Double Chocolate Mint Cookie

Bake some cookies for B.. As a gift!

Bake some cookies for him.. Yes, He likes crunchy chocolate cookies.. So I used Gina's (Kitchen Capers) Double chocolate mint cookie recipe, but I made some modifications to it to suit B's tastebuds..

My apologies for the blurred pictures.. It was taken by B.. I forgot about taking pictures, and I only remember that when I reach home at night, so I quickly smsed B and ask him to take a pic for me..

Hmm.. I have no idea on how to describe the cookie... it wasn't insanely crunchy like Famous Amos, but the crunchy-ness is good enough coming mainly from the nuts and chocolate chips.

It has a distinct fragrance cos the itchy hand of mine added some drops of coffee emulco and vanilla essence. I read from a tread in KC (by stephanie) saying that in famous amos cookies, they beat the eggs with coffee oil (which I don't have, so replace with some drops of emulco) and vanilla essence to get the special fragrance that is "so special yet couldn't tell what is it from".

This recipe also uses crushed peppermint sweets (polo), but trust me, I really cannot taste the mint at all, maybe the mint fragrance is being musked by the vanilla+coffee combination.. If I'm trying it out again, I would use fisherman's friend sweets which are really very minty..

The ones that are highlighted in Red are the changes that I've made to the original recipe

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ingredients

115g butter
180g self-raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
80g castor sugar (I use 10g)
50g light brown sugar (I use 80g)
1 egg (I beat the egg with coffee emulco and vanilla essence and left it to stand for 1 hr)
1 tube polo mints (I use 1.5 tube)
1 cup chocolate chips
0.5 cup almond nuts, coarsely chopped (optional)
3 tbsp gound almond

Methods

1. Crush polo mints in a bag. ( I suggest not to crush it till powder form)
2. Cream butter and sugar till creamy.
3. Add in eggs to beat till well mixed.
4. Turn off mixer and fold in flour, chocolate powder, chocolate chips, nuts, and crushed mints.
5. Line baking tray with baking paper.
6. Use a piping bag to squeeze out tiny spots on the paper. (I couldn't pipe out nicely, so I roll a tsp of dough and flatten them slightly)
7. Bake in preheated oven 180C for 15minutes.
8. Remove and cool completely on wire rack.

I seriously salute Gina, and any other people that can pipe out cookies nicely... Cos I seriously can't do that, I will end up with dough that looks like sh*t.. Literally the shape I mean.. Any tips from the pros out there in the cyber world?? I wanna achieve the famous amos style cookies as well!

But nevertheless, B commented that he love this cookie, he said its very nice! But personally next time round I wanna leave in small bits of crushed mint.. I'm sure it would taste heavenly!

Moist and Chewy Chocolate brownie!

Sharing with you guys my favorite brownie!


These brownies are really moist and chewy (the way I like mine to be)!

Add in some chopped walnuts to the extra crunch and textures.. I feel that either walnuts or pecan nuts goes well with brownies.. Absolutely not peanuts or green peas right?

Pack up in a box of 6, really to zooommm off for B!

Recipe adapted from KC, posted by Sophie.

Moist and Chewy Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

125g butter

200g dark chocolate (use good quality ones)

3 eggs

1¾ cup caster sugar ( I use 50g caster, 50 brown sugar)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 ½ cups plain flour (sifted)

1/3 cup cocoa powder (sifted)

2 cups chopped walnuts

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Brush a shallow 8 x 11 inch tin with melted butter/oil and line the base with baking paper, extending over the two long sides.
3. Double boil butter and dark chocolate till melted, add in sugar and mix well. Remove the bowl of mixture and cool it slightly.
4. Add in eggs, one at a time and mix thoroughly with each addition. Add in vanilla essence and mix well.
5. Add in sifted flour, cocoa powder and nuts. Mix well.
6. Pour mixture into the prepared pan, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top, and bake for 30 minutes, allow the brownie to cool in tin before cutting into pieces.

This is really a good recipe that's worth keeping! I really love chewy brownies, actually the love for such brownies starts when I bought a piece of Fudgy Chewy Gooey Brownie from The Brownie Factory at takashimaya basement (its a really small stall, keep your eyes open or you might just walk pass it w/o realising it's pressence!).

The brownie that I tried is their's no.1 best seller! Sticking to the bestseller ensures nothing goes wrong, and yes, the brownies are really chewy! Really nice! Selling at $3.10, it comes in a big piece, so I got only a pc and I shared it with B, and he too thinks that it's nice.

