Blue ombre layer cake with white chocolate and rose buttercream

So I decided to make another cake over the weekend for my father since the first one was a complete disaster with the help of my cousin, of course, who just completed her PMR and she got straight As!! So proud of her!! Congratulations Saras!!!!

My proud achievement!

For the first time after God knows how many attempts of macarons, my macarons have turned out well!!!

It was definitely a very beautiful cake and it tasted very good as well. I love the combination of white chocolate and rose. Only thing I would not do again is putting too much colouring to the cake cause the bottom layer cake tasted pretty bad compared to the first layer.

White chocolate cake:

2 cups cake flour

1 cup plain flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

a big pinch salt

250g unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups + 3tablespoons caster sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 1/4 cups ice cold water

100g white chocolate, melted & cooled

3 large egg whites, room temperature

Food colouring of your choice, I used Royal Blue from Americolor

1. Beat butter and 1 3/4 cups of sugar for 10 minutes until very light and fluffy.
2. Add egg and vanilla extract.Mix well.
3. Add melted chocolate and continue mixing. 
4. Alternate the dry ingredients and cold water until well combined. 
5. In a different bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy. Gradually add the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar in three batches until Soft peaks.
6. Fold into the cake batter.
7. If you want to make a 4 stack cake with different colours like I did, weigh the cake batter equally and squeeze the desired amount of colouring into your cake batter. 
8. Pour cake batter into 3-4 8 inch round pans line and grease with butter and parchment paper.
9. Bake for 30-45 minutes in a preheated oven of 180 C. 
10. Half way through baking time, if browning too quickly, cover cake with aluminium foil.
11. Remove from oven and allow cakes to cool completely in baking pan before removing it. 
12. Wrap with clingwrap and place layers in fridge overnight.

White chocolate & Rose swiss meringue buttercream:

300g egg whites

500g caster sugar

600 - 700g unsalted butter,chilled cubes

1 1/2 teaspoons rose essence

200g white chocolate, melted & cooled

1. Melt chocolate over double boiler and allow to cool completely.
2. In heatproof bowl, place egg whites and caster sugar over a pot of water over medium heat.( Double boiler) Whisk occasionally until sugar as completely dissolved.This may take a while.
3. Using hand held or stand mixer, whisk the mixture on medium-high speed until mixture becomes marshmallowy and cooled down.
4. Touch meringue to feel the temperature. 
5. Add butter cubes,one at a time,and mixing it well after each addition. 
6. If mixture looks runny, Place in the fridge for about 15-30minutes, depending on how warm the meringue is.Remove from fridge and continue to beat until you get a nice creamy mixture. 
7. If mixture looks good, just continue mixing until you get a creamy mixture, it may look curdled in the beginning but it will start looking better as you continue beating.
8. Add cooled white chocolate and rose essence.Give it a good quick whip again.

Macaron shells:

80g sifted almond meal

100g icing sugar

80g egg whites

65g caster sugar

Food colouring of your choice

1. Prepare baking trays with parchment paper or silpat with macaron template sheet underneath.
2. Preheat oven to 160 Celcius.
3. Mix egg whites and caster in a bowl and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water(double boiler method) until sugar is melted and the mixture is really hot. Make sure you continuously stir the mixture. Temperature approx 50-55 Celcius.
4. Remove from heat and using a stand mixer or hand held mixer, whisk mixture until medium peaks and slightly cooled down. Don't over beat the mixture. If you have accidentally over beat the mixture, you will have to throw it away and start all over again. (Speaking from experience. LOL!!)
5. Mix the sifted almond meal and icing sugar in a different bowl. Take a scoop of meringue and mix vigorously with the dry ingredients. Fold gently until combined the rest of the meringue in two batches.Make sure you have a shiny, glossy & slightly thicker than cake batter mixture.
6. Scoop mixture in a disposable piping bag fitted with a 10mm plain nozzle. Pipe according to your macaron template and rap baking tray on a hard surface. Allow the surface of macaron to dry completely before baking it on the lowest rack for 15-20 minutes opening the oven door once during baking time.
7. Allow to cool before removing macaron shells. Match the shells for piping.

