Cranberry and orange cake...to get into Christmas mood

by Karolina, 22nd December

It's been quite a while since I was here...I wish I had time machine...like a pasta maker :) So I could produce some more of it! But before I find one (preferably on sale :)), I'll have to do with these 24 hours per day.

I have sooo many Christmas ideas and inspirations...but I guess I won't be able to share it this year. A bit too late now....time ticking to Christmas.
And don't get me wrong - I'm excited :) I just wish I had couple more weeks left....
Oh well...next time!

So now, just quickly  lovely cranberry, orange and nuts cake that would be lovely for Christmas.

The general recipe for this cake comes from lovely Joy the Baker.
She uses pecans and coffee in her cake. I replaced the pecans with honey covered peanuts and omitted the coffee. And not streusel (sorry Joy - that was too much for me :)).
You can either go with Joy's lovely recipe or just change it a little bit like I did.

What I really like in this cake is that is made with orange juice which keeps it very moist and tangy and sweet at the same time.

Check it out!
And keep warm :)

Chocolate pear molten cakes...

by Karolina, 18th November 2012

I have a sweet tooth...I really do.
It's really difficult for me to say no to the chocolate or cake.Or chocolate cake in that matter...

I do promise myself to not eat sweets anymore...but then again I find recipes like this one:
http://ourchocolateshavings.blogspot.com/2009/10/chocolate-pear-cakes.html

And tell me how can I resist?

Especially that this recipe involves lovely Fall produce - pears.
Pears and chocolate - another match made in heaven!

The recipe is fairly simple and I'm quoting after Chocolate Shavings with a few small changes:

Chocolate Pear Cakes
by Chocolate Shavings (my comments in Italics)
Serves 2

1/2 stick of butter (I used about 50g)
2 tablespoons of lightly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of cake flour
1 good pinch of kosher salt
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1 tablespoon of milk
2 pears
Pistachios (optional)
Preheat your oven to 350F (180 C). Add the softened butter and sugar to a medium-size mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the egg and beat until just incorporated. Using a small whisk, whisk in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Add the flour mixture to the butter batter in small batches, whisking the mixture until homogeneous. Whisk in the milk.

Peel the pears making sure to leave the steam intact. Using a small knife or melon baller (I used apple corer), carefully scoop out the core of the pear leaving the pear intact. Ladle the batter evenly into 2 individual ramekins. Form a well in the middle of the batter with the back of a spoon and place the pear inside the well. Gently press down so that the batter settles around the pear. (It worked better for me to first place the pears into ramekins and then cover them with  the dough)
Bake for 20 minutes or until the top of the batter is set. The inside of the batter will be gooey so the toothpick test will not be a good indication here. Let the cakes cool and serve with chocolate ganache.
I added some crushed pistachios as well for extra boost and pinch of colour.

If you like gooey, chocolaty desserts - this one is for you. With a little less guilt afterwards - you're eating pear after all :)

Lavender fields

by Karolina, 30th September 2012

I love the smell of lavender. I use lavender soap and air freshener. I have lavender on the balcony to remind me of Provence.

unfortunately this is not my garden...

But can you imagine -  I have never tried lavender in the kitchen!
I had to change it quickly...especially seeing some mouth-watering recipes online.
I managed to get dried lavender at the local farmers' market and went back home to experiment :)

So far, so good :) I made lovely lavender creme brulee using this recipe from No onions please.
Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to make any pictures...sorry...

Then I tried it again and again and again in different combinations, using different ingredients...

Today, I wanted to show you my super quick lavender peach tart.
This was my variation on the subject, as I needed some dessert and needed it now!
And that's how this tarte came to life...

Quick peach-lavender tarte

2 peaches (pitted and cut into wedges)
1 pack of puff pastry
1 cup of custard
1 teaspoon of dried lavender

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Roll out the pastry and fill the tarte (quiche) tin with it. Make little holes with fork or fill the pan with baking beans. Bake the pastry for about 15 minutes until starting to brown.
Fill the pastry with custard and arrange the peaches. Sprinkle the top with lavender.
Put back into the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

Done :)

Final effect was simple, rustic tarte with lovely sweet, peachy interior with delicate flavour of lavender.

Do you cook with lavender? I'll be happy to hear what you've tried to do with lavender.



Eat a cake and have a cake

by Karolina, 30th August 2012

I found this great recipe on Pinterest and was totally sold straight away - quick , easy and relatively healthy (as for a cake, of course).

Recipe comes from Crumb (lovely blog btw, you should check it). Any changes or suggestions by me in the brackets, in Italics.

Yoghurt cake with fruits

Ingredients

1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup canola oil (I used vegetable oil and olive oil and both worked well)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp grated lemon zest

1 cup fresh red currants (or other fruits - I made as well versions with raspberries, blueberries and even apricots)

 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (I'm in metric system - 180 C worked great). Lightly grease and flour the cups of a mini-loaf pan (or a jumbo muffin tin, if you prefer).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together yoghurt, sugar, eggs and oil until smooth and well blended.
3. Add flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest, and stir until the batter is smooth and silky. Pour into the prepared mini-loaf tin, dividing evenly between the cups. Scatter berries on top of the batter, using around 2 tbsp per loaf.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges are pale gold and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of one loaf. (If using a muffin tin, you may need to add another 5 minutes of cooking time.)
5. Let cool on a rack for 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out and let cool completely before serving.

