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Raspberry and White Chocolate Mille Feuilles DB challenge

October 27, 2012 24 Comments
Mille feuilles

Hello everyone!

Hope you had a great week! Here is this month Daring Bakers’ challenge!

“Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!”

Mille feuilles

You can get the recipe and the how to here (PDF)

My experience : I would have liked the pastry to be more airy. Mine was like compact layers. It was flaky so I guess I kind of succeeded to make the recipe, but maybe I should have omit the step 6 of baking (where you put a heavy tray on top of your pastries so that they don’t puff too much). I will definitely try other recipes and see what could have gone wrong. It was a fun challenge to do anyway! Looking forward to try it again!

For the filling, I did the White Chocolate Cream from A Village Pantry but it’s the second time I try doing such a chocolate whipped cream and both times it kind of became liquid albeit delicious :S

Have fun in the kitchen :D I’m heading over to see what the other bakers did!!

Mille feuilles

Filed Under: Daring Bakers, Pastry Tagged With: ,

1st blogiversary – Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling Topped with Caramelized Meringue

September 4, 2012 9 Comments
cupcakeV

Hey everyone!

It’s time to celebrate!!! Sugar for the Brain just turned 1 :D At this very moment last year I was posting my first ever blog post: Peanut butter filled chocolate cookies. It was a great moment and I don’t regret it at all! A lot of sweets have gone in my belly since then (and my boyfriend’s, and my family’s, and my friend’s, etc.), a lot of photos have been pinned, a lot of chocolate have been used and a lot of item have been added to my Dessert To Do List. It was an awesome blogging year! :D I think it’s time for a retrospective!

First things first
I was lucky enough to get my first picture (Peanut butter filled chocolate cookies) accepted on Foodgawker. Maybe that wasn’t a good start because it had me think that all my pictures would be accepted *sigh*. You know what I mean right? I remember getting quite frustrated when my photo got rejected and very stressed out waiting for the answer! Today I thank them so very much for rejecting my photos and giving me feedback to improve them (on the contrary, TasteSpotting always write “composition” which isn’t helpful at all! I assure you that at first there were bigger problems with my photos than composition ;) ). Without them I guess I would still be thinking that my pictures are well exposed and have a good composition when they don’t (I’m getting the trick with the lighting now, most of the time, but composition is still tricky and I really go with my instinct!). And yes I’m still getting rejected from time to time by Foodgawker and almost all the time by TasteSpotting :P I’m not getting upset anymore about that and you shouldn’t either ;)

A photo please?
So you might wonder, if you have followed me for a while, why there is no pictures of me here. *Ahem* Well, it’s mostly because I usually don’t like myself on pictures and didn’t feel comfortable showing you this so-so portrait. So for all of you curious reader, I’m working on that ;) I did have this nice picture I wanted to post today, but it was corrupted or something, I wasn’t able to edit it (I guess this is what Freud calls “acte manqué” or “faulty act”). Anyway, after one year I’m ready to show off :P This reminds me of all the back and forth I did before starting Sugar for the Brain. I never told you that it took me more than a year to decide to go live. I was worried about many things (I usually am, but I’m improving!) : not having time to post, nobody would care, the passion would fade away and I would deceive my followers, etc, etc. So glad I surpassed these fears! Yes from time to time I get really busy and regretfully have to postpone a next post, but I tell you I will be back and you play along (hopefully) ;) As for the readers, well, I now have 2 500 fans on facebook, which is completely amazing! I can’t thank you enough for that. And there is the twitter followers, the rss feed followers, and all of you who are coming from all over the Web :D Thank you so much!

What’s next?

  • Improve my photography skills:  I need to find some time to practice and read photography books. Oh and I need to make money to buy props too!!
  • Improve my caramel skills. What?! Improve?! To improve you have to have some skills in the first place right? OK, so develop my caramel skills ;) I really want to do homemade caramel!!!
  • Check a couple of desserts off my To Do List (I guess it won’t change anything since I will add many more items along the way!)
  • So many other things that I cannot think of right now!

