Adolf Family!

It was an honor to host birthday party for Adolf and meeting such a lovely family !
He fall in love with Thai food and this was perfect gift for him which organized by Monica.I hope he liked all the food we made and thanks for the precious gift for me to be one of your team- the cool t-shirt " Team Adolf".

A Great Night!

It was a great night with this group . I love to meet fun, interesting people and sharing experience . They mastered a good food - Nam Prik Ong , Crab fried rice and Tapioca pudding . Thanks for making another great time in my class.

All delicious!

What a great meals everyone made tonight! Start with glass noodle salad, pad kea mao chicken and  everyone favorite dessert-Mango sticker rice.Thanks for all joining me to all great cook and nice people.

Happy Holiday With Affirm Company !

It was a great team from the beginning until the end! Thanks Isabel who organized the group and everyone who joined me cooking all difficult dishes and great meals. The best team making Gyoza so far, ps love their music  !!

Happy Holiday With Mandiant Company!

A lot of guys from Mandiant and  two lucky ladies in this team.Thanks Chris again who brought this team join me their Holiday company party and hope to see all of you again next year!

Another great team from Genentech!!

It was nice seeing everyone again and thank for coming back for the third times cooking all great meals with me. I am looking forward seeing all of you again on Jan 25th, 2016:)))

Funnnn Goyza Class!!

It was nice to having everyone in my class and making those delicious Goyza-it is not difficult but a bit tricky with a lot of patient. Thanks everyone to hang with me and made all three delicious meals and had a super good time with all of you. plus a great champagne

Happy Birthday Carol!

It was very fun hosting Carol birthday!! It was her surprised birthday set up by her son" Seth ". What a fun group of friends she had and no wonder why after I knew her. Anyway, thank again to let me host the special day in my class.

17 times with Genentech !

It was super fun with another team from  Genentech !Thanks Shih-Chen who organized this great team. They are very friends and love to participate. After dinner, they had so much fun -dancing and talking. Lovely lovey people.

JusticeMatter Team Building!

It was a very fun class with this group for their second times with me. There are very nice people to work with and love Thai food. Thanks Ruthie who organized this group and will see you again next year!!

A Dark Night Class:))

I was super happy that this class went well:)) My main light was went off and we had a bit dark for our chopping station. Everyone so nice and very love cooking and eattingggggg, so there is no one complaint about the dark and enjoyed all the great meals they made. Thanks again for a fun dark night class!

Medivation !!!

It was a lot of fun with 34 people from Medivation !!!

Thanks Lisa who organized this cooking team event and thanks to everyone to make a lot of delicious meals. Having a great time with this team-great energy and good team work !!!!  Looking forward to having all of you again in 2016 . Have a Happy Holiday !!!

RPX Corporation !

It was a second time with this team and thanks to Doris who brought this group joined me cooking delicious Thai meals. Anyway, She is  not only a a great cook but also good baker. I got honor every time to try her dessert and this time was so so good . White chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce. Looking forward for the 3rd times.

Welcome Back Sunshine!

This was my first class after left for 3 months in Paris continue with my diploma in pastry program. We starts with the most popular course. Welcome winter with a Tom Yum Soup along with a most popular dish Pad Thai and same with desert, mango sticky rice . Love teaching so much and ready for more in this week.

La Boulangerie !!

I am so glad that at the end of the class we got to make all la boulangerie, esp the Baguette because this is what I eat every single day here. Baguette will be the first thing that I will miss when I go back to SF .The aroma of fresh baking every morning with every corner when I walk from my house to school or even during lunch or evening because here you get the fresh baguette all the time. I also like the way that I can buy baguette here- half baguette please or  " une demi baguette s'il vous plaît " because I eat alone and the half of a loaf is perfect for me. Anyway,  now I never order just half because it is not enough😂😂. 

I admit that I am fall in love with french baguette “ and can’t wait to try making it  when I get home which I hope it turn out as good as I made it here. 

