Chocolate Passion Fruit Pralines
A while back, I met friends from France and we talked about macarons. (What else would you talk about with French people?) We didn’t just talk about any macarons, we talked about Pierre Hermé’s macarons. We all agreed that his best is without a doubt the “Mogador”, a macaron filled with passion fruit and milk chocolate ganache.
Persian Love Cake
Not long ago, I traveled to the US and came back with a lot of baking cookbooks, as usual after a trip abroad. Three of the cookbooks I acquired are full of gluten free recipes – vegan too. I looked for an interesting recipe to try, but the list of ingredients was too complicated. Then I started flipping through Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Go’s Sweet, and found a few gluten free recipes fit to my taste. One recipe looked especially inviting, full of Persian love, whatever that may be.
Ruby Chocolate Plaisir Sucré
On September 5, 2017, I celebrated my 35th birthday. On the very same day, ruby chocolate was revealed to the world. Coincidence? I don’t think so. The universe gave me a pink gift – only it took a year and a half to reach me. Ruby chocolate is the fourth of its kind (after dark, milk and white). The color is pink and the taste is sweet and a bit sour, with no artificial flavors or food coloring. Thanks universe!
Caramelized Hazelnuts
I always wanted to make caramelized hazelnuts for fancy decoration on desserts, but I always feared that long sugary tail. This time I told myself, no more! I stepped into the kitchen, cooked sugar into caramel and dipped whole hazelnuts into it. Lo and behold, it worked. It wasn’t even that complicated. I even managed to do it on a rainy, gloomy day. I felt like Martha Stewart, who actually demonstrates the task elegantly alongside Fran Drescher from “The Nanny” (What nostalgia, her voice suddenly sounds like music to my ears).
Lavender Honey Macarons
Happy blogiversary to Cake Lab! My little blog is 2 years old. Two! It’s my favorite age. I mean, I don’t remember it myself, but my nephews and nieces are doing a great job showing me. I have so much fun with them at this age. It’s the age where they have already discovered how to walk and they start running. They already know how to talk and start asking questions non-stop. There are so curious, warm and full of life. And that’s what I wish for my blog this year. That it’ll behave just like my nephews and nieces at this age, just without all that crying.
Birthday Macarons
Last week I traveled with my family to Turkey. While having breakfast at the hotel, my niece Jasmine brought a cake with her to the table. It was a piece of mousse cake decorated with a macaron on top. Jasmine picked the macaron off the cake, put the cake aside, and looked at the macaron. “Can you make me this for my birthday?” she asked. I had waited for that moment a long time. Finally one of my nieces or nephews asks for macarons for their birthday! In my mind, I started imagining festive birthday macarons with a fun flavor. A flavor that my nephews would sacrifice my mom’s stuffed grape leaves for: Kinder chocolate.
Chocolate Covered Banana Marshmallow
Ever since I wrote about the chocolate banana brownies, I can’t stop thinking about those yellow banana marshmallows, coated with a thin layer of chocolate. How I used to love this crap as a child and would easily finish an entire box by myself. However, I always wished the bite would be more marshmallow-y than chocolaty.
Mousse Cheesecake with Berries
Last weekend, my sister-in-law, Iman, celebrated her birthday. When I asked her what cake would she like me to make for the occasion, she refused to say so as not to bother me. I asked her again and she refused kindly yet again. So I asked her what kinds of cake she liked and finally she answered me. That’s how it works in my family. We don’t hear “No”. We only hear the “Yes” hiding somewhere between “No thanks” and “Absolutely not”.
