Almond Dacquoise Cake (with Peaches)
This Peach Almond Dacquoise Cake makes the perfect gluten free afternoon tea dessert!
Continue ReadingThis Peach Almond Dacquoise Cake makes the perfect gluten free afternoon tea dessert!
Continue ReadingLooking for that perfect 🦃Thanksgiving party dessert that is both impressive and easy to make? This pumpkin creme brulee recipe will transform your Fall parties forever!
Continue ReadingThis easy recipe creates an impressive Earl Grey Panna Cotta complimented by a delicious Blueberry Compote! Make ahead to impress your date or for a house party!
Continue ReadingTen years ago, if you told me that I would be making my own delicious Blueberry Vanilla Jam for breakfast, I would have thought you were crazy.
Continue ReadingClick to Skip to the Almond Dacquoise Cake (with Peaches) Recipe
As the holiday ramps up, I wonder—how did the first world society as a whole become trapped in a never ending cycle of materialism and nihilism? I ponder for a good minute before I shake my head and pop onto the amazon app to add more to cart. Holiday Frances might be stressed and experiencing seasonal depression from the dreary weather, but this Almond Dacquoise Cake with Peaches turns my frown upside down.
What is a dacquoise? Pronounched ”Dä-ˈKwäz’, in the context of this recipe, we are refering to a nut meringue cake base. Like its cousin, the macaron, it involves folding ground nuts into whipped egg whites, but it does not require as much finesse in the handling. A dacquoise can be described as a cross between a bisuit and a sponge cake. It is slightly crisp on the outside, and soft and moist on the inside, although the ground almonds providing a chewier texture than a sponge cake.
The term dacquoise can also be used to refer to a ‘dessert cake made with layers of almond and hazelnut meringue and whipped cream or buttercream on a buttery biscuit base.’-Wikipedia.
This recipe was born of a need to use up a batch of ‘soon to expire’ almond meal, the knowledge from baking school that I could turn it into a cake base, and some frozen fruits at my disposal. It was a rather happy accident that it also is gluten free, which makes it more inclusive for various crowds!
The almond dacquoise base shared in this recipe is very versatile and can be paired with my types of fruits such as frozen peaches, blueberries, strawberries etc. I have only use frozen fruits with this recipe, however if you are using fresh fruits, know that they hold more water content so this might puddle or soak into the cake. (And if you try them, please do share your results with me!)
Cheers to a good culinary therapy session,
-Frances
Behind the Scenes:
From the photo, you can probably tell that I did not have much space to work with on this shoot, as the other parts of my home were being used that day.
Recently I’ve boldly stepped into continuous lighting territory as my work into video has increased. Instead of using a softbox (which would take up too much room) I used the ringlight and propped a reflector across from it with the subject in the middle.
There are different ways to handle harsh lighting to make it look more natural and using a reflector is one of them.
Playing with the distance between the light and the subject is another one of them, the farther you are, the less intense the light, and usually the softer the shadows will be.
For Pinterest:
This easy Pumpkin Spice Creme Brulee recipe will transform your fall parties forever. It’s both impressive and easy to make!
We live in this world of PSL that sneaks up on us in the fall and has us in its grasp until sometime after winter starts. And then it happens all over again the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.
Once upon a time I spurned the pumpkin spice thrall that Starbucks had over society but I’ve come to accept and rejoice it (If you’re wondering when this switch happened, it was after my third PSL). This affection of pumpkin spice eventually led me to thinking about the various ways I could PSL my current recipes.
This Pumpkin Spice Crême Brûlée recipe has a 1:1 ratio of pumpkin and cream, so if a silky dense creme brulee with only a slight pumpkin flavour is what you’re looking for, this isn’t it.
I’ve tried this recipe with whole eggs and less cream and it just wasn’t the same as using egg yolks and a 1:1 cream to pumpkin ratio. Egg yolks made it richer, which is neccesary becasue the pumpkin puree has a lot of liquid in it to begin with.
Cheers to a good culinary therapy session,
-Frances
Hi! It’s been a minute. How are you?
Despite my absence from this blog for the past 4 years, I never stopped thinking about it, and all of you who keep subscribing everyday. I never stopped working on my love for food. It didn’t feel right for me to jump into a new recipe without giving you an update on what’s changed and how deeply my relationship with food runs now.
A lot has happened since the last blog post: going back to school (baking and pastry arts), moving into a new career (food photography), traveling, moving into my own space, gaining new skills, new relationships, new friends, finishing school, moving into yet another career (marketing/project management), and this COVID lockdown. I consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to chase my dreams and experience so much—I look back at who I was 4 years ago, and I realize I am far cry from that young girl who felt awkward around people and unable to communicate my feelings.
It has been a wild roller coaster ride of putting myself out there, being unafraid to fail with the love and support of family and friends. Honestly I would not have been able to do it without the community around me, lifting me up to where I’m at today. Sometimes I complain about my day to day, but if I actually think about it, I am in my dream industry, and I had no idea I was going to end up here 10 years ago starting off as a young graphic designer.
If there’s anything I learned, it is that you need to fail to succeed. Success looks different to every person and everyone around you is only human. Be kind to one another and learn how to talk to people and navigate disagreements in a respectful manner. Don’t run away from your problems, tackle them straight on and tackle them with the grit that people around you deserve!
Enough about me and my preaching, without further ado, here is a Panna Cotta recipe that you can make ahead of time for your party prep!
What is Panna Cotta you ask? It’s classically an Italian dessert of sweetened cream set with gelatin in some sort of mold (no cooking required despite the name meaning ‘cooked cream’ in Italian). I see it as a jello made of milk/cream that stands up on its own. Having gone through 4 semesters of school for Baking and Pastry Arts, I can tell you, it’s what chefs make at restaurants for an impressive but easy and delicious gluten-free dessert option. Panna Cotta can be flavoured in many different ways and Earl Grey is just one of my favourite! So scale down for date night or scale up for a house party.
In an endeavor to bring more consistency to my recipe results (and also partially because this is the way we did things in baking school), I’ve started to include the measurement in weight for ingredients. Measuring in weight is much more accurate than the use of cups and teaspoons (volume) because everyone packs a cup differently. For example, a cup of brown sugar can vary from 200 to 300 grams depending on how tightly you pack it! Hopefully you can use a scale to try out these recipes but just in case you don’t, I’ve left the volume measurements in as well.
Cheers to a good culinary therapy session,
-Frances
Do you need recipes developed and filmed? Do you have some food/products you want me to photograph? I’d love to hear from you! DM me through IG @frances.menu or email at franceslamdesigns @gmail.com!