Jasmin

I have to admit I was delighted when I completed the challenge to make this lovely dome-shaped cake.

I’ve had an urge to make this cake as it had been in my mind for 2 weeks.

I could have made this earlier but I didn’t really have times, plus this would make a lovely birthday cake for my mum.

I made a red wine poached pear mousse cake for my mum’s birthday last year & she wasn’t fond of it but this time she really likes this.

I wasn’t settled for the design even though I had the recipes & decorations drawn up.

I changed them as I was making it, that’s why I’d spent a whole day & it’s great I didn’t mess up the decoration, phew…

I almost did with the glaze, can’t really see it from the photos as I’d it covered by the strawberry lace tuiles.

The cake is composed of 6 components: 

1. white genoise

2. jasmine creme brûlée

3. jasmine & lychee jelly

4. jasmine & white chocolate mousse

5. lychee milk glaze

6. strawberry lace tuiles

Original design (bottom) & composition (above).

I named this cake Jasmin as there is a base note of jasmine with fragrant & sweet lychee, they work wonderfully together.

My mum loves it, my sister loves it  & I love it :)

There was one suggestion from my sister that I could use nappage neutre instead of the milk glaze, it might be easier to work with but I bet I still make a mess with that…

One Apple, Two Blueberry Cheesecakes & Three A Trip to Lewes

It’s my friend’s birthday and she had special request for a baked cheesecake.

So, the night before I met her, I baked, not one but two small cheesecakes.

The recipe was actually for a 8” cake but we’re going to a historical & lovely town called Lewes.

It’s not a good idea to bring a giant 8” cake around.

The little cheesecake turned out great with simple arrangement of poached apples & my friend loved it :)

I cooked some blueberry jam & simply spread over the other cheesecake which I brought to my mum the next day when we had lunch together.

Lewes was an adorable town, full of antique shops, cozy cafe & cute crafts stores.

There is also a big flea market & it's like treasure hunting :)

Floral tea cups & saucers bought from Lewes.

Triple Chocolate Mascarpone Cheesecake

This is one of a few cheesecakes that I'll make again, not only because it's simple to prepare, yet the result has never failed me.

It's more like chocolate pots de creme, smooth & rich, I once called this killer chocolate cheesecake.

It's absolutely chocolatey.

A little inspiration is topping with chocolate ganache & dark chocolate sprinkles.

It is freezing in London & it's no more comforting than having a rich chocolate cheesecake in a warm sofa.

Wish you all have a happy valentine's day.

I'm thankful to Maryanne from the little epicurean for nominating me for this award.

Below comes the rules for this award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you & link back to his/her blog.

2. Post the award in your blog.

3. List 5 blogs with fewer than 200 followers& break the news by commenting on those blogs.

I am nominating (in no particular order) few of my favourite blogs:

london bakes

a meandering mango

appledrane

a cup of mai

double cream single sugar

Red Velvet Cake on a Snowy Day

Valentine's day is coming so I thought it's a great time to bake this lovely red velvet cake.

I've bookmarked this recipe (for who knows how long...) when I'd first seen it from Dear Pig's blog (chinese).

She baked the cake & simply garnished it with red rose petals.

It looks so perfect & I couldn't think a better way to decorate the cake.

To be honest, decorate a cake with frosting is what I'll always avoid if I can.

That was one of the reason why I hadn't made this when I saw it the first time.

Last week, I finally made it & tried my best with the frosting, it wasn't too bad after all :)

Indoor shoots on red background.

Soon after I made this cake, snow had finally arrived in England.

I had been waiting the snow as I feel the winter without snow is not like winter.

It snowed all night & there're inches of snow when I waked up the next morning.

Put on some warm clothes, took my camera & I walked out the door & stunned by the beautiful scenes.

When I got back home, I thought it'd be a great idea to take the cake out & took some photos.

It did look amazing in the snow!

Blackberry & White Chocolate Mousse

The mousse was very easy to make, I almost always have the ingredients in hands.

It just happened that I had some white chocolate & blackberries, not very usual as I always stock dark chocolate & raspberry.

Anyway, I whipped them up in the morning, piped in a silicon mould & freeze.

Later, I popped them out & simply arranged with some rose syrup & blueberry jam I made sometimes ago.

It turned out to be gorgeous :)