Red Wine Velvet Cake with Whipped Mascarpone Filling.

Red velvet cake has long been a favourite of mine.

However I've always disliked how I had to put in tons of artificial coloring to get it to look really red because once you add in chocolate powder, it just looks like chocolate cake.

When I saw this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, I just had to try it. I hate red wine, I would never drink it but I have an abundance supply of red wine which were all gifts over the years. This recipe would allow me to bake something I disliked into something I loved.

The cake turned out moist, with the light fragrance from the wine and a faint hint of cinnamon. The mascarpone filling was perfect as it was sweet and light.

This is the perfect birthday cake for adults.

Cinnamon Sugar Mini Doughnut Muffins.

I do not understand this whole cronut frenzy.

Da Paolo is the only place in Singapore where I can get a pastry that is the closest to a cronut, here they call it the crodo (same thing!). I finally got my hands on one on Sunday morning. Paying $5 was definitely too much for a pastry, and I felt that the whole combination was too sweet and just too much for me.

I may not be trying the original, best one from New York, but from the looks and sounds of it, it can't be that different right?

I like making my own version of pastry/cakes I have tried so that I can do it my way and tune in to my tastes. I'm not a fan of doughnuts because I think they are just round pieces of fried dough... so I decided to make the next best thing - mini doughnut muffins.

They were bite sized, moist and soft with just the right amount of sweetness. Did I mention that it only takes 30 minutes to make this? With that one bite from a cronut, I could probably pop 5 of these in my mouth with the same amount of calories!

No Bake Lemon Meringue Pie.

 

A few weeks ago I was really disappointed because I couldn't produce those beautifully caramelised meringue swirls on top of my lemon tart. This week I tried a simpler lemon tart recipe because I just wanted finish off the tart quickly to focus on the meringue because I finally bought a can of gas for my blow torch.

I must say that even though the blow torch looks extremely intimidating, I'm absolutely in love with it. Granted, I do still have lots of practice to do to get that perfect golden color swirls but I'm happy with my first try, although I'm terrified of the extremely strong flame from it.

This was a no bake tart recipe and it turned out surprisingly well. It had the perfect lemony taste which was offset by the sweetness of the meringue and the buttery graham base although it looked like a dessert which required a lot of effort. 

This would definitely be a great dessert to impress your guests with if you need a last minute dessert for any party!

Orange vanilla cake with greek yogurt & mandarin orange filling.

This past week have mostly been hazy. Singapore has been engulfed in haze and it does look like we are living in a constant smokey barbecue. I'm more than happy to spend all of my time outside of work, hiding at home away from the haze to catch up on my tv shows, books and to look up new recipes to try in the next few weekends.

Last weekend, I had a request to bake a simple cake. The first thing that come to my mind was my favourite sponge cake recipe. I could eat half of this without getting sick because it's so light as it's made without butter or oil. 

I also love how versatile it is because you can throw it any additional ingredients/fillings/toppings you want and it would be something totally different each time. I used this same cake recipe to make a fancier strawberry charlotte a few weeks back.