Mogador - Who would have known it is de-li-cious

What is Mogador?....I didn't have a clue of what it meant. Perhaps it was the name of a city somewhere, I thought. I wiki'ed it found out it was an isolated city of Moroccan where the French Troop disembarked in 18th century. Nothing much related to the raspberry puree soaked cake I was about to make. (!?) If anyone knows, educate me please.

By the way, I doubt why the French named quite a few of their cakes after their cities? I know we have some city-named cake with description attached to the cake i.e. Boston creme pie or New York cheese cake or Mississippi mud pie but do you know how Paris-Brest or Mogador look like? Um....may be it was their tricks to keep our curiosity alive.

I searched the key word 'mogador cake' and finally saw chocolate mousse cake topped with jam. Not as fancy as I thought. Fine, I had to make this in class anyway.

In the demo class, Mogador was made with chocolate sponge. Good news, it's not quite an artery-blocking/buttery-buttery cake. There is no butter added in the sponge. The sponge itself is pretty dry but later will be soaked with tangy raspberry puree. Chef insisted repeatedly, more than 3-4 times in the demo that all of 130 ml of raspberry puree must go in to an 8 inch by 3/4 inch high round sponge cake. Wow...that was a lot. But you know what. She is right. All the good tangy-sweet juice m-u-s-t be there, or you won't get happy customers. Here is what I meant by soaking the sponge. Notice the color, the sponge was chocolaty before.

I live in the tropical. Raspberry is somehow a luxury kind of fruit (just like when I lived in Shanghai, my Durian-no-thanks is considered precious fruit of all times for Shanghainese durian lovers). The puree we used in class is of Boiron, of course, imported from France. Judging from fancy, nice, stylish packaging, I am sure it would cost me quite a bit to buy this finished product. After class, I swung by a wholesale grocer near by to check it out. I was wrong.

A pack of frozen raspberry costs me 1/3 less than Boiron. Imagine me making my puree at home i.e. boiling+ squishing frozen fruit, discard rough meat, then I would probably end up only 2/3 of what I bought. Which doesn't make much difference had I bought the fancy packaging puree, let alone the fussiness and kitchen cleaning at home. Well, don't bother, I buy Boiron then. Okay, soak them up ! zzzzchzzzz.

Oh, just in case if anyone is keen in making raspberry puree at home, here is what my chef suggested off the class.

Raspberry Puree (10% sugar)
120 g Frozen raspberry
15 g of sugar

Bring these two ingredients to a boil. Squish with mixer and strain into fine puree. Let cool completely before use.

Back to the cake. On top of the sponge, here comes dark chocolate mousse. Raspberry and chocolate are always paired up well together, believe me.

Here is the sad part. Sounds simple but stupid me I made lame mistake making split mousse in practical class. Yes, it split !!!. I saw meself hitting me head ('me head', sounds like cute reggae accent, doesn't it?) , didn't know what went wrong. Having lost my mind for 3 seconds, I wanted to scream but was conscious enough there after not to panick the class.

Chef Geraldine, the savior, walked around, saw my poor thing clumping up badly. She gave me a dry but encouraging smile and say 'you probably need to do that again so that we have good mousse in the cake." [I agreed]

You know what, almost all the ingredients in class (except eggs, milk, sugar and salt) are imported from France. Although this has been incorporated into my (reasonably high) tuition fee but I did feel guilty to waste the whole bowl of President creme and Cocoa Barry's 58% dark chocolate. Oh dang it, all the goodies.....I was then envisioning under-nutritioned children in the third world and that I was asking them to forgive me that I wasted this much of food.....unintentionally.

What went wrong: I did temper the ingredients by adding 1/3 of cold creme into warm chocolate but guess I didn't do it properly. Chef Geraldine guided that whipped creme was way to cold and it clumped up chocolate, especially when I put the whipped creme bowl over ice bath before the mixing procedure and that also made the bowl itself colder that it supposed to be. That's it. (!?) Well, I actually had a lame excuse to use ice bath...I fear that the creme would melt , that's why....silly me! :-P

I corrected the second batch by, of course, I threw away the ice-bath right away after I was done with whipping the creme. Then put 1/3 of whipped creme into (room-temp) chocolate bowl, fold fold fold until well blended. Then added the rest of creme into chocolate bowl. Happy ending. Thanks chef.

Quite an adrenaline rush when you see the rest of the class was proceeding to decoration while I was still struggling with the mousse. Who cares, I got good mousse and I learnt how tiny detail could have spoiled the whole thing....of course I was so glad I made silly mistake. (Although it was very tempting to learn from mistake again, I will opt to do it right first time around).

So I piped out smooth chocolate mousse in the ring before filling it up to the top and flatted out surface. Sure, I needed to do it quickly before this little monster set up into a chocolate bar. I wondered if the practical room was way to cold that day or it was just me that worked at snail's pace....chocolate mousse did set up pretty fast.

Apologies that I cannot publish recipe from the class here. Indeed, these are not fancy things. I suggest you get chocolate mousse recipe from my hero's page Alton Brown. It would yield pretty much same good result. But be sure to use good quality chocolate though.

Decoration is something new to me. I always use this word to describe my lousy decoration...i.e. because it was 'new' to me which is why the deco is tilted here and there and etc. Well, it's how I sooth myself. Somehow I thought this is just a matter of god's gift , a bless to some people. I noticed many in the class are really talented at masking , decorating the cake and yes we are all started at the same point, zero. I envy them. I rally do. For me, I am sure am not gifted (shoot!) , I believe I just need one word..... practicing. I'll push myself a bit on that.

And here is the finish product of Chef Geraldine in the demo class. It's classy, isn't it. See, now you know what I meant by 'it just the matter of practicing'.

Bon Appetit!

Caramel Custard Cake

If custard cake to be displayed among other moussy creamy chocolaty cakes, it may not get our attention. Little had we known that one little fine jewel is sitting…. shining right there. The caramel cake, whether or not it glows out of display, it deserves our bites. As I recall, I never bought home this goodie. But once I tried, I was hooked. Believe me, it make you sing in the shower.