So if you guys likes chewy and moist types of brownies, do try this! You'll love it!

Betty Cocker's Premix

Sometimes the laziness within me forces me to use premix..

Yes, I'm lazy I know.. but what to do when you're lack of basic ingredients to make cookies, but only left with a stick of butter and a bag of premix? (And FYI, I can get a tub of freshly baked, and absolutely delish cookies in 1 hr! (We love things to be speedy, right?)

So say YES to premix, esp Betty Cocker's! I like the one above, as the taste is really good.. Except that its slightly whineeyy bit too sweet..

I usually drop big tablespoon of cookie dough to bake.. It will spread out by itself (thanks to the butter). To get a crispier cookie, bake it for a few more minutes.


So purpose of this post is to share with all, the brand of cookie premix I like to use, and if there's a day where you're stuck in a situation like me, you might want to consider using this to satisfy the cravings for freshly made cookies that are still warm!

Durian/ chocolate cuppies!

My family was invited to go to my uncle's baby full month celebration. As my sis is sponsoring 3 duckies as an add on to the buffet dinner, I wanted to bring along some food as well.. So in the end decided to stick to my forte- baking..

Wanted to bake 40 cuppies, but couldn't decide on the flavor.. I wanted to to bake a variety, but couldn't afford the time, wanna bake a single flavor, but I'm afraid it'll be too boring... So in the end bake 2 different flavors.. DURIAN N' CHOCOLATE!

Bake the Little Devil Chocolate Cupcakes and top with lots of coarsely crushed digestive crackers.. Quite a good move actually as it add on crunchy-ness to the cuppies, and yes.. This cupcake is addictive!

Didn't have time to pack them nicely.. So hehe.. Just stack them up all together in a box and lug them to my uncle hse..

Next up on the list is Durian cupcakes..

Add a tablespoon of cake batter and top with 1 full teaspoon of durian puree..

After baking, I like the golden colour on the cupcake, and yes, its crunchy on the surface, soft inside... And a well hidden "surprise".

Tadah! Surprise revealed! Lots and lots of durian puree! Hmm.. Looks like custard cream right? Hehe..

First bit, your teeth will be welcomed by the crunchy crust, and hit by the softness of the durian flavored cake, then followed by the soft, creamy and slightly bitter durian center, that fills your mouth with the durian fragrance!

*One complaint though... Should triple the amount of durian filling!*

Using a template, I dust the durian cupcakes with cocoa powder.. Tried using Hershey's, but it the colour is too light.. And doesn't complement the colour of the durian cupcakes well.. So I used valhora's cocoa powder.. Nicer contrast.

The guest praises the cuppies! I'm really so glad that they enjoyed the cupcakes (as much as I do)!

On a side note, the durian cupcakes was gone by the first hour, and it was quite a hit among the guest! As for the chocolate cuppies, those who tried gave their comments that it's very chocolate-y, moist and not too sweet.. Even my fussy cousin took 3 piece! Achievement eh? HEHE!

Mommy's Birthday Cake

Made this cake for Mom on her birthday..

This is the first time I make a cake for my mommy.. I wasn't confident with frosting the cake and decorating them, lack of the creative juice in me.. Hehe..

So being her 50th Birthday this year, I raised up my hands and "volunteer" to bake her a cakie, nothing fanciful just a simple blackforest cake but frosted in chocolate ganache.

My mum was really happy when she saw the cake. Actually there's no element of surprise in here, my mom saw me busying frosting the cake and decorating it, so there is no "WOW-reaction" in her face.. All I could see was her beaming away.. Maybe she's proud of me? (I guess so too!)

Sharing with you the pictures:

Did wrote some short messages on the cake board using white chocolate.. But this picture was taken by my sister before writting.. Or rather when I was melting the chocolate, she took this picture.. Haha..

What I wrote was "Happy birthday, Mommy" (In chinese) and drew a big heart shape beside the text! Hehe! (shows that I love my mommY!)

This is exactly the same cake as B's Bday cake, only difference is that I uses chocolate ganache (1/3 milk chocolate, 2/3 dark chocolate) to frost the cake. My family don't really adore creams..

Well, anyway, that day she was really happy, maybe its because all the family members + all the boyfriends was there to celeb with her.. And I believe my cake did make some contribution to her happiness as well! Hehe!

I wouldn't mind all the trouble, as long as my mommy is happy!

