Strawberry Shortcake

This is kind of a late post since I made it late September, right on the first official day of Fall I think. Luckily here in the beautiful California, the weather was still quite nice, warm days although the day is a lot shorter, but during the day it was still warm and sunny. I can still find my sweet strawberries at my favorite strawberry stall in farmers market, and I was really determined to make a shortcake. A cake that maybe more suitable made in the beginning of summer to welcome the warm weather, but there I was waiting until the summer officially ended to make this summer staple cake. It seems like I was in denial that summer was really gone and maybe I was hoping that I could bring summer back by making a strawberry shortcake? Silly me, of course it won't happen, but hey, you can't blame a girl for trying :)

It was only two layer cake, and I intentionally made the sponge layer to be a bit higher than usual as I'm afraid the end result won't be high enough, but it turned out really high, about 3" high. The cake was only 8" round, but it looks like it's a lot bigger than that with 3" height. For simple cake like this, I like the cake to be very soft, and so I used cotton cake as a base, filled with mascarpone cream that has been flavored with a good doze of Cointreau. I always try to use orange-flavored liqueur, be it Cointreau or Grand Marnier as I find that the combination is prefect. I arranged the strawberries vertically inside the cake so that it would look pretty when cut, and it was! Too bad I didn't have a camera when it was cut :(. Even though the end cake was huge, it doesn't stop anyone who ate it to be intimidated by it. In fact, it was gone pretty quickly even though the slices were pretty big. The overall cake was super light, sweet and slightly tart strawberry and a hint of orange liqueur in the background.

I had to make the same cake again the night after as my niece and nephew kept asking what happened to the cake I made the night before and that they really want it. So since I have another two layers of the same sponge cake, although smaller 6" in diameter, I made another one. This time I used heavy cream without mascarpone and Cointreau of course! The only thing different was that I added toasted almond slices on the side of the cake and sprinkled a little on top too. The whole 6" was gobbled up by both my nephew and niece, not in one sitting though, they had it for dessert for three days I think. I thought it was pretty good since they're still a kid, but they liked it so much! I didn't bother to take a picture of this second cake, I don't know why. Maybe it was because after I was done making it at 9pm or so, they had begged me to cut it :)

I forgot how simple dessert can be this good and I'm sure that I'll be making it every year when strawberry is at its peak. If it's strawberry season at your place, make sure that you put this cake on your list of things to make. Don't forget to use only sweet and fresh strawberry for this.

Chilled Mango Cheesecake with Strawberry Gelee

Ah, finally something that's not completely red.
It was my little nephew's birthday yesterday and he turned 7. No big celebration or anything, we just celebrated it by having dinner with the whole family. And what kind of birthday celebration without a candle on a cake to blow?

I wasn't really prepared on making a cake. All I know is that I need to make something fruity as the consumers are my own family, which are big on fruits. We all love mango and we love something light. I made mango cake not too long ago for the mother (my sister-in-law), but I know that we all love mango so much that you can never go wrong with it. I needed to make something really quick, and I really meant quick as I got only one night to make it plus maybe 15 minutes to decorate it on the D-day. So, I decided on this mango cheesecake, the same one I made here, but I added strawberry gelee in the middle so that it won't be too boring. Besides, I couldn't find a nice fresh and ripe mango to put it inside. I only made a 6.5" cake as there was only 8 of us.

The sponge cake base was already available in the freezer, all I needed to make was the strawberry gelee first as it will need a few hours to set it up in the freezer. I ended up only froze it for 1.5 hours as it was already late at night and I needed to make the mango batter at the same night too so that it will have some time to firm up in the fridge overnight. The gelee was still a little soft but I think I managed to transfer it onto the cake successfully :D.

The cake was very much enjoyed by everybody. It was THE perfect ending to a delicious meal from our favorite restaurant. It was super light, fruity, refreshing, what else could you ask for?

I think I have made use of summer's bounty this year more than I could wish for. As much as I love them, I think I'm ready to see some other color on this blog :D. I can't wait to get my hands back on coffee, chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio, lemon. But don't worry, you would see some red here and there as I store enough berries in the freezer to last me until the next summer :)

Panna Cotta and Strawberry Cake

Time goes by really fast, I thought it was the beginning of summer, but it ends already. I thought it wasn't too long ago that I started become curious about baking world, but now I can make things that I didn't even dream about. It was only yesterday that my little niece was born, and now she has a little baby brother already! Yes, I am officially an aunt of 12 now :). Sometimes these changes scared me as it happens so fast, but it's also exciting to see and experience what God has blessed you with. Surely enough, every tiny bit of blessing and moment deserve a cake!

