Kawaii Burger Bread Buns.

I love baking these super cute burger bread buns – Miffy, Winnie the Pooh and Pikachu! Which ones do you like the most?

Really happy that they turn out well.

I have been making cute bread buns, but I think the Winnie the Pooh one was the first few.

Using honey instead of sugar in the recipe, it yield a lovely lingering aroma of honey in the soft buns. Sweetness is not overpowering so the buns are still great for mini sliders like here.

For a healthy choice, I had apple ‘fries’ at the side together with some salad.

Over the last two years, my baking journey has intensified. I guess the plain reason is because I enjoy creating (eating :P) and sharing the goodies with my friends and colleagues when I bake. Plus I have a much better oven now.

I used to bake with the old tabletop oven – a hand me down from my mum.

Finally upgraded to a full size oven early last year  –  a 60cm Turbo Incanto Oven TFM8627.

Nothing against the tabletop oven, but it does make a difference in terms of heat distribution, functions and space (more space!!!), areas where a full size oven is advantageous.

Most of my baking creations are breads and pastries like tarts, choux and cakes. I noticed that I rarely make macarons, icing cookies, glazed donuts and cupcakes though, haha – I think its because I prefer eating the former ones more.

It only makes sense to make what you enjoy more right? :)

I think this is the one thing that comes through in homemade food – the love and effort we give in.

At the peak of the Pokemon phase last year, I was inspired to make pokemon buns.

They came out equally cute. I love that I can take out my Pokeball bento box and use them too. The mini pokeballs are made from quail eggs,  cherry tomatoes and seaweed.

I even posted the recipe on my instagram here.

Even without the bun fillings, they still look adorbs right?

And of course, Miffy cannot be left out!

I am such a bunny person.

The trick to getting these buns such nice color and not overbrowning, really comes down to the baking temperature. More of these tips will be shared in my next cookbook – yes a teaser! it will be on bread and will be super kawaii.

Using my Miffy vegetable cutters, I made matching potato wedges to complete my Miffy Burger Buns set.

Got my hands on these cute Miffy wax paper from Kiddyland at Harajuku.

Hope you enjoy this post on my homemade Kawaii Burger Bread Buns!

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More info on my three cookbooks  ‘Kawaii Bento’  here ,  ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ here and Kawaii Sweet Treats here!

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post Kawaii Burger Bread Buns appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Happy that I finally got this recipe post for baked cream cheese tart up on my blog.

Ever since the Hokkaido’s BAKE cheese tart hit Singapore shores earlier this year, everyone has gone crazy for their yummy tarts. I personally love them too, but since I usually prefer to buy & eat them when I am back in Japan (read: no queue).

I guess the other alternative is to try baking some myself too. :) So I started baking these tarts about 2 months back.

Since then I made a few rounds of these baked cream cheese both plain and also with character designs.

The recipe was adapated from Michelin Guide Sg.

This time i decided to make them into Winnie the Pooh bear designs, and with little bumblebees too!

Aren’t they cute?

It is recommended that you use Hokkaido cream cheese for an authentic taste.

Hokkaido cream cheese also gives a more delicate and softer texture to that delicious cream cheese filling.

However, you can use the regular cream cheese that you can get from your supermarket most convenient for you.

Have fun baking these Winnie the Pooh Baked Cream Cheese Tart!

Tart Crust

150g cake flour

75g unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)

30g icing sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tsp milk

0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste

Cream Cheese Filling

200g Hokkaido Cream Cheese (or other cream cheese brand you use)

20g Parmesan cheese

30g unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

100ml milk

1/2 vanilla bean pod OR 0.5 tsp vanilla bean paste

30g icing sugar

8g corn starch

1 medium size egg

1 1/3 Tbsp lemon juice

For egg wash

1 egg yolk +a few drops of water

METHOD

Prepare Tart Crust Part I

this recipes makes about 9-11 tarts (this depends on whether you are making designs or just plain). In this case, for Winnie the Pooh, I made 9 tarts and use the remainign dough to create the ears and bumblee details etc.

Add the ingredients in a bowl.

Use a scrapper, dice up the mixture quickly until they resemble crumbs.

