My Birthday Cake

Yesterday was my birthday, even that I was not planning to celebrate (this year has been a bit difficult year for me), my husband told me that his parents were planning to come and also because my mother is now here visiting us, I decided to make a cake, why not? And it did work again very good, it was really delicious! On wednesday afternoon I already baked the sponge cake (2) and that way yesterday I only had to do the buttercream and the marzipan decorations, the decoration I did together with my husband he is a bit more creative than me, actually he made that beautiful girl silhouette.

There are many ways to prepare a sponge cake, I use the recipe of the English Victoria Sandwich Cake, I think is so good and then decorated with marzipan is even better.

For the sponges you need: 175 gr. soft butter, 3 eggs, 175 gr. caster sugar, 175 self-rising flour, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon milk.

Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl and mix until is very creamy and light, I use normally my electric mixer. Then beat the eggs together with the vanilla and add slowly to the butter mix. Add the sifted flour and the milk very carefully, using a spoon to fold. I use 2 tins (20.5 cm), divided the mixture into the 2 tins and in a 170 degrees preheated oven, bake for about 25 minutes, until they are light golden brown. When ready carefully take them out of the tins and leave to cool down completely in a wire rack.

For the buttercream you just need to mix very 250 gr. soft butter with 250 gr. icing sugar until they are very very creamy and ready to spread in the cake.

How do you make the cake? In one of the sponges you spread first a good layer of buttercream, then spread a good layer of jam, I use strawberry jam but any other jam will also be good. Take the other sponge and put on top pressing a bit, just enough to stick to the jam. Then cover the hole cake with the rest of the buttercream, actually you might have some left over, but you can keep in the refrigerator for 1 week. When is done it’s time to decorate with the marzipan, you can make your own design, but what you do use a good quality marzipan, be careful because not all marzipan that see on the shops is good!

Well that was, the cake was absolutely delicious!

Risotto with mushrooms

I love cooking and actually my cooking is quite good, but if I had to say what is my specialty that would be risotto. I can prepare in different ways, you can see in my blog in previous posts and almost 99% of the times it is absolutely delicious. Well yesterday I made again a fantastic risotto with mushrooms, it was like melting in your mouth.

The ingredients you need are risotto rice, vegetable broth (I made also yesterday a fresh one, already in the freezer for a few times), cep or also called dry funghi porcini, fresh mushroom, onion, garlic, fresh parsley, butter, white wine, parmesan and a bit of truffle oil.

To start put the dry funghi porcini in hot water for about 15 minutes, then take them out and add that water to the bouillon. In a pan that can also go into the oven, bake the chopped onions and garlic in some butter until golden, about 5 to 10 minutes. Then add the risotto rice, scoop well and add the white wine, pour in once the bouillon. When starts boiling put the pan into a 170 degrees preheated oven, for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the mushrooms in small pieces and bake in some olive oil with salt and pepper until the start to shrink, then add the chopped parsley, scoop well. Take the pan out the oven and add the mushrooms, the pan goes again into the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the broth is almost evaporated.

When ready take out of the oven and add the grated parmesan and some more parsley. Serve with some more pepper and a bit of truffle oil, it is heavenly delicious!

Chocolate coconut cake

What do you do in a boring saturday afternoon? Bake! So that’s what I did yesterday. I baked a chocolate-coconut cake. It was really good, even that by mistake I use the wrong biscuits. Next time I will be a bit more careful.

The ingredients you need are: 225 gr. wholemeal biscuits with pure chocolate (I forgot that and I use without chocolate, also good but not perfect), 85 gr. butter, 1 egg, 175 gr. condensed milk, 1 tea spoon vanilla extract, 2 table spoons muscovado sugar, 6 table spoons self-rising flour, 125 gr. grated coconut and some extra pure chocolate to melt.

Crumble the biscuits, then smelt de butter and mix with the crumble. Put the hole thing in the tin (20×20), press hard. In a bowl mix the milk, egg, vanilla and sugar. Add mixing slowly the flour and the coconut. Then put into the tin. Bake in a 180 degrees preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until the top layer has a nice golden color.

