Edible gardening

I've been wanting to make an edible potplant for the past year. I'm not sure where it came from, but I recall seeing photos of potplant desserts popping up. Perhaps it started from Heston Blumenthal and his amazing edible garden? I'm not really sure. I just really wanted one..

Instagram is a wonderful thing. It's one of the things I use as a "to do", "to go", "to eat" wishlist. Okay.. call me Asian (well actually, I think it started off being an "Asian thing" to do, but now it's just a "foodie thing"), but I love taking photos of food. Food is meant to be seen by the eyes, smelt by the nose and tasted by the tastebuds. For me it's smell, see and then taste. And because you can't preserve smell and taste, you can at least capture how it looks. Hehe :P

When I was in Sydney this year, I wanted to get a potplant dessert from Blackflower Patisserie. Thanks to Instagram, I saw a photo of it whilst I was in Sydney and decided to go find it. (I love how Instagram tells me where to go.. instantly. It also happened in Tokyo when I saw a photo of a really cute cafe with the cutest matcha latte art. So I went there on my last day of my holiday). But when I got to Blackflower Patisserie, I found out that it was only served during the evening. I was quite disappointed because I had to fly back that evening.

But... as I was browsing Instagram for any cute (I really am a sucker for cute things..) or interesting things in Seoul before I went again, I found out about Banana Tree. They served potplant desserts and potplant bingsoo! I saw it. I wanted it.. and I got it! Hehe. They didn't serve the bingsoo during winter though, so I was a tad disappointed.

The potplant looked great! I think I was more in love with the shovel spoons though. The dessert itself was just a small patty case of cream and cake. A tad disappointing for the price, but definitely cute! I eventually decided that I had to find those shovel spoons for myself and found them on ebay. :)

I decided that I'd make my own pot plant desserts. I tried looking for mini terracotta pots but couldn't find any. So I ended up with plastic ones.

Edible potplants
Makes about 10

Matcha genoise (see recipe below)
Matcha mousse (see recipe below)
Black sesame crumble (I made mine with blacksesame, butter, sugar and a little flour)
Matcha cookie crumble (I made mine, but I don't have a recipe for you)
Chocolate mushrooms (I made mine)
Chocolate rocks (I bought a packet)

This was how I imagined it:

Matcha genoise

2 eggs
40g sugar
40g plain flour
8g matcha
20g butter, melted and cooled

Cream the eggs and sugar. Add in sifted flour and matcha.
Fold in melted butter.
Pour into a lined slice tray.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for about 15mins.

Matcha mousse

100ml milk
10g matcha
1 egg, separated
40g sugar
80ml cream
1 tsp gelatin powder

Beat egg yolks and 20g sugar until pale.
Heat up milk and matcha on low heat. Take off from heat.
Gradually pour the eggs into milk, constantly mixing.
Add the gelatin.
Sieve the mixture if needed.
Add the cream.
Whip egg whites with 20g of sugar until stiff peaks.
Gently fold into matcha mix.

To assemble:

Make sure your pots are clean firstly.
I double lined mine with some IKEA cupcake patty casings as they're taller than the average patty case. Stickytape it at the bottom so it stays.

Cut rounds of cake out. I used the back of a piping nozzle.
Layer one round of cake. Half fill with mousse. Add another piece of cake. Fill with mousse to the top.
Refrigerate overnight.

Sprinkle black sesame crumble.
Gently twist a toothpick into the mushroom chocolate stalk (This will keep it steady). Stick the mushroom into the cake.
Sprinkle some matcha cookie crumbs. Add a few chocolate rocks.
Refrigerate when not consuming.

Great for gifting ;)

I love my shovel spoon! It also came with a shovel fork. Hehe.

Chubby Pocky :)

Everytime I'm back here, I say, it's been a while. Haha.. I'm sorry. I'm still here, but not here us much as I used to be. :( I've been baking/cooking, but I just haven't been blogging about it. I thought it'd be worth me blogging this post though, seeing as I'd probably want to make these again. :)

I thought to myself the other day.. "how hard is it to make my own Pocky?". I actually wanted to make giant pocky (I bought a box of matcha and a box of melon ones from Japan earlier in the year, but I don't have anymore). But seeing as I've never tried making these before, I didn't want to get my hopes up on such a big scale. So I made something in between. I call them chubby pocky. :P

I made two batches: purple sweet potato (using the purple sweet potato powder I found at Bangsan Market in Seoul a few months ago) and matcha (I have lots of matcha. Hehe).

