Chocolate Rum Caramel Upside Down Pear Cake

It was a cake not meant to be. Or so I thought.

 Rum Caramel Pears

Earl Grey Caramel Chocolate Tart

I have actually cut down a lot on baking for the past few months. I probably bake bread more often than sweet stuff (I'm in the midst of trying to come up with a successful chocolate no-knead artisan recipe - works still in progress!) and even when I do bake sweet stuff, it's probably once in a few weeks, rather than once almost every week or so which I used to do.

Even so, my backlogs are still piling as I have been checking out new cafes with friends. I think I'll not be posting on all the cafes I've visited, as in - the ones that I don't think are good, I'll probably just archive the pictures I've taken but not post anything on it. I mean, why bother spending precious time to chronicle something that isn't nice? After all, if you really think hard about it, blogging is really akin to free advertisements to these dining establishments isn't it?

 Earl Grey Caramel Chocolate Tart

Bacon caramel popcorn nomnoms

Once you step into the working world, I gradually realise that life will always be a cycle of "Hello, my name is XXX, and you are?" when you first meet your new colleagues, to "Bye! Farewell and wish you all the best in your new job!" when your colleagues leave for greener pastures.

Colleagues are the people you see most often than anyone else I guess. You see them five times a week, for at least nine hours. You lunch with them. You gossip together. You might even go out with them outside working hours too. So, in most cases, you would probably pray hard that you get colleagues that you can get along well with.

I bid farewell to one of my colleagues last month. She loves savoury stuff, and has been a guinea pig tasted some of my baked goods that I've brought to work. I've made some maple bacon macarons before for her to try, and when I saw a recipe for bacon caramel popcorn, I offhandedly said that I'll make some for her some time soon. Well, the time for "some time" came soon then expected, so I made these for her before her last day at work came about.

Bacon caramel popcorn nomnoms

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

I decided to make a little something for the Dad. I do love my Dad and all (hey, we're family!), but I'm not one for words of affirmation when it comes to such things. I'm not that kinda girl who'll go "I love you, Dad!". But. I'm still rather a Daddy's little girl nevertheless. So, here's a cake combining a few of his favourite elements for this Father's Day!

This is one cake that will be enjoyed by the men in your life. I mean, I'd risk a bet to say that 90% of men likes rum and raisin as their choice of poison favourite ice cream flavour. So, make this for the special men in your life (fathers, husbands, boyfriends) and I'm sure it'll bring a smile to their faces.

 Caramel coffee rum raisin entremet

Caramel banana ginger crumble panna cotta verrines

Since my last post on caramelised bananas, a little voice in my head was constantly chanting "caramelised bananas...make caramelised bananas!" It's akin to a non-stop chant that goes on in my head...that would not stop till I fulfill the whining that goes on...all inside my head, of course.

Caramel banana ginger crumble panna cotta verrines

Brandy caramel vanilla poached pears tart

I realised that I'm a simple girl. Erm, I meant I have simple tastes, not that I'm simple simple. I mean, gimme any common fruit and I'll be happy. While I do love my berries (raspberries especially!), and sweet juicy cherries, these fruits arent' cheap in Singapore as we import them from other countries. However, I do love my apples, oranges and pears too. Though seen as everyday fruits, I believe that simplicity works wonders for these sturdier fruits that keep well even after a few weeks in the fridge.

Poached pear tart with brandy caramel sauce

Ailette

I wanted to do something special for myself in November (my birthday month). Flipping through all of my newly bought Chinese baking books, I finally settled upon the Ailette. I was drawn in with the words "caramelised bananas" and "caramel mousse"...

Caramelising the bananas

Ice cream fever

Ever since we discovered that there was an ice cream machine at home. I just knew (and I was right!) that there was going to be tubs of homemade ice cream(s) in the house, anytime, anyday.

In fact, since the Sis is sort of on an ice cream craze, she's been putting it to full use (making up for the lost time perhaps?) by churning out flavours every few days or so.Yes, I'm talking about an ice cream kingdom here baby. Well, she does make half the quantity of whatever recipe she has on hand, so she gets to experiment with more flavours (and thus explaining the tubs of ice cream residing in our freezer...).

In fact, I can't remember preparing any ice creams myself anymore since she's taken over, and the last two flavours that I remember making are these - honey lavender and pear caramel.

Honey lavender ice cream fizz

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Well, my buddies and I, we were supposed to have a Halloween themed party. We planned that like a month ago. I know, we work fast. We were going all out for it - a full orange and black party with our food and decorations all centred around the party colours. Anyway, just a few days before the party, one of the mates then stated that he can't make it as he's bogged down with school work. We were all pretty bummed and the remaining four of us then decided to scrap the party and just do a potluck instead. Then the very next day, somehow or rather, I don't know how, but the party was back on. We say onward - who cares about the $^$#%&%#!# who decided to jump plane (okay, kiddin' in case that bugger reads this...you know you'll be missed by us! Haha.)