Let the cake rest for about 5 minutes and then cut it into pieces, but let it cool down completely in the tin. Eventually you can sprinkle with melted pure chocolate, if you do that let it rest until the chocolate is hard.

It is absolutely delicious with a cup of coffee or tea.

Greek couscous

Busy, busy, busy, what a week, I hardly had time to be in the kitchen. Again a few appointments and things. Yesterday even though I made some couscous, easy, healthy and quick. That’s the good thing of couscous, you can have a meal in 20 minutes.

The ingredients in this occasion were gyros strips, red onion, green and red pepper. Then for the couscous just vegetable broth (bouillon), couscous and parsley. For the garlic sauce you just need full-fat yogurt, garlic, italian dry spices, salt and pepper.

The first thing you need to do is the garlic sauce, just mix all the ingredients together and put into the refrigerator for a couple of hours, that way all ingredients will mix well. This sauce you can use for different things, like BBQ.

In a wok pan with hot olive oil bake the chopped red onion, then add the gyros, bake for another 5-10 minutes and add the chopped peppers, bake all together 10 more minutes. Meanwhile, boil the broth add the fresh chopped parsley and after a couple of minutes put it into a bowl with the couscous, let it rest for 5 minutes, stir well with a fork.

Serve the gyros with the couscous together and put the bowl with the sauce on the table. Absolutely delicious.

Scones

With those cold days you just want to be home, have tea or coffee and something sweet, with a nice classical music on the background, just relax! Well yesterday it was sunny, we had a nice walk along the small lakes we have close to our house and when we arrive home I just felt like making scones, actually my husband made them this time, following the recipe we always use. There were really a treat, absolutely delicious.

The ingredients you need are: 250 gr. self-raising flour, 50 gr. caster sugar, a pinch of salt, 50 gr. unsalted butter, 1 egg and 100 ml buttermilk. You can also add 50 gr. raisins if you prefer, then do that when the doug is ready for cutting.

Sift the flour, sugar and salt, mix a bit, add the butter and mix with your fingers until fine crumbs. Add the beaten egg and the buttermilk and mix all well until you get a nice soft dough. In a working surface put some flour and knead the dough a little bit. With your hands make the dough flat, about 3 cm. thick and cut with a scones cutter.

Then put then in a greased baking tray and bake into a 210 degrees preheated oven for about 10/12 minutes. Serve with clotted cream and jam. Yesterday I used mascarpone instead, that also gives a delicious taste.

Risotto with tomatoes

It has been a very busy week, so busy that since tuesday actually I didn’t have time to cook special meals. Finally the weekend was here and yesterday I could expend some time in the kitchen and a risotto it was a good idea for it.

The ingredients you need are: risotto rice, vegetable broth (bouillon), small tasty tomatoes, garlic, spanish pepper, red onion, balsamic vinegar, tomato puree, white wine, pancetta, fresh basil and parmesan.

First chop the onions, garlic and spanish pepper. In a pan that also in the oven can go, add some butter and olive oil, bake the onions, garlic, spanish pepper and pancetta, very slowly, for about 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes in quarters, in a bowl mix with the vinegar, salt, pepper and the basil, leave to marinade.

When the onions mix is ready add the risotto, mix again and then add the white wine, after 2 minutes add all the broth in once and 1 big table spoon of tomato puree, mix well and cook until starts boiling, then put in a preheated 160 degrees oven the pan, for about 15 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and mix the half of the marinaded tomatoes and put back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes, until the broth is evaporated and the rice is ready.

Take out of the oven, add the rest of the tomatoes and some grated parmesan, mix well. Serve with some basil leaves and some more parmesan. Absolutely delicious!

Quiche with chicken

Last week I bought the book “Koken met Karin” as I already mention in an earlier post. There are a lot of delicious oven meals, cakes, cookies, … Yesterday I decided to give a try to the Quiche with chicken and rosemary.