I lost the recipes a while back. So, this time I looked up custard recipe from the Internet, scaled down sugar and paired it with my favorite chiffon cake recipe. Here is how.

Caramelized sugar

½ C of sugar

Pour sugar in 9” cake pan set over medium-low heat. Sugar crystals should start to dissolve slowly. Keep close eyes on, as it tends to burn easily. Remove from heat, when it turns yellow. Tilt the pan back and forth to ensure it was browned evenly. The goal is to obtain dark mahogany color. I personally like it dark brown because it will be a bit paler when baked and melted later on. Stir with tooth pick occasionally if you see any spots darker than others. Remove from heat immediately if it starts to bubbling and turn light brown. Swirl the pan to level out caramel. Set aside.

Do: Pyrex glass pan is a good use, make sure the type you use is direct-heat resistant. The pan should be at least 2-inch high.

Don’t: use bottom-removable pan as the batter will leak in the oven. Non stick or Teflon is not a good idea, as dark color pan wont' allow you to see the color of caramel if it is ready or not.

Turn on the oven 330 F. Position the rack at the lower third. Put in a 12x12x1.5 inch tray half-filled with hot water.

Custard

2 cups unsweetened condense milk (or fresh milk)
1 tsp vanilla
2 yolks
2 eggs
1/3 cups of sugar
1/8 tsp of salt or a pinch

Beat yolks and eggs in the bowl, set aside. In a medium sauce pan , put milk sugar and salt over low heat, stir until sugar dissolves. Through sieve, pour milk ingredient over eggs mixture, whisk constantly for a few minutes. Stir in vanilla. Set aside.

Chiffon cake
(A) – sift together these ingredients.
1 cups (scoop out 1 tbsp) of all-purpose flour
½ tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

(B) –In a big bowl, beat yolks and sugar until pale and creamy. Most chiffon recipe allows you to beat flour, yolks, oil and milk together, I never tried that. It gives me peace of mind if I cream the yolk first so that I ensure that sugar crystal dissolves and the yolks are airy.

4 yolks
¼ cups of sugar

(C) – mix together the following liquid ingredient. Gently stir liquid in yolk ingredients, mix well. Set aside.
½ tsp vanilla
¼ cups of vegetable oil
½ cups of milk

(D) Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add sugar , 1 tbsp at a time, beat well each addition. Add crème of tartar. Whisk well unit it reaches soft peaks. Oh again, I forgot to take photo of my soft peaked whities..! And while you are whisking the whites you will hear cracking noise from the pan as caramel hardens.

4 egg whites
¼ cups of sugar
¼ tsp of lemon juice or vinegar (I used 1/8 tsp crème of tartar)

Add flour into egg-milk mixture into 4-5 batches, alternate with whipped whites. I used whisked to 'cut-thru' the flour first, ensure all the lumps break up and well-mixed into runny liquid ingredients. When the batter gets thicker (thick enough to fold), switched to spatula and added 1/3 whites. “Fold in” remaining flour and whites gently while rotating the bowl. It’s a good idea to fold from bottom to make sure no lump ingredients left unmixed. Set aside.

Through sieve, pour custard ingredients on hardened caramel. Then, pour batter over custard gently and evenly. Don’t worry if it seems to sink into milk mixture. It will spring back up in the oven. Now the 9" cake pan is filled with all the liquid and batter. Be very careful when place it on tray with half water. The water in tray should be hot and steamy.

Bake for 45-60 minute. This cake is better slightly over-baked than under-baked. Be warned, if custard layer is not fully cooked …… everything goes to the bin.

Check point: at 45 minutes, jiggle the top of cake with you hand. if it seems to be wobbly inside, continue to bake for 10 minutes. Cover the top with foil or baking paper if it is browning on the top. Repeat the test after ten minutes.

Once done, remove from oven and wait until it completely cools. Do not flip when it is hot as custard needs to be set in its container.

Tips: Once remove from oven, don’t cut across the edge otherwise melted caramel will leak to the side which will discolor custard and over-soak chiffon layer.


I rest the pan in the fridge for 2-3 hours until it completely set before I invert to serve. Before invert, dip the pan in a bowl of very hot water for 30 seconds. If you notice the cake does not shrink from the side, run the knife around to loosen it from the pan. Keep in mind you just want to free up the cake, don't run it all the way through custard layer or it won' t have a nice clean cut.

Left over melted caramel that dripping off is good as sauce, dont' wasted it. This cake is best eaten cold.

Variation of Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is one of variations you can play around with Flourless Chocolate Cake. The cake actually looks handsome when naked, without topping, with cracky crusty look. However, this would give more creamy texture. And , if you happen to misshape the cake during the process, cover it up with whipped creme would be a quick fix.

See how gooey it is inside?

The one is my all time favorite, you can find cake recipe over here. For the whipping cream, you can use Cool Whip or the following.

1 teaspoon gelatin bloomed in 2 tbsp cold whipping creme for 10 minutes

2 cups of whipping creme

1 tbsp icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Once gelatin is bloomed, melt over low heat, until completely dissolved, don't bring to a boil. Let cool at room temperature. Set aside.

Pour cream into the chilled bowl and whip it vigorously until it just begins to hold its shape. Add about 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon icing sugar, and continue to whip until it holds very soft, peaks. Drizzle cooled gelatin all at once to cream during whipping. Stop whipping when it forms soft peaks. Use immediately.

Orange cake

I was obsessed with chocolate cake for while. Now it is time for light and fruity dessert. This one is really refreshing. It is also guilt-free as low in fat content.

Sponge cake (I use 7-inch oval-shaped non stick pan)

50 g of cake flour

a pinch of salt

2 eggs

50 g of sugar

3 g of melted butter, warmed at room temperature (you can omit this, but for me it really makes difference)

Sift flour and salt, set aside.

