Macarones

There has got to be a first time for everything! 

 My friend and I made four different kinds of macarones this Sunday. It took us about 5 hours, they were 5 hours of fun though! These are clementine macarones in a light pink colour.

And these are licorice flavoured once-very tasty! The two last flavours were lemon (with lemon curd!) and chocolate. The lemon once are my favorites and I can say that I am happy with the results. I'm sure I'll try some new macarones soon! This is the recipe we used for the licorice macarones: http://sotasaker.com/lakritsmacarons/

Lemon and Vanilla Cheesecake

In the end of summer my best friend's sister got married in Umeå. I was at the wedding too, helping out with the desserts, the preparations and the waitering. It was a beautiful day, a perfect couple and a wonderful wedding cake... To be honest, my first thoughts were 'What? You can't have cheesecake as a weddingcake!?!' ... But when I ate it... Let's just say I changed my mind! It was the best cheesecake I can even imagine!

A few weeks ago another trainee at Törners went to a bakery in Umeå to see how they work there and to learn from them too. It turns out, this bakery is the same one that makes the wonderful wedding cheesecakes!!! AND she got the recipe! Not to mention, it is (as the girls, that my best friend is babysitting sometimes, would've said over in Vancouver) EASY PEACY, LEMON SQUEEZY!

Licorice Truffles

When my sweet Dad came home from a visit in Gothenburg last week, he had a couple of very interesting gifts for me with him! He'd bought a silikon chocolate mold and some tools for dipping pralines in chocolate! Of course I have been excited to use them ever since and now I have! This is the result:
Licorice and raspberry chocolate pralines:

These raspberry and licorice pralines are round and dipped in dark chocolate,
but I also experimented with shell shaped and rectangular once.

My brother came to help me and he felt like dipping other kinds of
sweets in the chocolate. This is his quite cool jelly chocolate snake.

My brother owns the honor of taking these photos too.

The recipe is of course in Swedish, sorry about that!

Ingredienser:

• 225 g valfri mörk choklad (vi hade 70%)
• 2,5 dl matlagningsgrädde
• 1 dl pure gjord av hallon (mixa tinade hallon och sila dem fria från kärnor)
• 1 dl mörk Muscovadosocker
• 2-3 msk lakritspulver
• kakaopulver

Gör så här:

1. Hacka choklad och lägg i en skål.
2. Koka upp grädde i en kastrull.
3. Ta av från värmen och rör ner purén, sockret och lakritspulver.
4. Häll över gräddsmeten över chokladen och rör om tills chokladen smält.
5. Ställ in i kylskåp i minst 4 timmar.
6. Ta ut och forma små bollar, som sedan rullas i kakaopulver.
7. Man får jobba fort, smälter snabbt.

Some of my Törners cakes

About a week ago I made a few cakes as a test, to show my teachers some of what I've learnt and what I can do. I made the following cakes and tart, all products from the bakery's assortment:

 The famous Princess cake, two layers of vanilla custard and topped with whipped cream and green marzipan and a pink marzipan rose.

 Törners' typical Killevipp; A meringue ball, filled with whipped cream and covered with chocolate buttercream, topped with chocolate and dusted with cocoa. In the background you can see three violet cakes; the bottom layer is raspberry jam, the second has vanilla custard, whipped cream, raspberries, a chocolate covered meringue and then some more cream, all covered with purple marzipan. Normally this violet cake has a yellow marzipan rose, but actually I think a dark red one looks better. Don't you agree?

 This is a Schwartzwald cake; three chocolate covered meringues with whipped cream in between. Topped with cream roses, chopped hazelnuts and a dust of cocoa, then decorated with chocolate sheets.

Cream cakes. One layer of raspberry jam and one with vanilla custard. Topped with cream, raspberries and blueberries. Decorated with red currants and a chocolate sign with Törners' logotype.

A week in the bakery

The bakery, Törners, where I do my education is divided into two, one bakery and one confection and tart part. After spending about a month in a row at the confection and tart part, I have now changed again and am spending my days learning everything about baking bread and buns! I thought I liked making cakes and tarts better than breads, but after today I am not as certain. Normally I come to the bakery at 5.00 am, but today I started at 2.00. The time is a bit earlier than what I'd call perfect, but I like the duties the baker has at those hours. It's more handicraft and shaping, creating, than the more monotone and boring producing that is done later in the days. Or perhaps I just find it more interesting right now, since it's new to work nights. :) Anyway, it feels nice and I'm happy! Ready for a new weekend and more interesting baking!

Swedish Sandra's Bakery

This is my bakery. It's new, it's tasty, it's fun and it's real. I just havn't opened it yet :) My name is Sandra. I am studying to become a confectioner and a baker. I learn by baking, doing my education down in a bakery in town. You'll learn more about me in the future, but now I'd like to share a delicious piece of my weekend with you:

The Swedish Chocolate Festival Tart

My Chocolate Festival Tart

Yesterday I decided that I really want to go to the Swedish Chocolate Festival in October, which is why I visited their website, where I also found an interesting recipe of the Festival Tart. After buying all the chocolate, cream, butter and other things needed, I started baking. It was a very nice Saturday and I can tell you that eating the tart today was worth every single minute of baking (and the taste was definitely worth every calorie it containes!) Of course I'd like to share some pictures and the recipe! If you are a fan of chocolate, or have some friends you'd like to impress with a fabulous dessert, you have to try this Festival Tart! It has a first bottom layer of creamy chocolate cake, the second layer is the smoothest raspberry chocolate truffle and on top a milk chocolate mousse... It's a perfect combination!

http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/upload/documents/67.pdf (this recipe is in Swedish)