My Christmas Bakes 2014

Christmas Fruit Loaf

This year, still using the same Mary Berry's fruitcake recipe, I baked a fruit loaf.

After Bake

Merry Christmas

My Christmas Bakes 2014


Chocolate Log Cake

My Christmas Bakes 2014

Traditional Panettone
This specialty loaf is loaded with raisins,sultanas and candied fruits.

Ready for Christmas

Hung upside down to prevent cave-in

Well shaped panettone

Puff pastry

Puff pastries with vanilla crème pâtissière and  topped with raspberries.

Puff pastries with crème pâtissière, topped with raspberries and a light dust of icing sugar

 Baked these pretty pastry shells in muffin tins with puff pastry 
dough.

Mille-feuille

This pastry is also known as the Napoleon.
My mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry and alternating with two layers of  pastry cream. The top layer is glazed with icing and chocolate.

My "wallet size"  Napoleon.

Glazed icing on top layer

Pastry cream between layers

Chocolate tart

This recipe came from Martha Stewart and made with delicious Valrhona Dark chocolate
Guanaja 70%-Bittersweet and Elegant.

Strawberry cheesecake in a jar

The layers:
Bottom Layer#4:Mascerated strawberries with vanilla sugar
             Layer#3:Cream cheese with mascapone, icing sugar and Bailey's cream.
             Layer#2:Homemade strawberry jam
             Layer#1 Fresh strawberries

                           Fresh strawberries topping

                                  Cheesecake in a jar :)

Hummingbird cupcakes

These cupcakes are made using the same recipe for the hummingbird cake.
Frosting was piped onto the top and garnish with a single dried pineapple slice.

Hummingbird Cake

Very eager to try out this classic recipe, the hummingbird cake: 

The Original Hummingbird Cake Recipe
Originally submitted by Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, North Carolina in the February 1978 issue, this Hummingbird Cake recipe is known to have won numerous blue ribbons at county fairs.


  Photo: Southern Living

It is full of flavours; with chopped bananas, crushed pineapples, (mine with dessicated coconut), cinnamon and chopped pecans.

Instead of topping the frosted cake with pecans, I decorated the top with dried pineapple slices.

These pineapple slices are baked at 112degC for about an hour.

Cream cheese frosting covered this 2 layer cake.


Cream cheese frosted Hummingbird cake topped with dried pineapple slices.

Macarons
Macarons with chocolate ganache filling

                                            

                                                 

Graduation cake

To celebrate my niece's graduation, I made her a blueberry pound cake graduation cake.

I chose pink fondant to cover the cake because her Arts faculty colour is old rose.

Green wavy border lined with pink roses and pearl beads.

Two main items on the cake are the graduation scroll and cap.

 The graduation cap

The graduation scroll


Congratulations!!

Cherry No bake Cheesecake in a jar

I made these jars and presented them as birthday gifts to my family and friends.
It is a no bake cheesecake recipe from Martha Stewart.

Lovely Australian cherries make delicious cherry jam.

Starting at the bottom is a layer of crushed chocolate cookies.
Next is the cream cheese filling.
Followed by the cherry jam with whole cherries.
Sandwich the jam with another layer of cream cheese.

As for toppings;A whole cherry with stalk, Royce' white chocolate and chocolate chips.

Finally, bottled up with a lid  and kept chilled in the refrigerator.