes until the edges start to brown
Remove from oven and allow to cool/dry to harden
all the baked gingerbread pieces
Royal icing:
Stir together egg whites and pure icing sugar until the mixture becomes a smooth icing
Place the icing sugar into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle and pipe along the edges of the gingerbread (one piece at a time) to join the house together. Ensure the walls of the house are completely dry before placing the roof on top of the house
gluing the pieces together with icing sugargingerbread house coming together
Decorate:
Use royal icing (resembling snow) to cover up the ‘messy’ corners and joints on the house
Also use royal icing to stick candy decorations to the house
piping ‘snow’ to cover up the joints and cornersFront of the house all decoratedback of the house
Party time:
Whilst I had so much fun baking, building and decorating the house …. the most exciting part is definitely showing off your house to friends and then demolishing and eating the house.
time to show off the houseenjoying the lovely view of Hong Kongdemolished
I’ll admit that I was a little sad to tear the house apart, however we did enjoy snacking away at the gingerbread house on a lovely Saturday afternoon in the sun.
I’m already looking forward to designing and baking another gingerbread house next year! 🙂
Time required: 3 hours for the choux pastry, another 2 hours for filling and assembly
Difficulty: ★★★★☆ … Moderate to Difficult. Each step is relatively simple, however it takes time and patience to bring the whole thing together
Challenge:
After baking four cakes for Christmas dinner last year, I needed to bake something bigger and better for Christmas this year. However, an added challenge this year is that I am now living in Hong Kong and will only have one day to bake Christmas dessert once I arrive back home in Melbourne on Christmas Eve. This means I need something that can be baked in less than one day, can feed a family of 9 and also satisfies the requests I usually get from family: coffee, coconut, sweet, not too sweet … and of course it needs to have a touch of Christmas.
Enter croquembouche: makes ~80-100 profiteroles and can feed 15-30 people, it can be decorated to resemble a Christmas tree and you can make a range of fillings to meet every request … AND they look SPECTACULAR.
Inspiration:
I first saw croquembouche as an Adriano Zumbo challenge on Masterchef Australia several years ago. Touted as a very difficult challenge on Masterchef, I never even thought about making a croquembouche until several weeks ago when I was desperately thinking up Christmas ideas.
Having never baked profiteroles before, I read several blogs, watched a range of youtube videos and viewed countless Instagram photos in search of inspiration for decorating to make it fit the Christmas theme.
I decided to use my eclair recipe for the choux pastry. As for decorating, I went for a ‘cleaner’ croquembouche without the caramel strings and added pops of texture by coating some profiteroles in coconut or crushed peanuts. I also found some lovely ribbon at the Eslite Bookstore in Hong Kong to top off the croquembouche.
This post details my ‘practice’ croquembouche … I will be making the real one on Christmas Eve and will upload an update post-Christmas 🙂
Ingredients:
Choux Pastry (makes ~100 profiteroles):
310g bread flour, sifted
250ml water
250ml milk
250g butter
30g caster sugar
8-10 eggs
2tsp salt
Custard filling:
950ml milk
8 egg yolks
120g caster sugar
80g corn starch
30g unsalted butter
2tsp vanilla bean paste
For decorating:
500g sugar to assemble the croquembouche
200g crushed peanuts
100g shredded coconut
Note: you could also use sugar crystals, pearls or anything else you would like to decorate the individual profiteroles
Instructions:
Choux pastry:
Preheat oven to 200°C
Place the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt into a saucepan over low heat
Once the mixture just comes to a boil, take off the heat, pour in all the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon (it should now look like mashed potato)
Place the mixture back on low heat and continue to mix for another 2-3mins until the dough forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan
Pour the dough into a bowl and mix with wooden spoon to cool slightly before adding the eggs
Add the eggs one at a time and ensure each egg is well incorporated before adding the next egg. This allows greater control over the amount of egg to ensure the mixture doesn’t become too runny from too much egg
The mixture is ready when you lift the wooden spoon and the dough slowly falls off the spoon
Place dough into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain round nozzle and pipe balls around 2-2.5cm in diameter
Dip a fork into water and slightly flatten the piped circles. The fork indents also reduce cracking in the oven
Bake for 10mins at 200°C and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 20mins
Custard filling:
Whisk together egg yolks and sugar until pale
Add in the cornstarch and whisk
Place milk over low-med heat until it comes to a light boil
Remove milk from heat and pour 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture while continually whisking
Pour the egg mixture into the remaining 2/3 of the milk and place back on low heat. Continue to whisk until the custard thickens
Stir in butter and vanilla
Transfer this to a bowl to cool – at this stage you could also break the custard into smaller batches and create several flavours by whisking in melted dark chocolate, fruit puree or coffee syrup
Cover in glad wrap (with the glad wrap touching the surface of the custard) and refrigerate until it’s time to assemble the croquembouche.
Ready to go into the oven
Puffed up in the oven
decorated with caramel + crushed peanuts and coconut
Construction begins
Assembling the croquembouche:
Transfer the custard into a piping bag fitted with a long piping tip and fill each profiterole with custard. Be sure to poke the piping tip through the side of the profiterole which will be facing the inside of the croquembouche
Melt sugar over low heat until all the sugar is melted and is a light amber colour (you could also make a sugar syrup by adding water). Carefully dip the bottom of each profiterole and place the toffee side up on the tray to dry – at this stage I also coated around half of the profiteroles with either shredded coconut or crushed peanuts
Trace a circle template on a sheet of baking paper
Construct the croquembouche by carefully lining the profiteroles around the circle; sticking each profiterole together using the toffee ‘glue’
The finished product!!
Tips for serving:
The profiteroles can be cut away from the tower using a pair of scissors
I also pulled together a bowl of dark chocolate ganache (150g dark chocolate, 100ml cream) for guests to dip the profiteroles into while serving
Whatever it bakes 