Happy Christmas from Galway!

Christmas was done a little different for the Jones clan this year.  No large parties, no decorating the house, no cooking up a storm in the kitchen.  Though I have to admit that I did miss those things this year...what we did have was a special little Christmas with just our little family.  I think the end result turned out perfect for all involved!

This was our home for Christmas this year.  If you ever find yourself in Galway, do yourself a favor and stay here!  The staff are some of the kindest and friendliest people I've met.  It's located a very short walk from the city center and the train station.  Even the food is good!  Trust me, you will not be disappointed.

Across the street from our hotel was a small "pop up" ice skating rink.  We thought the lil one would be ready for ice skating...but we were wrong.  She was super nervous, and I just hope we haven't scarred her for life in the skating department.  The hubs and I took some turns around the rink by ourselves.  I hadn't been skating since high school...so to say I was a it rusty was an understatement.  Not to mention the ice wasn't very smooth, more like what I would think of as skating on an actual frozen pond.  At least I didn't fall!

For another first, we took the lil one bowling one night.  She liked this much better than the skating, even managed to get her first strike!  We all had a blast until we had to walk home in a hail storm.  The weather in Galway was pretty nuts this time!

This was the first year the lil one was really into Santa Claus.  We had to stop and say hello to everyone we saw...and these are only two of them!  She captured the top Santa two nights in a row and got him to dance with her then received a special Christmas Day present from the bottom Santa at our hotel on Christmas Day.  He brought her a "laundry game" where you have to find matching socks that you pull our of a cardboard washing machine.  With as much as she's been into helping with the laundry lately, Santa really had been watching her.

 As for our Christmas morning, this year was done super simple.  The hubs got me some Kinder eggs, warm and cozy "cupcake" socks and a beautiful Claddagh ring with his birthstone in the middle.

 For him, I turned to Pinterest to find something simple that would still be meaningful.  Inside the card box are 12 more cards with date night ideas on them.  A gift that keeps on giving the whole year!  And better still, he won't know what's on the cards until that month comes.  This gift would drive me crazy....but he liked it!

 With no mantle to hang a stocking, Santa left his presents for the lil one in a Christmas bag hanging from our hotel room door.

She was super excited about her Cinderella dress and wore it the entire day.  

Lila enjoying her first Kinder egg.  It was a hit!  It even had a pretty little pony and ring inside.  Prefect gift for our little princess.

WE HOPE YOU HAD A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!  WE SURE DID!

Now off to see the bustling city of Cork..

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Cake-mas!

Sad as it may sound, this year I'm thankful to be outside the US for Christmas.  Department stores haven't started putting up Christmas decorations.  Christmas music hasn't taken over the television.  No one is talking about the "it gift" this year.  And, since there's no Thanksgiving here in France, there's no talk of Black Friday.  Ok...I admit...I'm probably going to miss getting up at 3am to go shopping.

Yes, it's true that I'm going to miss being with a bigger portion of my family for Christmas this year, but it's nice to think that without all the "craziness" and American Christmas can bring, we can really focus on what's important for the season and invest in spending time together.

Now, all that being said, we did have a Christmas theme in pastry this past week.  In France, it's traditional to serve some type of bouche, or rolled cake, for Christmas dessert.  This week we did two traditionally rolled buches as well as another cake.  Of course, they were filled with all sorts of yummy goodness continuing my love of "surprise inside" desserts.  Feast your eyes on these beauties.

On the left you have the Bangkok.  We built this cake upside down and then inverted it into a round of prepared coconut mousse.  The result is layers of pate sucree, cocoa ganache, chocolate biscuit and coffee jelly surrounded by fluffy coconut mousse.  This was my favorite cake of the week, combining my three loves of chocolate, coffee and coconut all in one.  It reminded me of a much more elevated version of the coconut cake I made for Christmas dessert last year and made my tummy very happy!

On the right is the first buche we made, named Belle Helene.  This buche wasn't rolled, but instead made in a rounded cylinder mold.  We did the same thing here that we did with the Bangkok in that we built a base and inverted it into praline mousse.  On the inside of this buche you have almond biscuit topped with praline, pear compote and pear Chantilly cream.  Once the buche was fully set, we sprayed it with a gold colored chocolate spray, topped it with melted chocolate glaze and sliced almonds and bookended the buche with chocolate decorations.  It was almost to pretty to eat...almost.

The last cake for this week was a traditionally rolled buche named Montreal.  We have several students in the class from Canada, so this was chef's nod to their home country.  To make this cake, we took sheets of biscuit viennois cake and spread a layer of whipped dulce de leche ganache on top.  We thin spaced frozen logs of passion fruit ganache over the top and placed caramelized nuts between the logs.  Once it was rolled up, we put it in a cylinder mold to set.  Once set, we spread the remaining whipped dulce ganache over the top and used a small offset spatula to give the "wave" affect to the top.  It was then coated with dulce de leche spray and decorated with chocolate and caramelized nuts.  Not only would this be an impressive dessert to serve at Christmas, but it would also make a pretty awesome centerpiece!

A brand new adventure is just around the corner...