ABC Cooking Studio Singapore – Part 17

I did lots of classes in the month of July and August because there was a Reward Card promotion whereby attending 6 regular lessons entitles us to one free service ticket for any class of our choice. So here we go!

Hungry Bird rating

– Must learn! Recipe really good/ useful to recreate often
– Good, met expectations
– Ok… optional to learn
– Lower standard in taste than expected / looks better than it tastes/ not as good as store bought versions
– Waste of time

July Cake Basic – Premium Roll Cake

This is a roll cake using génoise sponge and filled with yogurt cream, canned peaches and mangoes. The flavour theme was summery as peach is a summer seasonal fruit in Japan.

This type of cake actually creates a lot of crumbs and may not be the most ideal for rolling, compared to soufflé dough or chiffon roll cake methods. The flavour was more or less predictable and was pleasant if you like mango and peach. The highlight of the recipe is probably on how to frost the roll cake to be perfectly smooth! The technique involved was something different from other cakes.

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

July Cake Basic – Cassis Fromage

This is a non-baked class with no baking involved. It is more about learning to prepare mousse and assembling the cake. The inner layer is a plain rare cheesecake which we would make first and freeze solid before assembling on a pre-baked chocolate sponge cake. The mould is then filled with cassis-raspberry mousse and finally topped with cassis gélée, before finishing with gold spray, Chantilly cream and berries.

It’s a berrylicious cake indeed with sour flavour profile. The rare cheesecake doesn’t come off obviously as a cheesecake but it helps to balance the sour flavour from the cassis mousse with a bit of sweetness.

Hungry Bird rating: 3.5/5

July Cake Basic – Petit Gateau Framboise

This is cute a petit 2-tier cake with raspberry frosting and I can see why it is 3 star in difficulty because working on a tiny cake like this is not easy! I’ve seen many examples of this cake looking not so beautiful and that was the reason why I wasn’t interested to attend this class initially.

However, I’m glad I attended because I ended up loving this cake! The petit size is exactly what makes it cute and special. The taste was predictable but was actually more pleasant than I imagined, being very moist inside.

This is definitely one of the prettiest cakes in Cake Basic, provided you make the effort to do it patiently and properly! It is not one of those which would easily looks nice and usually everyone ends up with very a different looking cake.

The learning point for this class is more about honing frosting skills rather than learning new techniques for baking, and I would think this cake also isn’t a practical one which you’d make at home often. So I’d say it’s nice to learn if you want to make something cute but practicality wise it’s not the best choice.

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

August Cake Basic – Mousse au Chocolat

These entremets are no doubt beautiful and exquisite looking but actually isn’t as difficult as it looks. The sponge base was provided and in this class we only worked on making the chocolate mousse, raspberry gélée filling and chocolate glaçage. Assembling it up wasn’t difficult but the correct tools and equipment (namely the silicone hemisphere mould and preferably a blast freezer) is required to make this work. The surface was nice and shiny due to the chocolate glaçage (mirror glaze) coating but what I did not like was that this coating does not set and remains tacky, making it kinda messy to handle even after taking it home.

Hungry Bird rating: 3.5/5

August Cake Basic – Japanese Cheesetart

I love how smooth, shiny and vibrant these cheesetarts looks! I’ve always been a fan of Japanese cheesetart and my expectations of cheesetarts were like those from (now defunct in Singapore) Bake Cheesetarts or So Good Bakery where the cheesetarts are best consumed when freshly baked or warm, where the filling is mousse like, airy, and jiggly. When chilled, those cheesetarts did not have the airy texture and was more like a regular cheesecake, hence I never preferred to have them cold.

However, ABC’s cheesetarts did not have the same kind of texture and taste that I was expecting. When I consumed them warm the tart crust was slightly crispy and nice but the cheese filling was way too heavy, rich and dense. I was quite sicking to eat more than one piece and these tarts were big, like 8cm big! I thought it was a case of disappointing recipe because I thought having them warm was the way to best consume cheesetarts and that’s the best it would be. It didn’t help that within a few hours (leaving at room temperature), the tart crust entirely softened, much like what you’d get from egg tarts (think Bengawan Solo type). I popped the rest in the fridge thinking it was going to be worse the next day.