Milestones of the year

  • Posting the Decorated Cake Roll Tutorial and getting to 1000 fans in a couple of hours on Facebook!
  • Succeeding in doing Pate a choux! Yeah!
  • Discovering the food community on facebook (like 2 months ago duh!), so much great people loving food, cakes and chocolate!
  • Having 2 photos in a row getting accepted on TasteSpotting (I just have 6 photos accepted so far but I didn’t submit all of them, at one point I just let it go and dind’t submit anymore!).
  • I guess it doesn’t really count for this year since it’s not posted yet, but I made a guest post for a website that you might know :D Can’t wait for you to see it! Coming up in September!
  • And finally of course reading all your sweet comments :D Keep them coming, they always make my day! This is truly the perfect pastime :D Thanks to each and every one of you xxxxxx

(Smiley overload!!!)

Here is the recipe that I made to celebrate this event!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling Topped with Caramelized Meringue

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling Topped with Caramelized Meringue
One Bowl Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Sing for your Supper
Yield : 24 cupcakes

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup cocoa
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with liners.
In a large bowl beat all the ingredient except for the boiling water on medium speed for 2 minutes.
Stir in boiling water (batter will be very thin).
Divide into cupcake liners.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.


Raspberry filling
Adapted from My Recipes

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
  • 1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar

(You won’t need all the recipe to fill the cupcakes, I made a tiny batch ;) )
Beat butter and raspberries at medium speed until creamy.

Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended and smooth after each addition.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling Topped with Caramelized Meringue

Italian meringue
Adapted from Taste

  • 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 4 egg whites, at room temperature

Stir the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves.

Increase heat to medium-high.
Cook, without stirring, for 3-5 minutes or until the mixture reaches 115°C.
While the syrup continues to cook, use an electric beater to whisk egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl until soft peaks form. When the syrup reaches 120°C and with the beater on low speed, gradually add syrup to egg white mixture. Increase speed to high. Whisk until thick, glossy and cool.

Assembly

Once cupcakes are cool, cut a cone shape hole in the cupcake.

Spoon the filling in the cupcake hole and add a raspberry.

Using a piping bag fitted with round nozzle (choose your favorite size), pipe peaks on top of the cupcakes. Use a blowtorch to caramelise the meringue (the fun part :P ).

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling Topped with Caramelized Meringue

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: , ,

Chocolate Truffle Tart

July 23, 2012 2 Comments
Chocolate Truffle Tart

Hello everyone!

Here is a quick post with a quick and delicious recipe! When you take this pie out of the oven it has a cake-like texture. But you’ll see that it’s really creamy when you’ll cool it and eat it. Raspberries are the best combination with the not-too-sweet chocolate filling.

I’ll be back this week with my systematic experimentation with cake pops : why the heck they crack? Experimentation was successful and the results were conclusive (hypothesis confirmed) ;)

Enjoy!

Chocolate Truffle Tart

Chocolate Truffle Tart
Recipe adapted from Gourmet
Yield about 10 portions

Crust
1 1/2 cups oreo crumbs
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled completely

Filling
8 oz bittersweet chocolate (less than 60% cacao if marked), coarsely chopped (I used 7 oz semisweet chocolate and 1 oz unsweetened chocolate).
3/4 stick stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the crust

  • Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a pie pan.
  • Stir together oreo crumbs and butter in a bowl until combined, then pat mixture evenly onto bottom and sides of pan. Bake until crust is slightly puffed, about 10 minutes, then cool completely in pan on a rack, about 15 minutes.

Filling and assemble

  • Melt chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth, then remove from heat and cool 5 minutes.
  • Whisk together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl. Whisk chocolate mixture into egg mixture until combined.
  • Pour filling into cooled crust and rap pan once on counter to eliminate any air bubbles.
  • Bake until filling 1 inch from edge is set and slightly puffed but center trembles slightly when pan is gently shaken, 20 to 25 minutes.
  • Let cool for about 30 minutes to 1 hours and then garnish with the fruits of your choice (you don’t want them to bake!)
  • Cool tart completely in pan on a rack, about 2 hours. Chill, uncovered, until center is firm, about 4 hours.

Chocolate Truffle Tart

Filed Under: Tarts Tagged With: , , , ,

DB Challenge: Chocolate and Vanilla Battenberg Cake

June 27, 2012 18 Comments
battenberg2V

Hey guys!

So here is a Daring Bakers’ challenge I was really excited about! It may look like a lot of work, but it’s actually quite easy to do. And if you don’t do your own marzipan/fondant/chocolate plastique, it’s even easier!

“Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.”

