Creme brulee with an Asian touch

My husband is a big fan of creme brulle. I mean ... who's not?
And because for almost a month I haven't made him anything sweet cause my sister was here and she was on a diet (girls and diets... as always) I couldn't tempt her with anything sweet. I could really see him suffering asking me every day when I'll bake something. My every day answer was "tomorrow''  (I'm a bad wife, what can I say...)

So my sister is gone and here I am, in the kitchen, preparing a great desert.
The recipe that I found belongs to  Eric Lanlard and you really have to try it.

 It's a great mix of flavors - french and thai. It's a creme brulee infused with lemon-grass and ginger. I never used lemon-grass before, but I'll definitely use it from now on. I loved the subtle notes that gave to my creme brulle. 

Here is the recipe from Eric Lanlard along with the directions.

INGREDIENTS:

• 350ml of double cream
• 125ml of milk
• 6 large eggs
• 100g of caster sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 stem of lemongrass, chopped
• 1 stem of fresh ginger
• Demerara sugar for sprinkling

DIRECTIONS:


Preheat the oven to 140C.

Put the ginger and lemon grass in a food processor and zap them to a paste. (I made them in a mortar)

In a saucepan add the cream, milk, split vanilla pod and the lemongrass and ginger paste then heat slowly until hot but not boiling.

In a mixing bowl whisk the eggs with the sugar until white and fluffy. Slowly pour the hot cream over the egg mixture mixing continuously.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve.

Pour the cream into a shallow dish and bake it for approximately 40 – 45 minutes until the mixture is wobbly. (I put my cream in 4 individual dishes)

Leave to cool down and sprinkle some Demerara sugar on the top and caramelize with a blow torch before serving.

 Photos by Emi Trasnitu

Vanilla Cake Pops

Another post with a recipe from the baby shower party is about cake pops.
Lately I've been in love with cake pops and I have so much fun making and decorating them.

I made a classic vanilla cake and colored it pink. The frosting that I used was vanilla cream cheese and  butter-cream.
To shape your cake balls and to put them on a stick I have a great tutorial that I found it here
From there you just have to dip them in chocolate or candy melts. And that's it!

And here is the recipe :)

INGREDIENTS:

For cake pops:

• 120 g plain or all-purpose flour
• 120 g caster sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 120 ml milk
• 1 egg
• pink dye

For frosting:

• 0,5 cup cream cheese, room temperature
• 0,5 cup butter, room temperature
• 0,5 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

For cake pops:

Preheat your oven to 170C/ 325F.

Sieve the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter into the bowl of a Kitchen Aid (or other freestanding mixer) and using the paddle attachment mix slowly until everything is combined and you have a sandy consistency.

While the mixer is running, slowly pour in half of the milk and mix until it's just incorporated.

Add the egg to the remaining milk along with the vanilla and pink dye ( a few drops)  and continue beating until it's mixed in.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is properly mixed but be careful not to over beat the mixture.
Evenly spoon the cake mixture into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes until the sponge bounces back when touched and a skewer comes out clean with put into the center of the cake.
Leave to cool for a few minutes then transfer onto a wire rack. 

For frosting:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter (on medium speed) until completely smooth (30 seconds to a minute).
Add the cream cheese and mix until everything is incorporated.
Add vanilla and powered sugar and mix for a few minutes.

If is to soft, keep it in the fridge for 5-10 minutes.

Here is a great tutorial from Bakerella on how to make cake pops. This will really help you!

For this party I made double quantity of cake and frosting cause I also wanted to have some 'naked' cake balls. You can find my post with pink velvet cake balls HERE

 Photos by Emi Trasnitu

Chocolate candy melts

Another recipe from the baby shower is here. This time  is candy melts made out of chocolate. And not every kind of chocolate, but my favorite- white chocolate.
I think this is a really easy to make recipe and I think is great to fill the table at a candy bar.

You can make them in any color using white chocolate and food dye. Also you can make them with any other type of chocolate that you love.

Here is the simply and delicious recipe that I made.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 white chocolate ( 200 g)
• a few drops food dye

DIRECTIONS:

1. Break chocolate into small pieces and melt it in the microwave or under shimmering water.

2. After melting your chocolate add a few drops of food dye, depending on the intensity of the color you want to obtain.

 3. Spoon the colored chocolate into a plastic bag and leave it rest for a few minutes. Using a scissors cut one small end and form your candy melts on a cooking sheet.

 4. Leave it rest over night or until completely dry. 

I also made purple candy melts for this baby shower party.

Photos by Emi Trasnitu.

French meringue

My first post regarding the recipes that I made at the baby shower party is about french meringue. I love them! They look absolutely adorable!

I remember how much I adored these sweet pieces of clouds when I was little. For a long period they were my favorites. My mom used to buy them for me and my sister and because they were coming in small pieces and different colors in the same bag, we were always fighting over the pink ones.

I knew from the beginning that I have to make french meringue for this baby shower. 
They are really easy to make and every loves them.

 Here is the recipe that I found and made for this occasion.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 egg whites
• 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 150˚F*. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. With a pen, trace around a small round object. Repeat tracing circles, leaving 1-inch in between, till parchment paper is filled. Repeat with second sheet pan. Set aside.

2. Place egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until light and foamy.

3. With mixer on low speed, very slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla. Once all sugar has been added, set speed at medium and beat for 20 minutes. Mixture will be very thin at first, but will get quite thick, smooth and satiny.

4. Spoon mixture into a decorating bag fitted with star tip

5. To pipe meringues: start in center of one circle and swirl outward in a circular motion till circle is filled with meringue. Repeat till all circles are filled. 

6. Bake for 2 hours or until meringues are crisp. Turn oven off and leave meringues in oven till completely cool. Remove from oven when cool .

7. At this point you can serve them like that or you can add some icing ( I used a purchased version with raspberry flavor) onto half of the cookies. Top with remaining cookies and compress gently till filling spreads to edges. Also, you can add some on icing on top, like I did, for extra color.

 Photos by Emi Trasnitu.