Dainty Desserts

It is one of my favorite days of the year, the Oscars are tonight! Tomorrow I will share with you my favorite dresses of the evening, but first, some beautiful desserts.
We had a party at our house last night and I talked my Dad into letting me prepare all of the desserts, promising that they would be as good as our favorite bakery. Having made this promise, I knew I had to make the best desserts I ever had.

The recipes I used came from two excellent cookbooks. Gale Gand is a Chicago pastry chef who writes great cookbooks. Four of the recipes I made came out of Gale Gand's Just a Bite. The mini cupcakes were from Martha Stewart Cupcakes and the hazelnut mousse cake came from Epicurious.com. Epicurious is a great resource for all chefs. It allows you to do very specific searches for different kinds of recipes and generally has great ideas.

And now on to the main event:


I started out with Vacherins, which are little tiny meringue cups filled with whipped cream and topped with a raspberry.


They have a great delicate texture and a really quite pretty to look at.


Next, are a great little treat called Lemon Cream Daisies.


They are little cups of puff pastry filled with a lemon mousse with a little sprinkling of pistachios on top.


If you live in Chicago, you are familiar with the Frango Mint, the most delicious chocolate mints in the world. These are called Chocolate Mint Tiddlywinks and are basically a large sized Frango Mint.


I think that they're very striking looking.


I am a huge cupcake fan, I love all kinds. However, most adults are not big fans of cupcakes so when they are all having seconds and thirds, you know that they are good.


These particular cupcakes are filled with salted caramel and topped with dark chocolate frosting. They are fairly labor intensive but it is worth it. Martha Stewart is a genius!


If you want to make an impression when serving dessert, grab a brulee torch, I promise people will be impressed.


These are individual Banana Brulee Spoons. They are made by filling a spoon with custard, dipping it in Honey Powder and bruleeing it with a torch and then topping it with a banana slice and giving it one more dose of heat.


Finally, Gianduja Mousse Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Crunch Crust.


It is an incredibly delicious cake. I made a stencil for the top by cutting a snowflake out of wax paper and then dusting the cake with powdered sugar.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I spent my weekend. If you would like any of the recipes, be sure to post in the comments section and I will post them to the blog.

Enjoy the Oscars!