Only two more weeks until Christmas! Hard to believe, right? I think, in truth, I have mixed feelings about this season. I want to slow down and enjoy it and spend long days just, I don’t know, being festive. Like when you were a kid. But there’s still work and projects and wrapping things up for the end of the year. So, like most things in life, I’m striving for balance, getting things done while also indulging in Christmas activities. I’m also trying not to set unreasonably high standards for myself about what it means to “celebrate.” What this balance translates to in my house is the Swinging Christmas Pandora station playing when I’m cooking dinner, even if dinner is not particularly Christmasy. It means watching Love Actually and The Grinch and A Muppet Christmas Carol with Trevor, even if we only make it through 1/3 of each movie every night. It means baking simple cookies that can be made on a weeknight and saved for later, and spending a few minutes every day just sitting by the tree and enjoying the lights. Because a little bit of Christmas spirit every day adds up!

One of my more ambitious Christmas kitchen projects this year was these Spiked Eggnog Éclairs with Nutmeg Glaze. These are a weekend project, good for a freezing cold Saturday like today. Or, in the spirit of what I wrote above, you can split the prep over a few days, like I did, making the eggnog pastry cream in the morning before work, then baking and filling the shells later. I love eggnog – it’s so indulgent but so good. With a splash of rum and just a hint of nutmeg it’s one of my favorite Christmas treats. So turned into a pastry cream and piped into freshly baked éclair shells? I am definitely into it.

This recipe is adapted from Jenny McCoy‘s book Modern Éclairs, which is full of great recipes for sweet and savory éclairs, profiteroles, and other treats using pate a choux. I particularly like the savory recipes, like the Croque Monsieur Éclairs and the Cheddar, Chipotle and Roasted Corn Gougeres. But for Christmas, I couldn’t resist testing out the very seasonal Eggnog Éclairs. The original eggnog pastry cream recipe didn’t call for any liquor, but having tasted it both before and after adding the rum, I think the spiked version is superior. I always have a tough time piping filling into éclairs, so in the recipe below I call for slicing them in half to fill. But if you’re handy with a piping bag, by all means, fill away.

I hope your Christmas preparations are getting underway, too, if Christmas is your thing. And either way, I hope you’re finding some time to enjoy this festive season!

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Disclosure: I received a review copy of Modern Eclairs from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, but I was not otherwise compensated and all thought and opinions are my own.

Spiked Eggnog Eclairs with Nutmeg Glaze

Recipe adapted from Modern Éclairs. Makes 20 large eclairs.

For the eggnog pastry cream:

• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 large egg
• 4 TBS cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups eggnog
• 5 TBS salted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup dark spiced rum

For the elcair shells and nutmeg glaze:

• 2/3 cup water
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 10 TBS salted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 TBS sugar
• 1 1/2 cup bread flour, sifted
• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3 TBS dark rum

1. To prepare the eggnog pastry cream: add the egg yolks, whole egg, cornstarch, and sugar to a large heatproof bowl. Beat vigorously until very smooth (you don’t want any lumps of cornstarch). Set aside. In a medium saucepan, bring the eggnog to a gentle simmer. Slowly pour the hot eggnog over the eggs while whisking the eggs vigorously to prevent scrambling. Return the mixture to the pot and cook over medium low heat, whisking constantly, until thick and smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the 5 TBS of butter pieces until melted. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Let cool about 10 minutes, then stir in the rum. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.
2. To prepare the pate a choux dough: add the water, milk, butter pieces, and sugar to a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat until the mixture is boiling and the butter is fully melted. Turn off the heat and add the sifted bread flour all at once, stirring hard until there are no dry lumps of flour left. Turn the heat back on and cook the dough while continuing to stir it constantly until a skin begins to form on the base of the pot (or the dough begins to look slightly dry on the surface if using a non-stick pot), which should take about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl. Let dough cool for about 3 minutes, and then add the eggs one at a time, beating each egg into the dough completely before adding the next egg. The final dough should be thick and shiny and slowly run off your spoon when lifted out of the bowl.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Fit a pastry bag with a large star tip and fill the bag with the pate a choux dough. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pipe long, straight, and thick lines of dough, leaving 2 inches of space between them. Each eclair should be about 5 inches long and 1 inch wide. They will look awkwardly skinny but don’t be tempted to make them wider – they will expand as they bake. Press down any pointy tips with your finger. Bake the eclairs until deep golden brown and cooked through, about 45 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before filling.
4. To fill, use a serrated knife to cut the eclairs in half lengthwise. Fill a pastry bag with the eggnog pastry cream and pipe onto the cut side of each eclair bottom. In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar and nutmeg until smooth, then add the rum and whisk until a smooth, runny glaze has formed. If the glaze does not drip easily off of a spoon, add a little more rum. Drizzle the glaze over the un-cut side of the eclair tops, using the back of a spoon to smooth out the glaze if necessary. Let the glaze dry before putting the tops back on the filled eclairs. Serve immediately.