Here is what you will need to make the same cake I did:

Battenberg Cake

Chocolate and Vanilla Battenberg Cake
From Runs with Spatula

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9-inch square cake pan and set aside (See the PDF on how to separate the cake pan in 2).

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In the large work bowl of a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs in, one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Beat in the milk and vanilla. Add the flour mix.

Divide the batter into two equal portions. Place the first batter portion on one side of the cake pan. Add the cocoa powder to the second half of the batter, and mix until fully incorporated. Transfer batter to the other half of the cake pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center come out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let finish cooling on the rack.

Dark Chocolate Plastique
7 oz Dark Chocolate (I used semisweet chocolate and it worked just fine)
¼ cup Corn Syrup

  1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir occasionally
  2. Once completely melted, remove from heat and allow to cool a bit
  3. Stir in corn syrup, it will seize up almost immediately, just keep stirring until mixed and it comes away from the side of the bowl
  4. Transfer chocolate into a sealable bag, spread the chocolate out then seal the bag
  5. Leave overnight or refrigerate for about 2 hours until completely firm
  6. Turn out from the bag and knead on a surface dusted with powdered sugar, at first it will just break , but as you knead, it will warm up and start to become pliable. If your hands are hot, it will help!
  7. Knead until it’s pliable enough to roll out or mould, 5 – 10mins.
Follow the PDF to prepare the cake and assemble!

Battenberg Cake

Filed Under: Cake Tagged With: , , ,

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Ganache

April 9, 2012 6 Comments
Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Ganache

Hello everyone!
Hope you all had a great Easter holiday! We did! We ate waaayyy too much chocolate though! Well we ate too much period ;) Here are the cupcakes I have shown beside the Cookies and Cream Cupcakes. They are pretty much the same as Sweetapolita’s cupcakes, but I didn’t take her cupcake batter recipe. It should be the last Sweetapolita’s recipe for a while, I know I’ve been all over her recipes for the last few posts ;)

frambous4

Perfectly Chocolate Cake
From Sing for your Supper
Yield : 24 cupcakes

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 F and line cupcake pans with liners.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes.
Stir in boiling water (batter will be very thin).
Pour batter into cupcake liners.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
From Sweetapolita
Yield: 5 cups

5 large egg whites
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1/2 pint fresh raspberries

Add egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Simmer over a pot of water (not boiling), whisking constantly, until temperature reaches 160 degrees F, or if you don’t have a candy thermometer, until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot.

With whisk attachment of mixer, begin to whip until the mixture is thick, glossy, and cool. Switch over to paddle attachment and, while mixing on medium speed continuously, add softened butter in chunks until incorporated, and mix until it has reached a silky smooth texture (if curdles, keep mixing and it will come back to smooth).  Add vanilla and salt, mix well. Add about a 1/2 pint of fresh washed & dried raspberries. Add a drop or 2 of pink gel colour to get a pinker look.

cuppies-raspberry

Add chocolate ganache.

Cupcake Assembly
1. Frost the cupcakes.
2. Drizzle the top of the cupcake with chocolate ganache.
3. Top with sprinkles and a fresh raspberry.

cuppies-raspberry2

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: , , , , ,

Buttermilk Cupcakes and Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

December 7, 2011 5 Comments
Buttermilk Cupcakes and Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

This is a tribute to swiss meringue buttercream (SMB). Since I tried SMB, I’ve been a little addicted! My last cupcakes were almost all topped with it. Let’s see, I did these

Raspberry cupcake

And these.

Chocolate and raspberry

Oh and these again.

Strawberry on chocolate

I blame Sweetapolita for this one (I totally forgive her though!). Because she did this amazing cake. I dreamt of this cake for a while before trying it. It’s perfect, right? Here is my humble try at her cake : my first ever layer cake. It was delicious (took me forever, but so good!)!

First layer cake

But why this love for SMB?

1. It’s sweet but not too much, very different from the original buttercream.
2. It has a nice structure, very easy to pipe. I know it is used a lot with cakes because of this.
3. Once you’ve done the buttercream, you can add any flavor you want : vanilla, chocolate, lemon, raspberry, strawberry, etc, etc!

Here is my last fall for SMB.

belle

It was for my friend’s birthday. I did raspberry and chocolate SMB on buttermilk cupcakes. This time I loaded my swiss meringue buttercream with crunched raspberries (so much that when I piped the frosting there were some raspberry juice  dropping from the bag! Soooo yummy anyway!). For the chocolate, you just have to melt some chocolate, let it cool a little then add it to your SMB.