For the filling:

I used the same buttercream I used for the cake.

Notes:

• Air con dry it for 15-30 minutes.
• Make sure meringue is glossy and shiny.
• To prevent browning for coloured macaron shells, place an empty tray on the top shelf.
• When baking, have another same size baking pan on the bottom on macarons' baking pan.

Assembling notes:

1. I used about 1 1/2 cups of buttercream for each layer but I think 3/4 cup of buttercream is sufficient.
2. I crumb coated my cake and kept it in the fridge overnight before doing the final touches. 
3. The next day I found it difficult to frost the cake again cause the buttercream kept sliding off. I realised the crumb coat had condensation water on the cake so I carefully place a tissue to absorb the water. It worked. Then I did the final touches.
4. Before placing the macarons on top,allow the cake to sit on the benchtop for a couple of minutes before arranging the macarons.

Layering

Crumb Coat done!

Had it crumb coated the night before.

The King of My Heart

I honestly wouldn't have done it without her!!! <3

<3

Chocolate macarons with Caramel buttercream

I tried a different macaron recipe for a change because I find Italian meringue tricky to make. It works wonderfully sometimes for me and sometimes it turns out to be a disaster.So I tried looking for a different recipe and found a recipe off Kak Rima's blog  and this recipe uses the swiss meringue method. She had another one using the French meringue method but I chose this. Will definitely try the french meringue method as well soon.

So what did I think of the making  macarons using the Swiss meringue method?
I found it easier to handle compared to the italian meringue method. Kak Rima's recipe turned out fantastic. The most successful batch of macarons for me so far.

Makes ~ 30 filled macarons

Chocolate macaron recipe:

180g  egg whites

160g caster sugar

180g sifted almond meal

180g icing sugar,sifted

20g dutch processed cocoa powder, sifted

1. Prepare baking trays with parchment paper or silpat with macaron template sheet underneath.
2. Preheat oven to 160 Celcius.
3. Mix egg whites and caster in a bowl and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water(double boiler method) until sugar is melted and the mixture is really hot. Make sure you continuously stir the mixture. Temperature approx 50-55 Celcius.
4. Remove from heat and using a stand mixer or hand held mixer, whisk mixture until medium peaks and slightly cooled down. Don't over beat the mixture. If you have accidentally over beat the mixture, you will have to throw it away and start all over again. (Speaking from experience. LOL!!)
5. Mix the sifted almond meal,icing sugar and cocoa powder in a different bowl. Take a scoop of meringue and mix vigorously with the dry ingredients. Fold gently until combined the rest of the meringue in two batches.Make sure you have a shiny, glossy & slightly thicker than cake batter mixture.
6. Scoop mixture in a disposable piping bag fitted with a 10mm plain nozzle. Pipe according to your macaron template and rap baking tray on a hard surface. Allow the surface of macaron to dry completely before baking it on the lowest rack for 15-20 minutes opening the oven door once during baking time.
7. Allow to cool before removing macaron shells. Match the shells for piping.

Allowing my macaron shells to form a skin under the air conditioner

Almost perfect after baking!

Caramel swiss meringue buttercream:

50g egg whites

90g caster sugar

150g unsalted butter

1 heaped tablespoon caramel, store bought or homemade ( will post a recipe in future )

1. Mix egg whites and caster in a bowl and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water(double boiler method) until sugar is melted and the mixture is really hot. Make sure you continuously stir the mixture. Temperature approx 50-55 Celcius.
2. Remove from heat and using a stand mixer or hand held mixer, whisk mixture until medium peaks and cooled down but not too cold.
3. Add butter cubes gradually, making sure butter has fully incorporated after each addition. Add caramel and mix until combined.
4. If your buttercream doesn't have a pliable consistency, put in the fridge for 15-30 minutes until it firms up a bit.  
5. Scoop buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.

