Alpha Bakers: Lemon Jammies

I made this on Valentine's Day, which feels like a long time ago and it really has. 10 weeks ago!

Yes I baked ahead and I made full recipe! But in this case it is okay because it's author-sanctioned bake-ahead. Earlier this year Rose asked me if I can help test 7 cookie recipes for high altitude adjustment. So I did. And this is one of the cookies I tested. The only high altitude adjustment for this recipe is add 10 grams of egg whites.

These cookies came together easily and quickly and I enjoyed rolling them out. I used a Linzer cookie cutter set that I got a long time ago from Home Goods. They are Easter themed and really cute. Instead of just reusing the cut-outs butterfly, baby duck, and baby chickens, I used a little dab of water to attach them to the corner of the cookie. It made for a cuter effect.

Alpha Bakers: Lemon Posset Shortcakes

How can a recipe that spans 5 pages and has 4 components be considered quick & easy? I was so confused. Especially this recipe calls for making beurre noisette, which I love. But it does make a lot of dishes. I have half a sink full of dishes by the time I finished the shortcake. I took a look at the Q&E list on page 545 of the book and it listed Lemon Posset Alma (page 116), a variation of lemon posset without the shortcakes as the quick & easy. Okay, now that makes sense. So the shortcake is a close cousin, once removed, of the Q&E Alma :).

We were supposed to get a snow storm this weekend. That is what the weather lady said. 4-8 inches on Saturday, additional 3-6 inches on Sunday. That's a lot of inches for the Denver area. They keep talking about it on the radio. I have a habit of doing groceries on Friday night lately. I am baking on Saturday after all, and there's always things to buy. Usually grocery stores is a bit sparse on Friday night, which is kinda nice. Not this time. It was worse than as Thanksgiving week. Parking lots are full. Shelves were half empty. I guess they were not prepared for the storm that is folks buying food to stock up for 2 days! (It is only 2 days people....)  But what they did have that I have not seen this year is Meyer lemon! How perfect is that. Like they knew we're making the baby lemon posset and the recipe calls for lemon. I was so excited to see Meyer lemon that I ended up buying 7 of them, and only used 1. I think they should last until next weekend so I'll have to think of something else to make. Maybe lemon curd?

In all the madness of gawking at the empty shelves, I forgot to buy eggs and heavy cream. I only have 2 at home, enough for 1/2 a recipe. Really. For once I want to make the whole thing and I have to make 1/2. Not happy. I am really lazy to go to the grocery store on Saturday just to get eggs. I was planning to hibernate: bake, knit, eat, sleep. So I proceed with 1/2 recipe and defrosted leftover heavy cream.

HCB: Yellow Butter Cupcakes

This is the last cake I have to blog about. I made this back in April 2010 but somehow never blogged about it.

I vaguely remembered this being an easy cake to put together. It was pretty plain and was not a favorite. I prefer my butter cakes to have some sour cream in them. It makes them softer and the flavor is better with sour cream.

That being said, this cupcakes is anything but boring and it's because of the neoclassic buttercream. I made the orange flower water version but with the addition of orange oil. The combo brings buttercream to a new level.

HCB: White Gold Passion Genoise

Passion fruit!!! Where have you been all my life?

HCB: White Velvet Butter Cupcakes

I've made the cake version of this cake (okay that sounds weird) last year, frosted with milk chocolate ganache. The cake was good but the ganache was too sweet for me, so I only used a thin layer and have leftover in the freezer.

This time we are frosting it with the yummy golden neoclassic buttercream. I had made a whole batch of neoclassic back in March to frost Mini Vanilla Bean Cupcakes and had 1/2 quantity leftover in the freezer. I'm excited to use it now (and also excited that I don't have to make it again, making this the fastest cupcake made in Knitty Baker's history :)).

HCB: Miette Tomboy

This is the very pink Miette Tomboy from RHC, baked in 2 6 inch pans. I have been looking forward to this cake since we started the bake off. It looks so pretty in the book and I love the name!

I opted to make the alternative raspberry version as vanilla mousseline tasted too plain to me. Instead of using raspberry jam, I thought of making my own sauce with recipe from TCB. I poured a bag (10 oz) of frozen raspberries in a strainer over a saucepan - and left it on the countertop to thaw overnight. By morning the raspberries is completely thawed, and I got only 1/4 of liquid, so I didn't bother reducing it. Don't own a food mill so I strained the raspberries with a fine mesh and got about 1/3 of cup of raspberry puree. The puree was flavorful enough so I used only the puree for the mousseline.

