Un Gâteau | Making Chocolate Ganache and Dealing with Curdled Butter

In late September, I attended an online baking class held by Dignity Social and we were making Chocolate Devil Cake with Chef Luvita Ho. I really wanted to directly follow her steps and do the baking right away. However, it was a week full of sweets and cakes and it wouldn't be friendly for my blood sugar level if I were to practice the recipe at that moment. Therefore, I try the recipe out in the following weekend.

Chocolate Devil Cake is an intensely chocolate-ey butter-based cake with chocolate ganache frosting. For the class, Chef Luvita designed the cake in three elements: the cake, the frosting, and the strawberry on top. Salut to all participants who managed to make this cake only within 3 hours with only the guidance of an online class, because I finished mine in 5 hours, which I will explain later in the process. 

I tweaked the recipe as per usual. Firstly, I forgot to buy some fresh strawberries to put on top of the cakes,  hence replaced it with a strawberry-flavored icing drizzle instead. Secondly, I turned them into cupcakes and not a sheet cake or a double-decked cake. Turning them into small cupcakes allows me to lower the individual portion (worrying about the sugar intake I was about to give to my family, lol) and gives me more people to share the cake with. Despite going through some tweaking, the cake turned out great and became the perfect after-school snacks. Let's see how I made them!

Cooking Duration: 3 Hours

Preparing the ingredients: 15 minutes

Ganache Making: 2 x 20 minutes

Creaming and Mixing: 15 Minutes

Baking: 30 Minutes

Cooling Down: 1 Hour

Frosting and Decorating: 20 Minutes (or more, to your fancy)

Yield:

23 Cupcakes (Each cake approximately 5 cm in diameter)

A. Ingredients

1. For the Cake

• Dry Ingredients

• AP Flour
• Cocoa Powder
• Salt
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda

• Wet Ingredients

• Eggs
• Granulated White Sugar
• Whole Milk
• Dark Chocolate (Couverture or Compound, both works well)

1. For the Frosting

• Dry Ingredients

• Salt

• Wet Ingredients

• Dark Chocolate (Couverture or Compound, both works well)
• Cream (Heavy Cream or Whipped Cream)
• Unsalted Butter

1. For the Drizzle

• Dry Ingredients

• Powdered Sugar

• Wet Ingredients

• Milk
• Strawberry Paste

For more detailed measurements, please contact the Dignity Social team or Chef Luvita herself. 

Let's talk about the ingredients. Firstly, There was no salt for the frosting in the original recipe. However, I was using prototype products from a local chocolatery and it needed some salt to strengthen the flavor. The chocolate also one of the reasons why it took me 5 hours instead of 3 to make this cake: they weigh 7 grams each and individually wrapped. The ganache-making could be done much faster without the unwrapping.

Secondly, make sure that your butter and eggs are at the same temperature! Otherwise, you will end up making the same mistake as me (which I will explain later in this post).

B. Preparation Step

1. Making Chocolate Ganache for the Batter

In this recipe, I made my very first batch of chocolate ganache. I did some research aside from the online class on how to nail this ganache. I found some helpful videos on Youtube and learned about the cream to chocolate ratio, different methods, and apparently, we can also make a chocolate ganache using cocoa powder. 

There are several methods we can use to make the ganache:

1. Method 1: Microwaving Cream and Chocolate. This is the most convenient method of them all. Alas, not all of us have a microwave.
2. Method 2: Pouring Scolded Cream into The Chopped Chocolate. This is the method in which we have to bring the cream in a saucepan on medium heat to a simmer. The cream has to be simmering and not boiling. This is a tricky method as we have to take the cream off the heat right before it starts to boil, pour it onto the chocolate, let it sit for 5-10 minutes, and then whisk them up until smooth. We have to closely look at the cream so that it comes to the perfect temperature to melt the chocolate without burning it. I didn't use this method because I feel like this method is temperature-sensitive. My mixing station is in a different room from my kitchen and I'm afraid that by the time I reached my chocolate bowl, the temperature has lowered down way too much.
3. Method 3: Melting the Chocolate on a Double-Boiler (bain-marie). This is my preferred method. In this method, we are heating the chocolate and cream on top of boiling water. The tools we need are a heat-proof bowl and a saucepan. Many sources stated that the bottom of the bowl and the boiling water underneath should never touch each other. To ensure this, if you are using a glass bowl, simply look through the glass and fill out the saucepan with water accordingly. But, if you are using a stainless steel bowl, fill in the saucepan with water to some extend, put the bowl on top of it, and then lift it out and check the bottom part. If it's dry, then you are good to go. Otherwise, take out some excess water and re-assess the level. Do the assessment before bringing the saucepan to the stovetop.
4. Method 4: Bring Together The Cream and The Chocolate on a Stovetop. This method is plausible. In fact, Chef Luvita used this method in the class. However, many sources don't recommend this method if we are yet to know our ingredients well. This method has a high possibility of burning the chocolate.