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Our trip to Japan this February was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. I wasn’t expecting it – it was more Trevor’s pick than mine, and despite my best intentions, I really hadn’t planned much other than our accommodations and transportation before we got on the plane from Hong Kong. I think my limited expectations contributed to how much I enjoyed the trip, but even without that, Japan is just a magical place. Despite the language barrier, which is very real, it’s an easy place to travel – safe, friendly, and orderly. If you know and follow the rules and schedules, travel is easy and pleasant. On top of that, Trevor and I were in a very happy place. After a year of hectic travel schedules and stressful jobs, spending 4 weeks together in Hong Kong felt like the exact reminder I needed about how much I love simply spending time with him. Taking that feeling into vacation made the trip that much better.

We flew into Tokyo on a red-eye from Hong Kong. Rather than drag our suitcases through a crowded city, waiting for our hotel room to be available while struggling to keep our eyes open, we chose simply to hop on the Shinkansen from Narita and head straight for Kyoto. It was the right choice – I can’t imagine a better introduction to Japan than beautiful Kyoto. Kyoto is both provincial and timeless, sprawling yet accessible, and filled with so much history and beauty and culture.

We took our time exploring Kyoto, only doing as much as we felt like each day. The morning that we visited Fushimi Inari to see the famous orange torii gates turned into late afternoon when we decided to follow a wooded path through the forest rather than return down the mountain with the crowds. That path led to a moss-covered stone garden, a secret bamboo grove, a farm with grapefruit-laden trees, a blossoming plum tree, and a neighborhood of high-end but very traditional homes, tucked away on a quiet side street. Nishiki market was another treasure – we could have spent the better part of a day trying everything it had to offer. As it was, we tasted our way through tako tamago (baby octopus stuffed with a quail egg), freshly made matcha mochi, okonomiyaki, a variety of battered and fried vegetables, and an incredible glass of unpasteurized sake, called namasake. The brilliant gold facade of Kinkakuji Temple was worth the 45 minute walk to get there, despite the swarms of other people who were walking by with us. And in the late afternoon one day, we snuck into Nijo Castle just minutes before closing time, and by walking just a little bit slower than the group in front of us, we found ourselves walking down the airy wooden halls alone, listening to the chirping of the nightingale floors under our feet and imagining what it would have been like to sit in the center of the painted rooms.

One morning, perhaps my favorite morning of the trip, we spent wandering through Arashiyama. The bamboo forest was the initial draw, but ultimately I found it underwhelming. Yes, the bamboo groves are as lovely as the photos look, but they don’t have the immensity or the depth I was expecting – after a few short minutes, we had walked through all of them. But the rest of the Arashiyama area was so worth the visit. There’s a beautiful, wide, pale-green river, dozens of restaurants in traditional wooden buildings with views of the river, a few bustling streets lined with shops, and a perfectly hipster coffee place that fully satisfied my desire to do the “Japanese coffeeshop thing” that Instagram so dearly loves. The weather was fickle and frosty, with brief and furious snow flurries followed by gentle sunshine all morning. We climbed to the top of one of the hills to see the monkeys, and loved it so much we spent an hour watching them play, looking out over the city, and feeding them bananas. When we were thoroughly chilled, we ducked inside a casual restaurant for steaming bowls of katsu donburi, just as the snow picked up outside. It was the sort of day that leaves a lasting impression, where you know just how lovely the memory will be before the day is even over.

