Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

Flan Parisien on heirloom cake stand Recently I was in Paris and, after seeing lots of pictures of Flan Parisien online, I really wanted to find a good one.  I tried 3 or 4 of them, I think, and none of them bowled me over. So, I decided to give it a try for my birthday.  Coming right on the heels of Bubby's birthday, and will lots of cake still left in the fridge, I knew I didn't want to make another cake.  I also, more and more, miss my mother who always used to visit us for Bubby's and my birthday, and flan was one of her specialties. So that was another reason why I wanted to make a flan, really. I looked at several recipes online and finally settled on  this one  from Cuisine Actuelle.  Most of the recipes I saw online called for both milk and heavy cream. But I wanted my flan to be a bit less rich, and I didn't want to have to buy heavy cream.   Here is the recipe I used: 1 vanilla pod 4 eggs 1 liter of milk 125 grams of sugar 85 grams of c...

  A birthday cake for our recent vacation! It seems unreal that Bubby is turning 22!  Last year we had a big party for his 21s birthday, but it feels like that was only 6 months ago. This year we elected to travel to Grandpa's area and spend the day with him.  So as to not have to cook, we'll eat at a Mexican restaurant and we'll sing happy birthday with a dessert from their menu.  The weather forecast is for hot and rainy weather. Not ideal for traveling over 2 hours with a frosted and decorated cake.  But we can't have Bubby not have a birthday cake!  I came up with the idea of having a "Birthday Eve" cake.   Bubby couldn't think of what flavor cake he wanted.  In the end I suggested an Oreo cake , and he liked that idea. Since I wanted to make a 6-inch cake, for just the three of us, I went with  this recipe  from Sugar and Sparrow. I've made it before, in two 8-inch pans.  It does have a sizable amount of batter for a cake ...

Hulking-bunny cake. Dieu merci this Easter we are not going to Grandpa's house. For a variety of reasons, and I am thrilled to stay home. It's much less work, and last year's blowout with SIL still rankles me. We simplified our plans further, from the initial thought of inviting friends over for brunch, to deciding to make a simple brunch for the three of us. On the menu: asparagus, green salad, cod cakes, And for dessert, Carrot Cake ! I decided to go with  this recipe  from Sallys Bake Blog. I've this cupcake recipe before in two six-inch pans, hoping to get tall layers and not have to use too much frosting in between. Results have been mixed, with sometimes the cakes coming out perfectly, others with a dry exterior and not entire cooked middle. It's a lot of batter for two pans, so I decided to try it in three pans. It worked very well in terms of amounts! I followed the recipe to the letter and baked it in three 6-inch pans. The baking time was almost 25 minutes...

Chocolate cupcakes with basketball decoration. It was the end of another season for Bubby's basketball team and after the last practice there was a pizza party to celebrate. We were asked to contribute desserts.  Last year it was so much fun to make a cake, but this year I only had time for cupcakes.  But they were fun to make too! And best of all, quick. I used  this recipe  for Chocolate Cupcake s from Sugar and Sparrow. It's so easy and uses all pantry ingredients.  The batter is very liquid, and last time I made it the cups were 2/3 full and the resulting cupcakes were too big. This time instead of 12 I made 13. And even then, some of them were a bit too tall. So I think with this recipe I can try for 14 next time.  As it is, when they came out of the oven I had to smush down the tops of some of them that had domed a bit. I needed to be flat. I used  the usual recipe  for buttercream, from Preppy Kitchen. I made one batch, reserving some to co...

  Chocolate Doughnuts  with Vanilla Glaze and Fondant Hearts On this Valentine's day I decided to make a small batch dessert that still felt special. We hadn't had home made doughnuts in a long time, so that gave me the idea to make Chocolate Doughnuts . I used  this recip e from Preppy Kitchen. I followed it to the letter but cut the amount to only make six doughnuts. Here they are right before going into the oven. Filling doughnut pans is always a bit of a pain to me, so I only enjoy making them in small batches. Doughnut batter in the pan. I was surprised, since our new oven bakes so hot, that the doughnuts took a full 12 minutes to bake. I checked them at 8 minutes, which is the minimum baking time according to the recipe. But they were raw inside. Not wanting them to get dry, I turned oven down to 340 and checked again at 10 minutes then at 12.  At 12 minutes a toothpick came out clean. After the doughnuts were cool I coated them with a vanilla glaze. I love...

 Recently I made a Banana Bread from a different recipe that uses less butter.  Here it is: Ingredients:  2 cups flour  3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter 2 eggs 1 cup mashed bananas 1/3 cup yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla Directions 1. Combine dry ngredients. 2. Beat butter and sugar 1 minute. 3. Add eggs, one at a time. Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla.  4. Bake 1 hour at 350F. Modifications I made: 1.5 cups whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. Slightly less banana because that's all I had. Two teaspoons vanilla instead of one. Dash of cinnamon It turned out pretty good! Denser than my usual Martha Stewart recipe, so a little bit dryer. I'd bake it a little less next time, or at a lower temperature. But it's also a bit more filling than my usual recipe. Great for mornings when I have to rush to art class in Connecticut and eat breakfast in the car.