Hari Raya Baking*

 

I hope you are all doing well^^.

Hari Raya celebration is still going, and we also baked macarons and other cakes during the festive period! The flavours are Belgium chocoalte, Caramel, Japanese green tea, Raspberry ganache and Vanilla macarons. Macaron making can be quite tedious and time-consuming, but it’s also fun to make and it feels accomplished when they are ready on a tray like this!

 

 

I also baked Japanese Cookie choux for some event. Both children and adults liked this cream puffs very much. I hope to bake them again soon!

 

Cheers,

Tomoko

Lemon cakes & happy Mother’s Day!

 

 

We are in the midst of baking lemon cakes. This is Tart au Citron, a refreshing lemon tart with tart crust, creme d’amande (almond cream), lemon cream and italian meringue on top. I prepared many lemons for this class and also for the Weekend au Citron class for this coming weekend!

 

 

 

 

I am looking forward to baking with you again. Have a great weekend and Mother’s Day!

 

Cheers,

Tomoko

 

 

Yakigashi Set Special Class*

The season special class in March is; Yakigashi Special Class! This class is designed to make  gateaux that are rather easy to prepare and to be transported for the coming school holiday and Ramadan period!

The menu is; Coffee Waluts Pound Cake, Blueberry Cheese Tart and Coffee Nuts Cookie.

Coffee pound cake with Walntus

The first menu is Coffee pound cake with walnuts. I am glad to be sharing this recipe with those of you who like drinking coffee^^. Most of my pound cake recipe uses sugar-butter method, but we bake this pound cake in a different way. We will be using coffee powder for the pound cake.

The scent coming out from the oven is so… nice!

The second item is Blueberry Cheese Tart. The parts are consisted of; pate a sucre, creme d’amande, blueberry jam, creme double and crumbs. If you have stored pate a sucre and creme d’amande in the fridge, this cake can be baked with almost no work!

We will also bake a coffee flavoured cookie. This is an icebox cookies so you can prepare big portion and store them in the freezer, and bake only when you want to!

I hope this will be a fun and exciting class for you all ^^.

Here is the schedule;

DATE:      March 18th (Sat.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL

                   March 29th (Thurs.) 11:00am-3:00pm

    FEE:     RM250 (RM195  for members)

March 2017 Class Schedule*

Hi there! Today I would like to post March 2017 class schedule! (Here is the class Calendar)

March 3rd is Children’s day in Japan for girls, called “Ohinamatsuri“. Japanese families with daughters put up Ohinamatsuri dolls in their houses for a month, and celebrate with special dishes such as chirashi-sushi, clam soup and strawberry cake. Each of the dish and ingredients have special meaning. For instance, having clam (hamaguri) in the soup is a wish for the girl to find her perfect soulmate, like the two identical shells of a clam!

I also put out Hinamatsuri dolls for my daughter in early February ^^.

To celebrate this event, I would like to make Fraisier, a French style strawberry cake. I also am conducting Yakigashi Special class, since school holiday is coming soon. The simple and delicious yakigashi will fill you and your family’s stomach! I believe that this can also be one of the options for the coming Ramadan baking season too!

Here is the class schedule;

1. Fraisier (French style Strawberry cake) & Financier au the – Premier Class –

French style Strawberry cake with biscuit genoise (sponge cake),

creme moussline, strawberry and strawberry nappage

Financier petit gateau with earl grey tea flavour

DATE:      March 4th (Sat.) 11:00am-3:00pm

                   March 9th (Thurs.) 11:00am-3:00pm

                  March 26th (Sun.) 11:00am-3:00pm – 1 more seat left!            

    FEE:     RM210 (RM169  for members)

2. Hokkaido Chiffon Cake & Miroir Cookie *Request* – Basic Class –

Earl grey tea flavoured chiffon cake

Miroir cookie sandwiched with Hazelnuts praline chocolat

*For details of this class, kindly refer to my post Caramel Factory Chiffon Cake & Miroir Cookie. This is an one time repeat lesson, so please don’t miss out!

DATE:      March 5th (Sun.) 11:00am-2:30pm 

    FEE:     RM200 (RM159  for members)

3. Sachertorte (Austrian style chocolate cake) & Apricot Sable *Request* – Basic Class –

Austrian style moist chocolate cake 

sandwiched and coated with apricot jam, glacage au chocolat

French style biscuit sandwiched with apricot jam

*For details of this class, kindly refer to my previous blog post Sachertorte & Apricot Sable. This is an one time repeat lesson so please don’t miss out!

DATE:      March 12th (Sun.) 1:00pm-4:30pm* Re-scheduled from 11th March. 