It was the first time for me to prepare a quiche from the start. Normally I use frozen puff pastry. This time I did follow the recipe that Karin gives for the dough. Absolutely delicious, even that in my case the dough was not crispy, I think that the next time I need to keep it a bit longer in the oven.

The filling was also very good, the chicken, the onions, the pancetta, mix with the rosemary, then the eggs and double cream. Perfect really perfect. We still have some left overs, so tonight we will eat together with other lefts overs from monday!

Focaccia

We had again a busy weekend, with nice things of course. On saturday we had a friend coming over for dinner and sunday we went for a walk to the forrest, to enjoy the beautiful color of the autumn, this was during the morning. Yesterday was also Sint Maarten, in the evening the kids go with a self made lamp door to door singing in trade for candy. We always do that with our neighbors and the kids, after that we have dinner all together, this year it was in our house.

Since we had people coming over on saturday and on sunday, on both days I decided to make a focaccia to go with the dinner. It was quite some time since the last time, but it was really good! I still have some left over for my lunch today 

The ingredients you need are: 500 gr. flour, 1 bag yeast (7 gr.), some olive oil, 310 ml warm water, 5 gr. salt and 3 table spoons of sugar. That simple!

First mix with the water, the yeast and the sugar, leave it for about 10 minutes until start bubbling. Sieve the flour, make a hole in the middle and put the yeast mix in it, then add 4 table spoons of oil. Mix well with you hands and then add the salt. Work the dough for about 15 minutes until is nice and elastic. Make with the dough a nice ball adding some oil around, put in a bowl cover with a towel, leave it 2 hours to rise in a warm place.

After the dough is double of his size, take out the air with your hands and work it a bit again, then make it flat about 30×50 in a baking tray, top with your fingers every +/- 5 cm, then brush with some more olive oil, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise again for about 45 minutes-1 hour.

When this is ready you can put the ingredients you want, I used tomato puree, mozzarella and basil. But you can have other combinations, like goat cheese with rosemary. Just what you prefer. Then in a 200 degrees preheated oven, bake for about 30 minutes. And then you will have a fantastic bread!

Chocolate cookies

What a busy couple of days I had, I am still very busy. But finally I made a few minutes to post about the great cookies I made last thursday, just to cheer me up in my down moments 

On Wednesday I bought a new cooking book “Koken met Karin” full with recipes for in the oven. There they were those cookies, of course in the ingredients list I add my personal touch, normally I always do.

The ingredients according to the book are: white chocolate (that is the fulling), self-rising flour, soft butter, sugar, cacao powder, egg, a bit of salt, and then my ingredient a bit of vanilla extract. Just mix the flour, cacao powder and salt, then add the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Mix well until a nice brown dough. Then make small balls with your hands and fill the every ball with a bit of white chocolate. Put the nice round balls in the 170 degrees preheated oven for about 10/15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool completely.

Absolutely delicious, my husband doesn’t like so much, he is not so fun of dark chocolate, but my daughter and me love it!

A combine meal

Yesterday was a bit of a confusing cooking day. I had a plan to make something, I did my groceries, but when I started cooking I forgot to add ingredients that were in the original recipe, also my cooking way in the oven went in another way. In any case it was actually a very good meal, now I wonder if it was turn out so good if I had all done the way it suppose to, well I should try another time 

I will start with the meat, my ingredients were: pork chops, a lot of garlic, ground fennel seed and fresh sage. What I did it was to bake without oil the pork chops in a pan for about 10 minutes, turning them regularly. After +/- 8 minutes add the garlic, then put all into a baking dish, add the fennel seed, salt and pepper. Put the baking dish into a 180 degrees preheated oven for about another 10 minutes of until ready.

Then we had the potatoes, the ingredients are simple, very small potatoes, mix them with salt and pepper, add a lot of garlic and boiling water. Cook for about 12/15 minutes depending on how big the potatoes are. When ready take them out the water, drain them well. Then in a pan add some oil, heated and bake the potatoes with some rosemary until golden.

