Jenna is a self taught, home cook with a passion for baking. She gets her culinary inspiration by travelling abroad, and learning new culinary techniques.
Cauliflower is a versatile side dish or main course you can coat in sesame orange sauce, lemon garlic yogurt sauce, or drizzle creamy cheese sauce over.
For more of a savory sauce, you can toss your roasted cauliflower with garlic and ginger sauce, or maple siracha sauce.
Yogurt Sauce
Yogurt sauce served over roasted cauliflower is a thick, citrusy flavored sauce.
Greek yogurt is mixed together with freshly squeezed lemon juice and a couple of minced garlic cloves.
After cauliflower is finished baking in the oven, drizzle yogurt sauce over cauliflower and enjoy!
Tahini Sauce
Tahini sauce is a sesame flavored sauce with a hint of paprika for baked cauliflower.
Tahini sauce is made by heating olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat, with a few minced garlic cloves.
After garlic has infused into olive oil, it is removed from the heat source. Tahini, fresh lemon juice, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper are whisked into the sauce. Add a little water to thin it out if desired.
Pour tahini sauce over cooked cauliflower, and garnish with a bit of paprika.
Shredded cheddar cheese is heated in a saucepan over low to medium heat with milk, cornstarch, garlic powder, pepper and paprika, and whisked together until smooth.
Once cauliflower is finished baking in the oven, drizzle cheese sauce over cauliflower and enjoy!
Sesame orange sauce is made by combining freshly squeezed orange juice, honey, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, minced garlic, cornstarch, ginger, and a little sriracha in a saucepan over medium heat.
Cornstarch will thicken the sauce after a few minutes, and then it can be tossed with baked cauliflower.
Sprinkle a few sesame seeds over the dish when you’re ready to serve.
To make the sauce, vegetable oil, grated ginger, minced garlic, chili flakes, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and water are combined in a saucepan over medium heat.
When the cauliflower sauce begins to boil, cornstarch and water are mixed together and added to to the sauce.
Cornstarch will thicken the sauce after a couple of minutes.
Once the sauce is finished cooking, it can be tossed with deep fried cauliflower.
Garnish with a few chopped green onions and sesame seeds.
Maple Sriracha Sauce
Maple siracha sauce is a sweet and spicy sauce for roasted cauliflower. The sauce is actually made beforehand, and then drizzle on the cauliflower prior to baking it in the oven.
Olive oil is mixed together with sriracha sauce, maple syrup, and a little salt and pepper.
Coat cauliflower pieces in sauce, and bake in the oven until cauliflower is fork tender and golden brown.
Chocolate cake is a sweet, rich sponge cake that you can fill with creamy fillings like coffee pastry cream, banana custard, raspberry mousse, orange or mint infused whipped cream that will mesmorize your taste buds!
Chocolate cake can be an overpowering flavor, therefore it’s best if you choose a strong flavored filling to balance out the flavors.
Espresso Mousse
Espresso mousse is a rich, coffee flavored chocolate cake filling.
Espresso mousse has a base of melted white chocolate infused into heavy cream.
Freshly brewed espresso is whipped into white chocolate mousse, giving it a light coffee flavor.
Espresso mousse is pipeable, and will create delicate designs using the star tip as shown below.
Orange cream is a refreshing, citrusy cream filling that compliments chocolate cake well.
Softened cream cheese and heavy cream are beaten together to form the base of the cake filling.
Freshly squeezed orange juice, and orange zest are added to the whipped cream to infuse the invigorating orange flavor for the cake filling.
Orange whipped cream is a thick, creamy, citrusy filling for cakes.
Raspberry Mousse
Raspberry mousse is a fruity, light mousse that pairs well with chocolate cake.
Raspberry mousse is thick and firm, yet easily spreadable. Raspberry mousse holds it shape well, and looks vibrantly pink in between layers of chocolate cake.
Raspberry mousse is made by heating raspberries in a saucepan and adding sugar and water.
This creates a raspberry sauce.
The raspberry sauce is strained to remove the seeds of the raspberries, and only have the infused raspberry sauce left.
The gelatin is added to create a thickened texture.
The raspberry sauce is then adding to folded stiff peaks whipped cream and chilled to create a decadent raspberry mousse.
You can even opt for vegan raspberry mousse which involves using coconut milk instead of whipped cream.
In a separate bowl, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and flour are whisked together.
