mademoiselle cocotte

Behind the scenes at The Baker and The Chef. I’ve been...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:45:00 -0700

white bread

hoagie buns

pita

sausage rolls

making muffins

beer rye

rolling the cinnamon buns

Behind the scenes at The Baker and The Chef. I’ve been taking some photos in the last week at the bakery where I’ve started working. I’ll be posting more in depth information in the future. Come to the cafe and have a panini!! The focaccia is freshly made downstairs. We’re on Cambie street beside the Cambie pub!

Chocolate chunk cookies

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 10:00:12 -0800

This cookie recipe was adapted from Lee Bailey’s book Country Desserts.

The best thing about these cookies are how moist, light and fluffy they are. Delicious!

Makes 15 cookies.

1 cup sifted all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

140 g. butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (I used sliced almonds)

4 1/2 oounces bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugars until smooth, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and mix well. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the vanilla, then fold in the nuts and then the chocolate.

Drop in 2 tablespoon clumps onto an ungreased cookie sheet, leaving several inches between for expansion.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Repeat with remaining batter until used up.

Dark Chocolate with Almond Ganache filling

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 16:49:00 -0800

Ganache filling:

140 g. dark chocolate

120 g. whipping cream

60 g. butter

25 g. Disaronno

4 tbsp ground almonds

14 g. glucose

After a long hiatus of not blogging, I’m back! Mainly because I’m currently not employed. Work at the bakery was slowing down and the owner was making all the wrong decisions and being a jerk. I’m back to looking for a job.

I made these chocolates a couple of weeks ago while I was visiting Montreal. Tempering them took a while because the room was so hot. It was so cold out that the heat was really high which isn’t so great when you’re trying to temper. This ganache turned out really good.

You heat the cream, glucose, butter and pout it over the chocolate. Wait 30 seconds, then stir with a spatula, add the liqueur. I poured it on a flat tray and refrigerated for an hour until I was ready to pipe them in the moulds. I still had some ganache leftover to fill French macarons! I also brushed some gold dust on top.

Chocolate and Vietnamese Coffee Tart

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 00:45:09 -0700

This tart was one of the last desserts I made for The Union, the restaurant I was working at when I last posted an entry. My last entry was so long ago, we were in a different season! So much has happened since my last post. I left the restaurant to work in a bakery that I thought would be more challenging. I lasted 4 days before the chef fired me. I was devastated. I tried a couple of other places that didn’t work out before I was hired at Chopain bakery and I’ve been working there ever since. I’m learning so much and I’m excited about sharing all my new skills. I’m also excited about new projects I’m planning to start soon like a cooking show on youtube!

Recipe:

http://newasiancuisine.com/329-pichet-chocolate-vietnamese.html

If you love the coffee and chocolate combination, this is definitely for you. I’m really happy with the way this tart turned out. One of the best recipes from The Sweet Spot book by Pichet Ong (pastry chef of The Spice Market in NYC)

Coconut Biscuits

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:50:00 -0700

I was at the thrift store last week and found the most incredible cookbook. It’s a Quebecois cookbook in French called La Cuisine Raisonnee. I’ve never heard of this book before but the recipes were very traditional from Quebec and half of the book is devoted to desserts. The only photos are black and white archival pictures from the 20’s to the 60’s of women cooking. I bought it for $4, went home and did some research on it. The book that I have is a 2003 edition of a book that came out in 1919. They’ve been publishing new editions every few years. This book was first published to teach women how to be the perfect homemakers. Since the book came out during the depression, all the recipes are budget conscious. The recipes were created by nuns who gave culinary classes to young women. The recipes are simple and so far I’ve been successful with the 2nd recipe that I’ve tried. These coconut cookies are delicious. Not very sweet and the coconut flavour isn’t very overpowering.

one of the photos from the book:

The first thing you notice after they’ve baked is that the biscuits are very pale looking even though the bottom is baked. That’s because of the 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar. Also, they’re very tender and light! The opposite of a coconut macaroon.