Choose your preferred method of making a chocolate ganache. Upon finishing it, put it into a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap (make sure that the plastic wrap touches the top surface of your ganache) and store it in the fridge while getting ready for the next steps.

2. Grease your Baking Pan

If you are making a sheet cake, line your baking pan with parchment paper and then grease it with butter/oil/PAM spray. However, you don't have to grease your cupcake baking papers.

C. The Baking Process

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the softened unsalted butter and then gradually add in the sugar,
2. Continue whisking until all the sugar dissolved,
3. Gradually add in the eggs,
via GIPHY
4. Continue whisking until well-mixed,
5. Gradually add in the chocolate ganache,
6. Continue whisking until well-mixed
7. Shift the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder altogether into the mixture,
8. Give a quick whisk for a few seconds and then fold the batter until there are no flour pockets,
via GIPHY
9. Transfer the batter into a piping bag and then pipe the batter equally into the baking papers,
10. Bake at 175 C for 25-30 minutes

Let's talk about the process. I broke my butter mixture (T^T).

via GIPHY

I learned that the butter can break (curdled or separated, you might find solid bits and liquid parts instead of a homogenous mixture) after adding eggs if they are not at the same temperature. You might see that my butter looked hard, as it was still cold. On the other hand, I used new eggs that my mom had just bought the day before and they are yet to be stored in the fridge. 

Now into my mistakes and where you can learn from me. Using cold butter and room temperature eggs is mistake number one. Make sure that they are both at the same temperature, preferably at room temperature where the butter is soft but not quite oily. To troubleshoot the curdled butter situation, we can add a few tablespoons of flour into the mixture. In my case, I added 7 x 1.2 tablespoons of flour before the mixture finally gets well-emulsified. Mistake number two, over-mixing the batter. I said that I added  7 x 1.2 tablespoon of four (that's 3 and a half tablespoon) and it made me mix the mixture for longer than needed. I should not be too focused on trying to save the curdled butter. Yes, we can bake curdled batter and it's okay. Over mixing the batter will lead to a denser cake.

C. Frosting and Decorating

1. Making the icing sugar drizzle:
• Shift our some powdered sugar
• Gradually add in milk, a little at a time, until you get the desired consistency (I made it into a paste)
• Add in paste food coloring (optional)
• Put it into a piping bag, set aside
2. Even though I was using a 1:1 ratio for my ganache, it turned out too liquidy for a piping bag. Therefore, I simply dipped my cupcakes in the ganache, as if decorating a donut. This will result in a thinner frosting. If you would like to have a thicker frosting, whip out your ganache, put it into a piping bag, and pipe the desired amount of frosting onto the cupcakes.
3. Drizzle the icing on the ganache.

D. The Yield

Notes:

1. Mistake number three happened in the frosting process. My icing was too thin that it melted everywhere. Make sure that you get a paste-like consistency out of your icing sugar.
2. Another alternative to decorate your cake/cupcakes is to add fresh fruits. The original recipe calls for some fresh strawberries.
3. What I recently learned: for better measurements (especially for dry ingredients which have to be shifted), put the bowl and the shifter on top of your scale before pushing the "tare" button.
4. Piping beautiful peaks on cupcakes do require practices A lot of practices. Don't get discouraged if yours are not as pretty as what you see on social media. Keep practicing (this is also an encouragement to myself, lol). Good luck!

Du Pain: I Learned Making Dinner Rolls for My Grandpa

Duration: 2 h 32 m - 3 h 32 m (manual kneading)

Preparation (15 Minutes)

Mixing (5 minutes)

Kneading (12 minutes)

1st Proof (1-2 hours)

2nd Proof (30 minutes)

Baking (30 minutes)

Yield:

9-12 Dinner rolls.

Three days before my Grandpa passed away, he asked for some "soft round bread that is mildly sweet and easy to chew."  Dinner rolls popped in my mind at that time. Did he get it? Yes, but it was from the local bakery. The day he asked for it, I couldn't make it right away. I need to get back home (we live in different cities), learn the recipe, test the recipe, pack it, and finally bring it to him. Even though I didn't make it in time for him, at least now I know how to make some Dinner Rolls.

Almost every recipe I found online requires light dusting of corn starch onto the bread just before it gets baked and it makes me wonder. What will a dusting of corn starch do on top of fluffy soft buns? I've tried a recipe with corn starch dusting and another recipe with an egg wash. In this blog post, I'll show you how I made the one with an egg wash. The recipe belongs to Joshua Weissman, check out his video for the detailed information on measurements and the other things.