Just before the milk begins to boil, temper the eggs by whisking the hot milk vigorously so as to not cook the eggs!!
After all of the milk has been added to the eggs, place the entire mixture back into the saucepan, and whisk until the custard has thickened.
Remove the custard from the heat source, and place a couple of cubes of butter in. Whisk until the butter has completely mixed into the custard. Cool the custard to room temperature.
Using a hand mixture, beat butter in a large bowl. Add hazelnut praline paste and beat together. Add in pastry cream slowly and beat into the butter hazelnut mixture.
Chill hazelnut praline cream prior to using it to assemble your cake.
Coffee Pastry Cream
Coffee pastry cream is a delicious espresso flavored cake filling that you can use in between layers of rich chocolate cake.
Half and half is heated in a saucepan with espresso powder to infuse the coffee flavor.
In a separate bowl, egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch are whisked together.
Temper the eggs by added the hot half and half to the eggs slowly, and whisking vigorously.
Once all of the half and half is added to the eggs, place the entire mixture back in the saucepan and heat on medium heat.
Thicken the mixture until it becomes custard consistency. You’ll feel the resistance when the cornstarch becomes activated.
After the custard has thickened, it is removed from the heat source. Cubes of butter and vanilla bean paste are whisked in to finish off the coffee pastry cream cake filling.
Chill the pastry cream, and then it’ll be ready for you to assemble your cake.
Banana Custard
Banana pastry cream is a light custard filling you can use in between layers of creamy chocolate cake.
Milk is heated in a saucepan over medium heat until just before it begins to boil. Granulated sugar is added to the saucepan and set to low heat.
In another bowl, granulated sugar is whisked together with cornstarch and egg yolks.
Temper the eggs by slowly adding the hot milk to the egg yolk mixture and whisk vigorously.
Once all of the milk has been added to the eggs, it’s placed back into the saucepan and heated until the custard begins to thicken.
Banana cream is removed from the heat source, and then cubes of butter are melted into the custard.
Vanilla extract and mashed banana are whisked into the banana pastry cream and then it is set to cool.
Chill banana pastry cream in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble you cake.
Caramel is made by cooking sugar in a saucepan until it turns a golden amber color.
Caramel sauce is then infused into pastry cream to create this luscious custard filling for chocolate cake.
Mint Whipped Cream
Mint whipped cream pairs well in between layers of chocolate cake.
Heavy cream is whipped until soft peaks form. Powdered sugar is added and whipped together until stiff peaks form.
Peppermint extract and green food coloring is added at the end to flavor this minty, creamy cake filling. You could even added chocolate chips and fold them into the cream if desired.
Chocolate pastry cream is made heating milk with vanilla paste in a saucepan on low heat.
In a separate bowl, egg yolks are whisked together with sugar and cornstarch.
Temper the eggs by pouring the hot milk into the eggs slowly, and whisking vigorously. You do not want to cook the eggs!
Once all of the milk has been added to the eggs, place the entire mixture back in the saucepan, and heat on low heat to thicken the custard.
After the custard has thickened, add chopped dark chocolate to the custard.
Whisk until the chocolate completely melts into the pastry cream. Let the custard cool, and then chill in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble your cake.
Dulce de leche cream is a caramel flavored whipped cream.
Dulce de leche is added to whipped butter to make the base of the cream.
Whipped cream is whipped until soft peaks form, and then is folded into the dulce de leche butter mixture.
Dulce de leche cream is a caramel cream filling you can use on chocolate cake.
Blackberry Mousse
Blackberry mousse is a light fruity mousse that goes well in between layers of chocolate cake. .
Blackberry mousse is made by adding pureed blackberries and hot water in a blender and mixing together.
The blackberries must be strained and then the remaining blackberry sauce is cooked to thicken it into a puree.
Gelatin is bloomed in a bit of water, and microwaved together.
Heated gelatin is added to blackberry puree and and whisked together.
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, heavy cream is whipped with vanilla extract until stiff peaks form.
Fold blackberry puree with gelatin into the whipped cream and chill until you’re ready to serve.
Whipped Cream
Whipped cream is a thick, creamy filling for cakes. Typically whipped cream is one of cake fillings, and is paired with a syrup or fruity filling as well.
For example, black forest cake has a whipped cream filling, and a cherry filling in between the cake layers.
