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March 28, 2024, 08:18:08 pm

Author Topic: Geoo's Baking Adventures  (Read 11868 times)

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Geoo

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Geoo's Baking Adventures
« on: June 23, 2019, 12:02:52 am »
+16
Hello everyone, I have decided to make a baking journal.
You may have seen my VCE Journal, which has kind of turned into a baking and book discussion, and I feel as if we should move to the Creative Corner Board. I have been an avid baker all my life, and it is a real passion of mine. I am not really a savory "cooker", and mainly stick to my realm of baking.

I like to mix and adjust recipes to my liking, and even try to make the gluten free or vegan alternatives from time to time. I would like to say I do two types of baking: cooking for myself, or cooking for others. When I bake for my self, it generally isn't fancy by any means, and more so fits my food requirements. I have quite a few food intolerances which has stopped me from baking in the past, but I try to find ways around it. Whether it is swapping flours, oils, sugars or just making the recipe just right, I make it to suit me.

Now even though I enjoy those baked goods I have cooked for myself, I LOVE making food for other people. It can bring people together and it brings me so much joy to cook for others. I can go really simple or over the top. From biscuits to elaborate cakes, it is awesome to the joy my baking brings people. I also find baking a massive stress reliever. If I am feeling worried, anxious, whatever emotion, I will bake it off. It makes me feel really happy to. Although the clean up session afterwards is not the enjoyable. Thank you Dishwashers.

Ok, so what to expect? Sometimes I will just post pictures of what I have made, I may include my recipes or links to recipes I tried. I am also doing food studies which will increase the amount of baking I do yay, and I may post pictures of older projects I did.

So for my first post, here are two of my projects from a while ago. The first one was my birthday cake (couldn't eat it, but it looked pretty). I had used compound chocolate, because who has time to temper it. I coloured it with a powder dye, as water based food colouring does not go well with chocolate. Someone gifted my gold leaf, and I decided to use that and I think it turned out well. The cake was a triple layered Vanilla sponge, with cream and chocolate ganache on the inside. It was decorated with buttercream as a gradient and had more chocolate ganache on the outside as a drip effect. I also made small meringues and finished it off with some of those silver round sprinkles.

This Captain America cake I did for a friend's birthday. I didn't know what to get her so I said that I will give you a birthday cake as your present. She was Vegan, and I had never tried that before, so this was a bit of a challenge. I made the buttercream with Nutellex as the dairy substitute and it worked out well. It was a double layered vanilla cake with almond milk and apple cider vinegar egg. The fondant was already vegan so I was ready to go!


So I hope you follow along, and feel free to ask any questions.
 
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

caffinatedloz

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2019, 06:53:10 am »
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Looks fabulous! You're making me hungry hahaha.

Bri MT

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2019, 08:40:24 am »
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Oooh baking is great so it'll be nice to see some inspiration here. I rarely actually bake unless I'm on holidays for a while or a long exam season but I love seeing how people decorate them (especially when they're vegan :) )

I haven't tried doing a drip with ganache before, how did you figure out the temperature/consistency? Seems like it would be difficult to find that right level where it drips enough but not too much.

Love the combination of the two different swirls on the Captain America cake btw :)

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2019, 02:13:35 pm »
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Looks fabulous! You're making me hungry hahaha.

Hehe, thank you.
Oooh baking is great so it'll be nice to see some inspiration here. I rarely actually bake unless I'm on holidays for a while or a long exam season but I love seeing how people decorate them (especially when they're vegan :) )

I haven't tried doing a drip with ganache before, how did you figure out the temperature/consistency? Seems like it would be difficult to find that right level where it drips enough but not too much.

Love the combination of the two different swirls on the Captain America cake btw :)

It can be so hard to find time to bake! When exam season happens, I don't get time to bake for a good two months. If you enjoy vegan cake decoration, have you checkout culinarydots on Instagram? She has some amazing raw vegan decorations. The flowers she makes with icing are just beautiful.

It can also depend on the type of ganache to, the chocolate and ratio can really change the consistency at room temperature. Even though temperature does play a big part, the ganache recipe I used has more chocolate to cream, so it was a more solid ganache, so I could keep it out at room temperature and it worked well. I use a ratio of 3 Tablespoons of cream (the thicking one) to 100g of milk chocolate. I have tried it with dark chocolate and white and that ratio seems to work well for me.

