Salted Caramel Cupcakes

My daughter requested for salted caramel cupcakes for her birthday. I suppose salted caramel is a flavour befitting a girl who has just entered her teens. At 13, the saltish twist to the cake would appeal to fairly grown up taste buds, but sweet, buttery caramel will always call out to the young (and young at heart).

The cake was made with brown sugar which lent a mellow flavour that paired well with the sweetness of the caramel that tasted just like melted toffee. The caramel was swirled into the buttercream, frosted on the cakes, and sea salt flakes in the palest shade of pink were

then carefully sprinkled on top. Sweet and salty - the best of both worlds loved by young and old and all ages in between.

FAQs

Some of you have had some questions about the cakes that we make at Hearts and Hands, so we thought it will be helpful to have a short FAQ to address those questions.

1. How do I collect the cakes?

The cakes can be collected from the home of the person who baked it. As we are not operating a business, we are not able to arrange for delivery of the cakes. On the plus side, we try to accommodate your request as far as possible as to collection times, and will try to work around your schedule as far as possible.

2. How do I make payment?

We have thought about this. And we think going forward we will give this a try: you can issue 2 cheques – one to the baker, and the other to the charity directly. That may sound cumbersome, but you will know exactly what portion of the cake price is going to the charity, and how much is going into the cost. It’s all very transparent. And we also do not have the hassle of working out the cost of 3 eggs, 1 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of good quality vanilla or 230 grams of good chocolate (we use only good stuff so, hey it all adds up!).

The idea is that we let you know how much we recover from the cake upfront, and you can then make an informed decision as to whether you would like to order a cake from us. As a general principle, we try to make sure that the amount contributed to the charity is more than 50% of the amount charged for the cake. Afterall, a large part of this initiative is to be able to raise meaningful amounts for the charity adopted.

3. Why are your charges higher than the neighbourhood bakery store?

Apart from the fact that we do not enjoy the same economies of scale that a business would enjoy, the quality of the ingredients used has a direct impact on the price (and we would like to think, the quality) of the cakes). As this is not a business, we really are not out to compete for any “market share”. But if you want a one of a kind cake lovingly made by hand, and you like the idea that the proceeds from your order will benefit a charity, then yes, you have come to the right guys.

4. I have never tried fondant before. What is it made of?

Fondant is a decorative medium made largely of sugar. It is very sweet and kids tend to like it, though many adults I know find them too sweet for their grown up palates. I personally scrape them off the cake, and I would not mind at all if you do the same.

As it is made largely of sugar, it needs to be kept in a cool dry place, preferably an air-conditioned room. Cakes made with fondant should not be refrigerated as the condensation on the cake after it is removed from the fridge will mar the appearance of the cake.

5. What sort of buttercream do you use? Does it contain raw eggs?

Our preferred choice of buttercream is Swiss Meringue Buttercream, where the egg whites are gently heated over simmering water before being whipped with the butter. It creates a lighter texture to the cream, and we have peace of mind knowing that the eggs have been pasteurised.

6. Why do you guys do this? Haven’t you got better things to do with your life?

No.

7. Seriously??

Seriously, we like to bake (within reasonable measures) and we also LOVE our day jobs (our bosses could be reading this). And we are too risk adverse to go into business. So this suits us fine. It is time consuming, and involves some sleepless nights, and some form of family neglect while we mess up the entire kitchen and sometimes the living room with our cakes, cakes and more cakes. But we will do it as long as we find it meaningful.

And so we’d like to end this FAQ by saying a big THANK YOU to you for your support.

Last Cake for May

This is the last cake for May, a Cars cake for a little boy. Phew! It has been a very busy month, with 1 wedding cake and 4 birthday cakes, 2 of which fall on the same weekend. So I am definitely RELIEVED May is almost over.

For this cake, I got my older girl to help me with the cactus. So the little spikes (made with Japanese sea weed) that you see here is the result of her slow and careful labour. She was very happy to be able to help, and I am proud of her effort. As for the Cars toys - they were bought as no way am I able to reproduce a Cars figurine with fondant. And frankly, I think the birthday boy would be happy to have a cake AND a toy to play with when he is done eating. One day I should show you a photo of a 3-D Mini Cooper car I once made. My first attempt. (Maybe when my skin grows a bit thicker.)

