Showing posts with label Cakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cakes. Show all posts

Sunday 8 September 2013

Aromatic hazelnut cake


As I love having my morning coffee with something sweet I very often bake this hazelnut cake which is perfect for a sweet breakfast. It is super tasty and full of energy a power kick to start the day :)

Ingredients:
  • 200g ground hazelnuts (you can use any kind of nuts, walnuts and almonds are also delicious)
  • 100g chopped hazelnuts
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 package vanilla sugar
  • 200 ml cream 35%
  • 2-3 spoon of flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 180ºCand prepare a teacake mould 8cm x 27cm.Beat the yolks and the sugars together either in the food processor, or in a bowl with a whisk, until pale. Add the cream, flour and baking powder and whisk until combined. Add chopped hazelnuts and whisk again.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft white foam peaks. Now take your hazelnut mixture and add alternately a portion of ground hazelnuts and one of the egg white foam, fold together carefully – without beating the bubbles out of the egg white completely. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for around 45 minutes until there is a little gold colour on the top of the cake. You can check to see that it's ready by sticking a cocktail stick into the centre of the cake. It should come out clean and not sticky, if it is still sticky just leave it in the oven for 5-10 minutes more.

Monday 26 August 2013

Shortcrust berry pie

This shortcrust pie can be a base for every sweet pie variation you like. You can use fresh fruits as well as already prepared marmalade which will allow you to create a very delicious pie in a very short period of time :)



Ingredients:

For the shortcrust pastry use the recipe form here: My mum's apple pie


For the filling:


  • 250 g strawberries
  • 250 g berries
  • 1/4 cup of sugar
  • 2 tablespoons corn flour
if you are using marmalade, you can take a jar of 250g -300g of your favourite flavour :)


Preparation:


Place the strawberries and the berries in a saucepan over medium heat. Add caster sugar, corn flour and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until mixture has thickened and heated through. Set aside to cool down.


Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Take your prepared and cooled pastry out of the fridge. Prepare a pie dish around 28cm in diameter. Flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Cut off the half of your pastry and put that aside. Roll the rest into a circle just over 1.5cm thick. Put your pastry circle into the dish and push it into the sides. Take a fork and make some small holes in the pastry, then put the dish into the oven and prebake for about 15min. Take it out and cool down.

Fill your pastry case with your berry mixture (or marmalade). Take the remaining half of the pastry and roll again over 1cm thick. With a knife cut the pastry into stripes, put them on the top of your apple mouse forming a chequered pattern.

Again put the pie into the oven and bake for another 30min until the top of the apple pie gets a nice golden color.


You can serve it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream or just plain, it is simply delicious!

Friday 23 August 2013

My mum's apple pie

When I was little my mum used to bake this apple pie very often, we had so many apples in the garden that this pie was almost every Sunday on our table. This is definitely one of the flavours that reminds me my childhood…



Ingredients:

For the pastry:
  • 250g of cold butter
  • 400g flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1 yolk
  • 150 g sugar
  • 1 small teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1 package of vanilla sugar
For the filling:
  • ½ kg of apples (your favourite ones)
  • 3 spoons of sugar (or more if you like it to be really sweet)
  • 1/3 cup of water
  • cinnamon - optional

Preparation:

You can make your pastry by hand, or simply pulse all the ingredients in a food processor. If making by hand, sieve the flour with the baking powder, sugars into a large mixing bowl. Add chopped butter and mix with your hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and the yolk and gently work it together until you have a ball of pastry dough. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry, then wrap it in cling film and pop it into the fridge to rest for 0.5h - 1 hour.

In the meantime the pastry is resting prepare the apple mouse. Peal the apples, take out the seeds, chop in small pieces and put into a pot. Add water and sugar and cook on a low heat for about 45min, whisking from time to time, until the apples have softened. Put aside to cool down.

Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Take your cooled pastry out of the fridge. Prepare a pie dish around 28cm in diameter. Flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Cut off the half of your pastry and put that aside. Roll the rest into a circle just over 1.5cm thick.  Put your pastry circle into the dish and push it into the sides. Take a fork and make some small holes in the pastry, then put the dish into the oven and prebake for about 15min. Take it out and cool down.

Take your apple mouse and pull into the prebaked pastry. Take the remaining half of the pastry and roll again over 1cm thick. With a knife cut the pastry into stripes, put them on the top of your apple mouse forming a chequered pattern.
Again put it into the oven and bake for another 30min until the top of the apple pie gets a nice golden color.

Bon appétit!!!

Easy & Delicious Banana Bread



I love bananas and everything with banana flavour :) So one day I just decided to create a perfect banana cake and the result was delicious!!!


Ingredients:
  • 125 gram of butter
  • 2 cups of flour (350g)
  • 3/4 cups of sugar (200g)
  • 1 package of vanilla sugar (16g)
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 mature bananas
  • 1 tea spoon of baking powder
  • 5 spoons of milk
  • 150 g of walnuts (optional, you can add chocolate chips or other nuts)

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180˚C and prepare a teacake mould 8cm x 27cm. Beat the butter and sugars together either in the food processor, or in a bowl with a whisk, until pale. Add the eggs one by one and whisk until combined. Squeeze the bananas with a fork and add the banana paste to the egg mixture, add milk and walnuts and whist again. Add the flour, the baking powder and whist all together. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for around 50 minutes until there is a little gold colour on the top of the cake. You can check to see that it's ready by sticking a cocktail stick into the centre of the cake. It should come out clean and not sticky, if it is still sticky just leave it in the oven for 5-10 minutes more.

Tip: This cake is ideal when you don’t know what to do with mature bananas, it smells extremely good, never dries out and is always fresh and tasty!

Enjoy :)