A. The Ingredients

Wet Ingredients:

Whole Milk

Water

White Sugar

Instant Dry Yeast

Eggs

Butter

Dry Ingredients:

Bread Flour

Salt

Let's talk about yeast. You can use any dry yeast available in your local stores, just make sure that you use it as suggested in the packaging. Before this, I tried Emma Goodies recipe for the starch dusted ones. The recipe stated that she added 7gr or one packet of dry yeast into the warm milk, while Weissman added 9gr. The yeast I used is packaged in an 11 gr sachet. It is stated in the packaging that one sachet of yeast is to pair with 1000 gr flour. After calculating, it means that I only need 3-4 grams of yeast for the recipe. I was torn whether I should go with the direction or with the recipe instead. In the end, I followed the recipe. However, because Emma said that we may use one packet of instant yeast, silly me actually added all 11gr of yeast into my dough. The result? The dough turned out dry, even after I added more milk. I kept on baking the bread, but it didn't rise well and the smell was too strong in the first batch. In this attempt, I went with the recipe again since Mr. Weissman only put 9gr of yeast into his dough. 

"2 grams difference eh? maybe it will turn out better," I said to myself.

Well, while the texture did improve, the smell was still too strong. Lesson learned, go with what's directed in the yeast' packaging, the producer knows their products best.

B. Preparation Step

1. Preparing the butter

• For kneading: The butter has to be at room temperature so that it incorporates better into the dough. If you are living in a place with a warm climate, simply measure out the amount of butter you need and let it sit outside the fridge for a while before anything else. Otherwise, put the butter in a microwave for seconds (some newer generation microwave even has the option to soften butter).  Another option is to put the butter in your oven, heat off but lights on. For another option with more dishes to wash but less electricity consumption is to put the butter in a small bowl and then put it in a slightly bigger bowl filled with warm water. Make sure that you have enough warm water to surround the butter bowl, but not so much that the water flows into the butter.
• For coating: Minutes before the bread finished baking, take a teaspoon of butter and set aside. This butter will be smeared on top of the bread after it's baked.

2. Blooming the Yeast

1. Warm up the milk to 30-35° C,
2. Add in the dry yeast, stir until all the yeast soaked in milk, 
3. cover it and set aside.

3. Making Tangzhong

1. Add in the bread flour, water, and milk into a small saucepan,
2. Bring it to a stovetop, turn on medium heat,
3. Continuously whisking until the mixture thickens,
4. Remove from the heat, transfer it into a small bowl, set aside, and let cool to room temperature,

C. Baking Process

In this entire process, I will be kneading manually using my hands. Kneading duration might vary, depends on how quick you are moving your hands. 

1. Add in the bread flour and sugar into a medium-sized bowl, mix until just combined,

via GIPHY

2. Add in the tangzhong, bloomed yeast, and egg, whisk for a while to break the egg and then start to knead,

via GIPHY

3. Continue kneading for 5 minutes,
4. Gradually add in the salt, continue kneading
5. Gradually add in the softened butter, continue kneading for 7 more minutes,

via GIPHY

6. After you get smooth and supple dough, form it into a ball, put into a greased medium-sized bowl, cover it with a damp towel and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size (1st proofing),
7. After the dough has risen up, gently push the dough (or, punch it once, lol) to release excess air,

via GIPHY

8. Measure out your dough and divide them into smaller pieces (I divided the dough into 9 pieces),
9. Form the divided dough into balls,
10. Put it in a baking pan (i used an 18x18 pan) like so,
11. Cover the pan with a damp towel and let rise for another 30 minutes (2nd proofing),
12. Prepare the egg wash while waiting for the dough to rest: beat an egg and add a splash of whole milk, stir until well combined,
13. Add in a layer of egg wash on top of your dough,
14. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175 ° C for 30 minutes,
15. Take it out from the oven, smear butter on the upper surface, let cool down.

Please make sure that you knead the dough until soft and supple BEFORE doing the first proofing. Because I feel like the dough was not supple enough in my first try (there were weird air pockets all over my dough, later I found out that is because I used too much dry yeast), I kneaded it again after the first proofing,*sigh*. 

Kneading the dough after proofing will toughen the gluten up, resulting in a dense bread. I got a rock-hard "weapon" instead of fluffy soft buns in my first try, lol. In this recipe, gently pressing the dough several times and forming into desired shapes are the only acceptable things to do after the first proofing.

There are actually more steps in the original recipe. However, since my goal is only to make plain dinner rolls, I'm skipping the garlic butter. Although steep 15 is also optional, smearing butter on top of the bread adds a pleasant aroma to it, I really recommend not to skip this step.

D. The Yield

They taste amazing! Best served while warm and with some butter, divine. They really remind me of the dinner rolls served in my local steak house and it was nice to be "reunited" again with the homemade version of it. Thank you, Mr. Weissman. Good luck to all of you who want to learn this recipe!

Du Pain | Making Cloud Bread (Part 2 : The Duck)

Last month, I made the infamous Cloud Bread using chicken eggs. The recipe was from emmymadeinjapan. This time, I'll be making cloud bread, but using duck eggs. 

