Jam and Walnut Rolls

 

Today I bring you another desert, which was a summer favourite in our family, specially amongst my kids. It has lots of nuts and jam and lemon zest. Ah, such a lovely combination of flavours, and also smells wonderful! I have to bake this weekly now, my kids are hooked up and addicted to this 🙂

 

 

I usually buy ready rolled puff pastry sheets for this. One package (320 g) yells 12 little rolls, but in our kitchen this is gone in less than 5 minutes, so I make two usually, because…you know, I want to eat, too 🙂  You can bake it loose on a baking sheet or put the rolls in the muffin pan as I did here, but usually I just cut up the rolls and place them loose on the baking sheet. Either way is fine.

Ingredients:

-1 pack Puff Pastry sheet

-200 g apricot jam (you can make this with any other jam, but we like it best with apricot)

-100 g ground walnuts

-2-3 Tbsp brown sugar

-zest of 1 lemon

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 C.

Mix the sugar with the walnuts and lemon zest.

Open the puff sheet and spread the jam evenly. The more, the better. Sprinkle the walnut mixture evenly on top. Again, the more the better 🙂

Carefully start to roll up as tight as possible, then cut 12 even rolls with a sharp knife.

Arrange them in the muffin pan or baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes.

Even thou you will want to eat them straight away (because you will), let it cool down because the jam can be really, really hot and will burn you. Trust me, I’ve been there, I’ve done that…

Blueberry Cupcakes

 

 

The most simple thing ever. Sometimes I bake white chocolate chip cupcakes and frost it with whipped cream and fresh fruits, but this time I left the chocolates in the cupboard and stirred fresh blueberries in the batter just before baking. They were amazing. Simple as that.

 

 

 

 

Light Summer Cupcakes with Elderflowers

 

Although it is officially Autumn already, I bring you these light and fluffy elderflower cupcakes which is a classic representation of the Summer. But, as you might notice, I way away for pretty much the whole season. My last post was sometime at the beginning of July. Not only that I haven’t posted anything during these weeks, but I haven’t baked anything either. Too much going on, and we were away for our annual holidays abroad, plus we were not really craving sweet cakes. That’s one good thing about the summer amongst the endless other things 😉 Oh, how I wish it would be always summer!

 

 

 

Back to the table, I present you these easy, light, little cakes. As innocent as they look, they have a strong character when you taste them. I put lots of fresh elderflowers in the batter, I picked them myself from the bushes in front of the house. And also used elderflower cordial to flavor the frosting cream. They are a must try for those who like the taste of elderflowers.

 

 

I used my basic vanilla recipe and threw in lots of small flowers. I didn’t wash the flowers to keep all the flavors, but I picked from a place where there is no road traffic, so they were relatively clean, then I just cut of the little flowers from the stem.

 

 

Ingredients:

-125 g butter, softened at room temperature

-1 cup brown sugar

-2 eggs

-1+1/3 cup flour

-1/3 cup milk

-2 teaspoon vanilla extract

-pinch of salt

-2 teaspoon baking powder

–elderflowers (1/2 – 1 cup)

Frosting:

-300 ml double cream

-2-3 Tbsp elderflower cordial

Method:

Preheat the oven. Line your cupcake pan with the cases.

In a bowl, use an electric mixer on high speed to cream the butter and sugar together until it’s light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix well.

Add the vanilla, flour and milk, and beat with the electric mixer until combined, but be careful DO NOT OVER-MIX, because it will become dry and sort of a bread (take Laura Vitale’s word for that)

Sprinkle in the flowers and stir until it’s all incorporated.

Use an ice cream scoop -if you have, and divide the mixture evenly in your cupcake cases, but fill them only 3/4.

Bake them for around 20 minutes, half way through you can turn your tray in the oven, but NEVER open the oven in the first 10 minutes of baking, this is important!

Take them out from the oven, but leave the cupcakes in the pan for about 5 minutes before you transfer them on a wire rack.

After they are cold, whip the double cream adding gradually the preferred amount of cordial.

 

Raspberry Meringue Cupcakes

 

Basic vanilla cupcakes and whipped meringue frosting with fresh raspberries. That’s all. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Fathers Day!

 

 

This is a no-bake desert, but very rich and full of flavours. I meant to try for a long time to use After eight chocolates to make little square boxes, but I didn’t really know how until I found the little Millionaire’s squares in the store. It turned out they were the perfect match, same size.

 

I only whipped some double cream and threw in some gold chocolate sprinkles with fresh strawberries to create the picture perfect.

Happy Fathers Day!

 

 

 

Individual Mini Black Forest Cakes

 

I have a book called “The best – ever book of cakes” written by Ann Nicol. It’s big, it’s lovely, and full with great recipes of all sorts, yet I only baked twice from it. First time 3 years ago, just one day before my due date with my youngest daughter, and now for the second time, when my little girl is almost 3. Both times the same recipe, the Black Forest Gateau. The only changes I made was that this time I made mini cakes instead of one large. More time consuming, but totally worth it. I have a post about my large cake from 3 years ago, but I wasn’t in the mood to copy down the recipe from the book back then (baby anxiety, I guess), but I’ll do it this time, because I really think that this recipe worth the trouble.

 

 

Ingredients:

-75 g melted butter

-5 eggs

-175 g caster sugar

-50 g flour, sifted

-50 g unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

Filling and topping:

-6 Tbsp Kirsch

-600 ml double cream

-425 g can black cherries, drained, pitted and chopped

Decoration:

-plain chocolate curls or shreds

-fresh cherries with stems

Method:

Preheat the oven. Grease and line a large tray bake tin with baking paper. If you make a round cake then use two 20 cm/8in round deep cake tins.

Put the egg and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and pale and leaves a trail when the beaters are lifted.