I love the recipe from Sweetapolita because it’s light and fluffy and delicious. You can play a little with the quantities, but not too much.

Buttermilk cupcakes recipe from the sweet Amy from Sing for your Supper

Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe and the How to from Sweetapolita. I prefer her new version which has less butter and less sugar (this recipe is only for 12 cupcakes) :

2.5 large egg whites

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoons superfine granulated sugar (I use normal granulated sugar)

1.5/4 pound (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

DSC_0053

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: , , ,

Chocolate and Raspberry Pots de Crème

November 14, 2011 Leave a Comment
Raspberry Chocolate Pots de creme

Hey everyone!

Today I wanted to share a chocolate-raspberry recipe. It was suppose to be layered Pots de crème, one layer being chocolate and the other one raspberry. But everything didn’t go as planned. My chocolate recipe didn’t need baking and the raspberry recipe was a lot like the chocolate one so I thought I could succeed without baking the raspberry pot de crème. Error! I guess what I didn’t think of is that chocolate tend to set when cooled and raspberry don’t. So instead of having a layered Pot de crème, they are individual. Next time I would use raspberry mousse, then I would be able to have my layers! I even bought cute desserts glasses for the occasion… Oh well I will have to wait for next time!

So in this post I talked about chocolate Pots de crème I made for Halloween. It was very delicious so I took the same recipe. I left out the coffee (I replaced it with water) because I wasn’t sure it would taste great with raspberry.

For the raspberry Pot de crème I took the recipe from Show Food Chef. As it turned out, I don’t really like them. It’s not too surprising since I don’t really like dairy-based smoothies or even yogurt (I know right, that’s bad!). So I guess when there is dairy and fruits included it’s not the best shot for me (except fruits and whipped cream, of course). I have no worry that my boyfriend will be eating them with pleasure when he’s back from work!

Raspberry and dark chocolate

**Flash news **
I just bought a deep-fryer! I’m happy, but I did it mostly because my boyfriend is very anxious when I use oil on the stove (he’s afraid I might set fire to the house, can’t blame him, one time I did put fire on the stove, but not with oil, oops). He’s very funny when I do, he turns around me, asking me 10 times if I checked the temperature of the oil. His fears will be at rest and I will be able to do imperial rolls, egg rolls, general tao chicken, onion rings and so on in an easier way, I guess!

I will be participating in a Christmas market for the first time. I’m very excited! I don’t know all the details yet, I’ll keep you posted and of course you will see the treats I will bring there! It’s like I’ve reach one of my goals, I wanted to do that for a while!

Oh and I also bought a cookie scoop, oh yeah! There will be a recipe in my to do list that will be checked, guess which one!

Chocolate Pots de Crème

Chocolate Pots de Crème
Recipe from My Recipe website
14 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
2 large eggs, plus 2 yolks
2 ½ cups whipping cream
⅓ cup water

Directions
Mix eggs and yolks in a large bowl.

In a saucepan, heat whipping cream until it boils (wait until it reach at least 160°F).

Add boiling cream to eggs and whisk immediately. Combine hot cream mixture, chopped chocolate, and water. Whisk until smooth.

Pour into ramequins or little glasses. Chill until set. Let desserts stand at room temperature about 30 minutes before eating.

Raspberry Pots de Crème
1 cup raspberries
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
¼ cup sugar
2 eggs
3 egg yolks

Directions
Pour the milk, cream and raspberries into a saucepan and heat to just before boiling. Cover the pan and let sit for 10 minutes while the raspberries infuse the dairy.

While waiting, whisk the sugar, eggs and egg yolks together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Hold.

Reheat the cream and raspberries, stirring to break down the raspberries. Bring to just before a boil and remove, strain carefully into another bowl.

Add the raspberry mixture to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. (I added a drop of red food coloring at this point because after mixing with the eggs the colors was, let’s say, very unappetizing!)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Fill ramekins with the raspberry mixture and place the containers into a deep sided pan. Pour boiling water carefully around the ramekins, just to about half way to the ramekins.

Bake for around 30 minutes. Let the ramekins cool in the water, remove and chill for 2 hours.

So which one is your favorite?

 

Raspberry Chocolate Pots de Creme
Raspberry Chocolate Pots de Creme
Filed Under: Gluten free, Pots de Crème Tagged With: ,

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