A simple salted and hard-boiled duck egg tastes amazing with some rice. Duck eggs also make flavorful yolks that we can use in dessert (moon cake, anyone?) and any other cuisines. The whites? they are popular in pavlova and meringue recipes. 

Many sources stated that duck egg whites require longer whisking time and that they are relatively looser in texture. However, you can't whisk them for too long, or else, they will start to collapse (the foam will break and lose their homogeneity). Rose Levy Beranbaum demonstrated whipping egg whites with duck eggs. She did amazing and the blog lets us know how long is "too long" for whisking duck egg whites, I suggest you check it out, along with her other article on beating egg whites. After you get the grip on the perfect timing, though, you will be rewarded with a crunchier meringue with a deeper flavor. But, how well they perform for cloud bread? There is only one way to find out!

A. The Ingredients

1. The wets:

• 3 Duck Egg Whites
• Food coloring of your choice (optional)

2. The Dry:

• Powdered Sugar
• Corn Starch
• 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

The cream of tartar helps the egg whites to hold their shape. When using thick egg whites like duck eggs, we need some acidity, aside from the sugar, to stiffen the mixture.

B. The Preparation Step

Separate the egg whites and the egg yolks, set aside in a medium-sized bowl.

via GIPHY

C. The Steps

1. Add in the cream of tartar. 
2. Continue whisking until frothy.
via GIPHY
3. Gradually add in the sugar.
via GIPHY
4. Gradually add in the corn starch.
via GIPHY
5. Continue whisking until stiff peak.

via GIPHY

6. Add in the food coloring, continue whisking until well incorporated.
7. Scoops out the whisked mixture onto a baking tray, lined with parchment paper.
8. Shape it the way you want, smooth it out.
9. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175° C for 30 minutes.

Let's discuss the steps. Step 1-2 is only applicable if you are whisking the egg whites using a hand mixer or a stand mixer. However, if you are whisking manually by hand, whisk the egg whites first until they get frothy and by then, add in the cream of tartar.

The baking time! Since in my last attempt, I really liked the burnt outer layer, hence in this time I bake them for 5 more minutes than the original recipe, hoping to get a thicker outer layer. Glad that turned out how I wanted it. Also, in my prior attempt, I shaped it like a dome and the shape made it hard for the heat to reach the inside, resulting in an undercooked inner part. Therefore, in this attempt, I flattened the top layer out and make the base wider, so that I have a more crunchy part. 

D. The Yield

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

A thicker and non-sticky outer layer, check. More brown area, check. Perfectly cooked inside, check. Overall, I am content with the result! My nephew, siblings, and mom also love it. It was gone in seconds, lol. Duck eggs definitely have a richer flavor. This time, the inside tastes like a sponge cake, which is good, 10/10 would make it again. The only correction is the shape, for the next attempt, I want to pipe them out into small dollops instead of plopping a single dome, that's one way to get more brown part in each bite. If you were to make this recipe, I would recommend using duck egg, but hen eggs work well too. Maybe combining both duck and hen eggs would be interesting, tweak it out and learn from it. Happy creating, Good luck <3

Du Pain | Making Cloud Bread (Part 1: Chicken Eggs)

My sister once talked about a certain recipe in which you put a corn starch into a meringue batter on a double boiler, Turns out, it was a pavlova recipe. After watching a video on that, Youtube recommended me a video about this Cloud Bread from emmymadeinjapan. Why did Youtube recommend me that? Because the recipe is similar to pavlova, but with lower temperature and longer baking time. Just how similar? Let's jump to the Cloud Bread making process, shall we?

A. The Ingredients

1. The Wets

• Egg Whites
• Food Colouring of your choice (optional)

2. The Dry

• Powdered Sugar
• Corn Starch

Let's talk about the ingredients. Emmy only uses those 3 ingredients, I suggest you watch her video for detailed measurements. However, after finishing the bread, I found some recipe on the internet where people put lemon juice into the egg whites, kinda similar to a meringue recipe. I wan to try this recipe but with lemon juice or cream of tartar, but that's for the later update. For now, I will be "reporting" the making process of this Korean Cloud Bread.