Beat eggs and sugar until creamy/foamy and pale. Add butter, I don't directly pour melted butter as it will end up sinking to the bottom of the bowl. I scooped out 2 tablespoon of batter and whisk in butter, incorporate them well.

Then pour it back into egg mixture, fold in gently about 3-4 times, Don't over work. Sift in flour, in 3 portions, fold from the bottom to the top by moving spatua along the side of bowl. I do this from left side and alternate with the right. Rotate the bowl as you go. Some may suggest to use spatula cut in the middle of bowl and scoop up along the sides which is one of many's most favorite folding method. I found out that it tends to deflate the volume. You may try out a few times which technique suits you most.

Continue on....the batter will deflate a little, don't panic. Continue to fold from edge of bowl, while rotating. Make sure no lumps of flour left. Again, do not over work. Making basic sponge is not as simple as it appears. Believe me, this is just the matter of practice. After countless of disasters in the past i.e. lumps of flour all over the cake, I finally did it right.

Bake at 175 C for 15 min or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Wait until it completely cool. The cake will shrink from the side. Cool on the rack. Cut by half and apply jam of your choice. I used raspberry jam.

Orange glaze

150 g of water
50 g of concentrated orange juice (I used sunquick)
12 g of cornstarch
1 tbsp of sugar
a pinch of salt
10 g of butter

On low heat, put everything in a pot except butter. Stir constantly for 5-8 minutes. When the mixture is heated up, you need to stir more quickly to prevent the curd at the bottom, or remove the pot away from heat. I finished mine in 15 minute, on very low heat. The consistency should be thick, honey-liked. Stir in butter and stir well. Pour on the cake immediately as it will set at room temperature.

If the glaze is thick, you can set over very low heat and stir until it reaches pouring consistency. I actually waited until it was very thick and pour on cake in one go, with one direction. If you pour back and forth, it may leave ribbon trail or bumpy look which is not desirable.

I sliced in pieces, using serrated knife and here it is. For clean cut, clean the knife after each cut with clean towel.

Nectarine Strusel Upside Down Cake

What would you do if you cannot sleep at night? watching TV? reading?

Last week, I read a cook book at 10 pm. And as usual, instead of putting me back to sleeping mode, it woke me up. I wanted to strap on apron right after I read through the paragraph how streusel was baked. My CPU inside my head started to revolve at 65536 rounds per second. I bet, if there is 24-7 supermarket opened, I would have run out to buy 4 nectarines and eggs which I used up a few days ago.

The cake, baked with 10-inch pan, is big enough to serve 10 people i.e. one piece for each. But if your guests are sweet-toothers, you may need to sacrifice your portion. The cake is meant to be basin-liked, slope towards the center, which is how nectarines were arranged. The surface was pretty with the nactarin pattern, browned by butter and sugar. It was nice...just nice. I know if this is put for sale it may not look very attractive, but as I made this out of scratch, some how I managed to see it as a a rustic beauty.

The recipe also allows apples or bananas if nectarines are not available in your area or if they are not in the season. I love nectarines though. Their sourness goes really well with the cake. The streusels in the center are chewy and crumble. My only complain to this is that I prefer thicker cake batter layers.

I suggest you to bake streusel first as it needs to be cooled down completely before use.

Below is streusel recipe. I actually “doubled” these up as you can see thick streusel in my photos. You may stick to the original portion and see if you like it.

1/4 cup of almonds, chopped
1/3 cup of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of (packed) dark brown sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon1 tsp of ginger
1/2 stick (2 oz) of unsalted butter , cut into small pieces
1/2 cups of rolled oats (not instant)



Turn oven to 350 F. Toast chopped almond until golden brown. Mix flour and cubed butter with forks until resembles crumbs. Add brown sugar, nuts , cinnamon and ginger, toss a few times to mix in. Spread unbaked streusel onto the largest tray so that it won’t pile up and is cooked through easily.

Bake the streusel for 10-15 min 350 F stirring into piece after it slightly cool down


Topping:

1/2 stick (2 oz) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
3-4 ripe medium nectarines , each cut into 8 pieces

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 F.





Pour melted butter over bottom of 10-inch pan wrapped with foil at the bottom (to prevent leaks). Sprinkle brown sugar evenly and arrange nectarines as shown in the photo. You can arrange clockwise and the other row as counter clockwise. Set this aside and prepare the cake.

The sponge:
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp of salt (or 1/8 tsp of table salt, don't even think about omitting this tiny portion)
4 egg yolks
6 egg-whites
1 1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice

Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda together

Beat half of sugar, salt and yolks until pale and creamy, then whisk in vegetable oil and lemon juice (I actually replaced with concentrated orange juice and cut down sugar by ¼ cup). Do it gently but quickly until no oil streaks left. Don’t worry if the batter deflates. The recipe actually instruct to mix in 1 cup of flour into the yolk mixture but I think that would dense the batter so I fold in only 1/3 cup of flour then I turned to beat egg whites.

Beat egg white until fluffy, add a 2-3 table spoons of sugar, and continue beating. Gradually add sugar as you whisk. The whites should form light-foamy stiff/ shiny peak when it is ready to use. I whisked by hand and it took around 8 minutes.

Add 1/3 of egg white mixture into yolk mixtures; fold from the bottom of the blow with spatula quickly but gently. Do this in different directions such that you flip the batter up from left and next you fold and flip it up from the right. After adding the whites, batter will be runnier and ready for more flour. Fold in 1/3 cup of flour. Alternate between flour and egg whites in 3 batches until both ingredients are used up. Ensure there are no lumps left.

Pour half of batter onto arranged nectarine. Use spatula to spread out to cover fruit base. Sprinkle streusel evenly to make layers. Pour the rest of batter on top of streusel. Use spatula to spread evenly. I was tempted to cover up all the fruit so I mistakenly over poured the first batch and I almost had too little on the top to cover streusel. Don’t make the same mistake as I did.

