Birthday Cake {William}

I am a lover of chocolate. Especially if it's DARK chocolate. I could eat it all day every day and be the happiest little clam in the world. If only it made you thin....

Anywho.

My older brother turned 27 this past weekend. So, of course I had to bake him a cake. He told me "chocolate with chocolate. Nothing fancy." YEAH RIGHT! It's like he doesn't even know me! I can't do anything simple. I'm crazy and MUST be over the top all the time. It's really a curse, but whatever.

I hopped over to my trusty Pinterest and searched for "Chocolate Cake" and found this one. I knew it was meant to be the moment I laid eyes on it. My brother LOVES him some beer. So, yeah duh, I picked the chocolate Guinness cake with with homemade Bailey's Irish cream inspired filling with the best chocolate buttercream I've ever tasted in my life. Now it did make me a little sad that I wouldn't be able to eat the cake (the filling had Irish whiskey in it and I'm straightedge,) but that's okay. I really shouldn't eat cake as often as I do anyway. But still, it was a birthday cake!!!!

The cake was fairly simple to make and smelled fantastic baking. My whole apartment was filled with the heavenly scent of cocoa. But let me tell you, the butter cream was the best part. Seriously though, I have NEVER had a better frosting in my life. I will only make this buttercream from now on with every cake/cupcake I bake. It was that good. And I opted to not use the meringue on top, but I bet it's a nice touch.

It was a really great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. 

Enjoy!

Amour, Le Petit Oiseau xo

*all photos taken with my iPhone 5s and edited with VSCOcam*

WeekendHashtagProject {Hands}

HAPPY SUNDAY!

Every weekend Instagram has what they call "Weekend Hashtag Project" and this weekend's theme are hands. I normally forget about Instagram's WHP until I see the featured people on Monday mornings. C'est la vie.... But this weekend I just really wanted to join in the fun.

Most of you probably know my love of Instagram, I'm probably a little bit too in love. I just find it so refreshing. I've met so many wonderful people through Instagram, or I've discovered a new way of looking at things. I find so much inspiration and creativity with this app it is almost unbelievable. A lot of people make fun of me for how many pictures I post, but I just block it out. It's ridiculous for someone to make fun of my craft, my art, my love & heart. Photography is what keeps me going. It's my life force and NO ONE can tell me I'm not good enough. I'm constantly evolving, learning and refining what I do. I absolutely love having an outlet like Instagram that allows me to post my photos whenever I want. I love that it keeps me on my toes and makes me look harder at the world around me. I'm always on the look out for the next thing.

Here are my submissions for the weekend.

Amour, Le Petit Oiseau XO

*entry 1*

*entry 2*

*entry 3*

*entry 4*

Dinner Party

My best friend, Jenny, is getting married May 4th {pictures and a blog post will come later!} and as her MOH I was obligated to throw her a bachelorette party. Now, I'm straightedge and having to plan a night of "partying" sounded awful to me. Thank god Jenny isn't much into heavy drinking and dancing on tables (I probably would have died if I had to plan that...), so I decided to throw her a dinner & lingerie party. I wanted to make sure it was a super classy and simple get together, because Jenny is just a lovely and classy lady.

I did a little DIY on the table cloth I bought and spent the entire day (this past Sunday) baking. I think the results were well worth it.

Amour, Le Petit Oiseau XO



*photos taken with my Canon 30D and edited with VSCO film*

Lemon Curd

This is a follow up post to my Macaron post about what I did with my left over yolks. 

I made lemon curd. Duh.

I love lemon curd. It's a great tart filling, toast or scone topper! Again, this is something I hadn't made before so BACK TO PINTEREST I GO! I think it's a sickness I have with Pinterest... But I really ONLY sorta just use it for recipes. And that's okay, right? Right?! Good.

Here's what I found from Journey Kitchen.

Lemon Curd

adapted from thelittleteochew and joyofbaking

Ingredients

5 tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 tbsp butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tbsp grated lemon zest

Method

In a steel bowl whisk together all the ingredients except the butter. 

Bring a pot of water to slow simmer and put the steel bowl on it whisking all the way. (you don't want it to curdle). Of course you need to make sure the size of your pot and the steel bowl is such that it fits right in.

Once the mixture thickens, to coat the back of the spoon, take it off the pot. Add in the slab of butter and whisk well so the butter melts into the mixture. Let cool and transfer to clean jar.  Put cling film on it before closing the lid and refrigerate overnight. It keeps up to a week in a refrigerate.