I'm very thankful for little things that I got, and this strawberry season is one of them.
I buy a huge box of strawberries at farmers market almost every week, or maybe once every two weeks. One box has about 6 over-flowing ripe and sweet strawberries. So every week, I need to come up with some strawberry dessert ideas before these beauties turn bad. But time doesn't always follow the plan, it's the other way around. So I'm often left with a box full of strawberries with a sign of aging and I knew that I need to use them fast.

Ever since I saw Aran's post about her strawberry dessert she posted a while back, I always wanted to make it. She may not know me, but she has been a really big inspiration for me.
She made hers into individual jars, and I absolutely love dessert in individual glasses like that. You can really see the layers and you don't need to put as much gelatin as you would if you make it into a cake form because the glass will hold it well. Unfortunately, I don't have pretty clear glasses like that (it's on my wish-list though :P), so I decided to make it into a big cake form with sponge cake as a base.

I doubled the recipe for each layer to make it into one 7.5" round cake maybe (I trim the edges of an 8" cake). I made panna cotta before, but I've never made a yogurt panna cotta and I was so excited to try it. I know that I love the tartness of fromage blanc, so I was pretty confident that I will like the tartness of the yogurt as much. Making the vanilla bean panna cotta was a breeze, then I had to let it set in the freezer so that it would set up fast, before it seeps out through the cake ring. I made the strawberry mousse, and just refrigerate it to let it set, then make the gelee. I should have noticed that the gelatin is not enough to hold the cream firm enough in a cake form because when I took off the ring, the texture was a little soft. I let it sit in the refrigerator for about two days though before I gave it to my friend to try (simply just don't have time). That's why the red color is not as vibrant in this picture. There is a little panna cotta and gelee leftover, so I put it in a ramekin (no strawberry mousse though).

I didn't get a chance to taste the big cake, but I did eat the small ramekins with my nephew. Well, I should say mostly my nephew because he literally licked the ramekins and the spoon off. It was delicious!!! My friend brought me a slice of the big cake the following day and it tasted just as good. In the future, I think I will add more gelatin if I make it into a big cake, but it's perfect the way it is for individual glasses. It's creamy and very refreshing. I'll need to work on the proportion of each component too to make it a little taller. Try it and you will like it :)

Raspberry and Rose Entremet

Hmm... another red cake, so sorry, but I have a valid reason though (I think) :D.
Two weeks ago was my sister-in-law's brother's bday. Uhm... that's way too confusing, does that make him my in-law cousin? But anyways, yeah it was his birthday. Officially, it was still summer although the weather was a little colder than usual. The sun sets much earlier and the night is not as warm, in fact in was chilly already, but we haven't had a REAL BBQ this year (we as in our circle of friends). This summer for us had been loaded with lots of outdoor activities, hiking, camping, biking, out-of-town trip, you name it. It seems like for the whole summer (or maybe before summer hadn't officially started), every weekend was booked already. So we decided to have a BBQ Pool party, not only for the birthday celebration, but also to celebrate summer!

I was so excited planning the whole menu, I love summer and I love BBQ. To me, summer BBQ means light cocktail or fruity tea, good food, summer fruits, pool, friends, laughter. I started planning on the menu and finally decided on it along with the preparation and the grocery shopping. I already knew what I wanted to make for the birthday cake, it was something involving black raspberry mousse, vanilla bean bavarian, striped joconde, berry compote, cassis syrup, etc., it was one of the "to experiment" cake in my list. So I did the shopping for the cake on Thursday night, I suppose I still have Friday morning and night and part of Saturday to make the cake, plenty of time (at least so I thought)! I was shocked when I couldn't find frozen black raspberries at Trader Joe's! I asked them about it and they said it was discontinued. I think I almost fainted, or at least cried :(. You see, I LOVE black raspberries, and I always wanted to store lots of them in my freezer but I always thought why do that while I can always get them from my trusty Trader Joe's? Now, they're gone!!!! I came home feeling really sad that night and I googled black raspberry on the internet and I couldn't find any that sells them. The next morning, I called a few other TJ and they told me the same thing :(. There goes my only chance.