Bake at 350 F, for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My cake browned quickly during the first 15 minutes (I wondered !!!), so I covered with waxed paper. It didn't help much and was and burning. Oh my gosh, I was devastated. I put a disc from removable pie pan onto the wax paper. Fortunately, at that time the cake was firm enough to hold the metal disc. And of course it stopped browning. phew...w..w..w.

Once done, be sure not to flip the pan right after or the topping will slide down. Let it set in the pan until warm to touch or until completely cool. The cake will shrink from the sides. I flipped it over when it was still warm. I was excited as I am always nervous when cooking with fresh fruits. What a pretty surface it had, I murmured to myself.

I leave the cake on the counter top for a few hours and it dries out a little. So, I put gelatin glace on it.

1 tsp of gelatin plus 30 g of cold water, let it blooms for 5-10 minutes.
30 g hot water, not boiling.

I let gelatin blooms in cold water then added hot water, stir well. Let it sit over the counter (room temp was around 15 C). When it started to form up as half jelly half liquid, with rubber brush, touch up nectarine surface. Let it cool in the fridge before slice.


The cake is best served the first 2 days it is made. Of course, with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (imagine me running to the near-by Häagen-Dazs) The streusel filling was scrumptious. I will definitely make this again ! (soon!)

Toffee Nut Cake

This recipe uses emulsifier, SP (Ovalet is interchangeable). If you cannot find these in your location, butter cake should be fine too. I don't recommend low-fat content sponge, like genoise because it tends to dry out before topping is browned.

Most people love chewy/crispy nut topping, and so do I. The cake is coffee-intense. And yes, I am a coffee drinker. I prefer to use instant coffee powder rather than espresso shots as I think it gives outstanding aroma. My favorite brand is the green-label (decaf) Taster's Choice. The best I've discovered so far.

Here is cake recipe.

100 g of all-purpose flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tbsp of cocoa powder
4 eggs
1 tsp of S.P.
120 g melted butter
½ tsp of salt
1 1/2 tbps of instant coffee powder, with 1 tbsp of warm water

Preheat oven to 200 C. Grease and line 9-inch round pan or 9x7 inch square pan with wax paper. I use 9x9 square pan and folded up wax paper to get 9x7 mock-up tray.

Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.

Beat eggs, sp, sugar and salt at high speed until fluffy about 5 minute. Reduce speed to medium and beat until pale and creamy. Gradually pour in flour in 3 portions, alternate by coffee solution, whisk well.

Tada , done with the sponge. Bake for 20-25 minute.

Note: Good thing about using SP is that it allows the batter to sit outside oven longer than genoise or chiffon cake. SP also helps cake to rise evenly and yields more delicate texture.

Topping:

100 g butter
100 g sugar
2 1/2 tbsp of all-purpose flour
45 g unsweetened evaporated milk (or whole milk)
125 g of cashew nuts
1/4 tsp of butter extract (optional)

(Next time, I will double up topping. )

Preheat oven to 220 C.

Put everything except nut and butter extract in double boiler until sugar dissolves. Off the heat, mix in butter extract, stir well. Mix in nuts. The mixture will be thick and pale in color. It will brown out in the oven.

Scoop mixture gently on to baked sponge cake. Return to the top rack of oven and baked for 12-15 minute. The recipe recommends putting heaps of soaked newspaper under the pan to prevent burnt bottom. I didn’t do that though. You will need to keep an eye on it as it tends to burn quickly. Ensure not to bake topping longer than 18 minutes as sponge tends to dry out after during second bake.

Let cool completely in the tray.

To cut - Flip the cake so that toffee nut topping faces down against chopping board. Use serrated knife slice through sponge, (leave out nut topping). Then use normal 8-inch knife cut through the toffee nut , just press it against chopping board.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Call me a Timbuktu'er, I never had flourless chocolate cake. I have heard a hundred times that people went ohh-ahh over it. I read the recipe a while ago. The fact that eggs are main ingredient ....er...this doesn't impress me very much. I was visioning eggy taste with some kind of dry sponge, nothing fancy.

Until one day I met with a diner/food guru who writes food-related articles in a magazine. She said that she looooooove flourless chocolate cake. Okay , that's it. I will bake this myself. I 've got to trust her taste buds. Why not, she is a guru.

The recipe I tried was of Martha's web site. There are several great recipes available but I chose this one because less butter is required. Reason? I know you can guess. And of course, there are many others who prefer butter-rich recipes, but ....let me tried this one , the photo on Martha's looks really nice.

Here is recipe , From http://www.marthastewart.com/)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter or nondairy margarine, plus more for pan
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan, and line with parchment cut to fit. I also lined parchment paper on the side so that it's 2-inch higher from the pan as the batter tends to double in the oven (then deflates when cold). See below is my first batch, without extra parchment wall. The batter almost overflew.

Melt butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Or, for me, I microwaved them in low heat, just half melted.

With a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg yolks with 1/2 cup sugar until thick and pale and creamy. Add espresso and salt, and beat for 1 minute, just to combine. Add vanilla and chocolate mixture, and beat for 1 minute.

In a clean bowl , whisk egg whites until foamy. Slowly add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. The first addition, I used whisk, to make chocolate mixture thinner. It's okay if the batter deflates a little, whisk in gently just until blend. Do not overwork, white streaks left in the bowl are so okay. Now switch to spatula, add the more whites, fold in gently but quickly, turn the bowl while folding.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until set, 40 to 45 minutes. When it was baking half way through, I could see the batter almost double in volume and that my extra walls of parchment paper came in to play. 10 minutes later, my kitchen smelled like chocolaty heaven. Once done, the side will slightly shrink from edge. To check the doneness you can insert too pick and see if it comes out clean.

Let cool completely in pan on a rack. The cake will defalte in the center, that is how it is suppose to be. Remove parchment. Be gentle as the cake is fragile.

I skipped The Glaze as mentioned in Martha's website. But it would be nice for decorating. Here is glaze recipe.

