Best Desserts in Geneva 2016 - 1st quarter

This post normally celebrates my favourite desserts from a cafe/bakery/pastry shop in Geneva. I have only documented delicacies here that I have tried personally (and many times).

For this quarter, however, it is done from home…I took great pleasure in reviewing two pastry shops last year, but that adventure stops here: the reason is simply a lack of time. Although, theses posts generated great traffic and I was invited to cover great pastry shops in Geneva, I have decided not to carry on – too much work and too little time.

At home we always have cakes for dessert or at tea time - delicious cakes to eat and cry for more!

Are you ready for the show???

Gallette des Rois - Le Fournil de Carouge

This is what we eat for Epiphany (the celebration of the arrival of the Three Kings). I have tried many, but my favourite is still the one from Le Fournil de Carouge, a tiny and gorgeous family bakery/pastry shop. This is a torte of buttery puff pastry filled with almond cream, not too sweet and not too heavy either. There is a small gift inside the torte and a crown for the king or queen who is lucky enough to find it.

Chouquette - Le Fournil de Carouge

Sugar topped pastry puffs.

Tarte Tatin - Le Fournil de Carouge

Combines light golden puff pastry and soft, juicy, caramelised apples.

L’Opéra - Martel Chocolatier

This, for me, is the best opéra I have ever tasted in Geneva: a pure delight for those who love chocolate and coffee. Layers of almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, alternating with ganache and coffee buttercream, and covered in a chocolate and coffee glaze.

Mille-Feuille aux Marrons - Martel Chocolatier

This mille-feuille is out of this world, if you love chestnut cream, chantilly and crusty fluffy pastry.

Rum Baba - Martel Chocolatier

Sponge cake soaked in rum syrup topped with whipped cream and a strawberry.

Pistachio with Raspberry and Passion Fruit Mousses Dacquoise - Martel Chocolatier

A base of pistachio cake topped with layers of raspberry and passion fruit mousses.

Chocolate, Coffee and Raspberry Mousse Dacquoise - Martel Chocolatier

A thin base of cake completed with layers of raspberry, chocolate and coffee mousses.

Torta de Chocolate - Manuel bakery

Portuguese chocolate roll.

Lychee and Raspberry Macaroon - Christopher Berger

Blackcurrant and Raspberry Mousse with Cream Cheese - Christopher Berger

Carrot Tartlet - Aimé Pouly

On a base of sweet shortcrust pastry there is a layer of carrot and hazelnut cake, covered with pink-tinted fondant icing.

Raspberry-Almond Financier - Albert Pougnier

Almond cake with raspberry coulis inside.

Caramel-Almond Financier - Albert Pougnier

Almond cake with caramel coulis inside.

Windsor cake - Chocolats Rohr

Rum soaked sponge cake with raisins.

These are my genuine personal opinions and favourites, otherwise I would not have written about these cakes. As always with all my posts, this is not sponsored.

Heidi Country II

Do you recall my "Heidi Country" post of last August?  Back when it was hot and the meadows and the mountains were lush and the sky blue and white. You could see the cows eating amid wild flowers and lavender....

Well here's what it looks like in winter:  equally magnificent when covered with its white blanket. B E A U T I F U L!!

Two weeks ago, it was the school holidays here, so we took the opportunity to take these pictures (with sweetheart's aging compact camera, a Sony VSC-1).

I hope you enjoy them. We adore this secluded little corner - it's so authentic. That is why I named it "Heidi Country".

Have a look at my August post also, then let me know your preference.

The view from the chalet.

The neighbour's cat.

The mountain hut.

The Swiss Alps.

The village.

The white horse.

A typical mountain chalet.

Typical mountain chalets.

The ski run.

A Minimalist Beauty Basket

Bonjour ladies! This is a quick hello to present my beauty basket to you. Rummaging through my camera I found this series of photos of my minimalist beauty products which I took last April.

From the pictures you can tell that Clarins has won my heart. I am very familiar with this excellent brand of cosmetics. I must say that it's a love story that has lasted since I was eighteen, when I was a student in the country of Shakespeare.

However, some of these products, once finished, have been replaced by others. Maybe you still remember my product reviews - Elona snail cream, Chanel No 5 which replaced Diva by Ungaro... Elixir serum by Caudalie (the post is coming out soon).

It is obvious that I have clearly come out of my comfort zone. I do believe this is partly thanks to blogging... I am more willing to try new things and it has been a beneficial experience for me.

What about you? Are you faithful to a brand? Would you like to share a wonderful new discovery?

I wish you a fabulous Wednesday.

The Lover by Marguerite Duras (1984)

In 1929, a 15-year-old French girl is travelling by ferry across the Mekong Delta, returning from a holiday at her family home in the town of Sa Đéc to her boarding school in Saigon. She attracts the attention of the 27-year-old son of a Chinese business magnate, a young man of wealth and heir to a fortune. He strikes up a conversation with the girl; she accepts a ride back to town in his chauffeured limousine. A passion is born from this encounter. Thus, she becomes his lover, until he bows to the disapproval of his father and breaks off the affair. For her lover, there is no question of the depth and sincerity of his love, but it is not until much later that the girl realises her true feelings.

The Lover is an autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras. It has been translated into 43 languages and was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1984. A film adaptation was made in 1992: The Lover by Jean-Jacques Arnaud.

Author: Marguerite Duras was born on April 14, 1914, in Saigon, Cochinchina, a region of French Indochina (now Vietnam). She died of throat cancer in 1996 in Paris. Duras spent most of her childhood in Indochina, but at the age of 17 she moved to France to study at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she obtained degrees in law and politics. She was deeply marked by the landscape and the lifestyle of the former French colony, which often served as a backdrop to her work.

My thoughts: I read this book in one day in the Portuguese version; I loved it so much that I read it twice. This is without contest an erotic masterpiece: exhilarating, sensual, melancholy, truthful, modern and female. I quote below the most beautiful piece of her writing:

"Very early in my life, it was too late.

It was already too late when I was eighteen. Between eighteen and twenty-five my face took off in a new direction. I grew old at eighteen. I don't know if it's the same for everyone, I've never asked. But I believe I've heard of the way time can suddenly accelerate on people when they're going through even the most youthful and highly esteemed stages of life. My ageing was very sudden. I saw it spread over my features one by one, changing the relationship between them, making the eyes larger, the expression sadder, the mouth more final, leaving great creases in the forehead. But instead of being dismayed I watched this process with the same sort of interest I might have taken in the reading of a book."