Mom's Day Brunch Pics

As promised, here are the pics from our recent Five Course Chocolate Tasting Dinner. This one was for Mom's Day weekend, and thus brunch themed. Pictures courtesy of Tyler and Amanda (the very talented and hungry foodie couple behind What We're Eatting), I treated them to a free meal in exchange for their photo services. Any bloggers interested in the same for our Dad's Day Chocolate Bar-B-Que?

PS, Tyler is a web designer, so hit them up for freelance work. Mouth-watering pics, guys. Thanks!

PSS, I'd love to see reactionary comments on the blog from people who attended!

Starter: Farmhouse Meat Platter, featuring Chile-Maple Links,

Sage and Cocoa Nib Sausage, & Cocoa-Glazed Durac Bacon

Course One: White Chocolate-Citrus Sparklers

Course Two: Dark Chocolate Chip Waffle with Maple Syrup

and Honeyed Creme Fraiche

Course Three: Cocoa nib-Corn Bread with Red-eye Gravy

Course Four: Quail Eggs in the Hole with Chile-burnt Caramel Hollandaise

Course Five: Azteca Buttermilk Cinnamon Roll
with White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Huit, AKA Babies Love Cupcakes

I came into the cafe today with the intent to bake off two more cupcakes flavors. All went as planned until photo-time approached when as I picked up my camera I discovered renegade pictures on my memory stick. It seems as though a two cocoa-craven babies snuck into my cafe, each stole a set of three cupcakes and proceeded to take a nap on one of my tables. Crazy, no?

Turns out they were not the operatives I thought they were, and instead were the adorable new-born twins of my very good friends, Autumn and Dan. Autumn has seasonally helped out with Eclipse back in its infancy until the time when she lost her professional freedom to her own infancy. Here's hoping she makes a return to EC some day in the future. If I haven't said it already, she and Dan are doing a wonderful job being new parents. Congrats, guys! In a year or two we can start training those buggers to wrap chocolate bars!

Until then, here are two more Crème Fraîche Cupcakes to enjoy:

Coconut Caramel-White-crème fraîche cake+smoky caramel filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+toasted coconut flake topping.

Lime-salted Caramel-White-crème fraîche cake+smoky caramel filling+white chocolate ganache glaze+lime-infused sea salt topping.

-

Dad's Day Chocolate Bar-B-Que

Our Mother's Day Brunch was this past weekend and everyone seemed to have an egg-cellent time (Thanks to Charlie for getting me in the mood of terrible puns all weekend long). Pics to be posted soon; check back in a few days.

-

In the mean time, the next Five Course Chocolate-Tasting Dinner has been floating around the the chocolatey depths of my mind for some time. Finally ready to be debuted, I've finalized the line-up of our Father's Day Weekend Chocolate Bar-B-Que. Guests to enjoy:

-

Chile-roasted Corn on the Cobb with House-made Cocoa-nib Butter

Heirloom Tomato-Goat Cheese Brulee with White Chocolate-Balsamic Drizzle

Bar-B-Que Baked Beans with Cocoa-Glazed Bacon (veggie option)

Cocoa Nib-Smoked Pulled Pork Sammie with White Chocolate Slaw (veggie option)

Milk Chocolate S’mores with House-made Vanilla Bean Marshmallow

-

There will also be an optional Grilled Artisan Sausage Platter to complete the meaty occasion. Custom made by local Knight Salumi, these babies will be from the same master-mind who brought us our Cocoa-Glazed Bacon this past Mom's Day Brunch.

-

Seatings are limited to 24 people each, and is available ONLY Saturday of Dad's Day Weekend (the 14th) at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm.

-

Tickets are $35 a person. RSVP required. Call 619.578.2984 or email today info@eclipsechocolat.com

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Sept

The last thing I have time to do this week is experiment with new formulas. Mom's Day is, unfortunately, one of my less favored holidays of the year on a personal level, and perhaps it's a good thing that the cafe is pretty busy at the moment. At least it keeps my mind off of other things.