Honey Mousse
Honey mousse is a sweetened creamy filling for chocolate cake.
Honey mousse is made by mixing butter, egg yolks, honey, and white chocolate over medium heat in a saucepan. After the chocolate has completely melted, it is placed in a heat proof bowl.
Bloomed gelatin is warmed, and then slowly whisked into the honey mixture, and then it is let to cool to room temperature.
Heavy cream is beat until soft peaks form, and then it’s folded into the honey chocolate mixture.
Egg whites are beaten until soft peaks form, and then folded into the honey cream mixture to make honey mousse.
Honey mousse needs to chill for a few hours prior to serving.
Once combined and thickened, the rest of the whipping cream and be beaten until stiff peaks form and folded into the honey mixture to create honey mousse.
Lemon pastry cream is made by heating milk and lemon peel in a medium saucepan until just before it begins to boil.
The milk is removed from the heat source, and let to sit and infuse the lemon flavor into the milk.
An egg is whisked together with a couple of egg yolks and sugar, along with cornstarch and salt.
Lemon peel is removed from the warm milk, and then the eggs are tempered with the lemon infused milk.
After the milk has been added to the eggs, the entire mixture is placed back in the saucepan and heated on medium heat.
Lemon pastry cream will thicken, and then then it can be removed from the heat source. Add a couple of cubes of butter, and whisk in until they have completely melted.
Chill lemon pastry cream in the fridge for a few hours prior to using.
Half and half is heated in a saucepan with espresso powder to infuse the coffee flavor.
In a separate bowl, egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch are whisked together.
Temper the eggs by added the hot half and half to the eggs slowly, and whisking vigorously.
Once all of the half and half is added to the eggs, place the entire mixture back in the saucepan and heat on medium heat.
Thicken the mixture until it becomes custard consistency. You’ll feel the resistance when the cornstarch becomes activated.
After the custard has thickened, it is removed from the heat source. Cubes of butter and vanilla bean paste are whisked in to finish off the coffee custard.
Milk is heated in a saucepan over medium heat until just before it begins to boil. Granulated sugar is added to the saucepan and set to low heat.
In another bowl, granulated sugar is whisked together with cornstarch and egg yolks.
Temper the eggs by slowly adding the hot milk to the egg yolk mixture and whisk vigorously.
Once all of the milk has been added to the eggs, it’s placed back into the saucepan and heated until the custard begins to thicken.
Banana cream is removed from the heat source, and then cubes of butter are melted into the custard.
Vanilla extract and mashed banana are whisked into the banana pastry cream and then it is set to cool.
Chill banana pastry cream in the fridge for a couple of hours prior to using.
Caramel
Caramel custard is a sweet custard with a hint of vanilla aroma.
Caramel sauce is made by cooking sugar in a saucepan until it turns a golden amber color.
Milk, granulated sugar, and a split vanilla bean are heated in a saucepan over low-medium heat.
Milk is added to the caramel sauce and whisked together.
In a separate bowl, egg yolks, eggs, and granulated sugar are whisked together along with a bit of cornstarch.
Caramel milk mixture is slowly added to the eggs to temper the eggs.
After the caramel milk is completely mixed into the eggs, the entire egg mixture is poured back into the saucepan and heated on medium until it begins to thicken.
After caramel custard has thickened, it’s cooled to room temperature, and chilled for a few hours.
Lime custard is made by heating together granulated sugar, cornstarch, freshly grated lime zest, lime juice, egg yolks and water in a saucepan over medium heat.
Lime custard needs to be whisked together until it comes to a boil. Butter is immediately added, and whisked into the custard, and then it is removed from the heat source.
Let the custard cool, and then place it in the fridge for a couple of hours to chill.
Rose flavored desserts are made using rosewater, rose essence, rose syrup, and dried roses.
Rose desserts have a sweet floral aroma to them.
You can make white chocolate rose macarons, rose mousse, rose and raspberry cream puffs, rose ice cream, rose shortbread cookies, peach rose cupcakes, and more!
For a bit of added decoration, you can add dried rose petals to the top of the macaron shells, right after piping them. They will make your macarons looked eye catching with it’s textured look.
The filling is made by adding rose water, and melted white chocolate to a buttercream base frosting.
To decorate the macarons, you can add a little more melted white chocolate and streak it on the top of the macaron shells. You can add a few more dried rose petals or sprinkles that will stick onto the melted white chocolate.