Transfer onto the worktop, press and knead until they come together.

Tip: Stop once they come together, do not knead too long as the butter will melt a lot and you will get an oily mess.

Spread into a round disc of about 1 inch thick. Wrap with cling wrap and set in the chiller for about 45mins to 1hour.

In the meantime, move on to prepare the cream cheese filling. 

Cream Cheese Filling 

Using electric mixer, beat the egg until thick and fluffy.

Place the cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, milk, butter, salt in a bowl. If you are using vanilla bean pod, cut open, scrap the beans and add into the mixture. If not just add the vanilla bean paste directly here.

Heat the mixture over water bath until all the butter and cheeses melt into an even creamy texture.

Remove from heat. Sieve in the corn starch and icing sugar. Using a hand whisk, whisk to achieve an even mixture with no visible clumps.

Then add in the egg and using hand whisk, whisk quickly to achieve an even mixture.

Place the bowl back into the water bath and turn back on the heat. Keep mixing.whisking until the mixture thickens and you can a smooth, slightly glossy, custard-like texture.

Remove from heat.

Add in the lemon juice, whisk to achieve an even mixture.

Transfer the cream cheese custard filling into piping bag and set in the chiller. 

Tart Crust Part II

Remove the tart crust dough from chiller.

Butter your tart tins. Preheat oven to 180c.

Roll out to about 3mm thickness. using a bowl or round cutter, cut the dough and transfer into your tart tins. Using your thumbs, gently press the sides and trim/cut the excess edges using scrapper.

Use a fork, prick the base. This is to prevent the tart crust from rising when blind baking the crust.

Repeat for all tart tins.

Using the excess dough, cut out small round circles for Pooh’s ears, as well as the oval and halved heart shape for bee and its wings. 

Baking 

Bake the tart tins at 180C (with fan on) for about 8mins. In between at around 6mins mark, you may need to remove the smaller pieces of Pooh’s ears and bee shapes.

Remove from oven. Let it cool slightly. Remove the crust from tart tins.

Pipe in the cream cheese filling. Brush gently a layer of egg yolk wash.

Bake at 250C for 8mins or until the edge is nicely brown and top starts to brown just a little.

Remove from oven.

Decoration, Final Assembly

Make two slits at the top left and right corner of the tarts, slide in the round cookies for Pooh’s ears.

Pipe melted chocolate for eyes/nose of Pooh bear as well as the details of the bee. I stuck the bee on the tarts using some melted chocolate behind. 

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More info on my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here and my 2nd cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ out now in stores here!

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post [Recipe] Pooh Bear – Baked Cream Cheese Tarts appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe for Halloween! I am quite excited to share this post with you~

I have been meaning to do up this post (since last year) hahaha but I didn’t think it was good enough yet then.

Finally I did some of my own tweaks to the recipe adapted from Cookpad and Matome.naver.Jp and it turned out delicious.

Pillowy soft bread encased with pumpkin filling – this Pumpkin Bread is perfect for Halloween.

Even if its not for Halloween, this bread is also super cute already and can be baked all year round.

You can also vary the recipe and change the filling as you wish to suit your taste preferences. 

Pumpkin Bread Recipe for Halloween

Ingredients

(A)

• 100g bread flour
• 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tsp instant dry yeast
• 20g beaten egg mixture
• 90ml warm water (no more than 40 degrees C)
• orange colouring

(B)

• 75g bread flour
• 15g cake flour
• 20g unsalted butter
• 0.5 tsp salt

(C)

• approx 200g mashed pumpkin
• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 50g almond powder
• 12g butter

Tools: Cooking string, edible marker pen

Method

1. In one mixing bowl, add all the dry  ingredients in (A). Make sure that the yeast is next to or on the sugar. Add in the egg, taking care not to allow the egg to touch the instant dry yeast at this point. Add in the warm water on the yeast and sugar. Using a wooden spatula, mix vigorously. This step is to activate the yeast.

*You will observe some small air bubbles forming, this is a cue to tell you that the yeast has been activated.

2. Add in all the ingredients in (B). Mix with the wooden spatula until most have come together. Scrap out the dough and the sides of the bowl onto your worktop.

