Macaron challenge

 Hi Dears!

As You might know, I am not a macaron expert. 

I tried it a few times, the first became something totally different from a real macaron (pictures here), and the next was kind of a disaster (story here). 

But I found an easy-looking recipe on a Hungarian blog StreetKitchen. 

She makes it in a so easy way, I had to try it once more. I wanted to bake it for Valentine's Day for my fiancé.

The only question is, will I manage this challenge now? :D 

Confectionery studies - 13-14th week

Hello! 

Long time, no see, right?

But I try to navigate you in my past few weeks of pastry chef studies. We learnt so many goodies... As I didn't write about the last 4 or 5 ? courses, now I combine two lessons, which were quite similar to each other. 

4 pastries with 1 dough

Hello Guys! 

Today I will show a fabulous, multifunctional dough, that we can use for dozens of pastries. Both for sweet and salty. 

And what's even better, this is the original recipe that most of the pastry shops use as well. I learnt it in the confectioner school, and the professional name is the"Blundel- dough " 

( You can read more about it in this post where I wrote about that course. )

The pastries that I show here are the mini versions of the original recipes, as I thought these are more edible in small sizes if you are serving them for guests. 

My boyfriend was amazed how quick I could present 4 really different pastries which tasted so good, and they looked nice as well.

 Finally, I could feel proud. :D (You know it's still hard to compete with his mother and grandmother in baking projects... I can thank this to my confectionery studies. :) ) 

Confectionery studies - 12th week

Hello! 

Do You know the little ball or cube shaped, creamy layered little cakes, that are covered with colorful fondant? These are the mignons...

I have two different stories of their history. One of them is due to a famous Hungarian Confectioner of all time, Mr. Kugler invented it, and called them Mignons, as it means My Little Darling in French. Firstly, it was called Kuglers as the inventor, but now they are Mignons.

The other story is coming from France, from Mr. Mignot who placed poems in the middle of the sweet creation, which made it even more expensive.

Nowadays, you can find these in all of the confectioneries in Hungary (without poems) and they cost a little bit less than a cake slice, because of course the size is much smaller.

The funny thing, that you can't really find the recipe of these on the Net, because if you type it in, only the Gru's Minions are coming up. :D 

So let's see what beauties we had created that week...

Chestnut Cake

Hi Dears! 

I brought You one of my favorite cake, the one with chestnut purée and whipped cream. The sponge is a brown cocoa sponge cake, which is cut to 3 layers, and filled with this chestnut cream. 

The taste is amazing, the preparation is easy, so I can only recommend this recipe. :)

I was playing with the decoration, I hope I didn't overdo it. :D

 I decorated it with chestnut hearts, which have a circle of chocolate on them, and I draw chocolate pastilles on it, with a twist of the other cake, the Eszterházy's style. 

Let's see the preparation...

Confectionery studies - 10th week

Hi Dears!

I haven't posted of the last 5 weeks of my studies, as this period was so busy with all the Holidays, exams and working in the Café.

But now I will show you the details, because these courses were really exciting, and I learnt many many tasty desserts.

This is the second post about cakes. We learnt 7 different cakes that day. (I haven't got the chance to make a photo of the 7th, as it was quickly cut and we ate it... :) ) 

Apple Pie with walnut

Happy New Year! 

Any plans for the future?

I only had one vow for this year... I will do more sport activities! :D

I am lucky to gain only just a few weight while I'm baking and obviously eating a lots of cookies, cakes, pies... etc.

But anyway, I can see on myself the result.

A year ago I was quite sporty, as I did aerobics every week (even twice a week). Then I started working full time, and I was much more tired than at school. 

But this year, I will keep this vow. I even started with a full aerobic program, and my thighs are killing me now. :D 

But no worries, I won't start a diet, I will keep on baking. :D

Like this apple pie got so many praises from my family, then I have to share it with You the recipe. The base recipe was the original apple pie from my confectionery book. I only changed it at the decoration part.

Free Dessert Calendars for 2015! 3 types for You

 Hey Guys! :) 

I brought a gift for You! 

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and finally I know where I will go to celebrate :D 

After that it will be 2015! 

Usually we got too many calendars, like now we have one for each and every walls in our room. Crazy. But guess what? This year I only got 1, and it's a smaller size, so I decided to make my own...

Of course, I involved desserts, and what's even more obvious, that I used my own pictures from this blog. 

They appeared to be super cool, so I decided to share them with You.

I created 3 calendars, each is different in the style and the size. 

You know, one basic for a room, one with big spaces to write in, and one little to a reminder.

 You only have to download it (it's free), print them out, and stamp them together. :) 

Decorated Christmas Cookies

Merry Christmas Dears,

I hope You are feeling wonderful, and had a special Christmas this year.

We just had our 3rd big Christmas Lunch... (It's definitely not the time for starting a diet... :D )

As I mentioned before, this year, nearly all of my family members got a plate of decorated Christmas cookies from me. Here I will show the steps of the preparations...

Christmas whoopie cookie

Merry Christmas Eve to You! :)

Today I brought a nice Christmas stocking filling cookie idea. 

It's tastes so Christmas-y, as it contains all the great spices and ingredients, that we use during the Holidays. Some examples: cinnamon, gingerbread spice mix, grounded walnut, candied orange peel, cocoa, caramel....Yum! :)

When You are ready, you can pack them nicely in a little bag, with more cookies, gingerbread, anything You like, like I did...