Carioca

This past weekend was my Mom's 65th birthday and she had a great party to celebrate.  The theme was tapas, my favorite!  Tim says I'd eat anything if it was in appetizer form...I think he's probably right.

 I made delicate little crepe cones, filled with smoked salmon, julienned carrots and celery, and a filling made up of cream cheese, sour cream, cream, chives, gerkin pickles, lemon, tobasco, and capers.  There was high drama when I realized I forgot the smoked salmon back in Boston, and panic ensued when there was only 1 wee little package to be found in all of Scituate.  D saved the day driving out to Cohasset, of COURSE they had it!  Sadly, after all this, I forgot to take a picture, but they were very elegant and tasty.  A success!!

Tim made my Mom a wonderful "Carioca" cake from Pierre Herme's dessert book she bought him a couple of years ago.  It had 3 layers of genoise soaked in an espresso syrup, with alternating layers of dark chocolate mouse, finished with bittersweet ganach and glazed almonds.  It turned out delicious!  However, I do think next time we might add more of the espresso syrup, it was so strong we were worried it would overpower the the delicate genoise, but this was not the case.  

While Tim made the whole cake himself, including his home-made cake rings, I commandeered all of the decorating.  (after having my wrists slapped for testing too many glazed almonds...)  I think it came out pretty nice, no?