I was very nervous about the mousseline. The last time I made it was back in July, it curdled and looked horrible. It tasted good but looked funny. And I remembered that once before that, I made it and it was a complete failure - and had to toss it. I blame both failure on hot weather, but this weekend it was pretty warm here, about 66 degrees at 8 AM. I read the recipe 4 times during the week, and read it again on Sunday morning before I started.

I had placed the frozen egg whites and butter on the counter overnight to thaw and soften. My plan was to start bright and early. So 8 AM I was in the kitchen and started the sugar syrup. Everything when smoothy until I added the egg whites into the butter. It curdled. I checked the temperature and it’s 66 degrees, so it should be ok, but it was a bit watery. Since this is within the 65-70 degrees range that Rose said, I didn’t know what to do. So I put it over simmering water while mixing it and it started watering even more. I placed it in an ice bath until it’s about 65, whisk again and it still curdled. I was so frustrated and wanted to give up. Sad images of chucking it into the trash came through my head. But if I trash it, what do I frost the cake with? I can’t imagine starting over, don’t feel like it, plus I have no time. I thought, I could frost the cake with whipped cream, but I don’t have any. And I don’t want to run to the store. Yes I know I was in a sour mood!

So I decided, let’s try to save it.
I tried chilling it faster. I put it in the fridge until the temperature was 63. Then I tried to whisk it (on high with the hand mixer) and it came back together. PHEW!!! I added the raspberry sauce, it curdled again!!

$*%&^ $&#*%&!

Checked the temperature and it’s 61 degrees. So it’s too cold. The oven was preheating for the cake so I placed it on top of the stove (heat from the oven). I mix it a few times to even out the temperature. When it’s 63 degrees I whisked it again with the hand mixer and it came back together. I immediately put it away from the stove.

Felt really good to have a successful mousseline. I’ve tried the RHC recipe once before and it curdled. And I threw it out! Felt so silly now for giving up that fast back then. But I felt I learned a valuable lesson this time - of trying to save it and and succeeding - it’s a good feeling to have :).

The cake itself is pretty straight forward. It calls for melting some chocolate by pouring boiling water over it. I had my doubts for a second because the amount of chocolate is so little compared to the water that the mixture is very watery. Unlike the usual method of combining boiling water with cocoa that produced a thicker mixture. I kept looking back to the weight measurement to make sure that I had the correct amount.

The next step is to combine all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and leavening. This cake used quite a bit of cocoa powder. I was excited about that, knowing that it will be a pretty chocolate-y cake, :).

Then mix the single egg in the mixer on high speed until it's pale, add in the canola oil and buttermilk and mix. I don't have buttermilk and don't want to buy a whole bottle for one time use. Plus Rose said to use non-low fat ones, and I haven't seen those in the store. So I took whole milk, added 1 tsp of lemon juice, and let it sit for a few minutes. Once it's mixed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.

I wonder why we don't have to add the dry ingredients in 2 additions like some other recipes. I'm not complaining though, it's faster like this but just curious as to why.

I love that Rose said how much the batter should weigh for each pan, it makes it easier to split it.

Decorating the cake is really easy. It looks so fancy in the book but it’s super easy. I love that I don’t have to do crumb coat and smooth out the sides - since that usually takes the longest.

 

Tasting impressions:
So good! The chocolate cake is so moist and chocolate-y. This chocolate cake is now one of my favorite in the book. I love the texture so much more than the DFC’s chocolate cake. Tastewise, I don’t remember how it would compare. I think I need to make DFC soon LOL. The mousseline is very good, love the raspberry flavor.

Now this makes me crave for lemon curd mousseline...

HCB Free Choice: Mini Vanilla Bean Pound (Cup)Cakes

I made this cupcake a couple of weeks ago. I was actually making the Pecan Pie from the Pie & Pastry Bible, and felt like making something from RHC as well. So I made the mini vanilla bean pound cake as cupcakes. I figured it's easy enough to do. I made 1/3 of recipe, which yield 4 cupcakes - about 45-50 grams each.

I am not going to go over the recipe in this post. It's pretty easy - like a regular butter cake. But also because I had forgotten what the recipe is like and I don't have my book with me. Haha. The downfall of baking ahead :).

