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. :)
Yay! The second surprise-on-the-inside-cake. Found the idea on pinterest and knew this would be the cake for my bf’s mother’s birthday.
The butterflies I made of basic white cake, baked in a rectangular pan and cut out with a cookie cutter. Then I made a brownie dough and put the butterflies inside. The cake is topped with a mascarpone and raspberry cream, then covered with beaten heavy cream.
So proud of this flower I made of fondant and the paper wire butterfly. :P
Find the instructions for this cake below and a tutorial with pictures for the surprise effect here.
Butterfly Inside Cake
white cake:
250 g (2 sticks + 1 tbsp) butter, room temperature
200g (1 cup – 1 tbsp) sugar
4 eggs
300 g (2 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
Whisk together the flour baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside. Preheat oven to 180° C (350° F).
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl, until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and stir until fully incorporated. Now add the dry ingredients and stir until the dough is smooth.
Transfer the mixture into a rectangular pan lined with a baking sheet 30 x 40 cm (12 x 16´´) and bake about 15 minutes until a toothpicker comes out clean. Let cool then cut out butterflies with a cookie cutter.
brownie cake:
225 g (2 sticks) butter
300 g (1 1/3 cup) sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
85 g (3/4 cup) dark cocoa powder
120 g (1 cup) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Melt the butter in a microwave. Combine with sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in vanilla. Sift together all dry ingredients and stir them in.
Put 1/3 into a round pan 26 cm (10´´). Place the butterfliec in a circle into the mass. Pour the rest of the dough on top.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpicker comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely.
topping:
250 g (8 oz.) mascarpone
120 g (4 oz.) fresh raspberries
5 tbsp. powdered sugar (or to taste)
250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream
Beat raspberries, mascarpone and powdered sugar until the cream is smooth. Spread on top of the cooled cake and let cool in the refridgerator for at least 2 hours.
Beat heavy cream until stiff and cover the cake.
Decorate as you like.
I’m sitting right here with a warm tea by my side. I’m freezing. It is so freaking cold here in Europe. My brother and I have a cold and in the middle of our sneezing session, we decided we needed a shortbread cake.
I have already showed you the family recipe à la Mama . THis one here is the Easter version of it. Prepared in a round pan and without Nutelly in the whipping cream. Tasted just as good.
I am very proud of this nest which is made of edible Easter grass and marzipan eggs breeded by a chocolate hen. I bet her chicken will be chocolate covered marzipan! :D Hope you have nice holidays, despite the temperatures. xoxo
Bulgarian Shortbread Cake
(makes about 10 pieces)
400 g (14 oz) shortbread
1 l (4 cups + 4 tbsp) milk
2 pck. Chocolate pudding powder
6 tbsp. sugar
500 ml (2 cups) heavy cream
sprinkles, decoration (optional)
Place one layer of cookies in a round cake pan. (Everything about 10“ is okay.)
Prepare the pudding as written on the package with the milk and sugar. Pour a part of the hot pudding on the cookies, which is enough to cover them and smooth it down. Place another layer of cookies on top of the pudding. Put one more layer of pudding on top. Continue like this, until you have no more pudding, the last layer must not be cookies.
Let the cake cool completely. Prepare the topping in the meanwhile.
Beat the heavy cream with a mixer until it is stiff. When the cake is cooled, place the cream on top and smooth down. Decorate as you like. Let the cake chill for at least one hour in the fridge.
Serve and enjoy :)