Friday went by so quickly and I came home late from work, having no energy to do anything else, I just went straight to bed, not knowing what will I make in the morning. I know that I don't have much time to make anything, but I'll figure it out in the morning. Long story short, I have 6 punnets of beautiful red raspberries in the fridge that I bought at Costco earlier (again with the weak will power). I completely adore raspberries but I didn't want to make another raspberry cake, I had it too much. But I had no choice, so I have to make use of them. So, one thing led to another, I came up with this cake. It was two layers of thin joconde, brushed with framboise eau-de-vie, thin layer of vanilla bean mascarpone cream (a mix of pastry cream, mascarpone, gelatin, and heavy cream), and thin layer of raspberry gelee. In my mind, I imagined the thin layers would show perfectly neat, but it wasn't :(. I only freeze the gelee for an hour and it was still soft when I took it out. I had too though as I don't have more time, I had to move on to the next step. That's why the raspberry layer is kinda curly :(. I topped it off with lots of strawberries and raspberries and put a tempered white chocolate sheet on top of it.

Although I wasn't too happy with the neat-ness, but I was beyond happy that they all LOVED it! I brought a small slice home for my nephew to try (I could always count on him for dessert feedback, trust me!) and he loved it! For those who are familiar with rose water, would be able to taste the soft sweet floral taste in the background, following the slightly tart raspberry flavor. I was beyond relieved that night. Yes, I sometimes (of often times) over-analyzed things and put more pressure on myself than what I need to. Oh wells, at least everybody was happy that night, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DICKY!

Sorry for the poor lighting on the picture, this is the best I can do at that time :)

I realize that it might be a little late, but I want to share with you some of the gorgeous summer produce that I got lately. The small tomatoes are super sweet! I didn't know that tomato can be so sweet, I can munch on them just like that and it's coming from a person who doesn't normally eat or like tomatoes :). I use them to make caprese salad (sweet small heirloom tomatoes, garden-picked basil, herbed-marinated mozzarella balls, good quality extra-virgin olive oil, salt & pepper, and you're good to go) for the BBQ and it was awesome! The raspberries is the leftover from the cake above. Imagine how much will power you need to have to resist these every time you see them. They're just too beautiful to ignore, don't you agree? :D

Fromage Blanc Mousse Cake with Berry Compote

I often find myself having lots of different berries in the fridge, more than what I actually need. You see, I don't enjoy eating berries plain like that as much as I do when they're in a dessert form. I'm such a dessert snob :(, so sad. Even more sad, I realize that I have this satisfaction when I own them. When I see them at farmers' market, I have very little will power to turn them down. It's like they're looking at you and begging you to take them home. I'll take them all home if I could. Then I'd feel really happy after I bought them, but right after they go into the fridge, it's a whole different matter. I have a very sensitive teeth that it hurts me when I bite something cold (heck, I can't even drink ice water without it touching my teeth), so after it goes into the fridge, I hardly look at them. Well, I do check them regularly to see if they go bad, it's like my pet, I keep checking on it time after time hoping that it will stay the way they are, just like when I first bought it.

This time is one of those times that I have too much berries on hand and I HAD to use them. Sure I can freeze them, but it's gonna be different. Frozen berries have a whole different purpose in their life :). It also happened that I have fromage blanc in the fridge that I bought a couple of weeks before. I was really curious about it and I have never used it before. So, I bought one at Whole Foods (the only place I could find it) so that I can experience something with it. The idea got distracted and has been put aside for some time until I saw those berries and the cheese together in the fridge. Besides, it's not cheap, even more expensive than mascarpone cheese, so it's way too good to let it go bad.

I saw some fromage blanc cake before when I was surfing through different blogs and sites, whether it is mousse, charlotte, cheese souffle, etc. I was once again googled it and see what are people use it for in their dessert. The similarity between all of them is that fromage blanc is usually paired up with berries. Then, I remember that I stumbled through Fanny's blog, Foodbeam a few days before and she just made a cake that I think is perfect for me to get my hands on the fromage blanc cake for the first time. She also posted a similar cake from a patisserie she interned with before. I really like the white clean color, you can almost taste the lightness of it and the fresh clean feeling after eating it.