So while I am grateful for all the recent patronage and how busy it's keeping me, how can I still compelled to pump out new Crème Fraîche Cupcakes? Don't I have better things to be doing with my cafe time? Don't I have a brunch to plan? Or train my first full-time manager? More on that one later, but I digress...

The truth of the matter is as simple as our basic chicken egg. One part white, one part yolk, each of these halves lend themselves to varied applications without which the pastry world would be lifeless and nonfunctional. And what does one do with stockpiles of egg whites left over from the coveted egg yolks that are making their way into my yellow cupcakes? Well, develop a crème fraîche white cake, of course.

Yellow cake (or butter cake) and its white cousin are striking similar, except that the first focuses on richness from extra egg yolks and the later on lightness from an all-egg white batter. No better way for me to begin using the vast amounts of egg whites hanging around here. And while I'm sure I'm not the first to try this out, this is a pretty unusual cake formula in that it features both the egg white-only batter AND the crème fraîche. At least I couldn't find a single reference online or in my many baking books about such a monstrosity. The result is a sort of dense and rich cake that is trying to be light and fluffy at the same time. A bit of an identity crisis, but yummy nonetheless.

So there you go. Two more. Now with white ganache glazes! And more white cupcakes to come:

Blueberry-Lemon-White-crème fraîche cake+vanilla bean-lemon curd filling+white chocolate ganache glaze+dried wild blueberry topping.

Lemon-Ginger-White-crème fraîche cake+vanilla bean-lemon curd filling+white chocolate ganache glaze+candied ginger topping.
-

Seasonal Dessert Tasting Platter IV

The new Seasonal Dessert Tasting Platter debuted almost two weeks ago and I haven't had a moment to e-mention it! Too many cupcakes, I suppose. Is that even possible? Check it:
-

Frozen Chocolate-Mixed Berry Merlot Mousse

[frozen cocoa nib-chocolate mousse+61% dark chocolate & mixed berry merlot glaze]

Grilled White Chocolate Carrot Gateau

[grilled almond-carrot cake, studded with 31% white chocolate chips]
Dark Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding with Creme Anglaise

[croissant bread pudding studded with 61% dark chocolate, warmed+vanilla bean creme anglaise]
White Chocolate-Chamomile Lemon Bar

[vanilla shortbread+tart lemon curd filling+white chocolate chamomile glaze]

-

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Six

For those of you who have been following these cupcake posts yet do not speak French, "six" just happens to be "six" in both languages. Who knew? For those of you who are reading this and haven't a clue what I'm blabbering about... just read on, this part is nearly done.

Two new flavors! Get 'em today and tomorrow until they join the other ten Crème Fraîche Cupcakes and are bound to show up in my pastry case rotation whenever I feel in the mood.

Chile-Burnt Caramel-Butter-crème fraîche cake+chile-burnt caramel filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+candied mango topping.

Marshmallow Almond-Butter-crème fraîche cake+vanilla bean marshmallow filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+marcona almond topping.

Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Cinq

My friend Stephen complained when I completed my forth post about cupcakes that it wasn't titled Part Quatre, to which I replied "I think most people only know how to count to three in French". Well in honor of him and everyone out there who speaks better French than I (which, frankly isn't very hard), I'll continue with this charmingly cultural numbering theme.

So here we are with two more Crème Fraîche Cupcakes. And I know what you're thinking... "Is this guy going to go through his entire truffle and chocolate bar collections reinventing each flavor into one of these cupcakes?" Well, yes and no! We may just have to wait for Crème Fraîche Cupcakes-Part Dix-Neuf (that's Nineteen for everyone without Google-translator) to see exactly how many cupcake infusions I will create. Rest assured I have many, many flavor concepts floating around in my head just waiting to burst out.

Freshly debuted today we have:

Burnt-Caramel Marshmallow-Chocolate-crème fraîche cake+chile-burnt caramel filling+vanilla bean marshmallow filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+toasted marshmallow topping.

Goat Cheese and Fig-Chocolate-crème fraîche cake+mission fig filling+fresh goat cheese filling+dark chocolate ganache glaze+cracked white peppercorn topping.