Raspberry Panna Cotta

Panna cotta is a silky smooth Italian custard. I infused mine with vanilla bean and added a raspberry gelee and some fresh raspberries. This is one of my favorite recipes to make for a dinner party because it is easy and can be made ahead of time.

Mexican Chocolate Fudge

I was excited to find Mexican chocolate at the grocery store. I hadn't a clue what to use it for other than hot chocolate or brownies and I just made brownies last week. While perusing  the public market  at Granville Island I came upon a candy shop because the boys saw some lollipops they wanted. The shop had many different flavors of fudge. I went home and decided that I would try to make fudge.

A lot of fudge recipes use chocolate chips, condensed or evaporated milk and mini marshmallows or if you go old school, they use corn syrup, cream, sugar and chocolate. I decided to do a hybrid and used Callebaut dark chocolate, marshmallows (regular size cut up into small pieces), and evaporated milk. This made the recipe very hard to measure. After estimating, cooking the sugar, butter and evaporated milk and taking it off the heat and then adding in the chocolate and marshmallows, the mixture turned out dry and crumbly. I added more evaporated milk, put it back on the heat and melted everything. I cooked it until it reached the soft ball stage, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

The next morning the fudge was not soft and creamy but rather crumbly but melt in your mouth consistency. The flavor was great and had an added spicy kick at the end due to the cayenne and cinnamon. The top has a crunch from the Mexican chocolate which is cut up and sprinkled on top of the fudge while it is still hot. Due to cooking it so long, it had turned into Mexican chocolate tablet. It disappeared rather quickly at work but I shall try again to make fudge- the soft and creamy way.

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake Bites

My dad was visiting us and when I asked him what kind of dessert he likes, he replied, "Chocolate cheesecake!" I took up the challenge and came up with these bites. An oreo cookie crust for the bottom then milk, white and dark chocolate cheesecake layers and finally a dark chocolate swirl crowning the top. The remaining batter I poured into mini muffin tins and since they were too small to layer, I made mini cheesecake bites with just a single flavor. Creamy and decadent, these cheesecakes went well with a cup of hot coffee.

Bailey's Brownies, Blog Changes and My Process

These brownies were rich and fudgy, easy to make and had a hint of Bailey's Irish Cream. This is one of my favorite brownie recipes to make. The only change is that next time I will sift the cocoa powder because it made little spots on the top of the brownies.

Things have become much busier lately. I've taken on a full time job of homeschooling my two boys and maintaining a homeschool blog about them as well as their updating their video blog.  This leaves much less time for baking and even less time for baking blogging. I've decided not to post the recipes on this site due to time constraints. If you would like any of the recipes, I'd be happy to email them to you. Here's the process my baking goes through.

1) Get inspired. Decide what to make, what ingredients I have, what's in season.

2) Research recipes, read reviews and ratings, watch instructional videos.

3) Grocery shop for ingredients.

4) Drink lots of diet coke to stay awake. And put on some catchy music.

5) Bake.

6) Cool and cut, prepare for serving and transport.

7) Photograph.

8) Download to computer, weed through and edit photos.

9) Post to personal Facebook, Sweetdreamspatisserievancouver Facebook and write a bit, post to this blog. Write about what I baked and type out the recipe in my own words as well as including any alterations, substitutions, tips and hints, etc.

This blog will mainly be a visual journal. I also plan to start painting original works of the sweets I make. In this way, my two degrees- fine art painting and commercial baking shall meld together into one where the art influences my baking to be visually striking thus inspiring me to paint and my painting references are original sweets that have never been painted before.

Root Beer Float Sandwich Cookies

I was curious what to make with the root beer extract I bought from Gourmet Warehouse a while back. After making coke floats this week, I was inspired to make root beer float sandwich cookies. The filling in the middle is a vanilla bean frosting. I'll have to admit to cookies are good but unusual. If you don't know they are root beer, you may be puzzled as to what kind of cookies they are.

Root Beer Float Cookies

Made 18 sandwich cookies

Inspired by Chocolate Moosey

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp. root beer extract

Vanilla Bean Frosting:

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

1 vanilla bean


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in egg and root beer extract.

3. In  separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt and baking soda. Add to butter mixture and stir until blended.

4. Roll 1 1/2 inch balls of cookie dough and place on baking sheet. Flatten slightly. Bake 10-12 minutes until set. Cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

5. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter, powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream. Cut open vanilla bean pod and scrape out the seeds. Add them to the frosting. Cream until frosting consistency is reached. If it is too thick, add a little more heavy cream or water.

6. Match up cookie tops and bottoms. Pipe or spread vanilla bean frosting onto one flat half of the cookie and then form a sandwich with the other half. Store in airtight container at room temperature up to three days. The root beer flavor will intensify if eaten the following day.

Coke Float

Philadelphia style ice cream with vanilla beans from Papua New Guinea, coke, fresh whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry on top. Classic summertime treat.