FRENCH APPLE TART (Tarte de Pommes)

A new french lesson today tarte de pommes. TArte is tart and pommes is apple. Now we can sound french too, BOnjour je suis Jacqueline and today I will show my tart de pommes, oui ?! d’accord.( meaning okay). I used green apples for the tart and it was tossed with a squeezed of lemon, brown sugar and cinnamon powder.

 

French apple tart with cinnamon

A great way to have an apple tart is with ice cream. I used peach ice cream to go with, thought it would be a great combination with the slight sour taste from the tart.

And a sprig of mint to complete the look. Looking good tarty.

CARROT CAKE WITH LEMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Over the weekend I had many projects to do, and so I left my blog unattended. My apology to everyone who reads my blog. So with a fresh start I give you; carrot cake. The most common cake that everyone likes to make, so I thought of sharing my own version and how it looks like. In my carrot cake recipe I like to put well of course the usual; walnuts, carrots( it is a must) and lemon zest ( in cake batter and frosting).

 

Here is the recipe:

I used 2 same sized pans ; 6 inch.

• 185g unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups coarse grated carrots
• 3/4 roughly chopped walnuts
• 3/4 plain flour ( superfine flour)
• 3/4 self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon of mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1/2 a lemon zest

Instructions;

1. Using a kitchen aid mixer or if you do not have one a hand mixer is fine, mix butter and sugar until it turns into a pale white colour at medium speed. Slowly add in the eggs one by one. Mix just enough at slow speed until it is all combine and stop.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients together and mix in the zest after sifting.( so that the zest wont clump together).
3. Fold in the flour in 2 or 3 times, get it all incorporated nicely. The walnuts go in last mixing it in nicely and you are done.
4. Pour the batter into two tins, separating them into halves.

Bake @ 170 degree celsius for about 30 – 40 minutes

Do check on it after 30 minutes,depending on some ovens yours and mine maybe different.

Cream cheese frosting:

• 120g packaged cream cheese
• 60g unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon of lemon zest
• 1 1/2 cup of icing sugar ( sifted)
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Instructions :

1. Beat cream cheese and butter and lemon zest until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar, beat until  combined.
3. Lastly add in the lemon juice, mix well.

When do you start frosting the cake ?  Until your cake is cooled,and while your cake is cooling place your cream cheese in the fridge getting it nice and cold and easy to work with. Good Luck !

Screaming for ice cream

Ice cream cookie

Another cookie order; the theme is Ice cream, Ice cream sundaes, ice cream cones and lollipops. This one was for Adele turning 1, of course for a adorable baby she gets cute yummy ice cream cookies.

Yummy ice cream cookies.

Happy Birthday to Adele who is turned 1 !

 

All that’s left is sealing and packing.

   

Decorated baby blue cookies for a baby shower.

Baby shower cookies

Last week I did an order for a baby shower, the design was simple and adorable. I decorated 7 types of cookies which were; an elephant,a teddy bear, bunny,baby bottle, heart shaped and tulip.

I have just outlined and flood the other half and let it dry or set, then continue with the other half. This helps so I wont have them overlapping each other. Plus it will look like a tulip flower.

Baby blue elephants scattered around.

Finishing touches on the teddy bear.

Little bunnies are done and put to rest.

Ready for the baby shower.

             

Baby Miller is one luck baby. ^.^

             

Orange Semolina Cake

Orange Semolina Cake great for an afternoon tea

 I made this cake before for my mum’s party and it earned a lot of thumbs up.This cake is not your usual buttercake; it is made with semolina and ground almonds,with no flour added. The texture of the cake is fluffy but dry and  crumbly ( because of the semolina) However, when you pour on some orange syrup and leave it to soak, it becomes a totally different texture the next day. The moisture from the syrup is absorbed by the semolina which then becomes plump and full of flavour

Looks like a buttercake but it is all semolina and ground almonds and not dense at all .The mixing of butter,sugar and eggs and baking powder to give that fluffiness, so make sure it is well mixed and combined.

I poked a few holes half way to the bottom so the syrup will go to through and soak thoroughly from the top to the bottom. Tip: when pouring the syrup make sure the cake is still hot and use a spoon ( you would be in control and also knowing which part needs more syrup). I added a cinnamon stick into the orange syrup to give it more flavour and a good squeeze of lemon juice for a zing. That way my cake will have these flavours that compliment each other.

To really enjoy this cake is to leave it over night and have it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This is great for dessert or tea time.

My Pastry journey took me to ENSP. (PART ONE)

Last year I took a summer international course in Ecole Nationale Superieure de Patisserie (ENSP) at Yssingeaux, France. Where is YSSINGEAUX ??,it is a 1 hour flight from Paris followed by a 2 hour drive from Lyon airport. My journey from Kuala Lumpur took me 24 hours. Tiring but bearable. ENSP is housed in Chateau Montbanier a huge castle with more than 40 rooms. For the next 3 months that castle would be my home together with 24 other students from other parts of the world. There were Mexicans, Americans, Kazakhstan, Argentinians, Russian, Singaporean and Malaysians. What a potpourri of culture.

Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie at Yssingeaux, France.

I thought that the weather would be great in the summer, but I arrived in the middle of a rainy season; blustery and cold with temperatures averaging 18deg C. Everyday it was cold and wet walking to the nearby village for supplies and food…..squelch squelch went wet soggy shoes… it was quite a relief that it lasted for just half a month. We had to  start our classes at  6am in the morning and just coming out of the room, walking through the rain in the freezing cold to get to the Labs even for just a few seconds made me very grumpy; more so when at that time of the morning all you could see was the moon. That was how I started my day at the chateau.

Behind the chateau was a forest where some friends and I went trekking. What I thought would be a short trail turned out to be a 2 hour trek starting from one end of the chateau to coming out of the other end. I loved how I was surrounded by  nature, We came across many beautiful wild flowers and  found some wild berries which we plucked and ate (they were not poisonous) Luckily, no wild boars appeared! I kept anticipating one to show up; never having stepped out of the city, I assumed the forest was filled with animals and critters.

Adventure in the forest behind the Chateau.

          Trekking the forest, surrounded with nature.

                      

First Week Of Lab

ICE CREAM

First week one lab was ice cream. YAY! who doesn’t love ice cream!?. We made a lot of flavours of ice cream and sorbets, my favourite was the pina colada sorbet, yum yum. So I really had blast making ice creams and that the biggest lesson learnt is to be careful when handling frozen items for a long period of time, or your fingers could get purple.

Yummy chocolate ice cream being dipped in rocher

Large Sized Orange Citrus Macarons Sorbet

Decorating the the ice cream cake with chocolate bits

Final touch up before heading to the buffet 

   

Adding glucose to give the water drop effect and round crystal sugar for decoration

Buffet time, our hard work paid off

 They are camera ready!

Time for their close ups     

         

    After handwork eating tasting time 

    

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