Halloween 2015

Ahhhhhh spiders on my cupcakes!!!

Made these for my daughter to bring with  her to a Halloween party.

Cupcakes: Mini Egg cake 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.com/2014/10/mini-egg-cake.html

Spiders were made from black fondant. 

Cream Puffs

I love cream puffs, this recipe was shared by my friend exactly 10 years ago when we were in Monterey CA.  I had tried a few times & did not manage to the choux pastry ( pâté à choux ) right. This time, I think I finally got them right. They are really yummy!!! 

Make the choux pastry, fill in the cream filling & voila ! Cream puffs !!!

Here are the recipes:

Pâté à Choux

Ingredients: 

1 cup water

110g butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 medium size eggs

Preparation Steps: 

1. In a pot, add water & butter.  Bring to boil. Quickly stir in the flour until you get a well combined dough. Remove from heat. 

2. Stir in the eggs quickly, continue until all the eggs combined & form a smooth dough.  Transfer to a piping bag that has attached round/rose tip. Pipe onto a baking paper to the desire size. 

Note: leave some gaps as they will swell during the baking. 

3. Bake in a preheated oven at 205 deg C with for 20 mins or until golden brown. 

Remove from oven & leave to cool. 

4. Cut the top & remove any soft dough. Fill with cream filling ( recipe below ). Put on it's top. Repeat until all done. Refrigerate until cold. 

Dough mixture, piped with large rose tip.

Cream Filling

Ingredients 

70g sugar

2 tbsp cornflour

2 cups milk

3 egg yolks beaten

15g butter softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation Steps: 

1. In a pot, add in sugar, cornflour & milk. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils.

2. In another mixing bowl, add in egg yolks & pour 1/2 the hot milk mixture. Mix well then pour the yolk mixture back into hot milk mixture in the pot.  Stir well & remove from heat.  

3. Stir in butter and vanilla until well mixed. Leave to cool & refrigerate until the choux pastry is ready.

Chin's notes: 

1. The heat control is crucial. The speed in stiring the mixture to prevent lumps & get a smooth texture is crucial too. 

2. Reference to another recipe from Rasa Malaysia: 

http://rasamalaysia.com/cream-puffs/