I first tried to make the dacquoise, I have never liked it before. Despite it's being really easy to make, it's usually sickeningly sweet for my Asian taste. But I gave it a go one more time and I cut down the sugar by half from Fanny's recipe and I still thought it's way overly sweet, so I had to throw it away :(. I decided then to stay the tried and true plain old sponge cake that I kept in the freezer. I made the berry compote and freeze it in larger diameter than what Fanny had suggested as I found it too thick. Then I made the mousse and assembled it in 8" ring. I had to stretch the time of making individual component over a few days for making the compote, the mousse, the glaze, and decorating it. It probably took 3 days to complete as I only do it every night after work. I didn't get around to photograph it until I think two days after everything is done, and by the time I had the time, the cake didn't look as nice as it was before. The fruits on top don't look fresh anymore and the pistachio had soaked up the moisture from the glaze, even the color of the glaze is not as vibrant anymore :(, but I'm still happy that I can still get a shot of it anyway.

I didn't expect much from the taste of it as I got disappointed by the look already, but boy was I wrong. I was surprised by the lightness of it, the cheese actually tasted like yogurt, but less tart and more firm in texture. The berry compote is sweet but it has a slight tangy-ness and it compliments perfectly. I definitely want to make this again in the future with some modification :). I think there are some area that I want to do differently, and I can't wait to try it again next time. Sorry for the poor cross-section picture :(, I just wanted to show you how the inside looked like.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Max!

Maximillan Christopher Tan, or whom we usually called Max turned one on August 4th a few weeks ago! He's the son of dear friends of mine, Chris and Kiki, and he's definitely the cutest, the most handsome, or you can just say the best baby ever! He LOVES fruits! His eyes are widened super wide when he sees strawberries in particular, he loves plum and can chow down on it for a long time. When he was only a few months old last year, I told Kiki that I would love to make Max's first birthday cake as my gift for him. It was still a long way to go that I really never planned it. I always thought that, "ah, it's still in August, way way too early too plan" until probably a little more than a week before the D-day that Kiki actually reminded me!!

Being a planner, I couldn't be more nervous about it. The parents requested a CuriousGeorge themed cake, a simple one will do as long as there is curious george on it, since baby Max is a super curious baby just like George :). They even offered me their big Curious George porcelain bank and suggested me to just put that on top of a plain cake @_@. I really appreciate the offer, but how could I possibly make something like that. I would be a really mean aunty if I do that to baby Max for his first birthday cake.

So I began my search for inspiration on the cake, realizing that I only have a week to do it. It seems long but not if you only have very few hours to spare on that week, but thankfully I have the whole Saturday, since the party was actually on Sunday. I had a couple of ideas, but nothing really stuck on my head nor I was a fan of the idea until I saw this cutest cake. I browsed through the album and Kylie Lambert is truly one talented lady. I love her cow figurines, they look so cute and funny. So I decided on making "Curious George in a Farm" themed cake, perfect!! The only problem is, how can I find the time to make all those figurines?

If you know me, I'm not a very creative nor I'm an artsy kind of person (I didn't even like cartoons when I was little), I usually freaked out when I have to make fondant figurines before actually do it. It wouldn't help too with such a time crunch. Luckily, I'm blessed with lots of supportive and encouraging friends. Nana offered to help me with the figurines, and she's so good at it! She has the patience that I will never imagine of having! In the end, I have a few other great friends to help me with. Nana helped make the super cute piggy and the ducky, Yanni made the froggy, Fonda helped with the bee, Joana made the cow, and the rabbit actually made by Yossi and Nana (Nana brought it back to CA when she was visiting Yossi). I'm so thankful being surrounded by these wonderful people. So I'll just have to do the rest. I made some more bees, a set of royal icing butterfly (I only used two in the cake), the caterpillar, the yellow hat, and the curious george. I spent hours on curious george alone, hahaha.... the fondant was tooo soft after I added some amount of brown food coloring to get the color I wanted. The hot and humid weather didn't help either. This is the chubbiest george I've ever seen. You can also probably see some nail marks. Yes, I have long nails and after making this george, I decided to sacrifice and cut my nails on four fingers total (and yes, it will look weird if you look at it :D)

