Honey Early Grey Madeleine

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've ever posted about Madeleines. Oh Madeleines, another one of those fancy French pastries. I really admire the French for inventing all sorts of delicate, delicious, and dandy desserts. The French certainly has the Spain beat in this area, because I can't think off the top of my head any famous Spanish dessert! I have been searching for the perfect Madeleine recipe ever since I bought my Madeleine pan almost a year ago. Still...the search continues. I've tried many recipes, and this one came closest to replicating Costco Madeleines' texture that I love so much. It's more cakey and buttery than the others I've tried. I still have to work out how to flour the pan so my madeleines don't come out looking burnt. They just look dark, but they don't taste burnt at all. I'm quite pleased with this recipe, so I think I will just work off this one from now on.

Black Forest Cherry Cake

Black Forest Cake is a name that brings me nostalgia from my childhood in Taiwan; however, if you ask me to pinpoint any particular memory of this cake, I would not be able to tell you. The truth is, I don't even know if I really had this cake before as a child, yet the name is so familiar to me. Then, couple of months ago, someone in the office celebrated his birthday and the office bought this cake for him. It was from Sun-Kee, a Chinese bakery with authentic "Asian" flavor. Everyone raved about the cake, and I did too. If I haven't said already in this blog or elsewhere, baking is like a challenge, a game to me. I don't care so much about eating the end product, rather, it's the process of making something that's normally store-bought that brings me so much joy. This cake tickled me hard and I knew I had to try to make it sooner or later. Two months later...her I am.

Sun Pastry 太陽餅

I really don't know what these are called in English or how to properly translate the name into English, so I went for a semi-literal translation. When my uncle and his colleague Peter visited a couple of weeks back, Peter brought us a box of 太陽餅. My dad shared half of the box with my aunt, and ate about 70% of the rests, even the non-vegetarian ones. Imagine the shock on his face when I told him the non-vegetarian ones were probably made of port fat. My mom ate about 3 and I only ate one myself and was pretty mad at him for eating the rest. To satisfy my craving, I decided to look up the recipe and make them myself!

Spread your wings

Palmiers, butterfly cookies, or whatever you may call these little overbaked puff-pastry goodies, you have to admit it's difficult to start once you begin eating them. I used to buy them in two big boxes from Costco before I started baking. I couldn't believe they were so easy to make...I meant, with their fancy name and not-so-cheap price tag, you would think they requires quite of bit of culinary skill. Not at all. They are basically the simple puff pastry dough baked until dry and golden.