Strawberries...the season is ending!

I usually like to make the best out of fresh stuff, and eat as much as fresh fruits, vegetables...until I collapse. And then I get up and eat some more.

This usually lasts until the season for something is ending...and this is when I start think about creating something baked, still from the same crave of making the best out of...the fresh product, which is no longer as good as it was, and instead of not buying it anymore...I buy and bake. 

And so, until now there has been the strawberry season, and I indulged myself into fresh ones as much as possible, but now it's ending, and so the baking season starts :) 

First choice was, obviously a classic. Fresh strawberry tart with pastry cream. 

I baked another classic, French tart dough, and layered it on the bottom with some melted chocolate, so that it doesn't get soggy from the cream. 

Then it comes the pastry cream, which it tasted ok...BUT I really need to get some proper vanilla. It makes such a difference. It will surely be more...$$$, but I guess art requires investments, right ? 

For the strawberries, I made a sugar-honey syrup and bathed them into it, and now they look shiny and beautiful.

To assemble the tart, really it takes very little time, in case you know what you're doing, or in case you have a design in mind...which I didn't :) but I let my creativity and wildness replace any standard design so I just put the strawberries however I thought it looks good. A cute mess :) But looks go, no?

I have to apologize for the bad quality of my pictures, but...my husband left with the camera hiking in the woods, and what can a woman home alone do, rather than bake? I need to get a better camera...