princess ruffle cake

My friend Maddy is a hard-core Disney lover, she looks and acts like a princess (and I mean that in the best possible way), and she can beat anyone at Disney trivial pursuit. When she sings, woodland animals prance into her bedroom and do her hair. She is an excellent singer and I can’t wait for her to be famous.

Maddy had her eighteenth birthday recently, and had a princess themed birthday dinner. We all dressed up, leading to some slightly alarming Disney princesses, and ate cupcakes and pizza and Indian food. I contributed some beauty and the beast inspired cupcakes (which you’ll have to pick up my zine to see) and a flourless chocolate ruffle cake. Unfortunately I didn’t get to taste it as there was a small medical emergency; however Maddy ate it in bed the next day and informed me that it was delicious.

salted caramel and chocolate tarts, and strawberry and ganache tarts

When I made my mint and white chocolate mousse tart, I had way more chocolate crust than I needed, and I also happened to have a jar of salted caramel I’d made recently, and some strawberries. Naturally, the only thing to do was to make chocolate and strawberry ganache tarts, inspired by this tart from cupcakes and cashmere, and salted caramel and chocolate ganache tarts, which coincidentally were made on Masterchef later that night, does that make me a Masterchef? I hope so.

 

I made these tarts in miniature, because little food is cute, and I brought a couple to school the next day, much to my friends delight. I have since been asked to make one for a girl at school who said she’d pay for one, I’m not entirely sure what to do with this situation because I’d feel a bit stingy to make someone pay for one small tart, but if I bake her something, everyone else will want food too. Teenagers *sigh*.

 

choux puffs and a croquembouche

Choux pastry was my nemesis for a year or so. I’d made it twice, both times failing miserably, as all I seemed to be able to produce was sad, flat lumps of not-quite-pastry. I’m not sure how I managed to screw it up so badly, considering the first time I used the choux pastry recipe from the Sprinklebakes cookbook it was a raging success, can Heather Baird do no wrong?

I made choux puffs a few weeks ago without a hiccup, until I tried to make pastry cream and it was so delicious but also very runny. I then made a croquembouche.