Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )

[jmacnaughtan]

I was asked to do a proper French dinner, so I made a Paris Brest for dessert.  Unfortunately, it was only after I'd made the cream that I realised my praliné was old and had developed that health-food-peanut-butter flavour.

 

So it went in the bin, and I made a coffee cream.  Being clever, I swapped out the sugar for black treacle which is nowhere near as sweet, and didn't change the amount.

 

In despair, I reached for the nearest sweet thing I could add to the cake to make it taste like a dessert: fig jam.

 

Who knew that coffee and fig worked?

 

 

I had some choux pastry, cream and jam left over, so I made éclairs too.  Which tasted the same.

 

 

And yeah, I've given up trying to make choux pastry look elegant.

[rarerollingobject]

One of my favourite things about rhubarb is also one of my least favourite things about rhubarb; geometry.

 

The beginnings of rhubarb upside down cake.

 

[DianaB]

A very loose interpretation of ile flottante.  Crème anglaise made separately.  The centre is a milk chocolate and passion fruit ganache montée and the base is just a slab of tempered milk chocolate.  As an insomniac I pass a lot of time watching cooking programmes and versions of an ile flottante have been everywhere this week!  Mine was OK but far from ‘wow’, our measure to define whether a recipe will get another chance.  Might try a different version in due course...

 

 

The best part part of the experiment was using sucralose in the crème anglaise rather than sugar.  That will now be our standard recipe.

 

Next a cat picture.  Relevant because he is warming himself on our proofing box in which was melting the milk chocolate for the ganache!

 

 

@rarerollingobject your rhubarb is a work of art!  Our rhubarb is just starting to make an appearance in the garden so I may need to steal your idea...

[MelissaH]

12 hours ago, rarerollingobject said:

One of my favourite things about rhubarb is also one of my least favourite things about rhubarb; geometry.

 

The beginnings of rhubarb upside down cake.

 

That's beautiful, and I don't even like rhubarb!

[RWood]

So, time for my birthday cake. I loved the Wonder Woman movie and decided to go with that this time. 

I didn't need a lot of cake, so the bottom and top tiers are dummies. Middle is marble cake. I never know what I'm gonna do untiI I start, and some ideas didn't make it, but I'm happy with it. I gotta learn to not wear myself out trying to get it all done after working all day. Took about three afternoons (after trying things that got scrapped.)

 

[Smokeydoke]

Another chocolate cake, this time by Joy the Baker from Homemade Decadence.

 

 

Classic American Chocolate cake. Can't go wrong with that. Frosting was a bit wonky, it included a lot of sour cream, but it was ok. Still doesn't beat Ms. Field's chocolate cake which I've been making for twenty years.

 

Sorry for the unphotogenic photo, so much brown, I didn't know what to do!

 

Edited March 13, 2018 by Smokeydoke (log)

[kayb]

Semi-sweets, more like it.

 

 

A loaf of date-nut bread, left, and a fig-and-blueberry crisp.

 

 

The date nut bread, from the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website, was primo. I'll make that again.

 

The crisp, which I kind of winged, needs work. 

[Trufflenaut]

On 3/9/2018 at 10:00 AM, Trufflenaut said:

Having a bit of fun....

 

Caramels soft-panned in toffee, then covered in chocolate:

 

 

I made two different batches to try out two different methods, and totally in a rush so neither are fully set, but so far both are tasty - I’ll give a report on which is better once the shells have time to fully set (assuming the toffee shells will fully crystallize under the chocolate)

 

 

Update: Apparently soft-panned sugar shells don't crystallize of they're covered in chocolate too soon (I figured as much, but I was in a hurry and didn't have time to wait before chocolatifying them)...  But they still taste good.   

[patris]

Our staff breakfast was this morning, and the danish were a hit. Of course I forgot to take pictures of the iced and plated final product, but I did remember to snap a (rather poor) shot of them before I closed up the boxes after baking and cooling last night. Bear claws and cheese diamonds in the foreground, and more bear claws and pinwheels with Bonne Maman four fruits preserves in the background.