Assemble:

1.  Pipe one macaron shell in each pair with buttercream then cover with the other macaron shell then twist the macarons slightly. Place in fridge for 24 hours to mature.

Macaron shells were matched and piped with caramel buttercream

Notes:

• Air con dry it for 15-30 minutes.
• Make sure meringue is glossy and shiny.
• To prevent browning for coloured macaron shells, place an empty tray on the top shelf.
• When baking, have another same size baking pan on the bottom on macarons' baking pan.

viola~

Based on my experience, troubleshooting macarons

This is my personal experience. My experience may differ to yours because I may not have to same oven as yours, weather at where I am living and where you do may be different and ingredients used may not be the same.

I hardly make macarons at home because it's too sweet for everyone at home. As much as I would love to make them and practice on my macaron skills, they are pretty expensive to make and no one eats them so they sit forever in the fridge. After making macarons for the fourth time,I can say 97% of my macarons have 'feet'. In humidity, I turned on my air conditioner and place the piped macarons under the air conditioner for half hour to help the drying process. It was not wet to touch after 20 minutes. Macarons have temperamental issues.LOL. I dont have the fan force function on my old oven so the first batch of macarons came out slightly coloured (baked macaron shells should have the same colour as pre baked ones). The oven temperature was 180C if baking in fan forced oven but using a 'normal' oven, I had to increase the temperature by 10-20 C (different people say different things on the internet), I ignored that rule because I felt it would be too hot, and also I placed my macarons in the middle shelves (Big mistake!!). And also I had left the oven door slightly ajar after 5 minutes into baking time; continue baking the shells for another 10 minutes.


Although, My macarons looked good besides the fact that it was slightly browned.I wasn't satisfied.


After the first batch, I realised I should reduce the temperature to 150-160 degrees and I placed the macarons on the lowest shelf. Baked it in a closed oven for 5 minutes and then open the oven door slightly ajar,continue baking it for another 10-15 minutes.It was almost perfect but still not to my satisfaction but hey,It was definitely better looking then all the 3 times I made before! :) The bottom was slightly wet but most of them didn't stick to the silicon sheets which was a good thing! Quite an achievement but still not there yet. I would try using the French or Swiss meringue technique the next time instead of the usual Italian meringue technique found in Pierre Herme's Macarons book.


P/s: Make sure you sift the almond meal/almond powder. If you not, you will have a grainy top not shiny one!


Another issue I had was with the buttercream. Original plan was an all ribena macaron thing but when I wanted to flavour my buttercream, I realised that ribena sold now is so diluted!! I thought Malaysia had the pre mixed ribena bottles and I bought the wrong one!That was a huge bummer to me. So since I had raspberry jam in the fridge I used a tablespoon of it to give it a better flavour. 

I used my mastrad macaron sheet.

For the macaron recipe, I used the same recipe found the link below but I halved the original recipe (thank god!). And for the buttercream, I used the recipe given below!


Lemon macarons with boysenberry swiss meringue buttercream


Swiss meringue buttercream :
55g egg whites
100g caster sugar
170g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 tablespoon raspberry jam
3 tablespoon ribena cordial

Put the sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat the meringue on medium speed until it cools and forms a thick shiny meringue, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. Add raspberry jam and ribena and continue to mix until combined.

Lemon macarons with boysenberries compote buttercream

This is one of the few recipes I baked the other day over at my aunt's place. I would not have been able to do this alone cause it's quite tedious and aunty has been asking me to make macarons with her since we did our macaron masterclass last year June! I made another macaron recipe as well but there were not many good pictures of it. Because macarons can be tooth-aching sweet, I made my own mix and match of filling to suit the palates of everyone around me.

