Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!! 

How adorable is this log cake from Eli Zabars in NY.  Somehow this was the first log cake I've ever had, and it was so rich, dense and delicious!  

LaDurée Christmas

LaDurée strikes again.  I can't ever go to NYC without stopping by the store, but when I saw this packaging collaboration with the New York City Ballet I got so excited.  Two of my favorite things all together looking perfect.  

French Macaron Pastry Class

Back at my favorite Gourmandise School! I learned how to make the adorable, and incredibly labor intensive French Macarons.  This was the cream caramel for one of the fillings.

They turned out really well! I made four flavors: Vanilla cream, caramel cream, strawberry and passion fruit.  

I'm nervous to try these again at home, for now I just have a massive supply in the freezer. 

DIY Crumbs Cupcakes

I love a good box mix, which is why I was so excited to see Crumbs mix for sale at Target! My friend loved them so I thought I'd make them for her birthday. 

They turned out great, a classic funfetti and cream cheese birthday cupcake. 

Baby Shower!

I was so excited to host my first baby shower, along with a couple other of the mother-to-be's friends. I think we did a great job with so many little details! 

The candy containers and table topper toys were so cute!

You can never have too many colorful straws, they add such a nice touch to a plastic party cup.

I ordered in catering from Bagel Broker and Nagila, both which were delicious. 

All the Nagila salads were so fresh and perfect for an early afternoon lunch.

You can never have too many sweets.

I couldn't resist, I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was hilarious.  Ice ice baby. 

Me and the mom-to-be!

Beignet's At Home

While in New Orleans I picked up a box of Cafe Du Monde's famous Beignet mix.

It was not easy, it took several tries to get the beignets to puff the right way, the secret is hot hot hot oil.  When you think its hot enough, wait and let it get even hotter! The oil also needs to be deep enough so the dough can really float around.

They turned out great!! Such a unique treat to make at home, can't wait to buy more mix!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Cleveland!! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The Bun Shop

Last week I went to The Bun Shop where the desserts are a big part of the experience.  The on the left is the Custard Bun, which is a sweet version of the standard bun, filled with custard and topped with salted caramel sauce, sitting on popcorn. It was delicious, but I could do without the popcorn.  On the right is their Fried Oreos with green tea ice cream.  Its impossible to go wrong with oreos, they're amazing, but I would have paired them with vanilla ice cream. 

Fōnuts

I recently tried another fōnut which was one of their yeast based steamed donuts.  It was cinnoman sugar but sort of tasted like apples... It was great!! 

Milk Jar Cookies

I finally tried Milk Jar after hearing how amazing it was, and I am certainly into it. It still not my favorite cookie, but pretty awesome.  Above is the Rocky Road, my favorite out of the ones I tried - super chocolatey!

This is the chocolate chip walnut which somewhat reminded me of the Levain cookie.

This was the pecan caramel chocolate cookie, super sweet and gooey!

Happy Valentine's Day

It's been a while, but wanted to share these chocolate strawberries I made! I bought huge organic strawberries from Whole Foods and dipped them in 65% dark Cordillera chocolate, some are topped with toffee.  Happy cheat day!!