Let's celebrate !

I was thinking what could I prepare to celebrate the wedding of our good friends Marco and Rosien that we missed last July in Paris. I wanted to combine some French and Italian flavors to create an ideal connection with their respective countries of origin.
To celebrate the triumph of the mediterranean cuisine I thought to start our festive dinner with savory crepes filled with asparagus and prosciutto cotto (honey roasted ham) followed by a salmon roll with mint that combined perfectly the earthy and sea flavors which are typical of the mediterranean cuisine. Roasted cherry tomatoes and herbes de provence to compliment the sweetness of the pistachio crust of the salmon.
A wedding is not a wedding without a proper wedding cake therefore I decided to bake one with a surprise inside. I found a heart cake pan set from Wilton and I thought that it could have been great to hide a red heart inside the white cake covered by the white vanilla frosting. I got the idea from I am baker and used his recipe for the red velvet heart, but I had a different recipe for the white cake that I liked better.

Crepes with Asparagus and Prosciutto cotto

Ingredients: 

Batter for crepes(make 8 crepes)

125g All purpose flour

300ml milk

3 medium size eggs

1tablespoon of butter

pinch of salt

Filling

24 fresh baby Asparagus spears

8 slices of Prosciutto cotto(honey roasted ham will do perfectly)

200ml cooking cream

100g Parmigiano

Salt, Pepper

Serves 4

• In a mixing bowl, whisk together the three eggs with a pinch of salt. Gradually add in the flour and the milk stirring to combine. Add the melted butter mix until you get a smooth batter. Put the crepes batter in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
• Clean and wash the Asparagus. In a saucepan boil 1liter of water and add a pinch of salt and the asparagus. Boil them for 3 min, drain them and place the Asparagus in ice water. After few minute you can drain them and pat dry.
• Take an 8" frying pan. Grease it with some butter. In the lightly heated pan poor about 1/4 cup of the batter and cook it until is golden, with a spatula turn the crepes on the other side and cook it for about 3 min. Once you have the 8 crepes prepare the filling.
• Prepare an oven pan to put the crepes. Grease it with some butter and preheat the oven at 180 C°. 
• On each crepes spread some cooking cream to keep the filling moist, layer a ham slice and three asparagus spears . Roll them gently like a spring rolls or burrito style and place them in the oven pan.
• Poor the remaining cooking cream on the top of the crepes and sprinkle some parmigiano on top of them. Place the crepes in the oven for 20/25 min. Serve them hot.

Salmon roll with mint

Ingredients:

700 g Salmon filet
30 g breadcrumbs
40 fresh mint leaves
100 g peeled pistachio
400 g cherry tomatoes
1 lemon zest
origano
Olive oil
Salt, Pepper

Serve 4

• Preheat the oven at 180 C°
• Cut the salmon fillet in half and open it like a book to have an even and flat base for your filling (You can ask the fishmonger to cut it for you).
• In a food processor mix the breadcrumbs, peeled pistachio, lemon zest and the fresh mint leaves until all the ingredient are well blended.
• Season with salt and pepper both side of the salmon. Add half of the mix of the mint, pistachio, lemon zest and breadcrumbs evenly on the top of the salmon. Starting from the longest side of the salmon begin to roll it. Once you have the roll use some kitchen wire to tie the salmon to avoid that the filling come out from the roll.

• Brush the outer surface with olive oil and use the rest of the mix and cover the salmon.
• Put the salmon in a baking pan lined with baking paper and put it in the oven at 180 C° for 25 min.
• In a different pan season the cherry tomatoes with salt, pepper, origano and olive oil. Mix well the tomatoes and the rest of ingredient with your hands to be sure that the tomatoes are well seasoned and put them in the oven at 180°C for 25/30 min depending of the sizes of the tomatoes which should be roasted and without too much juice in the pan.

• Serve the rolled salmon with the roasted tomatoes aside.

Heart cake

This is a combination of recipes. For the white cake I used the recipe of Ina Garten for the Coconut cake but I did't put the coconut in the batter. For the filling and frosting I used the recipe from I am Baker but the icing was too soft and kept melting. Next time I have to find a better recipe.