3. Knead for 5-10mins until the dough is smooth and stretchy. Place it back in the mixing bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest for the first fermentation. Approx 40mins depending on the weather.

4. Remove the pumpkin skin. Cut about 8 strips of the skin. This is for decoration later. Cut the pumpkin flesh into cubes.

5. Make pumpkin filling. Steam or microwave your pumpkin until soften and cooked. Mashed the pumpkin in a bowl, add in the sugar, almond powder and butter. Mix well. Set aside.

5 Do the dough test after the first fermentation. Flour your finger and poke the dough. The dough should not deflate and the hole should stay. Like a super fat donut (See picture).

Note: if the dough deflates, it is a sign of overfermentation. 

6. Degas the dough. Divide into 8 equal portions, shape them into balls and let them rest for 10 minutes.

7. After bench time (step 6), take a piece of dough, with the back side facing up, flatten into a round disc of about 12cm diameter. Scoop about 20-25g filling and place in the middle. Seal the dough and shape into a nice round bread bun. Repeat for the remaining 7 pieces of dough.

8. Using cooking string, tie the bread and place the ribbon side down. See picture for illustration. Repeat for all the bread buns. 

Note: The string does not need to be so tight that it cuts into the bread dough at this point as the bread will still expand during the second fermentation and during baking.

9. Cover the bread with fermentation cloth and let it rest for final fermentation, approx 25-30mins.

Note: if you do not own a fermentation cloth, you can use cling wrap to gently cover the bread buns.

Preheat Oven at 200C

10. Lower the heat to around 180C and bake the bread for 17mins. During the last 3-4mins, cover the bread gently with aluminium to prevent from over browning.

11. (Important!) Do not attempt to remove the string until the bread buns are cooled down. Only then, untie the ribbon knot below and slowly pull and remove the bread buns. Note that parts of the string will be quite deep into the bread buns (this is normal). It does take a little practice and patience to remove the string. I also use a tweezer to aid me along. 

12. Cut or poke a hole a the top of the bread buns, Insert the pumpkin strips from step 4. If you are decorating this as Jack O Lantern, you can use edible pen to draw on the design too.

This bread is so fun to make! I hope you will try it too.

As mentioned, if you don’t like pumpkin, feel free to change to custard, red bean, chocolate or even savory fillings.

The post Pumpkin Bread Recipe for Halloween appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

More recipe testing for something exciting brewing! Here is Jackie Bear donuts~~

Trying out houjicha (Japanese roasted tea) flavour for the donuts this time.

Houjicha flavour was pretty strong but I think the donuts needed to be a little sweeter so as to bring out the tea flavours a little more.

Back to the kitchen table~~~

The recipe is quite similar to my earlier Totoro donuts that I shared in my blog. Except that this time I experimented with houjicha powder as well as using flour base mixture instead of hotcake mix in baking these bear donuts.

If you are keen to play around with cute doughnuts, do check out my earlier Totoro posting here and adjust for your recipe.

I will share this one once I made some final tweaks.

Have a bearilicious day! I hope these Jackie Bear donuts cheered you up just like it did for me.

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More info on my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here and my 2nd cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ out now in stores here!

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post Jackie Bear donuts appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Pooh Tsum Tsum Bread Buns!!

I literally stacked the bread buns up for this shot :D hahah so cute right?

Dont they look just like the popular Disney Tsum Tsum game?

Featuring the characters from Winnie the Pooh including Pooh bear, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet.

Most of the colours were achieved naturally using dehydrated vegetable powders, so they are not only cute, colourful but also healthy!

Really happy that the buns were still so soft and fluffy even on the next day, I hope you will have fun making these stackable pullapart bread buns~

Do try making them too. I have included the recipe below as well as some pictures on the arrangement of the bread before baking.

I also love the back view of these Pooh Tsum Tsum bread buns, so cute right? haha

I have to thank @umi0407 and @ashy_gfam and their beautiful 3D pull-apart bread buns that have been very popular and inspiring.

Thanks to their inspiration I started to make character 3D breads and pull-apart bread buns recently too.

