Cake Recipes

Chocolate dessert with surprise

 

I hope you ate before you read this!! I have a terrific dessert for you! It just comes off the top of your desserts for years (and perhaps would be a recipe for generations ahead). Beauty is in the simplicity - and so this is the most beautiful dessert in the world. Very simple ingredients, no baking soda no baking powder!!! Nothing more! But that’s not all. You can bake it in any forms, I have chosen cups. And inside a surprise awaiting your guests!!! At first it will be a raspberry inside, which is great to play with chocolate, then later, near the end, the guest will feel surprise number two - peanut butter. Just think, the best friends of chocolate, berries and nuts, are joined together.

 

Ingredients:

Eggs   4pc

Sugar 200gr

Flour 100gr

Cacao powder 80gr

Butter 180gr

Peanut butter

Raspberries

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 C

Put eggs in mixer. Than sugar (I use brown sugar but you can use white or mix both kinds of sugars). Using ball tool mix on a medium speed until mixture grows 2-3 times in size. Sift the flour and good quality cocoa powder I use dutched (alkalized cocoa powder is more rich in taste) Continue to mix. At the same time melt the butter. Slowly pour butter into the mixer bowl. Great!

Pour the batter into a large baking bag. In another bag put peanut butter. Than more dense it is than better.

You can use any baking forms but then higher it is than better. I use aluminium baking cups. Diameter 5cm at the bottom, and 5cm height. Each cup previously covers with butter and flour and shake off exceed flour (French jacket). Fill 2/3 of each cup with batter. Then pour some peanut butter. Over again batter and some (3-4) berries. And batter again.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. You can check if your dessert is ready by piercing it with a tooth pick or party stick. It should go out dry.

 

Leave your dessert to cool. Remove from the forms. To decorate you can melt some milk or dark chocolate and pour it over the cakes also put some berries on top.

Vanilla sponge

Friday, end of the week. Usually this day we are doing plans for an amazing weekend. And in all!!! It seems like weekend day life must be seething. Some of us like to stay surrounded by family, big or small it’s no matter. And have a cup of tea or coffee or few cups J (that’s about me, I can drink tea all day and never fed up of its taste) and discuss events of past week. But what is a tea without dessert? Something classic but forever delicious I offer you here to try. Yes vanilla sponge very simple and fast to prepare but then you can play with fillings...any fresh fruits mixed with jam or tender whipped cream or who like it more textured butter cream or chocolate ganache. Let’s start it our sweet weekend!

 

Ingredients:

Butter melted 65g

Vanilla extract ½ tsp

Eggs 180g (approximately 3 large eggs)

Eggs yolks 65g (from approximately 3 large eggs)

Sugar 200g

 

All-purpose flour, sifted 200g

Method:

1. Coat the cake pans with light film of fat and line them with baking paper.

2. Blend the butter with the vanilla.

3. Combine the eggs, eggs yolks, and sugar in a mixer bowl. Set over a pan of barely simmering water and whisk constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture reaches 110 degrees.

4. Transfer to the mixer and whip on the high speed with the whip attachment until the foam reaches maximum volume. Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium and mix for 15 minutes to stabilize the mixture.

5. Fold in the flour. Temper the butter mixture with a small portion of the batter and fold into the larger portion of the batter.

6. Pour in to the prepared cake pan, filling the pan two-thirds full.

7. Bake at 177 degrees until the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, about 30 minutes.

8. Cool the cake in the pan for few minutes, then unmold onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper that is dusted with confectioners` sugar to cool completely.

 Cut cake sponge twice lengthwise and cover in preferred cream. I prefer for plain vanilla sponge vanilla butter cream. But you can use any favorite jam, fresh fruits, whipped cream or white chocolate ganache or mix of creams and fruits. Here you find both creams recipe:

 

Butter cream:

Ingredients:

200g butter

400g icing sugar

Vanilla essence or any other flavor preferred

 

Method:

Place butter in mixer with K beater attachment, cream the butter

Add icing sugar and flavor preferred beat for 3-4 minutes on medium speed until creamy.