Sift together the flour and cocoa powder, then sift again into the whisked mixture. Fold in gently using a metal spoon and a figure-of-eight motion.

Slowly pour in the cooled melted butter and fold in gently.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin, or tins, and smooth level. Bake for 30 minutes, until springy to the touch.

Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool. Peel off the lining paper.

I used a 6 cm diameter cooking ring/cutter to cut out my mini cake layers. If you bake one large cake, then cut each round cake in half horizontally, so you’ll end up with four layers of cake. Sprinkle evenly with the Kirsch.

In a large bowl, whip the cream until it holds soft peaks. The original recipe tells you to mix the chopped, drained cherries into the whipped cream, but I just put the cherries first on the cake then I put the cream on top. And I did this on every little cake layer before I stacked them.

Finish off with a layer of whipped cream on the sides and on the top. Decorate with chocolate curls. My chocolate curls were not chocolate curls at all, I only made flakes using a vegetable peeler, and since the chocolate started to melt in my hands, they were not exactly what I had in mind, but maybe next time they will turn out better.

Coffee Cupcakes with Toffee Mascarpone and Figs

 

I was glad to find fresh figs at the store because I had this cupcake in my mind for a while now. Not this recipe though.

Many recipes pair the figs with honey, but I wanted something else. Maybe figs with honey is very delicious, but in my imagination something is missing. I wanted something different.

Now, you may remember that not so long ago I said that I don’t like boxed cakes, and it’s true, I don’t, but recently I found a blog post about how to improve a boxed cake to taste like real cake from a good bakery. This pushed me towards buying a boxed cake, you know…just to experiment.

So, I chose a coffee cake from Betty Crocker. As for the icing, I bought double cream and Mascarpone cream cheese. At that point I wasn’t sure what else I will add to the icing, but later I remembered that I have some left over Toffee sauce which would be just perfect. And it truly was!

Back to that blog post about how to make a boxed cake better, there were various tips, and I decided to change 3 things. First, instead of using vegetable oil, I used good quality, French butter, melted. Secondly, instead of medium eggs, I used three large of the best eggs, and finally I add to the mixture 100 gr Pecans and 1 tsp of vanilla extract. And of course, I didn’t bake one cake, but instead I baked the batter in form of cupcakes. I am very satisfied with the final result.

The best thing about the whole experience was definitely the fact that I didn’t have to use any extra sugar, nothing in the batter and nothing in the icing either. Well, I know that the box cake contains sugar, and the Toffee sauce also contains sugar, but still, the fact that I did not touch the sugar container the whole time of making these cupcakes made me feel better. Yey!

Ingredients:

-1 box of Coffee Cake from Betty Crocker

-3 large eggs or 4 medium

-90 ml melted butter

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-180 ml water

-100 gr Pecans, chopped

For the icing:

-300 ml double cream

-250 gr (1 pack) Mascarpone cream cheese

-Toffee sauce (the ones you pour over ice cream for example)

Method:

Preheat your oven, and line the cupcake pan with the paper cases.

Put the eggs, melted butter, water and cake mixture in a large bowl, and mix well, finally add the pecans too.

Divide the batter evenly in the pan and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

When ready, let them cool on a wire rack.

Put the cream cheese in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer adding the Toffee sauce gradually. I can’t tell you how much really, it depends on how you would like your icing to be. More Toffee sauce means sweeter and more brownish icing. In terms of consistency I’m not sure how much it would change, but I assume you don’t want to add a whole bottle of Toffee sauce, which would result in a runny icing. So, my advice here would be to taste after every spoonful of sauce to make sure you’ll get what you like. Also, don’t forget that there is 300 ml of double cream to add to this which will take away from the colour and the taste.

Now, if you don’t want your kids to stuff themselves with too many cupcakes, then coffee cupcakes is definitely the way to go….as good as these were, my kids didn’t seem to be interested at all because they are “coffee cupcakes”. They know coffee is a drink for adults and this kept them away from the kitchen this time. Well, selfishly, I didn’t mind a bit 🙂

We ate few with my husband during the weekend, and the rest went to the freezer….

Blueberries & White Chocolate Chips Cupcakes for Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all the lovely Mums out there!

 

I made a small batch of these for today, well actually yesterday, because we went out today and have had a lovely Mothers Day lunch with my husband and the kids.

 

 

Wanted something fresh and light, and these cupcakes were just that. Filled with giant, juicy blueberries and white chocolate chips, and topped with whipped cream infused with freshly crushed blueberries.

 

I used my basic vanilla recipe and just added 200 gr blueberries and 100 gr chocolate chips, very easy and very delicious.

In Hungary Mothers Day is not on the same day as in the UK, it’s usually later in April. Last year I made cupcakes only for the Hungarian Mothers Day, but then I forgot to post it 🙂

In Hungary Mothers Day is not on the same day as in the UK, it’s usually later at the beginning of May.  I remember my very first Mothers Day in 2007. My daughter war born on the 30th of April, and we just got home from the hospital back in Budapest, and people started to congratulate me and wish me happy Mothers Day at the same time. Oh, those magical times…..

Last year I made cupcakes only for the Hungarian Mothers Day, but then I forgot to post it 🙂

So, I am sharing those cupcakes with you today. I used fresh roses to decorate those and the cute silicone flower pot cupcake cases. I remember that they were dark chocolate topped with pink whipped cream.

 

Fresh Zingy Lemon Cupcakes

 

I made a full batch of lemon cupcakes yesterday, then I played a bit decorating them in different styles. For these two I chose few colorful ribbons only. Recipe for them you can find two posts behind under Lemon Ombre Heaven Cupcakes.

 

 

 

 

 

These ones here have a smaller amount of butter cream icing and just one little sugar flower.