Upcoming Events!

The Gateaux Rose kitchen is busy busy busy with upcoming projects and we can't wait to share them with you! First up includes celebrating the launch of Ryan MacGrath's new album "Cooper Hatch Paris" with cupcakes! (This Saturday at Taz Records 1:30pm 1593 Market St. Halifax, NS.) Hidden in one of Ryan's special made cupcakes will be a GOLDEN TICKET for a special trip to a far away place, and a delicious gift to compliment your travels! Isn't that neat?!

Here are some snaps of cupcakes I had made last night for a friends company. After baking I was happy to slip them in our pretty new boxes! These cupcakes were bursting with fresh ingredients and filled with whipped cream ganaches, lemon curds, or some of Kelly's beautiful strawberry lemon preserve. (It's very possible I ate three that were leftover...)

Here they are packed up and ready for their journey ahead.

Bon Voyage little cupcakes!

If you're looking to order cakes or cupcakes for your special event

make sure to email us for quotes and menus!

Sunday Cakes

Every Sunday I have the fortune of being fed a home cooked meal at my family's house in Dartmouth (thanks mom). I'll blabber about the past week and scrounge around the cupboards for ingredients I don't have while she prepares the entire meal (again, thanks mom)

This time my visit included a Sunday cake I made to help ease the imbalance of workload we impose on her every Sunday - a simple 6" pound cake with french buttercream (YUM)

If you've ever tried to decorate a french buttercream cake, you'll know that it's somewhat difficult. Imagine trying to paint on a moving pink puddle of deliciousness - fun, but frustrating. Unlike the super stable American buttercreams made from icing sugar and butter, french buttercreams are made from egg yolks, heated sugar syrup and butter. This makes them infinitely more yummy, but argumentative while decorating. My best recommendation is to quickly ice the cake and then keep the buttercream as cold as possible (without freezing) to help prevent the icing from glopping off the cake. While decorating, you'll have to exercise patience, cool, and calm.

Mallow Cake Basics

I've been working on new flavours and this lime mallow cake is the result of craving a lime and dark chocolate dessert.

I frosted the cupcakes with marshmallowy lime flavoured Italian Meringue. To achieved the layered effect the cupcakes were iced, then rolled in fine unsweetened coconut and dipped in dark chocolate coconut ganache.

The dark chocolate ganache was quite yummy; rich, thick and gooey. You could easily cut through the layers with a fork, but it was still dense and chocolatey.

I was pleased with how the chocolate coconut cupcake recipe turned out too. I will share the recipe with you soon in Mallow Cakes Part 2, but I still want to toy with the meringue and ganache recipes before I put it in print.

In the mean time I do want to encourage you to try making your own mallow cakes, because I really enjoyed making mine. I thought I'd share the basic process of making ganache, meringue and the mallow cake assembly. If you know that, you can try experimenting with all sorts of creative flavour combinations yourself.

Basic Dark Chocolate Ganache:

To make the ganache, chop dark Lindt chocolate and set it aside in a microwave safe bowl. Heat a little coconut milk in the microwave until it is hot (I usually use whipping cream, but I wanted coconut flavour this time around) . Pour in a little coconut milk at a time, while stirring the chocolate. Add just enough to dissolve all the pieces; at this point the chocolate should be shiny, thick and free of lumps.

You can add a little splash of liquor if you'd like, but don't add too much -- the ganache should be soft enough to dip a cupcake in, but not too syrupy. It will thicken a little more as it cools, set it aside to cool down slightly while you prepare the cupcakes for dipping. It will still need to be slightly warm and soft so that you can press the cake top in and get an even coating of chocolate. If you try to dip it while it is too hot, the chocolate layer will be too thin.

If the ganache seems too thick, add more cream. If it seems too runny, you can adjust by stirring in more finely chopped chocolate, as long as the ganache is still warm enough to melt it. If it won't dissolve, heat the entire mixture gently over a boiling water. Ganache is very forgiving, all it takes is a little patience and gentle adjustment of the consistency and temperature if necessary.

Italian Meringue - Marshmallowy

3 large egg whites,
1 1/4 cups of sugar,
1/3 cup of water,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar.

This is actually pretty simple and inexpensive. It just takes a little practice and a good mixer. You may substitute some of the water for lemon or lime juice if you'd like a citrus variation.

Separate the egg whites and turn the mixer on high. Once the whites start to foam up, add the vanilla and the cream of tartar (it prevents over beating). Let the eggs continue to whip as the sugar cooks.

Dissolve the sugar and liquid in a heavy bottom saucepan. Turn it to medium heat and stir gently. Once it starts to boil turn it down a little and do not stir it any more (it could cause the sugar to crystalize and become hard and crunchy). Once it thickens to the soft ball stage, it is ready to add to the whites. (It is at soft ball stage when a drop of sugar syrup is dropped into a glass of ice water and it forms a gummy ball in the bottom of the cup. If it is still too runny it won't hold it's form.)

Carefully pour the sugar into the egg whites in a thin, steady stream while the machine whips the mixture on high speed. Try not to pour it on the beaters-- it could splash the hot sugar mixture. Also be sure to add all of the syrup or the meringue may not have enough body.

Continue to whip the eggs for several minutes, until the mixing bowl is cool and the meringue becomes stiff and glossy.