But to my surprise, these ABC Cooking Cheesetarts were MUCH NICER eaten chilled! The cheese filling (which was custard based) was still custardy and creamy instead of turning solid like cheesecake, and the rich taste was less sickening when it was cold. The crust was entirely soft but it was actually still nice if you expect and can accept tart crusts which are soft like egg tarts. In fact, the recipe method and ingredients for the crust is very similar to Hong Kong style egg tarts, so I guess it was never intended to be crispy!

Overall I think this recipe of Japanese Cheesetart was not meant to be like the cheesetarts from Bake Cheesetarts where it should be eaten warm. This one was more like Pablo Cheesetart were it is dense and rich and is nicer eaten cold. If you have the right expectations and eat the tarts in the right condition, this cheesetarts are actually pretty good!

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

August Cake Master – Tropical Mango and Passionfruit Mousse

Another summer themed cake for the month of August, this is a light and refreshing mango and passionfruit egg white mousse cake with mango gélée and génoise sponge, topped with summery fruits and isomalt sugar decoration.

Prior to attending the class, I was always intrigued by this cake as I never understood how the lines on the cake sponge was made. Turns out it was by making chocolate pâte a cigarette batter and using a pastry tool to scrape out the pattern. It was an interesting technique indeed that I’ve never seen before!

The mousse itself was light, refreshing and delicious. The striped sponge not only makes it look interesting, but the chocolate lines does give nice flavour too, which provides contrasting flavours of bittersweet chocolate and tangy fruits in every bite. Mango and chocolate is indeed a great combination! I also liked the technique of pouring the mango gélée which is different from the other classes. It gives a super glossy result which is so beautiful!

Hungry Bird rating: 5/5

July Bread Basic – Chocolate Cassis

This is a boule type bread that was shaped in a banneton. It has fillings of chocolate chips and dried cassis in the cocoa dough – which interestingly has no oil or butter! Despite it being rich with chocolate, it is a lean dough. Perhaps the natural oil from cocoa powder and chocolate chips contributed some oil content to make this bread possible.

The texture was a very unique one, with it tasting more like a dense cake than bread. It’s nice when toasted before eating because the outer crust would crisp up a bit!

Hungry Bird rating: 4.5/5

August Bread Basic – Blueberry Dome

Another boule type bread, similarly shaped in the banneton like Chocolat Cassis. This one was kneaded with blueberry jam and had fillings of dried blueberries.

The dough had a nice purple hue due to the blueberry jam kneaded into the dough. I felt this bread was quite boring because the flavour is whatever you imagine it to be, tasting like regular dried fruit bread. I do like plain bread but this was actually not as nice as plain breads because it somehow lacked the natural bread aroma that plain loaves have! This is probably due to blueberry flavour masking the bread aroma. At the same time, it wasn’t very sweet so the whole bread as quite bland without bread aroma and wasn’t very nice eaten on it’s own. However, I found that it is one of those breads suitable to be toasted and eaten with butter! It is nicer when the crust gets crispy and butter gives a rich aroma.

Hungry Bird rating: 3/5

August Bread Basic – Duo Twist Pizza

One of the most popular breads in the Bread Basic selection, this Duo Twist Pizza did not disappoint! Not only does it look so cute with the shape of a golden sun, the taste was on point as well being packed with umami from the pizza sauce and broccoli pesto.

The shaping can be tricky and it is not one of those which can easily be replicated – most people’s product looks distinguishable from one another unlike some other breads which are easier to shape. But appearance aside, the flavour from this pizza is so delicious that I wouldn’t even want to change anything. In fact I’ve already made this pizza at home, twice!

Hungry Bird rating: 5/5

August Bread Basic – Honey Fig

I never thought this would be a bread I would like because it sounded like a fruity bread, but I was so wrong! This bread has figs kneaded into the honey and rye dough and a surprise center of cream cheese. The unique shaping was supposed to resemble the shape of a fig!

I ended up liking it a lot more than I expected to, due to the crispy outer texture which is something different from most of the other basic breads at ABC Cooking. At first I was worried because some examples I’ve seen of others doing this bread looked weird and more like other shapes rather than the shape of a fig. The shaping was actually easy to do, but you need to know what shape the intended outcome is supposed to look like beforehand or else it may end up looking like feet or paws instead of a fig. I’m pleased with how mine turned out and I would say the proportions of the shape as well as knowing where to cut the slits is important!

