Mille crêpes au thé vert matcha : Your cute, little green tea crepe cake.

I love the green tea, and I just can't stop using it in any recipe that I can ^^. I know that if you have an affair with it you will be like me. So this time, I put it in a simple crepe cake, and filled the cake with Japanese ingredient.

Tartelette au Citron Meringue: My favorite flavor, my favorite fragrance turn into my delicious tarts.

If you browsing through my blog, you will see that I have a lot of recipes which contain lemon. And yes it's one of my favorite flavor and fragrance ^^. Whenever my friends ask me " What is your favorite dessert?" Lemon tart is always on my list.

January 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge #48: Joconde Imprime Entremets, Chocolate Banana

I know that it's not a usual cake to bake at home but I think it's fun to make ^^. I love the feeling of thinking what pattern that I will make and what I will put together to make the  Entremets, and I know that you might think that I'm crazy, haha.

Entremets Glacé "Cappuccino": You'll need Frozen Coffee!!!

I know that I have a bad habit, ^^", when someone ask me for something, I rarely say no. But it's not always a problem when coming to recipe, haha, because when the person who ask me for the recipe get the recipe that he or she wants, I have both recipe and delicious time. For this time, when Khun Kris ask me about the "Ice Cream Cake", I just couldn't say no, because I really want to make it too.

Concorde Cake: Chocolate mousse and meringue cake, to fulfill my curiosity!

There are a lot of reasons to making this Concorde cake, 1. You have a lot of egg whites in your fridge, 2. you love to eat chocolate, 3. you love to eat meringue and 4. you really want to try something, ^^.

For me, I have all 4 reasons to making this cake, plus my original reason "I got a new book again". This time is a ......................
But as I say that even you try your best the error can happen, it happened in this book too, and it's in this recipe "Concorde". When I read the recipe I noticed that the sequence of the recipe seen strange, for the chocolate meringue, I never saw any recipe that start with beating the egg white then adding the cocoa and icing sugar -*-.
I know that it's wrong, but I really want to try it, haha, it's me, the girl who always want to know! So I tried to make the meringue by following the step in the book and as anyone can predict, I got a mixture of egg whites with cocoa and sugar that 
looked like a sauce, ^^" don't have to talk about whipping it, it couldn't.
The next thing that I found is the chocolate mousse for this cake is very sweet, my sister say that it's the first time that she found the cake that its meringue was less sweet than the mousse. I felt a bit sad about this book and Katsuhiko Kawata san, I hope that the problem came from the editing process not himself.
After the failure, I have to make something right. So I make this cake again by following the right step, adding the cocoa powder and icing sugar after the meringue become firm, haha, and reduce the sugar in the mousse.  Now, I can show you the Chocolate Concorde cake, the cake that consists of meringue disks and French chocolate mousse. The French chocolate mousse is the mousse that make with butter and eggs, that seen to be an old method of making mousse at home. 
Some people think that this dessert is quite heavy when see the butter in the mousse ingredient list, but I think after they try this recipe, they have to change their mind, it's not too heavy to enjoy. As I say, I love to bake and eat it too, and I make this cake in a smaller size. I really believe that half of this cake will be fine for me to enjoy ^^, the other half is for my sister.   
So, why don't you make this cake and having someone to share with like me, and remember that you can find your happiness in (and from) your kitchen too.

  Concorde

Makes 5 (8cm/cake)

Chocolate meringue
120g .............................. Egg whites
120g .............................. Icing sugar
30g ................................ Cocoa powder
120g .............................. Granulated sugar


Chocolate mousse
125g .............................. Dark chocolate (70%)
75g ................................ Unsalted butter (soft)
2 .................................... Egg yolks

40g ............................... Icing sugar
90g ................................ Egg whites

10g ................................ Granulated sugar


...................................... Icing sugar for sprinkle over the top of the Concordes

Preheat the oven to 120 °C

Line the baking sheets with baking paper or silicone baking mat.

Sift the cocoa powder with the icing sugar, set aside.

 Whip the egg whites until soft peaks formed, gradually add the granulated sugar and whip until stiff peaks formed.
Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into the meringue, fold lightly until fully combined.
Put the batter into the piping bag fitted with 1.2 cm piping nozzle.

Pipe the meringue into 15 disks (7cm in diameter), then pipe the rest of the meringue into long strips.

Bake for 2 hours, or until the meringue dry, turn off the oven and rest the meringue in the oven for 1 hour.
After taking off the meringue out of the oven,  let cool completely before proceed the next step. (Note from dailydelicious: you can bake the meringue and keep it in the airtight container for 2-3 days at room temperature)
When ready to assemble the Concordes, cut the meringue strips into small pieces.


Making the chocolate mousse:

 Melt the chocolate by putting the chocolate in the bowl and place the bowl over warm water (without letting the bottom of the bowl touch the water), stir until melt.

Put the soft butter into the melted chocolate, stir to combine.

 Pour the egg yolks (one at a time) into the chocolate mixture, stir to combine after each addition. Sift the icing sugar into the chocolate mixture, stir to combine.

