This past weekend, I made a wedding cake for 225 people in my 300 square foot apartment! The challenge became sooo real as I realized that I only have one usable counter space and a dining room table for all of the preparations. However, with a little creative thinking and using all possible surfaces in …
Tag Archives: dessert
The Tempered Room, Toronto
What is your perfect dessert? I know, such a loaded question for anyone with a sweet tooth since this choice is dependent on the circumstances around this item’s consumption… is it a hot summer day? a palate cleanser? a meal replacement? a post breakup remedy?… Regardless, for me, it involves butter, vanilla, cream and …
Cakes
I realized that we’ve been a little slow in putting up posts this fall so I figured I’ll put up some Cake Porn while we get our stuff together. These are pictures of a few cakes I’ve made in the past year. It does seem as though flowers were the theme for most of them …
de Mello Palheta Coffee – Toronto
Located in uptown Toronto, just north of Yonge and Eglinton, this little coffee shop and roaster has been making quite the stir in the neighbourhood. With it’s modern decor and shelves littered with interesting brewing equipment, walking into this shop feels more like a research lab than a cafe. They’ve only been open for a …
Baluard Bakery – Barcelona
Located right across from the Barceloneta market in (surprise surprise) Barcelona, this amazing tahona (bakery) serves up incredible masterpieces made of flour, water, butter and love. The croissants served here are by far the most amazing I have ever had: they’re flaky and buttery to their saturation point. Since they bake at various intervals during the …
The desserts of Spain
Being completely obsessed with anything dessert, I took advantage of our European adventure to visit some pretty neat pastry shops in Spain and enjoy their traditional and not-so traditional treats. I can honestly say that given better ingredients, North American desserts would be on par with what I tried in many of these places. However, …
Ma Maison Cakes and Macarons – Spring 2013
Just another series of drool worthy cakes and macarons from Ma Maison…
For the love of cupcakes
Ever had a dire need to devour a cupcake in the middle of the night and felt way too lazy to bake your own?! Well in a few select cities in the world, you could just go around the corner to your nearest Cupcake ATM and quench that craving. Sprinkles Cupcakes, founded in Beverly Hills, …
Teddy bear cake
Not too much I can say in this post other than the fact that I made a Teddy bear cake. It is entirely edible (other than the support posts inserted in the “skeleton”) and composed of a lemon sponge anda vanilla, lemon buttercream. Altogether, it took around 20 hours to prduce but that was mostly …
Gordon Ramsay’s Desserts
“Pastry chefs occupy a very special place in the pecking order of a high flying restaurant kitchen, so…I take my dessert skills as seriously as I do all my cooking” – Gordon Ramsay Desserts by Gordon Ramsay is not a new book by any means, but definitely one that needs to be a part of …
MMM (Ma Maison Macarons) continued
So here’s my monthly update on the macaron flavours available at Ma Maison (4243 Dundas St. West, Etobicoke). I’ve been drooling over the pictures for a few days, hope you guys do too! – Apple Pie = Caramelized apples and Cinnamon ganache – Apricot = White chocolate ganache, apricot puree with Peach Schnapps – After …
A journey around Toronto’s pastry world (2)
So here we go again, more pastry talk from our epic journey around Toronto. Last post I talked about Frangipane Patisserie, Nadege, Patachou and La Bamboche. This post will bring us to the east side of Yonge and all the delicious treats that can be found around that side of town. Rahier Patisserie (Bayview and …
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A journey around Toronto’s pastry world (1)
So it’s Saturday afternoon, the sky is grey and depressing, our stomachs are growling so what are we to do?!?! Well, most people would make lunch, but here at Notes On a Meal, we don’t find that to be enough so we embark on a French pastry shop journey. Equipped with a sneaky camera (well, …
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Cakes at Ma Maison, Toronto
So with summer being here and wedding season beginning, I figured that posting a few pictures of the amazing custom creations of the Ma Maison pastry team won’t hurt anyone… Enjoy
Sugar, part 2
There are several different types of sugars, all with various qualities and sweetness levels. Different sugars give different impressions of sweetness with sucrose being the longest to be detected on the tongue and the most lingering of the bunch. By comparison, fructose registers quickly and strongly but it also fades very quickly. But before we …