The book doesn’t have an English edition, so I translated the recipe.

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut

1/3 cup milk

113 g. butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cream of tartar

blend the coconut with the milk and let it sit for 30 minutes

cream butter and sugar, then add the eggs.

Incorporate the coconut/milk mixture.

sift flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Add it to the mixture.

place a tablespoon on a tray. Brush it with whisked egg whites and sprinkle with some coconut.

bake at 350 F. for approx. 10 minutes.

Chocolate Biscotti

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:37:22 -0700

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/01/chocolate-biscotti/

I’ve had lots of success so far with everything I’ve ever made from David Lebovitz’s recipes so I thought I’d try his biscotti recipe. They turned out good but too dry. You’re supposed to have a dry biscotti but they came out too hard. He excluded butter from the biscotti which removes the tenderness from the biscotti and doesn’t make it as rich. Tonight I tried a different biscotti recipe. This time with butter. We’ll see how they compare.

Ovaltine and chocolate Kulfi

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:19:41 -0700

I made this dessert a few months ago for the restaurant. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of the dessert when it was plated. We had ice cream on top with caramelized bananas on the side with caramel sauce. It’s delicious and I love the pop corn on top that I dipped in the caramel. This recipe is from the book The Sweet Spot by Pichet Ong. I found the recipe on this blog: http://www.zencancook.com/2008/03/ovaltine-milk-chocolate-kulfi-w-caramelized-banana/

and this is supposed to be the way the dessert looks when it’s plated from the Spice Market restaurant in NYC where Pichet Ong works

http://www.visionsofsugarplum.com/2008/10/somethings-hot-at-spice-market.html

I love the way this dessert looks and I read that it’s the best selling dessert at the Spice Market. Unfortunately Vancouver isn’t as progressive as NYC and you can’t really expect people to order Kulfi here because most people have no idea what it is and don’t want anything they don’t understand. I should be in NYC!!

I’ve never heard of Kulfi before seeing it in the Sweet Spot. Kufi is a frozen dairy dessert from India. This dessert has to be kept in the freezer and removed when you’re ready to serve. Most of the Kulfi that I’ve found online like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kulfi.jpg

Pichet Ong added caramelized pop corn that you crumble on top which makes it look more fun. I’ve also add that multi coloured India candy that I can’t remember the name at the moment. It’s the candy from Indian restaurant that you get after your meal.

For a while South East Asian desserts are going to take a back seat. Next week, I’ll be starting a new job at a bakery that’s more European. I’m excited to be starting something new!

Grand Marnier Cheesecake with Candied Kumquats

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:36:38 -0700

I’ve been making a different flavoured cheesecake at work every week. This is the first one I made with the Pichet Ong recipe from his book The Sweet Spot. Every other cheesecake that I’ve made since then is loosely based on this method. The Sweet Spot is the only book I’ve ever food entirely focussed on Asian inspired desserts. In his recipe, he added blueberries and strawberries on top but I thought it would be more Asian to include Kumquats. The great thing about this recipe is that you don’t need to bake the cheesecake. It sets with gelatine. It’s also a great cheesecake for people like me who doesn’t like the rich taste of cream cheese in most cheesecakes. This one is lighter because you’re blending the cream cheese with tofu. I know tofu sounds weird in a cheesecake but once it sets overnight, you can’t tell there’s tofu.

This is the first time I’ve candied Kumquats. They tasted amazing!

To candy the kumquats, I sliced them first. Then I boiled 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add the kumquats, reduce the heat. Simmer until the kumquat slices are translucent. About 30-35 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool the kumquats in the syrup. Strain the kumquats, reserving the syrup. Combine the kumquats and 1/4 cup syrup in a small bowl. Return the remaining syrup to the same saucepan. Boil until reduced to 1 1/4 cup. About 8 minutes.

I’m not sure if Pichet Ong tested this recipe because I had to use half of the Graham Cracker crust that was included in the recipe. For an 8” pan which is the amount in the recipe his crust would take up half of the pan!

