Brush Embroidery and The Queen of Macaron

Besides the sugarpaste and flower gumpaste, one of the things that a fondant cake decorator has to familiarize himself with is the royal icing. While at first I was merely aware of royal icing conventional piping, as I get to learn more about fondant decorating, I find out there are so much more I can fiddle with such as broderie anglaise, lacing, filigree, extension work, embroidery, etc. So many things to learn ... so little time.



Brush embroidery is the decorating technique which involves imprinting, outlining and brushing. The decorator usually imprints a pattern on the cake, then outlines the design following the imprint by piping the royal icing starting from the deepest or most internal layer. A damp paintbrush is then used to pull the edges of the outline piping inward leaving brush strokes pattern. The whole process is time consuming especially if the design is elaborate and extensive, but normally the end result is worth the effort as brush embroidery gives an elegant look to the cake.



As I was practicing Brush Embroidery, meanwhile at the other side of the world the Queen of Macaron, Thip of the inspiring Bonbini informed me that she would be visiting Bangkok. It was totally delightful to receive her email a few weeks ago and arranged an appointment to meet up one of these days.



My respect and admiration for her were earlier established in her very first year of blogging when she introduced her irresistible range of macarons and exquisite pastry. It was intoxicating, I should admit that I had entirely dedicated my time in baking macarons through and through. Into these days, while any presence of macaron is in my sight, I would instantly think about Thip.



It was mainly her that shed the lights into exotic, adventurous, and sophisticated desserts such as basil-lime sorbet with basil gelee, coconut vanilla bavarois with hibiscus gelee, and many more…. And not to mention her fabulous feuille d' automne. Sensational… Do check out her blog, Bonbini :-)

I am sure meeting up with Thip would be pleasant and exciting…. So look forward to it!

Daring Bakers' Maple Mousse in Edible Container

I just had to jump into the wagon. Due to my overly focus on fondant practice I had entirely forgot last month’s Daring Bakers Challenge. I almost couldn’t believe myself for such ignorance, but then I had promised myself I would definitely keep track of the next one. So here it is.

Never thought this was going to be an interesting discovery of great taste. In the beginning I was setting my expectation quite low on the outcome of this challenge judging from my rejection over bacon cups, one of the challenge mandatory items. But when it was revealed that the compulsory challenges were the maple mousse and a creative edible container, I was glad I could skip the bacon cups altogether.



I was looking into the nut bowls. My liking for almonds led me into the decision to develop almond bowls. It was pretty much the same as making the tart cups, just that it was mostly consisting of almonds. I had to say I couldn’t wait to taste the baked almond bowls since the baked almond fragrance overwhelmed my kitchen and quickly turned my curious taste buds on.

The almond bowls were heavenly. And so was the maple mousse. It was sweet, thick, and smooth. They were such a good couple as soon as I added peach slices. Somehow a slight tanginess was all that it needed to break the dominating sweetness of maple mousse. As an overall, the taste was a true marriage of sweetness, nuttiness, and slight tanginess.



Thanks to Evelyne for this wonderful challenge! Without her I wouldn’t have found the wonders of maple mousse and almond bowls. The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!