Recipe Post – Pooh Tsum Tsum Bread

(A) Winnie the Pooh *makes 3 buns

• 80g bread flour (divided into 2 portions fo 40g each)
• 2 tsp pumpkin powder
• 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 11g beaten egg
• 1/2 tbsp condensed milk
• 35~37ml warm water (40C)
• 15g unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp salt

(B) Eeyore *makes 3 buns

• 80g bread flour (divided into 2 portions fo 40g each)
• 1.5 tsp purple sweet potato powder
• 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 11g beaten egg
• 1/2 tbsp condensed milk
• 35~37ml warm water (40C)
• 15g unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp salt

(C) Tigger *makes 3 buns

• 80g bread flour (divided into 2 portions fo 40g each)
• 1.5 tsp carrot powder
• 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 11g beaten egg
• 1/2 tbsp condensed milk
• 35~37ml warm water (40C)
• 15g unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp salt

(D) Piglet *makes 2 buns

• 40g bread flour (divided into 2 portions of 20g each)
• 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 11g beaten egg
• 1/2 tbsp condensed milk
• 35~37ml warm water (40C)
• some pink food coloring
• 7g unsalted butter
• 1/4  tsp salt

Method

*Do give yourself sufficient time to do and prepare the various coloured dough, so that you have enough buffer in between to shape and make the bread buns, without causing the bread dough to over ferment. Over fermentation will mean that your bread will be wrinkled and also drier when baked.

Making Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore:

1. In a bowl, place half the flour and add in the ingredients listed under (A) except unsalted butter and salt. Mix well and vigorously to activiate the yeast. Then add in the remaining half of the flour, unsalted butter and salt. Mix until most of the bread dough some together.

2. Using a scrapper, scrap all the dough mixture onto your work top. Knead until the bread dough is stretchy, smooth and does not stick to your hands. It should take you about 5 mins only as the portion is small.

3. Shape into a round ball, place inside the bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest for about 40mins for first fermentation. I like to keep the dough in the warm place in the house, for example. Inside the microwave (not switched on).

* Preheat your oven to 170C

* Repeat for Eeyore using the same method with ingredients listed under (B).

4. After the first fermentation, the dough will double in size. You can also do the dough check. Punch out the gas and reshape into a round ball. Divide the yellow dough into 3 equal parts, and the purple dough into 3 equal parts. Each of them should be around 54-56g. Cover and let the dough rest for about 10mins (bench time).

5. Shape the bread dough into Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore. You can alternate the coloured dough like mine.

*Tip: You can gently arrrange some aluminum foil to give some support for the ears, if not might roll off the bread buns when you bake them. 

6. Bake the bread buns for about 12mins at 170C. At the last 2 mins, gently cover with a sheet of aluminum foil to avoid browning of the bread buns.

Making Tigger and Piglet

1. In a bowl, place half the flour and add in the ingredients listed under (C) except unsalted butter and salt. Mix well and vigorously to activiate the yeast. Then add in the remaining half of the flour, unsalted butter and salt. Mix until most of the bread dough some together.

2. Using a scrapper, scrap all the dough mixture onto your work top. Knead until the bread dough is stretchy, smooth and does not stick to your hands. It should take you about 5 mins only as the portion is small.

3. Shape into a round ball, place inside the bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest for about 40mins for first fermentation. I like to keep the dough in the warm place in the house, for example. Inside the microwave (not switched on).

* Preheat your oven to 170C

* Repeat for Piglet using the same method with ingredients listed under (D). The portion is only half that of Tigger.

4. After the first fermentation, the dough will double in size. You can also do the dough check. Punch out the gas and reshape into a round ball. Divide the orange dough into 3 equal parts, and the pink dough into 2 equal parts. Cover and let the dough rest for about 10mins (bench time).

5. Shape the bread dough into Tigger and Piglet. I chose to make the Tigger as pull-apart bread and piglet separately. I would recommend making Piglet together too.

*Tip: You can gently arrrange some aluminum foil to give some support for the ears, if not might roll off the bread buns when you bake them. 

6. Bake the bread buns for about 12mins at 170C. At the last 2 mins, gently cover with a sheet of aluminum foil to avoid browning of the bread buns.