In the recipe, the cake isn’t frosted, only syruped, but I felt like having some frosting. It’s been a long time since I made buttercream, and I have yet to try Lyle's Golden Syrup on neooclassic, so that’s what I made - flavored with orange flower water and orange oil. I figured since the pound cake does not have a strong flavor it would go well. And it did. So good was the buttercream that I ended up forgetting to syrup the cupcakes.

Frosting the cupcakes was fun. And I thought it needed something else so I took a bar of Green & Blacks white chocolate I had in the freezer and grated some over the cupcakes. The topped with little pink non pareils for more cute effect :).

Tasting impressions:
I didn't miss the syrup in the cake at all. The cake remained moist. It's definitely more dense than the yellow butter cake/cupcake but in a good way. The neoclassis buttercream is excellent. With Lyle the taste is phenomenal.

And I will leave you with a picture of the Pecan Pie. I made the chocolate version and decorated them with lattice top and whipped cream.

TCB: Genoise Classique with Strawberry Mousseline

I made Genoise Classique last weekend - recipe from The Cake Bible. Initially, I split the recipe in half and baked in a 7 inch pan. The genoise turned out so beautifully - not disasterously as it was a couple of weeks ago - that I couldn't resist baking another half recipe.



I truly think there's something amiss in the beurre noisette that I made last time. I think I cooked it too long. As soon as I sacrificed the egg mixture into it, it started bubbling up, even though the beurre noisette was only a bit warm.

Well, no such thing happened this time. When I mix it with the egg, no bubbling or any strange reaction happened. They blend together like they are meant to be!



Mousseline is my favorite buttercream so far. I love the taste, it's so light I don't feel I'm eating a stick of butter. And I thought since I've made it several times, I got it down. This is what happened people, when you got comfortable and you thought nothing will go wrong. You get failed mousseline. It didn't turn out to be silky smooth but grainy.

I've never made mousseline in the summer, so I am blaming the hot weather. Somehow baking and hot weather doesn't work for me. Maybe I should just stick to cooking for now and taking pictures with the new camera LOL!

Though it's not a success, I tried to decorate the cake. I was grateful that the buttercream hold it's shape and it tasted good. The grainy-ness is not noticeable when we eat it, it just looks funny. We ate half the cake already. It is flavored with strawberry sauce recipe from The Cake Bible as well and boy oh boy, I can tell you the strawberry sauce is a killer!

HCB: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake

This is a story of failed frosting. Ok, you might look at the picture of the slice and thought that it look good. But wait until you see the picture of the cake.

The cake started off well enough. The cake batter came together easily. I even remembered to increase the milk for high altitude adjustment. For once the cake baked flat on top, and it looked oh so pretty.

I've made mousseline several times but this is the 1st time I use the RHC recipe. There are differences between the recipe in TCB and RHC. For one thing, the quantity of sugar and water is higher in TCB. Another difference is the method. In TCB, Rose tells you to add the creamed butter 1 Tbsp at a time to the meringue. In RHC, you actually add all the meringue into the butter.

While cooking the sugar in the water, I noticed something's wrong when the mixture starts boiling but the sugar never really dissolve. Is this because I split the recipe in half, so the already 3 Tbps of water is now 1 1/2 Tbp. Not a lot especially once you boil it, wouldn't some of those water evaporated?

Anyway, I made the meringue. And the started heating up the syrup again. When it reached the 240 degrees, it turned into this grainy, crystalized consistency. I continued anyway, and added it to the meringue.

By the time I added the whole batch of meringue into the butter and started whipped, it turned watery. Following Rose's instruction, I placed my bowl in the water bath. After a few minutes, checked the temperature, it said 66 degrees. And there's a puddle of water inside the bowl - of what used to be meringue.

Frustrated, I contemplated calling it quits for the day. My cake would just be bare and frosting-less.

But I really really want to make this cake. Plus I already have the blendered butter and strawberry mixture that taste so yummy (thanks Raymond).

Okay so I grab my copy of TCB. And started over with the mousseline. This time, it worked!

I put the cake together, with a nice layer of strawberry mousseline in between. The cake was so tender that some layers almost split in the middle. The good thing about making 1/2 recipe is that the layers are smaller and easier to handle.

Now onto chocolate frosting. I re-read the recipe and realized that I had forgotten to buy the unsweetened chocolate. Rummaging in the pantry, I found dark chocolate (not sure of the %), and I do have the 60% chocolate. I melted them together with the butter. Then added the light corn syrup. The mixture is not as flowing as I thought it should be. I pour it onto the cake, it dropped down one side, and it stopped there. I tried to use the spatula to spread it, but then it took the mousseline with it. Okay, I may be overzealous in that I put mousseline everywhere on the cake, but I thought it would be okay.

