Once I got over that disappointment, though, I discovered a pretty good book with lots of excellent recipes.  He covers the basics really well – as well as Pierre Herme – on florentines, cookies, macaroons, mousse, tarts, candies, pastries, cakes, frozen desserts, even souffles.  It is a pretty book, with excellent photographs, and the recipes I have tried have worked very well – tasty, rich, completely what you would expect them to be.

My default resource for chocolate desserts is Pierre Herme; I trust him, and so refer to his books far more often than Linxe.  But this is also a good book, with lots of great information, definitely worth your time and money; recommended.

Served at Sooke Harbour house March 24 2004.

Caramel & Chocolate Mousse tart with crispy chocolate pearls

Served at the Vancouver Club, February 2009

Photo credit: Angelo Cikes Angelo Cikes Photography www.cikesphoto.com

Date: September 7, 2008

Location: Hart House Restaurant, Burnaby BC (where is that?)

guests: 95

top 2 tiers: fake cake

photographer: Angelo Cikes, Angelo Cikes Photography

Photo credit: Angelo Cikes Angelo Cikes Photography www.cikesphoto.com

Photo credit: Angelo Cikes Angelo Cikes Photography www.cikesphoto.com

]]> http://www.sweetthea.com/blog/2009/05/06/mceachern-dowdall-wedding-photos-by-angelo-cikes/feed/ 0 http://www.sweetthea.com/blog/2009/05/05/2-hazelnut-additions-to-the-dessert-tray-banana-mousse-cups-and-a-financier/ http://www.sweetthea.com/blog/2009/05/05/2-hazelnut-additions-to-the-dessert-tray-banana-mousse-cups-and-a-financier/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 09:18:59 +0000 laurie http://sweetthea.com/?p=3266 Read More »]]> Last week at the Club I added two new desserts to the regular dessert tray., both using a little hazelnut.

Here they are: chocolate banana mousse cups, garnished with caramelized banana and candied hazelnut; and a raspberry hazelnut financier cake and fresh berries, garnished with a black pansy.

chocolate banana mousse cup

raspberry hazelnut financier cake

Vancouver Club dessert tray, April 2009

Today I made this nice Triple Chocolate Mousse – layered dark, milk, and white Chocolate Mousse, garnished with White Chocolate straw and Valrhona cocoa.

I was a little uncertain about a step when creating the white chocolate nest, so I turned to the excellent book Chocolate Decorations – by Jean-Pierre Wybauw -  to review his recipe, and was glad I did – these turned out perfect!  I do recommend this book, and will review it soon in my ‘On the Bookshelf’ category – for now you can check it out on Amazon:

Today I created 5 desserts for the Club’s regular dessert tray – this is how they looked in the kitchen, before they were plated. This is my first try at photoing pastries in a commercial kitchen under bad lighting – sorry about the quality, I am sure a little practice will improve my photos!

MAPLE PECAN TART
with the flakiest crust you can imagine! What makes them especially delicious is using maple syrup, instead of corn syrup, for the tart – yum!!! Maple syrup, pecans, brown sugar, eggs and butter.

APPLE ALMOND STREUSEL TART
Melt-in-your-mouth! A delicious crumble topping (without oats), with finely ground almonds, butter, flour and sugar..

ESPRESSO-LACED MILK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE
The milk chocolate mousse is layered with a rich marzipan chocolate cake, thin thin layers finished with a silky chocolate glaze

FRUIT TARTS with VANILLA PASTRY CREAM
Raspberries or Blackberries (fresh, from Mexico). The pastry shells are painted with chocolate, so the moisture of the cream doesn’t make the pastry soggy. Delicious. (Some bakeries call these tarts ‘flan’, but they really aren’t, as there is no frangipan used). The berries are coated in an apricot glaze, to preserve their freshness and give that nice shine, then decorated with gold flakes.

LEMON TARTS with SILVERED PISTACHIOS
Classic dessert! No need to get fancy with this recipe – nothing to improve!