Sweet Little Things
I baked with my pastry chef friend (Jen Chao) to prepare for a soiree for Alex Smith. For those who don’t know him, he’s the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers! I was only there to help with the final assembly today, but soon I’ll join her on a nitty-gritty-baking day. That way I can show you the actual process and get you some good recipes!
Without further ado, here is what Alex Smith is dining on:
Lavendar Short Bread Cookies Sandwiched with Lemon Cream Cheese
These were absolutely delicious. The shortbread cookies practically melted in your mouth and the lavender taste was pretty phenomenal. We started with a tray of these:
Filled them with a touch of Lemon Cream Cheese:
And made them into these bite-sized mini-sandwiches:
Pumpkin Financiers
Now these are deceptive little cakes. They look like pumpkin bread but they melt in your mouth. They’re french tea cakes with a brown-butter and powdered-sugar base. We started by topping off our cakes with a bit of icing:
Then touched them off with a candied pecan:
Fancy Dark Chocolate Shells with Homemade Caramel
Like I said the last time, dessert isn’t complete without the chocolates. Now I’m not a fan of caramel, but Jen’s homemade caramel in these elegant chocolate shells were pretty darn amazing.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Crunchy Peanut Butter Frosting
We thought we’d feed everyone’s inner child with these moist cakes..
And if you’re a fan of the Crunchies, you should have been there for this Crunchy Peanut Butter Frosting
Almond Pear Tart
Now what these lack in good looks, they make up for in taste. These tarts were crumbly melt-in-your-mouth perfect, and a pear-almond kick that would knock your socks off.
Petite Pumpkin Pies
We ended with a tribute to fall. We had big pumpkin pies in the fridge, but used the leftovers to make these Minis. Topped with cream cheese frosting and a curl of orange peel, and you have the perfect end to this dessert buffet, wouldn’t you say – Alex Smith?
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Fruit Tart Adventures with a Pastry Chef
I thought I’d kick off my blog with a post I’ve long-promised – Documenting my 10-hour baking adventures with local pastry chef and friend, Jen Chao. We didn’t make ‘The Cake’, but we did cater the rest of the desserts for a very posh wedding in the hills of Los Altos.
While I’m not thinking to pursue baking as my career, I will say that I’ve never had as much fun making desserts as I did that day. My hope is that you enjoy the following documentation as much as I enjoyed partaking in it!
We’ll Begin With A Classic:
Tell me, who doesn’t like fruit tarts? And what better time to make them than these final days of summer? We began by making endless trays of tart shells. (If you’d like to learn how, this is my first lesson on the Tutorials page)
The vanilla cream was also made from scratch. Piping came easy, although one tart did take the fall as my ugly first.
And the result? A perfect medly of summer fruits atop sweet custard and a buttery crust.
Its Hard to Top a Classic, but this Rebel will try..
Hands down, my favorite dessert that day was the fruit tart’s rebel brother – the tiny lemon meringues. Keep reading and you’ll see why. The first step was to make the meringue. We made enough Meringue to feed a village, but a light dallop is all each lemon custard tart got.
We didn’t use alcohol, but we certainly spiked the tarts.
We topped them off with blueberries and these bad boys appeared. It was teenage rebellion done right.
Flame on, One More Time
Oh, the famous Crème brûlée. Its just another type of custard, whose French name means “burnt cream”. So burn it we did. All it takes is raw sugar sprinkled on top and a butane torch from Home Depot, to get a beautiful flame like the one you see below.
Luckily for our guests, the fun didn’t just stop at one…
And the Grand Finale
Chocoholics unite! We all know that dessert isn’t the same without chocolate. So we had for our guests: truffles laced with kalua, ganache and irish cream, and dark chocolates filled with caramel, raspberry and (for the true-cocao-lover) more chocolate.
Could we have ended the evening on a more satisfactory note?
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So to my faithful readers, I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain. You have your blog and you have your post. So its only fair for me to ask - What did you think? 
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