Chocolate Sables by Pierre Herme

I tried these sables and they were a huge success. They're super easy to make and you can make really fun shapes! A definite must try.

Ingredients:

• 260g flour
• 30g cocoa powder
• 250g room temperature butter
• 100 g powdered sugar (sifted)
• Pinch of Salt
• 3tsp egg whites

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius
2. Whisk flour and cocoa. Set aside. 
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and salt. Whisk. 
4. Whisk in the egg whites. Mix well. 
5. Add the flour and cocoa mix. Mix well. 
6. Use a piping bag (star tip) to pipe out shapes on a silpat or parchment paper. Make a W shape. 
7. Bake 10-12 minutes. 
8. Set aside to cool. 
9. Enjoy!

Birthday Cake: Fraisier

I turned 23 a week ago and decided to make my own birthday cake! I made a fraisier. It was YUMMY! A real success! I used the recipe of the "Petit Larousse Patissier".

Ingredients for the Genoise:

• 140g Flour
• 4 eggs
• 140g sugar
• 40g butter

1. Sift the flour. Set aside. 
2. In a bowl, put the eggs and add the sugar whilst mixing. Use the Bain-Marie method and keep on mixing well. 
3. Continue mixing until the mix thickens and the temperature has to be around 55-60 degrees celsius. Remove from the water. Mix with an electric mixer until the batter has cooled down completely. 
4. Melt the butter. In a small bowl, take 2 tbsp of the previous batter and mix it well to the butter. Set aside to cool.
5. Add the flour to the batter and mix gently with a wooden spoon. The batter needs to retain is air-y-ness. Add the butter mixture. 
6. Put on a baking pan and bake at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes of until golden and until your knife comes out clean. 

Ingredients for the Butter Cream:

• 125g soft butter
• 3cl water
• 70g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 yolk
• 1 tbsp kirsch

1. Put the water in a pan and add the sugar. Bring to a boil. Let this simmer until it reaches a temperature of 120 degrees celsius. 
2. In a bowl, add the egg and the yolk. Mix with an electric mixer. It has to whiten and make bubbles. 
3. When the syrup is ready, add it to the egg mixture whilst mixing slowly. Continue until this cools down and add the kirsch. 
4. Add the butter and mix well. You will have a nice butter cream. Cool in the fridge. 

Ingredients for the Custard:

• 3 egg yolks
• 50g powdered sugar
• 20g flour
• 25cl milk

1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Add the flour. 
2. In a pan bring to a boil the milk and add it to the above batter. Mix well and bring back to the heat and keep on stirring until the mix becomes thicker. Take off the heat. 
3. Once it has cooled down, mix the custard and the butter cream together and set aside. 

Ingredients for the Kirsch Syrup:

• 30g sugar
• 10cl water
• 1tbsp kirsch

1. Mix the sugar, water and kirsch together. 

Building the Fraisier:

1. Cut the genoise in half. You should have one layer for the bottom and one for the top. Both sides should be brushed with the Kirsch syrup. 
2. Take 500g of strawberries and cut them in half. 
3. Put one of your genoises in a dish and put a first layer of cream. 
4. Add the strawberries on the sides and in the middle. 
5. Fill the holes with cream. 
6. Put the top of the genoise and press gently to fix it to the cream/strawberry mix. 
7. Put a sheet of marzipan on top and a bit of powdered sugar. 
8. Decorate as you wish. 
9. Put in the fridge for at least 12 hours. 
10. Enjoy!