Friday, October 24, 2008

Holiday Baked Treats - Classes at Shermay's Cooking School

Aside from this, the only other seasonal class I'll be teaching is Holiday Baked Treats, a demo class, at Shermay's Cooking School on 8 November 2008 (Saturday), 9 November 2008 (Sunday), 22 November 2008 (Saturday) and 23 November 2008 (Sunday) - the November schedule has all the necessary details. For all inquiries, please call the school at +65 6479 8442 or email shermaycs@yahoo.com.sg

If the candy class is geared towards gifting, this baked treats class is all about the joys of the bountiful holiday table. Many of the recipes are designed for entertaining, and make for a magnificent grand finale to a festive meal.

Valrhona Equatoriale Noire 55% Chocolate Pudding is a super easy and versatile recipe that's equally good served hot or cold. Served hot, it has a light texture, not unlike soufflé, and is delicious simply accompanied by pouring cream.

Served cold - topped with whipped cream and a shower of chocolate shavings - it becomes denser and richer in texture, not unlike a chocolate mousse.

Moist and moreish Sticky Date & Toffee Bundt, served with Brown Sugar Whipped Cream and a generous dose of yet more Sticky Toffee Sauce on the side, is a surefire crowd-pleaser.

The recipe can also be baked as individual Sticky Date & Toffee Mini Puds - you may find this a more practical solution if you are hosting a large party. The mini puds also make a wonderful addition to a dessert buffet table, allowing guests to help themselves easily.

In Chocolate Gingerbread Cupcakes with Valrhona Perles, cocoa is used subtly, as if it were a spice, adding nuance and complexity to the flavour of the gingerbread. The chocolatey kick comes from the extravagant addition of Valrhona chocolate pearls.

I personally find the cupcakes lovely as they are, and prefer to skip the frosting entirely - all that's required to finish them is a dusting of icing sugar. While very fine served at room temperature, if you do get the opportunity, try them warm - I'll sheepishly admit that when a tray of these emerge from the oven, I'm quite capable of demolishing half the batch at one go.

Valrhona Cocoa Meringue Kisses - light, airy, crisp and a snap to make - round out the recipe lineup.

Mastering the meringue technique alone opens up many other possibilities, including the ultimate Bûche de Noël decorations, these Meringue Mushrooms. Of course, you could simply enjoy them as cookies!

I'll have more details up in a separate post on the Bonus Section - The Art of Meringue: A Guide to Fabulous Holiday Ideas. These include:

Meringue Cookie Shapes Techniques for shaping/piping Poinsettias, Shells, Porcupines etc

Recipes for filling Meringue Cookie Sandwiches Salted Caramel Filling; Peppermint Chocolate Filling

Meringue Tartlet Shells How to shape and fill with preserves, curds etc of your choice

Mini Pavlovas How to shape and fill with flavoured whipped cream and fresh fruit of your choice

Meringue Boxes How to construct a beautiful edible container for holding scoops of sorbet, ice cream etc

13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

WOOOWW LOVE sticky date and toffee ^^! and the Meringue Mushrooms look so realll!

12:09 pm, October 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

All these cakes and meringues are absolutely awesome !

3:21 pm, October 24, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

*(sigh)*
Can't help but regretting being so far from Singapore...
Couldn't it be possible for you to write a book compiling all your wonderful recipes, twists on them, and photos ?
Surely it would have a great success among your blog readers who are frustrated not to have access to recipes...
Thanks for your wonderful blog !

7:53 pm, October 24, 2008  
Blogger Dewi said...

Wow,
They are all look mighty delicious. It is very hard to choose which one is my fave. Cheers.

12:54 am, October 25, 2008  
Blogger koinusyokudo said...

all look yummy,oishiso~!

6:44 pm, October 26, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

dearest joycelyn - although i would love to try all of these gorgeous cakes, i especially love how delicate the sticky date & toffee bundt looks. so beautiful. it looks like you're going to have another busy but exciting month, take care and have fun! kxxx

6:55 am, October 27, 2008  
Blogger Claudia said...

It was a great show.
I am breathless.

Cheers,


Claudia

7:18 am, October 27, 2008  
Blogger The Stay At Home Son said...

*picks self up off of the floor, dusts off front of pants*

...You had me at 'sticky toffee'...

.....and those mushrooms are Wow!....BEAST!! (in teen talk that means really, really good or really, really big, depending on the context. In this case 'good')

9:33 pm, October 28, 2008  
Blogger Yan said...

hi Joycelyn,
yes, finally, I managed to sign up for your baking class on 23 Nov.
really looking forward to it.
see ya !!!
cheers
yan

11:37 am, October 30, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree with all comments afore mentioned! I am infatuated with Sticky Date Pudding as a rule, but the Chocolate Gingerbread Muffins with Valhrona Perls sound exquisite, particularly your description of the use of cocoa almost like a spice. Vivid and envy inducing... mmmm!

4:17 am, November 04, 2008  
Blogger Implosion said...

Oh my God. Thought I died and went to heaven.....chocolate heaven.

10:00 pm, November 06, 2008  
Blogger Yawle Pop said...

I'm hungry for some sweets now!!

12:52 pm, November 08, 2008  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have you considered putting your recipes for sale on the internet? You could charge per recipe, and then send the recipe by electronic download.

I'd love to purchase the recipe for "Valrhona Equatoriale Noire 55% Chocolate Pudding".

Would this be possible?

12:59 am, November 26, 2008  

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