Romy's Baking and Cake Decorating

I volunteered to make a Galette des Rois for my book club and then I began to have second thought. Puff pastry has always intimidated me and I've never worked with it.  But I couldn't backtrack, so I did it. It came out pretty good too! I made the frangipane the day before. Here is the recipe I used:  108g almond flour 1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour 100g sugar 100g butter, room temperature 2 eggs, room temperature 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1. Cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes. 2. Add eggs, vanilla and almond extract 3. Add dry ingredients 4. Beat until smooth 5. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. I didn't want to make the dough myself, so I bought Dufour pastry sheets. First and last time, too, because it was damned expensive.  I needed two boxes, and each box was $13.99 at Whole Foods. Ouch! Each box contains one 9/14 x 13" sheet of 1/4 inch thick dough. So, there's minimal rolling out to do.  I rolled mine ou...

 On this day of Epiphany 2026, we're not having our usual festive dinner.  We're all still tired from the holidays, my elbow is injured, R* has to work late, on and on.  We're just having salmon patties and a salad, so it's extra important to have a nice dessert. And yet, I haven't been to the store and am trying to avoid shopping, so I needed to make do with what I have at hand. Pantry ingredients, 3 squares of bakers chocolate, and 1/2 cup of whipping cream.  I thought of my Nordic Ware Charlotte Cake pan! It's easy to make a sponge cake and it looks beautiful right out of the pan. I didn't have any fruit for the topping but a bit of chocolate ganache and some whipped cream will put it over the top! I found  this recipe  on the Nordic Ware website. Here are the directions: From reading the reviews, it was evident the recipe makes too much batter and the pan overflows.  I modified the recipe as follows: 3 eggs instead of 4 100g of sugar instead of 133...

Since I didn't get to make a Buche de Noel this Christmas I decided to make a roll cake for New Year's Eve.  Originally I wanted to try  this  Lemon Roulade recipe by David Tanis which appeared in the NEw York Times.   Here is that recipe and the picture that seduced me: For the Lemon Curd 1 teaspoon orange zest 1 tablespoon lemon zest ¾ cup/150 grams sugar ¾ cup/170 grams unsalted butter   ¾ cup/180 milliliters lemon juice (from 5 or 6 large lemons) ¼ cup/60 milliliters orange juice (from 2 large oranges) 4 large eggs, at room temperature For the Sponge Cake Softened butter, for greasing the pan 4 large eggs, at room temperature ⅔ cup/130 grams sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup/130 grams all-purpose flour or cake flour 1 teaspoon baking powder Pinch of salt For Frosting 1 cup/240 milliliters heavy cream 2 teaspoons sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Preparation Step 1 Heat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the lemon curd: Put lemon zest, orange zes...

Here is a recipe I tried for Candied Lemon Slices . I made these to decorate the Lemon Roll Cake I made for New Year's Eve 2025.  Ingredients: 2 Lemons. Choose the firmest lemons possible. 1 cup water 1 cup sugar Directions: Slice the lemons as thinly as possible, 1/8 inch is ideal. Dissolve the sugar into the water on medium heat, about 2-3 minutes. Lower heat to achieve a gentle simmer and drop in the lemon slices. Cook without stirring for 30-40 minutes until soft, glossy and translucent. Let dry, preferably overnight, on a piece of parchment paper or if they are holding their shape on a wire rack. I used organic Meyer lemons and had no luck with the mandoline because they were a bit soft, so I ended up slicing them with a knife. They ended up being of varying sizes but it was the best I could do. My lemons were on the smallish side of I used 3/4 cup each of sugar and water and it was sufficient. It took a half hour to cook. I could tell at that point the water had turned into ...

 This recipe is from the blog Scientifically Sweet. Ingredients 3 tablespoons granulated sugar zest of 1 lemon 1 large egg 3 tablespoons lemon juice 2 tablespoons salted butter Directions 1. Combine sugar and lemon zest in heatproof bowl. With back of spoon or fingertips rub zest into sugar. 2. Add egg to lemon sugar and whisk until smooth. 3. Whisk in lemon juice. 4. Add pieces of butter. 5. Set bowl over pot with 1/2 inch of simmering water. Whisk gently for 7-10 minutes until thick enough to coat back of spoon. If curd hasn't thickened after 10 minutes raise temperature. Pour through sieve. Let cool. I whisked for 10 minutes but the curd wasn't thickening. So I raised the temperature on the stove to medium. The water was now no longer at a gentle simmer but rather at a rapid simmer almost boil. I kept whisking for 4 minutes and the curd definitely thickened. I tried taking the temperature several times and it never quite reached 160, the highest I saw was 158F. I figured th...

My Sis was coming to visit just a couple of weeks after a milestone birthday. She didn't celebrate on her Big Day, so we decided to do it together. She wanted a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting . Simple! I made a 6" three-layer cake using  this recipe  from Sugar and Sparrow.  Quickly this website is becoming my go-to, their recipes are just better than on Sallys Bake Blog which used to be my reference.  For Sis, I actually followed the instructions to use eggs plus egg whites, whereas usually I never bother and just substitute one egg for two egg whites. This recipe also uses sour cream. The cakes were a bit dry and I should have taken them out of the oven a bit sooner, but I'm still getting to know my new oven.  I offered to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but she wanted American.  These layers, when stacked, make for a pretty tall cake. I offered Sis a filling but she declined. She just wanted chocolate buttercream! With all this, I was worried that...