i've been very inspired by all the beautiful eclairs i'm seeing on instagram, namely the ones at maitre choux by joakim prat as well as l'eclair de genie's by christophe adam. of course, how could i forget sadaharu aoki's? his are amazing as well. i don't think i've ever blogged much about eclairs coz i usually shy away from making them. like frosted cakes, they're not my forte. but i think i'm definitely getting better at this.



for this attempt, i used strawberry creme diplomat for the filling. i added strawberry puree into the creme patissiere, then folded in creme chantilly. so basically, creme diplomat is pastry cream lightened with whipped cream. and for the glaze, it was strawberry flavored white chocolate ganache. i don't fancy pouring fondant that much, so white chocolate glaze is the way to go. i also decorated some with a sprinkling of raspberry powder and fresh raspberries. they were soooo good.



in the past, i've always used dorie greenspan/pierre herme's pate a choux recipe. this time i decided to use chez shibata's recipe, i've had chef takeshi shibata's book for the longest time and it was only now that i'm beginning to look at it. chef shibata has pastry shops in japan as well as in places like shanghai and bangkok, and his salted caramel eclairs adorned with cubes of butter is one of the best sellers. i think his eclair recipe is far better compared to the others because it uses bread flour as well as baking them on low heat (150C for 55 mins). as opposed to those baked on high heat from the start, baking them on low heat for a long time ensures they're baked thoroughly so you get really crisp and hollow shells. whenever i try the other methods in the past, my choux would brown too quickly and i get soggy centers. not anymore! i also used a fluted piping tip (wilton 8B) for piping these. using tips like these ensure even baking. if you don't have such tip, you could get one, or use a fork to score lines after piping. i also like his creme patissiere recipe, it uses cake flour to thicken instead of corn starch. i think the texture is way better, not thick and gluey but smooth and glossy.



recipe is from a book, so i won't be posting it, as usual. the book シェ・シバタ スイーツのエスプリ can be found on amazon.co.jp.

christmas is just around the corner. whats more apt than a christmas wreath cake? before making this, i did my research looking at pictures of christmas wreaths, not the kind with fake decorations like baubles but those made with real flowers so i came up with this. i adorned my wreath cake with twine, red roses, raspberries, holly berries, pine cones and noble fir (or something along that line). i feel that among all the flower cakes i've made, this one is the most true to life because of the colors.


my favorite part would have to be the raspberries. they're so lifelike i'm surprised myself!


for the cake itself, i made a four layer red and white genoise sponge cake. i need to talk about this cake because i learned a new method in torting/cutting it into layers and it was pretty easy. maybe not new, but for me, it is. previously i tried methods like using the wilton layer tool (the kind that looks like a hanger), placing two wooden board strips by each side of the cake, or even the cake cutting "thingies" where you clip at both ends of the knife, i even tried using a dental floss! but i find that using a ruler to mark around the cake and then cutting along the markings with a very large and heavy knife does the trick. i bought a huge serrated cake knife and its very heavy so the knife does not slant when you slice with it.


i had fun making this cake and its really simple to put together, unlike one adorned with flowers. for the genoise sponge, i used the recipe from here. its a pretty good recipe though it didn't rise much for me. i did do the hot water bath thing and whisked the batter til ribbon stage so i have no idea! i only managed to obtain 2 slices so i would suggest making the 18cm one and doubling the quantity if you intend to do a 4 layer cake like mine.