    FEE:     RM200 (RM159  for members)

4. Yakigashi Special – Season Special Class-

*Coffee Walnuts Pound cake

*Blueberry Cheese Tart

*Coffee Nuts Cookie

This is my first time introducing you to some coffee flavoured cake and cookies! The tasting session will be with coffee (of course, I can also make you tea), so the graduates with “Coffee & Macaron Master Course” please help me make hand-dripped coffee in the class ^c^!

DATE:      March 18th (Sat.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL

                  March 29th (Wed.) 11:00am-3:00pm             

    FEE:     RM250 (RM195  for members)

If you are interested in joining the class, kindly email me at caramelmoko@gmail.com (Tomoko).

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!!!

Cheers,

Tomoko

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!

 

 

Last week was Saint Valentine’s Day. In Japan, Valentine’s Day is quite a big event and will become the busiest day for the chocolate shops and other shops that sell chocolates. I believe in other countries such as America and France as well! The choice of chocolate is so much that people advertise their products from month before and customers (mostly women) think for many days and weeks what chocolate to give to who this year. (Yes, in Japan, it is a day that women give chocolates to men that she cares for…!)

School girls make chocolate for the boy she likes, getting their mothers’ help… And many married women and family with children make homemade chocolate for their husbands and fathers. It is quite a happening event in Japan!

 

 

So as for me, on top of the Sachertorte Cake I have been making, I baked Chocolate Chip Cookies with my children. Well, this was actually not so related to St. Valentine’s Day, since I follow American custom and “I” should be getting something from my husband… ahem… but my daughter wanted to eat so we made it together.

 

 

This is a chewy type of chocolate cookies that I taught in my class before ^^.

 

 

It was me and my children that ate most of the cookies but I was glad to bake chocolate cakes and cookies during February, the month of chocolate!

 

Cheers,

Tomoko

 

 

Strawberry pistachio tart*

Strawberry season is coming!

This is Strawberry Pistachio Tart I made the other day. I was testing at home how many strawberries can fit in one tart. I use Korean strawberries for the tart lessons and is bigger than local Cameron Highlands strawberries… of course, sweeter too!

And this is me making tarts during the class, hehe… my student took photos of me… I seldom get this kind of photos. Thanks!

I will be conducting some strawberry lesson in March! Will be posting class schedule next week so kindly keep yourself posted!

Cheers,

Tomoko

Sachertorte & Apricot Sable*

Our February basic class menu is Sachertorte, a traditional chocolate cake invented in Vienna, Austria. It was invented during 19th century for the prince and the nobleman, and was served at Demel and Hotel Sacher. It immediately became popular and has become one of the most popular souvenirs in Austria! This traditional moist chocolate cake is sandwiched with apricot jam and is coated with fondant chocolat / glacage au chocolat. It is normally served chill with whipped cream at the side.

Following the Demel & Hotel Sacher style, we will bake biscuit sacher in 6″ round ring, sandwich with our homemade apricot jam, and coat with glacage au chocolat. I will also introduce you a new glacage au chocolat recipe.

You can bake this cake for the Saint Valentine’s Day!

Another menu for this class is Apricot sable, a cookie sandwiched with apricot jam. It is also nice to be eaten chilled.

Here is our class schedule;

DATE:      February 12th (Sun.) 11:00am-2:30pm – FULL

                  February 18th (Sat.) 11:00am-2:30pm – FULL            

    FEE:      RM200 (RM159  for members)

• I will be repeating this class in March. Thanks!

If you are interested in joining the class, kindly email me at caramelmoko@gmail.com (Tomoko).

Thank and I look forward to hearing from you!!!

Regards,

Tomoko

January 2017 Class Schedule*

Another one more week and it’s New Year! Then Chinese New Year is coming. Looks like we are going to be busy planning the schedule ahead and baking for these festive period…!

Today I am posting January 2017 class schedule. My macaron class is finally back with new recipe. It’s specially designed for CNY and Valentine’s day. I will also be conducting pistachio and strawberry related classes next month. Hope that I can share joy of baking and bring some happiness to your family and friends^^…

Here is the January 2017 class schedule;

1. Love Rose Macaron: CNY & Valentine Special! – Season Special Class –

 

Big and small heart shape macarons

with framboise and rose flavour buttercream

*Macarons are made by Swiss Meringue (New recipe)!

