Ribbon Fondant Cake

I have always admired all the pretty fondant cakes seen in the cake decorating books.
I decided to make one for my mum on Mother's Day. 
I baked a simple yellow cake from one of Martha Stewart's cake recipes and focused on making my fondant cake - present with  a ribbon bow. I  used a deep pink rolled fondant for the wrapping and a pastel pink fondant  for the ribbon and bow.

 

                   Bonne fête des mères- Happy Mother's Day !

Sweet and Salty Cake

   Sweet and Salty cake

Sprinked with Fleur de sel

Salty caramel and whipped choc.ganache in between layers

This sweet and salty cake recipe is from Matt Lewis, co-owner of Baked Bakery who  joined  Martha Stewart to make this cake in her show.
There are three main components in this cake:
1. The sweet chocolate cake 
2. Salty caramel (Salt-fleur de sel is used) used in between the layers and
3. The whipped caramel chocolate ganache for the icing.

The finished cake is then garnished with more grains of Fleur de sel.
The saltiness and sweetness is well balanced and is simply heavenly.

Jamie Oliver's Carrot cake for my dad 

Carrot cake with carrot candies.

This carrot cake recipe from Jamie Oliver (Cook with Jamie) is fantastic.It is full of nuts: walnuts and almonds  and  flavourful with lots of spice like cloves, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.
The icing is a combination of mascarpone cheese and cream cheese. Delicious.
Happy 88th Birthday ! Dad.

Walking in the snow.....in Paris

My family and I spent a day visiting some of Paris favourite bakeries.

First stop :

Boulangerie Pâtisserie Gosselin 

Boulangerie Gosselin 
258, Boulevard Saint Germain
75007 Paris

In 1996 Phillipe Gosselin won the Concours de la Meilleure Baguette de Paris, which is the “Top Baguette of the Year”.

Good bakes including Parisien Pain du chocolat and croissants.

Good bakes including Parisien Pain du chocolat and croissants.

All kinds of wonderful pastries

Macarons, too.

Walking in the snow.....in Paris

My family and I spent a day visiting some of Paris favourite bakeries.

Second stop :
Ladurée Pastry Shop

Outside showcase of shop. It was snowing heavily then.

Ladurée Bonaparte (Link from website)
21 rue Bonaparte Paris 6ème Tel. : + 33 1 44 07 64 87 Parking Saint-Germain-des-Prés Station Saint-Germain-des-Prés Open Daily
Opening hours
Monday to Friday	8.30am to 7.30pm
Saturday	8.30am to 8.30pm
Sunday	10.00am to 7.30pm

Ladurée Bonaparte (Link from website)

21 rue Bonaparte Paris 6ème
Tel. : + 33 1 44 07 64 87
Parking Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Station Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Open Daily

Opening hours

             Monday to Friday

8.30am to 7.30pm

             Saturday

8.30am to 8.30pm

             Sunday

10.00am to 7.30pm

                 

Walking in the snow.....in Paris

My family and I spent a day visiting some of Paris favourite bakeries.

Third stop :

Pierre Hermé Boutique

No photography inside the shop, so only shots of the showcase outside the shop.

Famous Ispahan Macaron:Rose shells with rose/lychee buttercream and fresh raspberries. Perfect.

Rose and chocolate macarons, among many others .

Link from PH website.

Walking in the snow.....in Paris

My family and I spent a day visiting some of Paris favourite bakeries.
Fourth stop :
Boulangerie Poilâne

Boulangerie Poilâne

Shelf full of bread

Chandelier made of dough

Basket of punitions to welcome its customers

Paintings of bread

Bread boxes, Poilâne  cushions and knives

Good spread of bread including my favourite apple tart.

 Poilâne loaves on display

Snowing outside Boulangerie Poilâne

Link from Poilane website. Boulangerie Poilâne Paris - 6ème 8 rue du Cherche-Midi,Paris 6ème Tel +33 (0) 1 45 48 42 59 Horaires d'ouverture : Du lundi au samedi de 7h15 à 20h15

Merry Christmas

May all your days be merry and bright and sweet...as the macarons seen here in the Pierre Hermé window display which I visited recently in Paris.

Spent my Christmas with my daughter baking cupcakes and cookies for the wonderful season.

Had a wonderful Christmas dinner with my family too.

Le Fraisier

Le Fraisier is a classic combination of creme mousseline sponge cake and fresh strawberries.

After unmoulding from the square ring

Finished with a plastic wrap

Strawberries lined on all sides of the cake.

GreenTeaTiramisu  

Tiramisu with a twist-of green tea

The sponge ladyfingers were infused with green tea and matcha powder dusted over the top of the mascapone cheese.

Green tea cheesecake

Green Tea Cheesecake

Gosh, how time flies. It is already 2010....and in the month of May.

This cheesecake is baked for my son's birthday.

I used a combination of Matcha green tea paste and green tea powder.

My Watercolours

These are some of my old watercolour artwork :