Lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd and Italian meringue frosting

I'm having my parents over for a little time and of course I'm doing desserts almost everyday for them to enjoy!

We were not very lucky with the weather this week unfortunately so I wanted to bring the sun inside my house, and that for me is the taste of lemon, its color, the freshness of it, its smell...

For 24 small Lemon Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of plain yogurt
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup of sunflower oil

Put on a bowl the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla essence. Add the dry ingredients by batches.
Fill in the cupcakes and bake till it's done at 180° C. Depending on your oven, this might take 15 to 30 minutes approx.

Lemon Curd
75 g of melted unsalted butter
juice of 4 lemons
120 g sugar
3 eggs
1 spoon corn flour
the zest of 2 lemons
125 gr of unsalted butter

Mix eggs, sugar and corn flour. Add this to the melted butter mixing continously. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest. Bring almost to boil -fremir in French and keep stirring with a espatula until it thickens. BE PATIENT , it might take a while and do not stop stirring.
then add 125 gr of butter, keep stirring until consistency is smooth and shinny :)
Let it cool at room temperature

 
Italian Meringue
200 gr sugar
Water to dilute the sugar
100 gr egg whites

Make a sirop with the sugar and water, when the sugar reaches the temperature of 110 °C, start whisking the egg whites . When the sirop reaches 120°C, stop cooking and drizzle the sirop in the egg white, continuing whisking - ideally you should have a standing mixer- or a helper .
Continue mixing till the bowl is cool.
 
Ensembling your cupcakes
You can now dress the cupcakes.
With the help of an appel core peeler, make a hole in the center of your cupcakes. Fill it with the lemon curd.

Frost your cupcakes with the meringue and place it under your oven gril till colored. Keep an eye on them, they color very fast!!!

Let them cool and enjoy!

Carré a la crème

 I had some pate brisé left over from another sweet done last week.

So I used this one to make carré a la crème.
to make the pate brisé or pastry dough you need:

500 gr of flour
250 ml cold water
350 gr unsalted cold butter
10 gr salt


In a food processor add the flour, salt and butter, then do seconds pulses till you get a sand texture, not too grainy. Then, add the water till it forms a dough. Take it out and wrap in a plastic bag and place on the fridge for 20 minutes.

After that, in a flour surface, extend the dough into a rectangle and fold in 3. First one side and the other side on top of the first side. This is called the first tour.
Place in a plastic bag for 10 minutes in the fridge. Do this 3 times.
Finally, take the dough out and extend it till the size of your rectangular baking plate , around 3 mm thick. Any leftover can be reused! :)

Prick dough thoroughly on the bottom with the tines of a fork to help prevent it from blistering and "puffing up" as it bakes

Bake for 10 minutes at 220 C and then 15 minutes or less at 200 C. You need to see when ready. Depending on your oven, it might take less or more.

When cool, divide your dough in 3 rectangles of the same size. the size will depend on your baking sheet. Then again, in small rectangles of the same size.

Then whisk 500 cl of cream with 100 gr of sugar till it is like chantilly, firm but not too firm that becomes butter! With a piping bag and a canelle tip fill one rectangle of dough with chantilly, add some sliced strawberries or other season fruit and place another rectangle on top, you might need to add a bit of chantilly for it to stick! Then repeat again the same filling and end up with chantiflly and strawberries.

 

My daughter enjoying this summer dessert

My birthday

Yes, yes, yes... It was my birthday - April 6th and I had meant to post what I did for it some months ago. Normally, I don't like celebrating my birthday but this year I wanted to blow my candles, all 35!
So I made a vanilla cake with chocolate filling and covered with lucious chantilly...
Did I tell you I love chantilly? :) it's not only covered but on top chantilly roses ...



I baked a vanilla cake and then sliced it in 4 layers. I brush a syrop ( made with 200 cl of water and 200 gr of sugar, brought to boil for about 3 minutes and let it cool down before brushing it on each layer).
Brushing a syrop gives lots of moisture to a simple cake. You can flavour your syrop with alcohol (run, whisky, orange liquor, etc)

Then I made the dark chocolate filling...