Make the glaze: Place chocolate, butter, and vanilla in a bowl, set aside. Bring remaining ingredients [cream, sugar, espresso,salt] to a boil, stirring, remove from heat, and pour the boiled ingredients over chocolate mixture in the bowl. Whisk until smooth. Serve glaze warm with cake.

Verdict: Anyone see me tasting my first-bite would have called an ambulance. My pupil overwhelmingly dilated with surprise. The bite was tiny but the tasted was packed. It's chocolaty and very very and very light. I drifted away.

I baked this goodie on March 18th. It was not weekend but it indeed was a special occasion. It was my mom's birthday. Her favorite cake is always something associated with fruits i.e. fruitcake, orange-curd cake, blackforest (of course with cherry filling). She also like chocolate cakes especially the fluffy one. I am so sure she and her gangster would love this.

This is my mom, my sister, and me, 9-month old.

Some facts about my mom vs. her culinary world

- She collects baking wares. (repeat.... "collects").

- She bought a then-state-of-art oven in 1980s, but she never used it. I found this treasure "x" years later when I was 18, And that was my starting point of baking addiction. Note that it is not common in Asian household to have an oven. Free-standing style could be bought in store, with limited choices. Built-in oven was considered luxurious. So imagine 20 years ago (!) As if she knew, I would use it more frequent than my MP3. And I have to tell her, the oven is worth every penny she spent.

- Not long after I discovered the oven, I digged out for more, I found a hand mixer and some other rusty items, and a swirling copper whisk ! I tried to find a photo of that wierd-looking whisk which is non-existent nowadays.

One week later, I found a bag of expired pancake flour. OMG, since when did she became a amateur baker. As far as I recall, she was a busy entrepreneur who had two little monsters running around.

- Don't scream if I tell you I am still using "that" oven and "that" hand mixer I digged out from store room. And yes, everything you see on this blog was baked /made/whisked out of almost-20-year-old oven hand mixer. So far, they serve me very well. They are Moulinex's.

- I recalled that, the one and only cake my mom baked was made out of instant cake flour (I think when I was in pre-elementary school and my sister was a third grader?) It was dense and burnt. Well, the oven was good for reheating pizzas but not baking (which is why it burnt). My mom gave a piece to my sister to taste. My sister vanished quickly without a trace. I tasted and I told my mom that it tasted really nice and yummy. What happened next? my mom told me that I was lucky and that I could have to whole tray of (burnt) cake. I stood there trying to figure out what to do....I cried (come on, I was six!)

- She is really good at making ba-jang or Zong zi 粽子, steamed sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves with marinated pork and mushroom. I am certain she could made her fortune out of this if she turned this hobby into business.

- A few years ago, I told her I needed to lose weight. She prepared such healthy and unbelivably delicious breakfasts for me and my sister every day. I lost 4 pound in 2 months without being bitterly skipped meals.

- My mom complained whenever I baked at midnight. She feared of short-circuit as the oven was old. Ya, she has made her point. Unfortunately, I got inspired by nice-looking photos in my cooking book at 10 pm and...I do what I have to do....sorry.

- My old habit persists. Whenever I have free time on weekend, I digged out in store room with the hope to discover interesting (unused) baking equipment.

- I never could have found out what I love to do until that "oven-discovery" day. Thanks mom.

I wish I had a few candle on the cake. The piece below contains zero calories, if you consume it by eyes only.

Mmm..should I sing a birthday song a bit?

(me singing) Happy Birthday to you...Happy birthday to you....Happy birthday...happy birthday..y...y.

Happy birthday to Mami..i..i.

Strawberry roll with sweet coconut topping

The strawberry roll itself is really good. It is even better with the coconut crust. Ya, I've just made coconut cake a few days ago. I'd call it a coconut week.

Oh by the way, Last week was international women day. Salute to you all, ladies ! I know you are grabbing forks, but does anyone making tea? Come on dig in!

You know what, I never liked jam roll. It's not attractive. I have no idea since when I like it. But I've been making 4 pans of rolls within these two weeks. I think it is a real challenge whether or not I would roll it up nicely without breaking the sponge, let alone leave the brown skin in attached nicely on it. It really is.

Taste wise, the strawberry roll itself is good, not overly sweet given jam layer is extra thin. It comes to a surprise with brown coconut crust. Seriously, I haven't thought that a jam roll could be any fancier then putting butter cream on top .... but this brown coconut thing is interesting, don't you think?

Here goes the recipe

Sponge

150 g of cake flour ( I replaced 30 g with corn flour for milder texture)
6 egg yolks
80 g water
50 g sugar
2 tsp baking powder
100 g vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

6 egg white
50 g sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar ( I skipped this)

Filling - 1 cup of your favorite jam + 1 tbsp of lime juice.

Crust
100g butter, melted
60g sugar
2 eggs
120 g dried coconut flakes
30g milk
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease 9x12 inch roll pan

Sift flour and baking power, set aside.

In a big bowl, mix in yolks, oil,50 g of sugar, water,vanilla. Whisk until sugar crystals dissolve. Whisk in the flour lightly until well incorporated or until no lumps.




In another bowl, whisk egg whites, cream of tartar and 50 g of sugar until it forms soft but stable peak. Fold 1/3 of egg white mixture into flour+egg mixture, using whisk. This is to make flour mixture a bit runny so that it is easier to fold in the rest of the whites.

Fold in the rest of white, in 3 batches, using spatula. My technique is to cut in the middle and fold along side while the other hand is rotating the bowl. Do the cut-fold-turn quickly but gently. To check, drag spatula in the bottom of bowl if there are flour lumps. Again, do not overwork, as the cake relies on egg white bubbles to rise, folding too much will deflate them. Plus, overworking will agitate the gluten, the cake may turn a bit rubbery.

Once done, pour batter in prepared tray. Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from tray and cool down on rack. Do not leave this on hot tray as it continues to cook that way.

Flip and roll- cover cooling rack with plastic wrap. Now the flipping part, you have to be quick. One hand over the cake, flip, then lay the sponge cake on working table. Or you may cover the tray with plastic wrap, put the rack over the tray , then flip.