Hungry Bird rating: 4.5/5

July Bread Master – Dutch Bread

Bread Master course at ABC will be renewed coming January and was the last chance to learn this Dutch bread. Also known as Tiger Bread, this bread has a unique mottled crust that makes the surface very crispy. This is made by applying a rice flour paste on top before baking! Typically this bread is plain inside and sometimes eaten as a sandwich but the version at ABC has cheese and fried shallots within the bread, which makes it also nice eaten alone as a bun. The bread was packed with savoury flavour and the crunchy texture within every bite was so interesting. I kept the excess in freezer and even after thawing and heating it up again, the mottled crust retains the crispy hard texture!

Hungry Bird rating: 5/5

July Bread Riche – Cinnamon Roll

I thought this bread looked very simple but I decided to attend this because I noticed that this recipe was kept on the menu even after many years and many rounds of Riche course renewal in ABC Japan! That must be an indication that this is a good recipe. Indeed, I was not disappointed. The bread was super soft and the cinnamon filling which has butter and sugar was so sinfully fragrant and delicious. The toppings of royal icing and toasted almonds looked basic but somehow it enhanced the taste of the whole bread. The contrast of crunchy almonds and soft fluffy bread was something ingenious that I never knew I needed in my life! This bread is also quite easy to recreate without the need for any fancy tools or ingredients so I’d say it is a practical and delicious choice of recipe.

Hungry Bird rating: 5/5

July Bread Riche – Foccacia

Again, I chose to take this class because this recipe was kept on the menu even after many years and many rounds of Riche course renewal in ABC Japan as well. Otherwise I would probably not choose this because foccacia seems like a easy recipe. But I was glad I went with it because this version is different from typical recipes by including mashed potato flakes and fried shallot in the dough! It was finished with generous amount of olive oil and some fleur de sel. The outcome was a very delicious savoury bread that I would love to eat again. I dipped the bread in olive oil when eating and it was so good!

Hungry Bird rating: 5/5

Bread Riche – Streuselkuchen (Dark Cherry Streusel)

Streuselkuchen is a German style bread also known as crumb cake. This was also never a recipe I was super keen on learning when I first saw it on the menu but I decided to try because again, this recipe was one of those kept on the menu even after many years and many rounds of Riche course renewal in ABC Japan! This version comes with a filling of dark cherry cream cheese spread before topping on the streusel to bake.

The bread itself was super soft and tricky to handle with the addition of condensed milk, but that is probably what makes the bread portion so soft and fragrant. The cherry cream cheese layer was not obvious but serves to enhance the taste subtly. The streusel topping was truly the star if this recipe. It is better than the streusel bread from Basic course for sure!

Hungry Bird rating: 5/5

July Japanese Home Cooking – Tempura

I was super looking forward to attending this class when the studio finally resumed cooking classes in July, because Tempura is the last recipe among the 12 Japanese Home Cooking course lessons for me! I actually recreated the 11 other recipes at home during the stay home period from March to June and I just needed this one to make my set complete. I was super relieved that ABC could open in July!

There are many types of tempura out there, ranging from cheap ones to super high end ones like Tempura Kondo. The ubiquitous cheap type that is commonly found for low prices in Singapore usually has a thick batter which is fried till golden brown and stays somewhat still hard even after a while. But after exposing my horizons to fine tempura dining in Japan, I got to know that batter is should look fair, thin and barely there. It is usually served in counter seating arrangement where the chef would dish it out to diners piece by piece. It took a lot of skill and experience to know exactly how long to cook each piece and it was just super good.

For this one at ABC, the style is more similar to the authentic type in Japan than Ten-don or Udon-ya grade of thick batter tempura. We also learnt to lower the ingredients down into the oil with our fingers and this was a very scary cooking experience indeed. Even though I don’t think I have the courage to do this on my own just yet, I am glad that they taught us nothing less than the real deal! The trick to making think crispy tempura batter was to use cold batter – something I never knew! Even when it was not crispy anymore (after all my photo taking), each piece was still really tasty and I enjoyed this more than most other tempura I’ve had in Singapore. In fact, it got me craving for tempura in the weeks to follow but I’ve yet to find a satisfactory one.

The other star of this meal would be the stewed pumpkin with minced meat. I’ve never really cooked pumpkin before and was not really a fan but this pumpkin was full of umami flavour due to the condiments used and I really like it.

We also blended our own mentsu-yu and grated radish to dip the tempura in. The meal was served with Japanese rice, clear dashi soup with kamaboko and sliced apples.

