Wow wow wow. Half a year gone past just like that!

Once again the past three months have been busy busy busy for me. And I actually closed my kitchen for the entire month of June due to travel and family matters. Apologies to all my friends and customers that I couldn't take your orders.

Anyways, I have more or less settled down, and I think I should be able to bake again, but still subject to availability as the schedule for second half of the year is quite fluid.

Here are the orders I managed to fulfill for April and May. Big thanks to those who gave me their support!



This is a sweet looking cake ordered by a lovely mum for a "cake smash photography" of her one year-old daughter. "Cake smash" seems to be quite popular these days as I've received a few inquiries and orders.

The mummy wanted a cake that's light and less sweet and pretty looking as well. The sponge layer cake with chantilly cream frosting fitted the requirements but as it was an outdoor photo shoot, using buttercream for overall frosting would be more suitable (buttercream can last longer in room temperature than chantilly cream) and hence rosettes buttercream decor (using less sweet swiss meringue buttercream) was perfect for this cake. Glad that the photography turned out well :)


This was ordered by my Sec school friend who has been so supportive of my cakes and ordered quite a few cakes from me already. It was for Mother's Day celebration and I was pleased to hear that all the mums enjoyed the cake (and that it was less sweet and light on the palate).

For this cake, it could be decorated with just a ring of rosettes leaving the centre blank or with wordings; or the centre part could be filled with fruits of choice like strawberries.


Haven't received cupcake orders for a long time! This was ordered by another mummy who is also very supportive and had ordered a few cakes from me the past year. She wished to have 50 cupcakes for her daughter's birthday celebration and these were the flavours selected.

The chocolate cupcakes were made using Valrhona cocoa powder, overall tender and not too sweet and went well with the swiss meringue chocolate buttercream made using Amedei milk chocolate. Then topped with some silver candy dragees and Valrhona crunchy chocolate pearls. For the chocolate lover.

The carrot and walnut cupcakes were rich in flavour and super moist and I love to eat it with cream cheese frosting. This is a more intense cake, my personal favourite.

The Hokkaido chiffon cupcakes were in turn very light and fluffy, so I paired them with chantilly cream and topped off with a little flower marshmallow.


Strawberry Jelly Hearts Cheesecake, ordered by another Sec school classmate, for her daughter's birthday party. This was the cake I made for my son's birthday celebration in school this year and certainly very well-received among children and adults alike, as the cake has different textures and flavours to it.

In fact, my classmate ordered two cakes, as it was a party and she wanted to try two different types/flavours of cake. Mango cake is another popular cake among Singaporeans. This was made using a 3-layer sponge cake and frosted with mango (blended with) chantilly cream frosting.


Ordered by the first mummy who has the cake smash photography. This time was for the actual birthday celebration for her gal. She selected this design that I made before, and for the rosettes decor, we went for three shades of pale pink, pink and lilac.

For this cake, it could be decorated with just a ring of rosettes leaving the centre blank or with wordings; or the centre part could be filled with fruits of choice like lychees.


Another cake order for cake smash photography by another mummy. We had discussed at length about different designs and suitability and finally she decided to go for this basic rosette design. Glad that her photography session turned out well too!

Looking forward to the next quarter and hopefully able to squeeze in more orders or explore some new flavours :)

Apologies for the long absence! Was super busy with family matters, and also took a 9-day holiday to Australia recently =D I reckon I'm still going to be very busy with family commitments for the next couple of months, and baking/cooking has unfortunately taken a backseat during this period. Nevertheless, I realised I still have a few blog posts in draft mode collecting dust! Probably it's a good idea to sneak in some free time and finish up the posts :p

Ok, and so this is the final installation of my yuzu recipe exploration since I brought some back from Kyoto in February :) Had made Yuzu Marmalade, Yuzu Curd, Yuzu Tart and finally Yuzu Marmalade Yogurt Cake because I needed to use up my yuzu marmalade before it turned bad! 


I'm not a big fan of dense cakes like butter cakes and prefer lighter ones like chiffon or sponge. But I have attempted Yuzu Chiffon Cake 3 years ago already; I reckon I ought to give butter cake a try, and probably yuzu and butter might make a good combination.

And so after researching on the internet for different types of suitable recipes, I finally concluded with this particular one that combines yuzu marmalade and yogurt. Greek yogurt is a stable in my fridge and I liked the idea of adding it to the batter, hopefully the cake can turn out more moist and tender (I hate dry and dense cakes).


Here are all the ingredients used in this recipe, namely a mixture of all purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, caster sugar, greek yogurt, yuzu marmalade, eggs, yuzu oil and yuzu zest. The yuzu oil and zest are optional if not available. I bought them in Tokyo.

Actually attempted the recipe 2 times. The first time, there was too much batter for my loaf pan and ended up filling 2 more paper cases. The second attempt, I adjusted the recipe making it just the right amount of batter for the pan.

Yuzu Yogurt Marmalade Cake
(Recipe 1 - makes one loaf and two cupcakes | Recipe 2 - makes one loaf)

Ingredients

• Recipe 1                                    > Recipe 2

• 155g all purpose flour                > 130g all purpose flour
• 35g cake flour                           -
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder        > 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4g salt                                    > 1/2 tsp salt
• 170g unsalted butter                  > 120g unsalted butter
• 150g caster sugar                      > 100g caster sugar
• 3 eggs                                       > 2 eggs
• 150g yuzu marmalade                > 100g yuzu marmalade
• 150g Greek yogurt                    > 100g Greek yogurt
• 2 tsp yuzu zest                           > 1 & 1/4 tsp yuzu zest
• 1/2 tsp yuzu oil                          > 1/3 tsp yuzu oil

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 175C, top bottom heat. Grease and flour a 9" by 5" loaf pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
3. Mix yuzu marmalade, greek yogurt, yuzu zest and yuzu oil together. Set aside.
4. In a stand mixer, beat unsalted butter with caster sugar till pale and fluffy, about 4-5 mins.
5. Add eggs, one at a time till just incorporated.
6. Add flour mixture into batter in 3 additions, alternating with yuzu yogurt mixture in 2 additions. Mix till just blended.
7. Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake at 175C for 50 mins, until surface of cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre emerges clean.
8. Remove cake pan from oven and let it cool on wire rack for 10 mins. Turn the cake out of the pan and let cool completely before slicing.

** The cake is nice to eat on its own, but for a more luxurious presentation, I mixed about 2 tbsp of greek yogurt and 70g yuzu marmalade, cooked in a heavy sauce pan until slightly thickened and drizzle the sauce over the cake.

I totally loved how the cake turned out! Rich and moist, slightly dense but still tender enough for my palate. Most important, the aroma of the yuzu marmalade was really tantalising! Hmmmm.... yummy yummy yummy! 


Ate both cupcakes, kept a few slices of the loaf for myself and gifted the rest away.


Second attempt, with adjusted recipe to fill one loaf pan.

For this second attempt, the cake turned out a tad too moist though. Or probably I didn't mix the dry and wet ingredients thoroughly, you can see the bottom of the cake a bit too wet.

But still, they were totally delish! Once again, kept a few slices for myself and gifted the remaining loaf to a dear friend.

I think the next time I try recipe 2 again, I may have to reduce the amount of wet ingredients and/or increase dry ingredients. Nonetheless, the recipe is certainly a keeper. Even though I may not have any more homemade yuzu marmalade, I could experiment with Korean Citron Tea next time :)