Frustrated and pissed. Not pissed at Rose but at myself. This is what happened when you don't follow Rose's instruction - I told myself.

So here's the sad looking cake. Hubby said that it looks cute with the chocolate glaze dripping on one side. I thought it was very sweet of him to say that, but I was still sad.

We shared the 1 cupcake with a generous dollop of strawberry mousseline, and it was really really good. That cheered me up a bit, :). I will say that I still want to make this recipe again and get the chocolate frosting right. Though I think I will stick with the mousseline recipe from TCB.

HCB: Chocolate Butter Cupcakes

I made the Chocolate Butter Cupcakes last year and was not very impressed with it.

The taste is really good, very chocolatey. The texture I don't like. It was dry and fragile and fell apart as I bite into it.

So this time, I thought I'd improvise a little bit. I set aside 20% of the sugar in the cupcakes, all other variables are the same, the 20% sugar I made into sugar syrup (added a little of grand marnier) and used it to syrup the cupcakes while it's cooling down.

For the buttercream, I thought of making something new. The burnt orange silk meringue buttercream. I skipped this buttercream last year when I made the pumpkin cake and I've made all the other buttercreams so it's time to make this one.

You are probably looking at the above picture and thinking, hm... that does not look like the burnt orange smbc. Well, it's because it isn't. The whole thing failed, catasthropicly.

First I made the orange concentrate from orange juice. Feeling rebellious and not wanting to follow Rose's instructions, I use a sauce pan on medium-high heat to reduce the OJ. Well okay, it's more because I don't like the idea of heating up OJ in a pyrex cup in the microwave. It might explode and then I have all the mess to clean up. Call me crazy, but that's what went through my head. Minutes went by and the OJ is reduced. I transfer it to a bowl and proceeded with the recipe.

Next step is the creme anglaise. I scald the milk, heat up the sugary water until amber, then pour the milk in. It bubbled furiously. I put the pan back on the stove and stir to get all the caramel goodness. Somehow some of the caramel crystalize at the bottom, so I continue stirring and stirring until they all dissolve. This is where I figured I did something wrong as by the time all those crystals are reduced, there liquid is pretty well reduced (mistake #1). Then I mix it into the egg yolk mixture, and heat the whole thing on the stove while stirring continuously. Rose said to keep stirring on low heat until it's close to boiling point and you see steam. This takes forever by the way and by the time it's done the creme anglais is pretty thick. By thick I mean as thick as honey. I think this might the mistake #2, I heat it up too long and it became too thick. Of course at that time I didn't think anything is wrong. I strain it onto a bowl and set it aside.

I proceeded by making the italian meringue. Nothing exciting to report here, everything went on smoothly.

Now onto putting everything together. Mix the butter on the mixer. I went to grab the creme anglais and they seem to have turned into a toffee caramel consistency. I tried to incorporate it into butter, to no avail. It still remained in big globs. I continued adding the italian meringue in it. I didn't think any miracle will happen by adding the meringue, but why not, I already made the meringue anyway. The caramel globs are still there. Okay, so I thought this can be a buttercream with toffee in it. I tried a tsp of it, it does has the toffee consistency, as in it sticks to my teeth, but without the yummy toffee flavor.

What to do... what to do..

Devastatingly I thought of throwing the whole thing away. But then my cupcake will become naked and sad looking without any decorative element. Starting over is not an option as I'm already behind schedule, and still have to cook.

So I strained the d***m thing. I couldn't help chucking as I was doing this because it was kinda funny to push buttercream through a strainer. I doubt anyone on the bake-a-long has done this before.

Buttercream strained, I tried a little bit and it's missing flavor indeed. So I added a couple of drops of the Boyajian Orange Oil and voila, it taste so much better. Very fragrant and very orangey.

Too tired to do fancy decorating, I used my small offset spatula to do swirls of buttercream on the cupcake.

So there you have it. My humble chocolate butter cupcakes with almost burnt orange silk meringue buttercream :).

Tasting impression: I'm glad I added some sugar syrup, as the buttercream is more moist now. The buttercream, however, did not have enough taste. Where did all the orange oil flavor went?!? Or maybe I didn't have enough of it. Hm.. I think I'll add some orange zest on the rest when I get home...

HCB: (California) Pistachio Cake

I ended up getting the California Pistachio from Whole Foods, so I renamed the cake to "California Pistachio Cake." It didn't seem appropriate to call it Sicilian cake :).

