Eclairs et Religieuse

This week made Mike jealous for some chocolate eclairs. Don't worry babe, you will get some in 25 days!

Eclairs are probably something you are familiar with. Pate aux choux dough filled with chocolate or vanilla pastry cream and topped with a glaze. They really are delicious. Back home you also know them as cream puffs. How do you feel about these guys? Religieuse is a traditional French pastry. I think it is a bit old fashioned in appearance but they can be found everywhere around here. It is basically two cream puffs stacked on top of each other with some buttercream decoration.

We made the traditional flavors you can find around here: chocolate and cafe. The cafe ones were delicious and I found that I had taken down 2 before I even knew it. Ugh, hate when that happens! :)

After we learned the standard flavors we got our mind's blown by making passion fruit crumble eclairs! They were i.n.c.r.e.d.i.b.l.e. Really, they are so good, refreshing and a definite treat perfect for summer in California. Just think of all the different flavors you can make. What are your favorite flavors?

Fun with Fondant

I went to Michael's and got myself some fun cut outs a few weeks ago and decided to mess around with them one night when I was bored. I didn't feel like baking from scratch or making anything fancy, little bit tired. So I defaulted to a cake mix (sorry, friends) and whipped up some buttercream. I only needed a canvas to play with.

I may have gotten carried away...but hey, I like sparkly things.

Baby Ducks

Actually it is a baby boy (soon-to-be anyway). A friend of my mother was in need of some type of dessert for a baby shower she was throwing for someone. She needed individual pieces of dessert to help them celebrate. Naturally, this is code for cupcakes. 


This is something that remains true no matter what age the boy is - they are the HARDEST things to shop/create for!! Us girls, we hand it to them on a platter. We are happy with anything! As long as it comes from the boy, we are happy, right girls? 


So I had a really hard time thinking of a design for a boy baby shower. Girls I can do anything from hearts to flowers to pearls to butterflies. Boys....hmm....drawing blanks...


It came down to rubber ducks, bottles, or baby faces. Obviously, rubber ducky wins that one. Psssh.


First things first - I made my own fondant for the first time and let me tell you...IT IS SO EASY! It is easy and pie and so much more cost effective than buying it from the store. If you use fondant, please tell me you will try to make your own and I promise you will be converted for life.

1 bag mini marshmallows

food coloring

confectioners' sugar

Put marshmallows into a microwave safe bowl. (I used about 2 cups but you can use however much depending on how much fondant you need). Coat the marshmallows with a little bit of water and toss to make sure they are all covered. 

Put the mallows in the microwave for 1 minutes. They will come out looking big and fluffy. Mix with a wooden spoon that has been coated with shortening or butter to prevent sticking. Once it is a smooth mass, begin adding confectioners' sugar.

Continue mixing and adding more sugar until the fondant starts coming together and is a pliable mass. Add as much sugar as needed until the fondant is the right consistency. Knead in your food coloring. Use gel colors.

That is it! Cover completely and there you go :)

Ok, back to the cupcakes. So I made ducks out of fondant and made some blue buttercream so it looks like the ducks are floating in water! I also made a batch of chocolate and peanut butter cupcakes because I feel like brown is a boy color.

Zebra Cake

I helped out someone at my office this week by making her a cake for her cousin's baby shower tomorrow. Their theme was zebra and pink so I brainstormed and this is what I came up with.  Inside is a vanilla cake with strawberry mouse filling. I was really happy with the outcome and it definitely proved to me that I might actually have a knack for this stuff.  What do you think? Would you want to have a cake like this?