B's granny Chocolate-O-Durian mousse cake

Hey people.. I backed to share with you guys a cake I bake 1 yr ago.. (I didn't have a blog back then).

Baked this cake for B's grandma.. It's her 70yr old birthday.. To the chinese, its considered as quite a big event.. I mean I feel quite embarress to bring out or present this cake.. I mean.. look at the decoration.. So...


The above is the actual cake for B's grandma and it weights about 1.5kg - 2kg.. I know look wises is really ugly and not good enough as bday cake.. *Slap self hard hard*

It was my really really maiden attempt at using whip cream to decorate the cake.. Just simply add mix in pink colouring and green colouring..

Sigh, my piping is really CMI (cannot make it) *slap triple hard again*


I'm like that, if I were to bake a cake for a major event, I'll trial trial to make one for family consumption and to ask them for comments..the picture above is for family consumption..

The blackish thing in between the cake is actually a failed chocolate mousse.. Hehe.. But the durian mousse makes up for the bad ganache failure.. Durian mousse is smooth and bursting with durian flavor.. YUM!

Thank god the 2nd attempt of this cake is a much better attemp.. The chocolate mousse is much much more better, not runny and its smooth. I was so happy that day that I actually assembled the cake w/o much hiccups.. =)

I adopted the recipe from Aunty Yochana's blog.

Choco-O-Durian Mousse Cake

Ingredients

Durian sponge
4 Eggs
250g optima flour
1 tsp ovalette
70g water
1 tsp durian paste
drops of green colouring
70ml corn oil (to be added last)

1. Beat the above ingredients together till thick and fluffy (approx 10mins).
2. Fold in corn oil and pour into a 9" round tin.
3. Bake at 175C for about 45mins or till cooked.
4. Turn cake onto a wire rack and leave it to cool.

Chocolate Mousse
100g good quality chocolate, chopped and melted
200g whip cream, whipped till stiff
20g rum

1. Whip cream till stiff, fold in melted chocolate and rum.

Durian Mousse
2 egg yolks
50g sugar
250g durian flesh
75ml milk
200g whipping cream, whipped
10g gelatin powder
3 tbsp water

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl over simmering water until puffy, stir in durian flesh and cook for a while to warm it up.
2. Soak gelatin powder with water and let it bloom. Microwave for a while until gelatin melts and add into durian flesh mixture. Stir till well combined.
3. Add in milk and stir thoroughly.
4. Gently fold in whipped cream making sure its mixed thoroughly.

Assemble

1. Spread chocolate mousse on top of a slice of cake, and them top up with the other layer of sponge cake.
2. Pour the durian mousse onto the sponge and level it. Top the cake with the last piece of sponge. Chill cake till set.
3. Cream the whole cake with cream and decorate as desired.

Note: I triple the whole recipe. The cake pan I bought is very big, so the first batch of cake batter I pour in just nice for a layer. Which means I bake the cake layer by layer for 3 times.

Comments were good! Those who tried my cake said that its very nice! And this made me so happy!

I myself find that the cake is very nice too! Maybe its because I'm a ultimate durian fan.. Hehe!

Do try this cake!

Steamed Chocolate Milk Custard

I really like those food that has silky smooth texture.. Like soy beancurd, steam eggs custard etc.. This can be justified by the recent posts that I've posted up.. Hehe..


Please pardon me for doing the same range of things over and over again.. I'm trying to explore with new type of food and flavours.. Hee =P

Today after dinner made myself a chocolate-y dessert.. I like this very muchie... Cos I like my chocolate to be slightly bitter.. I don't like sugary food as well and this is not overly sweet.. So it suits my tastebuds very well!

Steamed Chocolate Milk Custard

Ingredients

130mL chocolate milk
30mL water
1.5 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp honey
1 egg white

Methods

1. Heat up water in a saucepan, and stir till cocoa powder and honey dissolves. Remove and set aside till cool.
2. Add in the cooled chocolate mixture and egg white into the chocolate milk. Stir well to mix.
3. Strain mixture into a bowl and steam over low heat for 12minutes.
4. Serve warm or chilled

This dessert is a much healthier version of a chocolate pudding.. as it doesn't use cream and butter. And I only use egg whites, which greatly reduces the fat content of this dessert. And trust me, its really smooth.. Really enjoy eating this very much! I guess I will make this whenever the chocolate cravings kicks in!

Updates: I tried experimenting it using chocolate milk (minus the water), and it does make a difference to the texture, its more rough and less silky. In my point of view, it wasn't as nice as the orignal one.

