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):

Mayan Chocolate Cake Coconut Lime Custard Cups

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.

Mayan Chocolate Petit Fors Mayan Chocolate Petit Fors

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.

Coconut Lime Custard Cups Coconut Lime Custard Cups

Pumpkin Muffins!

gluten-free pumpkin muffin with cream cheese frosting gluten-free pumpkin muffin with cream cheese frosting

Well, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon so I decided to make some pumpkin muffins. This was my first time making a gluten-free muffin recipe from scratch and they turned out amazingly well. I dressed them up with a little rosette of cream cheese frosting and some decorative cupcake liners.

I’ve added them to the Autumn line-up of goodies in my Etsy shop – yep, I’m back open for business. Check out the pumpkin muffins in my shop. Cheers!

Adorable Mugs From Target

owl mug owl mug

I got these adorable mugs from Target back in February and I just giggle with glee every time I open my cupboard and see them. I mean, aren’t they so cute?!
(Click the pictures to see them bigger.)

turtle and bird mug turtle and bird mug