Blessed Charlemagne's Feast Day

Blessed Charlemagne's feast day is on Thursday 28th January and it is my little boy's name day also.  Little Charlemagne's birthday falls on Good Friday this year and who would celebrate birthdays on Good Friday?  So he has to have his birthday transferred to his name day and he will be 12 years old on the third day of April 2015.

 

[These pictures of little Charlemagne were taken a couple of days ago with Auntie Marie's new mini iPad.]

So I am making cupcakes for him: humans can eat cupcakes made from butter, eggs, sugar, flour et cetera top with Italian meringue butter cream and the cat can eat a cupcake made from tuna, and Auntie Marie has bought two large tins of tuna in spring water for my little boy. 

Here are examples of human cupcakes for little Charlemagne's name day.

And for my Ahmue - this butter cream tastes like mum's.  Here is the recipe.

200 ml of egg whites
1/8 tsp of cream of tartar
50 grams of caster sugar

whisk until light and fluffy - soft peak stage

In a small pan, which has a sprout, add 250 grams of sugar [can be caster or granulated and can be reduced to 200 grams if you do not want the butter cream to be too sweet] and add 100 ml of water.  Heat up the sugar and water in low heat until the sugar dissolves and then turn up the heat to medium.  You will have to stir the sugar and water to help the sugar dissolve.  If you find any sugar crystals on the side of the pan, then use a silicon spatula to push the crystals down to the liquid.

When all the sugar has dissolved, turn up the heat to medium and do NOT stir anymore.  Insert a sugar thermometer into the syrup and let it boil until the temperature reaches 121 C.  When the syrup reaches 121 C, turn off the heat, place the bottom of the pan in a bowl of cold water to stop the temperature of the syrup rising and then dry the bottom of the pan with a clean towel.

Turn your beater, which has a balloon whisk, to the highest speed and pour the very hot 121 C syrup into the whisked egg whites.  Continue whisking even when you have finished pouring the syrup into the egg whites.

When the whisked egg whites have cooled down, i.e. the bowl is only warm to touch, add 450 grams of unsalted butter, which has been cut into cubes into the egg whites while it is whisking at high speed.  Continue to add the cubes of butter, a cube at a time, until all the butter has been added.  Then add your flavours.  I added some vanilla extract [1 tsp] and orange oil [1/2 tsp] into the butter cream.  You can add any flavours which take your fancy.

Continue whisking until the butter cream is well formed and I then wrap the top of the bowl with cling film until you are ready to use the butter cream.

If you store the butter cream in your fridge over night, then you have to warm up the butter cream to room temperature and the whisk the butter cream until it reaches a soft state which allows you to pipe or apply it on your cakes. 

This butter cream is truly delicious and it reminds me of mum's butter cream.  However, Auntie Marie says perhaps I could reduce the amount of sugar in the butter cream.  If I were to make this butter cream again, I would reduce the sugar by 50 grams. 

AND Mrs Caroline Jones says she loves the butter cream because it is so light and creamy - and personally I [I as in Ruyi] think it tastes better than whipped double cream. 

28 January 2015 morning

Today is Charlemagne's feast day or name day or whatever you want to call it.  I got up at 5 this morning to bake little Charlemagne more cup cakes and decorated them after Mass.  I did not take him to Mass as he would create mayhem in church.  LOL  However, I will bring him to Fr Abbot Francis on Friday after the house Mass for the monk to bless him like last year. 

Here are the photos of the cupcakes I baked and decorated today.