cajeta mousse

This is the dessert that truly made me feel like an official pastry chef. Lodgepole is a PNW kitchen with influence from family traditions involving Melissa Barham’s Mexican heritage, and this particular dessert is a perfect blend of Idaho and Mexico between the cajeta and huckleberry. The goaty caramel has become one of my favourite flavours. The first time I worked with cajeta was for the ‘21 Lodgepole Dia de los Muertos dinner. It was my first event dinner and it was so scary and so hard!!! I had excellent guidance from Melissa & Chef Alex, but I still had a ton of bumps in the road because I was so new to it, and it made me dread the thought of cajeta actually.

The cajeta mousse debuted for the ‘22 WSU & UI graduation weekends and has since returned for ‘23 WSU & UI graduation weekends with a tropical spin on it this time with pineapple & coconut.