This cake is my new hit. It's fluffy and light but definitely satisfying any sweet tooth.

Huge advantage - it's quick and easy! Seriously, you can wipe a batch in a few minutes. 

And last but not least....it's one bowl mix. No extra washing up! Yay! :)

 

It's even good the day after....this is, if it would make it to the next day :)

Cool Brittania, part 2

by Karolina, 15th June 2012

This is the last post from my Diamond Jubilee inspired posts. I can't promise thought that it's the last of Britain and British  in here :) 
Today... tea cake :) Literally a tea cake...

Recipe for this cake is from Moje Wypieki blog with small changes (see my notes)

Lady Grey tea cake

Ingredients:

• 200 g flour
• 50 g potato flour (note: you can use maizena or cornflour instead)
• 150 g caster sugar
• 130 g butter or margarine
• 4 eggs
• 4 tbs milk (note: I usually need more0
• 2 ts baking powder
• 1 ts vanilla extract
• 3 ts dry Lady Grey team - about 2 tea (I usually use 2 teabags of Earl Grey)

* note: cake on the pictures is made from 2/3 of the above ingredients. I made smaller version (ran out of eggs :))

Method:

• Beat butter/margarine until fluffy. Add sugar and keep mixing. Add eggs - one by one while mixing
• Flours sift together with baking powder and mix in tea. 
• Add to butter mix alternating with milk, while mixing. Add vanilla extract and mix.
• Butter bundt cake form  and fill 3/4 with the cake
• Bake around 30-40 minutes in 190º (first 15 minutes in temperature 160ºC).
•  Take out, cool and Enjoy :)

I really like this cake as it's not too sweet, moist but not heavy. And best of all - nobody can guess what's the secret ingredient :) I had once professional chef asking me what was inside - because he couldn't put his finger on this specific taste.

To make this cake little more dressed up for the occasion I added Union Jack bunting.

This bunting took me less than 10 minutes to make. I printed some Union Jack pattern, cut triangles from it. Glued triangles to get double-sided bunting :)  Then glued triangles together and to the wooden skewers. Ta-da! :)

So I leave you with this lovely tea cake and (with the special dedication to all my British friends) - Land of Hope and Glory from last year's Proms.

Enjoy!

God Save the Queen...

by Karolina, 3rd June 2012

...or how I celebrate Diamond Jubilee.
A lot of you probably know that this year marks 60 years of Queen Elisabeth's reigns in Great Britain. The main events are happening this weekend and spilling into next week when British are enjoying extra 2 days of holidays. Although I don't live in UK anymore, I decided to have a small Diamond Jubilee celebration. Any occasion for celebration is good, isn't it? :)

So, I looked around for some inspirations.And I found this gorgeous cake on  BBC Good Food website.

It was just perfect for my Jubilee party.

Unfortunately I ran out of time and some ingredients, so I had to improvise and change a recipe but the general idea stayed the same.

I was creating the flag! :)

Yep, this is it.

Original recipe calls for sponge cake with icing cream. As I ran out of eggs and time I made it with waffles, layers of custard with whipped cream on top covered with berries (strawberries and blueberries) to create the pattern of Great Britain flag.

I agree that version with sponge would have been nicer and more practical to eat. Next time I would just try the original recipe. However, I think it was good enough and this cake definitely has the looks :)

On top of that it's finally the season for berries, which I looooooooove :)

This cake will be perfect for any tea party and I'm sure you could create pretty much any flag using your imagination and some fruits and berries :)

I would love to hear from you, maybe you have some great ideas?

And how do you like my flag-cake?

Mini birthday cake

By Karolina, 25th March 2012

As I mentioned in my previous post, it was my other half's birthday on Thursday.
The main party and celebrations were on Friday (all about it in the next couple of days), but I thought that it would be nice to make a mini cake for bday boy which he could enjoy on his Big Day :)

It wasn't easy to set my mind on one cake. At the end I went for something rather simple but still yummy: Krazy Cake from Kitchen Chronicles. It's really quick and simple chocolate cake (without eggs). But because it was supposed to be a mini-cake, I went with the idea from Oh Happy Day and baked the cake in the can. I think it's a brilliant idea and surely will do it again.

It worked pretty well. To decorate I used almonds and cute silver cake decorations.Between the layers to make it little less sweet I used black currant jam, but really any jam or marmalade would work.
I'm not the most patient person, so the end look is a little bit messy. But well, not everything has to be 100% perfect all the time, right? A little distort look is surely fashionable :)

The most important is that the most important person liked it :)

And how do You like it?
I'd love to hear from you...