Now imagine you are about to roll up, arrange the long side (12 inch) facing you. Start rolling up by pulling plastic wrap and roll up firmly. You can see how to roll up the roll here. . What I did differently from the clip are that I rolled up from the long side while youtube clip started from the short side. And I used plastic wrap instead of tea towels.

Let it sit for a while about 1/2 hr, to let it curl up. Then, unroll it, spread jam thinly and evenly. Roll it back to shape firmly and wrap with plastic wrap. Set aside while preparing topping.

Preheat oven to 200 c.

For the Crust - mix everything in the bowl. Beat until well-incorporated.

Spread crust mixture over and on the sides. Return to the oven, place on the top rack, and bake until the crust turns brown.

Once done, it tends to loosen up a bit. Don't' worry, I just let it cool down until okay to touch. Then wrap it up firmly with plastic wrap to reshape it. I put in the fridge for a while until it cools down completely or until serve.

My kitchen smell nice for hours!

The roll is good for a few days in the fridge. Lovely is it?

Coconut Cake

I missed fresh coconut badly. If you happen to visit Thailand, do not hesitate to try one(s). I'm sure you'll get addicted to it, just like me.

Too bad I live in a city where coconut is considered an exotic fruit. All I have was dried young coconut meat I bought from Thailand. Nowadays I've seen quite a few bakery shops make this kind of cake, and of course they are so..o..o good. I tried to replicate one with vanilla sponge, filled with self-made coconut creme paste. Here is the recipe.

For the sponge

(A) Ingredients - The Dries

90 g cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

35 g sugar

1/4 salt

(B) Ingredients - The Yolks

4 egg yolks

32 g coconut milk ( I replace this with unsweetened condensed milk, or just milk)

25 g coconut juice ( I replace this with water)

32 g vegetable oil

(C) Ingredients - The Whites

4 egg whites

1/4 tsp creme of tartar

35 g sugar

Preheat the oven at 180 C. Prepare 9x12 jelly roll pan with wax paper, greased.

Sift together the dries (A). Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together (B) ingredients, just to incorporate until sugar crystals disappear. Don't need to whisk until it gets fluffy though. Set aside.

Put (A)-the dry ingredients into (B) egg yolk mixture. Well, some prefer to do the other way around, by putting the wets to the dries as the flour won't dust up the counter top. For me I prefer to wet one bowl. Gradually whisk together make sure there is no lumps left.

In a big bowl, whisk 4 whites and creme of tartar together until it forms white foam. Gradually add sugar and beat until it forms soft peaks when you lift the whisk.

Fold in the whites mixture to the egg yolks mixture. But wait, the egg yolks mixture is thick and the whites mixture is thin. Folding these together all at once need more strokes thus deflate the batter. In order to get the same consistency, I scooped out 1/4 of whites in the the egg yolk mixture then use the whisk , stir lightly. Now the batter is a bit runny, fold in the whites ,in three batched. Use spatula to mix in each batch just to incorporate. Each time you add the whites, it is okay that the batter leaves whites streaks. Try to fold quickly but gently as possible. The final add should yield consistency batter with no lumps of flour or streaks of whites.

Pour in prepared pan, put in the lower rack for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out clean.

Let cool completely on the rack.

Coconut filling

125 g of coconut creme (I used milk)

125 g of evaporated unsweetened milk (I used milk)

150 g of young coconut juice (I used water+2 tablespoon of sugar)

40 g sugar

15 g corn flour

1/4 salt
1-1.5 cups of young coconut meat

30 g butter

Topping

1 cups of White chocolate bits , melted

2 tbsp of milk

2 cups of Coconut flakes

Put everything in the pot except coconut meat and butter. Stir well. Put on double-boiling and stir continuously. The golden rule of making this, as most of you are well-aware, is to pay full attention so as to not getting it hard-cooked. I don't have double boiling, so I put the pot on direct heat on a very low low heat (unless you have quick hands). Ya...keep stirring. And no....don't pick up any phone calls, you can do that later. Once it is thicken remove from heat for a while, stir for half minute. Put it back to heat, it will be creme-liked. I tasted creme at this stage, while continue stirring to check the doneness. If you taste the floury / starchy taste in your mouth, put it back to heat.

Once done, stir in butter until incorporates well. Then stir in the coconut meat.

To assemble the cake, cut the 9x12 inch cake in half so that you yield two 9x6 inch cake sheets. While the filling still warm, spread it on the cake evenly. Put the other half on top, press gently.

To make topping, microwave white chocolate bits and milk in medium heat until they melt. Stir until they are well blended and have nice spreading consistency. Brush it on the top of of cake. Immediately sprinkle coconut flakes on top and press gently.

Leave until completely cool before you make the first cut.

Notes on coconut - Coconut meat I used in this recipe is of the young ones. If you go the the supermarket and see brown/hard shell coconut without its fluffy-spongy white jacket, it is an aged coconut. Its meat is used to for coconut creme which is high on fat content. The juice of aged coconut is not editble/drinkable.

If coconut is not avalilable in your area. You can whip up whipping cream and fold in flaky coconut. This is good for filling and topping as well.

Almond Roca Ring

For the past few months that I have been searching for glossy chocolate frosting around food blogs, I finally found it in my drawer, from my 1980s cook book.

I made this last week. It was a the first in my wish-to-bake list. There are actually a few goodies that I baked during Christmas left unblogged. I will try my best to get them up here.

Almond Roca Cake( From the Joy of Chocolate 1982)

6 eggs plus 2 yolks

1/4 C granulated sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 C ground toasted almond

1/4 tsp of almond extract

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 C sifted all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp unsalted butter , melted and lightly brown

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch tube or bundt pan

Beat eggs , yolks and sugar over simmering water until the mixture becomes warm and sugar crystals dissolve. Then off the heat, beat until egg mixture form heavy ribbon trail.

