Chocolate and Banana tart

Hello lovelies!

The other day I was browsing a lovely blog called Citrus and Candy and noticed her warm chocolate and banana tart. I adapted the recipe and changed it a bit – mainly because I didn’t have a lot of the ingredients! I bought this really cool rectangular tart tray, and I have had it for months and never used it. It is another tray from Cynthia Barcomis awesome collection.

The pastry is slightly different to the normal shortcrust sweet pasty I use. This time I use icing sugar (powdered sugar) instead of caster sugar and it really gives a MUCH lighter consistency, which I prefer in a dessert. As it is a bit less elastic, I would definitely recommend leaving it in the fridge for at least an hour. Otherwise it will get too hot and will just break when you try and place it in the tray.

I am finding taking photos after work more and MORE challenging, because the light is fading quicker. I hope this hasn’t effected the photos!

French Country Baking with Eric Lanlard

For my mum’s birthday, my dad got her two places at one of Eric Lanlard’s (of Channel 4’s Baking Mad) baking classes. So, on Thursday we both went to his cafe in Wandsworth “Cake Boy” for the French Country Baking course.

Eric is originally from Britanny in France, so the following three cakes are exquisitely and classically French. The first one, is his pear tarte tatin, the second the britanny speciality – gateau breton, which is sort of like shortbread but with apple in the middle. Popular the world over at weddings, christenings etc.

Peach and White Chocolate Tartlets

When I first imagined how this recipe would go, it was fig and white chocolate. But when I went down to the market I was told that figs aren’t quite in season yet. I really should do some kind of seasonal fruit infographic to get myself in the know about what happens when! I am not even sure if peach is in season as these were hard to find… and hard in general. But once baked, the peaches had a lovely softness to add to the tangyness. I would recommend them highly as a fruit to bake.

Chocolate and Raspberry Tart

So, I have to admit it, this chocolate and raspberry tart is deeeeeelicious. The chocolate pastry, rich choclate filling and tangy raspberries make your tongue scream WOWZA… in a good way.