Green Tea Sweets

Last year around Christmas, I tried out a green tea shortbread recipe which I've had for ages but have not had the time to try out.

I used star cookie cutters as befitting the festive spirit, as well as a bear and bunny cutter I recently bought from the wonderful RM 5 Japanese shop, Daiso.

They turned out wonderful! The fragrance of green tea was delicious. Hmmm.. However, the next time I'd skip rolling the dough in sugar before baking. It was a little too sweet for my taste buds.

In retrospect, December was such a good time. Everyone was in holiday mood, work was bearable and I was happy! ;) Just looking at the pictures below makes me happy again. Try them, you'll not regret it!

From: lovescool.com

Green Tea Sweets

Ingredients
Yield (2” leaf shape): Approx 25

3/4 cup (2.25 oz) Confectioners sugar
5 oz Unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 3/4 cup (8.5 oz) All-purpose flour
3 Large egg yolks
1.5 TBS Matcha (powdered green tea)
1 cup Granulated sugar (for coating)

Directions

(1)Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
(2)Whisk the confectioner’s sugar and green tea together in a bowl.
(3) Add the butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and light in color.
(4) Add the flour and mix until well combined.
(5) Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated and a mass forms.
(6) Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes).
(7) Roll the dough out to ½” thickness.
(8) Cut the dough with a leaf cookie cutter.
(9) Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat.
(10)Place the sugar-coated cookie on a parchment lined pan. Bake at 350F for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.

Giant Cupcake Cake!

As I've hinted in my earlier post, almost immediately after my first order, I received my second order, for a dear friend Ee Wen's birthday. She's a friend I've known since kindergarten. That's a long friendship that's hard to beat! I was thrilled! For a friend, anything!

We brainstormed and she indicated she'd like a giant cupcake cake. I was intrigued. The first and only time I've seen a giant cupcake cake was in Sydney last October, at the Cupcake Bakery on Pitt Street. They were huge and were sold at AUD 40 each.

The large cupcakes were impressive, but as I've observed, quite tricky to decorate to create a classy look which maintains the 'cute' look that a cupcake should have.

We sat down and brainstormed one more day, and dropped by the cake supply shop for equipment to create the perfect giant cupcake cake. In addition, Ee Wen wanted regular sized cupcakes surrounding the giant cupcake. She knew exactly what she wanted. Cupcake with a large sunflower on top. The cake itself is to be her favourite cake, carrot cake with orange cream cheese frosting.

So a challenge is borne. I did a test bake of the cake with the new giant cupcake tin and the carrot cake recipe that Ee Wen requested, and it turned out great. She wanted mini oreos on the top of the cupcakes to serve as the sunflower's "centre". No mini oreos were found so I replaced with mini Chipsmore biscuits instead.

It's always good when a customer / friend knows exactly what they wanted, it's less hassle for me to figure everything myself. But also it brings the difficult challenge of whether I can recreate the idea in her head into a real 3-D cake, hoping it turns as she's imagined. It's definitely more challenging than I imagined.

After one day of baking, rolling fondant, colouring, shaping the fondant, piping, icing and washing up, the final product was completed, in time for the dinner yesterday night.


The ensemble! The candles had sparklers in them which intermittently gave mini fireworks. She chose a candle in the number "30" as well, to symbolize the special milestone. All in all, she was happy with the cake, and even said it looked like a toy!

A waitress from the restaurant even came up to me to ask whether I made it or bought it because she wanted to buy it. ;)

The guests enjoyed it, though I found it a tiny bit too sweet (even though I reduced the sugar) and the birthday girl said it the cream was a bit too sour. I made mental notes to tweak the recipe to improve it in future.

The restaurant was Las Carretas @ Taipan USJ. It's a Mexican restaurant, with a beautiful mural painted on one side of the wall.


The food was pretty good and healthy! Clockwise from left, Fajitas, Tortilla, part of the mural and Burrito. Basically many variations of rolled cornflour pancake with different fillings.

