Macarons from My Valentine

Last week, I saw a video on Desserts Magazine about how to make French macarons and it left me wanting to make a batch of those addictive little cookies soooo badly.  But after my first and second attempt at making them, I just knew I didn't have the patience to make them from scratch.  So I just watched the video to learn the proper technique and admired the French dialogue.  Maybe I'll make them again when I'm not in such a hurry to devour them. Quick confession: I understand very little French and speak even less. Oh but I"m trying.  I do have the best intentions to learn more; I have a stack of books and cds to prove that. Je parle francais..someday.

Egg-Free Fresh Fruit Cake

For this Valentine's Day, I decided to draw inspiration from another one of my favorites from Hans and Harry Bakery. On a previous post, I shared my homemade version of their famous fresh fruit strudel. This time around, I've created an egg-free version of their equally popular fresh fruit cake.  It's a rich vanilla butter cake layered with Bavarian cream and topped with fresh fruit.

Nutella Marshmallow Mousse

Mmmmmmmm.....Nutella. Just uttering the word makes me wanna grab a big spoon and dig into a jar of chocolate-hazelnut goodness. Aaaaaah...HAPPINESS. I'm telling you, if you haven't had the pleasure of eating this heavenly treat, you're missing out.