Islands in the sky, food & travel

This is an absolute favorite comfort food, so simple and so tricky at the same time !  I'll get to the tricky part in a minute. As you may know, the legend says that this was a mistake, one of the Tatin sisters accidentally dropped the tarte and it flipped over, resulting in this famous version of caramelized apples on top of a crust.  (The only time I accidentally flipped a cake, it in no way became a legend). However, this legend has been debunked as the sisters weren't known to be clumsy, on the contrary they were known to be the astute business owners of a highly reputed restaurant.  Originally from the  central Sologne region of France, this tarte seems to go back generations, sometimes made with apples, sometimes pears, the recipe handed down for generations. So back to this week's celebration cake, since September is a birthday month for me, as well as for some of my closest friends, I thought why not make this a birthday cake, even if it's not your typical la...

You may be wondering why I was obsessed with guava with the amounts of Instagram guava pastry posts.  That's not it.  I never knew much about guava before (other than juice).  It was just that my cousin had bushels of the fruit, they were were so ripe and just falling off his trees, so we would get a load delivered to the house weekly.  The scent is intoxicating, and the flavor delicate and exotic. I would look at the guava and think, what can I do with this (other than smoothies and soups for the tangier ones, believe it or not, a filipino regional specialty), not a fruit I'm accustomed to working into cakes.  I learned how to make a guava cream gelatin so created this soft sponge cake with whipped cream frosting and guava gelatin in between and on top.  The pink is so surprising, both as a color and taste, which is almost pure guava.   Also, this was the last photo shoot I did in Arizona before coming back to France. The dessert bloom was specta...

In this series of birthday cakes for my birthday month (as well as so many friends and family, and I do celebrate them with these cakes), here's the next entry : chocolate, apricot and mocha!  I'm not gonna lie, they do take time but something I've learned to do with several-layer cakes, I make them over a 2 (or 3) day period.  First I make the mousse or gelatin layers and refigerate overnight. The next day I bake the cakes and assemble.  Maybe I'm fooling myself but it seems like much less work.   Ok, I am fooling myself, but it's a habit now and several-layer cakes seem to go faster.  Like with this cake, I made the mousse and white chocolate frosting first and let them set overnight, whipping them only once assembling the cake.  The next day I made the brownie layer and the dacquoise and assembled it.  So it's actually just a few minutes a day.  Also, I sometimes make different cakes so I'll make 2 dacquoises and use one layer for this moc...

As promised, here is ol' grandma's recipe (or Martha's) for a 4-ingredient cheesecake + crust.  As I had some ripe and ready mangos, I decided to top the cheesecake with this luscious fruit.  The combination of sweet, slippery and tangy mangos with a creamy cheesecake and a crunchy crust should delight more than one. Here's the no-bake batter (in my efforts to avoid the oven for a little while) : 2 8-ounce packages softened cream cheese 1 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (about 1-1/4 cup) 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice 1 teaspoon of vanilla 1 mango cored and cut in thin enough slices to be able to curve + Prepared crust Prepare graham cracker crust with 20 sheets of graham crackers, 1/2 cup butter, and a pinch of salt. Or do what I did and pulverize in a mixer 10 coconut-sesame-pumpkin and chia seed clusters + 12 gluten free butter cookies + 1/4 cup butter.  Press this crust dough into a deep dish 8/9" round springform pan and put in the freezer f...

Chocolate is such a rich and distinctive flavor, and as a cheesecake, even more deadly.  I asked family which cheesecake they wanted me to make this time and it was split in two : plain and choco, so I made both. I opted for the simplest possible recipe, no-bake and no eggs this time, since I'm on vacation, so the so-called "lazy version". But I did go through the cupboards to find cookies for the base and all I could find were coconut-sesame-chia-sunflower-seed clusters which I pulverized, mixed with a few chocolate butter cookies and 1/4 cup butter for the base.  You can also do the (classic graham cracker or) oreo cookie crust.  Just mix 4 tablespoons butter with 24 crushed oreos. As for the cheesecake batter made with a 3-ingredient recipe (ok, ok, 4, with the extract, mister blog police), easy as can be :  16 oz  (450 g) softened cream cheese 1 can (14-oz /396 g) sweetened condensed milk 1-3/4 cups semi-sweet dark chocolate 1 teaspoon vanilla extract o...

I try to bake fairly easy cakes while on vacation, because you know, I’m on vacation. But I try to have fun or learn a new way to use fresh fruits or local ingredients from the market.   Pound cake is fun because you can eat it for breakfast or snack time, and it's also good for layering cakes to your fancy.  This time with cherries since they were so plump, sweet and juicy this season. I found this old southwest cookbook while perusing the thrift shops, a favorite hobby, and tried this recipe for a pound cake that was delicious and not too dense. I'm the worst when it comes to following recipes, I added buttermilk for creaminess (who wants a dry cake?) and baking powder for a bit of rising, then decorated with seasonal fruits and some light homemade whipping cream. Batter recipe : 1-3/4 cup butter 2-1/2 cups sugar 6 eggs 3 cups flour 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking powder Cherry filling : 1 pound unpitted and halved cherries, 1/4 cup agave syrup,...

You know how it is when you're craving chocolate, nothing else will do. Also, we had 2 boxes of these chocolate bonbons filled with white chocolate or caramel or hazelnut and I knew I had to feature them on a cake ! Here's the recipe :  4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted 1/2 cup butter + 2 tablespoons, softened 1-1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 2-1/4 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup buttermilk 2 teaspoons of instant coffee in 1/4 cup hot water, cooled to room temp 3 tablespoons whisky or bourbon Whipped cream frosting : 1 cup whipping cream | 1/2 cup confectioners sugar 4 oz cream cheese, softened  Melted Chocolate : 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate 1/4 cup whipping cream Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/ 175 degrees C. Line round baking pans with parchment paper.  Melt chocolate with a couple of tablespoons of butter. In a bowl, cream remaining butter and sugar, add eggs one by one and mix about 2 minutes. Add the other wet ingredients, ...