I used half of this crust recipe:

Ginger Graham Cracker Crust

113 g. butter, melted
174 g. graham crackers, crushed into fine crumbs. 1 ½ cups
1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp salt

Grand Marnier Tofu Filling

538 g. silken tofu
1 ½ tsps fresh lemon juice
½ cup whipping cream
1 tsp salt
5 gelatin sheets
341 grams cream cheese at room temperature
156 g. sugar
3 tbsp grated orange zest
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
2 tbsp grand marnier

1- To make the graham cracker crust: preheat oven to 300 F. Lightly
butter an 8 inch round dish and set aside.

2- Put the graham crackers, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and salt
into a mixing bowl. Mix well, then add the melted butter and mix with
your hands until the crumbs are evenly moistened. Transfer the mixture
to the prepared baking dish and press into an even layer on the
bottom.

3- Bake the crust until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Remove from
the oven and cool completely.

4- To make the cheesecake filling: Put the tofu and lemon juice in a
blender and blend until smooth. Set aside.

5- Put the cream and salt in a medium saucepan and warm over medium
heat until bubbles begin to form around the edges. Stire in the
softened gelatin until completely dissolved. Remove from heat.

6- Put the cream cheese, sugar and orange and lemon zests into the
bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle. Mix on med. Speed until light
and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the
bowl, add the grand marnier, and mix on medium speed until smooth,
about 1 minute. Gently fold in the gelatin cream and tofu mixture
until well incorporated.

7- Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Refrigerate, uncovered
until set, at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight.

Cassava Cake

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:45:35 -0800

I’ve never heard or tasted Cassava until recently. It’s a very common ingredient in South East Asia and the Cassava cake is a very popular dessert in the Philippines. I made this cake as a special dessert at the Union. The cake is usually made with young coconut but I used shredded coconut instead that was infused with rum. I also feel that the recipe I used wasn’t sweet enough so I increased it to 3/4 sugar and I felt that it still wasn’t sweet enough. I lined the pan with banana leaves because I read about it in a traditional Filipino cookbook but none of the recipes that I’ve seen online mention it. I added pineapple ice cream on top and mango sauce around it. I loved it.

http://www.filipinainseattle.com/cassava-cake-recipe.html

There’s a video at the bottom of the page giving you a good tutorial on how to make this cake. It’s very simple.

Chocolate Ginger Cookies

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:43:47 -0800

For Valentine’s day, I came up with the idea of giving out cookies to customers when they got their bill. I didn’t know how many people would show up so I made 120 which is double the usual amount on a weeknight. At the last minute, I decide to have write “luv sux” for the anti-valentine crowd. The reaction to the cookies were great! And they also happen to be delicious. I used the candied ginger from my last post. A whole pound of ginger for all those cookies and I still needed more. I made these 3 times because the recipe that I found was only for 15. They taste like shortbread with a nice ginger flavour. I felt that the ground ginger in the recipe wasn’t enough so I doubled it. They’re a bit difficult to roll out. They fall apart a bit so you can get it too thin. I baked them for 15 minutes. Here’s the recipe:

http://www.cherrapeno.com/2008/02/chocolate-ginger-biscuitscookies.html

Candied Ginger

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:30:00 -0800

I needed candied ginger for a ginger cookie recipe that I was planning on making for Valentine’s day at The Union. We gave out heard shaped ginger cookies to customers! I’m going to post my ginger cookie recipe another time. This is the first time that I’ve candied ginger and it turned out amazing! It’s delicious. It’s hard to stop grabbing a few and eating them. I placed them on this rack to cool overnight. I used the David Lebovitz recipe:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/12/candied-ginger/

With Lebovitz, you can’t go wrong. Once they were dry, I sprinkled sugar and kept them in a container. They were all used a few days later. One pound of ginger for over 100 cookies!