Choosing restaurants in Kyoto was one of the more daunting things we experienced. We were staying in a quiet neighborhood a little outside of the main tourist areas (in a little boutique hotel called Villa Aneyakoji, which I recommend without any reservation whatsoever – it was perfect), and we walked by tons of lovely, intimate-looking restaurants, emanating a warm yellow glow from inside traditional wooden buildings. But all the signs and menus were only in Japanese, and with very limited ability to communicate, or even read the prices, we weren’t comfortable enough to go in, although we desperately wanted to. So we primarily ended up at the places with loud English menus – the sort of restaurant I typically try to avoid when traveling (with the notable exception of the meal we had at Tiger Gyoza Hall, which was excellent and felt like a lucky find). One night, after an acceptable but not extraordinary dinner at a conveyor-belt sushi place (worth going once just for the experience), we were wandering home rather late, hoping that the matcha cream puff place we had wandered by in the mall would still be open. Everything in the mall was decidedly closed, but we kept wandering and found ourselves outside of the Lipton Tea House, with pristine pastries beckoning from the window. After a little gesturing to the proprietress, we walked out with a box containing one enormous cream puff and one thick slice of matcha and chocolate cake, to be enjoyed 20 minutes later in our yakutas from the comfort of our room. (An illustration of Japanese hospitality: we asked for a fork at reception when we walked into our hotel, and 3 minutes later someone knocked on our door carrying a tray with plates, hot towels, and tiny gold forks for our dessert. This is now what I expect when I ask for a fork anywhere in the world).

I devoured that cream puff – it was light and rich and flavorful and perfect – and somehow it became my primary food memory from Kyoto, despite not being particularly Japanese. So I’ve made cream puffs for you here – big ones, with perfectly puffed and eggy shells and a matcha-infused cream. I went light on the matcha, because it’s a strongly savory flavor (and because it costs an arm and a leg here), but if you know you love the flavor of matcha feel free to increase it. And although I didn’t end up using these component recipes, Zen Can Cook deserves a shoutout here, if only for the inspiration his beautiful photos provided.

More from Japan:
Japan Travelogue Part Two: Ise Peninsula; Ginger Chicken Miso Ramen

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Matcha Cream Puffs

Pate a choux recipe adapted from Food Network. Makes about 20 large cream puffs.

For the pastry cream:

• 1/2 c. sugar
• 4 TBS cornstarch
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 c. whole milk
• pinch of salt
• 1 TBS matcha tea powder
• 3 TBS butter, cut into thin slices
• 1 c. heavy cream

For the puffs:

• 1 c. water
• 1 stick salted butter
• pinch salt
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 c. flour
• 4 whole eggs

1. To make the pastry cream, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a large, heatproof bowl until evenly combined. Add the eggs and egg yolk to the sugar and whisk until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and the salt and heat over medium temperature. Bring just to a simmer (milk should be steaming and starting to bubble around the edges but not boiling) then remove from the heat. Sift the matcha powder into the milk through a fine-mesh sieve, whisking to combine. Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking the eggs vigorously as you do so, to temper the eggs. Transfer the custard back to the saucepan and return to medium-low heat, whisking the custard the whole time to prevent lumps and scrambling the eggs. Cook the custard, still whisking, until it has thickened, about 3-4 minutes, then pour into a clean bowl. Stir in the butter piece by piece, waiting until each piece has melted before adding the next. Let custard cool slightly, then cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap against surface of the custard, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
3. To make the cream puffs, preheat the oven to 425°F. Combine the water, butter, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring just to a boil, then remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, stirring vigorously to incorporate. Stir until the flour is fully incorporated, then return the pot to the heat and cook for 60-90 seconds, beating hard the whole time, until the water has evaporated from the dough to the point that the dough leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pot. Remove from the heat and transfer the dough to a bowl.
4. Beat the eggs into the dough one at a time, thoroughly mixing between additions. When you have added the last egg, the dough should be smooth and shiny, and drip slowly from the spoon when lifted out of the bowl. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a tablespoon to scoop rounds of dough onto the parchment paper, leaving at least 2 inches between them. Use your finger to flatten any points as they will burn. Alternatively, you can spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and pipe rounds onto the baking trays, but I found this more difficult than simply scooping them. Bake the cream puffs for 15 minutes at 425°F, then reduce the heat to 375°F and bake for another 20 minutes, until puffed up and lightly browned all over. Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.
5. To assemble and serve the cream puffs, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to the pastry cream and use a spatula to gently fold into the cream until mixture is even. Repeat twice more with the remaining whipped cream – the resulting whipped pastry cream should be light and airy but still hold it’s shape. Cut the puffs apart horizontally with a serrated knife and place a large spoonful of the cream on top of the bottom half, then replace the top half of the puff on top of the pastry cream. Only fill as many cream puffs as you will be serving immediately.