 

Milk chocolate ganache:

Ingredients:

900g of white chocolate (buy the most expensive you can find on a market)

400g of cream

Method:

Break your chocolate on small pieces.

Pop your cream in a microwave for 4-5 minutes to boil (if you don’t have one pop it over the stove and bring to the boiling point).

 

Pour boiling hot cream over the broken chocolate pieces and mix well until all smooth. Leave it to cool until it ll get nice creamy texture. 

My perfect Carrot Cake

In my research of the best carrot cake recipe I had many fails and many “not so bad” results and many “it taste great” but at the end of all I found my perfect carrot cake recipe and I don’t want to experiment more. Because from this recipe cake comes exactly as I imagine it to be...softness, texture, taste and appearance. I found my happiness and it wasn’t very fast. Of course for every one of us happiness is different so you may continue experimenting with your favorite ingredients, different types of nuts or add more or less raisins or remove them from recipe at all. But for me I found my “unicorn” and don’t want to change it. Here I want to share it with you.   

Ingredients:

Sugar 320g

Salt    5g

All purpose flour 965g

Ground cinnamon 10g

Baking power 3g

Baking soda 2g

Eggs 180g (approximately 3 large eggs)

Vegetable oil 150ml

Carrots grated 180g

 

Walnuts chopped 60g

Method:

1. Coat the pans with a light of fat and line them with baking paper.

2. Combine the sugar and salt. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda.

3. Whip the eggs on medium speed with the whip attachment until thick, about 8 minutes. Increase the mixer speed to high and continue whipping until eggs thicken to the ribbon stage, about 8 minutes. 

4. Gradually add the oil, whipping on high speed until evenly blended.

5. Gradually add the sugar mixture, whipping at medium speed. Add the sifted flour mixture mixing on low speed until just incorporated.

6. Fold in the grated carrots and chopped walnuts.

7. Put in the batter into the prepared pan.

8. Bake at 180 degrees until a skewer inserted near the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

9. Cool the cake in the pan for few minutes, then unmold onto racks to cool completely. 

 

I love this cake with cream cheese frosting or butter cream and whole nuts on top

Cream cheese frosting: 

Ingredients:

150g cream cheese, softened

50g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

300g icing sugar

Method:

Place cheese, butter and vanilla in a bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until pale. Gradually add icing sugar, beating until combined.

Butter cream:

Ingredients:

200g butter

400g icing sugar

Vanilla essence or and other flavour preferred

Method:

Place butter in mixer with K beater attachment, cream the butter

Add icing sugar and flavour preferred beat for 3-4 minutes on medium speed until creamy. 

Very simple chocolate cake

If you are reading this recipe now, consider yourself very lucky. Anyone who ever tried this cake said: "Oh, how delicious, but probably I will never do it by myself."

This is one of my favorite moments, when a cake made from the simplest ingredients and in only 20 minutes. But to anyone who ever tried it, it seems like I’ve used a secret recipe of the best chefs in the world, which is disclosed once in a century to a three lucky ones under a full moonlight night. J

 

So, when the cake is ready and cool - just wrap it in plastic wrap. After a couple of hours you will have the soft, elastic and moist cake.  You may eat it as a standalone dessert, with no any creams. And in this case it may stay fresh for 3-4 days, and get even better. But for those who are chocoholics I suggest to put on top dark chocolate ganache. I personally love all kind of berries so wherever I can put them I do. 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 250g

Salt 1 tsp

Soda – 1.5 tsp

Cocoa powder 55 g

Sugar 300g

Eggs -120g (approximately 2 eggs)

Butter 60 g

Olive oil 60 g

Vanilla extract 2 tsp

Milk 280 ml

 

Wine vinegar – 1 tbsp

Method:

Preheat oven to 175 C

Mix together Flour, soda, salt, sugar and cocoa powder.

Than mix in eggs, softened butter, olive oil, vanilla extract (if you don’t have one just skip it), milk and wine vinegar (you may replace it with apple vinegar or pear vinegar important it’s not balsamic vinegar and not very strong not over 6%)

Now mix all ingredients on high speed in your mixer with balloon attachment. Fill up your 8 inch form not over than by ¾ cake will rise a lot.

