Lychee, Raspberry & White Chocolate Entremets

Apology for not updating the blog more regularly.

This recipe was long forgotten & so did the photos.

These entremets have intense lychee flavours & balanced with the tanginess of raspberry.

It consists of 5 components: genoise, lychee jelly insert, white chocolate mousse, fresh raspberry & lychee jelly.

Happy baking :)

Chocolate, Earl Grey & Hazelnut Gateau

This was the chocolate & earl grey gateau I made for my sister's birthday back in August.

I know it’s end of September & I could have posted the recipe ages ago.

It seemed like I always have too many things to do like travelling, making hand creams, cross stitching e.g. & baking seems to be the last on my list.

It’s a rich chocolate mousse cake consists of 6 components:

1. Chocolate cotton cake

2. Hazelnut praline coated puffed rice

3. Hazelnut praline mousse

4. Chocolate mousse

5. Earl grey creme insert

6. Chocolate glaze

It took me 2 days to finish this & it was absolutely worth as the cake was delicious with wonderful combo of flavours.

Earl Grey, Hazelnut & Chocolate Yule Log... Happy New Year 2015!

This was the first time I had prepared a dessert for a Christmas meal.

It was usually Jenny’s job to do it, ever since she’s working as a professional patisserie, she doesn’t bake much at home.

This cake consists of 4 components:

Earl grey creme

Hazelnut mousse

Chocolate sponge cake

Chocolate chantilly cream

I quite enjoyed preparing the yule log & I'm sure I’ll be making this from time to time as I really like the combo.

A rich chocolate cake with a smooth nutty mousse & a sophisticated note of earl grey tea, all combine every well. 

Everyone loved it & commented that it’s very nice.

This has been a great year for me in completing my Ph.D.

Thank you all for your patience & re-joining me this year & the coming years.

Wishing you all the best & happy new year.

Cadeau

March supposed to be spring time but in London the weather is freezing cold.

My mum's birthday and mother's day are in March so we always celebrate together.

For this reason, I flipped through a few cookbooks & wrote down a recipe even though I didn't feel like baking recently.

To suit my mum's taste bud, I made this entremet with crunchy streusel, nutty praline genoise, tangy raspberry jelly & smooth cream cheese mousse.

This combo turned out wonderfully well, almost everyone had 2 slices to be satisfied.

The recipe is adapted from a chinese cookbook "Japan Cake Boutique", I switched the almond genoise to praline & also added the raspberry jelly.

The cake is different from the cookbook so I renamed it 'Cadeau', meaning gift/present in French.

Tie a ribbon for the cake & it's a pretty present :)

Passion - Passionfruit & Mango Entremet

This was the birthday cake I made for myself last week.
I was planning to make a mousse cake with honeydew melon, coconut & pineapple.
But I didn't have time to get all the ingredients so I changed my plan at the last minute.
I flipped through piles of cookbooks cosily on the sofa.
I can't find the combo I like so I took a few recipes from Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé by Hidemi Sugino & that's how I got to this cake.

"Passion" has 4 layers: genoise, passionfruit creme, mango mousse & lemon cream cheese mousse.
The recipes I took from the book are passionfruit creme & cream cheese mousse.
There're less gelatine in Hidemi's recipes for a smoother & lighter texture.
The cake is light & fragrant with fragrant mango mousse, refreshing lemon cream cheese mousse & exotic passionfruit creme layer.
For the decoration, I simply used white chocolate shards & tied with a red ribbon for a festive look.

I made this into a 6" square entremet & a few cups of mousse.

I think with this recipe it's better make in a 8" round cake.

Caramel Cafe Noix

Well, I made this cake 2 weeks ago & I should have updated the blog last week.

But I just couldn't get in the mood to write.

I get overwhelmed with my thoughts lately, mainly because I'm stress about my work.

A lot of tasks to be completed, experiments to be carried out, parties to attend, cakes to be baked…

Back to my obsession with cake & caramel.

Yes, another caramel entremets.

This cake has coffee genoise as a base, caramel coffee mousse & crunchy caramel hazelnuts.

The bitterness of coffee blended well with the sweet & rich caramel flavour, finally with the nutty crunchy hazelnuts.

A lovely combination of different textures & flavours.