I got nervous every time I made sponge cake. For me, it is one of the most easy-to-go wrong cake. Seemed like, if I happened to pick up a 1-minute phone call while folding the batter, I would make myself belive the cake would be dense and ugly, and I would be screaming to whom ever called me at that moment "I'm making my baby, I'll call back asap"......ohhh, am I being exaggerate. Well, I belive it just a matter of repetition, and pratricing. Maybe I need to bake it frequently to get some confidence. Okay, where are we ?

Gently add almonds , vanilla and almond extracted and zest, beat briefly. By hand, fold in the flour and salt in 3 portions with whisk (or you may do so with spatula, if you like, but every time I used spatula I ended up with lumps of flour). Work rapidly and gently so as not to deflate the egg volume. Then incorporate the melted butter. My trick is to beat melted butter with about 1 cup of fluffy egg mixture in a separate bowl (I used fork, don't worry that you deflate this 1 cup of mixture , you have the whole bowl to lift the cake) ... then pour it back to the batch and fold gently with spatula (now I switch to spatula). By doing this, melted butter tend not to sink to the bottom.

Pour batter in prepared bundt pan. Bake for 35 minute or until cake shrinks slightly from the side. Let cool for 10 minutes. Then unmold cake on the rack. Let cool completely before you apply chocolate frosting.

The recipe calls for syrup (which I skipped). The ingredients are simply 1/3 cups of sugar and 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a simmer for 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool briefly. Stir in amaretto or liqueur of your choice.

If you choose to make syrup, cut the cake by half, drizzle hot syrup over the cut side. Let cool, then spread on chocolate glaze. Here is the recipe for chocolate glaze.

4 oz. semi sweet chocolate glaze

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/4 C light corn syrup

1/4 C hot water

5 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

4-5 tbsp confectioners' sugar

Put everything except butter and confectioners' sugar in the saucepan. Cook over medium low heat. Stir constantly. I have to confess....I was screaming when I saw lumps in my sauce pan. I doubted if I did not stir constantly. After trying fix it by stiring heavily, I ended up having bubbles in the glaze and all the lumps were still there. Well, it was okay to have some bits to chew after all...er..r that was a silly way to comfort meself (yes "mee-self" as in Jamaican accent) when thing goes wrong.

Let the mixture cook at low heat for 3 minutes. Off the heat. With spoon (as mentioned earlier, do not use whisk as it traps bubbles in the glaze) stir in butter 1 table spoon at a time then add vanilla and confectioners sugar. Stir until glaze cool slightly and is a nice spreading consistency.

I used spatula to pour glaze on the cake. Remember to let the cake cool completely otherwise the glaze will be runny. I also put some toasted nuts and crushed caramel candies around the edge to

dress up a bit

chocolate mousse

One day, I got bored and felt like I needed to make something nice out of my my left over creme in my fridge.

I love chocolate and so do my freinds. So , here it goes. Nothing fancy about it.

I was in search of gloossy chocolate frosting. (which obviously, this one is really not). But it does look pretty, doesn't it?

Chewy-after-one-week Brownie

I am not sure if I want to blog about this. Anyone who are big fan of Cooks Illustrated magazine must stop reading now. I mean it….NOW. Or please, navigate away from this page. Cooks Illustrated is an outstanding magazine. Well-described and detailed instruction turn easy-to-go-wrong recipes into fool-proof ones. But, for this brownie, they don't get my brownie points. I don't hate it but this is just not my favorite. I wonder what in the world would/could/should have gone wrong. Let me tell you how I did on the first try.

I have to admit, my fault, I decided not to follow the process as directed. I beat the eggs..yeah I did...(stop screaming , okay? okay?) I know that's a no-no for making chewy fudgy brownie, but...but I just wondered if this could turn into a disaster. And yes, I got what I asked for, a disaster. The brownie came out cake-liked. It didn't hold together, let alone fudgy'ness. It melted 3 seconds right after reaching my tongue (well, If you could manage to pick it up gently with your fingers and successfully deliver to your mouth). Taste wise, dull. (now imagine, cook illustrated fans are stoning me to death). As I mentioned, it was my fault, I'm the culprit, okay? I won't beat the egg when making brownie again. I promise. After the first bite, the whole tray went directly to my Ziploc bags and to the fridge. My heart was broken and I need to be alone for a while.

I opened my fridge a few days later, ziploc bags were still there. I was greeting hello to my brownie and as if they said something like "Don't worry, I'm cool...I'm cool". Yes, of course, they'd been sitting in the fridge for a few days, must be cool. I wondered how bad/staled it was so I dragged them out and had a bite. It turned out I had quite a few bites as It was pleasantly chewy. Yes! chewiness I was after. It really was good in later days. Wait a minute, was I cheking the mole around the edges? Just kidding, they were no mold.

Then....I wanted to share them with my friends. But given it was a few days old, plus the appearance was not well-maintained on the first day, I'd better chewed it up by myself. Okie, the taste is okay and the texture is right after a few days. I marked my calendar for the second try.

After licking my wound and my fingers, I was ready to re-visit the recipe. Everything was done as instructed. I promised to myself I wouldn't beat the eggs again...my hope was restored up high that I would get fudgy brownie of my dream. I didn’t use Ghirardelli as recommended but used >50% bittersweet chocolate bar I could source in supermarket.

The verdict ? Those who are Cook’s illustrated regulars who ignored my warning above, please navigate away from my page otherwise be ready for my harassment. Ready? Steady? Go!. The taste was exactly the same as last time, DULL. Texture was disappointing. I used to have a chewier brownie which was cooked in microwave (Dah!). This batch, I baked at night and left it sat outside the oven til next morning and the texture was still cake-liked. It was not dry or anything , it just too easy to fall apart. You know what, it was quite similar to the first batch that I intentionally whisked eggs until fluffy.

Here is my second bake looks like.

I belived the recipe did a good job in putting my hopes way up high. The crust was nice and shiny. But the texture , may be my expecation was parred up to the moon, was disappointing.