Hungry Bird rating: 4.5/5

April Best Selection Cooking – Tasty Low-Carb Meal

I’m glad that this lesson from April that was cancelled due to studio closure was brought back in July. I kind of regretted not attending it back in April as this looked like a meal I could cook at home so I was pleased that I had the chance to attend it in July!

Cajun chicken and turmeric cauliflower rice with nuts
Mushrooms and zucchini sauteed with anchovies
Power salad with soy milk dressing
Avocado mousse with raspberry sauce

The cajun chicken was the highlight of the meal and was what I was most interested in learning. We learnt how to prepare the bone-in chicken leg before marination and it was oven baked before pan searing to finish. The final taste was flavourful and did not disappoint! It is definitely something practical to cook at home. The turmeric cauliflower rice with mixed nuts was complemented the chicken main course well.

The salad had toppings of avocado, tomato, oven baked aburaage (to replace croutons) and mixed seaweed. It was meant to be a low-carb salad. While it wasn’t the tastiest salad, it was still palatable and something I don’t mind eating. I think air frying the aburaage would be even better to crisp it up.

The side dish of mixed mushrooms and zucchini sauteed with anchovy was also full of savoury flavour and nice. Prior to learning cooking at ABC, I used anchovies in my cooking but now I know how useful it is to impart delicious flavour to anything!

The dessert was mousse of avocado blended with komatsuna (Japanese choy sum), honey and raspberry for topping. The flavour profile was sharp and green, like what you’d expect from green veggie smoothies, and isn’t exactly pleasant as a dessert upon the first taste but it gets better as you go along.

Hungry Bird rating: 4.5/5

April Whole Meal Cooking – Relieve Swelling with an Anti-Inflammatory Meal

This meal was also meant to be offered in April and was brought back in July. It was meant to have the objective of being anti-inflammatory.

Pork Cutlet Mille Feuille with Sesame Miso Sauce & Japanese Lemon Vinegar
Amaranth Rice
Octopus Salad
Japanese Taro Potage with Amaranth
Black Sesame Banana Pudding

The soup was Japanese Taro Potage with toasted Amaranth and this is actually a milk based soup. It is an unfamiliar taste to me and I am not a fan.

The mizuna salad with octopus is nothing really special but pleasant to me. I am now a fan of mizuna after having it multiple times at ABC.

The star of the meal is definitely the Pork Cutlet Mille Feuille. It was pork shoulder slices rolled with thinly sliced potato and zucchini, coated with tempura flour batter and panko. Instead of deep frying, it was oven baked by coating generously with cooking spray and baking at high temperature. This might also be possible to create with air frying and it inspired me to try air frying other tempura battered and breaded items coated with cooking spray. Even though it was not deep fried, the pork cutlet mille feuille was adequately crispy and was really nice! The portion could be bigger though.

The dessert was a banana milk pudding with sesame sauce on top. It wasn’t really anything special.

Hungry Bird rating: 3/5

July Whole Meal Cooking – Combat Summer Fatigue with a Seafood Meal

A meal for food suitable to be eaten during summer! A lot of elements in this meal was cooling and some dishes were even served cold.

Fried Swordfish and Squid with Lemon & Salted Rice Malt Sauce
Okra with Linseed Plum Dressing
Seaweed Salad
Hearty Cold Miso Soup with Aromatic Vegetables
Mango Cheese Cake

The side salad had canned tuna, corn, edamame and hijiki on a bed of mizuna, which was interesting because I always wondered how hijiki was cooked whenever I get it as my appetizer in restaurants.

The okra was simply boiled but the combination of cold okra and plum was actually very nice and refreshing!

The main course was shallow fried swordfish, squid and vegetables. I’ve never cooked swordfish before so this is quite new to me. Shallow frying was actually quite scary as oil will splatter everywhere. The process was quite daunting and I doubt I would want to shallow fry at home even though this main course was quite tasty and I enjoyed eating everything! The coating sauce was lemon based and it gave everything a refreshing sour flavour. The process actually reminded me of the Best Selection recipe of the same month where they make an all purpose ginger sauce to coat on shallow fried chicken and vegetables, but comparing the two I would prefer this recipe because I am no fan of ginger.

One thing really weird about this recipe is that they include Xndo rice mixed into Japanese rice. The Xndo rice is highly processed and requires no cooking at all – it was eaten straight out of the packet without even heating up! It was apparently made of konnyaku and is processed to resemble rice grains, you can barely tell them apart. I am not too sure why this is necessary and would be happy to eat real Japanese rice instead.