Once all the figurines are all set, I spent the whole Saturday making the cake, covering it, and decorating it. The parents love Indonesian-type of cakes so I decided to make Indonesian cheese layer cake for the top tier and lapis surabaya for the bottom tier. I used almost 50 egg yolks to make the cake total!!! and please don't get me started on the butter :P. And finally, the cake is done!!!!! I was super relieved when I saw the finished cake. It may looked simple enough for some of you, but to me, this is a very special cake. Not only that this is for baby Max and the fact that this cake has the love from the loving aunties, but also that I've never spent so many hours on cake like this before. I knew that I needed to give myself plenty of time so that I won't mess it up and I was really happy with how it turned out really. More importantly, the parent liked it too! Too bad baby Max is not old enough to give me his opinion about it :(. The pictures are courtesy of my talented photographer friend San San

The birthday boy and his parents, happily munching on the plums

Frasier with Pistachio Creme Mousseline

At least this time, it's not a raspberry post, but I won't be far from all things berry at least until summer ends :D.

Ever since I started going to farmers' market two years ago, after I moved back to California, it was an instant love. I don't know how many times I've been saying this, but I'll say it again, once you buy fruits from farmers' market, you won't go back to grocery store. Especially in summer, where we're blessed with abundant ripe and sweet berries, fragrant stone fruits, deep-purple cherry, and so many other things. I used to think that berries are all tart and they're just pretty, not good to be eaten just like that, but obviously I was wrong!! I tasted my first SWEET raspberries and strawberries at farmers' market and I was really surprised that I can munch on them just like that without adding any sugar. Since then, I have been a firm believer that you shouldn't buy your berries or fruits in season at grocery store. Plus, you can find fresh produce, great food, and much more depending on how big the farmers' market is. When berries is this sweet, you gotta make a cake with it!

Anyways, onto the cake now. It was one of my dearest friend's birthday a month ago (yes I know, I need to update sooner :D), and he requested a birthday cake for his birthday about a week in advance so that I could have enough time to prepare everything. He understands me well enough to know that I need plenty of time or notice way in advance to make a cake. So, he gave me what he thought was enough time so that I won't have one of those "oh no, I don't have time to make it" kinda excuse, smart guy :P. And without a doubt, I used this opportunity to try out some things new and I decided on this fraisier.

Fraisier is not new to me actually as I made it a few times before. It's like a French style of American strawberry shortcake. Traditional fraisier has two layers of genoise, soaked with Kirsch syrup, filled with creme mousseline (a combination of pastry cream and buttercream), and finally topped off with green/pink marzipan. The version of the fraisier I made before did not have this exact components though. I used Cointreau or Grand Marnier instead of Kirsch (not a big fan of it), and I used vanilla bean creme diplomat (combination of pastry cream and whipped cream) as I like everything light texturewise, and I skipped the marzipan too. There is another version of modern fraisier, which I saw in Pierre Herme's book and some French websites., which uses pistachio-flavored creme mousseline as the filling. Pistachio and strawberry is one of those pair that you cant go wrong with, they go really well with each other. Some version also uses blow-torched italian meringue to decorate the top instead of marzipan.

I've never made creme mousseline before and so I didn't exactly know what is the ratio between the pastry cream and the butter. I read some books and website but they're all suggesting completely different proportion. So, there I was creating my own ratio, which suits my taste. I started with my usual vanilla bean pastry cream, added pistachio paste and weighed it as I kept on tasting it until it tasted strong enough (it is easily overpowered by other flavor, so need to make sure that the flavor is pronounced enough). Same thing with the butter, I kept adding it a little at a time and weighed it until I got the right consistency and taste. I also made italian meringue that I burned with blow torch to create the burnt effect for the top part, while the pattern was created using a metal spatula. I got a little bored with glaze and wanted to do something different :D.

The final result was a success, although I think it's a little bit on the sweet side for me. I guess it's predictable from the syrup (I made it sweeter than usual unpurposedly), the mousseline was also a tad too sweet (an experiment, remember?), but it adds up to the sweetness too, and lastly the italian meringue. Italian meringue has always been too sweet for me and that's why I don't use it that often. I reduced the amount of the sugar in this from my previously reduced-sugar recipe, but it still contribute to the sweetness level. Sadly, I forgot to write down the recipe while it was fresh in my memory :(, and now I have to do it all over again to get the right proportions. Oh well, I guess it's another reason to bake another cake!

Black Raspberry, White Chocolate, and Cream Cheese Cake

No, I don't have a husband, if you might asked :D. It's for somebody else's husband.

