The flavors for this dessert are inspired by two things: my current boss, as it was her birthday when I made this, and the British royal wedding cake for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. My boss, who I shall leave anonymous, just out of respect for her privacy, is a very kind, loving person, who…
Gateau Opera
So Gateau Opera is one of those desserts that I have read a lot about, but never really bothered to try making on my own. I have made the sponge, jaconde, before, and obviously, I have made ganache before. But the other filling, which is a coffee infused French buttercream, not so much. For those…
Roasted silkie chicken leg with polenta
When I was butchering black chicken, I decided to make a full-on chicken dinner out of the legs and wings! Taking the contrasting color of the chicken, and making a bright yellow polenta, a purple-ish sauce, and these colorful radishes. So with the legs and wings, I decided to roast those and pair them with…
Chocolate Arc-En-Ciel Cake
Arc-En-Ciel is just French for rainbow. This cake, it literally is a chocolate rainbow, split by different shades of chocolate brown. I wanted to make this cake because I love ripping off of Lady M’s menu, since their cakes, while gorgeous and delicious, are too damn expensive. I am NOT going to pay $65-90 for…
Andante: a chocolate and rose plated dessert
The word andante refers to a slow tempo, while the inspiration for the dessert came from the concept of falling in love. It should not be something to rush into, but rather, something you can take your time enjoying. For the dessert itself, we have a chocolate-coffee panna cotta, a rose-goat milk fluid gel, black…
Honey Flash: a plated dessert
I really wanted to do a dessert that used brown butter and honey, since it’s a delicious combination, but something I could elevate easily. For this dessert, it was originally going to be a flan, but I dun goof’d and used whole eggs instead of just yolks, causing the dessert to souffle. However, for this…
Starry Wish: black sesame-coconut-tangerine petit gateaus
I was thinking of a way to utilize the many tangerines we had at home (fun fact, when you are family friends with citrus farmers in Southern California, you have a fuck-ton of citrus that you get to cook with). From that, I thought, why not go with an Asian inspired dessert? And not because…
Pistachio-lemon-blueberry layer cake
This cake sort of was the result of utilizing leftover/surplus ingredients in our house. It was made for a family gathering, and because we had a TON of lemons in our house that we needed to get rid of, this cake kind of was a huge no-brainer. I love making olive oil and lemon cakes,…
Cherry blossom orgel: a sakura tart
This was my first time working with salted sakura blossoms. And let me tell you, they are saltier than me when I am told that I have to work overtime when I was an accountant. I wanted to cook with these to celebrate the cherry blossom viewing season, but I did not realize that they…
Super simple strawberry-phyllo mille feuille
Not everything I make has to be super complex or difficult. With this dessert, I tried my best to edit it down to just three things: crispy caramelized phyllo dough, Bismarck cream, and balsamic macerated strawberries. What? It’s simple by my standards. I mean, look at it! No mirror glaze, tempered chocolate, none of those bells…