Desserts at The Union

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:24:00 -0800

The photos aren’t great and I’m going to photograph them again with better lighting and my slr. Last December I left my job at the pastry shop and started a new one on January 1st at The Union. A South East Asian style restaurant on Union and Main. These are some of the desserts I’ve made. Here’s the menu. I started on January 1st and a few days later, we were open for business. It took a couple of weeks of thinking and researching before I decided that these desserts felt right together. I’m sure there will be changes happening. That’s the fun part. Coming up with new ideas. From top to bottom: Pandan/coconut panna cotta with caramelized baby banana, brandy snap and tapioca pearls, lychee and mango crumble with orange custard and dark chocolate truffles which aren’t on the menu so you have to ask for it and see if it’s available. So far, it’s been so much fun. We’ve already had a good review last week!

Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 23:21:00 -0800

Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert:

A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to Q on CBC Radio and heard a fascinating interview with the author Michael Krondl about his new book called Sweet Invention. It’s about the culinary history of dessert. This is going on my list of books to read in 2012. You can hear the interview on this podcast (fast forward to 41 minutes).

Chocolate Custard

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:36:00 -0800

Two of the most important factors for deciding on what dessert to make is how fast I can make it and whether I have most of the ingredients at home. I spend so much time baking at work that I don’t want to go back home and make anything very complicated. This dessert was made to go with an Israeli dish I made a few days ago. I make custard everyday at work so this took less than 15 minutes.

I was looking up information about using 2% milk in custards when I found this recipe which is the one I used.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/81/traditional+vanilla+custard

I did use 2 % milk and whipping cream and my custard turned out great. If you’re going to use chocolate, I would melt it first on a bain marie. That’s something that’s not mentioned in the recipe. Also, I decreased the sugar a little bit because the chocolate was already sweetened. I used a combination of semi sweet, bitter sweet and dark. I didn’t have much chocolate left so I used whatever I had. Next time, I would use dark or bitter sweet only. I think it would taste better with a more intense flavour. The custard will harden after you’ve added the chocolate and it’s refrigerated for a few hours. I wouldn’t eat it right away. Another thing not mentioned in the recipe, that I think is important to do with custard is strain it. After you’ve mixed the milk/cream with the eggs and placed it back in the pot. You mix it until it thickens. Then you strain it in a bowl and let it cool. You have to strain it so you don’t get lumps. I’m not sure why it says to not let it boil because it’s going to curdle. I also wait until it bubbles and I don’t have it on low heat. It’s on medium.

There’s a few things I added after the photo was taken. I removed the custard from the glass and added raspberries at the bottom of the glass and small pieces of pecans on top. It’s a nice surprise when someone is trying it for the first time. I also love the combination of raspberry and chocolate as well as creating different textures to a dessert. I also added more custard on top so it’s level with the glass. If I had whipped cream left I would whip some and add it on top with a piping bag. Even without the whipped cream, my friend thought it was delicious!

Date and Walnut Muffins

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:14:30 -0800

I have a jumbo muffin pan that I bought last year and only used once so I thought it was time that I make muffins again. I wanted to make blueberry muffins but the grocery store near my house didn’t have any. I noticed that dates were on sale. That gave me an idea to make date muffins. I went home and searched online and found a good recipe.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/datesandfigs/r/great-date-muffins.htm

I’ve made these twice already. I only made 6 because of my jumbo muffin pan. You also have to adjust the oven temperature and time if your pan is larger. I baked it at 350 F and baked them for 20 minutes. The picture I took was from the first time that I made them. They turned out so much better the 2nd time. They were too dense the first time. I mixed it too long. The 2nd time they turned out lighter and crunchy on top. I really love them. I love dates!

Speaking of dates. I had the other kind of date tonight. We went to see an amazing documentary about the war in Afghanistan called Hell and Back I’m not the type to be attracted by war films. I tend to avoid them. I don’t like violence. This is a documentary that feels so real. It’s about the story of a soldier who gets wounded during the war. It follows his life in a small town in N.C after he comes back from Afghanistan where he has to deal with his physical and emotional pain. At first you think it’s dramatized because it’s unbelievable to think that a cameraperson can be capable of filming during all the shooting. Here’s the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW4ZCoWBH14

Blueberry upside down ginger cake

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:35:00 -0800

This recipe is from the book Berry Desserts. I was going to transcribe it here but then I googled it and found it online with a couple of good reviews too.

http://www.food.com/recipe/blueberry-upside-down-ginger-cake-204855

I made this cake last summer (when blueberries were cheap!) and I’ve been wanting to post it for a while but I’ve been procrastinating.