What a nice treat again, In the demo today chef prepared some meat for us to eat with a fresh baked-baguette and other kind of bread and it was fillies me up for my lunch after demo in the morning - was so so good !! I also found that I also like French sandwich bread which is soft and has a flavorful tasted which I did it as well beside baguette today . Well, I could have a baguette and bread party ,don't you think ?

Croquembouche

Croquembouche and it means crack in the mouth!!! It is a traditional wedding show piece in France or even Italy and UK . This one , the base is made from Nugatine almond crisp and piled up with choux pastry into a cone shape with using a caramel to stick the choux together . It took 6 hours to put all pieces together because it is all about cooking sugar in the right stage and essemble it after all!! Plus, Nougatine is very easy to get cracked and have to stuff the pastry cream in each choux , so it took a lot of patient  to finish this cake . 

Trimophe Aux Noix Or Walnut Cake!

I get to make another macarons in this class because we used a macarons for decorate the cake. I would say - after come to lesson 16, the more we learn the easier I get to make all type of mousse and cake now.We make a biscuit sponge for a base and the caramel mousse with caramel glaze. Up till now, I can confirm that french dessert is less sweet and more light than American dessert. We also have to make a caramel candies for the decoration beside the macaroon shell. This time, we use a swiss meringue instead of French meringue as well. I can eat whole cake myself, not too sweet and not very heavy surpassingly.I am sure this could cost a lot of $$ if I put it in any pastry shop..

Trimophe Aux Noix Or Walnut Cake!

Entremets Passionata!

Entremets Passionata

 Merci chef ! 

                                                     

Adding an artistic to this cake , we  painted our batter on the baking sheet- like a swirl between red strawberry and egg yellow color. The cake is not sweet at all which I like and crunchiness from coconut almond dacqouise as it is a base of the cake.

It’s very similar to a passion fruit and raspberry tart that I made in this class before but the cake is difference for the base instead of a tart dough . Also, the passion fruit cream and the mousse much lighter in this cake . Glaze with a intended color of raspberry and under the glaze is a strawberry which you can see through under the shiny glaze. If you love mousse and not too sweet cake then this would be it! 

Dôme Aux Marron

    Dôme Aux Marron

Dôme Aux Marron or Chestnut mousse cake an a components of hazelnut dacquoise , chestnut mousse and cover outside with chestnut cream to get a velvety texture then a fun dark chocolate spray to give a good looking cake ! . The shape should be a dome as a name but today I ran out of the cream so my cake wasn't look as much as dome but I  happy with it . It is interesting that normally don't like so much Chestnut but when it come to be a chestnut cream it's give a very nice favor and i kind of like it, especially the spike looking is remind me of Durian, fruit in Thailand . The cake texture crunchy a bit from dacquoise and a bit sweet and creamy of combination of mousse and cream was nice . I have to confess that I actually ate 2 plates of the cake in the demonstration room and don't know what to do with my weight now after come to the lesson 14:((. Anyway, chef demonstrated another dessert- Banquettes Aux Maroon which is very beautiful and I would love to make it as well. it is base form sweet pastry dough , filling with almond cream and topping with chestnut cream.

Banquettes Aux Maroon

Trésor vanille-fraise des boise!

Trésor vanille-fraise des bois (Wild Strawberry Vanila"Treasure") 

It is a great looking, gluten free and simple cake to make . The cake base from almonds dacquoise then shape as a dome which has layer of strawberry mousse and strawberry inside then cover it with chiboust cream. The challenging is not to burns my dacquoise while caramelizing and I am getting better with that ;). My cake went well and decoration was simple - just go with the name of the cake , so I add a lot of strawberry . Anyway, Big thanks to the Chef today for all the helps! 

Varieties Of Puff Pastry !

It was a fun class today, for my first time making Savory petits-fours instead of dessert .
I love to make and eat -mini, finger food and dessert , so today lesson was pleased me well.
😍The puff pastry today that I made was difference technique we used to do and it helps to know this method in case you need to make these in a short time. It works better when compare to a regular puff pastry. I only made with sausage cocktail, chorizo, cheese and Pâte à la viande but the chef also made two more of favor-salmon and pizza.

