Hello y’all. Today I have something for you to look at. My cousin celebrated his birthday last month and as a fan of the Smurfs, he deserved a theme cake, of course.
I piped the grass with coloured heavy cream onto the blueberry cake layers, then added the fondant elements.
The mushroom houses are made of two muffins covered in fondant and put on top of each other.
Play world for murf figures done.
My bf’s mother made cassis jam. Yippie! This sweet and refreshingly sour treat is just the right thing to nash on during summer.
I was inspired by its taste and the fresh red fruit, I found in a nearby supermarket. The last week of school, my class had a big breakfast together and I wanted to bring something handy. So I thought of whoopie pies.
Pretty chocolate dough, filled with a light cassis buttercream, drizzled with white chocolate, topped with a red berry.
Voilà! They were done easily and quickly, a lot faster than I had expected.
Chocolate Cassis Whoopie Pies
(makes about 25 whoopie pies)
chocolate cakes:
175 g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
50 g (3/8 cup) dark cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
125 g (1/2 cup – 4 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
175 g (7/8 cup – 6 oz) white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
3 large eggs, room temperature
80 ml (1/3 cup) whipping cream, room temperature
frosting:
75 g (1/3 cup) butter
150 g (5 oz.) cream cheese
6 tbsp cassis jam – or to taste
Preheat the oven to 175° C (350° F). Line two sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside until needed.
In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, until fluffy and white. Add vanilla. Add one egg at a time and whisk in between until fully incorporated. Now add the dry ingredients while you continue to mix. Stir in the whipping cream. Do not overbeat.
Fill the dough into a piping bag and pipe circles of about 3 cm diameter onto the parchment paper, then bake for about 10 minutes until the dough has set. Remove from the paper and let cool.
Prepare the cream by melting the butter in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Cream with cream cheese and jam.
Find 2 equal pies and put the cream on top of one with a spoon or using a piping bag. Place the second pie half on top and squeese slightly.
Decorate with melted chocolate and fresh cassis. Enjoy cooled.
My dears, it has been quiet here lately.
I spent two interesting weeks visiting Thailand, the country of smiles and I am very exited to tell you about my food experience there. But since There are so many pictures to pick out and thoughts to write down before I forget them, I must beg you to wait a little for a post about that.
Instead, I will introduce to you one of the most popular breakfasts of all time, prepared in no time.
I love pancakes. But there is something about them that disturbs me – they take quite some time for preparation. Making a dough and baking every single pancake might not take a long time if you look at it objectively, but as my stomach starts roaring loudly if I don’t get breakfast within 20 minutes after waking up, this is quite long for me.
In one of my summer holiday mornings, I could not stand craving pancakes and decided to make them in the oven instead of frying them in a pan, all the dough in one dish. It took only 15 minutes to bake the whole large pancake and I was in heaven while eating my honey-drizzled banana and blueberry delicacy.
And now the easy peasy recipe – here we go:
4 eggs, separated
1 pinch salt
50 g (2 oz.) sugar
150 g (5 oz.) sour cream
100 g (7/8 cup) flour
50 g (1/4 cup) butter
100 g (3 oz.) blueberries
1 banana, cut into slices
Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Line a pan (30 x 30 cm/ 12 x 12´´) with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites with the salt untill stiff. Stir in the sugar.
In a second bowl, combine egg yolks and sour cream. Add flour and stir until incorporated. Fold in the egg whites.
Cut the butter into small cubes and spread them on the parchment paper. Place the pan in the oven for 1 minute to melt the butter. Pour the pancake dough into the dish and spread berries and bananas evenly. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges turn a light brown and the dough doesn’t jiggle when you slightly shake the pan.
Cut into pieces and enjoy with honey or maple syrup and a cup of milk. :)