The First Bite

chocolate mousse cake

2005-11-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

chocolate mousse cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Chocolate mousse on chocolate genoise. This'll be the last cake for a while! Ben and I will be in Thailand for three weeks starting Monday, and as soon as we get back, I'll be working in the kitchens of two bakeries.

chocolate on chocolate

2005-11-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

chocolate on chocolate
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Chocolate genoise layered with chocolate buttercream

My first order!

2005-11-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

chocolate orange cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

(It was from Amy, but it counts!) Chocolate genoise layered with orange mousseline buttercream

cream puffs

2005-11-07T16:12:00.000-08:00

cream puffs
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

I love cream puffs (filled with pastry cream) and profiteroles (filled with ice cream). Turns out they're surprisingly easy to make! Half of these are dipped in chocolate, and all are filled with pastry cream. If you want them with ice cream, you'll have to come over for dessert at our place!

chocolate chip cookies

2005-11-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

chocolate chip cookies
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Just needed some comfort food...

caramel apples

2005-11-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

caramel apples
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

When I saw these crab apples at Berkeley Bowl, I couldn't resist. I love caramel apples, and of course, I love miniatures! My dad used to assemble little fruit plates for me made of currants (like tiny grapes), crab apples, and kumquats, to accompany my breakfast of sunny-side up quail eggs and silver dollar pancakes.

pound cake

2005-11-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

pound cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Thought I'd make a simple cake, as I've been busy planning our trip to Thailand, job interviewing, and dreaming about Palace BBQ, gorging at Palace BBQ, and recuperating from Palace BBQ. :)

Unfortunately, I think the cake is a little too simple. Kind of bland. So there's some of the custard from the Boston cream pie on the side to help liven it up.

boston cream pie

2005-10-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

boston cream pie
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

so it's not the most aesthetic of the cakes i've made...it's actually supposed to be a trifle and the layers put into a bowl, but i didn't have a glass bowl, and thought i could make it work in a cake form. i hope it's not too much of a disaster cutting it!

raspberry tartlets

2005-10-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

raspberry tartlets
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

a little different from before...tartlet shells are brushed with chocolate, filled with pastry cream, topped with raspberries glazed with red currant jelly. whew! unfortunately, they don't taste as sassy as they look :)

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

2005-10-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin cupcakes
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Having six pumpkins in the house has made me a little pumpkin crazy. I'm envisioning pumpkin pies, pumpkin creme brulees, pumpkin bread pudding, and pumpkin cupcakes. Unfortunately, they didn't come out how I wanted (as usual, when I bake). I started piping pretty swirls with the frosting, but the swirls required too much frosting, and the sight of that much frosting on each cupcake made me ill. So instead, there's just a smear of frosting on them. Not as pretty, but more edible, I think. Only if you like cream cheese though. Unfrosted ones for those of you who don't.

Pecan bars

2005-10-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

Pecan bars
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

For Lucia's party...

raspberry lemon tartlets and tuiles

2005-10-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

raspberry lemon tartlets and crispy corkscrews
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

When shaping the tuiles, I thought about the Joy Luck Club in which one of the women worked in a fortune cookie factory. They were docked pay for each improperly shaped cookie, so she would eat her mistakes. I ate my mistakes, too, at first because of the tuiles' crisp, sweet addictive qualities, and then simply out of compulsion. I hate seeing the mistakes.

Chocolate frosting experiments

2005-10-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Chocolate frosting experiments
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Chocolate on vanilla and chocolate on chocolate cupcakes. Not as gorgeous in reality as they were in my mind, but I was experimenting with the frosting. Next time will be the real thing...

Pecan and lemon meringue tartlets

2005-10-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

Pecan and lemon meringue tartlets
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Wish I could have made more, but I'm still waiting for Ben to make me that tartlet dough molding machine :)

Sorry some of the lemon meringues are a bit wrinkly...my timer got stuck on 2 minutes, 1 second. I must have been sleepy since it took me ten minutes to realize it.

Miniatures!

2005-10-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Friands, meringue bubbles, macarons
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

I'm taking a break from cakes for a bit to do miniatures. If I were to open a bakery right now, I think I would specialize in miniatures...everything looks so tasty in miniature! I've found they're somewhat time-consuming, though.

But here are the first set. From the left, friands (almond sponge cake), meringue bubbles (chocolate meringue on a butter cookie), macarons (french cookie with buttercream).

Mango bavarian cream/Strawberry mousse cake

2005-10-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

Mango bavarian cream/Stawberry mousse cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

- Mango bavarian cream on genoise
I followed a recipe for bavarian cream and added mango, but I think it's really a mousse.

- Strawberry mousse on genoise
I think I put too much sugar in the mousse :(

Blackforest cake (again)

2005-10-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

Blackforest cake (again)
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

I wanted to make this again with more layers and a little less cream, but messed up slicing the layers, so it's pretty much the same cake :) If you like Chinese cakes, you'll probably like this one. (This uses a chocolate genoise base, which tends to be drier than American butter cakes).

devil's food cake

2005-10-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

devil's food cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

A new chocolate cake recipe! It's supposed to be moister. Two layers of devil's food cake with raspberry jam and glazed with chocolate.

Oh, and if the cakes look smaller, they are! I'm now experimenting with 6 inch pans. Cute is the new cake.

stawberry shortcake and fudge and raspberry trifles

2005-10-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

stawberry shortcake and fudge and raspberry trifles
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

I'm making lots of sample cakes and tasting them, which means I have some half eaten cakes in the kitchen (my "archives" as Ben calls them). Rather than toss them, I added some sugar syrup and whipped cream to make trifles. If you want one, they're sitting in a Google mini-kitchen near you!

Raspberry chocolate cake

2005-10-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

IMG_2877
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Three layers of chocolate butter cake, layered with raspberry jam, Chambord, and raspberry silk meringue buttercream.

The dilemma with this cake...more buttercream, less, or none? I couldn't decide so I layered it with raspberry jam haphazardly.

Strawberry shortcake

2005-09-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Strawberry shortcake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Layers of stawberries, whipped cream, and butter cake.

White chocolate whisper cake

2005-09-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

White chocolate whisper cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Cake with white chocolate from The Cake Bible. I know, I know, it could be moister ! I'm working on fixing that for all the cakes.

Raspberry bavarian cake

2005-09-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Raspberry bavarian cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Genoise sprinkled with Chambord, layered with vanilla Bavarian cream an raspberries, topped with whipped cream and more raspberries.

Today's baking fiasco: added the vanilla to hot butter and ended up with hot butter splattering all over the kitchen walls and me (ouch!)

Molly's birthday cake

2005-09-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

Molly's birthday cake
Originally uploaded by Sparkling Peach.

Another chocolate coffee cake...still trying to work on my frosting skills. This time I finally got to try a slice! Molly's pretty good at cutting cake when she's wasted.