Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Ferrero Rocher Cake.




Years back when I was in Sydney, I came across this absolutely divine cake composed of hazelnuts and Nutella, where every esctatic bite was like a divine revelation. And then, I wondered whether it was possible to recreate a similar flavor?
Picture 4 layers of hazelnut cake, brushed with vanilla syrup, filled with fresh chocolate cream and crushed ferrero rochers and wafers, glazed with an indulgent rich nutella and cream frosting.
I did this cake for my sis' birthday and added far too much cream to the nutella so my frosting was literally dripping off the cake and that happened when i was coating the sides of the cake with white chocolate bits. I had to scrape off the drippy mess and I decided to press crushed saviordi biscuits to the sides to stabilise the already very soft cake... hmmm.. remind me not to add too much cream next time.
I wanted to do some white chocolate plastique but for some reason, the chocolate seized up tonight... well, well sometimes the stars are all aligned against you.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Ispahan Cake.

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Ispahan refers to the combination of flavours (lychee, raspberry and rose) that was invented by French pastry great, Pierre Herme.
Making this cake was not too difficult but time-comsuming as the raspberry and lychee gel layers and the rose mousse has to be made separately and assembled. I wish I could get rosewater in Brunei; the ones in the shops here are the artificial type and the last one I bought had such a dreadful synthetic taste that I promptly chucked it in the bin! I should have bought more rosewater when I was in Melbourne.
The buds you see are dried rosebuds. Now you really want to get the ones which are organic and can be eaten; health food shops should carry them and no, don't use the ones in potpourri.. ick.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Simple pleasures.


I've always love how a simple tart can be used to showcase a lovely berry. It's really hard to get sweet berries in Brunei - most of the ones in the shops here are export quality and they can be too sour at times! But not to worry - the sweetened mascarpone filling I whipped up balanced out the tart berries nicely.
I must confess I am not a big fan of doing pastry. The weather in Brunei is so humid and the last few attempts I had with croissant dough and puff pastry turned a soggy mess on me. But this shortcrust pastry is pretty forgiveable - you just have to work in a not-so-hot place.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Tiramisu.


I remember many years ago my first encounter with tiramisu. At that time, I did not know what it was - I thought it was something Japanese, something alcoholic like sake. How wrong I was!
Tiramisu now for sale - $60 for a 10 inch cake.