B. The Preparation Step

1. Crack an egg into a small bowl,
2. Scoop out the egg yolk using clean hands,
3. Set the yolk aside, add the egg white into a medium-sized bowl.
4. Repeat the steps above until you get 3 egg whites in a medium-sized bowl.

via GIPHY

For the preparation step, you can use any kitchen gadget to separate the yolk and the white. I prefer using my clean bare hands since they are less likely to break the yolk. Also, separating the egg on a separate bowl one at a time would revert us from accidentally putting any bad eggs into the batch. It also prevents us from breaking a SINGLE yolk in a pool of three egg whites. Once the yolk breaks, it's harder, if not impossible, to separate the yolk from the whites (Been there, done that. I ended up making omelets and not macarons)

C. The Cloud Bread

1. Whisk the egg whites until frothy, via GIPHY
2. Gradually add in the powdered sugar while continuously whisking, via GIPHY
3. Gradually add in the corn starch, keep on whisking until stiff peak, via GIPHY
   via GIPHY
4. Add in 1-3 drops of food coloring*, mix until just combined, via GIPHY
5. Scoop the batter and plop it on to a baking tray, lined with parchment paper, 
6. Smooth the outer layer to the desired shapes, via GIPHY
7. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175° C for 25 minutes*

Steps 4 is optional. I didn't do an intricate, cloud-like pattern in my cloud bread so the yield will only be a fluffy baby blue cloud bread. If you want to get a visual of clouds floating in the sky, you can divide the batter into two bowls, add blue food coloring into the other, keep the other batter white without food coloring. After that, put the blue and the white batter alternatively on the parchment paper.

Emmy from emmymadeinjapan baked her cloud bread for 25 minutes at 350 F. However, I know my old oven would get higher than indicated so I lowered the temperature to 150 C and baked mine for 40 minutes. That... was a mistake, lol. Even after 40 minutes of baking, plus 10 minutes of cooling down, my cloud bread still gets sticky on the outer layer. The texture is chewy on the outside and the inside felt almost custardy. Worried that I might be eating raw eggs, I ended up baking it for 10 more minutes. 

D. The Yield

via GIPHY

I love the burnt part of this bread! The burnt part tastes like ladyfingers. The fluffy part of this "bread" adds fun texture in contrast to the crunchy outer layer. It's like eating a freshly-baked ladyfinger, half of which dipped in a hot tea, but the other half is still dry and crunchy. However, I notice that this is not really bread? Well, because there is neither yeast nor starter involved in the baking process. Part of me wants to call this thing a souffle. In souffle we add in the egg yolks, but not in this recipe. Since this recipe only uses egg whites, what about... Snow Souffles? It's only a piece of thought, for now, I'll go with how people on the internet call this thing: a Cloud Bread.

Note:

1. I will be attempting to make this cloud bread again but using duck eggs with cream of tartar. Updates on it will be posted soon :)
2. As for the baking temperature, I will follow Emmy for the next batch and bake it at 175 C for 25 minutes to see how it differs from baking it at 150 C for 50 minutes,
3. Don't throw up the egg yolks, they make a tasty omelet, you can also cure them in soy sauce or in salt. Good luck <3

Du Gâteau | Making Farah Quinn's Sugar Free Banana Cake (A TMI Walk-Through Baking Process)

Who has been into baking lately? I was struggling because there was no baking equipment nor the ingredients at home. Luckily, I managed to collect some throughout the months, and thus, trying other's recipes only gets easier from now on. 

    I've tried Joshua Weissman's Best Burger Buns and Soft Pretzel, Molly Baz's Strawberry Shortcake (Who else have been missing videos from Bon Appetit? I hope they settle things well...), Tasty's Macaron, Korean Garlic Bread from Tasyi Athasyia, Flour n Flower's Pon De Ring... quite a few. It was a journey of learning the characteristics of each ingredient and process. It taught me that you can kill the yeast by overdoing the dough, that dough starts to smell funny if you happen to rise your dough for too long, that meringue should be baked at low temperature for a long time or else you'll get burnt crust and ooey-gooey sticky sugary mess on the inside *sweep tears*.

    This time, I tried documenting the process of making banana cakes. Why banana cake? Because I recall Mrs. Music said in her Banana Bread video that over-riped bananas are perfect for banana bread and I happen to have heaps of them, some of which are on the verge of turning into complete darkness. But I did not try her recipe because standing mixer was involved to cream the butter. I'm trying to minimize the use of a standing mixer since it is heavy QAQ

1. The Recipe

   

I stumbled upon Farah Quinn's Sugar-Free Banana Cake. She did use a blender in the early step, but that's okay because my blender consumes less electricity than the mixer I have at home. Here are the ingredients for the cake, for more detailed information on the measurements, I suggest you checking Farah's video:

Wet Ingredients:

• Over-riped bananas
• Dates (pits removed)
• Hot water
• Full cream milk
• Vegetable oil
• Whole eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Apple cider vinegar

Dry Ingredients:

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt

    Let's discuss the ingredients. I used 2 kinds of bananas, Pisang Tanduk (Musa x paradisiaca) and Pisang Raja (Musa sapientum), both are Indonesian bananas. I tried to google their scientific name, but the results might be inaccurate. 

    I kind of regretting my choice to go with mostly Pisang Tanduk because of the texture. Although it tastes sweet, riped Pisang Tanduk stay firmer and tougher than any other riped bananas. It also has a kind of astringent taste. I was afraid that the cake might turn out dry (spoiler: it did). Therefore, I opted to add buttercream frosting on the top (ended up using the hand mixer for 2 minutes). For the next attempt, I would recommend using softer bananas like Cavendish, Pisang Raja, or Pisang Susu so that you can get a sweeter and fluffier cake which is creamy even without the help of frosting.

