Lime Possets with Mint and Mango

I wanted to make panna cotta for dessert one evening. However, my grocery store was out of gelatin and did not receive a new shipment for a few days. I scrambled to find a similar style dessert that I could make without gelatin. That's when I stumbled across the easiest desserts I have ever made: possets. Possets are a custard-like dessert that consist of cream, sugar, and come lemon or lime. They taste delicious, especially when topped with various fruits. This one combines mango, lime and mint to make an exotic tasting. Though the ingredients are rich, thew dessert itself feels light.

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Fruit Tart

I've attempted several fruit tarts in the past and never really found a great recipe. Generally speaking, the crusts have all been fine, but I've never found a cream filling that I loved. I've tried (and failed) making pastry cream from scratch. I've made cream cheese fillings, but the flavor was never quite right. With this tart, I combined 2 fruit tart recipes and ended up with an amazing result.

The cream filling for this tart is the cheaters way of making a delicious and really easy fruit tart. It tastes amazing and the texture is great, but it only takes minutes to whip it up. I made this version of a fruit tart as a birthday cake and it was a huge success. Not only do fruit tarts look stunning, but people tend to love them. If you need to make this recipe ahead of time, prepare all the elements individually and only cut fruits and assemble when you need it.

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Chocolate Cake with Cream and Berries

With Valentine's Day coming up, chocolate season is in full swing. This recipe makes one of the best chocolates cakes I've ever made. The cake itself is so moist and light that I can never just eat a normal portion (there's a 2 slice minimum with this cake). For that reason, I also like to top the cake with whipped cream and berries. I am sure the chocolate frosting from the original recipe is delicious, but I like to keep the cake a little lighter.

With the addition of berries, you can make the the ultimate Valentines' Day dessert. Add lots of berries or just a few for a splash of color, that part doesn't matter too much. Use whatever berries you can find. I had raspberries and blackberries on hand, so that's what I used. You can also add as much of as little cream to the cake as you'd like. I am really impatient when it comes to frosting cakes, so if I can avoid frosting the whole thing, I will. If you feel like covering the entire cake in freshly whipped cream, do so, just make sure the cream is beaten until stiff.

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Tres Leches Cake with Berries

I must have been living under a rock or something, because I'd never had tres leches up until this summer. I'd also only heard about it a few times. This dessert is rich and moist and absolutely perfect for any summer occasion. You can make many different versions of this cake, but I loved the idea of berries covering the cake. The original recipe adds some booze to the whipped cream, but I opted against it since I'm not a gin or tequila fan. One of the recipe reviewers said they added a splash of Grand Marnier to their whipped cream, which is something  I will try in the future. When I was going to make this, I was deciding between a coffee infused version or the berries, but in the end the berries won. Although I cannot be sure, the coffee flavored cake seemed like it would have a tiramisu sort of flavor and I was up for something new.

I made this for the first time at my sister's house. There was no particular reason for me making this cake except that I really wanted to try it, and so did she. My family and I ate about a quarter of the cake and then my sister took the rest to work the following day where it was apparently devoured in minutes. She said she set it down in the break room and by lunch time it was all gone. You might be wondering why I would share such a delicious dessert. For starters, even though it is amazing, it's very rich and you'd be suffering from a serious food coma if you had seconds. And I love sharing things that I bake, assuming they turn out well.

If you are curious about some of the different tres leches cake flavors you can make, check out this link from Fine Cooking Magazine.

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Berry Pavlova with Lemon Curd

Happy almost 4th of July to all of you back at home. If you're in need of an easy, but impressive festive dessert, a pavlova is the way to go. It's even easier if you own a Kitchen Aid or hand mixed to whisk the egg whites. I actually helped my sister make this a while back, but since I'm the only American where I live and I'm going to be working on the 4th, I'm not going to be having much of a celebration this year. If you want to make this pavlova, keep in mind that you need to bake the meringues the night before you assemble the dessert (or early in the morning if you need it in the evening). You could always just make pavlova nests if you want a smaller, individual desserts. My sister and I doubled this recipe so we could layer the pavlovas. Enjoy the BBQs and picnics all over the US.

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Tiramisu

My mom's friend introduced us to this recipe many years ago. Ever since it has been a favorite no-bake dessert in my collection. This is such a easy recipe and can be made a day ahead of time. In fact, I think it always tastes better on the second day when the Ladyfingers have softened and the flavors intensify. I've definitely had leftover tiramisu for breakfast in the past and always thought it tasted better than the night before.

When it comes to choosing the Ladyfingers, I have realized that the ones from Trader Joe's are better for this recipe since they soften sooner than other brands. However, I've made this plenty of times without the Trader Joe's brand and still really enjoyed it. In those instances, I would allow the tiramisu to sit in the fridge overnight. There are raw eggs in this, which I know some people do not eat, so keep that in mind if you make this for somebody else. Also, if you don't have any chocolate at home when you make this, you could sprinkle the top of the tiramisu with cocoa powder instead of shaved chocolate.

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Pavlova Nests

A few nights ago, a friend came over for dinner who has to follow a strict gluten free diet. There are so many great gluten free grain options that I never find this to be a challenge for the main course, but desserts can sometimes be tricky. I didn't want to make a flourless chocolate cake since they're often way too rich after a big dinner. I also wanted to do a little more than just some fruit and berries. Finally I remembered that I was looking at recipes for pavlova nests a couple months ago and decided to give them a try.

This was a great dessert option and we all loved it. I realize that smothering a meringue with cream is far from light and healthy, but it doesn't feel as heavy as a gluten free cake. Topping the cream with fresh berries bring a little tart kick to the sweet cream and meringue. I made my pavlova nests about 3 heaping tablespoons  in size, but they expanded more that I thought they would during baking. This gives you a bigger surface to decorate with berries, but using just 2 tablespoons would be sufficient and leave you with a more miniature sized dessert.

What I love about a pavlova is that you can really use any fruit or berry combination on top. The texture of a pavlova is different from a regular meringue. The exterior is crunchy, but the inside has a marshmallow-like consistency. If you want to make these ahead of time, bake the meringues up to a day or 2 ahead of time, but only add the cream and berries/fruit at the last minute. Preparing the whole pavlova before you need it will make the meringue soggy.

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Lemon Panna Cotta

Ok, I really can't begin to describe the panna cotta heaven I am in. It's day 2 of my panna cotta binge and I see no end in sight. How can you go wrong when the main ingredient is cream (hence the name panna cotta: cooked cream)? After baking a bit the past week and realizing that it is counterproductive to keeping the house cool, I thought I would try out panna cotta. To be honest, I've never worked with gelatin before and I had some serious doubts. I had to combine methods for making panna cotta from a few different sources since the original Gordon Ramsay recipe called for gelatin leaves. All I could find in the grocery store was powdered gelatin so I followed Giada's method of using powdered gelatin.

I also don't have the proper pudding molds used for making panna cotta, so I filled some muffin tins and glasses. I'm sure any professional chef out there would be horrified at such things, but it worked out fine. In the end, this no-bake recipe is pretty much the prefect, refreshing dessert. I had my panna cotta plain and with a lime sauce, but to be honest, just plain tasted the best. It would definitely be great with some berries on the side if you're trying to make it look a bit nicer and fuller. Or just make all the sides Gordon Ramsay came up with.
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