7. Draw on the details of Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet using edible food pens.

8. For Tigger, I used some egg sheet, ham, edible pen for the details.

Note: Let the bread buns cool down first before drawing the features or to stack them together :)

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More info on my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here and my 2nd cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ out now in stores here!

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post [Recipe] Pooh Tsum Tsum Bread appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Homemade Kitty bread buns!

Now that polling day is over, time to move on with some weekend feasting!! yay! love long weekends as always~~

To start, here are some kawaii temptations for you – some homemade Soymilk Kitty bread buns!’

But with all the weekend feasting and munching at home, I like to keep a check on my health by enjoying some VITAGEN LESS SUGAR.

While I may not be able to resist the temptation of  all the good food, I am still good to my gut by having VITAGEN after their meals.

VITAGEN LESS SUGAR is a fermented milk drink made by fermenting skim milk with billions of live probiotic cultures. They also have less sugar than regular cultured milk drinks.

Besides having the goodness of Probiotic cultures (good bacteria), VITAGEN LESS SUGAR is the only cultured milk drink in Singapore that has high in Prebiotic fibre (dietary fibre).

Did you know that VITAGEN is holding a contest for a chance to dine with Chefs Sam & Forest Leong at an exclusive BBQ? Plus, win amazing weekly and daily prizes such as holidays abroad, private yoga or pilates classes and more!

Simply Instagram, tweet or upload your feast photos with #sgweekendfeast and #vitagensg

VITAGEN is available at all leading hypermarts, supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol kiosks, provision shops and minimarts.

For more convenience, VITAGEN can also be delivered directly to your doorstep. For enquires, contact VITAGEN Home Delivery Service hotline at 6282 5949.

I got mine at the supermarket :)

For the soymilk homemade bread buns, I have been inspired by the recent baking trend in Japan and decided to try baking these cute pull apart bread buns.

To make the brown patches, I simply brushed on some egg wash that has been mix in with cocoa powder. I like the 3 strips design one on the kitty forehead among all the styles I tried out. Did you also noticed one with the kitty “butt” and tail? hehehe.

Would you like the recipe?

Here it is!

Pull Apart Bread – Soymilk Kitty Bread Buns

*Makes 9 pieces.

Note: You can choose to wrap fillings for your bread buns if you prefer. I made them plain as I ate the buns with butter and jam. 

(A) 150g bread flour

3 tbsp sugar

1.5 tsp instant dry yeast

1.5 tsp milk powder

160ml warm soymilk (about 35-40C)

(B) 150g bread flour

37g unsalted butter

3/4 tsp salt

Method

(C) Edible pen (black and brown)

1. Mix all (A) ingredients in one bowl. Add in all the other (B) ingredients and mix until most of the ingredients come together.

2. Scrap all the bowl contents including the sides onto your work top. Hand knead the bread dough until smooth and springy, and it doesnt stick to your hands. it should take you about 10mins.

3. Shape into a ball shape and transfer back to the bowl. Cover with cling wrap and let it rest at a warm place for about 40mins (first fermentation) until the dough doubles in size.

4. Do the finger test for the bread dough. Punch out the excess air and remove the bread dough from the bowl.

5. Divide into 10 equal pieces. Cover and let it rest for 10mins (bench time).

6. Flatten each dough and shape into a oval round shape. Place them in a lightly buttered square tin. Repeat for another 8 bread dough pieces. They will be position 3 by 3 in the tin (total 9). Cover with cling wrap while you continue to work on the last bread dough.

7. To the last bread dough piece, divide into 9 pieces, and further divide/cut them into 2 triangular ears and 2 round hands, except the last piece that is shaped into a long strip for kitty tail.

8. Place the small parts on the bread balls in the tin. Brush on the egg wash with a small brush. Cover and let the bread balls rest for about 25-30mins.

9. Preheat oven at 180C. Bake the bread for about 12 mins. When they start to brown, you might wish to cover gently with a sheet of aluminum foil to keep the kitty faces light and prevent them from browning too much.