This cake is really simple and delicious. My whole apartment smelled like cloves after I made it. There’s lots of strong flavours in this cake. I wanted a cake that wasn’t predictable and boring and this was a good choice.

Not too much has happened since my last update. I’m still working at the same patisserie. It’s still busy there. at the beginning of next year, I’m going to start looking for another job. I need to learn new skills. I’ve been seeing so many films. Tonight I saw Gates of Heaven about a pet cemetery in California. It was amazing. Made by Errol Morris, one of the best documentary filmmakers in the world!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P1pTey4rpI

A few days ago, I bought Prince tickets. 12th row on the floor! December 16th! I’m so excited. It’s my dream concert.

I’ve been reading and speaking lots of French lately. And that’s because I want to be ready when I move back to Montreal. I still don’t know when that will happen yet, but I want to be prepared when it does.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:08:11 -0700

It was my friend’s 30th birthday last Saturday. We used to work together at the Italian restaurant. I haven’t seen him since I left the restaurant and he now left as well. He’s going to Mexico for a while to work. He left the day after his birthday. I wanted to bring a dessert to his party so I asked him what he liked and he told me that his favourite cake was a Red Velvet Cheesecake which I’ve never heard of before. I searched online and found a few recipes. I chose the simplest one. This one. I only had a couple of days to make it before the party. It takes 2 days to make the cake. The cheesecake has to be refrigerate for at least 8 hours before the icing goes on top. I preferred this recipe but involves baking 2 cakes and I needed my 2nd springform pan for another cake. I added some almond extract to the icing. In recipes that ask for chocolate graham crackers, I’ve started using regular graham crackers (because i’ve never seen chocolate ones in stores) and I added 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. The cocoa powder makes it amazing! Better than it would be with just regular chocolate graham crackers. It has this strong bittersweet taste that goes very well with the cheesecake. I screwed up on my letters a bit. I’m not that great with my chocolate writing. I started writing it too low so I had all this white space on top which is why I put some hearts on it. It looks a bit cheesy. The recipe says that the cake is baked when the center is firm but it won’t be firm. It has to jiggle. The cake continues to be baked after you remove it from the oven. That’s when it becomes firm. It also might crack which mine did. It won’t affect the taste of the cake and if you cover it with icing, you won’t see it. James loved the cake. Now he’s in Mexico drinking margaritas.

Soft Centered Chocolate Cake

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:02:00 -0700

Got this recipe from The Williams-Sonoma book on San Francisco that I’ve written about last year. The recipe says that you need one cup ramekins for this recipe which I didn’t have. My ramekins were slightly smaller so I used only half of the recipe which I thought would give me a total of 3 small cakes but it gave me only 2. So it’s ok if your ramekins aren’t as large. It took me 10 minutes to make these. They’re so delicious!!! And the chocolate flavour is so decadent. Next time, I’m going to add either an espresso flavour or Grand Marnier. A raspberry liqueur would taste good too. The outside is crunchy and the interior is very soft. You serve these as soon as they’re out of the oven or they’ll lose their characteristic moist centre. Take care not to overcook these cakes. All ovens don’t bake evenly, you may want to conduct a test run so that you know exactly how long it takes to bake the cakes. Mine took 20 minutes. It would have been good to serve this with ice cream but I didn’t have any. In the book, they’re serving it with espresso ice cream.

Makes 4 servings

2/3 cup unsalted butter

155 g. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 large whole eggs and one large egg white

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup sifted all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter the bottoms and sides of four 1 cup ramekins. Dust with flour then tap out the excess.

