Tablier taché

The most elegant way to declare your love to someone is with chocolate. The warmth and deliciousness of the chocolate has been never comparable to the diamonds. The chocolate is an art creation. Fine senses and strong feelings are needed for understanding this pure food of Heaven.  Self-made chocolate truffles are best present for St. Valentine. They are very easy to make - the only skill needed is ... love. for the truffles: 220 ml whipping cream 30 g sugar 250 g bittersweet chocolate 37 g unsalted butter for the coating: 250 g dark chocolate (72% cocoa solids), tempered cocoa powder (optional) prepare the molds: polish the mold with a clean soft cotton cloth prepare the truffles : Bring the cream and sugar to boil. Have the chocolate chopped in a bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it stay for 5-7 min. Stir with a flexible spatula to homogenize well until glossy mixture of ganache is formed. Pour the...

The whole house smells like Christmas - wood burning and spices.  The signature Christmas cookies are served - some hanging on the tree, some in a nicely decorated box. What I love the most about these cookies is not so much preparing them, not even baking them, although the heat helps all the aroma to gently fill every corner of the house. The strongest tease to all my senses is opening the cookie box. After few days of aging in the air tightly closed container, the cookies exude the most perfect aroma - the combination of the spices blooms the nicest smell. No need to have a bite even - so satisfying!  I kept the old tradition this year of making the old-fashioned Lebkuchen cookies . I am on a journey to make it a family tradition of baking these for every Christmas. While I was growing up in Bulgaria, they were simply called honey cookies. In North America a variation of these is popular under the name of gingerbread, or 'spicy bread' in France, but everywhere ...

The things we learn from people are amazing! How important is communication, how enriching! This cake was mentioned to me last week. After six years of visiting Ana's violin teacher, I got to learn that his heritage is Icelandic. The Icelanders had the tradition of making this cake for Christmas. I only received a rough description of the cake, but got inspired to look for it - many layers of cake and dried-fruit filling is something that is worth researching. My research led to a crossroad. It was like opening the Pandora box. Instead of finding out the information and sinking into reading, I had to choose what road to follow. Apparently there are different variations of this cake. The original recipe is from sometime of 1860. The most interesting fact is, that today's Icelanders themselves have not heard of this cake. I guess, the tradition got lost in Iceland through the centuries, but very well kept here, in Canada, in the families with Icelandic heritage.  Wha...

12 days till Christmas! And the snow has just arrived!!!  It is so clean out there...  It is white! It is quiet! Our every day running is slowing down - our hearts beat normal. Our worries got buried under the heavy blanket.  The Earth is moving at a normal pace. The air is so crisp and clean - the children's laughter is ringing, the tree branches are singing, the birds wings are drawing pictures in the clouds. The chimneys' smoke is knitting a sweater to the wind. The footprints are writing a poem. It is so white! Our souls are sparkling white! We are better people! It feels like rebirth and a white beginning. It feels like a fairytale. It feels like a miracle. 12 days till Christmas! The white canvas out there temptingly invite us to write our story, to make our wishes, because the magical season has started.  Happy Christmas, everyone! What did you wish for today? My seasonal Christmas cake - surely very much chocolaty, and garnished wi...

It is this time of year, when the fragrant spices are very popular in my kitchen. There are certain types of spices that I use only at Christmas time. I feel that I ignore them for the rest of the year, but this is something I am not forcing myself on doing, it just happens... I reach for the cinnamon from time to time (rarely) in a non-seasonal time, but definitely it is the queen of the spices at Christmas time. The nutmeg is present in my savoury cuisine through the year, but I do not touch the cloves and the cardamom in any other time of the year, but for Christmas. In this cake, all these spices meet together and really bloom the taste.  It is an easy and fast desert, baked in a bundt cake form and topped with a light cream cheese frosting. The apple caramel sauce makes it extraordinary and certainly delivers the warm and cosy sense of Christmas. for the cake: 225 g unsalted butter at room temperature 380 g custard sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla e...

Another Thanksgiving, another day to share the things we are thankful for. How unfortunately late this autumn is! I was barely able to find colourful leaves in my garden. Only the roses are ready for their winter relax. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thank you for visiting! IN

December 9th, the Eastern Christianity celebrates St. Anne. The name comes from Hebrew "Channah", meaning "favour" or "grace". St. Anne, mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus is an emblem figure, keeper of the families, guardian angel of all mothers.  It happens, that we celebrate this name holiday, because of a special little family member. Our Ana is blessed with her name and we are blessed to have that magnificent creature for a daughter. I am sure her name suits her perfectly.  What Ana loves the most as a dessert? Chocolate, may be some chocolate and a bit of chocolate, garnished with chocolate. I decided to make this truffle cake for her and knew it will become her favourite. What is truffle cake without truffles? I am very happy to use the formidably looking and delicately delicious truffles from Ferrero Rocher. They complete my recipe perfectly.  for the cake: 60 g chocolate 100 g unsalted butter, softened 1 tsp vanilla ex...

You will need: one recipe  Genoise cake one recipe Almond Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache , in which almonds are substitute for pecans two recipes Pumpkin Cream Mousselin one recipe Pecan Paste a lot of chocolate leaves for the Pumpkin Cream Mousselin: 250 ml whole milk 1/2 vanilla bean 3 egg yolks 100 g brown sugar 30 g corn starch 30 g white flour 5 g cinnamon  130 g butternut squash - rosted  120 g unsalted butter, softened  1. Roast the pumpkin the day before. Peel the butternut squash and cut in small pieces. Roast on a parchment paper, until softened. Let it cool. Work the pieces in a blender, until purée consistency. Close in a box and refrigerate.  2. Scale the dry ingredients in a bowl. 3.  Beat slightly the egg yolks and two thirds of the sugar . Mix in the dry ingredients. 3.  Scrape the seeds from half vanilla bean into the milk, add the last third of the sugar and bring to boil.   4...

What is better than chocolate cake? I, truthfully, couldn't think of anything. When my sweet angel decided that she wants a chocolate cake for her celebration, I remembered, that she found a Queen Elizabeth's favourite cake recipe posted  in Tweeter earlier this year, and thought that this would be a nice coronation for her sweet 16th birthday. I copied the recipe, with slight change of the technic. My birthday girl wanted strawberries, so I added a ring of fresh strawberries. The cake is worth every effort. Every bite is heavenly delicious. Here is the original  recipe. Chef Darren McGrady used "Ghirardelli" dark chocolate. I couldn't find any, but to keep the classy taste, I decided that "Lindt" is not any worse (if not even better). for the filling: 285 g heavy cream 227 g dark chocolate Lindt for the cake: 6 egg yolks 2 eggs 114 g sugar 57 g flour 30 g cocoa 57 g butter for the topping:  285 g heavy cream 227 g dark...