DATE:     January 15th (Sun.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL

                  January 21st (Sat.) 11:00am-3:00pm

                  January 26th (Thurs.) 11:00am-3:00pm

FEE:         RM250 (RM195 for members)

 

2. Choux de Noel & Tea Snowball Cookie *Request* – Basic Class –

Wreath style Cookie Choux (Earl grey tea flavour)

with Earl grey tea creme patissiere & pistachio chantilly

For details of this class, kindly refer to my previous blog Choux de Noel & Tea Snowball Cookie.

DATE:        January 14th (Sat.) 11:00am-2:30pm 

    FEE:       RM200 (RM159  for members)

3. Pistachio Pound Cake & Chilled Yogurt *Request* – Basic Class –

Rich and moist pistachio pound cake with pitted cherry inside

 Simple chilled yogurt cake

For details of this class, kindly refer to my previous blog Pistachio Pound Cake & Chilled Yogurt class.

DATE:       January 18th (Wed.) 11:00am-2:30pm

FEE:          RM200 (RM159 for members)

4. Strawberry & Pistachio Tart *Request* – Basic Class –

Strawberry tart with pistachio creme d’amande!

For details of this class, kindly refer to my previous blog Strawberry Tart.

DATE:       January 22nd (Sun.) 11:00am-2:30pm

FEE:          RM200 (RM159 for members)

For registration, kindly contact me at caramelmoko@gmail.com (Tomoko).

Thank you and have a great 2016 year end holidays!!

Cheers,

Tomoko

Pastries for the festive season*

Hi there! Festive season is coming. Have you been busy shopping for your friends and family^^? I haven’t gotten a chance to go out since both of my kids fell sick the last 2 weeks… Hope we can go out during the Christmas break.

But I have been baking^^..

Our Christmas style baking class is ongoing! I still have available spots for these classes;

December 17th (Sat.) 11am-2:30pm: Japanese Strawberry Short Cake

December 18th (Sun.) 11am-2:30pm: Choux de Noel 

December 23rd (Fri.) 11am-3pm: Entremet de Noel

For details, kindly look up to my blog post December 2016 Class Schedule.

By the way, I’d like to share couple of cake photos I took during my last trip to Japan. The first photo is Black Forest cake from patisserie de bon coeur @ Musashi-Koyama. The dense chocolate mousse and pitted cherries are sandwiched by biscuit chocolat, and is decorated by pistachio chantilly.

This is a pumpkin choux, a cookie cream puff with pumpkin custard and I believe it was also pistachio chantilly. I got it in the same shop as above. This is one of my favorite shop in Tokyo and I always visit there when I go back home.

This is Mont Blanc cake from the famouse shop called Angelina. It’s from Paris, France, and they have a branch in Ginza, Tokyo. The shop is popular for their mont blanc. I got three flavours; Original mont blanc, Caramel mont blanc and Pumpkin mont blanc. They all tasted so delicious. Since I visited Japan during Halloween season, many pastry shops carried pumpkin related cakes.

This is Yakigashi, petit gateaux, I bought back from Patisserie de Mont Plus in Kobe. The Yakigashi is mostly madeleine and financier with fig, caramel and some fruits. The vivid red color is from raspberry.

Another famouse patisserie in Kobe, L’Avenue. Their cakes were the best in this trip. It was my first time to visit the Kobe city and I was very impressed by their choice of food and pastries.

I also posted some trip photos in my facebook.

These rather complicated looking cakes are from another patisserie in Tokyo, Au bon vieux temps. The chef Kawada is one of the pioneers who brought in French pastries to Japan. His cakes were unique and has so much complexity in one bite…

If you happen to travel to Japan, I hope you get to try some of the pastries there. It’s delicious and has many history behind it. Thanks for reading and have a great Christmas holidays!

Cheers,

Tomoko

Entremet de Noel & Lemon shortbread*

2016 Christmas Lesson #2 is Entremet de Noel, a framboise (raspberry) layer cake with vanilla mousse inside. We will bake pistachio dacquoise and pistachio pain de gene (cake) as a layer around the mousse.

It’s a lovely cake to celebrate your special day with your family and friends. Hope this cake brightens up your table^^.

Together we will bake Lemon Shortbread, a British style cookie with lemon zest. Since it’s a shortbread, I am thinking of coating this cookies with colourful sprinkles^^.

Here is the class schedule;

DATE:      December 10th (Sat.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL    

                 December 15th (Thurs.) 11:00am-3:00pm <– Newly added!

                  December 23rd (Fri.) 11:00am-3:00pm – FULL

    FEE:       RM210 (RM169  for members)

*Currently the classes are both full but if you are interested in this class, kindly email me at caramelmoko@gmail.com (Tomoko), as I would be considering adding classes.

Thanks for your support and I look forward to hearing from you!

Regards,

Tomoko