Blueberry white chocolate mousse

 It's blueberry season! Plump, juicy, huge blueberries are overflowing in the markets...and in my fridge. Oh, the things we can make....I've been busy making blueberry milkshakes, sorbets, muffins, madeleines, loaf cakes and the like. But when it scorching hot outside, the last thing anyone wants to do is turn on the oven.  Here's a refreshing dessert: keeps you cool and no baking involved!

Mini Donuts with lavender, rose and hibiscus glazes

These cute little donuts remind me of The Simpsons cartoon donuts!  Tiny and perfectly round with bright glazes and sprinkles. By making a few different glazes, this basic vanilla recipe can be transformed into many different flavors and vibrant colors. This time, I have decided to add a feminine, floral spin to these miniature cuties by making three different glazes: lavender, rose and hibiscus.

Ice Cream Dorayaki

A beloved Japanese sweet. So easily made at home.  Dorayaki is a Japanese style pancake, much like its American counterpart, but slightly more dense,  sweeter and stickier, thanks to the honey added to the batter.  It also creates a deep, even caramel color when cooked.  Sandwiched between two pancakes is traditionally sweet red bean paste, known as anko paste.  Though as it has been unseasonably hot in Vancouver, what better way to cool it down than with a little ice cream added to this yummy dorayaki?

Mango cheesecake

Spring is in the air! Flower buds and new green leaves are sprouting everywhere!  I found lemon balm mint, miniature pansies and thyme flowers survived the winter and peered their heads out from my patio last week.  And what better way to capture these pretty little petals than using them to adorn something sweet??  I used them immediately to decorate a mango cheesecake that I was about to make. 

Vanilla Cake Roll with Raspberry Mascarpone Cream

Cake rolls are adaptable little things.  Aside from the obvious egg, flour and sugar trio, it can be filled with whatever your heart desire (or what's available in your pantry!)  - jams, nut butters, creams, cream cheeses, fruits and whatever else in between.  Cake rolls are easy to put together with almost no prep work.  Just the thing to make on a whim!  Or in my case, just the thing to make when there's no bread for breakfast tomorrow.  Let us eat cake!

Chocolate Cake Roll with Oreo Cream

Cake rolls have always fascinated me.  I mean, how does a flat sheet of plain old sponge cake blossom into a cute, spirally, lollipop-esque confection that looks like it should belong in a candy store?  It just didn't seem physically logical.  While I was making this cake roll in my head, I also envisioned the inevitable result...surely the cake will break and crumble into a million pieces as I attempt to roll it into such an unnatural state.  I was convinced that commercial bakeries must add in some sort of chemical to make the cakes soft and rollable.  So, as usual, curiosity got the best of me, and I had to try.

Orange-Hazelnut Chocolate Cake

Simple things are the best things in life.  Cliché, I know.  But undeniably true.  Take chocolate cake, for example.  Sure, elaborate multi-layered pastry masterpieces are show-stopping...but a humble moist chocolate cake made with sour cream and rich, dark chocolate?  Now that is just divine.  I cannot fathom any dessert more superior.  Well, actually, I could.  That would be the chocolate cake served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream...

Gâteau L'Opéra

Gâteau L'Opéra.  The cake said to resemble and celebrate the Paris Opera House.  The elaborate layers of almond sponge soaked in espresso, coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache reminiscing the layers of baroque architecture.  Romantic, huh?  Decadently delicous, too.  (With all that dark chocolate ganache and buttercream, how could it not be?!)

Earl Grey and Espresso Tea Cakes

Some decisions are difficult...like 'Should I have coffee or tea with my dessert?'  Well, here's an idea.  Why not have coffee AND tea IN the dessert (and serve it with a rich, luscious cup of dark hot chocolate).  This is a little twist on the classic vanilla and chocolate marbled cakes.  A little caffeine is always good for the soul!

Pistachio Pound Cake

The humble pound cake.  Simple, elegant, yet dense and satisfying.  Enough said.

This particular recipe was sourced from the kitchens of The Tasting Room at CityCentre in Houston, uncovered by Bon Appetit.  It involves a variety of citrus juices and zests, which gave a nice refreshing balance to the rich, buttery cake, while pistachios added nuttiness and crunch.  Chef Raymond Vandergaag suggest serving these cake slices with whipped cream and truffled honey, though I'm sure it would be just as divine alongside some vanilla ice-cream!  (It was good with my morning coffee, too!)

The recipe calls for a fairly large loaf pan.  As I did not have this on hand, I used my trusty old 4x6 pan and spooned the leftover batter into paper muffin cups and made some mini cakes.  I baked the mini cakes 30 minutes less than the loaf.  The little guys are pretty tasty too, though not nearly as moist and delicious as the large loaf.  So I would suggest using a large loaf pan, if you have one, or baking two smaller loaves.

Banana & Nutella Babycakes

Bananas are amongst my least favorite foods. Right down there with durian. Sure, I'd eat it if I've been starving for three days and they happen to be the only edible thing around...but by then, Bambino's (my Chihuahua) treats would have looked pretty appetizing too. BUT...Nutella can turn anything around!  Including the detested banana. It really is quite a magical transformation!

Cupcake pops

 

Cupcake on a stick! Everything looks cuter on a stick, no?  Turns out they're pretty simple to assemble.  Basically, you bake a cake, crumble it up, mix it with frosting, shape them, chill them, dip them, then eat them. The toughest part was finding the right cookie cutter! I went through THREE stores to finally find the right one...AND it only came as part of a larger set, so I also had to buy the rest of the cutters that I do not need...guess it's time to look for other projects that could make use of them! The other difficulty was pinning down a styrofoam block for the pops to stand! As a small apartment dweller, I dispose of anything that's remotely dispensable...so no space-consuming styrofoam at my place! Of course, I ended up finding the perfect block, where else but at my mother's house!
Once I've got these missing pieces, I was ready for some cake pops!