 

 

Joe Pastry's recipe was terrific - lovely dough to work with. I had a few bear claws open up on me, but that was the only real technical issue. I refreshed them briefly this morning in a 250 degree oven with a pan of hot water on the lower oven rack for humidity and they tasted freshly-baked.

Edited March 15, 2018 by patris (log)

[Captain]

Sorry I missed your post @DianaB and I can't see any PM??

I have been away for my B'Day and have only visited the last couple of days.

I will have to find the exact recipe for you and when I do I'll share.

[rarerollingobject]

Chinese pineapple jam, for pineapple tarts in lard pastry; fresh pineapple cooked down with sugar, cinnamon, star anise and white pepper. I don’t cook it down as much as is traditional; I like it a bit zingier and fresher than you’d get in a normal Chinese pineapple tart.

[jmacnaughtan]

I made an orange cake for dessert this evening.  Fairly straightforward, just orange and almond/hazelnut.

 

Orange cake

 

 

Orange and almond financier

Orange marmelade

Hazelnut and Golden Grahams crunch

Orange curd

Orange and golden syrup chantilly

Glaze

Candied orange

 

For some reason, I've recently had an aversion to cakes with flat, smooth, regular tops.  Not entirely sure why.

[Anna N]

23 minutes ago, jmacnaughtan said:

 

I made an orange cake for dessert this evening.  Fairly straightforward, just orange and almond/hazelnut

 

No no no. Fairly straightforward is a slice of pound cake, some orange segments, a drizzle of Grand Marnier and a few toasted almonds. That’s straightforward.   Yours is a work of art quite beyond my capabilities. 

[Tri2Cook]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

No no no. Fairly straightforward is a slice of pound cake, some orange segments, a drizzle of Grand Marnier and a few toasted almonds. That’s straightforward.   Yours is a work of art quite beyond my capabilities. 

I agree it's a work of art, I'd strongly question it being beyond your capabilities. 

[jmacnaughtan]

On 17/03/2018 at 7:24 PM, Tri2Cook said:

I'd strongly question it being beyond your capabilities. 

 

True - none of the constituent parts are particularly difficult to make.  You just need the time to do each one properly

[Tri2Cook]

1 hour ago, jmacnaughtan said:

 

True - none of the constituent parts are particularly difficult to make.  You just need the time to do each one properly

I wasn't actually suggesting it was easy to make, I was thinking more that she definitely has the skillset to do it. But I agree with you that, for the most part, very little of the fancy food and pastry stuff is as difficult as the end result suggests once you break it down into components.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Tri2Cook said:

I wasn't actually suggesting it was easy to make, I was thinking more that she definitely has the skillset to do it. But I agree with you that, for the most part, very little of the fancy food and pastry stuff is as difficult as the end result suggests once you break it down into components.

Hell I couldn’t even make a decent poundcake to execute my suggested recipe. You are both overrating my capabilities exponentially.   

 

 

 

[jmacnaughtan]

6 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Hell I couldn’t even make a decent poundcake to execute my suggested recipe. You are both overrating my capabilities exponentially.   

 

 

 

 

Looks pretty good to me.  Although there are not many pound cakes I'd kick out of bed, to be honest.

[kayb]

Key lime pound cake. 

 

 

And baby pound cakes made with the excess batter.

 

 

 

[Pastrypastmidnight]

This is my first post here . Robin Eggs Easter egg macarons (malted milk ganache—like the Easter candies). Just for fun. Because it’s apparently National or World or Something Macaron Day  . 

[Kim Shook]

2 hours ago, Pastrypastmidnight said:

This is my first post here . Robin Eggs Easter egg macarons (malted milk ganache—like the Easter candies). Just for fun. Because it’s apparently National or World or Something Macaron Day  . 

Those are adorable.  I'm impressed and can't wait to see more of your artistry!!!

[Pastrypastmidnight]

24 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

Those are adorable.  I'm impressed and can't wait to see more of your artistry!!!

Thank you so much! You just made my whole day  .

[Tri2Cook]

41 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

Those are adorable. 

Adorable isn't a commonly used word in my vocabulary but... I agree. 

[pjm333]

Mango Mousse & Passion Mousse !

[Captain]

AWSESOME @pjm333