Mon Petit Amour

I actually made these a while back but it was such a long process, I didn't want to blog about it. I don't think I'll ever do these again. Though, I did get some rave reviews, so I may be tempted later on when I forget how long of a process it was. I got the idea from this beautiful blog, her pictures are too enticing. Oh and the blog is called, Use Real Butter, so you can imagine it's good. But, I had to change the recipe, as always, (sigh) to fit my reality (what I actually have in my kitchen) and my hopes and dreams (the ideas I come up with)....

The recipe was written for 8500 ft and was written for, in my opinion, real bakers who measure everything. Example: 3.25 oz of eggs. I don't weigh my eggs - just say 1,2, or 3 eggs please!

So I got out my trusty french pastry book, The Roux Brothers on Patisserie. I used their recipe, "Plain Genoese Sponge Cake" for the cake part. You can use any sponge cake recipe out there, I'm sure.

You make the cake in a large 11x17 cake pan. It will be very thin but that's great for the Petit Fours. Half the cake will be the bottom layer and the other half will be cut off and placed on top. In between you'll have a lime meringue buttercream and raspberry puree. You will also dress the cake with lime syrup. I thought about skipping this step, but I think it may be the secret to success in this recipe. The cake was very moist after 2 days in the fridge, I think due in part because of the lime syrup.

Lime Meringue Buttercream
4-5 egg whites (I actually messed this up and used 4 full eggs - the recipe calls for 4 oz of eggs whites)
1 cup of sugar
2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 tbsp lime zest
2 tbsp lime juice
Combine egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk constantly over a double boiler until 140F is reached. Place on mixer with whisk and whip until stiff. Turn down whip speed to 3rd and whip until cool to the touch (this takes a while – should be cooler than your hand). Change to a normal type beater and gradually add soft butter by tablespoon pieces. Once desired consistency has been reached, add lime juice and zest.

Raspberry Puree
approx 2 cups of frozen raspberries
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar (optional)

Run frozen raspberries under hot water, let them thaw. Blend them in a cuisinart. Since they are frozen, they may be a bit tart, add some powdered sugar to taste.

Lime Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup lime juice
Lime zest - if you have any lime zest left over from the buttercream add it to the syrup too.

Heat water and sugar in a pot until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil and turn off heat. Let cool. Mix in lime juice and zest.

Note: I only used 3 limes in this recipe. 2 for juice but 3 for the zest.


Poured Fondant Icing
2.25 cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cup water
1/8 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp almond extract
drop of food coloring (optional)
Combine all in double boiler except coloring. Heat until all the sugar has melted. Remove from heat and stir in food coloring.

Assemble the Petit Fours

Once the cake has cooled, cut the cake in half, so that you have 2 pieces that are approximately 8.5x11. Brush the lime syrup on the top of the bottom layer. Add all the Raspberry Puree on top of it. Then add the Lime Meringue Buttercream. I think that I messed up when I made this recipe and I used the whole egg and not the egg whites. The lime buttercream didn't stiffen like it should have. So when I put the top layer of cake on it, lots of the cream squeezed out. If this happens to you, wrap it in parchment paper and stick it in the freezer. Once frozen, you can cut the cake in squares without all the filling running out.

Note: for the top layer of cake I put the bottom face up so I ended brushing both sides of the cake with lime syrup. It was tasty, I recommend this.

When cutting the squares, make sure they are at least an inch and a half big. I tried to go smaller but they didn't look as good as they wanted to fall apart. You need a good solid base. Once assembled, you can pour the fondant over top. This was a major pain! I didn't make enough fondant (note: you may want to double the recipe) and it was a mess. I instead served most of them with just a raspberry on top (glued on with the fondant icing). I think it tasted better too, the fondant is too sugary. Good Luck!

Angela's Test Kitchen - Asparagus Tarts

You might be saying, What asparagus tarts?!? But this isn't a sweet recipe, it's a savory one. My first savory recipe on the blog! A quick and easy appetizer or side dish (also vegan!)

I took the idea from a few recipes. One was from a vegan blog called Vegan Yum Yum. I was trying to come up with yummy ideas for a volunteer catering gig that I'm doing for work. The group I'm cooking for is mostly vegetarians with a few vegans. Also got this idea from a white bean dip that I used to make. I lost that recipe but it was similar to this one. Since I couldn't decide what recipe to do, I modified both recipes and put half and half on the puff pastry.

garlic on the left, pesto on the right

Pesto White Bean filling
Half a can of cannelloni beans
1 big teaspoon of pesto
a small handful of almonds
a pinch of salt
tablespoon-ish of water

Combine in a cuisnart!

Garlic White Bean filling (can also be a dip!)
Half a can of cannelloni beans
2 cloves of garlic
a pinch of salt
a splash of lemon juice
tablespoon-ish of olive oil

Combine in a cuisnart! In the future, I'd like to try adding some oregano or thyme or cumin or cayenne pepper or a mix of those! But since this was a test kitchen, I wanted to taste the garlic verses the pesto.

Roll out the puff pastry shell, lay on a lightly greased pan. I use Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets, they taste good and they're vegan. (don't believe that they are vegan? PETA says so, so it must be true) Since I made both the spreads, I spread one white bean mix on half of the puff pastry, and the other on the other half. Lay the asparagus on top. Brush olive oil on the asparagus. I only had 4 stalks of asparagus in the fridge, but ideally you'd put more veggies on it! Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes until the puff pastry is golden brown on the edges.

Now who's the winner?!

The pesto side was the most flavorful of course. It wasn't as liquidity so the puff pastry was done better on the bottom, was flaky and nice. The downside it was more dry and pasty than the garlic side. I would say that next time adding olive oil to the pesto recipe, would help. The garlic side was good, but maybe I shouldn't add the lemon juice and water so the bottom cooks better. I will also try it next time with some herbs and spices. Try it on your own and let me know what the secret ingredient should be!