Category: Dessert

Madeleines

.Reading time 6 minutes.
Elias likes to eat his bump first
Nicholas’s afternoon snack

Madeleines are just one of a number of new snacks we’ve tried out with the boys over the summer. They’re sweet, but not crazy sweet. And the batter rests overnight so it’s a great snack to prep in advance (you can keep the batter on hand for several days). What is a madeleine? It is a small, delicate sponge cake known for its shell-shaped mold. It is light, airy and typically has a slight lemon flavour. When baked properly, it should have a pronounced bump. Our favourite one comes from Roselle, friends of ours who own an amazing bakery in Downtown Toronto. Unfortunately, it is too far of a drive for us on a regular basis. They also posted the recipe online. So why did I spend all this time trying to make our own when theirs works? I guess I just can’t help myself! lol

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Choux.0: Essential Tips and Techniques

.Reading time 3 minutes.

It’s been many years since I posted my choux religieuse and looking back it at, there’s a lot of missing information. Since I’m teaching the baking class again, I have added choux pastries to my curriculum. With each class, the students help me to identify different misunderstandings and potential pitfalls. I try to use these to make the process easier, and more clear for future students and whoever uses this blog.

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Lessons from a Pie Baking Class

.Reading time 2 minutes.
Toddler for scale

3.14 (aka Pie Day) is often during March Break so I don’t often get to bake pies with my students. But this year, I decided that we were going to bake some pies ahead of the break so that they could make something at home for their friends, family and loved ones if they wanted to (or for marks, that’s the only way to get them to cook/bake at home sometimes).

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Passion Fruit and Coconut (Wedding Cake #2)

.Reading time 3 minutes.

When we got married, we went the DIY route for our wedding cake and desserts (among other things!). To keep things manageable, we opted for slab cakes for the desserts. Both cakes are special to us – for sentimental reasons but also because they turned out to be pretty darn tasty! One was our version of a Deep’N Delicious cake, the other was a passion fruit and coconut number. Now, five years and two kids later, we’ve finally gotten around to posting the second cake recipe.

Amazingly enough, this recipe survived on paper, albeit covered in toddler doodles, floating around our kitchen for more than a year before we realized we ought to record it someplace a little more permanent. So, here it is!

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Pandan Basque Cheesecake (and other variations)

.Reading time 4 minutes.

How do these projects start? Typically from someone’s Instagram posts and … I started testing the recipe at school because I had some extra ube leftover. Then I came across some pandan leaves in the freezer…one thing led to another, and I have been testing this recipe multiple times a week for the past week. Now that pandan is finished, we will double back to finalize the ube version. After that, I have plans for Thai tea, coffee, chocolate, … This will be the summer of Basque!

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