Long Weekend Celebrations

Note to self: I need better photographs, so ask Bud.

Also note to self, write post about my perfect cup of tea.

Two items were created this weekend, an Almond Tea Cake for Bud's birthday celebration with her family and also some White Chocolate Macadamia Tarts from the Lindt Chocolate Recipe book.

First the Almond Tea Cake... made upon request by my best friend for her birthday. Nice and simple, just like her. Any cake with almonds in it is always a hit, it makes anything remind me of a macaron. Which isn't as bad as it sounds considering how the macaron phase is slowly dying away. Classics are always classics so it will be stay around forever and make a comeback in the not too distant future, just like Rocky B.

Back to the cake, it was made because it it simple and for the fact it has a very unique crunch factor. The top of the cake is crumbled  with a mixture of brown sugar, butter and flour creating a biscuit like topping similar to that of sand and small rocks. Once baked it forms the sweetest crust for such a simple cake. Almonds and a crunchy topping in a cake is a winning combination... I'm pretty sure Akuma's "Rage" was based on this combination idea.

Monday morning I was going to make a cheesecake but after some reading I realised it was going to be too sweet, so instead I will be using the ingredients to make other goodies.

Looking through my shelf of knowledge I pulled out my Lindt Recipe Book and flipped the pages over to a White Chocolate and Macadamia tarts. Made more like a cake mix, there was no pastry lining the bottom of the tart tins, which in turn I should have thought harder and made a finer mixture of the nuts so that the tart would set once baked. As I popped out the first one, a small but in the middle had broken off the bottom so I could get a glimpse inside. It was still moist and gooey like a soft centered pudding, but the outside was just set and wobbly like jelly. Knowing a good thing when I see it, I flipped it over, dusted it in icing sugar and pretty much breathed it in. Some berries or a strawberry sauce would have gone well, especially to make the photo a bit more pleasant to look at. Anyway, it is now here for reference.

I also started making a Lemon Tart from Heston Blumenthal's TV show How To Cook Like Heston. I made this tart once before and it was so F*&^%$ good. The pastry I made last night, will make a soft and super buttery biscuit which I believe the key ingredient being the icing sugar as it is able to completely dissolve into the egg yolks. I shall attempt to finish the tart case tonight as good pastry can not be a rushed dish. Will post it tomorrow ; )

Peace.

Essential Ingredient = Focus

My friend in crime, Luke, keeps going on about chocolate mousse. Making a dish is easier for me if I think of someone as I create it, that way it means more to me and I care for the finished product to be top quality.

As I made the mousse, my electronic scales stopped working which is something like Einstein not having light to figure out the theory of relativity... or like a car with no petrol.

I carried on using experience as a guide for creating this dish for my friend I care about, although the finished product did not display the feelings I have for our friendship. To say the least I was not too happy, but happy enough to satisfy my chocolate craving that Sunday afternoon. 

The life lesson behind this is to focus on one step at a time. 

I know I am capable of creating some nice desserts although lately they have been shocking, but in a good way, when I do show something nice I will be like the "little engine that could". 

After all the ingredients had been folded together, I added some raw cacao powder for some bitterness as it was a bit too much on the sweet side of life. Hence the grainy look in the photo. There is only so much my girl can do to edit the photo to try and make it look delectable.

All in all, this is to be created again with my friend in mind and made with patience plus a working scale so that it comes out looking the way it should.

To be recreated.

The Simple "Floating Island"

I had some enthusiasm to create the classic French dessert, "Floating Island".

Comprised of steamed meringues that sit sweetly on a pool of cream anglaise, also known as vanilla custard. 

The meringue is created using a steaming method in which they cook in a bath full of milk and vanilla. 

The cream anglaise is a pure version of vanilla custard that is made using the milk and vanilla used to cook the meringue and mixing it with sugar and egg yolk. 

I'm not sure why I am suddenly giving instructions on how to make it as the recipe is easy to find. I guess this being my first post I am emulating something I am used to seeing in other peoples blogs. 

Most bloggers write freely about perfection they have achieved but I admire those that tell the truth about how many times they nearly burnt the house down as with making desserts of any kind, it is an art that requires patience and organisation. 

I read a proverb from Tzao that went something like this...

"Nature does not rush, but everything is completed". 

I am sure this is the motto recited by many pastry chefs that begin their daily routine. 

Another saying by some bloke...

"What can go wrong, will go wrong". 

These words hammer the head home with making desserts. If you are not prepared mentally and physically, all will burn in hell aka the oven. 

In any case, I wanted my first post to be about the simplicity of something so beautiful as with the French method, simplicity is the key. 

What went right... not much. the meringue stuck together and did not fall apart in steam bath. The meringue did float and the caramel was not burnt. Most importantly, my girl has not tasted a floating island before so she had nothing to compare it too. Although she did mention a cooked egg taste in the custard...

What went wrong... the egg white contained some yolk, the meringue broke into bits after it steamed, the custard overcooked creating an egg like taste and there was not enough caramel to make the dish aesthetically pleasing. 

After having the individual ingredients made, I assembled the dish. It looked good enough. My presentation is something that has always lacked any creativity. No number of books or blogs will help, I need to play around more...trial and error, baby. 

Getting the basics right, I will need to make this dish again. The kicthen was in a mess and my head was not in the right place to make such a simple looking dish, I should have known better. I need to be in the kind of head space which is similar to that of after a solid nights sleep. 

Note to self: Make this again with better ingredients like real vanilla so I can see the seeds, room temperature egg whites so they take in the sugar, a slotted spoon to flip the meringues and make enough caramel with other toppings to decorate for nicer photos. I made this dish a week ago, the only reason I remember all these points is because it is a known fact that when you have adrenalin through the body, everything is remembered much easily. 

In this instance, it's a good reason so I can learn from my mistakes.

A Sweet Way Towards Self-preservation

Greetings all! Welcome to my world!

I have always been reluctant to create a blog until I realized how important it is to remember the good times. As obvious as it seem I always thought that having the memory of such times was enough, but I couldn't have got it anymore wrong. The more I make, the less I seem to remember!.

So, the title of my first post is "Self-preservation", to remember what I have done and to one day look back and be proud of my achievements as well as what I have learnt along the way.

Thank you to all my family and friends for encouraging me to get started, I appreciate all of you.

- Mith