Sequin and Glittered Eggs

Hi Dear readers. Today I have something different to share with you. It is not a recipe but an inspiration for Easter. I’m amazed at the beauty of this season and I can’t stop thinking about flowers and decorated eggs. I already published some dyed eggs and chocolates eggs posts. Now I showed you some ideas for sequin and glittered eggs inspired by the beautiful work of Torie Jayne.

I saw for the first time sequin eggs on the Torie Jayne’s Pinterest board. Her creations are amazing and I loved this idea. This is such a fun way to decorate eggs. You can use your imagination to use different colors and shapes of sequins to make several patterns. They are a good option to create fancy baskets for dessert tables or embellish an Easter tree.

You can use Styrofoam or polystyrene eggs. I used the Styrofoam eggs. You will need sequin pins, also known as hemming or basting pins, to pin sequins along on egg surface. 

I also made some glittered eggs using Styroglue and glitter. Start painting the egg surface with glue and then sprinkle glitter on them. I'm pretty sure you will have a great time making these lovely eggs.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

A Guest Post: Rolinhos de Mamão Verde

Hi everyone! I’m sharing a traditional sweet treat from Brazil at A Clove o Garlic, a Pinch of Salt blog. It was a pleasure for me to prepare my first guest post to Tiffany! Her blog is amazing and I love the way she writes about the Brazilian culture specially the food. Check it out this papaya recipe  here.

Fabergé-Inspired Easter Egg with Zabaglione Brigadeiros

For this post I was inspired by the Fabergé Eggs. On the Easter of 1885, the Czar Alexander III ordered to a young jeweler, Peter Fabergé, an exceptional gift for his wife, Czarina Fedorovna. Fabergé created a jewel-shaped egg. As a surprise, he put inside the egg a golden yolk; within the yolk was a golden hen; and concealed within the hen was a diamond miniature of the royal crown and a tiny ruby egg.

My Faberge-inspired Easter egg is made with white chocolate and embellished with sugar flowers e ribbons, which were painted with gold luster dust. As a surprise, I filled it with zabaglione brigadeiros. Zabaglione is an Italian dessert made by whisking together some sweet wine, egg yolks and sugar. To prepare my brigadeiro version, I used Moscato d'Asti, egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk.

Zabaglione Brigadeiros

1 can sweetened condensed milk

4 egg yolks

50 ml heavy cream

60ml Moscato d'Asti

1 Tb butter

Place condensed milk, heavy cream and egg yolks in a saucepan. Stir until combine all ingredients. 

Add the butter and bring the mixture over low heat, stirring it constantly with a fouet until it begins to loosen the bottom of the pan.
Remove from heat and continue stirring the mixture until the temperature drops a little.
Add the wine. Mix everything well.
Transfer brigadeiro to a platter or baking sheet lightly greased with butter to cool.

  Make little balls and decorate with fine grated chocolate or chocolate sprinkles.

Easter Season

Spring is almost upon us and from one day to the next everything can change, offering a range of new colors, scents, flavors and experiences. How good it is opening windows to feel the fresh air and also to admire the birds singing.  Spring is certainly for me the most exhilarating season.

Beyond these wonderful things, spring also means Easter season. Decorating Easter eggs is one of the better ways to celebrate it. I started this sunny week here in Beachwood, OH painting some eggs and also making a chocolate egg decorated with sugar blossoms. 

To paint the eggs, I used water-based acrylic colors. To make the sugar blossoms, I used the small, medium and large blossom ejectors impression strips from Wilton. But this is just the beginning. Many decorated eggs are coming soon!

I hope you enjoy the springtime!

Baileys Cheesecake

As St Patrick’s Day is quickly approaching, this is the perfect opportunity to use a classic Irish liqueur for a dessert. I'm talking about Baileys, a delicious drink made from an emulsion of milk diluted in whisky and other ingredients, like honey, coffee, chocolate and secret herbs. So, inspired by this festive day and this delicious drink, I present to you today a Baileys Cheesecake.

To prepared the cream, I added 1.7oz of Baileys to a traditional cheesecake recipe. I've seem recipes adding just 1oz, some time less than that. I suggest you to try first with just 0.5oz. If you think the cream doesn't get the intensity of flavor that you want, continue adding 0.5oz until you get the result that most satisfy you. I did that too and for me 1.7oz worked best. The crust was prepared using Oreo cookies and butter, and I topped the cream with dark chocolate ganache. Can you imagine how wonderful is this combination of flavors? All ingredients were in a perfect harmony creating a truly treasure dessert.

Baileys Cheesecake

(adapted from here)

Makes two 4.5in pan

Crust

100g Oreo cookies, crushed

50g butter

Preheat oven to 320 degrees F/ 160 degrees C. Butter the sides of a 4.5-inch springform pan. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Place crushed Oreo in a bowl. Pour melted butter over crushed cookies and mix until evenly moistened. Press mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake until crust is set, 10 to minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Baileys cheesecake

12 oz/ 350g cream cheese

1.76 oz/ 50g heavy cream

0.18 oz / 5g lemon juice

3.17oz /90g sugar

2.650z / 75 g whole eggs / about 1 egg and a half

1.7 oz/ 50 ml Baileys

Beat cream cheese and sugar until very smooth (3 min) in a stand mixer at

medium speed using the whisk attachment (It gives the cake

that mousse quality). Add eggs, heavy cream, lemon juice and Baileys and beat until incorporated.

Pour batter into crust. Bake 40 min over 302 degrees F/150 degrees C.

Chocolate Ganache

1.7 oz / 50ml heavy cream

1.4 /40g dark chocolate

Bring cream to boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate, stir until smooth and glossy.  Pour over cream cheese layer and refrigerate until firm. To serve, unmold cheesecake. Transfer to a serving platter.