Kings Cake.
Making it with Amish butter out of curiosity…

That time of year again; Made a “bûche de Noël” (It tastes better when you say it in French 🙂
– Lady finger batter, White Chocolate Salted Caramel Ganache filling, Nutella Butter Cream. Decorated with Meringue Mushrooms, Fresh Mint Chocolate Leaves, Milk Chocolate Curls, Grilled Hazelnuts & Almond Slices and Dates filled with Almond Paste.

Sweet Dough, Pastry Cream and fruits. Easy and yummy.

Sweet Dough (Pierre Hermé) Almond Cream and Bartlett Pears poached in Caramel.
Served with Chantilly and Cranberries.

Following loosely Pierre Hermé’s recipe for the Faubourg Pavé I made a White Chocolate & Cherry version of it.
Tart Cherries cooked with black pepper, White chocolate Caramel Ganache with Tarragon infused cream and Michigan Tart Cherry Liquor from Leopold Bros. Meringue for decoration. Here’s a step by step…
For the second layer of fruits I actually cooked cranberries with grounded fennel seeds, caraway seeds and anise seeds.

Faubourg Pavé – Recipe by Pierre Hermé
Chocolate Cake, Chocolate & Caramel Ganache with Apricot.

(Red & blue are the colors of the Paris flag. Doesn’t go well with the cake but that’s my homage…)

Apple Mille-Feuille with Caramelized Chestnuts, Calvados Chantilly, Caramel and Grilled Almonds.

Had some left over dough from last weekend so…
(Brand new Chicago Metallic Non-Stick 10-Inch Quiche Pan)

Thin layer of apple sauce…

Adding the sliced apple…

Cooked at 400F with some aluminum foil on top. (I wanted the dough to be well cooked and not all mushy.)

Unrelated but slow baking (a few hours) some left over apple with butter + Tahitian vanilla + honey + brown sugar and sliced almond. Should be good…

Caramelized Honey Nut and Seed Tart for desert tonight 🙂
Recipe from Bon Appetit.
(Pecan, Hazelnut, Peanuts, Pistachio, Sliced Almonds, pumpkin and sunflower)

Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake

Happy Violent Time Anastasia
Valentine Cake – My take on valentine’s day 🙂

Heart Shape Chocolate Cake with nougatine roses.

My favorite pie for some reason…
Pears Poached in Merlot Wine with cinnamon and orange.
Filling: Pastry Cream with walnuts.

My first cheese cake. Recipe from the FoodNetwork website…

Recipe From Food & Wine.

Take some nice corn…

Cook the corn with sugar, salt and cream

Bake the husk until golden

Make a powder out of the baked husk (takes forever)

Make a meringue & mix the husk powder

Ready to cook (slowly).

Blend the corn mixture

Add some mascarpone and mix some chantilly

Cooked meringue

Serve & Enjoy with a (high acidity) white wine