Raspberry & Lychee Pavlova

When I visited legendary pastry chef Dominique Ansel’s eponymous bakery in New York a few weeks ago (I wrote about the adventure and the subsequent canelé experiments in my previous post), I managed to get my paws on a raspberry and lychee pavlova. One of the staff members had told me it was her favourite dessert in the pastry display case and, since it was also the most eye-catching one, I had to try it.

Reverse-engineered version of famous pastry chef Dominique Ansel's raspberry and lychee pavlova

Ansel’s website describes the raspberry and lychee pavlova as “light-as-air lychee meringue filled with fresh raspberries, raspberry jam, mascarpone whipped ganache, and lychee whipped ganache.” The pastry was splendid; the meringue was crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside, with just the lightest hints of lychee flavour. The ganaches complemented the raspberries wonderfully.

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Liège Waffles

I like to consider myself a waffle connoisseur. Perhaps the title of Professional Waffler is a bit much, but when one purchases a state-of-the-art waffle iron (equipped with patented Waffle IQ™ technology that calculates optimal cooking times, an LCD screen, a batter moat, a few knobs, speakers, a lock, and over a dozen settings) no other title would give my obsession justice.

Liège waffles with red fruit and sour cherry sauce

That’s why, after buying the waffle iron and making waffles a half-dozen times, I was so surprised to see my passion begin to fade. Rather than enjoying a delectable waffle each morning, I sometimes caught myself turning to their inferior pancake cousins. Waffles just became so… boring.

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Devil’s Food Cake

I hate baking layer cakes. I am absolutely terrible at making them because I can’t frost a cake to save my life. That’s why I usually make entremets. With a pastry ring, you don’t need frosting skills. All you need are pouring skills, and I’ve got those.

Sinful dark chocolate devil's food cake with raspberries. Click for the AMAZING recipe!

There are so many pretty layer cakes all over the web, and whenever I see one it makes me sad. I just don’t get how the frosting on cakes can be so smooth when mine turn out positively awful. I’ve read countless tutorials and made lots of layer cakes over the years, but I’m never happy with how they are. Flavour wise, they’re great. The cake and the frosting are almost always delicious. The appearance? Well, that’s another story.

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