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.

Cake Roll with Earl Grey Poached Asian Pear

After reading the newspaper on pear desserts, I was craving for pear mousse dessert.

My sister has been making cake rolls & chiffon cakes, so I wanted to make something different but ended up making cake roll as well because of its simplicity.

Cake roll can be simple filled with some whipped cream but I wanted something more & it ended up with a caramel mousse & some poached pears as the filling.

The recipe for the cake base is from a chinese website.

It’s called japanese cotton cake, as the name said it’s indeed very spongy & light.

For the choice of pears, I prefer Asian pear as it’s juicy & crunchy with a refreshing fragrant.

I’ve used oolong tea to poach Asian pear for the oriental theme, this time I used earl grey tea instead. 

Everything goes wonderfully together & the caramel mousse doesn’t overtake the delicate note from the earl grey tea & the Asian pear.

noir plus

I'm now at Turin, Italy when updating this post.

I'm attending a science conference with my colleagues & I have 2 days conference so I'll have some times walking around the town.

I had a long weekend break & took the chance to make some entremets.

I was craving for chocolate so I decided to make the chocolate mousse & coffee creme brûlée from "Top10名师的50道人气蛋糕技术教本" (50 Popular Cakes from Top 10 Pâtissiers).

The original recipe includes a jaconde base, chocolate mousse & coffee creme brûlée.

I used a different cake base & added some caramel hazelnuts for some variations.

I made this recipe into 6 small glasses & 6 little domes.

The chocolate mousse is absolutely divine.

The rich coffee creme brûlée enhances the bitterness & sweetness of chocolate mousse which makes a great combination.

Harmonie - closure of 2012

The dessert I've chosen for the closure of 2013: chocolate tart with caramel mousse & caramel pear compote.

One that includes all my favourite flavours over the year.

Chocolate, caramel & pear.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year & hope to see you next year.

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.

Baileys Irish Coffee Cheesecake with Lavender Mousse

After having a great trip to Paris, I was so tempted to make something like the cakes I ate in Paris but when I thought twice, 'No, it's too complicated'.

I enjoyed eating them but not so to make them, maybe I'll take the challenge one day.

Chocolate & Blackberry Mousse

The weather in London is awful.

It has been raining & windy for 2 weeks but it couldn't stop me from going to Portobello Market.

You can see it's the season of berries in the market, I bought a box of blueberry, strawberry & blackberry.

I was thinking making a 3-layer berry mousse cake, inspired by the blog (Chinese).

But there're no yogurts in my fridge, so I made something else at the end.

Blueberry for muffins, strawberry for jam, blackberry for mousse.

I didn't include the recipes of blueberry muffins & strawberry jam, lots of recipes you can find online.

Chocolate is great with everything! Or maybe it's because I love chocolate :)

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.

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!

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.