Thank you so much for your compliments, it really means a lot to me. I really didn't know what to do with the sides of the cake, so I just did good old fashioned swirls.
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

homeworkisapotato

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2019, 03:13:16 pm »
+1
YES I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!
2020: Biology [43]
2021: Methods, Chemistry, HHD, English, Further
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Joseph41

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #5 on: July 08, 2019, 05:04:43 pm »
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This is amazing. Those cakes look incredible - awesome work! Keen for more pics. 8)

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Geoo

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2019, 03:04:50 pm »
+8
So I haven't posted here in a while, since I haven't had time to bake, so I thought I would showcase an older cake I made.

This was a triple layer vanilla sponge cake with a basket weave buttercream texture. I did some buttercream flowers and leaves with the leftover icing, and here it is. This was entered into a competition 2 years ago, and I was surprised that it didn't melt under 42oC conditions  ;)
« Last Edit: September 01, 2019, 02:17:02 pm by Geoo »
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

J_Rho

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2019, 03:16:28 pm »
+2
I love this thread! All your cakes are so awesome!
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blueycan

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2019, 08:31:07 pm »
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your baking skills are out of this world.
have you considered taking custom orders..?
i think theres some great potential to make a mini business out of this!
 :D

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2019, 09:31:44 pm »
+3
I love this thread! All your cakes are so awesome!

I know this is a very late response, but thank you so much, this means so much to me. I love making these types of cakes, and it's awesome to see other people enjoy it as well.
your baking skills are out of this world.
have you considered taking custom orders..?
i think theres some great potential to make a mini business out of this!
 :D
I would love to do custom orders, but it is so much time and money. This cake took me 8 hours to do, and a lot of people underestimate this. The ingredients add up, the labour is extensive, and some people aren't willing to pay for something they think is easier than they think.
With it being so time consuming, I wouldn't have enough time to do my VCE. I just hope I can make something like this for food studies :).
2020: VCE 93.2
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Geoo

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #10 on: September 01, 2019, 02:15:13 pm »
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So this was for a food studies assignment, but I have made this recipe thousands of times, and it is one of the best easy desserts to make! Have it with vanilla ice cream, and it is the best! Anyway, Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes, here it is  :)
2020: VCE 93.2
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blueycan

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2019, 06:44:12 pm »
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So this was for a food studies assignment, but I have made this recipe thousands of times, and it is one of the best easy desserts to make! Have it with vanilla ice cream, and it is the best! Anyway, Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes, here it is  :)

Yummo!

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #12 on: November 08, 2019, 09:34:50 pm »
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Haha, so with exams over, I finally had time to get back in the kitchen. It's not really extravagant, but these are my favourite choc chip biscuits.
There will hopefully be some more elaborate stuff coming, as I have free time again! I wanted to do something simple, as it has been a while since I have baked something, so I thought to make my favourite bickies.

These are made with buckwheat flower, so they are gluten free, and also use coconut oil as a replacement for butter.
Here is the recipe (I don't use stevia): http://cookingalamel.com/2013/09/buckwheat-chocolate-chip-cookies-gluten-free.html

2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

Geoo

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2019, 09:30:27 pm »
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So, I have done quite a bit of cookie making to a point where my brain may explode. I ended up making seven cookies boxes for 17 people. These boxes had quite a few flavors: Gingerbread, chocolate, vanilla, butter, almond and shortbread, so 5 in total. The chocolate, vanilla, butter and almond were all made from one original batter that was split into four and flavored accordingly. The shortbread and gingerbread was made separately. These where made over 3 days, and where given to my relatives and neighbors as Christmas presents as I don't have money to spend on people, and I love to bake. So it is a win win. In total I believe- 200-250 cookies were made....
I went a little nuts. Remind me never to make this many again. But it was alot of fun, and put me into a better mental state and cooking just puts me at ease.

Anyway so these are all the biscuits I made in total:


And here is the collection of Christmas boxes:


This is a close up of a box:


I did plan to ice the gingerbread, but I was way to tired after making everything and ran out of time, so there they are.
Stick around for the gingerbread house that is coming soon! I hope everyone had a good Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate!
« Last Edit: December 25, 2019, 09:33:34 pm by Geoo »
2020: VCE 93.2
2022: BSci/Arts (Chemistry/Pharmacology and French)@Monash

caffinatedloz

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Re: Geoo's Baking Adventures
« Reply #14 on: December 26, 2019, 06:56:17 am »
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They look amazing Geo! ;D Looking forward to seeing photos of a gingerbread house! I definitely intended to make one, but just completely ran out of time.