Mont Blanc aux marrons

It is a dessert of puréed, sweetened chestnut cream over a meringue.
The name comes from Mont Blanc, as it resembles the famous snow-capped mountain.

Construction of  Mont Blanc:

Circular cake base with meringue.

Secure meringue with chocolate ganache.

Pipe chestnut cream; covering the whole of meringue.

Fasten decorative dollie to base

Dust with icing sugar for that snow effect.

Yum!

Macarons, macarons....macarons

First batch:
Macarons with peanut butter and ganache filling

Second batch:
Macarons with lemon curd and buttercream

Third batch:
Macarons with vanilla buttercream

Lemon merigue tart

Using the recipe from Joyofbaking.com, I baked these beautiful tarts for saturday lunch desserts.

Oreo Triple chocolate brownies 


Oreo cookies with milk has always been a great treat for my daughter.
I added Oreo cookies in this already wonderful triple chocolate brownie recipe.
I adapted this recipe from Baked bakery cookbook.
I blended the Oreo cookies without the creme into crumbs and added into the batter.
Broken pieces of wholeOreo cookies were also added into the batter before baking.

Heart shaped brownie topped with a whole cookie and strawberry.

Ready to pack into the sweet little carriers as a gift.

Tartes aux pommes Parisienne

(Paris style apple tart) II

Another Paris style apple tarte:
Attempted to create paper thin slices of apple with the mandoline but the results are not that great. 
I preferred thicker slices of apple.

Tartes aux pommes Parisienne

(Paris style apple tart)

 

 

These apple tarts are usually made without the custard filling. 

A layer of applesauce is first applied to the pastry shell and then cover with a neat, closely overlapping layer of sliced apples.

Recipe is taken from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child

 

Apricot glaze adds shine to the baked tarte.

Happy mother's day !!!!

Baked a tray of peanut butter cookies for the occasion.
I prepared my own peanut butter for the cookie dough, and

cut the cookies into various shapes. I kept the heart shaped ones for all the mums in my family.

Poached pears in red wine

After watching Chef Raymond Blanc poached winter fruits, 
I decided to poach some pears in red wine.I bought some Bosc pears.
Besides Bosc, Anjou is also a good choice.
I chose Merlot red wine.

 

Here is my recipe adapted from Dan Lepard's poached pears in red wine recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 Peeled and cored pears
• 1 1/2 cups of Merlot red wine
• 3/4 cups of granulated sugar
• 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 lemon peels
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extracts
• 1 stick of cinnamon 
• 4-6 cloves

Preparation:

1.Combine all ingredients, except for the pears.
2.Bring the wine mixture to a boil.
3.Once the mixture is boiling, turn heat down to a simmer.
4.Add the pears into mixture.
5.Simmer the pears for at least 30 minutes and until they are tender and
   are easily  poked through with a fork.
6.Remove the pears and let them cool.
7.Boil wine mixture until the liquid has been reduced by half.
   Pour sauce over the pears and serve.
8.Wine sauce can also be made into red wine jelly or freeze it and make 
    slushy ice to go with the pears. 

Poached pears in red wine sauce.

My dessert:Poached pear served with awfully chocolate ice-cream and Mrs Bridges' toffee cookie

Guinness Beef Pies

Recipe was from Australia Masterchef Gary Mehigan's Beef onion and Guinness pie.

Freshly baked from the oven

Dinner Time

Sour cream scones with a twist of Kaffir lime leaves

This recipe was adapted from the scone recipe by Joythebaker.com.
I used whole wheat flour and flavoured my scones with kaffir leaves. 

Champagne bottle fondant cake

Happy Birthday.......Cheers! Dad !

To celebrate my dad's 89th year old birthday, I prepared a Champagne bottle fondant cake.
The most challenging part of the preparation is to create the glass-like bottle. I mixed green lustre with gel and alcohol and painted the bottle layer by layer.
When the alcohol evaporates, it will leave a layer of glossy shine on the surface of the bottle.