Baba Au Rhum!

This is the recipe of a famous moist rhum cake with a light vanilla pastry cream- Baba Au Rhum. Traditionally shape like a champagne cork, bake in a cylindrical mould then soak in a sweet rum syrup. It is a perfect dessert to clean your palate for the end of your meals.

This dessert is a rich ,yeast bread and it can soak indifference alcohol, esp rum. As today, the word " Baba" refers specially to the rum baba. Normally, it is made in the individual serving, petit mould but in my class today we make both in the big mould and small one . I actually like small one better as I like something mini or petit four;) 

Douceur Chocolate !

I have to admit that Le Cordon Blue has a great recipes for this Heavenly Chocolate or Douceur Chocolate. And the most I like about this cake is the crunchiness of crispy praline that filled inside the dacquoise,so for every bite you will feel of soft-light texture from the hazelnut dacquoise and the crunchy from praline feuilletine which is remind me eating Rocher from the demo class 2 days ago.

The perfect level of sweetness and smooth of chocolate mousse is great combination. Appearing this cake with a thin chocolate temper disk between the layer is another thing that make me believe that i can sell this cake in a premium price. Give all the credit to the chef who teach us and give us a tip  how to master this cake within 3 hours and I actually make this one right after demo class.
It took a better picture in garden winter room,with the better light compare to practical room. It was almost 9.30 pm after I finished this cake with smiling face of my hard work, delicious with simple decoration as chef said " go simple " but beautiful :)

Muscadine & Praline Chocolate!

Working with chocolate to make a proper shine, get great texture and melted in your moth not is your hands are all about perfect temper chocolate. Today, again making a muscadine and praline coated with the temper milk chocolate was very successful than the first lesson I made. Muscadine, actually is a praline ganache dipped into the milk chocolate then roll in power sugar. For the praline or int eh picture is a half moon shaped chocolate is the most simple recipes but what is the most complicate making a good looking praline is to dip into the temper chocolate and place it on the paper to set was a challenge without making a excess chocolate around edges and making a pattern ontop of the chocolate. It was perfect day for temper the chocolate , no marble, bubble and shiny-- I would say " good job sunshine":))

                      Below is what the chef made in demonstration class. 

Chocolate Truffle!

Truffel known as " Diamon in the kitchen" in cuisine and when it comes to dessert, we name it as its shape-Truffel! Basically is chocolate ganache coated with temper chocolate and roll into the cocoa powder or can roll with chopped nut, ect. I could be super easy dessert and fun to making with friends according to the assemble step without temper the chocolate yourself but if you have to temper the chocolate then you might not have so much fun making this.

We also make a chocolate coffee which is an almond past rectangular shape mixed with coffe extract then coated with chocolate temper .In this class, I ran out of the time, actually you can make difference pattern and decoration on the chocolates surface but need to do it while the chocolate is not set yet. 

This is what chef made in the demonstration class - including a Rocher with nice presentation on chocolate  plate . I like because a crunchy texture and less sweet with a lot of nut ;)) 

Bavarois Aux Trois Chocolats!

Bavarois Aux Trois Chocolats is a classic dessert with lighten in whipped cream infuse at the end.

the cream is made similar to pastry cream without flour but using a thicken by gelatin then chill it to make it firm. A great favor of smooth bavarain cream with 3 difference kind of chocolate layer-dark, milk and white. 

Believe it or not that I could eat the whole cake as it is hard to take only one bite - it would melt in your mouth 😍😍 Love Love this recipe!

Opera Cake!

Every good boulangerie will make a version of this legendary cake- Opera Cake. It is the most sophisticate and delicious rectangle cake in France. It is made from 3 layers of biscuits almond jaconde. Between the layer, there are coffee butter cream and chocolate ganache then cover with the dark chocolate glaze on the top.
Again making each cake takes a lot of time and come to this one is the most complicate and delicate works so far. I love the idea of pastry chef Cyriaque Gavillon who created this cake. When he inventing the cake and wanted to find something that only take one bite but can take the favor for all the cake and Opera was the one. The name is came from his wife as she remained him of Palais Garnier ,so since then name stuck and inside the and fit well with the cake.