It all started when I was asked to make a cake for a friend's birthday (she never had any of my cakes before) and turned out she liked it so much that when her older sister was visiting her from Indonesia and was looking for a cake, she mentioned my name. I have never met her sister before, she told me that her sister and the husband were about the pickiest couple when it comes to food, more over, dessert. You see now how much pressure I had when I heard that.

After a few emails and phone calls, she decided to try the black raspberry cake I made here since she's never had it in Indonesia (raspberry is very hard to get in Indonesia, and therefore not a common fruit or flavor). It was actually for her husband's birthday who is a chocolate addict, but she decided on trying something new, something they've never tried before (FYI, her husband is a chocolate lover :D). It was just such a really short notice though.

So, this is what I can come up with, in such a short notice. I think I only had one day to make this. And when I said one day, that means bright and early in the morning, and at night after work around 9pm (oh, and another morning on the day itself before work :D). I hope I can do much better with the decoration though, although I'm not sure what would I do differently if I had more time. But anyways, I'm always happy and grateful for every opportunity I get to contribute something for a special event :)

Mango Entremet

You see, mango is one of my favorite all time fruits (other than raspberries, and some other fruits). My eyes would lit up everytime I heard a mango cake, mango dessert, mango this, mango that and it's definitely one of the cake flavors that I would pick up if I'm in a pastry shop. You can understand how excited I was when I saw Helen's post about her Chocolate Mango and Coconut Cream Cake. I absolutely LOVE LOVE what she did with the cake. It looks gorgeous, clean, neat, superb! I've always wanted my cakes to look like that, but I guess I have a long way to go :(. Ever since I saw her post, I wrote it down in my "to-make" list, that I need to make something with mango and it has to be square and it has to show the different layers. Helen kindly has her recipe on her blog, and I could just follow that, but you know me, I'm a rebel :D. So, I decided to experiment and make a new recipe for a mango entremet, thinking what layers can go along really well with mango. Mango and coconut are often put together, but I'm never a fan of coconut flavored cakes, so coconut is out of the question and so is chocolate.

After some scribbling, I decided that my mango cake would consist of sponge base, mango mousse, vanilla bavarian cream, and thin raspberry gelee in the middle. I waited for the perfect occasion to make this cake and my sister in law's birthday was coming up, so yay! Just like me, my family loves mango, so this is the perfect event to try this. There's not much can be done earlier except the sponge base. Everything else pretty much has to be made just before you use it. I wanted to make 8" square, but my cake ring can only measure 9x10 at least, so I tried a new method using an 8" square baking pan. I lined the inside of the pan with plastic wrap and let it hang on the side, and assemble everything in it, then into the freezer it goes. After it looks strong enough, lift the plastic wrap and trim the sides. It sounds easy enough on my mind.

Since this is a trial recipe, of course everything will not be perfect. My mango mousse is too strong and too soft, my bavarian cream layer is too thick and needs more gelatin, my glaze was not perfect, etc. I only freeze it for less than 30 minuntes I think before pulling the plastic wrap up and it did not completely set yet. You can probably see that the sides are not straight, etc. I was having a hard time trimming the side of the cake while the cake is still soft, not solid. Oh well, lesson learned: do not rush things! I wasn't 100% satisfied with the look of the cake, I imagined it would be shorter, the layers are thinner, the mousse and the cream are stiffer, etc.

But I was really glad that the whole family liked it! We only have 7 people (5 adults and two kids) and they easily finished everything off! Everybody had second except my little niece, I was surprised enough to see her finished her own cake. This cake surely is a winner, I just had to work more on the recipe (and the looks) :)

Seeing Green!

This was actually made a while ago, in May I think.....

It all started when a dear friend, Putu, contacted me and asked me if I would like to make a cake for her birthday, and of course I would!!! without a doubt! She knew what she wanted, and that made it a lot easier for me. She knew she wanted an Indonesian cheese cake, and she showed me a picture of a green cake that she liked.

Green is her favorite color (obviously :D), and I have become a green-fan these past few years. You see, green is used to be my least favorite color, but once my adult life had started, the love for green has been growing stronger and stronger in me :P. It was a little hard to copy the picture she gave me, not just because the picture was small and I couldn't see the detail and everything, but it's also because my lack of skill to do cake decorating :(. I was never an expert nor I was into cake decorating, like making a perfect basketweave cake with buttercream roses, making small fondant figurines, and all that. But it's not me if I just gave up and say I can't ;).