For the dark chocolate filling recipe from Baking (Dorie Greenspan)
2 cups of milk
4 large egg yolk
6 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp corsntarch, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
7 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
2 1/2 tbp unslated butter, cut into 5 pieces at room temperature

To make the dark chocolate cream
Bring the milk to a boil. Meanwhile in a large heavy-bottmed saucepan, whisk the egg yolkds with the sugar, cornstarch and salt until think and well blended. Whisking without stopping, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk- this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won´t curdle- then, still whiskin, add the remainder of the milk in a steady stream. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and throroughly (make sure to get into the edges of the pan), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes. remove the pan from the heat.
Whisk in the melted chocolate and let stand for 5 minutes. Then whisk in the pieces of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the chocolate cream is smooth and silky. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the cream until chilled, or for up to 3 days. Or if you want to cool the cream quickly, put the bowl with the cream into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water and stir the cream occasionally until it's throroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.

I filled around 3mm each layer with the chocolate cream and then coat the exterior of the cake with chantilly.

Chantilly
1 L of cream - 40 % fat
120 gr of sugar
Whisk it until you have the right consistency, can form peaks. Be carefull not to over beat or you will end up with butter! Very expensive butter :)






what was left

yummy!

I am baaackkk

It's been certainly a while since I didn't post anything. I've been very busy, lot's of things happening, extremely tired but now I am back and also the sun.  It seems that finally Spring arrived bringing some much needed energy.

I am still going to my baking classes. I am in LOVE with them - once I managed to arrive and have my hands on the dough - but will spare you all the running around to get there which I don't necessarily love.

So what I have learned in class... many things... I'll post the pictures, sorry for the quality but they were taken with a mobile phone!

I made for my daughter's birthday. She turned 3!!!  I was told not to decorated with any cream.

I made this car cake for my colleague's son. He loved it!

Tartes meringue. Base of pate brise filled with pastry cream and cerises liés and cover with Italian Meringue !

St Honoré- Pate brise as base, with pastry cream, fruits, little choux filled with chantilly and covered in chocolate fondant

Saint Honore- and to cover it with Chantilly and fruit!

Carre a la Creme - 40X60 plaque of Pate brise as base, cut 10 cm width cut in long, cover with pastry cream

Last rectangle - brush a thin layer of abricotage (hot, hot)  and then brush the white fondant -fondant must be at the right temperature!!! and inmediately after do the lines with the chocolate and make with a knife the shapes

Finally, with a serrated knife cut in 3 cm width. Do NOT PRESS the dessert, very gently, no pressure SERRATE it

Huits à la creme- millefeuille with pastry cream

Belgian Waffles

Pain au chocolat (first attempt) this was my final exam of 2nd year!

Moka cake - this will be my final exam of Pastry!!!

Pain campagne

Croutes aux fraises- base pate sablé, filled with mix of pastry cream and chantilly, covered with fresh strawberries and finally brushed with abricotage and chopped pistaches

Caramel-peanut-topped brownie cake

I was doubting whether I should bake this weekend because I am on a diet and I am seeing progress plus it just seemed that lately I kept sabotaging myself. I have been very good and stayed off sweet for 14 days, that is huge for someone that bakes twice a week in my pastry class where the main ingredients are chantilly, pastry cream, melted chocolate and this is without counting the weekends!
Despite all this, I decided to take a day off from my diet. I kept with my workout schedule and today I am back on track ! sometimes you just got to indulge, right? Besides, if you had seen the picture of this cake, you just had to try it!!!!

Going back to this recipe, some months ago, I bought Dorie Greenspan book " Baking from my home to yours". There are zillion recipes, but there are more than a couple that have caught my eye. This one specially, I had never seen around a cake like this. The picture of this cake is so tempting, imagine a moist and rich brownie cover with peanuts an avalanche de caramel dripping out of them... enough to be mouthwatering

The recipe is quite easy to follow. I was so happy I got almost all ingredients, just missing the salted peanuts which hubby was so eager and helpful to go get some after seeing the picture. I'm telling you, the picture is...mmm yum!!!

Ingredients:

For the brownie cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

3 large eggs

½ cup packed light brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

3 tbsp. light corn syrup

½ tsp. vanilla extract

For the topping:

2 cups sugar

½ cup water

1½ tbsp. light corn syrup

2/3 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup salted peanuts

Making the cake

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350° F.  Butter an 8-inch springform pan, dust the inside with flour, tap out the excess and line the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper.  Place the springform pan on a baking sheet.

