Chocolate Genoise with Berries

I was quite excited last week as I bought a new camera, Fujifilm X-Pro 1.

As much as I like my old camera GF1, I think it’s time to upgrade.

I took a few shoots in the front garden, it’s bright & sunny so flowers are blooming.

To celebrate my sister’s birthday, I baked a chocolate genoise filled with layers of berries.

We had an incredible tea time, we had freshly baked scones, hazelnut macaroons with fruity & tangy berry tea.

A great way to enjoy the spring.

Mother's Day & A Sweet Paradise

March is a very busy month, family birthdays & mother's day.

I've baked 3 cakes including this one this month.

 I made 'Jasmin' again for mother's day since my mum likes it.

My sister Kelly suggested to put in some bird's nest (燕窝) in the jelly so I did.
This time I made it into a simple round-shape & garnished with white chocolate shards.
Spring has come & camellia has started to bloom in the front garden so I took a few for garnish.

My patissier-to-be sister Jenny had made us some chocolate macarons & a delicious blueberry cheesecake.

At the end of the day, we're a bit overwhelmed by the desserts.

Rose Angel

I baked this rose angel food cake from egg whites left after I made the chocolate concerto.

I was thinking to bake a lavender one instead of rose but I just couldn’t find it from all those tins & jars in my kitchen.

My sister isn’t fond of the rose fragrant, she prefers lavender but I think it's alright.

The cake is not overly sweet, tender & ethereally light.

I could have eaten the entire cake by myself in one sitting.

I don’t have a cake pan for angel food cake so I used a 6” round cake pan, seems to be fine.

I might invest one as I think I’ll bake more angel food cakes.

For those who are trying to watch their diet & calorie intake, this is a perfect dessert.

Chocolate Concerto

March is a busy month for me, birthdays & mother’s day, all these take almost all my weekend breaks.

Last week, I made a chocolate mousse cake as a birthday cake.

Even though I wasn’t happy about the photos, I’ll post it on my blog anyway.

The cake tastes great, not very sweet, rich & divine, just how I like it to be.

I made a 8” square but it was a bit thin, I think using a 6” square is much better.

The cake consists of 3 luscious layers of dark, milk & white chocolate mousses & a rich chocolate cake.

To enhance the taste of chocolate, I didn’t put in sugar for the mousses as suggested from the recipe.

Plus, brushing the cake with Grand Marnier syrup adds a sophisticated note.

The original name is Trios Mousses au Chocolat - chocolate trios.

I prefer ‘concerto’ as it really is a showcase of chocolate.

Caramel Financiers & Guest Post on Foodforfriendsyeah!

It was a pleasure to be invited by Matt from foodforfriendsyeah to write a food photography guide for his site.

I have to admit that I’m not very good in writing photography guide & I think there’re lot of great food stylists/ bloggers who are much better than me but I had to give it a try.

If you’re ever interested in how I take my food photos, you can read the entire story here.

I hope some people will find it helpful & let me know what you think.

Back to the food, I baked these mini caramel financiers sometimes ago & I thought I’ll share the recipe here.

This wasn’t the first time I’ve baked financiers but I think this was the best ones.

Alright, I’m obsessed with caramel & I couldn’t resist anything made with it.

These little financiers were moist, delicate, not so sweet & with a rich flavour of caramel.