i bought some really beautiful purple sweet potatoes during the weekend and immediately set my eyes on this. i've seen this on several blogs and the violet amethyst-like cubes embedded within the cake really caught my attention. i guess i just hv this weakness for pretty desserts (and purple sweet potatoes).




the cake turned out fluffier than i thought, consider that the purple sweet potato puree was rather thick and heavy. tastewise its pretty mild since the sweet potato doesn't really hv much taste/aroma to begin with but i do like the subtle sweetness and the contrast of the cubes with the cake. i also think that its better eaten fresh from the oven coz that raw eggy smell will be more apparent upon cooling.



recipe is adapted from here and the original yields a 17cm cake but i scaled it up since i only hv a 22cm tin. also, i don't like the idea of using cream of tartar when whisking egg whites coz i don't see a difference in the results. japanese pastry chefs don't use it in their recipes either so i'll usually omit. sugar and egg whites alone will give you a beautiful meringue so you don't need cream of tartar, or vinegar, or lemon juice.

my first recipe from hidemi sugino's le goût authentique retrouvé and i'm really happy with it. i think i must be crazy to purchase a japanese book when i don't understand a word of it but i just couldn't resist coz first, he's a famous pastry chef, secondly the recipes are all so fantastic! some of my friends were really kind to offer help to translate but i just don't wanna impose on them. they can afterall help translate one but not the whole book, which is frankly what i need. you would wanna fully utilize the book too if you had spent close to a hundred bucks on it. so while half-heartedly trying to memorize all the hiragana & katakana characters, i gave up in the end and went ahead with this recipe. luckily the ingredient portion was written in french as well so i could understand a little. it was not all that difficult since this is not the 1st time i've attempted to make a cake without the given methods/steps.

ddeokbokki is a popular snack food that is commonly sold by street vendors in korea. i've tried them a couple of times in korea but didn't really like it coz i find it kinda bland and not sweet enough for my liking. i like mine really sweet and generously doused with lotsa sesame oil and sesame seeds, something which i find lacking from the ones in korea so i love making this at home coz its so easy and i can tweak it according to my own preference. the authentic recipe uses cabbage and spring onion/scallions but i didn't hv both so i omitted.

what comes to mind when you think of eclairs? are they just vanilla custard choux puffs with a hastily applied chocolate glaze which look ugly rustic at best? to me, they're far from that boring ol' combination of vanilla and chocolate. when i think eclairs, i think fauchon, the hyperluxe gourmet food shop in paris. fauchon is definitely synonymous with eclairs and here's why. decked in all sorts of flavors and designs imaginable, from the mona lisa eyes to garden peas to leopard prints on the icing, you'll never look at eclairs the same way again. even without all these adornments i feel that an eclair should be elegant looking - long and thin and topped with a shiny fondant glaze. therefore i started by trying out a relatively safe coffee flavor and pairing them with coffee creme patissiere, coffee fondant glaze + cocoa nibs for that extra crunch.