After 40 min try to pierce your cake with wooden stick if it will go out dry your cake is ready.

After take it out of form and leave to cool over cooling rack.

On top pour dark chocolate ganache , i like to use berries too.

 

Dark chocolate ganache recipe:

Ingredients:

500 g most expensive dark chocolate you can find on a market (minimum 70% of cocoa)

250 g cream

Method:

Break your chocolate on small pieces.

Bring cream to boiling in microwave by heating 4-5 minutes, if you don’t have one pop it over stove and bring to boiling point.

 

 Pour boiling hot cream over dark chocolate pieces. Mix well until fully melt and creamy. Leave to cool and use.

Pancakes with blueberries or strawberries

Give me all sorts of arguments against it, but I believe that “pancakes breakfast” is one of the best dishes that humanity came up with. How many different pancakes variations can be...this list seems like endless. Pancakes with berries, bananas, honey and jam, jam, cream and cheese, with bacon or even with tomato sauce. Why not!!!

And if you have the opportunity to try more and different versions of the taste  - here is the place where fantasy becomes simply limitless. In addition, everyone loves pancakes as children as adults or just adults become kids J, gobbling up this yummiest food.

Ingredients:

Bicarbonate of soda 1 tsp

Self raising flour 100g

Milk 150ml

Egg 1

 

Toppings on your pancake slices of strawberries/ blueberries/ bananas/mangoes....

Method:

1. Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda into the bowl and make a well in the center.

2. Using a fork lightly beat the egg and milk together in a jug and pour into the well. Whisk the mixture until you have a smooth batter. Add few berries inside of batter.

3. Heat one tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Drop large spoonfuls of the batter into the pan.

4. Fry the pancakes for 2 minutes or until golden on the bottom and with bubbles on the top. Flip over to cook the other side.

5. Carefully slice the strawberries with a table knife. Or arrange whole blueberries on top. Serve the pancakes with fruit, honey or/and maple syrup.

Vanilla cupcakes with different fillings

I love desserts that can be made in 20 minutes before the arrival of the guests, while not spending a lot of energy and ingredients. Even better that kind of dessert that can stay a few days and remain fresh. And so these are cupcakes. Especially good is the fact that the filling can be changed to your liking, and there are no limits to ideas!

Ingredients:

125g butter

125 g sugar

1sachet vanilla sugar or vanilla extract

2 eggs

200 g plain flour

50 g ground almonds

1 pinch of salt

2 tsp baking powder

 

4 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C

2. Use the balloon whisk attachment of the food mixer to cream the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla sugar.

3. Gradually beat in the eggs.

4. Mix in the flour, baking powder and almonds alternating with the milk.

5. Here we can add any berries or chocolate chips or nuts or lemon rind in cake mix, or leave it plain it still tastes just delightful.

6. Put the cake mix in cake moulds, not higher than 2/3

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes

8. Then cool thoroughly on a cooling rack.

9. And enjoy it with cream cheese frosting or butter cream topping or   any your favorite toppings.

 

 

 

Cream cheese frosting: 

 

Ingredients:

150g cream cheese, softened

50g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

300g icing sugar

Method:

Place cheese, butter and vanilla in a bowl. Using an electric mixer beat until pale. Gradually add icing sugar, beating until combined.

 

 

Butter cream:

 

Ingredients:

200g butter

400g icing sugar

Vanilla essence or and other flavour preferred

Method:

Place butter in mixer with K beater attachment, cream the butter

Add icing sugar and flavour preferred beat for 3-4 minutes on medium speed until creamy. 

Everyone’s favorite CINNABONS

 Sometimes you try something and ...fall in love with the dish. Yeees....it happens to me with “Cinnabon rolls”. Initially, I was quite skeptical to the idea. Buns? So what?! Who can be surprised from buns only, and a whole cafe for selling only one type of buns?????? All questions were dispelled by themselves after I tasted the first rolled bun. I still remember how long I couldn’t decide how to start eating it. Then I realized - fork + knife and a large mug of tea. The perfect kit for a cold winter and even for a hot summer.

