Scones!

Slightly burnt scones :(

Yum!

What I think:
I haven't had a good scones in awhile, so I tried making my own. Since I had extra Heath crunch from the sandwich cookies, I decided to add them into the mix to add the toffee flavor in, which turned out really great as they melted inside the scones and gave a sweet caramel smell. Unfortunately, they were overcooked and the outside was slightly burnt. Since they don't have Devonshire cream over here, I tried a substitute recipe that uses mascarpone cheese and whipping cream. It wasn't as smooth as the real one, but it worked pretty well with the scones.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with White Chocolate Filling and Mascarpone Cream Icing

Added icing and white chocolate swirls

White chocolate filling on the inside!

What I think :
Somehow I decided to bake two red-velvet stuff consecutively, except this time I decided to use more red food coloring! I was too lazy to use the cupcake plunger that I bought several weeks ago, and filled it straight from a piping bag. The white chocolate filling was a bit too sweet, but it goes well with the cake. The mascarpone icing added a light creamy taste to it, except there wasn't enough for all the cupcakes. I tried making some more chocolate swirls using the the remaining white chocolate and added them to the top as decoration.

Snickerdoodles

Fresh straight out of the oven

Packaged in cling wraps :)

What I think:
Another easy recipe to try out. Best served warm, as it will still be chewy. I tried packaging it in cling wraps, as they're made as gifts. I think it looked pretty decent, perhaps tying it up with ribbon would make it even better.

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies with Heath Crunch

The cookies!

Fully assembled with the frosting

What I Think: 

The cookies are supposed to be much  thinner than what I've made them, which made it really hard to eat them as the filling would fall out. The cookies were still chewy and tasty though, but not red enough. I should've added more red food coloring, to make it more red-velvety. The filling however, was way too sweet. It was essentially made from two sticks of butter, 1 lb of cream cheese, and a whole pack of icing sugar plus we added some Heath crunch to it. It was literally tooth-aching to eat, yet so good in a really really bad way. Now, I still have an excess of the filling sitting in my fridge.

Coffee Liqour Brownies

 

 

What I Think:

The brownies turned out really thin, but that's probably because I was using a pan that is 1.5x larger than the one suggested but somehow it wasn't dense at all! In fact, it was soft and airy that would melt as you're eating it. The coffee liquor was a nice addition to the chocolate flavor, and along with the amaretto icing blends them all together. I added some chocolate chunks on top for decoration because it looked too plain, but I don't think they work out very well...

Crepes

What I Think:
I had too much milk, and since I wasn't bothered to bake anything big, I went looking a simple recipe that uses milk. Turned out that crepes use milk as the liquid, so I decided to make it. It's a quick and simple to make, and won't take too long. I added espresso liquor to the mix to give with a hint of coffee flavour, which went really well with the chocolate shavings and strawberries. I also tried creating chocolate shavings, but they didn't turn out too well, perhaps using vegetable peeler wasn't the best idea, but it sure makes a lot of little chocolate swirls quickly.

Mixed Berry Pavlova

The meringue before adding the filling

Top view of the pavlova, with strawberries and blackberries

Side view

What I Think:
Well, what do you know, I tried making meringue again. So far, I have only been successful once in making good crisp meringues, but since I thought that pavlova supposed to have a crunchy outer crust and a soft inside, I tried using a different recipe. However, turned that this recipe was too soft, just like most other recipes I've tried. Perhaps I put the oven rack too high up because the meringue was browning too quickly, while the inside was still uncooked. Besides being too soft, it turned out alright, with a very airy and fluffy inside. For the whipped cream filling, I added rum along for additional flavour. I love using Jamaican dark rum for whipped cream, but espresso liquor is also a good substitute. I really wish I had a more fruity liquor to use though. I decorated the top with sliced strawberries and blackberries to create a rounded floral pattern.

Portugese Style Egg Tarts

Slightly burnt top

Stack of egg tarts

What I Think:
Egg tarts have to be one of the desserts that I kept trying to bake using different recipes, probably because I haven't found the 'right' one yet. This one turned out really good, with layered crust (which was a pain to make, but well worth it!). The custard wasn't too sweet, but I think I like the recipe where the custard is cooked before baked, somehow that would make the custard smoother. I tried adding some embellishment to the crust, with some success. I think I need to practice more on making pie crust.

Halloween Cupcakes!

Writings with glitter icing

A bloody foot

Candy corn trio

What I Think:
Several days before Halloween I made two dozen of Devil's food cupcake, but I didn't have much to decorate them beside the standard cream cheese frosting. The following Monday after Halloween, I managed to get a bunch of leftovers, including a glitter icing. I decided to use some of them to decorate the remaining cupcakes.