I LOVE lemon tarts.  My husband LOOOOOOOVES lemon tarts.  When we were in Paris, we both “discovered” this amazing dessert (Tarts au Citron!) so ever since then, I have been constantly trying new recipes to make awesome tarts at home.

Most of the time, lemon tart is a great dessert in the summer – refreshing, not too sweet, and just the right kick of lemony sourness.  But this time, in February, I had a hankering to make it for a friend’s dinner party.  They are often great at being my guinea pigs for new recipes!

The result?  it is delicious.  Just so smooth and the right amount of lemony-ness.  I just didn’t tell them how much butter went into it! (Ignorance is bliss for many dessert eaters!). Note that the original recipe actually uses Meyer Lemons.  Which is this beautiful sweet kind of lemons.  Well I couldn’t find any, so I used plain old yellow large lemons from the store. It works out just fine!

Part 2 of asian tradition: the 100th day celebration for baby!  The day to celebrate and wish for the baby to live 100 years.  (I believe this tradition originates from Korea).  As we did a full moon celebration for Abigail’s full moon, we kept this one low key.  Immediate family for a dinner only.  And since I didn’t make a cake for the full moon celebration, I’m not missing the chance this time!

I wanted to make this cake extra special, so a week or so prior, I started planning little elements I would add to the cake: Sparkly Cake Topper, her name in Royal Icing, and Butterfly fondant accents.

1. Sparkly Cake Topper

Since I don’t have a very cool machine like a Cricut to do this sort of thing, I did it old school way – by hand/xacto knife.  The Dollar store had a pack of 2 silver glitter cardstock for $1.50.  I took a 1/4 of it to make this.  (save the rest of course).  Printed the design on regular paper first, and then traced it on the cardstock. Carefully slice it out.  And then traced the 2nd copy, but flipped (Mirrored) so that it will fit on the other side.  I chose to make 2 layers as the cardstock wasn’t super sturdy and I didn’t want the sign to wobble.  Hot glue 2 toothpicks on, and then put the 2 layers together…voila:

Sparkly 100 Day Cake Topper

My baby girl is about to be 1 month – already?! Where does the time go…(rhetorical answer: feedings, changing diapers, admiring, taking photos).

Chinese tradition calls for a “full moon” celebration – basically the baby has now passed the “everything is ok” mark and everyone can come and see the baby and celebrate her birth.  I think in the olden days, they may not even name the baby until after it has pass the full moon.  This celebration can be as small or as large as you want. Some people go all out.  (note, many chinese households now also adopted the 100 days celebration instead to celebrate).

We have 40 people coming for Abigail’s full moon – a mixture of family and In laws’ friends – to be held at a chinese restaurant banquet.  Though I wasn’t exhilarated at the thought of having to “make” something so early into my new mommyhood…I also didn’t want to not contribute to the celebration.  I obliged and allow my husband to “outsource” the cake.  But I wanted to make the favours for the guests.  I decided on macarons for them.  In hindsight, it was a lot of work and time when the baby is only 3 weeks old leading up to the dinner. Definitely not recommended for anyone thinking of doing this for their baby’s party.  but everything worked out, as they often do, so here I am sharing the pictures!

I wanted to do 3-4 macarons in a gift bag of different colours and flavours.  I had to balance finding fillings that has the ability to keep frozen and stored for the week (which most macaron fillings can handle), but also it be ok once they are sitting at the restaurant and not in the fridge.  Here’s what I ended up making (approx 35 each):

• White Chocolate ganache with pink coloured shell
• Lemon filling with yellow coloured shell
• Vanilla buttercream with soft pink coloured shell
• White Chocolate ganache with purple coloured shell

I’m crazy about mangos (mangoes?)!  Though I actually can’t eat so many as my tummy tends to hurt after (boo!)  I have been “studying” on making a mango mousse cake – something new for me and was excited to have a friend’s bbq to try it out!  Then I loved decorating it so much, I made a 2nd one for my father in law for a belated father’s day dinner with a slight variation.

Mango Mousse Cake

when I was little, living in hong kong, on the days we visit my grandma (mom’s side), we would walk up this hill, and these older ladies will be at the sidewalk selling these little bowls of rice pudding.  Buut Jai Guo in phonetics (that’s how I choose to spell it!), or 砵仔糕.  It’s also served at dim sum, or chinese bakeries.

It’s actually quite easy to make – mostly rice flour, wheat flour, tapioca flour and sugar.  plus optional red bean, and steam!  LOVE!

note: i didn’t wait to cool it before removing it from the ceramic bowl, so the edges are not as smooth.  but couldn’t wait to eat it! (after photos of course!)