Petit Fors and Custard Cups

This week at school has been super busy. We did a dessert buffet for the Open House on Thursday night, so each of us had to create two mini desserts for the buffet. We had to consider color, shape, flavor, texture, volume, warm/cold, etc.

My two initial ideas were these (click to view them bigger):


The results? Well, I didn't realize just HOW small they had to be, so my idea for the Mayan Chocolate cakes had to be scaled down a bit more than I wanted. I omitted the chantilly cream in the center.My joconde biscuit turned out lighter in color than I intended, so I had to change from a chocolate mousse on top to a bavarian cream so that the colors matched better. Also, the pecans in the ganache were way too big, so they screwed up the uniformity of my display. Argh. I also wanted to make blue chocolate decorations for the tops, but I couldn't get the color I wanted, so I went with dark chocolate instead. My instructor chastised me for using blue, because the French say that the color on the outside needs to indicate the flavor on the inside. Bah! I still think the colors turned out gorgeous.



The other dessert turned out pretty much as I had planned. I decided against the brittle, however, because I didn't want it to get soggy and melt into the custards while they sat in the fridge between Tuesday and Thursday night. I also didn't get to put a cherry jelly inside the chocolate straws - it just wasn't feasible since they're so delicate. These were absolutely delicious, but the lime flavor kind of overpowered the coconut. Boo.

Old Fashioned Coconut Cake

When I was a little over a year old, I met a new-born girl, and we became fast friends. We basically grew up together, and spent a lot of time at each other's houses over the years. Her mom was an amazing cook, and I always looked forward to her birthday parties for the food and cake alone! Several times, her mom graced our tastebuds with the most amazing coconut cake I'd ever had. Ever since then, I have been seeking out a coconut cake as incredible as this one. Sure, I could ask her for recipe, but...

Anyway, so when I saw an episode of Good Eats (I <3 Alton Brown and all his knowledge) that was solely dedicated to the long-lost old fashioned coconut cake, I became aglow with inspiration! For the past week, I have been soaking and fermenting my own home made coconut milk, coconut cream, and coconut extract -- all made with the fresh coconut that I cracked, drained, and shredded myself!

Needless to say, today was a long time coming. The recipe called for cake flour, and so I had to improvise with a gluten-free cake flour mixture that I'd never tried before. I was very pleased with the way the cakes came out, though. Fluffy and moist, and very flat across the top. I didn't even have to even out a bump across the top or anything!

I'd never made 7-minute frosting before, so this was a first, and I'm pretty pleased with the result. It's basically a rather soft version of Italian meringue, which is okay, but not really my thing. The cake went together really well, though, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out! The cake is soft, fluffy, and moist - but a tad bit gritty, which is disappointing. My parents swear that they LOVE the texture of the cake, and that it's got the perfect amount of sweetness. Personally, I felt it was a bit TOO sweet, but apparently I have really sensitive taste buds.



I had planned to put some lime curd in the middle, but forgot about it until it was too late to make any. Next time, I will definitely be including that element, though, as I think the tartness of it will offset the sweetness of the cake and frosting nicely. Overall, it was tasty, but not really what I was hoping for (that is to say, it's not really like the one my friend's mom used to make).

Please excuse that last photo. The cake had gotten kind of warm and the frosting was wilting a bit. :P

If you're interested, I pretty much followed this guide for the entire cake.

Coconut Almond Cookies

The other day at Whole Foods I found some gluten-free, high fiber coconut flour and I just knew I had to use it for something! On the back of the package was a recipe for vanilla almond sugar cookies and they sounded great!

I altered the recipe a bit, using coconut flour, white rice flour, and gluten-free oats. Instead of 1/2 cup of almonds, I used 1/4 cup almonds and 1/4 cup shredded coconut. These cookies are delicious and satisfying. Yay!