Croquembouche with Cardomon and Orange filling & Salty Caramel / Croquembouche com Creme Pasteleiro de Cardamomo e Laranja e Caramelo Salgado.

31st of March!! My day! My Birthday!! well, mine and my sister's so, happy Birthday to me and to my much beloved sister that I love as much as I love my own self!

And, I think, celebrating my birthday with a croquembouche it's a pretty way to celebrate it right?!

Have I ever made choux pastry until today? No! Never!!

Have I ever made a croquembouche or profiteroles or eclairs until today? Never!!!

This was my very first time making choux pastry. Actually, not the first! Second, because I attempted this a few weeks ago and burned my caramel (and a few fingers too...) so, my croquembouche was a failure. Well, actually, not a total failure, because it taught me that making choux pastry is way, way easier than I ever thought it would be and therefore, after burning my caramel, I was not scared to attempt a second Croquembouche.

This one!

I think it's not perfect but, it's quite pretty and certainly, very delicious!

The cardamom and orange filling is to die for and all together, it's a very satisfying dessert.

The recipe is another triumph from Yvette van Boven "Home Baked" book and it is the second and last recipe challenge of the month. 

As I wrote here, every month Deborah asks us to make and publish, on a certain day, two recipes from the chosen book of the month. March wise, this Pie was the first recipe challenge and this Croquembouche is the second and last recipe challenge of the month.

You can find all the recipes I made for the Rainydaybites Cook Book Club under the label with the same name and you can read more about this online Cook Book Club, in this post.

Yvette van Boven Cannelés / Os cannelés da Yvette van Boven.

Canelés, Cannelés!

It can be writen or said either way but what matters it's how delicious they are, these pretty morsels of goodness!

Originally from Bordeaux in the South of France, these little cakes are a little delight and nothing else than baked custard.

Usually, they are baked in thick walled copper molds in a hot oven, the crust is dark brown but not burned and the inside is soft barely set. The filling is creamy and usually the batter calls for rum as one of the main ingredients.

You know me and my love for cannelés right? I'm totally unable to flick trough a book and read a recipe for cannelés and not make them as soon as I have an opportunity.

Here on the blog, you can find three recipes for cannelés.

This one, from Mimi Thorisson first book "A Kitchen in France", the first cannelés recipe I ever made, after buying my beautiful copper molds at E. Dehillerin, when I visited Paris for the second time in my life.

This one, a Donna Hay magazine recipe for Chocolate cannelés and this one, my favourite recipe until today, from Rachel Khoo's "Little French Kitchen" book.

As I wrote here, the book chosen for this month's Rainydaybites Cook Book Club is the Yvette van Boven "Home Baked" cook book and guess what I found while flicking through it? Yes!! This recipe for cannelés..., and of course!!! Couldn't resist it!

Although the usual liqueur used is rum, this time I used coffee liqueur and they turned out so beautifully delicious that I had to share them with you.

Raspberry and Thyme Pie / Pie de Framboesas e Tomilho.

Another recipe for this month's Rainydaybites Cook Book Club from which I told you about in this post.

Apart from all the food we want to cook from the chosen book, Deborah asks us (if we want, of course), to post, each month, two specific recipes on specific days, and because today is #PiDay (the math formula 3.14... etc., celebration), but people usually celebrates it with pie, making it a #PieDay, that's the day Deborah chose to publish this Pie.

A fabulous Pie with fresh berries, combined with an amazing thyme flavour that was a big hit here at home and totally my kind of recipe because..., You know how much I love berries right? and so you also know, the pastry itself is to die for!!! Melt in the mouth almondy, buttery, crumbly, delicious pastry!!

The original recipe calls for fresh strawberries but, I didn't like the look of the only strawberries I could find so, I decided for raspberries instead but, saying that, fell free to use any berry you like.

As I also told you here, this month's chosen book is the amazing Home Baked by Yvette van Boven and therefore, here is it, another contribution for this amazing Cook Book Club.

Melted Cheese Pizza / Pizza com Queijo derretido.

Another recipe for the super fantastic Deborah - Rainydaybites Cook Book Club.

A recipe from the book of the month, which is the fabulous Yvette van Boven "Home Baked" book (I told you about it in this post).

This time it's a savoury recipe. Pizza!

Who doesn't like pizza? I don't know anyone that don't like it!

Although this pizza is slightly different from the conventional pizza, it is, in all ways, as good as..., I mean...

BETTER!!

Millionaire's Shortbread with Salty Caramel & Coconut / Millionaire's Shortbread com Caramelo Salgado e Coco.

The first recipe from a book that I have from ages and from which I never made any recipe until now.

Last week I found a cook book club on Instagram that caught my attention straightaway.

Deborah Balint chooses a book every month and challenges us to cook from that book.

Of course, I think it's a brilliant idea and of course, I embraced it straightaway, because it will oblige me to use and cook from books that I have and are forgotten.

This month, the chosen book is "Home Baked" by Yvette van Boven. A book that I have for ages and from which I never made a thing until now so, thank you for reminded me of this book Deborah.

The book is a beauty and full of sweet and savoury home baked treats and this is the first recipe that I chose, because I knew it would go down a storm with my husband and kids and, indeed, it went down a storm!!

You'll see lots of Yvette's recipes this month on the blog, as, hopefully, I'll be baking from it a lot!