    Ingredients for the buttercream is 150 gr of margarine (I ran out of butter), 60 ml of raw honey, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. It was the buttercream recipe I used for the macaron filling. The original buttercream recipe called for 30 gr of powdered sugar, but I was not sure whether I can use the same amount of honey to fluff out the butter or not. So I doubled the measurement to 60 ml of honey. It tasted good and the margarine fluffs well. However, adding vanilla extract was too much. Also, the buttercream volume increases a lot after mixing, the frosting came out too much for the cakes. I would recommend only using 100 gr of butter/margarine, 60 ml of honey, and no vanilla extract (the cake will turn out fragrant enough from the vanilla extract in the batter). Replacing butter with margarine is okay as long as you use regular margarine and not the reduced-fat one.

    As for the date, I used Medjool Dates. Medjool Dates are larger, darker, and sweeter than other dates. In the preparation step, Mrs. Quinn told us to blend the dates with milk and vegetable oil. Her date blend looks looser than mine. Mine was just plopped into the bowl (lol) so I added 50 ml more milk to thin out the mixture.

    As for the vegetable oil, I was torn between using palm oil or olive oil. In the end, I used palm oil because I was afraid that the high temperature will break the olive oil. It works well. Next, let's go to the processing steps.

2. The Process

A. Preparation steps:

1. Soaking the dates
• Soak the dates (pits already removed) in 50 ml of hot water until soft
2. Blending the dates
• Put all of the dates, water to soak the dates with,  milk, and vegetable oil into a blender and blend until just combined. Set aside.
  
3. Mashing the bananas
• Into a large bowl, mash the bananas using a fork. It is okay to leave out some bits to get a chunky mixture. Set aside.
  
4. Grease the baking pan
• Spray on grease or coat the sides of the tin with a thin layer of softened butter. Set aside. 
  

For the preparation steps, it would be easier if you are using soft and mushy bananas. Unlike the Pisang Tanduk one. You can see me struggling to mash it with a fork using one hand (the other hand was holding the camera). 

If you are using small tins instead of one large baking tin, you can grease the tins in advance if you have the space to set the tins aside. Since I was short on storage space, I greased the tins after the batter is ready. 

B. Processing the Wets

1. Pour the date blend into the mashed bananas, stir until just combined,
2. Add in the vanilla extract, mix well,
3. Add in the apple cider vinegar, continue mixing until well-incorporated. Set aside.
   

C. Processing the Dry

1. Into a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until just combined. 
   

D. Processing the Batter

1. Add the dry ingredients mix into the wet ingredients, stir well until there is no flour pocket,
   
2. Pour the batter into the greased baking tin until half of the tin (the batter will rise during the baking process),
   
3. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 °C for 35-40 min.
   

I used 15 small tins to bake the cake. Because I want to give everyone the same amount of cake, I weighted the batter in each tin. Then I baked them for 35 minutes, but they didn't pass the toothpick test, so I rotated the tray and baked for 5 more minutes. Let them rest until completely room temperature before adding the frosting.

E. The Frosting (Optional)

1. In a medium bowl, add 100 gr of butter/margarine, cream using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment for approx. 30 seconds,
   
2. Add in the honey gradually while still creaming the margarine. Continue mixing until the color lightens and the mixture doubled in volume. Set aside.

After letting the cake cool down, add frosting on top of the cake. Do your fancy, if you want to use a piping bag, use a piping bag. I just scooped out the frosting and spread on the cake using a spoon. Finishes with sprinkles of crushed palm sugar on top. Do your own touch, add shaved dark chocolate instead or leave them without the frosting. Good luck <3

3. Additional Notes

1. The preparation step is important for every baking/cooking attempt. It embodies the mise en place where we should be putting ingredients and tools on stand-by.  
2. In every baking attempts, I always use a bigger bowl for the wet ingredients because, later on, the dry will be added into the wet. The bowl which you use to mix the dry ingredients will leave no traces after you pour it into the wet, that way, cleaning the dishes would be easier. Moreover, you don't have to worry about overflowing the batter even after the volume is doubled up after adding all the ingredients.
3. Always try to clean as you go. It is tough, especially if you don't have an adequate baking station like the ones you see on youtube and/or bakery where the fridge, sink, stove, counter, and oven all in a single room. But yes, we can still find things out. Plan your move first right after you learn the recipes so that you are working efficiently. We don't want to use a wet measuring spoon from the vanilla extract to scoop out the baking powder, but we also don't want to use too many spoons as it is going to add more dish to wash.
4. I wrapped the final result in plastic because I wanted to send them out to my family members.  The cakes were put in the fridge immediately after packed while waiting for the delivery service.  I left out a piece to keep in the fridge for 2 more days for me to test out the shelf life. The cake turned out fine after 2 days. though I wouldn't recommend leaving them any longer. For the frosted version, they are best consumed on the same day as the baking day after chilled in the fridge for 1 hour (or after the frosting slightly hardens). For the no-frosting version, you might want to consume them freshly baked.
5. Mrs. Carla mentioned this in her video: whether this dessert is a cake or a bread. IMO, this is a cake, since they came out from a batter and not a dough. How do you think? Let me know in the comment section below :)