10. Remove from over after baking. Let it rest for a bit before removing the bread.

11. Draw the kitty face and paw marks using edible pen.

Note: To remove the bread, the action must be swift and gentle at the same time. With oven mittens on both hands, I held the bread tin and quickly flip the bread over to my other hand and quickly place the bread back on the rack. Remember to be gentle and not flatten your bread :)

Blog post disclaimer: This is a sponsored post by VITAGEN. 

The post Kitty bread buns and VITAGEN appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Totoro Doughnuts!

These baked soy milk doughnuts are not only healthy, easy to make, they are also yummy.

Frankly the texture is closer to cakes, I guessed baked in doughnut shapes. :D

I have been wanting so much to make glazed doughnuts but am just too lazy to deep fry doughnuts. Also I personally find doughnut glaze very sweet so these baked ones are perfect for me.

Super happy and pleased with these cute Totoro doughnuts!

Sorry, I wanted to take photos of all the steps, but kind-of  forgot after the first pic (haha) rushing to go out of the house. In any case, I have already included the recipe below.

The idea behind making the Totoro design is basically the same as how the features are drawn on. You make the designs in couple of layers. 

Recipe for Totoro Doughnuts

Basic batter (Part 1)

• 150g hotcake mix
• 100ml low calorie/reduced sugar soy milk
• 75ml whipping cream
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 medium egg
• 1 tbsp melted butter

(Part 2)

For black batter (features)

• 0.5tsp black cocoa powder

For white batter (eyes, tummy)

• 0.5tsp cake flour

For grey batter (body, ears)

• 0.5g bamboo charcoal powder

Note: Hotcake mix can be replaced with your own homemade cake mix. Let me dig my notes to post my version soon.  The hotcake mix that I used is the popular Japanese hotcake mix brand Morinaga. 

Note: If you are allergic to soy, you can replace soy milk with regular milk. Recipe works the same :)

Note: If you do not have black cocoa powder, you can replace with dark cocoa, similar to Valrhona cocoa powder. 

Method

(Part 1)

1. In a mixing bowl, prepare basic batter by adding in hotcake mix, soy milk, whipping cream, melted butter, honey and egg. Ensure that there are no lumps and you have a smooth batter.
2. Preheat oven to 170-180C.
3. Butter the silicon mold slightly. This step will enable you to remove the baked doughnuts much easier later.

(Part 2a)

1. Scoop out 2 tsp of basic batter from part 1 in a small bowl, add in 0.5tsp black cocoa powder. Mix well. Transfer into a small piping bag.
2. Scoop out 1.5tbsp (or 4tsp) of basic batter from part 1 in a small bowl, add in 0.5 tsp cake flour. Mix well. Transfer into a small piping bag.
3. Mix about 2 tsp of basic batter from part 1 with 1g of charcoal powder. Then add into the remaining basic batter from Part 1 to form the grey colour batter.
4. First, using the black batter from step 1 above, pipe in the eye pupils, outlines of the eyes, tummy marks. Bake for about 1.5mins.
5. Then, using the white batter from step 2 above, pipe in the eye whites and tummy of Totoro. And using the black batter from step 1 above, pipe in the lines for the whiskers. Bake for about 1.5mins.
6. Gently scoop and then pour in the grey batter from step 3 above into the doughnut mold until about 85% mark.
7. Lower oven temperature to 160C. Bake for about 15mins.
8. Remove from oven when baking is completed. Let it cool on the rack (until its okay to touch with your hands) before removing the doughnuts from the mold.

Tip: You can use toothpick to adjust if you make some mistakes. In the worst case, just wipe away the batter and redraw. 

Note: Do not attempt to remove the doughnuts from the mold immediately after baking as they might crack. Let the cakes cool down in the mold till it can be handled directly and remove by gently flipping the mold over, and easing them out.

(Part 2b)

1. Transfer about 3 tsp of remaining grey batter into a small piping bag.
2. Pipe the ears onto a sheet of non-stick baking paper. Baked for about 2-3 mins. Alternatively you can also microwave for about 1min at 700W.
3. Make two slits on top of the doughnuts and insert the ears to complete the Totoro doughnuts.

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More info on my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here and my 2nd cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ out now in stores here!