Be Jenny's Guest at Le Cordon Bleu

This post isn't about me, it's about my sister, Jenny.

I was invited to be her guest to the afternoon tea party at Le Cordon Bleu in London.

A place where she has trainings to become a superb patisserie one day.

On that special day, I went to Le Cordon Bleu with my mum & brother just for the tea party.

Indulgent entremets, lovely pastries & freshly baked scones with home-made jam & clotted cream were offered, along with a selection of teas.

Apart from enjoying the cakes, I had also taken some photos showcasing those pretty cakes made by the students on the day. 

Gateau a la Pistache prepared by Jenny

Chocolate & Coffee Bean Macronade prepared by Jenny

Rosy - Rose & Lychee Entremets

On the train back home, I was thinking of baking rose & strawberry streusel bars.

But, when I got home I realised my mum had throw away my rose jam.

So, I changed my mind & made these rose & lychee entremets.

You might have noticed I've already made few lychee entremets.

Yea, this is another one :P

It's a little difficult to see from the pictures but there're 5 components:

1. almond pate sablee

2. lychee jelly

3. rose white chocolate mousse

4. lychee mousse

5. lychee milk glaze

Rose & lychee is always a perfect couple & the result is satisfying.

Earl Grey Poached Pear Entremets

I realised I haven't made entremets & mousse cakes for a few months now.

Making delicate & pretty entremets is one of my passion in baking.

It feels amazing the moment I finish the decoration, take a photograph, then taste it, and of course to share the joy with you here.

Have you noticed whenever I make entremets I like to combine different flavours & ingredients?

The most recent one was poire vin blanc using white wine poached pears & caramel, then chocolate & passionfruit.

I'm lack of inspirations recently, instead I like to bake some simple & delicious snacks.

Last week I was craving for pear mousse cake & pear is certainly one of my favourite fruit.

 I decided to bake these earl grey poached pear entremets using the recipe of oolong & asian pear entremets.

It's simply delicious, the mousse is light yet fragrantly rich & the taste nicely balances with the rich chocolate brownie base.

Barcelona & A Recipe for Poire Vin Blanc

Last week, I went to Barcelona for a short  break with my sister.

I walked around the city just exploring & taking photos.

After the break, I made these pear & caramel entremets.

I saw the red wine pear entremets posted on Evan's Kitchen Ramblings & that reminds me of this recipe which I've designed a while back.

Finally got the chance to make these & it tastes absolutely gorgeous!

I really love the white wine poached pears & the caramel mousse.

Refreshingly tangy, fragrant yet rich & creamy.

I was regret that I didn't have another piece before heading back to London...

Asian Pear & Oolong Mousse Cake

This lovely mousse cake is when East meets West.

The subtle, sweet & fragrant oolong mousse with crispy Asian pears coupled with the chewy & moist pecan brownie.

When it melts in the mouth, I can feel the delicacy & sweetness, gradually overtaken by the rich & nutty chocolate brownie.

I've chosen to use Asian pear over William pear.

William pear usually go tender after poaching, but I wanted crunchy bits in the mousse & Asian pear retains its crisp texture.

Plus, Asian pear is very juicy with a delicate & refreshing fragrant.

It is one of my favourite fruit.

Oolong tea varies in taste & the tea I used is originated from China which is sweet & fruity.

The taste of oolong tea is vital so I would recommend to get the best oolong tea you can get hold of.

I really like it, especially the mousse & I'll definitely make it again :)

You can also make a 'West meets West' version, simply replacing the oolong tea with black tea like earl grey, Asian pear with William pear.

Brésilienne

This is the first time I've tried to test the recipe from the book 素材より素材らしく―杉野英実の菓子 (Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé by Hidemi Sugino) my friend bought it for me from Japan in September.

I've tried to make Pomme d'Eve but the recipe wasn't his, I might give it a try sometimes. 

Evan from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings has tried many desserts, all of them look gorgeous.

The recipe I chose to give a closure to 2011 was Brésilienne.

A truly elegant dessert consists of coffee mousse, caramel mousse & coffee joconde biscuit.

I have to say I didn't do a perfect job to make the entremets look like the photos from the book.

I didn't have the right mousse rings & I did make a mess with the first cake when I spread the glazing on top.

So, I gave up with the glazing part...

I think the taste is the most important.

