ahh, just in time for some valentines day baking! i recently acquired yet another pierre herme's cookbook 'le livre des fours secs et moelleux de pierre herme'. its a chinese-translated japanese book which features some of the baked goods like madeleines, financiers and gateaux de voyages. of course, being a fan of the lychee, raspberry and rose combo, it goes without saying this would be the 1st thing i was gonna make from the book.


i wonder why pierre herme calls this the ispahan since the lychee part is missing - it is technically just rose and raspberry. original recipe uses freeze-dried raspberries but i didn't have any so i substituted with fresh. i added some finely chopped ones into the batter for the color and then studded the piped batter with some raspberry halves. as you can see, the characteristic hump is not very pronounced, much to my dismay as the recipe calls for the batter to just be refrigerated for 10-15 mins but i don't think it affected the outcome very much. it was really really good! soft, buttery and full of rose aroma. definitely making these again and i would freeze the batter overnight next time.


these are just so good i swear i could eat rose-scented cakes everyday!



recipe source : le livre des fours secs et moelleux de pierre herme

*recipe removed due to copyright restrictions.