So, what make it so fragile, I doubt if I should use bread flour so that gluten develops the bonding (or the chewiness)? Well, thinking about that I have a few other recipes to try. It is a bad idea to be persistent. My conclusion, although Cook’s Illustrated claimed they threw away > 50 pans of brownie before coming up with this recipe, I would not bother my third pan of brownie and try this recipe again.

Every dark brownies has its bright side too. As I mentioned above briefly, the brownies are so good after day 3…repeat….after day 3. For chewing monster, keep them in your fridge for one week in Ziploc. No kidding, no mole, if your fridge is not overcrowded and works properly. The taste and texture develops with the passage of time. The other good thing about is that it has low fat content in relative to other fudgy brownies recipes. (well, may be this is why it’s not as fudgy?) You can feel guilt free having a little square for afternoon snack.

A debate on brownies could be endless. It is just the matter of personal preference. Mine? combination of shiny crust, cookies-liked+fudgy, cocoa+coffee taste, + some nuts. Yours? For more debates on brownie, visit NY Times article.

For those who doubt my comment. I would recommend you to try this recipe and compare it with other brownies you have ever had. Let me know you feedback.

(source: Cook's Illustrated2008)

5 ounces semisweet chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into quarters (1 stick)

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

Turn on the oven to 350 degrees. I used 8 inch square pan but the recipe calls for 7 inch. I believe the thickness in 8 inch one came out just fine. Melt chocolate and butter with low-med heat in microwave, stir frequently. Or, heat them over simmering water. Stir in cocoa powder. Set aside to cool.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt in medium bowl until combine, about 15 second (wow...that precise !!! this is what was described in the recipe, but I think it largely depends on your hand speed. For me, I normally do 20-25 strokes within 15 seconds while my grandma would have only 5 strokes. Agree?). okay okay I understand...the idea is to blend them well...not whisk for the fluffiness.

Whisk warm chocolate mixture to egg mixture then stir in the flour with wooden spoon until just combine. Pour mixture into the pan, level surface with spatula. Bake 30 or 40 minute, I recommend you to check after 25 if you use 8 inch pan like me as the batter spread out thinner. This recipe should be under-baked as it tends to comes out too dry because the low fat percentage. The doneness is observed by , the brownie is slightly puffed and tooth pick inserted in the center comes out with small bits of crumbs.

Cut the brownie after it's completely cooled down unless you need warm brownie with vanilla ice-creme.


My notes


- Don't bake in higher heat than 350 degree. I think a bit lower than 350 is fine so that you got the shiny sugar crust which develops with time. If it is baked under high heat, the batter will dry out before the sugar molecules float up to the surface and caramelize. And you end up with a dry and matted-surface brownie.

- I think putting a shot of espresso would be a way to go. I am not caffeine addicted, but am a coffee addicted. (confused !?)

- I would omit the cocoa powder. It does nothing to improve the flavor. Rather, I love the acidic taste in bittersweet chocolate.


And last but not least.....keep in the fridge for 2 days for chewiness. See, it's a good thing that this can be baked ahead ! Wrap in Ziploc or plastic box. If you fear of strange odors. You can place a tablespoon of espresso powder (instant or freshly ground are all fine) beside brownie. Even after 1 week when you put it out for afternoon snack, you got brownie's sweet smell, not the anchovy pasta you put in the fridge last night.

Dear Cook's illustrated magazine - when it comes to brownies, it's hard to please everyone.

Halloween.....n....n.. Creepy cupcakes

It’s been a while since my last post and I’ve been trying to shed my weekend baking something could possibly be a new hit. It was end of October and you all know it’s about tricks-or-treats. I'd been thinking what was a good bake on halloween week. I bought a box of deep-fried bamboo worms from ChiangMai in case I could use them in my goofy creepy Halloween treats. Having looked at those tiny poor things, gee…they looked so real (and they are real worms) that some people , including me, may have had goose bumps all over. I'd then better keep them for my afternoon creepy snack.

There are several haunting-cake ideas from websites; most of them require craftsmanship at certain level. Initially, I wanted to garnish my cupcakes with colorful gummy worms but couldn’t find any of those in super-mar-ka-ret. After a few thoughts , I relied on my convenient-loving habit, I came up with this one.

Before heading back home, I stopped by my landlady’s to pay the rent. She gave me a big box of Sugas (fruit cadies). Mmm…m…these little colorful gummies bring back memories. These are my favorites when I was young. (Please do not attempt to envision younger-me in black-white photos, I’m not that old). Anyway, poring them in a halloween's bowl and giving away to co-workers would be such a dull idea. Don’t you think? So, here we go.

Microwave candies under medium heat for a few seconds and have fun! My landlady got to be proud of me making the most out of her gift.

Muffin recipe is adapted from Elise’s Blueberry Muffin. Below is half batch of Elise’s, make 12 muffins. I copied her recipe / method here as it has detailed description. Thank you Elise!

Muffin
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour (replace 1/2 C of white flour with cocoa if you want to make chocolate muffin)

1/2 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter (about ½ stick plus 1 table spoon or 4 oz), softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 large egg

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1 Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
3 In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add egg , beat until incorporated. Beat in the grated lemon peel.
4 Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat.
5 Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Spray each muffin cup lightly with oil. Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups. I equally filled each cup up to 50 g. They filled half way through.

Bake muffins about 25 to 30 minutes. I rotated muffin as it passed 15 minutes. Test with a toothpick to make sure the center of the muffins are done. They puffed up to the top of cup exactly what I wanted as I’ll put butter crème on. Those who want domes, you may try 75 g in each cup. Set on wire rack to cool down completely before garnished with peanut butter frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup Icing' sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup yoghurt

Place everything in the bowl , mix with electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-low speed until creamy until the mixture is light and smooth. Put butter crème in plastic bag, cut small tips. Then another fun part, no need to be neat. The goal is to make this frosting like creeping worms. Squeeze it on cold muffins.

Here comes the assembly. I really had fun doing this. I wanted to make sugary lizards, worms, bats and etc but too bad it required a bit of craftmanship.