Du Art | What to Paint or Draw During The Quarantine

Quarantined days during the Covid-19 pandemic surely make us wonder about what hobby we should try or revisit. some people learn knitting, sewing, gardening, cooking, you name it. It opens a side in ourselves that we didn't even realize having or has been forgotten for a long time. For me, it's my love of drawing and painting.

Did you ever remember having a faint memory about the joy inside your heart every time you are doodling in your school book?  Do you have pile of abandoned art supplies somewhere in your house that was once became your dearest possessions? Do you ever miss creating a painting or drawing for someone dear? 

When I was a kid, my dad was in his busiest working era. He barely stayed at home to the point that returning home became some kind of celebration for little me. One time, I was waiting for him to come home. He said that he will be home at 11 p.m, but the 8-year-old me was too sleepy and 9 p.m was my bedtime. So I grabbed crayons and an A4 80 GSM white HVS paper and drew for him. It was a drawing of me, my mom, my younger brother, and a random cat (despite us not having any cats at that time) in a party venue, welcoming him. I pasted that drawing on my parents' door and then went to sleep. I kept doing that for a while, my mom saved the first one for me. That drawing is now framed and hanged in my bedroom.

You might also have some kind of memory of your favorite moment related to drawing and/or painting. Can you please share your stories down below in the comment section? I would like to hear your stories. Whether you are starting out our revisiting old hobby, here are things you can paint/draw:

1. Flowers in Your Neighborhood (or Your Garden)

The physical distancing policy is still being implemented. Luckily, as a step to maintain our health, we still can (advised, actually) to go out and get some sun in the morning. We can still wear our mask and go for a short walk, jog, or even a bicycle ride (as long as you are riding your own bike and bringing your own water bottle). During the quick workout outing, look around and take some time to appreciate your surroundings. Your neighbor may have planted a new flower, the neighborhood park might have some new installations, etc. Take a picture and use the pic as a drawing reference. One thing to remember during the reference hunting process: try not to touch anything public or anyone

I found these flowers in a little green space of a church next to my house:

Spider lilies! This was painted after the "daisy" one. As you may see, I did not add any background to the painting and just let the flower to pop. However, I got curious and wanted to try other options to fill my background. I looked at the colour wheel theory and found out that purple compliments green. Thus, I put the blue first and then added a stream of red using the wet on wet techniques and let the two colours blend on the paper and not on the palette. But then I wanted to add a wash of yellow to represent the sunlight and ended up creating an overwhelming background. I got too adsorbed to the wet on wet techniques that the paper started buckling lol. The buckling is severe, that it is still visible even after the scanning process.

These daisies inspired me to try painting leaves and white flowers. I always have this impression that "white" in nature is not a pure FFFFFF white, but a combination of light-washed colours from the reflections of nearby colours. It was challenging to create the perfect colour combination to paint white flowers. Yes, I am aware of the awkward leaf veins and I am working on my lifting techniques to create smooth and realistic veins on leaves~

I used the 12 half-pans Koi Watercolors Pocket Field Sketch Box and mixed it with the Cotman Water Colours Field Box 12 Half-Pans on XL Aquarelle for those two pieces.

2. Fan Art

We tend to watch more things during the quarantine. I love watching Bon Appetit's Youtube Channel, I also love Christina and Delaney. When this video came out, I knew I want to make a fanart out of the scene in that video. The drawing was more of a challenge as I hardly draw human figures and clear bottles.

The proportions are messy and painting skin color is intimidating to me. Things I am satisfied with the painting were the "clear effect" of the soda bottle and those sandwiches. I drew that using Staedtler Luna Watercolour Pencils on Canson XL Aquarelle Cold Pressed Heavyweight Paper.