This cake is very easy to make. I made 1/2 a recipe again and made sure I split everything in half (also did not forget the sugar this time ^_^). I blanched the pistachio and let it dry on a kitchen towel for about 3 hours. Then process the pistachio with the sugar. Mix the egg yolks with 1 1/2 Tbsp. of sour cream and vanilla paste. Then mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda in the stand mixer. Next, add the butter and the rest of the sour cream. Once it's all mixed, incorporate the egg mixture in 2 additions. Finally, into the oven it goes!

The cake baked about 40 minutes. And it baked flat on top! That sort of never happened to me for butter cakes. I did spend some time making sure the top is smooth and used a silicone spatula to do this (vs. offset spatula). However, it is still amazing to me that it's completely flat. Wish I had taken a picture of it so I have proof, :)).

Next, the buttercream. I have never made the neoclassic buttercream before, so I was naturally curious of the taste. So far my favorite buttercream is the mousseline, which I've made several times. This buttercream is easier to make than the mousseline. It is also easier to work with. I frost the cake with no effort and in very little time (and no my friends, let me assure you it is not because I'm becoming an expert in frosting cakes). Now the part that I love the most is "throwing" the pistachio nuts onto the cake. This is like the easiest decorating that I've ever had to do on a cake, just throw the nuts on it, and make sure that it's evenly covered. And ta-da, the result look pretty!



The cake was a huge hit. I think it's hard to have a cake that uses sour cream taste bad, but it is really really good. The pistachio flavor is pretty faint but I love the crunchy texture of the nuts against the soft moist cake.

Oh forgot to add that I use vanilla paste in the buttercream, I don't know if you can see little black specks in the picture. Also I added a Tbsp. of amaretto to the buttercream (following Matthew, one of Rose's forum blogger) - it added a nice touch to the taste. I still like the mousseline better. But I do look forward to next time when I'll make the neoclassic again - and look forward to piping it!

HCB: Woody's Lemon Luxury Layer Cake

Before I start with my Lemon Luxury Cake tale, let me begin by telling you about the lemon roses. I made them a couple of weekends ago. I bought over half a dozen of lemons. I've never made this before and I was afraid I'd fail. The recipe (on page 432 of Heavenly Cakes) tells you to peel the skin of the lemon with a paring knife. I don't understand what Rose meant by "start by cutting a round section across the base of the fruit but not all the way through," but I figured since I have so many lemons I should just start peeling. Then I boil sugar syrup, add the peel to the simmering syrup, cover the pan, remove from the heat, and let sit overnight. The next morning, remove the peel from the syrup to paper towels. I wasn't sure whether I should let it sit in the paper towel first until dried before moving on to the next step. So I went ahead anyway, curling each strip loosely around itself to form a rose. Then I let them dry for 1 hour. Then coat all sides of the peel with corn syrup. After 1 hour, apply a second coat, and then another coat after another hour. Oops, as I'm reading the recipe now I realize I made a mistake. It said here that after all those 3 coats of corn syrup, to allow the peel to dry completely which can take several days before storing in covered container. I missed this step. After a couple of hours of the third coat, I store it in a container and put it in the freezer. No wonder my lemon roses looks a bit different than the picture in the book. It is still pretty though, :). This is the picture of the lemon roses before the corn syrup applications.

Moving on to the cake. For once, I would not say that this is an easy cake to make. The recipe itself is four pages long. This is a big cake, so I decided to make it in 6-inch pans. 6-inch pan by volume is not exactly half of 9-inch pan, but when I did the math it comes up to 0.44 so for easiness' sake I divided everything by half.

First I made the lemon curd. I whisk the yolks, sugar, and butter until blended, then add the lemon juice and salt. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. It takes a good 10-15 minutes before the mixture start turning opaque and yellow. I felt like I was stirring and stirring for the longest time. Then it takes another 10 minutes or so before it starts thickening. I must confess that I was really tempted to increase the heat but I didn't want it to curdle.

Next I made the white chocolate custard base. This calls for melting white chocolate and butter on a double boiler while stirring often. Then whisk the eggs lightly and then whisk it into the white chocolate mixture. Then continue mixing while heating it up until 140 degrees.

I then switched gears to composing the cake. Again, I substituted the cake flour with unbleached AP flour. I melted the white chocolate, then mix the butter, 2/3 of the milk with all the dry ingredients. Then incorporate the egg and 1/3 milk mixture. Then incorporate the white chocolate. Then bake the cake for 35 minutes. Everything went on swimmingly until I took the cake out of the pan and they look like this!