My house has been smelling really nice over the past few days with all the baking. I have heaps of chocolate and caramel chip cookies that I made earlier this week too. I think it's time for me to stop..... until next week. Next week or so I shall start my Christmas baking! :)

Homemade pocky
Makes about 33-34 medium chubby sticks (~15cm)

100g skim condensed milk (1/4 cup)
20g water (2 Tbsp)
200g plain flour (1 1/2 cup)
1/2 tsp baking powder
30g sugar (2 Tbsp)
a pinch of salt
* some cinnamon/nutmeg (for plain biscuit sticks)
* 18g matcha powder (for matcha biscuit sticks)
75g butter, softened.

Mix condensed milk and sugar.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and *cinnamon/nutmeg OR *matcha.
I used my BEM800 stand mixer for this.
Add in butter until you form fine crumbs.
Then add in condensed milk and mix until a dough forms.
Wrap in clingwrap and refrigerate for about 30mins.

Weigh out 14gm of dough.
With your hands, firmly mould out a small sausage like shape. Place onto a smooth stable surface like a pastry board or chopping board that won't move. Using a thinner flexible chopping board, gently roll the sausage shaped dough until it thins out to about 15cm in length.

Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake in a preheated 160C oven for 15-20mins.

Allow to cool.

To make chocolate dipping:

2x250gm white chocolate
4-5 Tbsp purple sweet potato powder
3-4 Tbsp matcha powder

Over a double boiler, heat 250gm of white chocolate with either of the powders until completely combined.
*Only do one flavour at a time.
Allow to cool slightly.
With a spoon, spread chocolate over the biscuit stick. Shake off excess to smooth out the chocolate.
Stand upright (I used a cookie cooking rack) and allow to set at room temperature. Do not refrigerate immediately.

Store in an airtight jar.

A dozen chooks

A few weeks back, I made cake pops for the first time!

I made a dozen chooks :)

I used the red velvet cake recipe that I've made previously. Once the cake was cooled, I crumbed it up and added about 2-3 tablespoons of Philly chocolate frosting. Rolled them up into balls and refrigerated. Then I dipped a cake pop stick into white chocolate and into the cake ball. Refrigerated once again so they became stable.

Then the fun part! Decoration! Hehe

I pre-piped and coloured some white chocolate to make the features of the chickens a few days prior.

Voila!

Christmas

I'm... done with Christmas baking for this year. I'm a bit over it now.

I've made my coconutty snowmen, cinnamonbread and gingerbread houses. I've also made peppermint bark and spiced chocolates.

I've made too much, and I don't want to bombard people with food. I don't want to make people fat. I don't want to make myself gain weight either. I think I've just lost the spirit. I want to bake and make and give... but who is there to give to? My joy in making these things then just goes to waste. Which makes me sad. So I'll stop it here. I don't want to force people with food. I want to give to those that want and will appreciate it.

I'm sorry for ranting. Perhaps I'm just tired. I feel deflated.

I had fun making these things, and I always will. But I think you (especially my workmates) have had enough.

If you're wondering, I used the same recipes from previously for the cinnamonbread and gingerbread. I actually bought a gingerbread house cutter set this year, but unfortunately, I didn't have enough gingerbread dough so I just downsized it and made 3 mini houses. :( I used the second cutter on the left in the picture below, and just remodelled my pieces with my architectural imagination. :P

I'm actually quite happy about these gingerbread houses. The last time I made cinnamonbread houses back in 2009, it wasn't so successful. But then again, I didn't have any cutters to use. It was much simpler this time! :D

Anyway, I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas! :)

Mr Panda ❤

I finally made Mr Panda. But I made too much cake. First shot at it, my red velvet mixture was too delicate, and Mr Panda #1... unfortunately.. died. :( Second batter worked, but I had too much batter so I ended up baking an extra cake too. Haha.. :/

Fatty panda :P Hehe~

Red velvet cake

250g butter
600g caster sugar
6 eggs
40g cocoa
8tsp red food colouring
4 tsp vanilla extract
550ml milk
600g self raising flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix.
Combine red dye, cocoa, vanilla and a bit of milk together to form a smooth paste.
Add to butter mixture.
Mix and add flour alternating with milk until well combined.

