Vive la Révolution!!

*waves tiny little French flag* 


So last week on the 14th of July - marked the Bastille Day celebrations. To some of you who may not know what that is... here's French History 101 just for you.


Bastille day commemorates the 1789 French Revolution in which France was declared independent of the monarchy. Now I'm sure you may all have heard of Marie- Antoinette's famous speech: "Let them Eat Cake!" (which of course, most of us wouldn't mind at all these days - but it seems the French back then didn't find humour in such a statement and decided to chop off her head in a public execution. Ruthless - I know.. but if I have been deprived of such beautiful food because the Royal family are too precious and greedy to allocate us any - I would be too!) 


So in celebrations of such a memorable day... Ate Angeli & I decided to head out to Baroque Bistro & Patisserie for some French loving... & a 5-course degustation menu! 

Steak Tartare

Bouillabaisse

Coq Au Vin façon Baroque

et 

Bouche D'Affinois Au Truffe (aka. "I died and went to heaven.. twice" dish) 

Creme brûlée with Pistachio Ice cream

Bastille Day Macarons!

(And can I just say ... BEST $60 experience I have ever spent in my whole entire life!) 


After that dining experience, I had realised that I was born in the wrong country & also migrated to the wrong country! So with inspiration and delight in hand I decided that I would make some classic French dessert and went for a Poached Pear & Frangipane Tart... with a classic Francesca twist! 

Poached Pears & Frangipane Tart 

Pears poached in brandy, orange zest, vanilla bean and spices with frangipane on a cinnamon, orange zest & vanilla bean short crust pastry.

Jus que la! 

Nu- sha- what!?

"Neufchatel..."


"Right..."
*"Neufchatel...Nooo-sha-tel. ..What!?"* 


That's how the conversation in my head went when one of my dearest friend, Naima was trying to educate me about cheese that they use in cheesecakes. This just so happens when we decided to share a certain kind of cheesecake at work which was sparked by intrigue as it paraded itself on our shelves. 


THE Simmone Logue Lemon Curd Cheesecake... (can I just say, THIS should be the new definition of heaven!)


I must admit, I have never been a fan of cheesecakes so me saying that this is heaven in a plate has got to mean something... in fact I only ever really liked one cheesecake in my life and that's the Strawberry Cheesecake that Tita Cecile makes...! And I haven't even started talking about how much I fail at making it! (I've only ever had one really successful attempt in making a cheesecake which was the cold-set blueberry cheesecake that I've been making since I was 14 that my mum absolutely loves!) 


Baked cheesecakes are even more disastrous! Cream cheese and cream that have been baked in so much that it had split which turned out all greasy and oily to absolutely dried out baked ricotta cheesecakes. I began to believe that me and baked cheesecakes are just not meant to be and should be left to the cheesecake making pros! 


But all that changed upon Naima & Reika's joint introduction between Neufchatel cheese & myself. 
It's one of those days when the world as I know it - had suddenly changed!


So what did I do you may ask? 
Well after countless hours of cheesecake researching- another Simmone Logue challenge of course!! 
THE Lemon Curd Cheesecake. 


En Garde! 

Neufchatel Vanilla Cheesecake in lemon zest short crust pastry with home made Lemon Curd.

Melbourne ♥ ...

Sometimes when I feel like Sydney is getting the best of me rather than me getting the best out of Sydney, I like to do a little get away.. may it be an hour drive away for a diverting hiking trip for an hour and a half or a 3 day getaway in the Southern part of New South Wales. It's nice to get out from the hustle and bustle of the Sydney City life - considering I'm pretty much there every. single. day.

So when a much needed holiday is in order - It's time to hit up Melbourne & pay a visit to the wonderful Bellos.. and what other fantastic time to visit than Tita Cecile's Birthday!!
During the stay there, Kat and I organised a day for a baking session complete with Mudcake & Macarons and look what we came up with...!

Dark Chocolate Mudcake with Dark & White Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate & Coffee Macarons with Mocha Ganache filling

Happy Birthday Tita Cecile!!!

Voila! Pain Au Chocolat!

I guess this little gem was inspired by watching too much movies now that I'm having quite a bit of free time from work... The movie was It's Complicated and Merryl Streep with her bakery & patisserie makes me want to be just like her in the movie.. I guess that's a place I'm kind of aiming for in the future, with a little bit of Francesca tweak of course...

So anyway... after watching the movie I felt a sudden urge to make some croissants. Last time I made croissants they turned out a bit doughy with no layers at all.. for some reason I blamed the cookbook and the beurre - only to realise it's my ability to skim read and "winging it" was the culprit.

So in a second attempt with croissants.. I present to you.

Pain au Chocolat.

Make me a Croquembouche!

Cream puff with toffee is pure heaven. But on a crazy rainy and windy Sydney day - making such thing is impossible. Well at least a tower of it would be - something about the humidity in the air that makes it collapse especially when it's in transit. Thank God I didn't jump into doing it like I usually do and actually did some research first! So instead settled for the second best - Profiteroles.

A little story behind these profiteroles came about one day at work which involved a couple of my really good friends Dawson & Bianca! There is a huge display of a fake croquembouche sitting on one of the counters at work and Dawson decided to ask Bianca and I if we could make a something like that - Bianca is a pastry chef who studied in Le Cordon Bleu and of course her answer was yes, I had no formal training at all but I also attempted a croquembouche on my 21st birthday which was rather successful (it was demolished within minutes!!!) - so I said yes. So I'm guessing out of curiosity of what it would be like to have a cake like that - he asked either of us if we could make him one for his birthday.. Bianca laughed and said no but I was more willing to take up the challenge once again! However time constraints at work meant that his cake was delayed and a really crap Sydney weather during the time I could make one meant that he had to settle for a profiterole cake... Let's just say that I heard no complaints about the puffs not being covered in toffee!

C'est Français!!

Ever since I started highschool in Australia, I have been fascinated by the French culture. I know it seems strange that I associated France with Australia seeing that there really is nothing "French" about the country. But when I enrolled in my highschool they asked me between Italian or French as the language I would like to learn for the year - my answer? French. Something about it that seemed very elegant & classy I thought... then I remembered their sighs of relief when I gave them my answer, though I did not understand why it quickly became apparent to me when I saw that a good proportion of the students in my school were from an Italian heritage. Though feeling left out with my choice in language study, I quickly became fascinated with the language and its culture. Cafe lattes, baguettes, French patisseries and the most romantic city in the world - Paris! So I excelled in it & dreamed of it. I wanted to live there. That is where my final destination is... and 9 years later I am still dreaming about France.

So when a time came where I pondered about what challenging thing to do next in my baking adventures- Inspiration came from nothing other than: France & the French culture. And what is anymore challenging than attempting to make French Macarons!! Let me tell you, there is nothing more temperamental to make! My first attempts included flat, inedible macarons that had to be chucked away - second attempts included lumpy topped macarons then at last - Perfection....! Complete with smooth tops and little feet! =)

Pistachio & Almond macarons with Pistachio Buttercream & Almond Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Macarons with Dark Chocolate Ganache, Coconut Macarons with Passionfruit Ganache & Strawberry Macarons