Tropezienne has always been one of my sister’s favorites. Fluffy brioche that is brushed with a simple syrup, finished with pastry cream/lemon curd and fresh berries. Basically a shortcake using brioche instead of a biscuit or cake is the simplest way of explaining it. Ever since she had it in France and told me about…
Tag: pastry cream
Cinnamon Tequila Apple Mille Feuille
So I was fortunate enough to be gifted with a bottle of cinnamon tequila from the lovely Sheetal from Masterchef season 1, from her company, Spice Note Tequila, which features spice-infused tequilas! I actually love baking with alcohol, despite not being an alcoholic or even that much of a drinker(featherweight problems I guess), so I…
Strawberry-White Chocolate Tart
Whenever I think of my earlier childhood, I recall going to the local Asian bakery section in the Japanese supermarket and getting fruit tarts. Buttery pastry, silky, custard pastry cream, fresh fruit on top, a simple combination, but really delicious and addictive. With strawberry tarts in particular, they take what I love about fruit tarts,…
Pistachio and EVOO Mimosa Cake
Mimosa cakes have steadily become one of my favorite kinds of cakes to bake over the past 4 years. Mostly because I love cutting up cake into cubes, in case you haven’t already figure that out. For this specific recipe, I wanted to utilize yuzu as well, just to add something tart and bright to…
Vanilla Bean Boston Cream Pie
When I think about Boston Cream Pie, I just think about college. Going to school in a city full of history like Boston, I cannot help but think of that aforementioned classic American dessert. Layers of fluffy vanilla cake, a vanilla pastry cream, and chocolate ganache. Depending on the rendition, there are also almonds encrusting…
Princess (Mirror Glaze) Cake
This is my petit gateau(mini cake) take on the Swedish Prinsesstarta(Princess Cake). The Princess Cake usually consists of layers of vanilla cake with a vanilla custard/pastry cream and a raspberry jam, finished with fondant and/or marizpan. Now I could do fondant or marzipan, but those just don’t really taste good to me, nor do I…
Double decker buttermilk Fraisier cake
I do love myself a good fraisier cake, or a fraisier dessert of any kind, honestly! For those unfamiliar with the term, a fraisier cake is just a strawberry cake, usually featuring two layers of vanilla sponge with strawberries surrounding it and a vanilla cream between the layers. I have made a couple in the…
Great white way vanilla cake
So this cake was actually ordered and the request was for a plain vanilla cake. The thing is, I don’t like plain vanilla cake. That’s boring. So I wanted to do something a little more refined, and I went with a vanilla chiffon cake with pastry cream, French buttercream, and tempered white chocolate curls. I…
Starting your day: a religieuse
I was trying to figure out some creative ways to use pate choux, and then I thought about making breakfast cream puffs. I wanted to use bacon, blueberry, and maple, to emulate pancakes, and from there, I just thought about how I could use them in fun or inventive ways in pate choux. So I…
Duo of eclairs: ruby chocolate-apple and chocolate “Inca gold”
I just wanted to make really artsy eclairs, so I opted for two flavors, being a ruby chocolate-apple and a chocolate “Inca gold”. For the ruby chocolate eclairs, they are glazed in ruby chocolate and garnished with shards, while the inside is an apple butter pastry cream. I wanted to keep this one aesthetically pleasing,…
Citron mille crepe
I made this dessert as a result of having way too many lemons lying around. I have a family friend who always gives us free lemons and passionfruit straight from their trees (amazing quality and I love them for it every year!), so I knew right away that I could use a good amount of…
Dark and ruby chocolate layer cake
So my sister recently purchased a stand mixer for herself so that she can pick up baking as a hobby. Well, that and she makes a ton of bread at her house, and she is tired of kneading it by hand(I do NOT blame her, kneading bread makes my arms four times as sore as…
Eton mess with creme patissiere
For my second lesson with Lemonade, Marcin and I wanted to tackle another common ingredient, this time being eggs. Truthfully, the lemon meringue cookies could have been used for both lessons, since I showcased how to use the yolk and the white in a dessert, but I figured I would tackle an entirely different dessert with…
Matcha-chocolate checkerboard cake
With St. Patrick’s Day being just around the corner, I had to get in as many green desserts as possible. And by green, I mean naturally green. None of that artificial food coloring, Incredible Hulk-looking nonsense. Truthfully, St. Patrick’s Day baking has always been one of my least favorite holidays to bake for. It mostly…
Krofne with Nutella-Tim Tam pastry cream
I have been on a real Montenegrin fix lately, and I just wanted to continue that with one of my favorite desserts, the krofne. Krofne are super fluffy doughnuts, golden brown on each side, dusted in powdered sugar, and sometimes, with jam or custard piped inside of them. Very similar to a Berliner, and eaten…
Dianthus: a plated dessert
I really love baking with pate choux. But I tend not to make it as often due to mirror glaze cakes and naked layer cakes and doughnut creams all looking a lot prettier, so unfortunately, cream puffs do tend to take the back burner to my list of go-to desserts. That being said, when I…
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…
7 layer chocolate-raspberry cake
This was a behemoth to table. Mostly because for whatever reason, the cake starting leaning the moment I stacked on the mini cake. It was probably because I used chiffon cake as a base, which is super fluffy, so I recommend using dowels (or boba straws that are cut down to the height of the…
Cookies and cream tres leches cake
The inspiration for this dessert actually came from Housekeeping Appreciation Week. Since our team was only 22 people, it was actually a doable task to make something for them. I wanted to make something amazing for the housekeeping team that works hard to make sure that our guests don’t realize that our hotels rooms have…
Freddy's Harajuku 