Happy Mother's Day and Mom's Birthday!

My Mom's birthday always rolls around the same time as Mother's Day.  This year, it was the day before.  And as usual, she didn't really want anything.  She said maybe some good, high-quality chocolates?  Ever since I brought home the truffles I made in Chocolates & Confections class at school, she has never been able to go back to "grocery store chocolates" (that means you, Hersheys.  And Tollhouse.  And Palmers.  And C.K. Cummings).  Even Godiva truffles paled in comparison to what I made in class using Noel and Valrhona.  So I went to Caputo's, a local Italian specialty foods store, and bought several sample size bars of the top-quality chocolates--Valrhona and Amedei.  I also splurged on a 1 lb. bag of Valrhona Tropilia Amer and 8 oz. of Valrhona Caramelia (their newest product).  The Tropilia is one of the cheapest Valrhona chocolates, and while the cacao percentage is high (this one is 70%), the flavor profile is rather dull and flat compared to other more expensive variety.  But that makes it suitable for baking and desserts, since it will allow other ingredients to shine through while maintaining that intense chocolate flavor.

My Mom has been eating just one sample bar per day, savoring each bite;  and any craving inbetween she satisfies with the small bag of Valrhona Caramelia that I had set aside for her.  Ooooh just wait until I use this baby in bourbon milk chocolate mousse!!
Since (other than the chocolates) Mom's birthday was rather dull and uneventful, I decided to make something more special for Mother's Day, of course.  Something elegant, lady-like, flowery and fruity, something that screams, "SPRING IS HEEEEEERE!!!!"...OK, that last part is so not lady-like.
So I chose fruit charlotte--a dessert with a girly name, its girliness further enhanced by the band of ladyfingers wrapped around a light creamy Bavarian filling, and topped with assorted fruits.
I've been practicing piping bands after bands of ladyfingers at Les Madeleine's, so that part was easy.  The hardest part was fitting everything in my tiny oven... but the ladyfingers turned out great!
For the filling, I used a vanilla diplomat cream (pastry cream with whipped cream folded in) with a small amount of gelatin to set it.  I layered it with lemon cremeux and strawberry confit to make it nice and fruity.
The assembly got a bit frustrating.  I made a 'cup' with the sponge, and filled it with the cream, but since I didn't have the mold or acetate strips, I had to tape parchment paper strips for a makeshift mold--which doesn't have the same strength.  But I still managed to get everything assembled and finished.

The ribbon actually makes a difference.  Without it, it looks sort of...naked.  It was probably because I made the strips a little too tall.  Next time, I'll make it shorter.

And just for Mom, a tall candle.  We sang her a happy birthday :)

Here's the inside look.  This turned out delicious! The tart lemon cremeux and sweet strawberry confit blended well with the light vanilla diplomat cream.

Hope everyone had a happy mother's day!