Cake is frosted with my new favorite Nutella Swiss Meringue Buttercream with little crunchy Valrhona pearls. I love the crunch in every mouthful, and how it still stays crunchy after sitting for more than a day in the fridge.

School holidays are here. Enjoy! (or Endure).

Butterflies and Pools

Here are some photos of 2 recent cakes. The first is a butterfly-themed cake. It is the first cake I have done for a girl which does not have a touch of pink in it. I like how the blue and green combination works. Cake is inspired by Sweetappetite.com.

Front View

Back View

And some details.

Next, I finally got to do another swimming pool cake - this time minus the heart stopping moments, which I had written about here.

Do you think the swimming pool cake will work with a pink instead of blue pool? Would you think about strawberry milkshakes or pink milk? Or would you think (like me) ... sharks?

Thanks for dropping by the blog.

Hearts and Hands' New Beneficiary - Royal Family Kids Camp

We are very excited to announce that Hearts and Hands has "adopted" a new beneficiary - the Royal Family Kids Camp (RFKC). With effect from May 2011, all proceeds from cake sales will go towards RFKC.

The RFKC is a non-profit organisation which runs yearly camps for abused and neglected children in various countries, including Singapore, Japan and from this year on, Hong Kong as well. It is entirely volunteer-led and raises its own funds to run the camps. The children are mostly from foster or children's homes, and are referred by social workers or, in the case of Singapore, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sport. The kids are given a right royal treat at the camps where they spend an entire week in a one-to-one volunteer to child ratio and are given lots of love and undivided attention, which goes a long way to building their confidence and self-esteem.

We hope that you will continue to support Hearts and Hands and in so doing, help to fund the camps that will enrich the lives of these children. Your contribution counts, and will make a difference to the children at RFKC. To read more about RFKC, visit http://rfkc-sg.org/. If you are interested in volunteering at one of the camps, do email YEO Meng Hin or Caroline DE WITT YEO at info@rfkc-sg.org.

We thank you in advance for your support.

A kilo and a half of strawberries ... and two sugar darlings

This is a cake for a pair of lovely strawberry-loving girl twins. J and R are 2 super lovable 4 year olds, from a family of 5 kids. They are sisters to another pair of boy twins and it is a joy to see their whole brood together, such a rare sight in Singapore.

I had fun making an impression of the twins out of sugar paste. Here they are.

And on top of the cake, sitting in a field of strawberries.

This was a very large cake, and a kilo and a half of strawberries went into it. That's plenty of fruit in there. Now who said cakes are unhealthy?

Oh yes, and also 1.2 litres of fresh cream. Think of it as an alternative source of calcium dense milk. Better still, cast aside all thought, and just dig in.

My First Wedding Cake

I feel like I have just delivered number 3.

I had the privilege of making a wedding cake over the weekend for a niece of a good friend of mine. The couple wanted a cake with red, black, gold and white themes. After looking through some options over the net, we settled on a 3 tier cake with a cascade of large flowers going from the top tier to the second tier. Here is the result.

As the reception was a cosy do, there would be too much cake if we had done 3 actual layers of cake. Hence, the bottom layer is actually a dummy.

All the flowers are painstakingly handcrafted over many days and countless hours, after my kids have gone to bed and I have the peace to do something without the constant refrain of "Mummy, what are you doing?", "Mummy, how do you spell (some random word)?", "Mummy, can we eat the cake? Whhhhyyy not???" For those who are into statistics, I must have spent something like 2 to 3 hours on each flower, not to mention all the failed duds along the way.

Overall, I am quite happy with the result, although there are one or two things I would like to improve on if given the chance to make another wedding cake (again, husband shakes head in resignation). Also, I thought the cake would have looked just as nice with just one flower instead of a cascade, as in this:

What do you think? Cascade or single flower?

As for the cake inside - chocolate of course. Yums.