Easter Bunny Cake 2016

Cake: green tea crepe cake
Fence: melted chocolate chips
Dirt : Oreo cookie crumbs
Rabbit, carrot, cabbage: Rolled marshmallow fondant

Valentine 2016 Cake

Sausage 2016 - Sichuan Sausage and Taiwan Sausage

This year, I made some spicy, and some sweet sausages, using the same process as last year with some adjustment on the ingredients. I think the Spicy sausage could have bee more spicy. I need  to find better chili pepper next time, or increase the amount of crushed pepper. The sweet sausage is not as popular as the spicy one, as expected.

Spicy sausage ingredients（川式腊肠)

Pork: 10 lb
Salt - 90g

Crushed pepper - 40g
Cayenne pepper powder - 20g
Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum 花椒) - 35g (grounded with a spice grinder)
White pepper powder - 10g
Liquor- 100ml (Chinese hard liquor or Vodka 白酒)

Rock sugar - 50g (grounded with spice grinder)
Casing : Natural Hog Sausage Casing Casings
Cotton thread to tie the sausage

Taiwan sausage ingredients（台式腊肠）

Pork: 5 lb
Brown sugar - 160g

Salt - 32g

Garlic powder - 1 and 1/2 TBSP

Five spices powder - 1 TBSP

Liquor- 160g (Chinese hard liquor or Vodka 白酒)

Casing : Natural Hog Sausage Casing Casings
Cotton thread to tie the sausage

Chocolate Dipped Cookie

I made those cookies for kid's Valentine's Day party at school. The cookies are the egg free sugar cookies. 

Bake heart shaped cookies first. Let them cool.

Then melt the chocolate chips, and dip half of the heart in.

Do not move the cookies until they are dry thoroughly.

Red Bean Jelly(红豆羊羹)

If you like red bean, you would love this desert.  

Ingredients:

Red bean pastry filling - 300g
Agar Agar Powder - 6 tsp or 1 oz (Depends on the brand, mine said to use 1 oz per cup of water)
Sugar - 1/4 cup (depends on your preference)
Water - 1 cup
Dried Osmanthus - for sprinkle on top

Steps:

1. Add Agar Agar powder and sugar to water and bring to boiling. Turn off heat.
2. Add in red bean paste, and stir to make it fully mixed.
3. Pour the mixture thru a fine mesh sieve into a glass container
4. Let it cool and then cut into shapes.


For variation, you can add dried Osmanthus, cooked chestnut bits, or some diced fresh fruit.

Two Tone Fried Puff Pastry (莲花酥)

Ingredients:

【Skin A】
-  All purpose flour - 2 cup
-  Butter / Lard - 1/2 cup
- Water - 1/2 cup
- Sugar - 1 TBSP
- Wilton food color gel, Red
【Skin B】
- Cake flour - 1.5 cup
- Corn oil - 1/3 cup
【Filling】:
- Red bean pastry filling
【Coating】:
- Egg yolk wash - 1 egg yolk + 1 TBSP water, mix well
- Sesame seeds

Steps:

1. Melt butter in microwave
2. Add all ingredients for Skin A to warm butter. Knead to smooth dough, and let it sit for 20 minutes.
3. Knead ingredients for skin B into a dough, and let it sit for 15 minutes.
4. Split dough A in two, and use food color to dye one dough red.
4. Portion the dough A and dough B into small balls, about 10-11g for skin A, and 6-7 g for skin B.

5. Wrap each dough B into dough A, and round it to a ball. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough into oval shape, then roll into a bundle. Repeat in the other direction.

9. Use rolling pin to make round wrapper. Overlap one white skin A with one red skin A, and then wrap the filling (about 30g) in side.  Use knife to cut through the skin.

10. Fill a pot with oil that can immerse the whole pastry. Fry the pastry over medium heat until the skin puffs up. 

Minecraft Block Cake

The cake was made by 4 layers of  Chocolate Chiffon Cake, each layer was 8"x8", filled and crumb coated with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, and then covered and decorated with Marshmallow Fondant.

Ingredients for cake
Egg - 20 Large
Cake flour - 240g
Cocoa powder - 120g
Oil - 120g
Milk - 200g
Sugar - 240g for egg white
Sugar - 80g for egg yolk
Lemon juice - 4 tsp
Baked at 350°F for 25 minutes.

4 batches of Chocolate Buttercream Frosting were needed, and each batch used
Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter, softened - 1/2 cup (1 stick)
Cocoa powder - 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups  (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 3-4 TBSP

I made two batches of Marshmallow Fondant. Each with
1 package (16 ounces) white mini marshmallows (use a good quality brand)
2-5 tablespoons water
2 pounds (about 8 cups) sifted confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
The fondant was made two days ahead. I then tinted one batch light brown to cover the whole cake, and
tinted some fondant different shade of green, brown, and blue.

I also made a batch of vanilla buttercream and colored it green to make the grass border. The ingredients were:
Crisco solid vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
Butter softened - 1/2 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Sifted confectioners' sugar - 4 cups (approximately 1 lb.)
Milk - 2 TBSP