The pictures of the cake here may look simple, and it is simple. I've never said that she asked for too much or anything, in fact, she was nothing like that. She said just do what I can do, if I can't do roses, then that's fine (she's just a sweetheart :) ). The original pic had a lot more green buttercream roses and more buttercream leaves. Since I don't trust myself to make buttercream roses (plus the weather was too hot to hold my buttercream stiff enough to make the roses), I attempted for fondant roses instead. The side wall is just a simple green-colored fondant to make a smoother finish on the cake, or more like to cover my imperfect skill to smooth out the sides :P.

Overall, of course mine didn't look anywhere close to the original picture, but at least I tried my best and there are still lots of room for improvement.

Raspberry Tiramisu Cake

I warn you, with the abundant amoung of berries showing at the farmers' market and grocery storess, you would see a lot of berry-flavored cakes showing often :D. I'm such a sucker for berries, especially raspberry. It's really hard for me to resist really good-looking raspberries, super sweet strawberries, deep purple color cherries, fragrant stone fruits. I could very easily pass those things in grocery store, but when it comes to farmers' market, uh oh... I would be in a really big "trouble" :).

Again, I also made this a while back for my dear friend's birthday. I always use every opportunity I got to experiment with type of cakes I've never made before. I mean, this is the best way to learn new stuff, plus you have the people to eat it, right??? (assuming the end result is edible :D). Fortunaltely, I have friends who are willing to eat anything including failed or ugly-looking cakes (well, most of them at least).

I was determined from the beginning to make raspberry tiramisu cake. My other option was mango tiramisu cake (my two most ultimate favorite fruits or cake flavors). I believe that there are things that are meant for each other (flavor or ingredient-wise :P). This includes raspberry-mascarpone, raspberry-white chocolate, dark chocolate-rum-coffee, mango-mascarpone, I could go on and on and on about this. So here's a way to combine them, raspberry tiramisu cake.

I thought of regular tiramisu components, mascarpone, cream, savoiardi (italian lady fingers), coffee, rum, coffee soaking mixture. I want this rasp. tiramisu to have the same components that make up a tiramisu, a tiramisu :P. I decided to use the soft lady fingers, instead of the hard ones like savoiardi as I don't think that making a raspberry solution to soak the lady fingers is going to be as good as the original tiramisu with coffee. So I made my own lady fingers or what French called biscuit a la cuillere. Instead of piping the batter one by one to look like a "finger", I just spread it all in a sheet pan. It'll be stacked together anyway, so no one will notice :). The lady finger is then brushed heavily (not soaked) with raspberry solution with lots of framboise (clear raspberry brandy), just like you brush a cake with simple syrup. Then, a thin layer of raspberry jam that I thinned out a little with framboise goes on top of the lady finger, a layer of mascarpone cream, and lots of fresh raspberries inside. This process is repeated twice. I didn't use egg yolk for the mouse as I don't usually use raw egg yolks to make a fruit-based mousse/cream.

The end cake is a lot higher than I would have liked. After a quick trip to the freezer and trim all of the sides, the cake is now ready to be glazed. Now, this is where the problem started :(. I always have problem with glazing a cake, especially if I use Oetker clear glaze. I followed the direction carefully, but it just set up like a jelly in a minute after taking it off the heat. I kept reheating it, adding more water and raspberry puree, adding my own homemade glaze, etc but nothing works. You can see the really poor glazing on top. I was really frustrated, and I was already late to the dinner (hence the poor decoration :( ). I was a little disappointed with the height and the glazing and the decoration, but hey, this is an experiment, I should have expected something like this.

But unfortunately, that's not the end of the problem. The real disaster followed 30 minutes after. As I mentioned, the oetker glaze set up like a jelly layer on top of the cake that wasn't really "glued" to the cake. I wasn't really paying attention to this as I drove really fast (a little speeding and maybe juuussttt a tad "zig zag-ing" :P to the dinner place where all of my friends were waiting. When I opened up the box after I arrived, I was just speechless. The glaze/jelly layer on top was sliding down the cake and it looked like a mess!!! I just couldn't say anything at that point.

Here's a picture of the cake after the "accident":

I made a good note of the ingredients proportions (that I might need to try next time), and I will definitely make the lady finger layer thinner. But I'm not done with raspberries, I mean how can I be with lots of them lying around everywhere I go, tempting me to pick up a basket or two (maybe four). So, more raspberries or berry posts comiinnggg :)