So this time I'm feeling more confident, steady and calm. I went about the task of baking, decorating, boxing and transporting the giant and regular cupcakes without breaking a sweat. I'm finally getting the hang of this! And may I add, it is infinitely more rewarding than completing a 15 hour day at work, or finishing a good piece of legal submission.

The lovely carrot cake recipe is below, adapted from Australian Women's Weekly. A classic recipe that is timeless and an all time favourite.

Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
185 g butter
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup self raising flour
3/4 cup plain flour
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
3 eggs
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 cup grated carrots

Cream cheese:
60g cream cheese
30g butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp orange rind

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs one at a time.
3. Mixed in chopped walnuts and carrot.
4. Sift in the flour and mixed spice.
5. Add to mould / cupcake liners and bake at 170 C until skewer comes out clean.

Frosting:
1. Cream butter, icing sugar and butter until combined.
2. Add orange rind and mix well.

The First Time...

A dear friend of mine was getting married in February and "booked" me to bake cupcakes for her church reception, since half a year ago. My first proper order! It was a challenge and I loved it!

First, to think of a theme for the cupcakes. The bride is a sweet and lovely girl, very gentle and feminine. I received her wedding invitation card, which was baby pink with a little rose ribbon on the top of the card...immediately everything clicked and fell into place.

The cupcakes would be nothing short of feminine, soft, floral and sweet...

She ordered 50 cupcakes for approximately 70 guests expected to attend the church reception.
I told her I'd try to make 70 if I could, so each one could have at least one.

On top of making 70 cupcakes for a wedding for the first time, I was also the maid of honour... so plenty of work for me before the wedding and during the wedding! I secretly wondered if I'd taken on too much. But then again, its not every day my dear girlfriend gets married, so it was going to be worth it.



Planning went on well, I made test designs for the bride to choose and had a few discussions with her on the general feel and design that she liked. She definitely liked rosettes, and also the traditional cupcake swirl.

So I decided on chocolate cupcake and vanilla cupcakes, to give guests a choice of 2 flavours. The buttercream is also super unique, and not the usual butter + icing sugar variety. I used Swiss Meringue Buttercream flavoured with melted white chocolate, so its not overly sweet and yet stiff enough to pipe designs to withstand our humid and hot weather. :)

To top of the designs the bride requested for silver dragees. So for the second design I thought of making pink fondant flowers of different sizes.

The cupcake stand was tricky. It had to fit the theme and also be special and "non-commercial". After doing some research on the internet I decided to make my own stand. After much running around over a few weekends, I think I got everything I need. I made a 4 tier cupcake stand using cake boards and covered it with shimmery pink paper. Styrofoam cake dummies were the dividers and "stand", and they were wrapped with silver ribbon. Finally I bought some beautiful and dramatic silver lace to line around the border of the cake stand.

The lace was the most unexpected find and finding it deserves a little story on its own. One day I was running errands I found an old and quite unassuming fabric shop in Old Serdang. It was a small shop with a musty smell smell mixed with the smell of canine. Rolls of ribbon, lace and tassles are stuffed into old glass sliding cabinets. The lady of the shop was watching television, which was propped on a table right in the middle of the shop. A shop reminiscent of simpler days of the past, of lazy afternoons and of housewives knitting as a hobby. A dog lay asleep right in front of the display cabinet, I had to wriggle my way between the shelves from the other side.

The shop has the most beautiful selection of gold and silver lace. There was so much possibility for crafts and art! I visited the shop twice before I purchased the lace, all 4 metres of it. It was the last place in my mind that I would find such a beautiful piece of lace and now I know the secret place to go. ;)

The final result on the day of the wedding:


One day I'll write a post about making the cupcake stand.

The bride was beautiful on that day. The church wedding was at the beautiful Holy Rosary Church in Brickfields and it went without a hitch. I kept my eye on the veil at all times to make sure it was in place. The bride commented that the cupcakes were beautiful! How sweet.


Job number 1 was a total success. I can't wait for more!

It wasn't long before I got commissioned for job number 2... A challenge of higher proportions!

Stay tuned for more!