Last we have the portobello’s, big mushrooms, actually it was for us the first to eat them, fantastic! Ingredients, one portobello per person, then some spanish pepper, garlic and parsley, chopped this three ingredients very well until a nice mix, divide into your portobellos and garnish with some grated cheese. Then in a baking dish into the oven for about 10 minutes.

Serve all together with some bread (we forgot …) and a nice wine.

 

Salad for one

Well the weekend has passed, so quickly as always does. It was not a very good weekend, I am having ups and downs at this moment, actually more downs than ups. My search for work is not working … I have tried everything, applying to vacancies, sending open applications, doing network, but so far no results. It’s very sad, because you apply for a job that you know you can do, that actually you are the best option but still … I have to keep positive that’s what everybody keeps telling me, something that is not easy when you get so many doors close in your face. Meanwhile I have my family and my kitchen that gives me the energy to continue.

In my downs yesterday I had dinner by myself, it was a family birthday party but I was not feeling well, so I stay home and made for myself a nice and healthy salad with what I found in the refrigerator. Ingredients: mix of green salad, sun dried tomatoes, chorizo, capers, pine nuts and parmesan. For the dressing: extra verge olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and dry basil. Serve with some bread and a glass of wine.

Spanish Casserole

I cook all kind of things, from italian to mexican to american to dutch to french … but I always have to go back to my spanish roots. I have to think in my mother’s kitchen, she can cook so good. I have learned a few recipes from her of course and this spanish casserole is one of them, I have add my own extra ingredient to give a bit more taste and it works. I have follow her instructions for a few years but one day I decided to change something and suddenly it was my own casserole.

The ingredients you need are pork or lamb rag in small pieces, potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes, salt and pepper and my extra ingredient rosemary. It is actually very very simple, you cat everything small, you put all the ingredients in a roasting pan, add a lot of olive oil, mix all well with salt, pepper and rosemary, then to the 200 degrees preheated oven for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, keep an eye depending on your oven you might need longer or shorter time.

Serve with bread, a salad and a good red wine. Buen provecho!

Carrot Cake

We have been few times in England and Scotland, we like the quiet atmosphere, the nature, the small towns but specially the tearooms with their delicious cakes and teas. Every time we go I buy new baking stuff, like baking dishes or ingredients that are difficult and expensive to find in The Netherlands. One of our favorite cakes is the carrot cake, so in one of our holidays I bought a book where this recipe was in, oh! it is absolutely the best carrot cake I have ever eat. This time I have use almost all ingredients organic, fantastic!

What you need is: self-rising flour, light browns muscovado sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg, ground mixed spice, ground ginger, orange grated zest, eggs, sunflower oil, walnuts and grated carrots.

Then for the filling and topping you need: full-fat cream cheese, unsalted butter, icing sugar, orange grated zest and orange juice.

Preparation is really easy, sift flour, baking powder and all spices, then mix slowly the sugar, orange zest and nuts, after that the beaten eggs, sunflower oil and carrots. Once is good mix divided into two baking tins and bake in a 170 degrees preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

For the topping just beat all the ingredients together until you is nice smooth and creamy, it could be that you need to put in the refrigerator to cool a little beat.

Perfect with a cup of tea!

Broccoli Soup

What a weather we had yesterday, windy, rain, cold, perfect weather for soup actually. Of course it had to be one with a lot of vitamins, you need them with this cold. For that there is almost no better vegetable than the broccoli.

The ingredients you need: 1 big onion in small rings, about 125 gr. diced ham, 2 or 3 garlic cloves, 1,25 dl. vegetable broth, about 250 gr. broccoli cut into florets, 75 gr. small pasta for soup.

In a big pan with some olive oil bake the ham, onion and garlic, about 4 to 5 minutes, until golden. Then add the warm broth (bouillon), when starts boiling turn the heat down and with the cover leave to cook further for about 10 minutes. Add then the broccoli, cook another 5 minutes and then add the pasta, cook until the pasta is al dente. Add some salt (not much) and pepper. Serve with grated parmesan and a ciabatta bread. Absolutely delicious.