I put the lighter cake back to the oven and bake for another 5 minutes. It's done in the center but the top still has the light color. By the time I flip the cake out of the pan, it fell apart and taste odd. The other cake was fine, it was a bit dense - because I used the unbleached AP but it tasted okay. I could not figure out what went wrong with the other cake. I baked the cake on the 3rd rack from the bottom, on the same rack, I rotated the pan halfway through baking. I didn't open the oven door until 5 minutes at the end. I re-read the recipe 5 times and determined that I didn't not messed anything up. Using unbleached AP instead of cake flour would impact structure and texture but it should not impact taste - that is my understanding at least. Frustrated and confused, I gave up for the day and decided to redo the cake the next day.Day 2 of Lemon Cake adventure. I was sad and frustrated but determined to make the cake. This time I use cake flour. Everything went on swimmingly again, and when it's time to incorporate the melted white chocolate into the batter, I let it mix longer just to make sure. The cake baked for 35 minutes again but one of them sunk a little bit in the center and the other one sunk a lot on one side. To make matters worse, there is a big height difference! I weigh the batter when I distributed them between the 2 pans and they were both 301 grams. Argh... At this point, I was really frustrated. Though sadly thinking that of course the cake that I requested would be the one that gives me the biggest challenge.

Back to the buttercream. I cream the butter, then added the white chocolate custard base and mix until it achieved stiff peak. I didn't want to wait 1 1/2 - 2 hours so I chilled it for a few minutes in an ice bath. The buttercream came together nicely without any issue.

Lastly, composing the cake. I tried to make up for the sunken center and inconsistent sides with the buttercream. I know it will look funny when the cake is cut but I really want the exterior of the cake to look good and even. After 3 hours of numerous chilling/freezing the cake and using both bench scraper and heated offset spatula to smooth out the sides, here is the cake with a lemon rose in the center.


It is as smooth as I could get it to be. In retrospect, it is probably overkill to spend 3 hours composing the cake but I am very happy with the result.

Onto tasting. This cake is really good. It is rich though, I wonder if it's because of all those egg yolks! I would definitely make this cake again, but probably for special occassions since it does take some time and effort (and patience :)).

A Baking Weekend - Part 1

This weekend, I was very inspired to bake so in addition to the scheduled cake for the HCB group, I also made several other items. First, I did the Chocolate Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Egg-White Buttercream from Rose's Heavenly Cakes. I made half a recipe of the cupcakes and the full recipe of the buttercream. Why, you asked, would I make another cake? Well, because I just received the 6-cavity Lekue silicone muffin pan and I feel compelled to test it. Also, I want to play with buttercream and the idea of making practice buttercream using shortening sounds plain gross (if there are shortening lover out there reading this, please don't take this personally). Anyway, back to the cupcake. It's very easy to make. The only thing is that you sorta have to plan ahead a bit because you have to boil the water and then mix it really well with the cocoa powder, then let it cool down to room temperature. The recipe said you can refrigerate it. But even that takes about 10-15 minutes to cool down (and this is half the recipe btw so you see how you should sorta plan ahead.) The buttercream is a bit more challenging. It tells you to beat the butter first until smooth and creamy. Rose suggests that you use the hand mixer for this if you only have 1 stand mixer - as you would need the stand mixer for the egg whites. So I did that. Then you beat the egg whites until foamy, add cream of tartar, beat again, then gradually add the fine sugar, until stiff peak. After all that, continue beating while adding butter by the tablespoon. Halfway through this, the buttercream looks like a soupy mess. Rose said that if the whole thing curdled, which I'm guessing what the soupy mess is, you should increase the speed and continue beating until it came together. Well, I did that and what feels like forever later, the consistency didn't changed. So I put the whole thing in the fridge - thinking that the reason why it still curdled is because it's too warm. True enough, after five minutes of refrigeration, I rebeat on high speed and it smoothed out. After all the butter is added, add the melted chocolate that's already cooled to room temperature. And you're done. Next is piping fun! It is so fun to pipe buttercream - provided you're not a perfectionist and fussed over every little imperfection (which I am kinda like that but I've decided since this is for personal consumption it just have to be fun and does not have to be perfect). I used a round tip, rose tip, and star tip and here's the result.


Aren't they cute? At least I think so. I'm very happy with the result. The one with the star tip makes me think of odd-shaped mushrooms.