Mallow Cake Assembly:

You will need a piping bag, #10 round tip, and a small bowl of fine unsweetened coconut.

1. Prepare your piping bag with the round tip and meringue. Pipe a liberal mound of mallow on a cupcake top in a swirling motion.


2. Gently roll the entire cupcake top in fine coconut. Fluff the coconut with a whisk or fork after each cupcake. Coconut sprinkled on meringue is amazing, you may want to leave some of your batch like this. Since they remind me of snow I usually call these cupcakes "snowball cakes". They look lovely next to the chocolate covered mallow cakes.

3. Dip the prepare cupcake top into the soft ganache making sure to coat the entire marshmallow top. Refrigerate or store in a cool space, best eaten fresh.


Dan and I shared these mallow cakes this afternoon in our little garden.


Happy baking!

-Kelly

Strawberry Vacation Cakes

We we're lucky enough to escape the city's boiling temperatures this weekend by driving out to a pretty little cabin on a lake. I knew the cabin wasn't equipped with a kitchen, so I decided that it would be a no-cupcake weekend .... Sadly, my resistance to cupcakes collapsed and in my last stages of packing I baked mini strawberry buttermilk cupcakes.

oops. yum.

Because the vacation cakes had to endure a long trip in a hot car, I chose a stable (and oh so delicious) strawberry mousseline buttercream. Unlike most classic egg yolk based buttercreams, this frosting has a slightly higher resistance to heat.

2 cups unsalted butter, slightly cool to the touch

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cups of water

5 large egg whites

1/2 + 1/8 teaspoons of cream of tartar

3/4 cups of fresh strawberry puree

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form, add 1/4 cups of sugar. Continue beating until stiff peak stage. Heat the remaining 3/4 cups of sugar in 1/4 cups of water to 250 degrees and slowly pour the syrup over egg white mixture. Beat until cool. Beat in cool butter, one tablespoon at a time until your mixture is smooth. Add puree and beat until incorporated and smooth.

News: Mysterious Chocolate Deal

A mysterious chocolate deal went down today, a man bought the entire supply of Cocoa beans in Europe. To put it in perspective reports say that it amounts to 1.7 trillion dollars worth or "enough to fill five Titanics" (which I have to admit makes me imagine five Titanics full of cocoa beans setting off across the frigid Atlantic to their watery doom). I wonder why they chose to measure the chocolate in "Titanics"? Maybe it's because the price of beans in Europe could sky rocket since he's got the whole market under his thumb. Uh oh.

When I first heard this my initial thought was, is this for real? It seems so. Here are links to the article in the National Post.

Lemon Dream Cupcakes

I made these to share with friends on Canada Day, they were so tasty we couldn't stop at just one. This recipe makes a light lemon cake, I like to fill them with home made strawberry/raspberry preserve and frost them with vanilla bean buttercream. I prefer to serve them with fresh strawberries and raspberries.

If you try making these at home pick up a nice raspberry jam with a low sugar content, especially if you plan on frosting them. If you aren't into frosting you could brush the tops with lemon juice and dip them in a little granulated sugar. It gives the tops a very pleasant little crunch like a sugar doughnut.

Lemon Dream Cupcakes

1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter,
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar,
1 tsp vanilla,
2 small lemons worth of zest,
3/4 cup milk,
1/4 cup cream,
6 egg whites,
3 cups sifted cake flour,
4 tsps baking powder,
1 tsp salt
(all ingredients should be room temperature).

Cream butter and sugar until white and fluffy, add zest and vanilla.

Lightly whisk your eggs, milk and cream, then set the mixture aside. Sift your dry ingredients all together and set that aside too.

Gently fold half the flour mixture into the butter, then half the liquid, then the remaining flour and liquid.

Fill cupcake cups 3/4 full, leaving some space for them to rise. They take between 15-25 minutes depending on your oven. Bake at 300f if you are using a shiny pan or 350f if using a dark or non-stick pan. If you’d like extra “zing” brush the tops of the cakes with lemon juice when you remove them from the oven. The lemons I used were organic and a bit smaller than your average lemon. I recommend using organic citrus when you are using them for zest.

Happy Baking! =)

The Season of Roses

There are some dramatic pink roses growing in my garden at the moment and I thought I'd share a few photos of it's first bloom of the season.

I've been noticing roses in bloom all about the city lately, normally I smell their fragrance first and then spot the blooms, draped around a guardrail or stretching out in the grass near the highway.

It seems that just as spring blossoms start to fade roses takes their place on stage. July is a time of dramatic perfume and hot nights, and I love when their scent mingles sweetly with summer rains.



I am also especially fond of the scent of wild roses, which remind me of my grandmothers garden and her strawberry patch hidden behind the rose bushes.

Gateaux Rose

“We are passionate about fine desserts and decadent baked sweets. Our goal is to provide artful, gourmet cakes and dessert tables that reflect your sense of style and the atmosphere of your special occasion. We make desserts that are flavourful, rich and memorable; a decadent experience to enhance and complement your special day.”

Kelly Day and Crystal Ross are two childhood friends who later went on to study together at the NSCAD U. Their shared love of fine sweets and art led to the start of their small business, Gateaux Rose. Gateaux Rose is based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia.