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I am really fascinated with beautiful straight colorful eclairs and wondering how the hell I can do that. I tried making eclairs many times but mine always look like a hotdog buns, big and fat lol. Anyway, they are very delicious specially the coffee pastry cream.choux pastry - (I half the recipe) adapted from Laura Calder3/4 cups water85g butter2 tsp sugar3/4 cups flour3 eggs, lightly beatenpinch
It is really hard to find a decent mango here in The Netherlands. Pieter bought these mangoes last week as I planned to make this cake since last week. But last weekend we visited my parents in-law so I moved my baking plan and I was also hoping that if I keep the mangoes for a couple more days it will get more ripen and sweet. I think I mentioned many times that there is nothing compares to
Last weekend I saw Jonathan Phang's Caribbean Cookbook in Travel channel. He cooked Spiced beef in a chocolate sauce with cook up rice. I got really curious how chocolate taste like if mix in a savory meal that's why I asked Pieter if he would like to try it as well.I saw Jonathan's recipe online but the thing was I dont have mixed spice on hand. I can't find in our local grocery here in Holland,
Yesterday was Pieter's day off. I promised him that I will bake something. The Jackfruit (in can) was sitting in the pantry for like 2 months now so I've decided to use it for this pie. The recipe was based on Dorie's fresh orange cream tart. I substituted jackfruit puree for fresh orange juice and this time I bake a pie crust.It was Pieter's 1st jackfruit and according to him it tastes really del
This is how my dollhouse counters look like now. Still a lot of space to fill but I finally completed the macarons, though I'm a bit disappointed because they are not small enough to my liking. It's supposed to be 5 mm (still big I think) but I don't like super fat macaron shells so I flattened them a little that is why it became 5.5 mm. I also made few pieces of 4 mm as I am thinking of doin
This was the second time I made Dorie Greenspan's Fresh Orange Cream Tart. As usual I made a shortcut: from sweet tart dough to digestive biscuit (again) and of course I cut down the quantity of sugar. The orange cream filling was indeed creamy even though I lessen the butter. Originally the butter used in the recipe was 2 3/4 sticks, creamy and super delicious but definitely not waistline-friendl
Because of my new found hobby I haven't been in the kitchen this past few weeks. Haha believe me making this dollhouse miniature foods is so much fun. Today I finally completed the macaron tower for my dollhouse bakeshop. All I have to do is make a decoration to cover the big gaps. I also made Opera cake. I decorated the top with real gold leaf.I will bake on Thursday, real cake hè. :-P
Pieter finally ordered a dollhouse for me. I am so excited to make a dollhouse bakeshop. These cuties are 2 1/2 cm in diameter, handmade by me using Fimo polymer clay and then oven baked. Still big though, next projects I will scale it down to 2 cm. I am also planning to sell polymer clay food accessories in Etsy. I made these black forest earrings for my friend.
I made this cake for my birthday. My original plan is only genoise sponge, cherry mousse and white chocolate mousse but since this is White Forest, I want to add more cherry flavor so I made another layer which is vanilla and kirsch bavarois. For me this was one of the best mousse cake I've ever made. Soft and moist sponge, light mousse, creamy vanilla and kirsch bavarois. Kirsch goes delicio
I am playing with polymer clay lately. This was my first project: life size macarons and tiny macaron fridge magnet for my friend. This was also my first time to handle polymer clay. Although the packaging says "soft" they still have to be conditioned before being used.What is conditioning? (www.jaedworks.com)Conditioning is the process that makes polymer clay ready to work with. Most conditi
Do you want to know how Pieter ate these cupcakes? He removed and teared the bacon, every bite of the cupcake he put a piece of bacon in his mouth and chew it together. The combination of soft moist sponge, sweet maple crème chantilly and salty bacon taste really awesome. I know it sounds weird but believe me it's really delicious. I also found a perfect sponge cake recipe. Thanks to YouTube's Coo
This is the latest addition to Taart etc. menu. I've been planning to make this for quite sometime now but I couldn't find a perfect timing. Last week was Pieter's birthday and it was perfect because I also want someone to try it first before adding it to my menu. Everybody liked it. ;-)Belated Happy Birthday Pieter!
This macaron was inspired by Sadaharu AOKI's Valencia, orange, nut and chocolate combo. For the orange flavor I added dried orange peel to the macaron shell and then sprinkled more on top for decoration as well. For the filling I used milk chocolate and my homemade praline. My first plan is to add orange marmalade but since orange peel is concentrated I find the flavor strong a
This was my latest DIY project: Creme de Cacao. Actually I can buy creme de cacao at any liquor store but I enjoy making things from scratch, plus I am able to use the ingredients that has been sitting in the pantry for months.Few of the recipes online used cocoa powder but I have a lot of cacao nibs so I've decided to look for a recipe that calls for cacao nibs. I found Serious Eats recipe much b
Please don't laugh. Last month I bought this super cheap electric tagine from one of the kitchen appliance store here in Holland. Actually I have a terracotta tagine but it was too big and until now I haven't season it. This electric tagine is not ceramic or terracotta pot, it's just a heat resistant coated pot with plastic lid. Althought the heat is automatic I am still not sure if it's good for
A lot of things I missed in The Philippines: My family, friends, weather (not always but I need it now coz it's cold here in Holland), foods, big malls, the apartment I rented in Las Piñas for almost 6 1/2 years and most specially my sky cable. Believe me I can sit infront of the tv the whole day watching cooking shows and travel channel.The video below is one of my favorite episode of Laura Calde
The advantage of making your own food at home allows you to control and use natural ingredients. The disadvantage is since it has no preservatives it will spoil fast. But according to the recipe this coffee extract can be keep at room temperature indefinitely. Oh well, let's see! Anyway I only made a small jar so most probably it won't last that long haha. By the way this coffee extract is thick a
Months ago I posted my homemade dried strawberry powder recipe here. Believe it or not it was still in my cupboard and still ok to use. I searched online about the shelf life of dehydrated fruits, it say it can last up to 6-12 months so there I used it to make these macarons. My only regret was I didn't add enough strawberry powder that's why the specks was not visible, but the strawberr
Smooth shiny shell, ruffled foot, foot doesn't poke out, filling stay within the border of the shell. That is how people describe a perfect macaron. Today I tried French meringue method macarons and these was the end result...overly happy feet that the top of the shell look small because the feet poke out too much ugly hé? This was also my first time to use buttercream filling. French meringue met
This was the mousse cake I mentioned in my post yesterday. Rouge Amour, the mousse cake I saw from daily delicious blog.Vibrant red is very tempting indeed that is why I've decided to make this as a Valentine's cake for Pieter. Guess what? He liked it and he is now officially fan of rose flavored cakes and desserts.The things that makes me feel nervous everytime I make entremet is 1st, pouring the
I made Rouge Amour mini dome mousse cake for Pieter and this was the leftover raspberry mousse. Rouge (red) Amour (love) is a combination of rose and raspberry and obviously red which is perfect for Valentines day. The recipe is from daily delicious but I tweaked the raspberry mousse and for this dessert I added rose water in it. The red powder on top is the raspberries I dehydrated last sunday, I
This is what I did last sunday. I dehydrated few pieces of orange, orange peel, raspberries and strawberries. The strawberries, oranges and peel took 8 hours, the raspberries was 22 hours.I grind the orange peel into powder and since I sliced the strawberries too thin, few of them has been broken into pieces so I also grind them to make a new batch of strawberry powder. The color of the strawberri
I am really looking forward to try black colored macarons eversince I lay my hands on the black powdered food coloring. To be honest the powdered food coloring I ordered online is more expensive than the ground almonds and in this recipe I almost finish the tiny (3 gm) container but I'm still not satisfied with the color. They look brownish black to me. Anyway, I am so happy to see those pretty ru
My plan is to practice for my taalcoach's raspberry and blueberry mousse cake for December 28 order. Lately, I got bored with berries flavored mousse cake that's why I've decided to make tropical flavor for a change. As you notice the genoise was too thin and small because I used 8" square baking pan and used 5" ring to cut it. I should have used bigger ring instead. But anyway, as what I have sai
Something familiar? Haha yes! this is Ferrero Rocher's Christmas edition container that I got from Sinterklaas last Dec 6. The Sinterklaas feast celebrates the name day, Dec 6, of the Saint Nicholas (280–342), patron saint of children. Saint Nicholas was a Greek bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey.He is a dutch version of Santa Clause but taller and slim. Children in their Zwarte Pieten costume w
My new year's resolution is to make new cakes for Taart etc. as many as I can. Yesterday I made this chocolate and hazelnut entremet. I am still thinking of a name before posting it into my online webshop.Perhaps you are wondering why the hell I always make entremets...well 1st, I love french pastries, I really admire their cakes/pastries with beautiful and elegant decorations made of chocolates a
Next to macarons, sponge cake is my worst enemy as everytime I bake it, it always shrink, with lots of air bubbles and bits of flour in it. I mentioned in my previous post that I finally found the perfect sponge cake recipe. Again thanks to YouTube's Cooking With Dog. This was the 3rd time I used the recipe and it was 3rd time the charm. If you google Japanese roll cake you will see all these col
I am really thankful to all those bloggers who are kind enough to share and translate few recipes of Sadaharu Aoki. How I wish there's an english version of his cookbook. Valencia is a orange, nuts and chocolate entremet.If you google Sadaharu Aoki, Valencia you will see all these amazing, well presented rectangle shaped entremets both by Sadaharu and other bakers. Mine is just left over ingredien
Few weeks ago my taalcoach (language coach) ordered two cakes. Strawberry shortcake and the other one is called mokkaschuimtaart which means mocha meringue cake. The strawberry shortcake was a success but the mocha meringue cake was failed. To be honest I really hate making meringue, why? because it need to be bake in the oven for at least 2-3 hours to dry. Thinking of long hours electricity usage
(note: make sure your eggs are fully submerged in brine solution. I added more water after I took this shot.)I started making salted eggs using chicken eggs but lately Pieter became very adventurous and was eager to try duck eggs.In The Philippines we called this "itlog na pula" or "itlog na maalat" (red salted egg). A popular method of processing salted eggs in the Philippines is by mixing clay (
I just want to share these photos with all of you. I made this greeting tart for my taalcoach's birthday. Sadly she didn't had a chance to try the tart. The recipe is from my new cookbook Richard Bertinet Pastry. The book is clearly illustrated with good photographs of step by step guide to making pastry. The recipes both sweet and savoury are wonderful. I really recommend this book.I am so annoye
Mont Blanc finally! I have been planning to make this for quite sometime now but I couldn't make a perfect timing to buy the chestnuts. Last monday Pieter did the grocery and also bought 500 gm of raw chestnuts.This tart/cake is named after the tallest mountain in Western Europe. Mont Blanc meaning "white mountain" and speaking of white mountain this was covered with powdered sugar but damn! the p
If there is one place in our apartment that I would love to sit the whole day that would be in the kitchen. Seriously, I spend most of the day in the kitchen than in the bedroom or living room. Even I dont have any baking or cooking project I will just sit in the kitchen drink tea or coffee, chat with my family and friends, fold the laundry (haha I do it in the kitchen as well) while listening to
This is for my next week's cake project. For the recipe and instructions please check David Lebovitz website. My caramelized white chocolate is not deep golden brown like David's but it tastes really awesome! I am looking forward to use this next week.
