Recent projects: Raspberry Mousse Spheres.

Dinners with my mother are my #1 excuse to sink way too much time into dessert, which is both a good and terrible thing. The good: I get to make fancy dessert! The bad: she expects fancy dessert. I've boxed myself in by setting the standard too high, which makes things like Mother's day... tricky. How do I get fancier, short of sculpting a bust of my mother out of butter?

Since I've pretty much just been making cakes and entremets when she comes over, I decided the solution was a plated dessert. Because when things are small and individual they seem extra fancy.

My mom prefers classic flavors and LOVES dark chocolate. Raspberry + chocolate was the no brainer decision here, so it's the one I made.

I used balloons to make chocolate bowls, but then I also filled the raspberry mousse into a balloon in lieu of using a mold.

Pro tip: fill your balloons over a bowl. My first balloon exploded, covering my entire chest and stomach area in pink goop and wasting half of the mousse I made. I happened to be wearing my nicest blouse. In retrospect, this was probably a poor decision.

On the bright side, I got the perfect temper on my first try, despite not using a thermometer. That's practically magic! I'll call it a wash.

I also did an alternate presentation method, where I just poured the mousse into the chocolate bowls. We can lie and say it's because variety is the spice of life, but the truth is I was almost out of mousse and was scared to risk another balloon explosion. It allowed for more fresh berry garnish, at least. It also, you know, tasted the same. So, there's that.