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post [Recipe post] Totoro doughnuts appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Decided to make myself more cute breakfast! Today it is Rilakkuma is swimming on floats :P haha

I love my recipe for these Rilakkuma honey cakes, so soft and yummy!

Plus the sweetness is just nice too.

You might have seen my Rilakkuma cakes recipe earlier on? See post here.

This is a variation of that recipe, so that you can create the various colours and designs.

Recipe for Rilakkuma Honey Cakes (Rilakkuma swimming on floats)

(1 serving each of the donut mold and Rilakkuma mold)

• 150g Morinaga hotcake mix
• 100ml milk
• 75ml whipping cream
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 medium egg
• 3-4 drops vanilla essence (optional)

PART 2 Method (swimming float)

1. Butter the silicon donut mold.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the ingredients together till incorporated and you have an even batter.
3. Scoop 3tbsp of batter into a separate small bowl. Add in 1.5tsp plain flour and some pink icing colour. Transfer into a small piping bag.
4. Pipe the pink strips for the ‘swimming float’ on the base of the donut mold (5 nos).
5. Bake at 180C for about 2-3mins.
6. Spoon in the batter into the donut mold till 80% full
7. Bake at 180C for 13-15mins.

Tip: Always allow the cakes to cool down in the mold before flipping it over to remove the cakes. If you try to remove the cakes while still very warm, the cakes will crack.

Part 2 Method (Rilakkuma)

1. Butter the silicon Rilakkuma mold
2. Using the remaining batter from PART 1, scoop the batter into the Korilakkuma mold until about 80% full.
3. Scoop out about 2.5 tbsp of batter into separate small bowl. Add in pinch of plain flour and some yellow icing colour. Mix well and transfer the batter into the Kiiroitori mold until about 80% full.
4. To the remaining batter, Add in pinch of plain flour and some brown  icing colour. Mix well and transfer the batter into the two Rilakkuma mold until about 80% full.
5. Bake at 180C for about 18 mins.

Note:  The areas near the bear’s ears are quite delicate, be gentle when removing from mold. 

Morinaga Hotcake Mix

Donut Silicon Mold

Rilakkuma Mold from San X

The weather is so super warm these days, makes me wish I can swim.

Just frolicking in cooling waters, and drinking a glass of refreshing lemonade :D

Maybe because I cannot swim, I always think of swimming floats and felt that it will be really cute for the Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori characters to be on the swimming floats.

I hope you like this Rilakkuma cakes recipe as much as I enjoyed making and eating them.

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More info on my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here and my 2nd cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ out now in stores here!

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post [Recipe] Swimming Rilakkuma Cakes appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Rilakkuma Honey Cakes!

Very happy that I found the latest Rilakkuma silicon baking mold at Seimon-Cho store. I first spotted it when browsing San X Japanese site and was comtemplating whether to buy it.

When I saw it here, I bought it immediately :D haha.

Such an easy way to make cute Rilakkuma cakes.

Today’s is my birthday!! haha

So I decided to make myself some cute Rilakkuma honey cakes and share them with my colleagues.

I did not want to make something too complicated so that I have more time to do my make up and look pretty :P haha, so this new Rilakkuma silicon mold was really a time saver.

Recipe for Rilakkuma Honey Cakes

(3 servings of the mold, 12 pieces in total)

• 150g Morinaga hotcake mix
• 100ml milk
• 75ml whipping cream
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 medium egg
• 3-4 drops vanilla essence (optional)

Method

1. Butter the silicon mold
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the ingredients together till incorporated and you have an even batter.
3. Scoop the batter into the mold till about 80% full
4. Bake at 180C for about 18mins.

Tip: Do not attempt to remove the cakes from the mold immediately after baking as the cakes might crack. Let the cakes cool down in the mold till it can be handled directly and remove by gently flipping the mold over. The areas near the bear’s ears are quite delicate, be gentle!

To add the details for Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori, I used chocolate pens to pipe the designs.

Yellow ears for Rilakkuma, Pink ears for Korilakkuma, white chocolate for their tummy and chocolate for all the other features.

Don’t have this Rilakkuma mold? The recipe can be used for other cute shape silicon molds too.