    To finish this cake , everyone  has to design their own writing on the cake which I can read as " Opera " and that was the most difficult after all tore works had done.I was so happy to share this cake to my special friend who visiting me while I made this cake, so we had an afternoon tea with opera cake, made from me  in my lovely cozy apartment in Paris. After I sliced the cake into small pieces then another fun time begin again, I started writing and add more raspberry and of course my friends had patient to wait for delicious cake:).

Fraisier!

Frasier cake is very traditional classic pretty French cake for long time. Basically it is a cake that filled with a lot of strawberry and cream. In the class we make a mousseline cream and sometime I see a lot of this cake with pastry cream . I always love the cake using a genoise method because you get very light and soft of the cake texture and that what we made in this class today.  The trick or this cake is about placing the strawberry to show on the side and decoration because this cake is must to be pretty and sell quick as strawberry it will not last very long time.

The day after I posted this cake on my Facebook page
" Thai Cooking With Sunshine"  and then , I saw that school  also shared my page on their Facebook page -Le Cordon blue with a giving me great compliment. What a great day I had ;) 

Jamaique!

 

Jamaique or Jamaica is another tart I learned today and make it right after the demonstration, a bit stressful but love the result. Using a chocolate jaconde" biscuit " sponge misted of sweet pastry dough that I use for my other 2 tarte earlier . They are a combination between coconut mousse and mango-passion fruit mousse for this one. I love that the class repeat for making a mousse many times , so I get to choose to play with difference favor and see which one that goes together well the most for me and so far I still like raspberry with passion fruit :)) and you also can choose either you like a bit of cake on your tarte ( biscuit sponge) or with sweet pastry dough .

Tarte Passion-Framboise!

This is my favor dessert so far-Tarte Passion-Framboise or passion fruit and raspberry tarte !

The most I like about this is like very sweet filling lemon a I tried before. the great combination between raspberry and passion fruit is amazing favor . And anther thing I like about is sweet pastry dough- it is made a prefect crust, flaky texture.
And of course, using a fresh lemon instead extract oil lemon made it such a difference for the filling and the topping

FYI, if you saw my last posted couples days ago then you should have known that this sweet dough is very easy to make compare to puff pastry and for me, I definitely make this one for many times from now. How about you:)?

Yummy😊😊

Macarons!

Making Macarons is can be reward and frustrated but today plating for presentation is another level and was not easy for me,so I am glad that chef like my works today. 

Macaron is well known everywhere, especially in Paris. It is a colorful and beautiful almond cookies which popular for any events.It is kind of 2 cookies sandwich with ether cream or ganache with difference favor.

I always  love making the macarons and usually using Italian meringue method but in my class today, I made it by  using French meringue. Both give a great result but I love using Italian meringue because it is more stable and you can store the Macarons for longer time . Normally, I will make the filing with any chocolate ganache but today lesson made it with " Light Anise Cream" which is interesting how the favor turn out, especially with fresh raspberry around the cream which even make better favor. 

Watching the demo , how to make a fondant Chocolate Glacé Sur Nid D'Abille et Crème Brûlée and these are definitely must to make after class,especially the Crème Brûlée is the best I ever taste so far. Merci Chef !

    Chocolate Glacé Sur Nid D'Abille

       

      Crème Brûlée

Tarte Légère Au Citron

In the demonstration today, there is the chef show how to make Tarte au citron légère or indeed is a Lemon tart in America but there is just a bit difference.French style, instead of using all filling with lemon cream but there having an almond to fortified favor to get a difference favor and texture which add the nice touch which is goes well with light lemon cream instead of just whipped cream in general .

You also can use a petit mold for this tarte which it is look great as much as a regular size and great for party  , easy bite size and I would have fun with decorating a topping .