In a small saucepan over medium low heat, melt the butter and chocolate.

In a bow, whisk together the whole eggs, egg white, and sugar until well blended. Add the chocolate mixture and incorporate thoroughly. Gently fold in the flour. Divide among the prepared ramekins, then place the ramekins on a baking sheet.

Bake the cakes until they are puffed and cracked on top. 26-28 minutes. Remove from the oven and, working with 1 cake at a time, gently invert onto a dessert plate. Turn right side up, let cool for about 3 minutes, and then serve with ice cream.

I just got back from seeing the Gainsbourg film which I thought was brilliant!!! This is one of my favourite parts of the film because I really like the song and Lucy Gordon who plays Jane Birkin does a great job at singing Jane’s part in the song. She doesn’t have much of a resemblance to her but her voice and facial expression is just like Jane’s! Unfortunately, this was Lucy Gordon’s last film. She committed suicide after the shooting of this film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agCafynUu7E&feature=related

Cornbread

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 01:29:00 -0700

A friend of mine gave me Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen cookbook last year and I’ve hardly looked at it until today. My cupboard’s are full of various types of flour, sugar, cornmeal, and several containers of baking powder that I need to use before they expire. I decided to make corn bread again because it’s so easy and you have only a few bowls to wash.

Last year I made Deborah Madison’s Cornbread from her book The Savoury Way. Here’s the post. The amount of people who find this blog through her recipe is really incredible. I didn’t even know her recipe was special until I made it and until I made this one too. This recipe isn’t entirely bad but it’s not as flavourful. I’m not disappointed. There’s a few things I would change with this recipe. In the recipe the 2/3 cup sugar is optional. He says that you can make the cornbread without sugar but Cajuns like it sweet. I used brown sugar instead of granulated because I didn’t want it to be too sweet but I hardly tasted any sweetness with the brown sugar so next time I’m using granulated. Also Deborah Madison’s corn bread was baked in a cast iron skillet which I should have used but didn’t. The cast iron creates a crust on the sides and top. I had a hard time removing the corn bread from my pan and it broke which is why I cut it in small pieces. You can also make these into muffins.

You might have a hard time finding corn flour. It’s not available at my regular grocery store so I went to the health food store. I used Bob’s Red Mill:

http://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free-corn-flour.html

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup cornmeal

2/3 cup sugar (optional)

1/2 cup corn flour

5 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cups milk

5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 small egg, beaten

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, corn flour, baking powder, and salt; mix well, breaking up any lumps. In a separate bowl combine the milk, butter and egg and add to the dry ingredients; blend just until mixed and large lumps are dissolved. Do not overbeat.

For bread: Pour mixture into a greased 8 x 8 inch baking pan and bake at 350 F. until golden brown, about 55 minutes. Remove from pan and serve immediately.

For Muffins: Spoon mixture into 12 grease muffin cups. Bake at 350 F. until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and serve hot.

Strawberry Mousse Cake

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 23:51:01 -0700

Visually, I would give this cake an F for failure. The taste is delicious if you’re into strawberries. A bit too sweet. I sort of improvised with the ingredients. I didn’t follow a recipe. Well, I loosely did but I didn’t write it down so I can’t remember what it is now. I wanted this cake to look amazing! I made this while I was in Montreal last July. I used a cake ring but you can use a springform pan. You just need to line it with acetate or silicone paper. First thing that went wrong is my decorative sponge (the red part around the cake) which didn’t work. I didn’t have a stencil and my designs didn’t work so I decided to add ganache but I made the mistake of piping it while my cake was frozen which made the chocolate seize and look terrible. It’s supposed to look like chocolate is dripping off the cake. I also added too much mirroir (the shiny stuff on top). the red and yellow on top are dyes. I made circular shapes with the dye and the mirroir. I used 3 layers of sponge cake brushed in stock syrup and almond liqueur. folded whipped cream with the strawberry pure which also had melted white chocolate and gelatin. Refrigerate it until it’s firm.