Birthdays and celebrations!

A few week-ends ago my wonderful parent-in-laws came down to Jönköping to celebrate Emanuel's mother's birthday. We had a lovely day together, swimming and relaxing at an indoor pool in Jönköping, eating good food, and just having a great time.

Instead of making a "traditional" cake, I thought that I would try something new and exciting.



First I made a choux pastry:

I used this recipe from taste.com

* 80ml (1/3 cup) water
* 40g butter, at room temperature, cubed
* 50g (1/3 cup) plain flour, sifted
* 2 eggs, at room temperature
* Vegetable oil, to grease

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Place water and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Put the lid on to reduce the water from evaporating and simmer until the butter is melted.
2. Add all the flour to the butter mixture at once and use a wooden spoon to beat until well combined. Place over low heat and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture forms a ball and begins to come away from the side of the saucepan.
3. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Add the egg to the flour mixture, beating well with a wooden spoon. Beat until the mixture just falls from the spoon but still holds its shape.
3. Pipe the pastry dough into a round circle about 20 cm in diameter on a piece of waxpaper. Fill the circle with the pastry. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.
4. Remove from oven and turn the oven off. Immediately cut the top half of the pastry off. This is important in order to release the steam and prevent the pastry from becoming soggy. Return to the (turned off) oven and leave for 15 minutes to dry out. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

That's a basic choux pastry recipe. It can also be made into small, cute profiteroles. Once the round ring was done I lifted the top half off, filled it with some vanilla cream, topped it with some blueberries and raspberries, put the pastry lid back on, topped it with some more berries and decorated it with some icing sugar.

It looked kind of like a mess, but it was charming, and tasted so fresh and lovely. It's definitely a cake that I'm going to make again!

Happy baking!

Love
Heidi