 Whip the egg whites until soft peaks formed, gradually add the granulated sugar and whip until stiff peaks formed.
Fold the meringue into the chocolate mixture, 1/3 of the meringue at a time, fold lightly until combined.


Assemble: 

 You can use the piping bag or just spread the chocolate mousse over 1 disk of the meringue, place one meringue on and spread the mousse again, then top with another disk of the meringue.

Spread the mousse over the top and side of the concorde, decorate with the meringue strips. Sprinkle the icing sugar over the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Concorde Cake: 

Chocolate mousse and meringue cake, to fulfill my curiosity!

Fraisier: Beautiful French Strawberry Cake

"Fraisier", the French strawberry cake, that contains a lot of the strawberry and cream ^^.  I wish I could make it a long time ago, well, I always fall for the beautiful cake. 
This is my second time on this cake, the first one is too sweet, I have to make some adaptation in the recipe so it becomes mellow.
I think there are some error in the original recipe. The recipe comes from one of my favorite book ....................... , I tried 4 recipes fromthis book by now, this one is the only one that has a problem.
The buttercream in this recipe calls for 1/2 whole egg, and use 100g of sugar, the first time that I made it I just follow it without thinking -*-, the base of the buttercream are liquid but I still try to make it till the end, and end up with super sweet buttercream that lacks the puffiness. The right amount of the egg has to be 1 whole egg, and I'm sure about this when I compare with other recipe. 
And I reduce the sugar in the pastry cream too, because when all of them come into 1 cake the sweetness are over limitation. So at last I come up with the right "Fraisier".
The cake consists of 5 elements, Génoise sponge, crème pâtissière, crème au beurre, strawberry and Italian meringue.  As I like to say, even the cake seen complex the truth is not. Each of the element is easy to make, and can be prepared ahead of time except for cutting the strawberries and making the Italian meringue, you have to do it when you ready to assemble the cake. So don't think that you can't make these, it's a lot easier than you think. You can start making the Génoise sponge, the crème pâtissière, the crème au beurre in 1 day before then assemble them and cover with the meringue the day after, this way you can manage you timetable better,



For the look of the cake, I really believe that the deliciousness start with the eyes, ^^, the loveliness of this cake make people happy even before they eating it. The decoration for this cake is easy, just place the fresh strawberries on top of the cake and you get a cute cake without making an effort ^^.


Finally, please enjoy my Fraisier, and I hope you will love it.


Fraisier(フレジエ) = フランスでイチゴのケーキ

Fraisier (フレジエ)

Makes 15cm cake

Génoise
Make 1 – 18cm
3 ..................................... Eggs
90g ................................. Granulated sugar
90g ................................. Cake flour
10g ................................. Unsalted butter
30cc ................................ Milk

Crème au beurre
90g ................................ Granulated sugar
25g ................................ Water
1 ..................................... Egg
125g ............................... Unsalted butter
......................................... A dash of salt

Crème Pâtissiere

125cc ............................. Milk

........................................ Seed form ¼  Vanilla bean

2 .................................... Egg yolks

20g ................................ Granulated sugar

15g ................................. All purpose flour

10g ................................. Unsalted butter

Simple syrup

50g ................................  sugar 

50cc .................................. water

Kirsch syrup

50g .................................. Simple syrup

20cc ................................. Kirsch 

Meringue Italienne

50g ................................. Egg whites

100g ............................... Sugar

20cc ................................ Water

250g ............................... Strawberries


Make the Génoise:

Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Prepare the 18cm cake pan by line the base with the baking paper.

Melt the butter in the microwave.

Pour the milk into the hot melted butter.

Beat the egg and sugar over a bowl of warm water, whisk until the sugar melt.

Beat the egg and sugar mixture until ribbon stage (you can see that you can lift the beater and make the letter 8).

Sift the flour into the egg mixture, fold gently until combine.

Pour the milk and butter mixture into the bowl and fold gently.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.

Take of the oven and let  it cool completely before take the cake out of the pan.

Make the Simple syrup:

Put the water and sugar into small saucepan and bring to boil, until all the sugar dissolved, take off the heat and let the syrup cool.

Mix the Kirsch into 50g of the syrup.


Make Crème Pâtissiere:

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk  to boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar, seeds from vanilla bean and all purpose flour together and whisk in a bowl.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over low heat).

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F,stir in the butter. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled.

Make the Buttercream:

In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 100°C, start whisking the egg.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 117°C; pour it over the egg  and continue whisking until cold.

Add salt and beat to combine, then add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Increase the mixer speed to high for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated.

Make the Italian meringue:

In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 100°C, start whisking the egg whites.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 117°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold.

Assemble the Fraisier:

Slice the cake into 1.5 cm layer (you will use only 1 layer, keep the rest for other recipe).

Cut the cake into 12cm round, and place in 15cm cake ring, sprinkle with Kirsch syrup.

Pipe the buttercream around the cake and place the strawberries on the side of the cake.

Pipe the buttercream over the strawberries and use the spatula to smooth the buttercream.

Pipe the Crème Pâtissiere in the center, then place the strawberry slices on top.

Cover the strawberries with buttercream. Refrigerate for 1 hour to firm up the buttercream.