Pour into a greased Wilton Cuddly Bear Pan.

Bake for 50mins in a preheated 170C oven.

Remove and allow to cool before frosting. I used the new Philly frosting in chocolate and lemon. You'll need 1 tub of chocolate and 1.5 tubs of lemon.

I also made some panda chocolate using a chocolate mould I got in HK earlier this year.  Gotta love pandas!

Random baking

Here's some random baking photos for the past month. I don't have recipes to show you. These were just 'bake by feel'.. because I was too lazy to get my measuring tools out. Hehe.. :P

Childish vanilla cupcakes. For GK. A pre-birth celebration for the little one inside. :)

Happy cupcakes (Chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate coconut ganache). For JK. Happy cupcakes for a happy person :P

Rustic jam tarts (Apricot jam and Apple, rhubarb + cinnamon jam). Well, I was making cookie dough.. then couldn't be bothered making cut out cookies anymore. So I decided to make jam drop cookies. These are a bit larger, so I guess you can call them tarts! Haha.

Baking is therapeutic. Decorating is fun.
I have so much that I want to make.. but I can't seem to find enough time or energy.. :(

Tiny teddy cupcakes

There's grumpy, happy, silly, sleepy and fatty. Well, I thought he was called fatty.. until I was told that it was hungry. :P Tiny teddies are cool~ The honey flavour is the best. I can't believe they've made tiny teddies with 100s and 1000s now. Eek. How horrid would that taste? Extra diabetes for children?!


Red velvet tiny teddy cupcakes
Makes 34 baby cupcakes

150g self raising flour
90g sugar
40g butter
20g cocoa powder
2 tsp red food dye
1 tsp vanilla extract
125ml milk
1 egg

cream cheese frosting
chocolate tiny teddies

Preheat oven to 170C.

Mix cocoa, red dye, vanilla extract and some of the milk, to form a paste.

Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add in egg.

Sift flour in a large bowl.

Add in butter mixture, milk and cocoa paste.
Mix on low speed until just combined. Mix on medium speed for 2mins.

Bake for 15mins or until cooked.

Allow to cool before applying cream cheese frosting.

But I didn't want to hurt these little bugs..

I generally hate bugs in general. But I found this bug silicone muffin tray too cute to resist.


Unfortunately for me, it didn't turn out quite as I had hoped. The butterflies didn't like me. :(


But the dragonfly turned out okay. (Yes, there's only 1 on the silicone tray.) I don't really like dragonflies though.. there are so many of them buzzing around Port Melbourne! -__-

Chocolate Chai Cupcakes
Makes about 6 bugs (the packaging said 4 cup mixture capacity) and 4 cupcakes

250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g Pure Chai chocolate drink mix
70g caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
96g butter, melted
50g (1) egg, lightly beaten
300gm Vitasoy vanilla soy milk (1 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to 180C.
Lightly brush silicone tray with some melted butter.


Combine dry ingredients together.


Mix in liquid ingredients until just combined.
Spoon mixture into moulds.


Bake for 20-25mins or until cooked. (The moulds were different in size which were a bit annoying. The butterflies took a lil longer to cook.. -__-)


Allow to cool before removing from tray.

Neither butterflies liked me. :(


Beetle turned out okay, though I broke the antenna from the other beetle. Whoops..

Ladybird

Dragonfly.



A hint of chocolate chai brings a nice flavour to a cupcake. I'd prefer something more spicy though. I'd put more cinnamon in next time. I actually don't like that chocolate chai drink mixture. I think it tastes horrible as a drink. That's why I'm trying to use it up.. Haha. Damn. I still have more.. and no one wants to drink it.

I like Arkadia branded Spice Chai mix. I notice a lot of cafes using that as well. Mmmm. I love my chai lattes. Too much milk = yuck though. GRR. I ordered one from Gloria Jeans just the other day, cos every chai I had at any cafe tasted the same thus far. But no. It. Was. HORRIBLE!! Never buying a chai latte from Gloria Jeans ever again. Oh. AND the chai latte that I had from Amigos on Lygon St. Now, who the hell sprinkles TEA LEAVES on top of the chai? Or leaves tea leaves in the drink as well?! I choked myself out of disgust. And it took a million years to arrive at the table too. Never stepping foot back there again either.

Anyway. Enough chai talk from me.