The soup was served cold and it was my first time having cold miso soup. I wouldn’t say I am a fan, but I also don’t mind having it.

The dessert of mango cheesecake was pretty basic of just cheesecake with some mango in it. Nothing fancy but matches the summer theme.

Overall I did enjoy this meal because the main dish was really tasty and the side dishes were quite nice too, despite them being dishes I’ve never really tried before. But practically speaking, I doubt I would cook any of these at home.

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

Trial Lessons

July Seasonal Trial – Who Burnt My Cheese (Matcha)

The seasonal trial of March was extended to April with 3 new flavours on top of the original one. This was extended to July because of the 2 months closure of the studio and when I got to attend this trial a second time, I decided to go for matcha flavour! I also wanted to experience how it is like when still lava like, so I cut it before it was fully chilled. The matcha flavour actually matched quite well with the cream cheese but I think I prefer the cake a little firmer. Lesson learnt was to only cut the Burnt Cheesecake after it is fully chilled!

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

July Seasonal Trial – Who Burnt My Cheese (Mocha)

I got to attend this class for a third time and I decided to try mocha flavour, which was raved by some of the instructors! Indeed it was really nice and the cake didn’t come off as too sweet.

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

July Seasonal Trial – Garlicky Volcano

I must be out of touch with the trends because I honestly have not seen this bread before which is supposedly a trendy street food in Korea, despite visiting Korea not too long ago last year! This bread is more about the toppings and it is very rich with cream cheese, butter and garlic. The flavour is nice and savoury but if it isn’t eaten warm, it could be kind of cloying and too heavy to enjoy.

Hungry Bird rating: 3/5

August Seasonal Trial – Apple of My Eye

This was an apple pie made using Pampas Puff Pastry sheets as the crust baked with sour cream filling first, and baked again with almond powder streusel. Toppings of butterscotch apples were made with microwave and topped on the tart to complete. Using ready made puff pastry is nothing really worth learning, but between this pie base and using crushed graham crackers base (like some of the previous trial lessons), I rather use this one. At least has pretty good texture and was indeed nice to eat. The filling of baked sour cream was something new to me and I prefer this than instant custard any time. The best part was probably the streusel. The apples were the main disappointment because the texture was too hard. Overall it is average tasting at best and not something I would highly recommend learning since not many useful techniques were covered.

Hungry Bird rating: 3/5

One Day Lesson

One Day Lesson – Mochi Blush

This lesson was supposed to take place in April, during Sakura season, but it got pushed back till July due to the pandemic. It was like a wagashi and cake hybrid, with matcha chiffon cake within mochi skin. We made two flavours of mochi skin – strawberry and milk, with fillings of fresh strawberry and homemade sakura jam respectively. The final product was beautiful and lovely. It tastes like what you’d expect from cream mochi and I also liked the sakura jam which we took home. Each portion was made with a whole packet of salt pickled sakura from Japan which gave it a beautiful shade of pink with sakura flower petals suspending.

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

One Day Lesson – Nyonya Celestine

Pandan cake, kaya, coconut mousse and butterfly pea agar agar. This sounds like a winning combination already that true blue Singaporeans would love! It is no surprise that this class was sold out in record time especially because it looks so beautiful with the perfect cobination from natural colours of green from pandan and blue from butterfly pea!

The cake was a modern version of the classic pandan kaya cake with coconut mousse and agar agar topping. The class was sponsored by Ayam Brand so we used their coconut milk to make the kaya as well as the coconut mousse layer. It was a very coconut-y cake and lovers of coconut and local flavours (like in Nyonya kuehs) would love it!

Hungry Bird rating: 4/5

Home Baking/ Home Cooking

Cake Baking Kit Recipe – Foret Noir

There was a limited time promotion where new sign ups or top-ups would receive 3 baking kits, videos and recipes and the recipe which attracted me the most was definitely this Black Forest cake! I have a sudden acquired taste for Black Forest cake, especially after trying the Black Forest cake from the One Day Lesson back in March. I was keen to try more recipes and II’m glad to have this one!

This has a chocolate sponge base, chocolate mousse fillings and Kirsch flavoured chantilly cream. The baking kit provided all the dry ingredients and I had to get my own whipping cream, Kirsch and canned dark sweet cherries. We also would need to get our own baking equipment of course, and I ordered a square mousse ring from Japan just for this! (Later on however, I noticed it was restocked at ABC Cooking Takashimaya, so people with this baking kit can go there to purchase your mousse ring).