My other fanart is quite recent, after watching Goldson's video on oil pastel drawing, I actually wanted to try oil pastel again as an adult (Goldson is amazing! Check out her channel, she does a lot of oil pastel drawings and other media. Her videos are lovely, worth supporting for <3). So I drew Lee Youngja, a South Korean comedian. For the drawing, I was using Pentel Oil Pastels on Canson Aquarelle paper. Might want to try using the Mix Media instead,but for now I gotta work with what I have. As for Lee Youngja, I am a fan of her, but sadly I don't know how to show this drawing to her since I don't have social media (lol). I mailed her business e-mail but alas, I can't write Korean. Hoping for a miracle that someday she can see this fanart :')

3. Attempting to Recreate Other Artist's Piece and Try Their Techniques

Sometimes, when we are watching videos from artists, we feel inspired and intrigued by their techniques. I tried to use the Negative Painting technique to paint the leaves in my daisy painting. Makoccino introduced the technique to me through this video:

I also came across ANJA's video where she combined Bob Ross painting from his several videos into one painting to fill out her bedroom wall. The beach reminded me that I haven't painted a beach scene for a long time. Hence I browsed for the original tutorial and tried Bob Ross's Mountain by The Sea painting.


The thing is, I don't own any acrylic/gouache paints. Therefore, I tweaked things up and try to recreate the painting using my Watercolour Pencils. We can layer lighter colours on the darker ones with acrylic and gouache paints, but not with watercolour paints. I don't have any white pen or any white-out, it was fun trying not to forget the whites.

I might consider buying some white pens. 

Update!!! After getting so inspired to draw with oil pastels, I bought Pentel Oil Pastel in 49 colors, some paper stumps, and a correction fluid/ whiteout. Most artists are using Posca Markers to add highlights to their oil pastel drawings, but I went on a budget so I bought correction fluid instead, with half the price. It works just fine for me. With the new media and tools, I tried new techniques on highlighting and creating droplet effects, yay!

On the top is Moon Drops (my fav grape variety) with dripping rainwater and below that is Tokyo Tower seen from a window after rain. I think the water is too viscous in the Moon Drops drawing since I ran out of black marker so I used black oil pastel instead and the droplets in the window one is not quite satisfactory. Guess I have to buy some black markers and try a bunch of water droplets drawing, lol.

On the top is a painting using watercolor, but with the additional whiteout highlighting. On the bottom is a drawing from my recent trip going back to the city from my hometown. It was 4.50 p.m, the sky was still light blue and on the left side of the road, the sun is still up, shining brightly. However, on the other side of the road, the moon had already up too, almost in the same height as the sun. Also on the right side of the road, 2 kids (or people) were playing kite. I tried to capture that moment and though wasn't satisfied yet with my oil pastel work, I am content with the captured moment.

We are in this together. Let's hope that we can soon be out and about, looking for painting inspirations, doing a live painting in public, or even buying new art supplies without worrying about over sanitizing the products that we bought. 

Good luck.

Du Art | 2020 So Far

It is 2020, 2 years after my last blog post. In the past 2 years, I graduated from college, got a degree in Urban and Regional Planning, met new people, started to earn money on my own. There were a lot of things and blessings to be grateful for. I've been waiting for 2020 to come with much anticipation filled with joy and gratitude. We are now almost 4 months in and, sure enough, it's been tough for everyone.

The Covid-2019, a disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has been getting everyone busy. Medical staffs fighting as an Avant grade, battling against aggressive viruses with thousand of hundreds of patients, sleepless nights, prayers, and donations. In Indonesia, as I'm writing this content, there are 4489 tested and confirmed cases nationwide, 1046 of which are positive.

People are advised to stay at home. Tourist attractions are closed, people are working at home, attending online classes, homework-based learning, online shopping, and many other things we do to avoid physical contact. At first, we called it "Social Distancing" which, apparently, stresses people out. Even introverts found out that humans are social beings, after all, we need to interact. I have to agree with WHO to change the "Social Distancing" term to "Physical Distancing", we are not disconnecting social interaction with people around us, only not being present physically. My deepest condolences to everyone who lives alone and couldn't be at the same house with loved ones, in this situation, going back to our hometown is not a choice as we might carry the viruses without showing any symptoms and at risk of infecting other people. Even though we got distanced, we are still connected to each other, I'm sure we will get through this soon. People in the essential sectors are working hard to keep the nation going.

Please reach out and get professional help if this situation triggers negative thoughts. Only check the latest news when we are ready to read and hear everything that might appear on our screen. Checking the news knowing that the condition is still chaotic will put more stress, fear, and hopelessness, especially when we know that we can't do anything at the moment. Sometimes we need to let the universe do the work for us. As we don't have to worry about transportation costs and time for a while, besides the work we have to finish per usual, try another activity we couldn't do before. Learn new languages, re-visit old hobby, talk to people we haven't talked for a long time. Anything that sparks joy and brings wellness to beat negativity.

I choose painting to keep me light-hearted. I might post updates on my new paintings and hope to get constructive feedback, also, I would love to find painting buddies~ I am not an established artist (yet), I am surely lacking in many aspects. If you are an art teacher, feel free to use my paintings as bad examples. These paintings also have been digitally retouched, I printed them out so that I don't have to hang the original piece on the wall, but the printer wouldn't print them out in the same tone as the original pieces. Drop a comment down below if you want to see the untouched pieces or the story behind these paintings. Good luck~