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Tuesday was Trevor’s 26^th birthday. To celebrate, we made a croquembouche, partly because croquembouche is fun to say, partly because it’s elaborate and over-the-top and oh-so-French, all things that Trevor likes, and partly because peanut-butter pastry cream stuffed cream puffs stacked in a tower and stuck together with caramel sauce is a really delicious prospect. It really wasn’t so hard – pate a choux is easy to make (and it’s extremely satisfying to watch the dough puff up in the oven) and pastry cream is simple as long as you are attentive and patient while tempering your eggs. The assembly is a bit tedious, but I’d recommend getting a birthday boyfriend with extreme attention to detail (and no regard for his fingertips / high willingness to touch hot caramel) to do that for you.

Trevor, I am so happy that we have spent our last 7 birthdays together. I can’t think of anyone else that I’d rather celebrate. I love you and I think this year will bring even more great things for us – our first house (!!), more travels, and who knows what other goodness. I’m keeping this short and sweet since, as per usual, I have to get on another plane, but really. I love you. Happy Birthday. Rock on.

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Peanut Butter Croquembouche

Pastry cream recipe from How Sweet Eats. Cream puff recipe from Food Network.

For the pastry cream:

• 1/2 c. granulated sugar
• 1/4 c. cake flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 c. whole milk
• 1/4 c. smooth peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. heavy cream

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt until evenly combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs. Add the sugar mixture to the eggs a bit a time, whisking until smooth between additions. When you have finished adding the sugar mixture, the eggs should be pale yellow and smooth.
2. Heat the milk over medium heat in a medium saucepan, just until small bubbles begin to appear at the edges of the pan. Do not bring the milk to a boil. Remove the milk from the heat and very slowly drizzle the milk into the eggs, whisking the eggs vigorously as you do so. Pour the tempered custard back into the saucepan and return to medium-low heat. Cook the custard until thickened, about 3-5 minutes, whisking vigorously the whole time. Remove the custard from the heat. Immediately stir in the peanut butter until it is melted, then whisk in the vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap touches the surface of the pastry cream, and refrigerate until fully chilled, at least 2 hours.
3. Just before filling the cream puffs, whip the heavy cream into soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream until it is evenly mixed.

For the cream puffs:

• 1 stick salted butter
• 1 c. water
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 c. flour
• 4 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the butter, water, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. As soon as it boils, remove from the heat and add the flour all at once, stirring vigorously to incorporate. Stir until the flour is fully incorporated, then return the pot to the heat and cook for 60-90 seconds, beating hard the whole time, until the water has evaporated from the dough to the point that the dough leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pot. Remove from the heat and transfer the dough to a bowl.
2. Beat the egg yolks into the dough one at a time, thoroughly mixing between additions. When you have added the last egg yolk, the dough should be smooth and shiny, and drip slowly from the spoon when lifted out of the bowl. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a tablespoon to scoop rounds of dough onto the parchment paper, leaving at least 2 inches between them. Use your finger to flatten any points as they will burn. Alternatively, you can spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and pipe rounds onto the baking trays, but I found this more difficult than simply scooping them.
3. Bake the cream puffs for 15 minutes at 425°F, then reduce the heat to 375°F and bake for another 20 minutes, until puffed up and lightly browned all over. Remove from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack.