The steps were not that difficult to follow because I have prior experience from various cake lessons at ABC. I think total beginners may struggle due to unfamiliarity. The assembling of the cake was very similar to Caramel Noix from Cake Master course and the memory of doing it back then did help!

Overall I really love this cake and it also received praises from those who have tried it. I highly recommend getting Kirsch or any cherry liqueur because the alcohol enhances the taste! It is used in the cream as well as in the brushing of the cake.

Hungry Bird rating: 5/5

Cake Basic – Orange Chiffon

I finally got a Chiffon cake mould which I ordered from Rakuten so I can finally try this Orange Chiffon recipe after learning it last year. I used a 17cm mould which is the standard size for Japanese chiffon cakes, and the volume is just right for the ABC Cooking Chiffon cake recipe! The orange flavour for this chiffon cake was really nice and refreshing. This is my first time baking chiffon cake at home and I am glad the recipe was very reliable and my cake turned out great with no saggy sides or sinking anywhere!

Cake Basic – Earl Grey Chiffon

Earl Grey chiffon was the first chiffon cake I learnt back in November 2018. I like Earl Grey anything and this was really nice, to me.

I used the same recipe from Earl Grey milk tea chiffon to make Café au lait chiffon. I’d give you all a tip to NOT add too much coffee as this could be over bearing with caffeine!

Of course I had to make a Pandan version. I used the same recipe for Orange/ Earl Grey Chiffon with the following modifcations:

Vegetable oil ➡️ virgin coconut oil

Milk/ juice ➡️ 45ml coconut milk

Add ⅓ tsp of pandan paste

And it worked well for me. I used Koepoe Koepoe brand of pandan paste and the taste was quite pleasant!

I experimented with Taro flavour with the following modifications:

Vegetable oil ➡️ virgin coconut oil

Milk/ juice ➡️ 45ml coconut milk

Add 80-90g mashed taro (blended with some water)

Purple colouring

I strongly advise adding colouring because I once tried without it and the cake looked yellowish grey and was very unappetising just looking at it. My tastebuds were also confused and I somehow couldn’t taste any taro because the appearance was too off.

Since I had coconut milk to use up, I decided to try Gula Melaka flavour!

Vegetable oil ➡️ virgin coconut oil

Milk/ juice ➡️ 45ml coconut milk + 100g of Gula Melaka (microwave shaved gula melaka and coconut milk at 500W for 50s. Stir to dissolve to make gula melaka syrup)

Omit sugar for egg yolks and beat yolks with gula melaka syrup instead

I noticed this one tends to caramelise on the crust more, possibly due to higher sugar content from the gula melaka but it was super fragrant during baking!

Last but not least, I made Pandan chiffon using fresh pandan concentrate! This was done by blending one whole bunch of washed pandan leaves in a food processor with a little bit of water and straining to obtain pandan juice. I then let the pandan juice settle in the fridge and pandan concentrate would sink to the bottom. After a day, the top clear liquid was discarded. Repeat the process for another day and the final concentrate was what I used for the cake, to obtain the intense natural green colour! The recipe modification is the same as the store bought paste method.

Cake Basic – Mousse aux Fraises

I had a bad experience when learning this recipe back in 2018 due to a bad instructor but I”m glad I can erase the bad experience by recreating this at home! This uses pasteurized egg whites, strawberry liqueur and strawberry puree, all of which I bought specifically to make this at home.

Cake Basic – Mille Crêpes

I previously tried making Mille Crêpes using my Bruno Round Grill with crêpe attachment but it did not turn out well because the diameter of the pan was really big – like 10″ big. The recipes at ABC is around 7″ only and for this purpose, I bought a 20cm non-stick frying pan from Tefal where the base diameter is around 18cm, round the same size as the one we used during lessons! Frying the crêpes was just repetitive work. For the frosting, I chose to use the raspberry jam cream cheese recipe from the current Mille Crêpe lesson rather than the previous one which used rum scented crème pâtissière because I had cream cheese and raspberry jam on hand, as well as fresh raspberries. Frosting each later was doable at home even without a turn table and I’m pleased with how it turned out even though I skipped on the sponge cake base layer!