Chocolate Ginger Milk Curd

Continue with the ginger milk curd fever, I made another today.. Chocolate flavor

If you were to ask me which one I prefer, I would definitely choose the Chocolate flavour one.


A simple test to test if the milk curd has set or not.. Apparently yes...

This is how the chocolate ginger milk curd looks like.. Texture wise is soft and even softer than beancurd.. But I like this kind of texture very much!

Chocolate and ginger sound weird and "disgusting" but trust me this is really good.. It taste like a softer version of chocolate pudding.

Once you put this into your mouth, you can immediately taste the rich chocolate taste, after which then you will taste the ginger taste.. Its sweet (from the chocolate milk) and hot (from the ginger) at the same time! New taste accquired!

Presenting to you the recipe:

Chocolate Ginger Milk Curd

Ingredients
120mL chocolate milk (I use HL brand)
1/2 tsp honey
2 tsp ginger juice (freshly squeezed)

Methods

1. Place the ginger juice in a bowl.
2. Heat milk and honey together till honey dissolves and the milk bubbles at the side.
3. Remove pot from stove and stir it with a spoon for 20 times.
4. Pour the milk into the cup containing ginger juice and give it a quick stir.
5. Put aside and wait for the curds to form, approximately 2mins.
6. Serve warm.

Do try it! Its good!

Brownie Muffin (with a twist)

Baked this brownie muffins after finish studying one of my module.. I wanted to take some rest and surf the net for a while, then suddenly craves for some chocolatey stuff.. So I bake these to stop the cravings.. Hehe!


On top of the original recipe, I add in some peanut butter and a piece of mint chocolate.

The interior view of the brownie muffin. The pale brownish stuff is the peanut butter, and some slightly shiny blacky stuff is the melted mint chocolate.

After making the brownie batter, I saw that there's a bottle of peanut butter on the tabletop so I thought, "why not add some in? I'm sure it will be yummy!" And so, I proceed on to add some PB in.. Quite a smart move.. As I really like this little surprise.. hehe!

And as for the mint chocolate, you can sub it with any chocolate you like, I used this because there only a few pcs left, and I thought of finishing it up..

Brownie Muffins

Ingredients
3 tbsp valhorna chocolate powder
100g sugar
87g brown sugar
100g plain flour
0.5tsp baking powder
0.25tsp salt
75ml oil
50ml evaporated milk
1 tbsp bailey's irish cream
2 eggs
100g chocolate chips (I use pcs of peppermint chocolate)
some peanut butter

Methods

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sieve flour, chocolate powder and baking powder and salt together, and then stir in the sugars.
3. Mix eggs, evaporated milk, oil and Bailey’s together, and pour them into the dry ingredients.
4. Stir till no more visible lumps.
5. Spoon 2 tsp of batter into prepared cases, then adds in a piece of chocolate, followed by 1 tsp of batter, top with some peanut butter and finally another 2 tsp batter.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
7. Cool muffins thoroughly and store in air tight containers

I brought 8 of these to school for my classmates to try.. And reviews are good.. I guess its chocolate, so naturally will be a hit among the ppl who tried them!

Christmas Logcake

Trying hard to clear off all of my "bakes" pictures by posting 3 post at a go..

Presenting to you my last year Yule logcake.. My maiden attempt at it..

Actually B requested me to bake somethings for his family's x'mas party.. Since its a X'mas party, I've in mind to bake a logcake..

I was really afraid that I'm not up to the standard yet, so I bake one "trial-trial" solely for my family's consumption. Something random: personally I like the cream cheese filling very much!


The "naked" yule log that survive the trial test.. But since its for family consumption, I did not add on any decorations.. (my family didn't mind either) =P





The above is the one that I brought over to B's family party.. A really simple decoration.. As it totally slips off my mind that I need to buy snow powder to dust the cake, so I used icing sugar.. But its a big NO-NO as I realised that it kind of like melt into the chocolate ganache..

The feedback from B's family were fairly good.. And that makes me a happy girl for the whole day!

Recipe adapted from Florence's blog.

