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 :)

Doughnut Muffins

Hi,

I have been travelling & taking a long break while looking for jobs since finishing my PhD.

The cities I have been so far are Venice, Budapest, Paris and New York.

My photos are now piled up & the worst is I’m procrastinating, I will need to be organised & get back to baking.

I made these doughnut muffins a while ago & I thought I will post the recipe here just to keep it going.

Finally...... Raspberry & Passionfruit Tarts

Finally submitted my thesis yesterday night, though it’s not completely over, awaiting viva in a few weeks.

I have no ideas what to do for the rest of the week apart from all those writing & editing.

My mind is still about writing thesis, need something to divert my mind & focus.

I think it’s a great time to start baking again & updating my blog.

The recipe I’m sharing now is from a while back in summer.

A request from my sister, I’d asked her what she’d like to have for desserts the day before we went picking raspberries.

Cheesecake was on the list but passionfruit & raspberry tart sounded wonderful, plus it wasn't difficult to make at all.

We’ve had tart passion framboise from Laduree, it’s amazingly delicious.

Although my sister has the cookbook, it’s not at hand so I simply googled the recipe for it & found a recipe from Bertha’s blog.

Crunchy tart crust, rich yet exotic passionfruit cream & tangy raspberries, just a wonderful combination.

Whisky & Raspberry Cheesecake

At one weekend, I went back to Basildon as usual by train.

At the station, the train was delayed so I went to the bookshop nearby & flipped through some food magazines.

I wanted to baked a cheesecake when I got home so when I saw there was a section on cheesecake in Food & Travel.

I bought the magazine without second thought.

All the cheesecakes in the magazine seem great & I baked the easiest recipe which I omitted the baked flapjack base.

The cheesecake wasn't overly sweet, so I drizzled some honey on top & served it with some tangy raspberries.

Bon appétit!

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 :)

Crémeux aux Framboise

I baked this cake for my friend’s birthday.

I first saw the recipe from cake chef, which is a Japanese website showcasing Japanese patisserie.

It’s called Cremeux, meaning creamy & smooth.

The cake is composed of 3 layers: almond genoise, white chocolate yogurt mousse & mascarpone mousse.

I really like the mascarpone mousse & white chocolate yogurt mousse combo, but I was thinking it would be overly sweet so I added a raspberry jelly layer.

I renamed this cake ‘Crémeux aux Framboise’.

The mousse is smooth & creamy, the raspberry adds a tangy freshness.

For the decoration, I wrapped the mousse ring with bubble wrap & made the cake from upside down so that the top mascarpone mousse would pick up the pattern.

It worked out really well & I simply garnished with fresh fruits.

Happy baking!

Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry

Chocolate is comforting, smooth & rich.

Chocolate mousse is one of my favourite dessert, simple yet infinitely possibilities in baking.

I love chocolate with raspberry, the tangy freshness matches the dark richness which bring out the sweetness of dark chocolate.

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.

Jewellery & Muffins

I haven't been very productive recently, especially in making jewellery.

I don't know what to make & bake, sometimes simply not in the mood to.

But I keep up with making muffins as I have muffins for breakfast.

I don't always post the recipe for muffins as I use the same recipe again, with a little variations, like using different fruits, spice, tea, coffee or cocoa.

I just have to post these raspberry & apple muffins, it's soft, moist & sweet.

I got inspired by a new book I bought from WH Smith, it was on sale for only £6.

I was stunned by the price & I quickly grabbed one before it sells out.

It's a great book, packed with great photos & lots of inspirations!

I couldn't wait to try out the recipe of coffee & caramel muffins for my next week breakfast :)

Pink Lady ~Chocolate & Raspberry~

Since I'm back to Basildon, the weather is nice & sunny.

A perfect weather to work in the kitchen & work on my jewelry.

I dug out a recipe which I always wanted to try.

The chocolate tarts are rich but it's a bit dull & plain just to be served alone.

I remember reading a magazine, there was a picture of a cheesecake on top of a tart.

I think it's great idea so I make some raspberry mousse to serve with that.

Chocolate & raspberry is a perfect combination!

With the raspberry mousse, I also try decorate with lady fingers & strawberry to make a berry charlotte.

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.

Raspberry Chocolate Fondant Cake

Warm & bright summer days seem so long ago.

Although I love autumn & winter, I really not enjoy the gloomy weather lately.

I felt like spoiling myself with a warm chocolate cake today.

This is my favourite recipe for delicious & simple chocolate cake.

Great for chocoholics like me!

This heavenly warm chocolate cake is sure to cheer me up \\(^__^)//

Recipe (4 ramekins):

Cocoa batter:

70g unsalted butter

80g dark chocolate (70%)

40g plain flour

30g dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp milk

1/4 tsp soda

2 tbsp ground almond

20g raspberry

Butter and lightly flour the ramekins with cocoa powder.

Melt butter and chocolate over simmering water.

In another bowl, beat the eggs with sugar until it begins to be frothy.

Remove the chocolate butter from heating and whisk until smooth, fold in the eggs.

Fold in the flour, soda, ground almond and milk.

Spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins until 1/3 full, put some raspberry on top.

Cover the raspberry with the chocolate batter until the ramekins are 2/3 full.

Cool in the fridge for 15-30 min.

While cooling, preheat the oven at 180'C.

Remove from the fridge and bake for 10-15 min or until the sides of the cakes are firm but the centres are still soft.

Raspberry sauce:

30 g raspberry (puree)

4 tbsp water

2 tsp honey

While baking, make the raspberry sauce.

Put all ingredients in a food processor & blend until well-mix.

Strain out the sauce.

When the cakes are ready, let the cakes cool in the ramekins for 1 min.

Cover each with an inverted dessert plate, and then carefully unmold the cakes.

Decorate as you like and serve immediately with the raspberry sauce.

Desserts with Berry 2

Last week, I went back to Basildon & made a blackberry chessecake for my mother.

These raspberry mousse cakes were for myself, I used dark chocolate so she thought it's too bitter for her.

I love it, very rich in chocolate coupled with the refreshing raspberry flavour.

Here come the recipe.

Recipe for 4 ramekins:

Crust:

70g digestive biscuit crumbs

30g butter (unsalted & melted)

1 tbsp cocoa powder

Mix the crust ingredients & press into a pan/ramekins, cool in a fridge.

Raspberry mousse:

170g fresh raspberry (blended into puree & strained)

10g sugar

2g/1 sheet gelatin

100g whipping cream

Soften gelatin in water.

Heat raspberry puree with sugar until slightly boil, then add the bloomed gelatin.

Let the puree cool down.

Whisk the whipping cream to soft peaks then fold in the puree.

Fill the prepared pan/ramekins until half way with the mousse then freeze to set.

Chocolate mousse:

50g cream cheese

35g whipping cream

15g sugar

2g/1 sheet gelatin

20ml water

30g dark chocolate (72%)

Dissolve gelatin in hot water.

Beat the cheese with sugar then blend in the molten chocolate.

Add the gelatin solution to the chocolate cheese.

Whisk the whipping cream to soft peaks then fold in the cheese mixture.

Fill the mousse on top of the frozen raspberry mousse then freeze to set.

Note: The cream cheese can be replaced by whipping cream. I used it because there's some leftover cream cheese from the blackberry cheesecake.

Ganache topping:

50g dark chocolate (72%)

60g whipping cream

10g sugar

Heat all ingredients on slow heat until chocolate is fully melted.

Spread over the top & freeze again to set.

Decorate with fruits or as you like & serve cold.