Alice in Wonderland Cake

It's my daughter's turn to bring a cake to Church for Youth Fellowship for the month.  I decided to make an Alice in Wonderland's cake after watching Tim Burton's 3D movie.  Don't ask me why, but i just love the story of Alice in Wonderland since young.  

Thanks to a very generous flickr-friend Taya @deliciouslydecadent for her topsy turvy cake tutorial that i finally plucked the courage to do this. However, i did a lousy job! LOL! I cut the cake the wrong way, ie, i cut it in the opposite way (instead of a pyramid, i did a cone..) and i realised my mistake a bit too late. And to salvage it, i did everything the wrong way to get it right. LOL! Then i  place the top tier a bit off the centre... er....yup..i don't know what's wrong with me..i don't see it until i get everything done and then noticed it is off the centre. But I'm quite happy with my 'un-planned' last minute design and my inspiration is from other flickr members - Genevieve @forloveofcake and Rebecca @sweetcakesbyrebecca.  Needless to say, of course their design is 1000x better than mine. :))

The problem with me is i don't know how to plan & design a cake. This cake design just came up as I went along.. I asked my daughter who is into design (she plans to study it as she enters into university this year) to help me think of something and she fell asleep while thinking - so much for counting on her!?!?  I actually had some ideas in my mind but as i was doing it, i completely forgotten and colored the top tier fondant in the wrong color. So i had to just add whatever i thought of as i went along.   Also i spelt the Happy "UN-Birthday" wrongly...and NOBODY at home noticed it.. aargghh.. until when the cake was about to be cut..someone then noticed it!  

Here's the left over cake.  Coffee cake with coffee buttercream & white chocolate coffee ganache.  A lot of caffeine in the cake. I think you don't have to drink coffee after eating a slice of this! LOL!   

[MacTweets/ma5] Spring Fling: Yuzu RedBean Macarons

Yuzu Macarons Shells with RedBean centre & Yuzu/Lime Buttercream.

I had a hard time coming up with flavors for Spring since I live here in the tropics where it is Summer all year round and right now we are experiencing the hottest period ever!  All i can think of is ice-cream, ice-water, ice-kachang (local dessert made of ice!)..

I finally thought of Yuzu flavored macarons since i just bought a bottle of yuzu paste. It smells very much like tangerine/mandarin oranges..and i like anything orange. :)   I paired the Yuzu macaron shells with redbean centre & yuzu/lime buttercream.  

This time I wanted to try a different macaron recipe so i settled on Veron's @ Kitchenmusing.com  italian meringue recipe. You can find her recipe here.  She's a very talented lady and she uses the original recipe by Pierre Hermes having been to his macaron classes.   The recipe isn't too difficult and her instructions are pretty clear.  However, i had a hard time folding in the egg white. For this method, I find I needed a lot of strength to fold and  macaronnage which i find quite tiring!  

<Note>: I realised that the macarons from this recipe is more chewy with better texture and even though the recipe seems to have a lot more sugar, it doesn't taste any sweeter than the other macaron recipes i've tried before. Recipe definitely a keeper despite the fact that i have difficulty folding in the meringue. LOL! 

Please do check out other bloggers' macarons & flavors listed on http://mactweets.blogspot.com!