The Birthday Boy & cup-a-cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN!

Note: Thanks Jévelyn for the pictures!

3-tier cup-a-cake's 1st ORDER!!!

This is mint cup-a-cake. My first time doing and it was very challenging because I am no fan of mint! I had to re-do several times coz at first it was too minty!

On the morning when i was supposed to deliver the goods... my fridge flooded and spoilt my topping! Luckily the damage was not severe... i had time to redo... *phew* very challenging this one. Luckily discovered it early.

Let me tell u a bit about how this order came about. This very cute & petite girl came into Manila Place hoping to find a special cake for her boyfriend's birthday... (she is really so sweet the bf's so lucky to have her!) And that's when i introduced her to cup-a-cakes and see if she liked the idea! It's still quite a new thing... and she bought it. Then for about a month we corresponded through mail and phone. She showed me roughly what she'd like and i slept on it. She wanted 3 flavors - strawberry, choc & vanilla... and also a box of mint choc cup-a-cakes...

This is the strawberry cup-a-cake... I decided to keep it simple.. the design wise. She din want too much cream. So i kept it at a rose swirl. It can only be done if the cream is cream-y enough! Else you cannot get the nice ending.

And the vanilla....

And all together. I had to make sure it all looked uniform - size and the swirls.

Then finally the topping.... It's for a guy... so i wanted to keep it as simple and not girl-y as possible. And i'm still not over using rocky! Luckily rocky comes in the 3 flavors as per my order! Choc, strawberry & vanilla! P-e-R-f-E-c-T!

All together now.... the theme she wanted was black and red. Hard to do for the cream so i opted for the boards... with silver ribbons for the holder. I used 40pcs cup-a-cakes for this 3-tier cake. Just nice.... Took me quite a while to think of a nice way to do the 3-tier holder. But quite happy with my final out come... I kept the vanilla & strawberries for the bottom and choc for the middle & the top one, choc & vanilla!

I asked if there's anything in particular the boyfriend liked and she said bowling. Quite a challenge i thought. Wanted to do fondant bowling pins at first but then i found bowling candles! Yeah! Lucky me again! Just perfect... Then i made a happy birthday tag to complement it all since I couldn't write it...

And finally.... tah dahhhhh! The final product! It was quite a rush because they had their lunch at Manila Place too... and i only had so much time to put it together for them and did not have a proper place to take the final pic also! Please don't mind the messy background!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN!!

French Culinary Day 5 - It's all over now...

It has been a great 5-days which passed by really fast...

A bit too intensive for me but nevertheless, a G-R-E-A-T experience... truly is!

French Culinary Day 5: The Final Meal

LUNCH by chef Bruno

MENU

Caesar Salad

Fresh Toasted Bread

Braised Lamb Shank with fresh mashed potatoes

French Culinary Day 5 - Completed Designs of the Cupcakes

top row (left-right): creamy choc topped with choc roses, "the gift" dacquoise & caramel choc

second row (left-right): "surprise" almond meringue & choc, cherries & choc

3rd row (left-right): banana choc cupcake topped with smurfs, hazelnut choc topped with mousse & cacao glazing

French Culinary Day 5 - Toppings

dark & white chocolate "smurfs"

rolled chocolate roses using milk choc

melting of choc using boiled milk - start stirring from the middle!

making flowers using untempered dark choc and then topped with icing sugar

patterned dark choc slices

mini macaroons

dark & white choc mixed to create a marble effect choc

spaghetti strips choc curled before it dries for decor

French Culinary Day 5 - Choc and Almond Cupcakes

Almond meringue & choc cupcakes. Double sandwiched layer of almond meringue & choc mousse and then a layer of choc mousse coat.

Hazelnut choc cupcakes filled with finely blended hazelnut, topped with choc mousse & cacao glazing... Very yummy! The roasted hazelnut smells soooooooo goood!

Cherries & choc cupcakes filled with sour cherry

The topping for cherries & chocolate cupcakes with choc mousse

Creamy choc cupcake topped with creamy ganache.

Dacquoise & caramel choc cupcakes - Dacquoise is the biscuit sandwiched with choc caramel mousse. This is the best out of all we made today - especially the dacquoise.

French Culinary Day 4 - New faces!

Today's class have 15 students. Only 3 of us stayed back from the first 3 days. Lots of really nice and friendly people! It's been great knowing all of you... :)

French Culinary Day 4 - Cupcake's Grand Finale

Orange Chocolate Cupcakes with dark choc & heart orange macaroons

The first few are pistachio & raspberries cupcakes with marzipan rose flowers & fresh raspberries; coated with pistachio. It is filled with frozen raspberries also...

Carrot cupcakes with fresh grated carrots with bunny & carrot marzipan toppings.

Walnuts & banana cupcakes topped with banana cream & yellow funny faces choc ball

Blackcurrant cupcakes with blackcuraant cream & butterfly ciggarette dough

Lemon strawberries cupcakes coated with strawberry mousseline & topped with red happy face choc ball & dark choc. It is filled with semi candied strawberries.

All together now... They are all really pretty. A little too pretty to eat I feel... But it will make such nice gifts for people. Will have to try making them soon!

French Culinary Day 4 - Our LUNCH by chef Bruno

Pasta (of course) with beef stew! Served with toast bread & caesar salad... Yumm!

French Culinary Day 4 - Cupcake Toppings

Heart macaroons. I used to think macaroons only come in round shapes... Actually, it can be shaped in anyway we like it to be.... It is such pretty little things!

I wish it is not so sweet. Would enjoy it a lot better!

The making of marzipan roses & bunnies. It is very similar to fondant. Only that it has more almond and it is harder. Adding a bit of heat using simple techniques such as rubbing of our hands helps to make it a lot easier to work with marzipan. Some people find marzipan nicer to eat. But for me, a person we don't like the smell of almond, would prefer fondant anyday!

Add some orange colouring & we can form carrots! Add some green colouring, we get carrot's green... Add some royal icing and choc, we get eyes for the bunnies! I do feel that the roses using marzipan is a lot easier than using fondant... or maybe i'm just very bad with fondant!

Using ciggarette dough to make butterflies! So much fun.... seriously! Adding the colour bit by bit each sides and voila! We get a mixed colour butterfly... like tie & dye. We can do any shape at all with it! Just cut the shape out using a thick cardboard and it's done! The best part is... it tastes really yummy.. really really good. Thin, tasty & crispy.

Us students giving the ciggarette dough a go... Really enjoyed doing them...

French Culinary - The School

Using mostly imported equipments and lots of IKEA stuffs is what the school is made up of. The working area is very proper. Our first 3 days, we only have 7 students. Then, the space was sufficient. When we had 14-15, i felt that it was too chaotic... but of course it is much more fun with more students. But school is meant for learning and not for F.U.N. right not?

French Culinary Day 4 - Fruits Cupcakes

Blackcurrant cupcakes... two mixture put in separately to create marble effect.
Using piping bag to fill the cup makes it much cleaner!

Pistachio cupcakes topped with coarsely chopped pistachio before baking.
Right after taking it out from the over, we soak it with hot syrup
to ensure that the cake's moisture is maintained. Need to soak while it's HOT!

French Culinary Day 3 - The Grand Finale

All these cakes in 3 days!

Amazing!