Christmas Yule Logcake

Ingredients
(A)
5 egg yolks
25g castor sugar
Pinch of salt

(B)
Dissolve 20g cocoa powder in 55g warm oil

(C)
65mL warm milk

(D)
80g Cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
60g castor sugar

Cream Cheese Filling
125g cream cheese
30g sugar
110g whipping cream + 1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

Chocolate ganache
100g 66% valrhona dark chocolate (chopped)
90ml cream
12g butter

Methods

Yule Log

1. cream ingredient (A) with hand whisk till sugar dissolved.
2. add in ingredients (B) and mix well. Stir in (C).
3. sieve in (D) and mix till no lumps.
4. beat egg whites with an electric whisk till frothy, sprinkle in cream of tartar. Beat till white in colour and add in sugar by thirds. Continue beating till stiff peaks form.
5. fold in half of egg whites into yolk mixture and mix with a hand whisk in 6 strokes.
6. Pour in yolk mixture into the rest of the egg whites and mix well with hand whisk.
7. Bake in a lined tray at 180C-190C for 20minutes.
8. Prepared a sheet of baking paper large enough to hold the sheet cake. Sprinkle icing sugar all over the baking paper.
9. Turn cooled cake onto the sugared baking paper and roll the cake in swiss roll style while it is still warm.
10. Keep sheet cake in its position till cool enough to spread filling and frosting.

Cream Cheese Filling

1. Whip whipping cream with icing sugar till mousse state.
2. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.
3. Cream cheese with suga till creamy. Stir in gelatin mixture.
4. Fold in whipped cream. Refrigerate 10min prior to use.

Chocolate Ganache

1. Bring cream to a boil. Remove from heat.
2. Add in chopped chocolates and stir till smooth and creamy.
3. Stir in butter while mixture is still warm.
4. Refrigerate for 30minutes then cream frosting till thick.

Assemble

1. Unroll the cake carefully, spread filling all over the cake. Roll up the cake again.
2. Spread the ganache over the whole cake, and decorate with fork.
3. Decorate as desire.

Woah, longest recipe I ever typed.. Fingers aching.. haha! Personally I find that the difficulty I encounted then is that the chocolate roll wasn't soft enough.. And I strongly believe its my skill of folding in of egg white, back then I really couldn't fold whites well..

My Chocolate Chiffon Cake

After finishing my going-to-due report, I decided to reward myself by drowning myself in preparing cake batter, suffocate myself with the fragrance of freshly baked cakes.. Nah, don't worry! I'm not torturing myself, in fact, I enjoy these process!

Shall share with you the pictures of this lovely chiffon cake!


I took this picture when the cake is still in the oven doing sauna.. haha

A slice of cake

Looks abit dense, but trust me, this cake is soft, fluffy and nice!

I find that this arrangement looks like a face! Can you spot the eyes and the mouth (or rather beards)?

I bake the divided the chiffon into 3 smaller pans as I don't have the big chiffon pan, so I utilised the 2 mini chiffon pan from daiso.

Sharing with all of you, this recipe:

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
  40g cocoa powder (I use 20g hershey's, 20g Valrhora)
  130ml water
  130g sugar (I reduced to 85g)
  ¼ tsp salt (I add only a pinch)
  150g cake flour
  1 tsp baking powder
  85g corn oil
  
  4 egg whites
  90g sugar1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Methods

1. Sieve all dry ingredients together.
2. Add in the egg yolks, water and sugar into the dry ingredients and stir till smooth.
3. Add in corn oil and stir till smooth.
4. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar till frothy and pour in sugar in 3 batches and beat for about 2 minutes till stiff.
5. Gently fold in egg whites into the yolk mixture and pour into a 23-cm chiffon cake pan
6. Bake at 175oC for about 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.
7. Invert chiffon cake immediately onto a wire rack and let it cool before removing it from pan.
8. Slice and serve.

I got the recipe from Here.

I didn't follow the recipe strictly, I add and minus base on my family preferences.. I add in a tsp of coffee granules (by dissolving it in the 130ml water). But I didn't notice the taste of coffee at all, I think next time I attempt this I will add in 1 tbsp, and a note to myself, I will add in some chocolate liquer into the batter on my next attempt!

By the way, I'm going to get myself a chiffon pan tml after school at phoon huat! Let's welcome more chiffon cakies!! Woo-Hoo!

I really enjoy and love chiffons to bits.. So nice and soft! And I find that stuffing myself silly with chiffon is much more guilt-free than cakes that uses butter, and my family all love chiffons!

School starts tml, and its back to the stressful, busy days.. Welcome reports and practicals!

I love my practical sessions, dealing with chemicals, viruses, bacteria and microbes.. But I totally hate reports that I'll have to pass up.. Imagin dealing with at least 4 (at least 4 pgs) reports per wk.. Gosh, don't wanna imagin that at all..

