Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Chiffon Cake Madness

mini chiffon cake slice
Orange Chiffon Cake Slice

successful chiffon cake
so. i wanted to fiddle around a little more with baking ADC. regular readers probably know i am a little more than fixated on trying to achieve this, and as with all my experiments, i will not be giving out the formula as i am tweaking it. i can tolerate my own failures, but refuse to be held responsible for others' XD XD XD

also, the basic idea was generously provided by Tomohachi, who is always inspirational and creative with her works. (check out her blog, she's got updates! ^ ^ )

you can find my post introducing her, and her technique, here:
http://snowfern.com/2009/10/introducing-la-cocina-alegre-by.html

all i am doing is tweaking it such that i can use my oven instead of a microwave. i have also a previous post about the technique here:

http://snowfern.com/2010/02/biscotti-wish-i-had-coffee.html


so ya. don't ask me anymore about it. XD remember, experiments leave me in a right grumpy mood. ALL THAT WASTED CLAY!!!!

Yotsuba wants it all
which is why i'm immensely pleased with this. the texture needs a little more tweaking, maybe more baking soda? i'm always a little hesitant to pump up the volume of the soda, but it's time to be braver XD

Itadakimasu
ITADAKIMASU! Yotsuba having a tea break with a glass of milo! XD

bread halved
and while i was at it, i decided to bake up a lump of spare ADC. decided to tear this apart instead of the usual slicing, just to see how it'd look. i also deliberately charred the base a little, as you can see from the inverted half on the right. i think it lends a little more to the realism of it all.

chiffon cake part 2chiffon cake part 2
bolstered by the earlier success, i tried again, but this time wasn't that successful :( but i'm still rather happy in that, it looks more like it was cut with a blunt knife XD or it could double as an angel food cake. really fuwa-fuwa (light and fluffy?)! bf said at first glance he thought it was a real one, and that made me really really pleased cos he's usually all "can't really see ley" when i show him my works. =3=
pandan chiffon cake 2
Grandma returned with a pandan chiffon cake after i made the orange one in the typical chiffon cake-type pan shape. so i decided to try another big-small attempt at it....

pandan chiffon cake
again, the bubbles weren't very co-operative. BUT! i really really love this result still! is it wrong to be this pleased with ones' own works? zomgzorz humble i am not zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz -_-" but but, i am really happy with it!!!!

after SOOO many failures, i am finally getting a rhythm going. and understanding better the process of baking ADC. so yeah i think i am -ok- with being this pleased LOL at least the clay graveyard isn't growing as fast as it used to.

tea break for yotsuba
also, here's Yotsuba again, taking a break from her abacus practice. a chance for me to show off some of my fellow TeamMIDS members' works!


table by the talented Ray, http://www.etsy.com/shop/minibuilder
cushions by the always lovely Dale, http://www.etsy.com/shop/dalesdreams
handpuppet by the irreverent and totally hilarious Becky, http://www.etsy.com/shop/beckynot

rest of the props are re-ment, yea the items are mostly 1:6 but since Yotsuba has large hands for a 1:12 girl (she's a tall 7 y/o i keep telling myself XD ) ((ok, so she's more of a 1:10 scale but whatever)), i think they fit her pretty ok. at least everything looks pretty to-scale to me.

oh, and the background is made by me too! ^ ^ i used mounting board, scrapbook papers, decorative wood edgings, lots of glue and quite a bit of messy painting. i need to make some curtains, or windows, or both, but my attempts at soldering have failed yet again (but i'm improving, slowly) so i guess i'll have to try again another day.

back wall
it's a reversible display :) slot it in facing the other way, and you see this! remember the texture paste experiment?

http://snowfern.com/2009/10/experiment-air-dry-clay-texture-paste.html

(oh crud i just realised in searching for the post that if you click on the "experiment" tag it doesn't show ALL of my experiments argh. need to fiddle a little more with the tags and settings grr. anyway i'll have to remember to transfer the DNS to point to blogger, FTP service will be discontinued in may :( )

ANYWAY, so i have this whole tub that i refuse to use anymore for meringues. it has served its purpose for experiments. so what do i do with it????

it becomes spackle. LOL. well it's not exactly a 'hole in the wall' but it served its purpose. gave it a wash of white cadmium paint....the mosaic tiles i really liked too. i think i will feature it a little more in my future works :)

wow. long post. so there you have it, my latest experiments and works. drop me a comment! tell me what you think, and suggestions on how to dress up my window or lack thereof :( i would really appreciate some ideas, i'm feeling like i'm running dry.....phew.....

7 comments:

  1. Again... I felt excited as if I experienced the process of chiffon cake myself.
    You are really incredible!
    The result is.... natural and perfect I might say.


    For curtains, or windows, I'd suggest both. They will make your display look vivacious.

    Thanks for the sharing.

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  2. thank you Oiseau! yea i will have to install the windows...maybe later....haven't decided what type of windows either :(

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  3. Cindy, the cake looks delicious and so real! :) Excellent!!

    Thanks for the mention of my pillows and compliment. :)

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  4. Hey Cindy!
    Awesome cakes and walls you've made! Addition of curtains and windows will be great!

    Cheers,
    Shannie =)

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  5. Heyhey! I saw this on my friend's blog XD http://denaliwind.livejournal.com/109306.html

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  6. Dale, your work is absolutely deserving of all the compliments! *nods head firmly* :P

    thanks Shannie, yea i'm thinking of both too, just need to find some suitable designs/materials i like...which is the 'troublesome' part of the project ahaha i like too many things!

    Thanks Chun for the link! hee hee i didn't know she was your friend too :O what a small world!

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  7. just a thought about bubbles: lately I've been using lots of bicarbonate in my full size, "eatable" cakes in place of baking powder. To make it work, in full size I mean, you have to add some acidic ingredient to start off the rising reaction - say, some vinegar or buttemilk (who could ever know I would learn some chemistry from baking sweet stuff?). So: could this be used in miniature as well? Does your modified recipe still ask for some drops of water? Maybe it would be worth trying to swap water for vinegar...
    thanks so much for sharing your efforts!

    (it's not that I don't trust myself enough to have a try myself... it's just that I am (or should be) in making-stock-for-fair mode and have no time for experiments :)

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Thank you for taking the time out to comment! :D