Now, I'm from the south but I am not a big butter fan, unless I'm baking. Putting that much butter in the lemon curd grossed me out. Next time I will be leaving that out!
I hope you enjoy!

Amour, Le Petit Oiseau XO

*Scone recipe can be found in previous posts titled scones*

Macarons {Earl Grey Edition}

This past weekend my boyfriend was out of town for work, aka I had nothing to do because I'm a lame cat lady that stays in my apartment, bakes and watches Netflix. But on Friday I decided to try my hand at making macarons. Ooooooo.

I headed to Whole Foods after I got off work to pick up some almond meal, but they were out. Ugh. PLAN B. I bought a pound of raw almonds and made my own almond meal. Take that! However, I highly recommend that you buy almond meal/flour instead of making it. It will make the texture of your macarons WAY better than mine how mine came out.

Anywho.

I found this lovely recipe for Earl Grey macarons a few weeks ago and being the Earl Grey lover I am {ALL THINGS EARL GREY ALL THE TIME EVERY TIME} It seemed only logical. 

*Earl Grey Macarons*

Shell Ingredients:

*2 egg whites at room temperature (some sources say to "age" the egg whites for a day or 2 before using them. I did not do this for mine, but I will probably try it next time)

* 3/4 c. almond flour * 1 c. confectioners sugar (powdered sugar) * 1/4 c. granulated sugar * Approximately 1 to 1/2 tbsp. loose earl grey tea leaves.
* (at least) 2oz. White chocolate
* 4 tbsp. butter room temperature.
* 1/4 cup (approximate) confectioners sugar
* at least 1/4-1/2 tsp. leftover finely ground tea leaves.

Filling:

Instructions:

* Preheat oven to 325

*Mix together almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, and a large pinch or two of the     loose tea leaves. Pulse until flour mixture is blended together (about 4-5 4 second pulses is my preference.)

*Sift flour mixture into a separate bowl with a fine wire mesh strainer making sure that any large pieces of tea leaves fall back through the strainer. Set aside any leftover ground tea leaves.

*Place granulated sugar and leftover ground tea leaves or another large pinch in the food processor and pulse until most of the tea leaves are finely ground into the sugar.

*Sift this mix into a separate bowl making sure that no large tea pieces end up in the sifted sugar.

*Place egg yolks in a bowl and whisk until frothy. (I noticed that doing this first does make a difference.)

* Using a mixer with at least 3 speeds, whip eggs until they hold soft peaks.

* Slowly add granulated sugar and tea mixture into the blender and beat until eggs and sugar become glossy and holds stiff peaks.

*Using a large flat (preferably no wood) spatula gently fold almond flour and sugar mixture into the meringue until it creates a smooth batter.

* Carefully pour batter into a pastry bag with a plain large tip and pipe desired size circles onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

* Rap baking sheet against work surface to release any air bubbles in piped shells and also helps form the pied (foot) on the bottom of the cooked shells.

* Let stand for at least 25-30 min. (This is crucial as it creates a smooth stiffened crust on the top of the uncooked shells.)

* Bake for 10-15 minutes in preheated oven checking every 5 min. If browning begins to occur early on reduce oven temp slightly. Large temperature fluctuations can cause shells to not turn out properly so be sure it is only by 1-2 degrees. Believe me it will make a difference.

* Remove shells from oven and allow to cool completely (for about 10 min.) before gently peeling them off of the parchment paper.

Filling Instructions:

* Add softened butter and confectioners sugar in a blender and beat together until pale and fluffy.

* In a double boiler or microwave melt white chocolate until it is smooth and liquid like.

* Remove chocolate from heat and allow to cool for a few seconds (until you can easily dip your finger in without being burned), and add to butter and sugar mixture.

*Add any finely ground leftover tea leaves into mixture and blend until smooth. (or just make more)

* Pipe filling onto one macaron shell and add a lid.

* I have read countless times that it is best to allow your macarons to age before you eat them. If you have the patience to I highly recommend that you do this before eating them. It allows the shells to become chewier and marry with the flavor of the filling.

Here are some photos of how mine turned out. As you can see, the shell's texture is a little rough and grainy since I couldn't get my food processor to grind my almonds as finely as I would have liked.

Enjoy!

Amour, Le Petit Oiseau XO