Alright, I'll have to chase away those negative thoughts and embrace myself to work harder!

A Blackforest cake for a B'day boy

September 11, a day that some people will never forget.. (due to the attack of the twin towers)

However, this year september, 11 is a special day for someone special..

Its B's birthday.. so I created a cake for him.. He really like chocolates very much, and almost immediately BLACKFOREST CAKE flash across my mind, so without any procastination, I lift my butt off the comfy chair and search online for Blackforest cakie..

I got this recipe from "Do what I like" @ Kitchen Capers Forum.

http://wlteef.blogspot.com/2005/04/black-forest-cake.html

When I saw the picture of the cake florence created, I was so amazed! absolutely stunning! Just like what we will get from those secret recipes, breadtalk etc.. So yeah, a picture determines the birthday boy's cake.. Keke

Presenting to you, this lovely recipe:

BLACKFOREST CAKE

Ingredients

(A)

4 egg yolks

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp rum or kirsch (I use my Sis's chocolate liquer)

40g castor sugar (I use icing sugar)

(B)

5g cocoa powder

85ml warm corn oil

(C)

135ml warm water

(D)
125g cake flour
1/2 baking soda
1/2 baking powder

(E)

4 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

50g castor sugar

(Fillings)

15 fresh cherries pitted and halved (dried with paper towel)

25 canned pitted sour cherries halved drain well

500ml whipping cream whipped with 2 tbsp icing sugar

100g shaved Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate

10 - 12 Fresh whole cherries with stems for decoration/maraschino cherries with stems

Methods

1. Mix ingredients (A) well with a hand whisk.

2. Stir cocoa powder in warmed oil until dissolved and pour into yolk mixture.

3. Stir (C) into yolk mixture.

4. Sieve ingredient (D) and stir it into yolk mixture.

5. Whip egg whites in a clean mixing bowl until big bubbles are formed. Add in the cream of tartar and whip until white in colour. Add in sugar over 3 times and whip until egg whites is stiff. 6. Pour 1/2 white into yolk mixture and blend well.

7. Pour yolk mixture into the remaining egg white mixture and blend well

8. Pour batter into clean baking pan and bake at 175C for 45 minutes or until cooked.

9. Invert cake and leave to cool. Then cut cooled cake into 2 or 3 layers.

10. Whip the cream with icing sugar until stiff.

11. Add pitted fresh and sour cherries into half portion of the whipped cream.

12. Sandwich the cake with (11).

13. Frost the cake with the remaining half portion of whipped cream and decorate as appropriate with chocolate shavings and fresh whole cherries

I prepared the base cake around afternoon before the night I do up the decorations, this allow the crumbs to settle, and when you slice the cake into 3 individual parts, the crumbs will not fall off.. And a prettier cut as well la..

So after all these hardwork, I came up with this cake:

I did not decorate the cake with marashchino cherries because I couldn't find them at the AMK Phoon Huat, and not wanting to run around the whole "little red dot" (Singapore) for the cherries, I settle for strawberries and Rochers.. The rochers was quite a hit, guess they like the rochers.. Strawberrie wise, quite sour..

Non-dairy whipped cream was used to deco the cake as well, I prefer non-dairy over dairy whipping cream. Because I tends to overwhip the dairy whipping cream and "transform" them into butter.. *Sobs*

Just simply no luck with dairy whipping cream.. So whenever any recipe calls for dairy cream, I'll substitute it with non-dairy ones, the taste will not be compromised (according to my tastebuds) =p

Oh ya, I also used the heart candies to decorate the cake... add on a sweet and feminine touch.. Keke. The side of the cake uses chocolate shavings.. Done by yours truly.. Well, I really dislike making my own chocolate shavings, cos they tends to melt quite fast in hot weather, and resulting in a gooey mess..

Anyone has any idea to make my "Chocolate shaving journey" a less tedious one?? Please tell me! TIA!

Taste wise, I think it might be due to the chocolate liquer that I used, the chocolate scent is strongly enhanced, and the cake is spongy soft! Another point to add, the cake is not too sweet, which makes it even more appealing to me.

*I love desserts, but I don't have a sweet-tooth. Weird uh?

Well anyway, the cake was quite well received by all those who tasted it, and of course, the Birthday boy loves the cake as well! So overall, its worth the hardwork! As I greatly appreciate it when people enjoys my bakes!

Hmm.. Stay tuned, I'll be back with more stuffs!