First of all, this cake is definitely not for people with a sweet tooth, if you're coffee lover, you'll fall in love with it.

When eating the coffee mousse alone, it's quite bitter.

But the sweetness is enhanced by the caramel mousse & the coffee joconde.

I personally think the Cognac syrup for the joconde is a must as it adds a sophisticated note to the cake.

 Thank you for joining me in my journey of baking this year.

Wishing you all the best the coming year.

Lychee & White Wine Mousse Cake

Mid-Autumn Festival fell on 12th Sept this year, sadly it's Monday.

So we had a pre-celebration on the day before.

I attempted to make mooncakes last year but it wasn't very successful, so I didn't think of taking that challenge.

Instead I decided to make a mousse cake with lychee & white wine.

I love lychee so when I came across the idea of using lychee & white wine, I was thrilled not the try it.

Even though I like to use wines & spirits in baking, I don't like the bitterness of alcohols.

So I decided to create my own recipe.

Summer Berry Mousse Cake

I'm going to Swansea... again.

Only this time is in summer.

I'm tired of London, so it's time for a quick escape from the city.

Poached Pear Mousse Cake ~酒香迷梨~

My mum's birthday was on Saturday, so I took a trip to Basildon after work & made her a birthday cake.

I thought cheesecake is too simple so I took on a challenge to design a cake themed 'Red Wine'

As I'm craving for pears recently, red wine poached pears seem to be a perfect idea so I did on Friday night & made a mousse cake the other day.

The result... I wasn't totally satisfied by the look but I definitely love the taste.

I always have more fun in making petit cakes then a big one, plus I find the giants are difficult to decorate.

Pomme d'Eve

I didn't plan to make this cake as I was planning to make a cheesecake.

However, when I scanned through the recipes I have, I decided to make this because I like the name Pomme d'Eve, meaning Eve's apple.

Beside, apple is my all time favourite.

The idea came from a famous Japanese patissier, Hidemi Sugino.

I haven't got a chance to try any of his desserts since he only has shops in Japan.

But it looks so good not to try this recipe out even though it's not his original recipe.

He's written a book called Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé, I didn't get hold of his book but I'm sure it's a great book.

I've seen several desserts made from his book from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings & Nordljus.

Strawberry, Valentine & Chinese New Year

There isn't any particular linkage between strawberry, Valentine & Chinese New Year.

However, this year Chinese New Year is the same day as Valentine, & I made heart-shaped strawberry yogurt mousse cakes, this became a wonderful desserts for this particular day!

This year is a year of Tiger!

Wish everyone have a happy Chinese New Year & a wonderful Valentine!

Raspberry Chocolate Mousse Cake

Back home for Christmas!

When I got back here by train, I saw snow everywhere.

I though it'd be a white Christmas this year.

But it rained in these few days, so all the snow has gone... feel disappointed :(

To cheer up myself, I had a heavenly chocolaty mousse cake I made for this Christmas.

Perfect for a chocoholic like me!

Merry Christmas!!!

Recipe (6'' round/6 x 2'' round):

adapted from here

Chocolate cake:

2 eggs

50g plain flour

10g corn flour

40g sugar

50ml milk

50g dark chocolate (70%)

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Melt the chocolate with milk over simmering water.

Beat the egg with sugar until fluffy & white in colour, then fold in plain flour, cocoa powder & corn flour.

Fold in the chocolate batter & then pour in a mould with a sheet of parchment paper.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180'C for 15 min.

Cool the cake on a rack.

Cut out the cake base using a mousse ring.

N.B. I used 8'' round pan to bake the cake, this gave me 6 cake bases.

Chocolate mousse:

50g dark chocolate (70%)

60ml milk

30g sugar

110ml whipping cream

1 sheet of gelatin

Soften the gelatin in cold water for a few minutes, then squeeze out the excess water.

Melt the chocolate with milk over simmering water, add the gelatin & mix until it dissolves.

Whisk the whipping cream with sugar until firm, fold in the chocolate batter.

Decoration & Assembly:

Fresh raspberries

Fresh strawberries

Place the cake base inside the mould.

Arrange fresh raspberries on top of the cake base.

Pour the chocolate mousse on top of the raspberries in each mould.

Cool in the fridge to set.

Decorate with raspberries & strawberries or as you like & serve cold.