To assemble:

1. Spoon the pastry cream into a pastry bag fitted with a medium, straight tip. Fill the cream puffs by inserting the tip of the pastry bag into the bottom of each cream puff (use a knife to cut a small hole if necessary) and filling until the cream puff is heavy and you can’t add any more cream without it coming back out. Set the filled cream puffs aside.
2. Prepare a caramel sauce for assembling the croquembouche: pour a thin, even layer of sugar (you will use between ¾ and 1 ½ cups, depending on the size of your pan) into a non-stick frying pan. Heat over medium-low heat (do not stir). When the sugar begins to melt and brown in places, use a spatula to carefully push the melted sugar into the unmelted sugar a bit at a time, until the whole pan is melted. Bring to a medium brown color, then immediately remove from the heat.
3. Have a bowl of ice water at the ready in case of burns from the hot caramel. Very carefully dip the bottom and sides of the filled cream puffs into the caramel (or use the spatula to dab it on) and immediately place the cream puffs on a cake stand or other serving vessels (the caramel will harden quickly so move fast). Place the first layer of cream puffs in a circle, using about 6 cream puffs to complete the circle. The second layer should have 5 cream puffs, then 4, etc., until you have used up all the cream puffs and completed the tower. If the caramel hardens while you are assembling, you can gently reheat it until it is molten again. Drizzle any extra caramel on top of the croquembouche. Serve within 4 hours of assembling.

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I first had un fraisier 5 years ago, in Paris.  Trevor and I spent a week there in May, at a time when we had just barely realized that this might be more than just flirtation and sneaky late night makeout sessions.  I still can’t believe that I actually took that trip – me, who needs months to plan a weekend getaway, won’t pay a dollar more than I have to for anything, and approaches almost everything with caution.  As a sophomore in college, I probably spent a third of my life’s savings on that trip, going with someone I’d only officially been with for less than a year, although I’d known him for much longer.  And it was very worth it.

We didn’t have a huge budget for eating out, so we did a lot of picnicking and bakery-visiting.  Which, in a way, is a perfect way to experience Paris.  We got to practice our french in the boulangeries and fromageries, sit in the beautiful parks and watch Les Parisiens go about their lives, and enjoy french food at it’s most elemental.  We stayed in an apartment along Rue Montorgueil, one of the premier food-shopping streets in the city, so it was quite easy to eat this way, and to eat well.  One afternoon we splurged after seeing a gorgeous display in a little patisserie on our way back to our apartment, and picked up a few treats.  One of them, was a slice of fraisier, a delicate strawberry, pastry cream, and marzipan cake.  Although I don’t remember exactly, we most likely ate it with a glass of kir royal, because that’s pretty much all we drank that week, after discovering the syrupy goodness of 4€ creme-de-cassis.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget that slice of cake.  Or associate it with anything other than springtime, happiness, and love. I’ve been meaning to make it every spring sense, but every time I look at the recipe for a traditional version, I get scared off by how much work it takes. This year, though, I finally did it, and now that I’ve done it the proper way I can start coming up with ways to make it easier.

This is not an everyday cake. Not only does it require multiple components – a sponge cake, a pastry cream which is then turned into a mousseline, fresh strawberries and marzipan – and careful assembly, but making the sponge cake itself is a workout. If you make a proper sponge cake, you have to spend a full 20 minutes vigorously whisking your eggs and sugar to make a sort of zabaglione that is the base of the batter.  That said, with a little planning it’s totally doable, and so gorgeous for a special occasion. And, if you like to bake, it’s extremely rewarding to pull this cake off – I swelled up with pride when I pulled a gorgeously light and golden sheet of sponge from the oven. I am a little disappointed with the slight messiness of the final product (but maybe just because Trevor was making fun of it – feel free to yell at him for me), but I was not at all disappointed with the taste. Although The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts cautioned that if I put my marzipan-coated cake in the fridge with the marzipan, it would be “rendered unusable,” I did it anyway and it’s much prettier and easier to slice after a few hours in the fridge. I almost re-shot these pictures, but then I just ate the cake instead.

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Classic Fraisier

Recipe adapted slightly from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts. Makes one 8-inch cake.

