Lemon Celebration Cake for my 100th post!

This is my 100th post! I can't believe I have written so many already, and it makes me a little proud that I stayed put. It is very rewarding to have you, my readers here and sharing my little baking and photography adventures. I am also very happy each time I see one of my picture showing up on sites like pinterest or other sites and see my work is recognized. So, for celebrating this occasion a great cake is in order.

But this is not the only special occasion. I made this cake for my Mom, who had a special birthday last Wednesday. She is a great baker herself, and I learned a lot from her. I have a picture from me as a toddler standing in the kitchen and helping her bake. Well, I was just licking the whisk, but I definitely inherited the baking gene from her.

I wanted to make a cake which I could decorate with a colorful bunting. This is such a cute trend, and I wanted to make it for some time now. My cousin gave me some beautiful fabric scraps from her sewing projects. I cut double triangles and glued them together over a ribbon band. Then I attached it on two tall lollipop sticks with a knot. Really easy!

For the cake I chose to make a four layer lemon cake. The cake is filled with a silky lemon cream and creamy caramel. The frosting is made from lemon cream and mascarpone, and is so delicious, that you could eat it with a spoon. There a quite a few components to be done, but everything can be made in advance. I made the cake and fillings the day before and just made the frosting on the day when I served it.

I found that beautiful petal frosting technique at "La Receta de la Felicidad", where you can also find detailed pictures on how to do it.

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Marquise on Torched Meringue with Spiced Almonds and Caramel Sauce

It's Daring Bakers time again, and this month's challenge was a "Chocolate Marquise on Torched Meringue with Spiced Almonds and Caramel Sauce". Quite a mouthful, and intimidating to make on the first look, but if you plan ahead and make each component early enough it comes together quite easy.

I really loved this month's challenge. Many delicious components, beautifully plated. But I think I could do without the torched meringue next time. The marquise was definitely the best chocolate mousse I have ever made. So silky and smooth, everybody loved it. I made them in little Half Sphere Molds instead of the suggested cubes.

The nuts were very tasty, but it was a lot of work to get them out of the coating. I also needed a much shorter baking time, since they were already getting very dark on the bottom after 20 minutes. I mixed almonds and walnuts. Next time I would only use almonds, since the walnuts were hard to identify in the sugar covering.

The caramel sauce was delicious, the added rum made the sauce really stand out. I think I will try this again with grand marnier one day.

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

Banana Tarte Tatin

I made the traditional apple tarte tatin several times already, but this version with bananas is my new favorite. If you like fried or baked bananas, you will love this one. Caramel and bananas just go so well together. I have never tried mini-bananas before, and I don't think they tasted much different from regular ones. But their size was perfect for this arrangement.

The tart is best eaten warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Salted Chocolate-Caramel Tartlets

I was looking for a decadent chocolate tart, something which would help to brighten up a friends day. I found the perfect recipe at Saveur Magazine. I made Salted Chocolate-Caramel Tartelettes. The crust uses a good amount of cocoa powder, which gives it a very chocolaty taste. Then follows a very rich creamy caramel layer. And on top a dark chocolate ganache. The tartelettes are then sprinkled with a little bit of Fleur de sel, which gives them an extra yum factor.

The recipe is for one big tart, but I thought it would be difficult to cut in pieces at the end. So, I decided to make little 10 cm (4-inch) tartelettes. From the recipe I got 7 tartelettes, which were still very big as a single serving. Next time I would probably use even smaller forms. They are super rich and super delicious.

You can find the recipe here at Saveur Magazine.


Enjoy and Guten Appetit!