Hello there everyone! Long time no contact. I've been a little busy with some new things in my life and haven't been spending much time at home in the kitchen. Last night I went on a food documentary binge and was reminded that I have been neglecting my creative culinary hobby. So here you go- a new post about an old project. Compromise. 

Yesterday it snowed and today it is sunny and Thursday it is supposed to be in the 60s. So I guess that means spring is on its way and I couldn't be happier. I'm ready for a little bit of temperate weather and for verdancy to return to the land. My Mom has gotten out her Easter decorations and soon there will be fresh, green vegetables all over the supermarket. It's almost time to pack away those stick-to-your-ribs recipes. 

One dessert that seems to fit perfectly with the spring season is petits fours; a delicate cake usually frosted in (annoying) pastels and topped with an (equally annoying) iced flower. (If you don't believe me just google it.) For those of you who don't know me very well, I despise pastels. I will not wear clothes in pastels and I will not buy anything in pastel colours. Easter merchandise is basically like Kryptonite to me. But I love petits fours. I always have. They are the perfect tea party food: small, impressive, and usually found in a variety of flavours. 

Which is why Lis and I made them for our tea party. Except we left out the pastels. 

This is another one of those recipes where Lis pretty much did all the real work and I just photographed her efforts. The batter was a light sponge cake poured into mini molds specifically made for petits fours. The molds come in fun little shapes - a nice change from the standard square. 

We had decided to split the petits fours into four different types. After the cakes cooled we cut each one in half and then soaked them in different liquids. There was a lemon simple syrup, a lavender simple syrup, maple syrup-whiskey, and coffee-whiskey. The next step once the cakes dried a bit was filling them. The maple-whiskey ones were filled with caramel; the coffee-whiskey with nutella, and the lemon and lavender ones we filled half with lemon curd and half with a whipped cream. 

After filling the petits fours get iced. The maple-whiskey and coffee-whiskey ones were covered in a chocolate ganache and the lemon and lavender ones were iced with a white-chocolate ganache. Then in place of the traditional little icing flower we topped each petits four with either a bit of lemon zest, lavender, candied ginger, or coffee bean. 

They weren't lofty little cubes. They weren't perfectly iced in smooth, pastel colours. But they were absolutely delicious and exactly what a tea cake should be- light, interesting, delicate, and not so sweet that you can't eat more than one. 

So if you are throwing a "welcome home, spring" party or even hosting an Easter brunch, be sure to include some petits fours. Trust me- it'll be a nice detour from carrot cake. 

My mom has been doing this fun thing lately where every Sunday she brings me a secret ingredient. Last week's ingredient was Creme Fraiche. I didn't really know what to do with it, as it is not something I come across often. And, to be honest, the first thing that comes to my head when I want to pair creme fraiche is salmon, an no one in my house eats that. But I did a little perusing around the internet and came across a crepe cake and decided that instead of a mousse filling I would use a whipped cream and creme fraiche filling. 

I used this recipe for the crepes, except I added a little lemon zest just to heighten the flavour. The recipe also calls for a 6 inch pan, which we didn't have.  I tried to use a 10 inch nonstick pan, but that didn't work quite so well. 10 inches is just slightly too big of a crepe to be able to flip easily. And of course we didn't have a nonstick 8 inch pan either. So in the end I just poured small batches in the 10 inch and didn't worry about whether or not they were a proper circle. 

***Here is a tip for making crepes: the first few will never turn out well. They won't, unless you're a magician or just overly talented. The best thing you can do is be patient with your pan. Give it time to heat up. Don't rush it and don't rush the flipping of your crepes either. You want them to have a little colour. 

When all my batter was gone I had a pretty good stack of wonky crepes. I used a 2 inch biscuit cutter to make small circles and then set them aside to cool. Next I stirred some lemon juice and lemon zest into the creme fraiche. It's ok if the creme fraiche loosens up quite a bit, because you stir it into a stiff whipped cream. I didn't sweeten my whipped cream at all because I wanted the creme fraiche to really stand out and the sugar would've masked it. 

When I was ready to plate I put a dab of the whipped cream mixture on the plate first, then placed the first circle of crepe on top. This is to help it stick to the plate and not slide around while you stack the rest. Put another layer of your whipped cream on the crepe, smoothing it out a bit but keeping a little bit of volume. Add another circle of crepe then more whipped cream and repeat until you run out of crepes. (I was making 3 little cakes, and I think each one ended up with 9 layers.) 

To finish the presentation I piped a little of the whipped cream around the stack and stuck a raspberry on each little mound. What I really wanted to do was brulee the top of the stack, but unfortunately I don't own a kitchen torch. So instead I just sprinkled some powdered sugar over everything. That little bit of sugar was just enough to balace the lemony tang of the whipped cream and creme fraiche mixture. If you own your own torch and feel inspired to make this, try bruleeing the top with some raw sugar and let me know how it goes. 

I made this a few hours before I served it and just kept it in the fridge, which kept the cream from falling. Sugar right before serving. This dessert is wonderful with strong tea or an after-dinner coffee.