The croissants are cut in half horizontally, and then spread with a thick layer of raspberry compote.
The croissant is sandwiched together, then a thin layer of lychee syrup is lathered on the top of the croissant.
To finish it off, the croissants are garnished with a few pieces of dried rose petals and freeze dried raspberries that will stick to the lychee syrup.
Raspberry rose lychee croissants have a beautiful pink coloring to them.
Rose Ice Cream
Rose ice cream is an invigorating, creamy ice cream with a hint of rose flavor.
Rose water is added to a simple vanilla ice cream base to infuse rose flavor into the cream base.
Rose water has a concentrated flavor, therefore it’s added slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the flavoring is just right for your liking.
Rose ice cream has a few drops of pink food coloring added to a light pink coloring to the ice cream.
Rose Milk Mousse
Rose milk mousse is a creamy, floral flavored mousse with a vibrant pink color.
Rose milk mousse is made by whipping heavy cream and vanilla extract for a lovely vanilla aroma undertone to the mousse.
Rose syrup is added to the whipped heavy cream, along with melted white chocolate. Gently the mousse is whipped together, and placed in the fridge until ready to serve.
Garnish rose milk mousse dessert with pistachio flakes and dried rose petals.
Rose Shortbread Cookies
Rose shortbread cookies are buttery cookies, with a few beautiful dried rose petals sprinkled on top.
Rosewater and a few dried rose petals are infused into shortbread dough, and then they are cut into shapes and baked in the oven.
After rose shortbread cookies have cooled, the cookie is dipped into white chocolate.
A few chopped pistachios and dried rose petals are sprinkled onto the white chocolate, and then set in the freezer for a couple of minutes.
Digestive cookies are blended in a food processor until they become course cookie crumbs.
Softened cream cheese, icing sugar, almond flour, rose syrup, cardamom, and vanilla extract are added to the food processor and blended together to create the truffle base.
Truffles are rolled into small balls from the truffle batter, and then they are coated in desiccated coconut and dried rose petals.
Rose cheesecake truffles are refrigerated until ready to serve.
Celery is a crunchy vegetable you can use in soups, salads, stir fry’s, or for stuffing and dipping.
Celery sticks have a curved well inside them, so you can easily fill it with avocado, peanut butter, or buffalo chicken cream cheese for an easy snack.
Celery has a strong structure to it so you can also use it for dipping into almond butter, cucumber and dill dip, hummus, or a cheese ball.
Stuffed
Celery sticks are prepared by removing one stock from the bunch of celery.
The white part on the bottom of the stock is cut off, as well as the top of the stock so there is only the green curved portion of celery left.
Celery stocks can be cut into 2-3 pieces, and then you can prepare the filling.
Softened cream cheese works well for spreading inside celery sticks.
You can infuse cream cheese with herbs and spices to create savory appetizers or snacks.
Celery adds a sweet, pungent flavor to soup broth. You can cook whole celery stocks in soup broth to make a flavorful, savory broth for the base of soup such as turkey soup.
Typically celery is also cooked along with carrots to make the soup broth have a full body of flavor.
Diced celery is also added to soups for a little bit of softened texture as it cooks into the soup.
Vanilla earl grey lavender ice cream is a creamy tea flavored ice cream with a hint of vanilla.
The ice cream base is made by tempering eggs to make it have a rich flavoring.
Earl grey is steeped into the milk while making the base of the ice cream to add the tea flavor.
Lavender is added to infuse the ice cream with a earthy lavender taste.
Lavender Lemon Bars
Lavender lemon bars have a sweet lavender flavor infused into citrus lemon bars.
Lavender sugar is made by pulsing lavender in a food processor, and then adding granulated sugar and blending them together.
Lavender sugar is used to make a buttery shortbread crust for the lemon bars.
After the shortbread crust has baked in the oven, the lemon filling is made.
Lavender lemon filling is made by adding more lavender sugar to eggs, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, and flour and whisking it together. Lemon filling is poured onto the shortbread crust, and baked in the oven.
Earl grey is infused into warm milk to flavor the cupcakes with. The contents of a couple earl grey tea bags are emptied into the batter as well to flavor the cupcakes.
The frosting is a lavender buttercream frosting made by adding culinary lavender to a vanilla buttercream frosting.