So, I was in charge of caramel apples, pizza muffin-lets and drinks. As it was only the four of us, we didn't want to prepare too much food (like we always do) and stuff ourselves silly trying to finish the food. So it's mini everything! At least in my case. I decided to make a little extra pumpkin tartlets (more on it when I post about the party pictures!) and some mini chocolate muffins I happened to bake the day before.

I'm going to talk about the exciting part in this post - caramel apples! And this is actually a post-on-the-actual-day-I-bake entry (what a rare case ;) indeed.)

Homemade chewy caramel candies

Cinnamon walnut macarons with apples and burnt caramel filling

For every great macaron, behind lies a supportive ice-cream. Whenever macarons make an appearance on the blog, 90% of the time is because I had made ice-cream and have lots of leftover eggwhites. I made black sesame ice-cream (for another post when I retrieve my currently lost pictures from my 'gone case' laptop) and was debating on what flavour macarons I should make.

I tossed some ideas around and posted on Facebook to get votes on what flavours I should make. I had like five eggwhites and I wanted to make two flavours cos I like variety. (: I didn't end up making the perennial favourite, the Ferraro Rocher, but I did the Hazelnut one (here) which was kinda similar since Ferraro Rocher = chocolate + hazelnut yes? I was very interested in making a matcha one, but then I wanted to sandwich something red bean-y in between and we had no red beans at home. That flavour combo shall be next on my list (I've since bought a bag of azuki beans). In the end, I decided on a making a plain macaron filled with salted caramel filling and apples. But what I first came up with was only the beginning of my flavour experiment...

Cinnamon walnut macarons with apples and burnt caramel filling

Poire D'Eve

Following my success with the matcha opera, I wanted to try my hand at making other layered desserts. Who else should I turn to but my favourite site, Tartelette. I've bookmarked most of her recipes but the one that I decided to make was this. I was in the mood for fruits. And lately, pears are on my mind alot, they are sweet, and cheap, and plentiful. When I dropped my the supermart and saw those tiny Honey Belle pears from New Zealand, I immediately took a box and place it into my grocery basket. No need to think what I should do with them first. I can easily go online and check my bookmarks for inspiration. And when I did, it was surely the Poire D'Eve that I must do. Poached pears, and crunchy hazalnut biscuit base? I'm in.

Poire D'Eve

Caramels

I finally dragged my lazy arse up early yesterday morning for a jog. The last time my running shoes saw the sight of me was like probably two months ago. Which is like long long time ago. I know. Poor them. Now that I have the time on hand, I should probably make the most of it by meeting up more often with the neglected shoes.

And, the weather these coupla days has been stifling hot, to say the least. Singapore has always been a hot and humid country. But the last week has totally stretched the terms "hot" and "humid" to the very max. The intense heat has me feeling sticky perpetually all day, and it does not relinquish its hold on me at night even when I'm asleep. I normally sleep in shorts and a tee shirt, and cover up with a blanket to keep away the slight chill the night brings. But these days, I kick my blanket away (what breeze? it's hot even at night now.), and when I wake up in the morning, I feel a restlessness in me, and my neck and back feels hot. My hair sticks to the back of my neck, very lightly damp from the perspiration.

It doesn't help that I have way long hair in this sweltering heat. At times like these, it brings to mind that a trip to the hair salon, a snip of a scissors, and I could be feeling way much comfortable. Alas, the vanity in me recoils at the horror of a hairdresser shorning away my precious locks. My last short haircut took me more than a year to grow back. I won't easily forget the pain of how I looked in that hair-growing-out phase.

Anyway, enough of the weather, I have some caramels to share today. Over photographs of course.

Little caramel nuggets

I had leftover cream in the refridgerator, and was not very keen to make any cake or pudding. My next thought was candies. I've never attempted making candies before, since I didn't own a candy thermometer. But once the idea hatched, I just couldn't shake of the need to make them. It's like I must make them. And so I did. Without the help of the candy thermometer.

Of course, that wasn't my smartest plan, and I had to pour the mixture back into the pot to cook again I had already poured them out to cool. The mixture wasn't hardening into caramels form, that's how I know I had undercooked them in the first place. No harm done, I just waited till it became stickier and a darker hue of brown before I removed them a second time and cooling them again. Though they weren't as hard as I would have liked them to be, the final result was a soft chewy caramel, which flavour reminded me of the caramel sweets (Wurther? Werthers? You know you know, that brand with the light yellow packaging?). I cut them into pieces and wrapped them with baking paper and brought them to the office to share around.

Chewy caramels

Thank god it's late afternoon now, the heat isn't that unbearable now as in the early noon when the sun is at its strongest. I have a gathering with my girls later for dinner. Man. It's steamboat. Pray hard for me that it rains heavily during dinner time okay? Not before or after the dinner since I gotta travel to and fro my friend's place, but during the dinner itself okays? Need to keep my cool in the face of the steam I'm gonna be facing. Thanks. ;)