in the kitchen x mango, pineapple, & chocolate

It's hot hot hot outside! Hot and humid weather makes me crave something tropical to survive this heat. This dessert is a mango pineapple chocolate milk chocolate mousse cake with a caramel glaze, mango sauce, dehydrated pineapple chip, and cocoa cake crumble. It's a pretty straightforward dessert considering I had to plate a LOT of these at one time. I love combining tropical fruits with milk chocolate, just because the acidity enhances all the caramel and sweet, floral notes of the chocolate, namely Valrhona Caramelia 36% chocolate. I love caramel paired with chocolate so I couldn't resist adding it as the glaze for the cake. For texture, I used a cocoa cake crumble (an irresistible snack on its own..) and a candied dehydrated pineapple chip.

in the kitchen x green tea, lime, & pineapple

I didn't start out with this dessert in mind. Actually, a lot of my desserts never end up being what I originally imagined. I had thought of a lime white chocolate hazelnut cake and wondering what other vanilla, buttery flavor I could pair with it. As I worked more and more on the dish, I was drawn to stronger flavors, such as green tea and different acidic notes, like yogurt and pineapple. In this dish is a hazelnut cake, topped with a lime white chocolate mousse. I paired it with a green tea lime crumble, made with almond flour, for a depth of flavor. Pineapple chips would add a great texture and would complement the lime. Of course, there is green tea and yogurt ice cream to finish it all up. It's refreshing and light for the summer days ahead. I think this is why I am always excited when thinking of new and different desserts. No matter what you start out with, the end product is always a bit of a surprise. I always wonder what the end result will be, or even if there is a kind of end result to a dish. Even when I revisit a previous dessert, it never ends up exactly the way I made it the first time. There are always new tweaks or something different to be done. That's what makes it exciting. Food should never be stagnant, there should always be something different. Because the ingredients we use come from nature, and nature is never a carbon copy, it evolves.