George Brown's Bittersweet Chocolate Truffle Flan

From the title, you can tell this is not a cake. But I had the pastry dough already thawed and thought I'd finish off the recipe tonight. Yes, this is the third thing I baked in two days. I am a bit crazy. So I rolled out the pastry dough and baked it.

I actually had (still have) no clue how long it should have been baked for. I baked it for 15 mins at 350f. The toothpick came out dry. Then I boiled 35% cream, mixed it into semi-sweet chocolate and stirred it until it was combined. Then added it directly to the cooled shell. According to the instructions, it should have been added through a sieve but I thought it would clog up the sieve...

Then came the hardest part for me. The designing. I am not an artist. You must show me/tell me. I can follow instructions but leave me to my own imagination and this is what I come up with!

Now maybe people will be afraid of letting me make their cake! :-)
I need to take it out of its baking tray. Will do so tomorrow. Will try it tomorrow as well. I hope it turns out well. Cannot eat anything sweet the rest of the day. I'm on sugar overload!
Next day update: This is really good. Good sweetness. Next time would put more raspberries and which chocolate. When you eat the raspberry with the sweets, it adds a great contrast. Shell is nice and solid but crumbles in the mouth. Yummmmmy. Will freeze one and see how it turns out.

I'd totally make this again!

Martha Stewart's Lady Baltimore Cake

I was determined to make another cake today, just for the sake of trying my hand at another one. This time I wanted a vanilla/white cake. So I tried Martha Stewart's Lady Baltimore, basically because I had most of the ingredients and did not have to buy much more.

I totally mixed up a step but I'm not really sure if it affected the end product that much. It probably did! I mixed the flour and the milk mixture together. So I'll have to try it again. This is how it turned out:

I find it super sweet and tastes really "eggy" to me despite it only have egg white. When I put it in the fridge, it came out really hard but softened once it was left in the room for a while. Don't think I'm a huge fan but I'd like to try it again and make it properly!

Bobby Flay's German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan Frosting

Last night was my first attempt at making a cake. It wasn't a wedding cake - it's a recipe in Bar Americain by Bobby Flay. I have been (and still am) working my way through that cook book, which is why that recipe was chosen.
The thing was, because I will be leaving for Asia on Monday (and for two weeks), I had no intention of buying new ingredients. I modified the recipe using what was in my pantry. In the end, I had only the ingredients for, and so only made, only the cake and the coconut/pecan frosting. Also, because I was not going to make the Ganache nor the whipped cream, I didn't bother making a proper layered cake. The purpose really was just to make a cake and try it -- nothing more.

So this is how it came out. I had one massive piece of 13" cake that I cut up into smaller pieces and just scooped the frosting on top. When I tried it last night I thought it was ok only. I found the cake a bit thick and thought perhaps it was not cooked (even though the tooth pick came out clean). I also found that the outer shell of the cake was really thick and dry while the inside was yummy and moist.
I put it in the fridge overnight and tried it again this morning. It was delicious! The cake itself settled really well! The frosting thickened and was a touch sweeter. The density was not as moist and so it was clear the cake was cooked through. The morning tasting reminded me of a brownie. I will try to make it again properly next time but I'll need to serve it relatively fresh to make the Ganache and whipped cream that is meant to be served with.
I'm also experimenting with freezing so I froze the majority of the cake. We'll see how it turns out when I give it away to people (will ask for their feedback).

Let's start blogging!

I have only made two cakes ever in my life - both for my Baking Arts course at George Brown College last year. They turned out well, but I do not consider myself an expert by any means. But here I go blogging about baking. Specifically, baking a wedding cake. I have received the honour of being asked to make a wedding cake for my brother's wedding in Oct 2012. So that gives me six months to learn how to make an awesome cake. Awesome it must be! So I have to start to learn about what makes a cake soft, moist, rise etc. I need to learn how to frost, what type of frosting to use, how to pipe etc. I look forward to mastering this task and I hope you enjoy reading (and perhaps eating) about the experience with me.