To make the cake, combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl; whisk together and set aside.  Add the butter and chocolate to a heatproof bowl set over simmering water.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients are just melted – do not let them get so hot that the butter separates.  Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugars until well blended.  Whisk in the corn syrup, followed by the vanilla.  Add in the melted butter and chocolate mixture, and whisk until combined.  Gently whisk in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are just incorporated.  The batter should be thick, smooth and shiny.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and jiggle the pan a bit to even out the batter.

Bake the cake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool he cake for 15 minutes, then run a knife between the cake and the pan and remove the sides of the pan. Cool the cake to room temperature.

Making the topping

Put the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir just to combine the ingredients and then put the pan over medium-high heat. Heat, without stirring , until the caramel turns deep amber, 5-10 minutes.

Lower the heat a bit and, standing back from the saucepan add the cream and butter. When the spatters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps. Stir in the peanuts, and pour the caramel and peanuts into a 1-quart Pyrex measuring cup or heat-proof bowl.

Spoon the peanuts on top of the cake. Then spoon the caramel on top of those. You’ll have a layer about ¼-inch high. Allow the topping to set to room temperature-about 20 minutes before serving.

To serve, run a blunt knife between the caramel and the pan and simply remove the sides of the springform. If this isn’t the case, hit the sides with some hot air from a hairdryer or wrap the sides in a towel moistened with hot water.

Serve either with whipped cream (chantilly) or ice cream!!!

Deliciousssssss!!! worth braking my diet for one day!

 

Fondant cakes: Love bed cake, T-shirt cake and little dots cake

 After my first fondant cake, I just wanted to explore and discover all the possibilities ... it's endless.  I decided to practice, rolling the fondant, placing it, details...
I did three different designs. I started with a very easy one, just a plain cake covered with white fondant and then added little rounds of three difference sizes.
This time around, I was very very patient and took my time to place the fondant, the result... it turned out GREAT!!!!! Very happy about that! and it didn't round , the sides were straight... tatannnnn

Then, I wanted something else... a-tshirt.  I didn't have many fondant colors to play endlessly ..just 4 basic colors. The result was not bad, the neck is a bit tricky... I went on by the feeling without any template, just what I thought, correcting, cutting, correcting till I found the shape similar to a t-shirt neck, not bad for a first time... then I added a few little details.

And finally, I did a bed and though I know Valentine's day is passed, I thought why no!?
This was really fun... Next time I do this, I will make two rectangular cookies and cover them with fondant to use as headboard and footboard, to make it more real!!!

 

I can't wait to decorate more cakes with fondant! SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

Buttercream and Royal icing Decoration

One of the most difficult parts of the second year in pastry is to decorate a cake, piping, writing, etc, etc...
So I did two small duchesse cakes and decided to practice a little bit. 

The biscuit duchesse
6 eggs
200 gr sugar
200 gr flour

Beat the eggs with the sugar until it doubles its volume in and out of the gas, it should never pass 38 degrees, so warm to the touch. Keep beating till you can make a ribbon and stays for a little while.
Then,  add the flour slowly with a spatula.
Finally baked in a 200 C pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes or till it springs back when touched.

I used a 16 cm round form and an even smaller  form of 10 cm.

When the cakes were cool, I cut them in half and brush a syrup made with sugar, water and a bit of run. I fill them in with Vanilla French buttercream, the one made by heating a sugar syrup until it reaches soft ball stage and then whipping it into beaten egg yolks and soft butter.

Finally, the decoration, I did American buttercream and for that I whipped soft unsalted butter and sugar S° and a couple of spoons of milk till I obtained the consistency I wanted.
I crumb coated them and then let it sit till firm. I tried to put into practice what I learned in class two weeks ago.
I decorated the 16cm cake with black buttercream and on top piped roses. I didn't have much buttercream left to do the bottoms so I used the royal icing.

For the smallest cake, I used royal icing to pipe some forms. I tried to create some hearts and then add little dots..

Still lots to practice. I am considering buying dummies, because I can't continue making this amount of cake for two persons only, plus I am sabotaging my diet...