Triple Dessert Day

This weekend was wonderful! All of it was wonderful! :) Here are some glimpses of joy I experienced:

1. I had the chance to bake a lot for my friend's dad's retirement party

2. The weather was just gorgeous - sunny and clear skies

3. Alvin took me on a nice date in Kemah

4. Alvin proposed in Moody Gardens - the place where "us" began

What more could I ask for, right? :) I am truly blessed.

I do want to share with you in greater detail the bake-off I had this weekend. :) Laura's dad is retiring and they wanted mini desserts for the retirement party. We had quite a few discussions about which desserts to make for the event. We finally settled for petite tiramisu cups, mini neapolitan cupcakes, and cream puffs. She told me that she wants about a couple dozen of each and I am truly excited. :) I mean, when else am I going to have the chance to make so many mini desserts?


The picture above is the tiramisu cups. I made the tiramisu with sponge cakes instead of lady fingers and I baked them on mini cupcake tins. The size fits perfectly on the glasses. :) I topped each cup with cocoa powder and some dark chocolate curls. Alvin tried the tiramisu and said that the rum was very strong. *_* I hope that it's okay for Laura's party. I think next time I will cut down on the rum a little.

This is the mini neapolitan cupcakes I made for the event. I used the same recipe as I did here, but I made the mini version this time. I think that mini cupcakes is the best service portion for a cupcake - not too much, but just enough to enjoy the taste. :) It was challenging for me to pipe 3 different batter on such a small mold though because you can only put a little bit of each batter so that the cupcake won't spill out when baked. Of the 36 mini cupcakes I made, only 24 came out decent looking (i.e. without a shitake mushroom top). So I ended up giving Laura only 24 of the 36. What did I do with the other dozen? I brought it to work. :p

And these are my cream puffs. For Laura, I modified my cream puff a little bit. I typically use egg-yolk only wash, which gives a deep brown look to the choux, but this time I used whole-egg wash with a little bit of milk, which gives a lighter golden look. :) I think I like this shade a lot better. Also, for the filling, instead of using the Indonesian-style custard or Western style Chantilly cream, I used diplomat cream. Diplomat cream is just custard lighted with whipped cream. I brought some over to my friend's house on Friday night and they liked it a lot. :)

So, overall, I'm quite satisfied with the outcome of my weekend bake off. All that hours were worth it! :)

Result: 24 mini neapolitan cupcakes, 30 petite tiramisu cups, and 40 cream puffs. :)