19 Saturday May 2012
Posted in Commissions, Entremets, Wedding
Commissioned wedding cake for Carol & Peter; Jasmine Green Tea & White Chocolate Creme Legere, Raspberry Pepins, Walnut & All Flowers Honey Spongecake. Flowers by Bloomia, Dunbar.
29 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted in Bread
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Whenever I am making bread I use a pate fermentee which I have had for a long time now. It started off as some fermented apple juice and flour. Now it produces the most wonderfully tasting bread.
When I first started the fermentation I split it in two and made a rye leaven and a white leaven. This weekend I used both; the rye leaven to make a Pain Complet and the white leaven for two large baguette and a few small petit pain baguette.
26 Thursday Jan 2012
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In September 2011 my wife Lindsay and I got married in beautiful location, Castle Lachlan on Loch Fyne. We had a wonderful day and meal. We only had a starter and main course as the wedding cake was for dessert. Being a pastry chef and constantly making cakes and desserts for others to eat and enjoy, it was a great feeling to make my own wedding cake, however I was unaware that my wife didn’t just want one wedding cake, she wanted three and a selection of macarons for wedding favours.
The cakes were a Raspberry Charlotte, a Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Peanut Tart and for the main cake a Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut two tiered entremet.
Here is the assembly of one of the cakes, one of my wifes favourites the Raspberry Charlotte. It was made up of layers of Raspberry Mousse, Biscuit Cuillere soaked in Raspberry Liqueur Syrup and Fresh Raspberries.
I wanted to do some really nice chocolate decoration as the cakes themselves were kept simple. I chose to do a white chocolate flower for the top of the main cake and large green leaves for the caramel tart. The white chocolate petals were created by piping lines of tempered white chocolate onto strips of greaseproof paper, laying another piece of paper on top and using your finger flattening out the chocolate, this was then rolled and left to crystallize. The flower was then assembled using tempered white chocolate and cooling spray.
As for the green leaves, this affect was achieved by painting red and green coloured cocoa butter onto acetate followed by a thin layer of tempered white chocolate and then a thicker layer of tempered dark chocolate to help support the weight of the large curls. The shape was then cut out using a knife and the acetate was wrapped around a cylinder tube and left to crystallise.
Below is a test of the white chocolate flower, the final one had a lot more petals to it and the final rolls of green leaves.
The macarons for wedding favours were; Pistachio, Raspberry, White Chocolate with Raspberry Pepins and Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit wrapped in a cellophane bag with each persons name on a tag and used for place settings.
25 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Afternoon Tea, Individual Dessert, Savoury
Here is a sample menu of an exquisite French Afternoon Tea you could be hosting for you and your friends.
It would be perfect for a special birthday, christening, baby shower or to just indulge in a perfect afternoon with amazing cakes, savouries and tea.
Come on people you owe it to yourselves!
French Afternoon Tea – £22.50 per person.
24 Tuesday Jan 2012
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I provide a service of bread making classes, in these classes I will be showing you how to make your own Pate Fermentee for breads such as Pain aux Cereales, Pain au Cidre aux Pommes and Pain aux Pruneaux et Noisettes.
23 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Macaron
A few pictures of my Chocolate and Yuzu Macarons being made for a Birthday a few months back. Chocolate Macaron with Madirofolo Madagascar 65% and Yuzu Ganache. The natural fruity acidic notes in the chocolate worked perfectly with the Yuzu.
Yuzu is a citrus fruit and plant originating in East Asia. It looks a little like a small grapefruit and it can be green or yellow. Its flavour is tart similar to that of a grapfruit with tones of mandarin. In Korea it is used with sugar and honey, it’s thinly sliced and cooked with the sugar and honey to make a marmalade.
23 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Guest Post, Individual Dessert, Verrine
On Tuesday I was asked by Georgia and Emily at Total Food Geeks to write a guest post with their January theme in mind “Good Things in Small Packages”. I chose to do a step-by-step recipe for a Pistachio Creme Brulee, Ginger Poached Pineapple and Milk Chocolate Chantilly Verrine.
23 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Entremets, Plated Dessert, Relish Scotland
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Last year I was asked to put one of my desserts in the Relish Scotland book to accompany the starter & main course my chef Craig Dunn at Michael Caines Abode Glasgow entered. So here it is, the mousse was based on a mini entremet made up of coffee & caramel mousse, coffee cremeux, crispy praline puffed rice, liquid salted caramel & toasted almond dacquoise. To the right of that there was a caramel croquant tower with caramel espuma inside & beurre noisette ice cream, finished with milk chocolate decor, caramel glaze & caramelized walnuts.
23 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Commissions, Entremets
This was a commissioned wedding cake which I had my partner Lindsay Lees who is a set decorator & stylist to put the finishing touches on.
The top tier consisted of differt flavours from the other two.
The bottom & middle tier were layers of Praline Feuilletine, Dark Chocolate Cremeux, Toasted Hazelnut Dacquoise, Almond Spongecake & Dark Chocolate & Bourbon Vanilla Mousse.
And the top layer was Milk Chocolate & Tonka Bean Mousse & Almond Spongecake. The whole cake was finished with white chocolate glacage & vanilla macarons.
23 Monday Jan 2012
Posted in Awards
Ross won the award of Scottish ‘Patissier of the Year’ gold medal award at this years Scottish Hotel Awards 2011.