A little blue and pink liquid food coloring is added to the buttercream to create a vibrant purple colored frosting for the cupcakes.
To make the filling, softened cream cheese is whipped with a hand mixer.
Crispy bacon bits, shredded cheddar cheese, chives, hot sauce, parsley, salt, and pepper are added to the cream cheese, and whipped together with the hand mixer.
Celery sticks are cut into 2-3 pieces for an appetizer serving size.
To assemble the appetizer, spoon the filling into the celery sticks.
Garnish with a few chives, and bacon bits on top.
Buffalo Chicken
Buffalo chicken stuffed celery sticks are a creamy, spicy celery snack you can make ahead of time, and place it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.
Cooked shredded chicken is mixed with softened cream cheese, buffalo sauce, ranch dressing, diced onion, and garlic powder.
Each of the celery sticks is cut into 2-3 pieces for an appetizer serving size.
Spoon the buffalo cream cheese mixture into each of the celery sticks.
You can serve them right away, or cover and place it in the fridge and serve when you’re ready.
To make the filling, softened cream cheese is whipped with a hand mixer.
Poppy seeds, white and black sesame seeds, dried minced garlic, dried minced onion, and sea salt are added to the cream cheese and mixed with the hand mixer.
Cut the celery into 2-3 pieces for an appetizer serving size.
Spoon the cream cheese filling into the celery sticks, and serve.
To make the filling, softened cream cheese is whipped with a hand mixer, along with miracle whip (or mayo) and a little bit of salt.
Dill pickle juice, sweet pickle juice, pitted ripe olive juice, and pimiento stuffed olive juice is added to the cream cheese mixture and whipped together.
Add in diced dill pickles, sweet pickles, pitted ripe olives, pimiento stuffed olives, and chopped pecans.
Mix together to cream the filling for the celery sticks. You can pipe the filling into celery sticks, or spoon it into the wells of the celery sticks.
Pimento Cheese
Pimento cheese is a creamy, tangy filling for celery sticks.
Pimento cheese is mixed together with mayo, Worcestershire sauce, chopped onions, and red pepper flakes.
Pimento cheese mixture is spooned into the wells of the celery sticks, and then topped with grated cheddar cheese.
Pimento cheese celery topping is garnished with a bit of paprika.
Roasted Garlic Hummus
Roasted garlic hummus is a chickpea filling for celery sticks that has a hint of garlic to it.
Roasted garlic hummus is made by roasting garlic in the oven.
When the roasted garlic is finished cooking, and has cooled down, squish out the roasted garlic cloves.
To make the roasted garlic hummus, chickpeas, tahini, roasted garlic cloves, lemon juice, olive oil and water are added to a food processor.
The mixture is blended until smooth, and then it’s ready to spoon into the celery sticks for a savory snack.
Almond Butter
Celery has a circular center, which will hold almond butter nicely in the center of it.
You can also add raisins or chocolate chips to have a sweetened celery stick topping.
Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is a filling topping for celery for an easy snack.
You can top peanut butter celery sticks with:
raisins
chocolate chips
almonds
pretzels
apple pieces
sunflower seeds
banana slices
Hazelnut Spread
Hazelnut spread is a chocolatey and nutty topping for celery sticks.
Hazelnut spread is a thin sauce so you can spoon the sauce into the center well of the celery stick. It can be a bit messy!!
Tomatoes can be roasted, baked, or served fresh to create alluring appetizers for your guests.
You can make puff pastry pesto caprese bites, salsa, crostini’s, dips, focaccia bread, and more!
Tomato Salsa
Tomato salsa is a juicy, chunky salsa that has a little bite to it.
Salsa adds a ton of flavor and compliments tacos well as a topping.
Salsa can be paired with guacamole well for serving on top of steak tacos.
Tomato salsa is made by adding whole canned tomatoes, and a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel tomatoes work well) as the base of the salsa.
Finely chopped jalapeno with the seeds removed are added to the salsa, as well as some diced onions.
A few herbs like garlic and cumin are added, and then the salsa can be “pulsed” only in a food processor. Don’t overmix the salsa until it becomes a mush.
Pulse the salsa 7-10 times to get it just perfectly chunky.
Marinara Dip
Marinara dip has a vibrant, rich, tomato flavor to it, with hints of garlic and herbs.
Marinara is made by adding oregano, basil, minced garlic, salt, and olive oil to tomato sauce. The flavors come together by heating them on the stove for a couple of minutes.