I honestly couldn't eat my macarons after baking it and filling it with the buttercream cause I have been popping a few macaron shells in my mouth,obviously the distorted ones,so you can imagine how many distorted one were there!LOL. The balance of sour and sweet of the macarons and buttercream/filling made it less sweet sickening.

I have been purchasing a lot of kitchenware over the internet for my new kitchen back in Malaysia. I can't wait! I really can't wait to get my things organised and less headache with my maid keeping things everything everywhere.At the moment my kitchenware are all over the place-in the store room,in the wet kitchen and also my bedroom!I have a whole suitcase of kitchenware brought from Australia,Italy and Sri Lanka yet be to unpacked.

Macaron shells:

T-P-T mixture (almond mixture)

300g sifted almond meal

300g sifted icing sugar

110 aged egg whites

A pinch of salt

Lemon zest

Lemon yellow food colouring

Meringue                    

110 aged egg whites

½  teaspoon cream of tartar

300g sugar

75g water

1.       Mix sifted almond meal and icing sugar together until combined with a whisk.

2.      Then add the egg whites, salt, lemon zest and food colouring. Leave it aside.

3.      Using a candy thermometer, cook sugar syrup (sugar + water) until it reaches 118 C.

4.      When the syrup reaches 110 C, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft-medium peaks (in medium speed).

5.       When the syrup reaches 118 C ,with the mixer still whisking the egg whites (in medium speed), gradually add pour the sugar syrup. Then turn up the speed of the mixer for about 2 minutes until it turns glossy and slightly stiff and temperature of meringue has slightly cooled.

6.      Now, add in about ¼ of the meringue into the almond mixture to lighten the TPT mixture and well combined.

7.       Then FOLD IN the balance of meringue mixture in batches slowly until all is well combined. Mixture should be shiny.Do not overbeat your mixture.

8.      Scoop batter into a pastry/piping bag fitted with 10mm plain nozzle. Pipe onto your prepared trays. (Trays with a macaron shell template underneath parchment paper or silpat.) Let it rest until a ‘skin’ forms on top or when you touch the top of the macaron shell,it’s dry and does not stick to your fingers.In humid weather under an air conditioner around 15-30 minutes, if not 10minutes would be sufficient but it really depends on the weather. Decorate as desired before baking in a preheated oven of 170 C conventional or 150 C for fan forced ovens for 15 minutes. Open & close the oven door twice during baking time.

9.      When it’s baked, remove from the oven and let it cool on a rack. Once it’s completely cool. It should be able to peel off easily, pair them with similar sizes.

NOTE:

Some ovens has an auto switch off when the door opens so opening and closing the oven door twice is recommended but if your oven is an old oven which does not have an auto switch when you open the door, leave the oven door slightly ajar (not too much) when baking to allow the steam to escape. You really need to know your oven for macarons. Do a trial and error sheet of macarons before baking all the macarons shells if unsure.

Boysenberry buttercream

Boysenberries compote

100g frozen boysenberries, defrosted whole

1 tbsp caster sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1.       Pat dry the defrosted boysenberries with a paper towel.

2.      Cook the boysenberries with sugar until juice oozes out but not mushy.

3.      Turn off the heat and pour the lemon juice in and mix until combined.

4.     Let it cool completely before mixing it with the buttercream.

Swiss meringue buttercream

1/2 cup (100gr) sugar

2 large egg whites

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Put the sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like marshmallow cream. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat the meringue on medium speed until it cools and forms a thick shiny meringue, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.

To make the boysenberries compote buttercream:

Mix the completely cooled boysenberries compote into swiss meringue buttercream  until well combined.