Cake Basic – Double Cheesecake

Since I bought the 12cm mini loaf tins from Rakuten (which I’ve already used to make bread last month), I decided I might as well not waste it and make all recipes I have that uses this mould too, including this rare cheesecake which is one of my favourites from the Cake Basic course! It is a pity they have retired this recipe already in the Cake Basic semi-renewal so new members would not have a chance to learn this anymore. I followed the recipe to a T making the cookie base and topping from scratch, as well as the 2 layers of rare cheesecake – original and strawberry, and finishing off with fresh mint and strawberry fixed on with strawberry jam. The cake looked exactly like it did when I made it at ABC – this is probably the best replicated regular cake course cake I’ve ever did at home in terms of how similar it looks and tastes!

Cake Basic – Cheesecake

I made cheesecake again using Ninja Foodi since I have extra cream cheese to finish up! This time I went for less brown on top, covering my cake at an earlier timing. I also had berries which was perfect to top the cheesecake with.

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Cake Basic (Passport – Hong Kong) – Tartelette au The

It’s been a year since I last went to Hong Kong and Shenzhen where I attended classes at ABC there using my ABC Passport! I did earl grey tart in Hong Kong and I remembered really liking the taste. I recently bought tartlette moulds from Rakuten which was of the correct size like those used at ABC, so I can finally recreate this tart at home! It tasted pretty close to me!

Cake Basic (Passport – China) – Gateau Weekend Citron

I attended this class in Shenzhen last year but I realised the recipe in China uses a bigger total portion for 6 smaller butter cakes. I did not have their moulds and did not want to buy them either. I noticed this recipe when taught in other countries uses the same 12cm mould as the one used for breads and rare cheesecake, so I went to search for the Japan version of the recipe so I could make these using the moulds I have! Like anticipated, the portion I used worked perfectly with the 12cm mini loaf tins and the cake turned out great.

Cake Trial – Strawberry Chiffon Roll

This is one of my favourite ABC Trial lesson recipes, which was also a recipe used for 1 Day English lessons in Japan. It was basically like strawberry shortcake but in a roll cake form!

Cake Trial – Royal Roulade

Another of my favourite trial lesson recipes is this Earl Grey Roll cake with strawberry liqueur fromage cream and peach. Instead of strawberry syrup soaked peaches, I am using Shimizu Hakuto (white peach) Compote from Okayama prefecture. It was a gift I recieved after speaking at an event back in 2018 and I kind of forgot about using this. I’m glad the peach was still good to be eaten because it was really delicious! It definitely made the roll cake taste better than it would have been.

Cake Trial – Hanami in Luv (Sakura Mini Rolls)

I made this cake with modifications to the recipe based on what I had at home. I had some Bulla Thickened Cream leftover as well as Bulla Sour Cream Light and I decided to use them in place of yogurt and whipping cream that the recipe asked for. It was a suitable substation because the flavour was great, but the consistency was kind of too soft to hold shape due to the nature of thickened cream. I also replaced raspberry jam used between the layers of thin chiffon cake with sakura jam I made at the Mochi Blush workshop! The results were really good and the cake was full of sakura flavour.

Bread Basic – Coffee Walnut Loaf

Made this loaf because I have a new shokupan mould from Rakuten which is similar to the size used at ABC! I probably should bake at a higher temperature because my bread looked quite fair, but it was still fragrant and delicious.

Bread Basic – Chocolate Marble

I bought a Rehrucken mould from Rakuten and I can finally make this popular bread at home! It was very soft and delicious indeed. My mould was too big however, because it was rounder than the one used at ABC.

Bread Basic – Duo Twist Pizza

Just days after learning this at ABC, I made this at home again because it serves a filling lunch. It was equally delicious and I actually made it a second time on the following day!

Bread Riche – Cinnamon Roll

Looks exactly like when I did it at the studio! I love how this recipe is easy to replicate and it tastes equally delicious.

Bread Riche – Streuselkuchen (Dark Cherry Streusel)

I made this at home barely a week after learning it at ABC because this bread was so delicious. When doing it at home I have full control of ingredients and the brand of butter and cream cheese I used (Philadelphia and President respectively) was probably better and the one I made at home did taste more fragrant!

World Cuisine – Sichuan Meal (Dan Dan Noodles)

I can finally make this recipe at home because I managed to buy Ten Men Jang (Tian Mian Jiang) after searching high and low for it after a whole year! The recipe actually covered 2 versions – hot and cold dan dan mian, but I only made the hot version. I shall say I really liked it and the meat was very tasty!