The roasted tomatoes are tossed with fresh basil leaves, and then placed on top of the crostini’s that have been rubbed with garlic.
The bruschetta topped with a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese, and a drizzle balsamic vinegar.
BLT Egg Sliders
BLT egg sliders are adorable finger food appetizers that look like miniature burgers.
BLT egg sliders are made by cooking hard boiled eggs and then cutting them in half to create the “buns”.
The bottom half of the “buns” need to have a little bit of the bottom of the egg cut off so it can sit flat on a serving plate.
Add a little salt, pepper, and your favorite sauce (ketchup, mustard, mayo, hot sauce, horseradish) to the bottom half of the egg.
Assemble the egg sliders by placing a strip of freshly cooked bacon, a slice of tomato to fit right inside the slider, and a piece of lettuce.
Top the slider with the other half of the egg to make the sliders complete.
Garnish the egg sliders by adding a little more pepper and sesame seeds.
Place a toothpick through the egg slider to make sure it stays together.
You can make these ahead of time, and place them in the fridge until you’re ready to serve them.
Pepperoni Caprese Bites
Pepperoni caprese bites are an eye catching appetizer assembled on a toothpick, with a basil vinaigrette dressing.
To assemble the pepperoni appetizer, place a fresh piece of mozzarella, then a folded piece of pepperoni, a fresh basil leaf, and a cherry tomato on a toothpick.
Drizzle basil vinaigrette dressing on top and serve immediately.
Fresh Pesto Bruschetta
Make a fresh batch of pesto, the flavor is much more powerful and fragrant than store bought.
Dice a tomato with a little bit of onion. Mix the pesto together with the tomatoes and onions.
Spoon the tomato pesto mixture on top of fresh baguette rounds and grate parmesan cheese on top.
Toast for a couple of minutes for the cheese to warm up.
Focaccia Bread
Focaccia bread is a warm appetizer that can be served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping.
Focaccia bread with pesto in the dough adds a ton of earthy sharp flavor to the bread.
Focaccia bread is topping with halved cherry tomatoes and a few pieces of goat cheese prior to baking it in the oven.
Tomatoes give the focaccia bread a light, fresh taste to it, whereas goat cheese adds a sharp, cheesy flavoring to the bread.
Caprese Pesto Crostini
Caprese pesto crostini’s are made by marinating cherry tomatoes and fresh mozzarella with dried basil leaves and olive oil.
Once you’ve made your crostini’s and they have cooled, fresh pesto is spread on the crostini.
Mozzarella slices and cherry tomatoes are placed on top of the layer of pesto.
Finally, the pesto appetizer is topped with freshly chopped basil leaves, parmesan cheese, and balsamic vinegar.
Cooked spinach, crumbled feta cheese, and grated parmesan cheese are mixed together in a bowl to make the base of the appetizer.
Puff pastry is cut into squares, and then scored 1 cm from the edge of the puff pastry square.
Spinach and cheese mixture is spooned onto the puff pastry, and a thin slice of tomato is placed on top. Sprinkle a bit of pepper on top, and egg wash the pastry prior to putting it in the oven.
Spinach puff pastry appetizer is baked in the oven until the pastry turns golden brown.
Almond cream filling is a Frangipane cream filling that uses almond meal and almond extract to infuse the luscious almond flavor into the cream filling for vol au vent.
Frangipane cream filling is made by beating together butter and sugar. Multiple eggs are added 1 at a time and beaten until smooth.
Add a pinch of vanilla extract, and almond extract, and slowly beat in almond meal.
Pipe almond filling into the baked vol au vent puff pastry, and top with a few sliced strawberries.
Lemon pastry cream is made by heating milk and lemon peel in a medium saucepan until just before it begins to boil.
The milk is removed from the heat source, and let to sit and infuse the lemon flavor into the milk.
An egg is whisked together with a couple of egg yolks and sugar, along with cornstarch and salt.
Lemon peel is removed from the warm milk, and then the eggs are tempered with the lemon infused milk.
After the milk has been added to the eggs, the entire mixture is placed back in the saucepan and heated on medium heat.
Lemon pastry cream will thicken, and then then it can be removed from the heat source. Add a couple of cubes of butter, and whisk in until they have completely melted.
Chill lemon pastry cream in the fridge until it firms up.