To assemble:

Pair them with similar sizes. Pipe or spoon the filling in the size of a 20cent coin or about a big tablespoon into the centre of  one macaron shell then top and twist slightly with another macaron shell. Place them in the refrigerator overnight before eating

Adapted from Pierre Hermes:Macarons and also here

Ispahan macarons

One of Pierre Herme originality,the Lychee, Rose & Raspberry macaron but I added a twist because I didn't have enough raspberries, I used fresh strawberries as well with the frozen raspberries I had left over.I would be frank about this beautiful french sweet,I had a crazy time doing this. Firstly, not knowing the right temperature to bake these macarons was a trial & error thing for me, then came the lychee and rose ganache.The ganache was a disaster,I wasted so much because the ganache went wrong. I was my fault for using normal eating chocolate instead of the usual couverture chocolate used. I made my own lychee and rose filling in the end because the ganache did not set. Even the raspberry & strawberry jelly did not set.But the taste was pretty alright and it did come out good for a first timer.

excuse the slight crack,I was testing the perfect temperature for the macarons.

Adapted from Pierre Herme: Macarons ( I only made half the recipe) & Poh's Kitchen

For the raspberry and strawberry jelly:

210g raspberries + strawberries

40g caster sugar

2 leaves of gelatine weighing 2g each

For the macaron shells:

150g sifted ground almonds*

150g sifted icing sugar

55g 'liquefied' egg whites**

red food colouring paste

+

150g caster sugar

75g water

55g 'liquefied' egg whites

For the lychee & rose buttercream

150g unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

7 lychees (from a tin),squeeze excess syrup out from the lychees

2 drops oil based rose essence

* make sure you have 150g of sifted almond meal, the coarser grains from the almond meal can be used in other recipes.

** liquefied egg whites are aged egg whites meaning that egg whites kept in the fridge for several days, egg whites will lose their elasticity.I used frozen egg whites. I normally keep extra egg whites in the freezer until needed.

1 egg white = 30g

For decorations:

edible dust

sugar sprinkles

1. Start by preparing the raspberry jelly.Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water to soften. Using a hand blender,blend the raspberries, strawberries and sugar to a puree. Strain the puree to remove the pips. Heat a quarter of the puree to 45 C. Drain and dry the gelatine and add to the hot puree. Stir and add the rest of the raspberry puree.
2. Pour it into a gratin dish lined with clingflim to a depth of 4mm. Allow to cool for an hour at room temperature then put the dish into the freeze for 2 hours. Turn out the jelly and cut into 1.5cm squares. Return the jelly squares to the freezer.
3. To make the macarons shells: Sift together the sifted almond meal and icing sugar together.Add egg whites & red colouring to the almond meal and icing sugar.Mix vigorously.
4. Bring water and sugar to boil at 118 C. When the syrup reaches 115 C,simultaneously start whisking the second portion of egg whites to soft peaks. When the syrup reaches 118 C, pour it over the egg whites. Whisk and allow the meringue to cool down to 50 C, then fold it into the almond & icing sugar mixture. Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
5. Pipe rounds of batter with a template as a guideline underneath the parchment paper or silpat or alternatively pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter spacing them 2 cm apart onto baking trays lined parchment paper or silpat. Slightly drop baking trays on a hard surface to get an even looking shell. Sprinkle with decorations of your preferences and leave shells to stand for at least 30 minutes or until they form a skin.
6. Preheat oven at 150C for conventional ovens and 180C for fan forced ovens then put trays in the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.Leave oven door slightly ajar to allow steam to escape.
7. Remove from oven and slide the shells on to a work surface.
8. To make lychee & rose buttercream, squeeze excess water out from the lychee. Blend lychee to a puree.Cream butter & sugar until light & fluffy, add the puree into the cream and continue to the mixture. Add your desired amount of rose essence.Start off by adding few drops at a time as the flavour of rose can be overpowering if too much essence is added.
9. To pipe the macaron shells:Spoon buttercream into a pipping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe a mound of buttercream on to half the shells. Lightly press a square of the frozen jelly into the centre and finish with a dot of buttercream.(I found this very difficult to do and my frozen jelly was melting into the heat of Malaysia.) Top with the remaining shells.
10. Store the macarons for 24 hours in the fridge and bring them out at point of serving.

VIOLA!!!