Then there was the obstacle number two - a recipe. As often happens with popular dishes in the world: hundreds of recipes. But you never know what will be result. So I’ve started my journey in finding best and most similar to Cinnabon net recipe.

And here I arrived. This is perfect recipe with a result just as real Cinnabon.

Ingredients:

Milk 200g

Dry yeast 11g

Pinch of salt

Eggs 2 pc

Butter 200g

Flour 520 g

Sugar 180g

Vanilla

Grated Cinnamon 5 tbsp

 

For frosting: icing sugar 150g, cream cheese 150 g

Method:

1. Warm your milk till 30-35C (not over, it’s your body temperature so if you’ll touch it with your finger you should feel it just as you touch yourself). Put yeast into your milk and leave to stand for 5 minutes.

2. Beat your eggs over high speed with balloon attachment until it turns into a thick foam.

3. To milk with yeast add eggs, 90 g of sugar, vanilla and 3 tbsp of melted butter. Mix all ingredients to combine

4. Add sifted flour, pinch of salt into a milk mi and knead well your dough. Do it with love other way it will not come good. Dough feels if you have good mood or bad if you love what you do or not. So relax and enjoy while kneading. Knead until it will stop sticking to your hands.

5. Leave for 1 hour to rise in warm place. Cover your bowl with dry towel.

6. After your dough rise at least twice in size knead it again and roll out a layer about 0.3-0.5 cm thick.

7. On top of your layer spread rest of the butter, than sugar and cinnamon. Roll it into one long roll.

8. Cut your roll on pieces about 4-5 cm each and arrange on a distance minimum 4-5 cm from each other over your baking tray. Leave to rise for 30 minutes.

9. While rising preheat your oven to 200C. 

10. Put your cinnabons into the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. 

11. While baking prepare cream cheese frosting. By just mixing with hand mixer all ingredients.

12. Leave your cinnabons to cool a bit and spread frosting over buns while they are still a bit warm.

Lemon meringue pie

Ingredients:

Pie dough 200gr (you can buy it at your nearest market or follow the method at the end)

Lemon meringue filling

Water 320ml

Sugar 150g

Salt 1 pinch

Lemon juice 50ml

Lemon zest, grated 10g

Cornstarch 30g

Egg yolks 40g

Butter 20g

Meringue topping

Egg whites 70g

Granulated sugar 132g

 

Confectioners’ sugar as needed 

Method:

1. Roll the dough approximate 3mm thick and line the pie pan. Line the pie shell with parchment paper and fill with dry beans or pie weights. Bake the shell at 180 degrees until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove the weights. Cool completely.

2. Combine 240ml of water, 75g of sugar, the salt, lemon juice and zest in a sauce pot and bring it to boil.

3. Combine the remaining 75g of sugar and the cornstarch thoroughly mix together.

4. Combine the egg yolks and the remaining 80ml of water. Add to the sugar cornstarch mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined and reserve.

 

5. When the lemon juice mixture comes to a boil, temper the mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

Put the combine mixture back on the heat and return to a boil until the mixture thickens about 2 minutes.

Once thickened remove from the heat immediately. Stir in the butter.

6. Put the pie filling into the shell and let cool to room temperature.

7. To make the meringue topping, whip the egg white in a clean bowl, gradually adding the sugar. Whip to stiff peaks.

8. Using a pastry bag with 5 star tip or a palette knife, divide the meringue topping among the pie and swirl into a decorative pattern.

Dust with confectioners’ sugar and bake at 220 degrees until meringue is lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Serve – Eat –  Regret nothing :-)

 

Basic pie dough 

Ingredients:

All purpose flour 170g

Salt 5.5g

Butter, cut into pieces, chilled 113g

Cold water 60ml 

Method:

1. Combine the flour and salt in the mixture. Add the butter and blend on medium speed with the dough hook attachment until pea-size nuggets form, about 3 minute. Add the water all at once and continue to mix until the dough just comes together.

 

2. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Scale the dough as desired. Wrap tightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before rolling. ( The dough can be held under refrigeration or frozen).