Pipe lemon pastry cream into vol au vents. You can top with a little whip cream as well if desired.
Vanilla Blueberry
Vanilla Blueberry vol au vent is made with creamy vanilla custard, and topped with fresh blueberries.
Vanilla pastry cream has a lovely vanilla aroma, and is thick, creamy custard filling for vol au vents.
Milk is heated in a saucepan over medium heat with vanilla paste or a vanilla pod (sliced in half and seeds placed into the saucepan).
In a separate bowl, egg yolks and granulated sugar are whisked together with cornstarch.
Just before the milk begins to boil, slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture to temper the eggs.
Whisk milk vigorously so the eggs do not cook!!
After the milk has been completely mixed into the eggs, place the entire mixture back into the saucepan and heat on medium heat.
Whisk vanilla pastry cream as it begins to thicken.
Remove it from the heat source and let it cool. Place it in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.
Pipe vanilla custard into baked vol au vent puff pastry, and sprinkle with a couple of blueberries on top.
Chocolate Chantilly cream is made by heating a bit of heavy cream and sugar. Warm heavy cream is poured over chopped dark chocolate and whisked together until smooth.
More heavy cream is added to the bowl and whisked together. Chocolate Chantilly cream is placed in the fridge overnight.
The following day, chocolate Chantilly cream is whipped until fluffy.
Pipe chocolate Chantilly cream into vol au vent puff pastry. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.
Sliced banana and place on plate with vol au vent. Sprinkle with a dusting of sugar.
Brulee sugar on banana’s, and serve immediately.
Passion Fruit
Passion fruit vol au vent is a fruity dessert, drizzled with mint syrup, with a few diced pineapple pieces on to.
Passion fruit curd is made by heating passion fruit puree with butter and salt in a saucepan over medium heat.
In a separate bowl, and egg is whisked together with egg yolks and sugar.
Heated passion fruit puree is slowly poured into the the eggs and whisked vigorously until the fruit puree is completely mixed in.
Egg passion fruit mixture is placed back into the saucepan and heated on low to medium heat to thicken the custard. Once the custard has thickened, it is removed from the heat source and cooled to room temperature.
Passion fruit curd is chilled for a couple of hours to firm up.
Passion fruit curd is piped into the vol au vent puff pastry, and add a few diced pineapple pieces on top.
Macarons are one of the most alluring cookies you can have at a party dessert table.
If you have themed, embellished macarons with intricate designs on your macarons, you’ll want them lying flat for your display.
You can display macarons on vertical or horizonal 3 tier displays, macaron towers, wooden boards, or on crisp white plates to have their brilliant colors entice your party guests.
3 Tier Display
Displaying macarons on a 3 tier display can be either vertical or horizonal plating.
The largest plate is on the bottom, and the smallest plate is on top.
Vertical 3 tier displays look eye catching, even from far away! They entice your guests to come take a look at all of the goodies displayed.
Macarons can be placed flat, or you can maneuver them to sit on their side, next to one another.
For a macaron display where the macarons have special designs on one side of them, the macarons can be laid flat so everyone can see the themed macarons.
A horizontal style sits much lower to the table, therefore it doesn’t cover nearly as much depth as a vertical 3 tier.
It needs a lot more space on a dessert table as well, something to keep in mind if you’re short on table space.
Macaron Tower
Macaron tower displays are one of the most popular dessert table displays!
Macaron towers can have macarons flat or sideways.
Depending on how many macarons you have, if you put them on their side you can fit a lot more on the display than by lying them flat.
Macaron towers can be adjustable. You can either have 2 layers of macarons to display, or even up to 10 tiers of macarons in one display.
If you’re displaying macarons for a large wedding with over a 100 guests, this could be the way to go if you’re wanting to display up to 250 macarons.
Plated
Macarons are easily plated on crisp white plates to have their pop of color be eye catching to guests.
Macarons need to be lying flat to be plated, since their isn’t anything to hold them together if you put them on their sides.
Besides, decorated macarons need to be flat with all of their beautiful embellishments!
Wooden Board
Wooden display boards are a simple way to display macarons. You can use a fancy cutting board, or a wooden board display if you want something a bit more fancy.
Wooden board displays make macarons look vibrant and enticing with their stunning pastel colors.
Wooden board macaron displays typically have macarons lying flat, because their isn’t anything to hold them vertically.