For the cake:

• 110g cake flour (3/4 c. + 1 TBS)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 oz. whole milk (1/4 c.)
• 1 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature (2 TBS)
• 3 large whole eggs, at room temperature
• 3 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 175g sugar (3/4 c. + 1 TBS)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 17 x 11 inch baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl so that they are evenly combined. Add the milk and the butter to a small saucepan, and heat over low heat just until the butter is melted, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Set up a double boiler – fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil, then immediately turn off the heat. In a heatproof bowl that fits snugly into the saucepan without touching the hot water, briefly whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar. Place the mixture over the hot water, being sure it is not touching the water. Whisk the eggs and sugar vigorously for 10 minutes, or until the mixture reads 110°F on an instant thermometer and has become pale yellow.
4. Remove the bowl from the hot water, and continue whisking vigorously or another 10 minutes, until the mixture has tripled in volume and forms a ribbon when lifted from the bowl.
5. Use a rubber spatula to fold the flour mixture into the whipped egg mixture in three additions, making sure that the dry ingredients do not clump. Fold each addition in while the batter is still slightly streaky from the previous addition. Do not overfold or you will deflate the batter.
6. Once the flour mixture is incorporated, fold 3/4 c. of the batter into the warm milk mixture so that the milk mixture has a similar consistency to the batter, than fold the milk mixture back into the batter, until juts combined. Pour the batter into the prepared sheet pan, smoothing gently with the spatula. Immediately place in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes, until surface of cake springs back when touched and the top is golden brown. Remove cake from oven, let cool on a cooling rack, then invert the pan and carefully peel off the parchment paper. Set cake aside, wrapping tightly and refrigerating if you will not be using it immediately.

For the mousseline:

• 2 large egg yolks, at room
• 1 large whole egg
• 3 TBS cornstarch
• 1/2 c. + 2 TBS sugar
• 2 c. whole milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 7 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature (14 TBS / 1 3/4 sticks)

1. Whisk together the egg yolks, egg, cornstarch, and sugar in a medium bowl, whisking until well blended.
2. Place the milk in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk, and add the vanilla pod to the pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then remove from the heat. Temper the eggs – while whisking the eggs vigorously, slowly drizzle 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the eggs, then, now whisking the milk, pour the tempered egg mixture back into the hot milk. Continue whisking vigorously as you return the pan to medium heat. Cook until the mixture thickens, about 3-5 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom as you cook. Once thickened, remove from heat and let cool so that it is just above room temperature. Remove the vanilla bean.
3. Add the slightly warm pastry cream to a mixer, and begin beating on low. Add the room temperature butter 1 TBS at a time, beating as you go, until the mixture is very light and fluffy, like a buttercream. If the butter melts immediately upon contact with the pastry cream, let the pastry cream cool further before continuing. You want the butter to get whipped slightly as it is incorporated into the pastry cream. If mixing by hand, beating a few TBS of butter until fluffy and then incorporating the pastry cream a little bit at a time is helpful. Repeat until all the butter and pastry cream is used up. Use the buttercream as soon as possible after it’s prepared.

To assemble:

• 1 recipe sponge cake (above)
• 1/4 c. simple syrup (prepared from 1/4 c. water + 1/4 c. sugar, simmered just until sugar dissolves)
• 1 recipe mousseline (above)
• 20-30 fresh strawberries of a similar size, hulled
• 2 oz. pale green Marzipan

1. Using a 6-inch cake ring or springform pan as a guide, cut two circles out of the sponge cake. Store the rest of the cake in the fridge or freezer for another use.
2. Place one of the cake circles inside your cake ring of springform pan, and brush the top generously with simple syrup.
3. Place half of the mousseline in a piping bag, and pipe a thin line around the edge of the cake. Cut the strawberries in half lengthwise, and place them cut side out in a circle around the edge of the cake. Try to use strawberries of a similar size. Pipe mousseline in the middle of the cake such that it comes halfway up the inside of the strawberries. Top this layer of mousseline with more cut strawberries, this time placed cut side down, so that you have a layer of mousseline and strawberries that is an even height.
4. Use a spatula to spread more mousseline on top of the strawberry layer so that it is covered by about 1/2 an inch, smoothing the top out with the spatula. Place your second cake circle on top of this mousseline layer, and brush with simple syrup. Top with a thin layer of mousseline.
5. Refrigerate the cake for at least 3 hours. When ready to serve, roll your marzipan out into a thin sheet. Carefully remove your cake ring or springform pan from the cake. Use this as a guide to cut a circle out of the marzipan. Place the marzipan circle on top of the cake, top with a few whole strawberries, and serve.

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