Enjoy baking!

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. My second cookbook titled ‘Kawaii Deco Sushi’ will be out in July 2015! 

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post Rilakkuma Honey Cakes appeared first on Little Miss Bento.

Inspired by the super cute bird bread buns sold in Tokyo, I decided to bake my own version of cute bird breads.

They might not be as cute as their Tokyo counterparts,  but I think the bird bread buns still look quite sweet and rather hilarious when placed together in a row.

Enjoying my freshly baked bird bread buns with some eggs.

Aren’t these RICE heart shape egg cups kawaii?

I almost squeal in joy when I spotted them at Motherswork recently. These rice cups come in a set of four pretty pastel colours of green, purple and two shades of pink.

They are so pretty on their own and will work really well for parties, children and table presentation~

Motherswork retails quite a wide collection of RICE tableware and stock new items regularly too. RICE is a children friendly melamine tableware range with really attractive and cheerful designs and colours.

Check out Motherswork’s stores for the awesome RICE tableware goods and lifestyle products too :)Four outlets in Singapore, at Great World City, Tanglin Mall, Marina Bay Sands and 112 Katong.

Happy shopping!

Would you like the recipe for the bird bread buns?

I hope you will enjoy making them!

Recipe for Bird Bread

Please note that I used a bread machine to knead the dough. If you are using hand, please adjust the water as the amount here might be too sticky to handle by hand knead method

Ingredients

• 200g bread flour
• 50g cake flour
• 20g butter
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1tsp salt
• 1tsp instant dry yeast
• 125ml water
• 25 g egg (remaining egg please keep for egg wash)
• 8 almonds
• chocolate custard
• red bean filling (144g – divide into 8 portions of 18g) *you can also use other bread filling as you prefer

Method

1. Weigh and add the ingredients into your bread pan. I used my Panasonic bread maker for this recipe.
2. After the dough knead process, remove from bread pan. Knead and shape into one large round ball. Place in a big mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise for 60mins.
3. The dough will double in size after the first fermentation process. You can do the dough test.
4. Punch out the air from the dough and transfer dough to worktop.
5. Knead and shape into one large ball. Divide into 8 equal portions of about 54-56g each.
6. Preheat oven to 170-180C.
7. Shape each portion into small round balls. Cover with damp lint-free cloth and let it rest for 15mins for second rise.
8. Roll out the dough and each into 14-15g and 40g aprox portions. Wrap the red bean filling inside the large dough and shape into a tear drop shape bread bun. This is for bird’s body. Shape the smaller dough into a small ball and place it on top to form the head of the bird.
9. Repeat for remaining 7 portions.
10. Let it rest for another 10mins for 3rd rise. Brush egg wash over the bread buns.
11. Cut the almonds into about 1/3, take the pointy side and press it into the dough with the pointy side facing out. This is for the bird’s beak.
12. Pipe the chocolate custard for the eyes.

Alternatively, you can perhaps use raisins or chocolate chips for the eyes. Just need to make sure you press the ingredients into the dough, if not it might pop out after the bread expands during the baking process. 

Sorry for the poor lighting.

These baking photos were taken yesterday night when I was baking and there wasn’t natural lighting in the house.

Have fun with baking these cute bird bread buns.

tip: Do explore the placement of the bird’s features (chocolate custard and almond) as it may result in different expressions of the birds. E.g. looking up, looking sideways etc.

Motherswork

Website: www.motherswork.com.sg

Four outlets in Singapore, at Great World City, Tanglin Mall, Marina Bay Sands and 112 Katong.

Motherswork store information and location here.

RICE 

Website:  https://www.rice.dk/

Follow my bento creations, food art and food styling journey on my Facebook my page here or my Instagram here.

More information about my bento cookbook title ‘Kawaii Bento’  here. 

キャラ弁ランキング – ブログのランキングに参加中。よろしければクリックしてくださいね♪　ありがとう

Please also support my blog ranking! Please just click the button below as the clicks will go towards the ranking! Thank you so much

↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓　↓  ↓  ↓

 

The post Bird Bread and RICE egg cups appeared first on Little Miss Bento.