Best Of 2015

Valentine Chocolate Nutella Fruit Cups

It's the end of the year, and I like to look back at all my accomplishments over the year and find the ones I am most proud of, the most difficult ones, the most delicious ones, and the most impressive ones. By far, my greatest accomplishment of the year was my five month culinary internship abroad, where I completed over one thousand hours of industry work. This took up a big portion of my year and I learned so so much and created so many delicious things!!! Since I have already reflected upon those experiences, here I will reflect upon items I have made at home. I am also very proud with the items I created at school this year - all the different cuisines I explored around the world in my international cuisine class.

Tank Cake

• Puzzle Cake (January 3rd) - The challenging dessert I took on at the beginning of the year to celebrate the New Year. The cake alternates chocolate and vanilla flavors in the shape of a puzzle. To add to the challenge, I decorated it with a chocolate collar.
• Tank Cake (January 15th) - A chocolate and butter pecan cake I decorated in the shape of an army tank for my boyfriend's birthday.
• Valentine Chocolate Nutella Fruit Cups (February 14th) - A chocolate cup with a nutella filling topped with fresh berries and nuts. Quite simple, actually, but very elegant and so tasty.
• A Week's Worth of Nutella Breakfasts (February 28th - March 6th) - Continuing with the nutella theme, when my boyfriend visited for a week in March, I spoiled him with a different breakfast item featuring nutella every morning. These included: Bread pudding, Pancake stacks, French toast towers, Overnight oatmeal, and Jumbo cupcake.

Maple Pecan Brownie Bombe

• The Irish Feast (March 18th - 27th) - I made to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, featuring: Irish porter cheese, Green avocado, Cream of asparagus soup, Irish lamb stew in a bread bowl, Champ potatoes, Irish soda bread, Pistachio-crusted mint chocolate cream pie, Mint nanaimo bars, Emerald truffles, Frothy malt grasshopper, and Ginger ale.

  

  Irish Feast

• Maple Pecan Brownie Bombe (October 7th)- I created on a whim as a black box challenge, featuring a maple pecan brownie, spiced dark chocolate mousse, caramel crack, maple white chocolate ganache, and pulled sugar work.
• Vegan Sacher Torte (December 13th) - And some more of my experimenting and trials in vegan baking I have recently partaken in.
• Citrus Nut Spice Cookies (December 26th) - I made these just the other night, just throwing in ingredients, and they turned out to be such a great (vegan) hit. I was both surprised and delighted!
• Ultimate Brownie Skillet (December 27th) - I made just the other night for my brother, featuring a (mostly vegan) triple chocolate brownie base, peanut butter caramel, maple caramel sauce, and chocolate sauce. It instantly became a top blog post hit!

  

  Puzzle Cake