These delicious pastries are a hybrid of the wonderfully flaky British puff pastry horns I remember from my childhood filled with a yummy Sicilian cannoli filling of creamy ricotta with dark chocolate pieces and orange peel. Sprinkled with a hint of cinnamon. Later I’ll tell […]
All posts filed under: Special everyday cakes and treats
Healthier pink grapefruit or plum almond tart recipe! And is coconut sugar healthier?
This ‘rustic’ tart is an absolute delight of contrasting tangy pink grapefruit, light almond dacquoise sponge and grapefruit or orange marmalade within a thin crispy pastry. There was also an experimental little plum tart, since this fruit is currently in season, and it was just […]
Vegan aquafaba meringue cookies recipe! 10 reasons for making them and ideas for vegan desserts. :)
It’s a miracle of culinary science! Murky gloopy water from a can of chickpeas turns into beautiful white meringue that’s easy to whisk or pipe, and delicious! Yes, really. There have been the usual obligatory test-batches and controlled tastings. Controlled in that we tried not […]
Simple raspberry and salted caramel vacherin glacé ice-cream cake recipe! And the August cake collection with Sicilian desserts…
Vacherin glacés are a delight… amazingly delicious and simple. My last one had more complex piping so I wanted to show you this very approachable and friendly one with shop-bought raspberry sorbet and Häagen-Dazs salted caramel ice-cream. My 12-year old niece and I very quickly and […]
Earl Grey melting moments biscuits (cookies) recipe
Sometimes simple is absolutely divine, crumbly, buttery and the perfect afternoon tea biscuit. Or cookie if you’re on the other side of the pond. Adding the contents of two Earl Grey tea bags takes these yummy delights to that next level without involving complex baking […]
La Feuille d’Automne recipe! Lenôtre’s classic dark chocolate mousse and meringue cake
This magical chocolate entremets will blow the minds of chocoholics and also people who say ‘I don’t usually like chocolate cake, … ‘. A French climbing friend who’s extremely honest about my cakes (yes, sometimes it hurts) said this really tasted like master pâtissier Gaston […]
Red bean and nutella cheesecake (easy, no-bake recipe) and the June/July cake inspiration collection!
This is a lighter version of the nutella cheesecake already on the blog and equally if not more delicious. The base is crushed digestive biscuits (Graham crackers) with butter, nutella and ground hazelnuts. A layer of red bean paste is spread over this. Then comes […]
Raspberry, lychee and rose frozen sorbet meringue cake recipe! Vacherin glacé Ispahan
Vacherin glacé is a classic French frozen entremets traditionally combining layers of meringue, vanilla ice-cream and strawberry or raspberry sorbet, all covered in whipped cream. Later I’ll tell you more about vacherins, the pâtisserie where we first tried one and how I almost became an […]
Earl Grey tangy travelling loaf (Earl grey tea and lemon loaf cake recipe) and who is Earl Grey?
The magic flavour in Earl Grey tea is bergamot, a citrus fruit with a delicate aroma. Earl Grey’s identity and the origins of the tea will be revealed later but first the cake. Having used bergamot in baking before I was curious to try Earl […]
Easy raspberry sorbet recipe and the importance of frozen desserts in France and the USA!
It’s hot and humid here in Barcelona. Really it’s a wonder anyone can bake so it’s time to make delicious ice-cold sorbets. Hurray! And it’s all in preparation for a traditional French mystery frozen cake, which I’ll reveal to you in a few days depending […]
Dreams of Florence, caramel-raspberry dome cakes recipe
These domes of creamy caramel mousse are filled with fresh raspberry jelly inserts and covered in a light caramel glaze. They float on bases of crumbly sablé breton, Brittany salted butter shortbread. Fragments of homemade pralines, caramelized almonds, stud the sides like crunchy jewels. My […]
Healthier sablés or palets bretons recipe (Brittany salted butter shortbread biscuits/cookies)
You can use plain white flour and sugar but the versions with spelt or buckwheat flour, sweetened with light brown sugar or panela (rapadura) unrefined whole cane sugar are also delicious. These are the typical crumbly biscuits from Brittany made with salted butter. They can […]
The mojito lemon drizzle loaf, how to paint on a cake and the May cake collection!
Once you start making lemon cakes it’s hard to stop. When people ask what my favourite cake is I say lemon tart, well tarte au citron which is so tangy and fresh you hardly notice the sugar. But lemon drizzle cakes are sublime too and […]
Lemon drizzle and raspberry layer cake with easy marshmallow fondant and lemon curd – for a birthday! :)
It’s that time of year when I make my own birthday cake and the inspiration was Nadiya’s lemon drizzle cake, the one that helped her win the Great British Bake Off final. It was totally worth making. My birthday fell on a Monday this year […]
Easy nutella cheesecake recipe – nutellicious! :)
It’s Nigella’s recipe and I’m sharing this amazing discovery with you because it’s so delicious I think everyone should try it once in their lifetime. Lol. Seriously, I was talking with some work colleagues and they professed such love for this cheesecake I felt I […]
lili's cakes 