Croquembouche

Christmas is nearly there and I made my way of Christmas tree cake..., croquembouche. :)

There were quite a few steps to complete this Christmas treat. First, baking choux buns. Second, making three types of fillings...creme patissiere, vanilla cream and cream cheese icing. Third, melting sugar and make caramel. And finally, fill up the choux buns with those lovely creams and then build the tower of AWESOMENESS!

I was very happy when my choux buns came out from the oven. They were all nicely shaped and well risen. That was a good start. :D

I was satisfied with all of my fillings too:) Especially the creme patissiere was rich with vanilla and when I filled the choux buns with it, I couldn't help trying one... oooh, yum;)

My sugar work went pretty well. I was being careful not to make too much mess, but once the sugar went all over the place I went crazy too... All in all, the choux bun tower was built solid. Very promising:)

I finished with some raspberries and icing to give more Christmasy look. Hummm, I think my croquembouche came out very good:)

I brought it to the Christmas drink last night and it went down very well. Hope everyone enjoyed my sweet Christmas tree:D

Homemade marshmallow

Andy and I had one of those evenings when we just wanted to do some baking.... Since we finally found a liquid egg white (we got one called "Two Chicks". It's an awesome stuff.) and I love marshmallows, we decided to make some homemade marshmallows...

We've made marshmallows before but this was the first time that we used a recipe that requires boiling sugar. Two of us working and with an electric mixture, it was indeed pretty easy. Fun stuff:) Within 30 minutes, we had our own homemade marshmallows melting in our mouths.. Oooh, ever so sweet and smooth... none of those shop bought one can beat them!!

To keep marshmallows from sticking on the baking tray, we spread toasted coconuts but you can also use cornflour.

Ingredients;

Sugar 400g

Water

Egg white 120g

Gelatin leaves 6

Coconuts flakes

1. Soak gelatin leaves in cold water.

2. Make the syrup. Place sugar in a pan and cover it with water. Heat up the sugar and water until it reaches 121ºc.

3. Beat egg white with an electric mixer until it's fluffy. Gradually add the syrup while whisking egg white continuously.

4. When the egg white mixture is shiny and thick, squeeze gelatin leaves and mix them into the mixture.

5. Spread the mixture on a baking tray dusted with coconuts. Place the tray in the fridge for the marshmallow to set.

Andy's birthday cake... 2011

Haaapy biiirtthday to yooou, haaaapy biiirthday to yooou, haaaapy biiirthday dear Andy, haaapy biiirthday to yooou...!!

It was Andy's birthday yesterday. I made a caramel cheesecake with caramelised hazelnuts sponge and vanilla cream for my awesome hubby:)

I prepared the cake day before and couldn't wait to show it to him when I woke up... so, we had the cake for breakfast. ;D Nom nom nom...., nom nom nom..., nom nom nom...happy birthday Andy...

And..., it wasn't long before the whole cake disappeared...

I like birthdays. Great excuse to have cake for breakfast:)

Once again, happy birthday to Andy. xxx