Cover the top of the cake with Italian meringue and decorate with strawberry slices.

Fraisier: Beautiful French Strawberry Cake

Chicken Farm Baker's Project # 27 : Sweet Trick or Treat? Sweet H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N is coming!

The Halloween, well for me it's not so special, ^^", I never made anything for this occasion before, (haha, I have to tell you the truth, right?). Not that I don't like it, I just don't have anything to do with it.

Raspberry Mousse Cake:Give it a try, why don't you make it today?

I believe that most people always think that this kind of cake will be very hard to make, but believe me, it's easy if you really want to.

This kind of cake is an assemble of many elements, like sponge cake (this cake is Joconde), the mousse, and syrup. It's not hard if you can do all of this, you will be able to crate many kinds of lovely dessert (or show pieces , haha).  


I didn't think that I'm good at this and I have to learn and practice more and more, because I didn't have a chance to go to the baking school even I really want to but well, we have to accept that we can't get everything that we want in our life ^^. So, for me baking and more baking at home is both fun and fulfill my passion.
All I want to tell you is "Don't be afraid to try it". There is nothing that is hard to do if you really want to. 
For this time, I love the look of this dessert and after reading, I want to give it a try. 
About this dessert, the base of the mousse contains the Italian meringue which will make the mousse lighter in both texture and taste. If you never making the Italian meringue before, it may be the right time to try ^^, and after this you will be happy to know that you can make many kinds of lovely dessert with Italian meringue base.
For the apricot glaze, you can use the strained apricot jam instead, but it will have a bit of light brown color than clear like this one.
I love the taste of this mousse, not too sweet and the texture is very light. The Joconde biscuit is good too, it's not dry like other kind of the sponge cake and great when combine it with the mousse
So, after I make a lot of persuasion I think you are ready to give this cake a try, right? ^^You will fine it's easier than you imagine, believe me.

Mousse aux Framboises

Make one (15cm cake)

Biscuit Joconde
3 ...................................... Egg whites
60g ................................. Sugar
50g ................................. Almond powder
50g ................................. Icing sugar
1 ...................................... Egg
3 ...................................... Egg yolks
45g .................................. Cake flour
-Pâte à decor
   20g ................................. Unsalted butter, soften
   20g ................................. Icing sugar
   15g .................................. Egg white
   20g ................................. Cake flour
   ......................................... Red food coloring


Meringue Italienne
50g ................................. Egg whites
100g ............................... Sugar
20cc ................................ Water


Mousse au Framboise 
100g ............................... Raspberry puree
3g .................................... Gelatin
80g ................................. Meringue Italienne
60cc ................................ Whipping cream


Simple syrup
50cc ................................  sugar 

50g .................................. water

Kirsch Syrup
50cc ................................ Simple syrup
20cc ................................ Kirsch


Filling
6 ...................................... Small size raspberry 

Nappage neutre

50g ................................. Nappage neutre (I use apricot glaze)

20cc ............................... water

Topping
......................................... Strawberry and raspberry




Make the Biscuit Joconde:


Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Line the 30x30cm pan with baking paper.
Mix together almond powder with the icing sugar, set aside.
Sift the flour, and set aside.


Make the pâte à decor:

Beat together all the ingredient until smooth and put the batter into the piping bag and pipe the small dots over the pan.

Beat egg whites until soft peak form, add half of the sugar, a little by little, and beat  until stiff peak form.

Beat egg yolks and whole egg with almond powder, the icing sugar and the rest of the sugar and until light and thicken.
Add 1/3 of the meringue with half of the flour, fold to combine, add 1/3 of the meringue with the rest of the flour and fold to combine, then add the rest of the meringue. 

Fold until fully combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until golden.
Peel the baking paper and let the biscuit cool.
When the biscuit cool completely cut into 2 -4 cm stripes, and 1 -12cm round.  


Set the biscuit into the 15 cm cake pan, or cake ring.


Make the Simple syrup:

Put the water and sugar into small saucepan and bring to boil, until all the sugar dissolved, take off the heat and let the syrup cool.

Make the Italian meringue:

In a sauce pan, put the sugar and water and bring to boil over medium low heat.
When the syrup reaches 100°C, start whisking the egg whites.

The syrup is ready when it reaches 117°C; pour it over the egg whites and continue whisking until cold.

Make the raspberry mousse:

Bloom the gelatin in cold water for 3-5 minutes.
Put 50g of the puree into the microwavable glass or bowl, and heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until hot, put the gelatin in hot puree, stir to dissolve.
Mix the hot puree with the rest of the puree and let it cool.

Beat the whipping cream until soft peaks form.

Mix the puree with the Italian meringue and fold to combine. Pour the raspberry mixture into the whipped cream and fold to combine.

Mix 50 cc of simple syrup with the Kirsch and sprinkle over the cake.

Pour half of the mousse into the pan and place the small raspberry inside, and pour the rest over it.

Smooth the top and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Melt the glaze with the water, warm the glaze mixture and pour over the mousse, leave to set in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Decorate with the strawberry and raspberry, before serving.

Raspberry Mousse Cake:Give it a try, 

why don't you make it today?