HAPPY NEW YEAR

After overindulging during the Christmas season: January is the month for health. It is also the time for New Years Resolutions. According to Statistic Brain (http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/) 38% of Americans' New Year Resolutions are to do with 'weight related issues'. Not surprisingly, the number one New Years Resolution is to 'loose weight'. Like everyone else one of my New Years Resolutions is to do with 'weight related issues'. Although it's not 'loose weight', it's healthy and nutritious eating, which should help me to maintain and even loose a little Christmas weight. What's different about this year for me, is that I want to be part of the mere 39% of people (http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/) who actually keep their New Years Resolution! 

It is no wonder that the number one New Years Resolution is to 'loose weight' as everywhere you look there are advertisements, promotions, articles, stories encouraging people to loose weight, especially in January. It seems, it is more the media creating the image that January is the month to loose weight and create your ideal body image in doing so, then people actually deciding.  But then you get in to the chicken and egg dilemma: was it the media or people who first created this January phenomenon.  I firmly believe it was the media. The media uses so much airbrushing and people with perceived perfect bodies, that it rubs off on the public and means many people strive to have the perfect bodies and therefore go on crazy diets. This is especially heightened in January.  However, it should be more about improving your health with a healthy eating and exercise then going on radical 2/3/4/5/6 or however many week diets. 

So to undertake my New Years Resolution, I'm going to train to run 5km. This will help improve my general health and hopefully burn some excess calories. They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and beneficial to prevent you snacking throughout the day on sugary things. So to start my New Year I'm going to improve my breakfasts. No more Italian breakfasts of hot chocolate, cookies or croissants (well accept for weekends ;) ), instead it's time for granola (homemade of course!). 

I understand that there's mixed feelings about whether granola is actually healthy or not. Some prefere muesli as a healthier option, as it isn't covered in sugar. But I assure you that my granola is still healthy! Instead of coating it in sugar or honey, I've used maple syrup (a natural sugar) and olive oil to help create the crispness. Besides from that there is no added sugar. 

The basic recipe is so simple that you can add whatever nuts, seeds or fruits you want to, to make it to your taste. Be creative and experiment with different flavour combinations such as cranberry and pecan, or almonds and pineapple. I've created a granola which is high in iron adding pumpkin seeds, almonds and apricots. The beauty of this breakfast is that you can tailor it to your health needs. 

The base is oats, flaxseed, sesame seeds and desiccated coconut and then add whatever else you desire. My favourite way to eat it is over yogurt with fresh fruit (see picture). 

NUALA'S LOW FAT AND HIGH IN IRON GRANOLA

Ingredients: 

4 cups rolled oats 

1/2 desiccated coconut 

1/4 flaxseed 

1/2 sesame seeds 

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup flaked almonds 

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

3/4 apricots, cut into small chunks 

3 tablespoons maple syrup 

3 tablespoons olive oil

Method: 

1) Preheat oven to 180C. 

2) In a large bowl mix the oats, coconut, flaxseed, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, flaked almonds and cinnamon. Next add the maple syrup and mix well until all ingredients are coated in it. 

3) On a large baking tray, brush olive oil. Pour mixture onto the baking tray and spread evenly. 

4) Cook for 30 minutes until golden. Every 10 minutes turn the mixture, so it is evenly cooked. 

5) Remove from oven and cool for 10-20 minutes.     

Italy

It's been a while I know .... But I'm back!

So I've finished my a-levels this summer and have a place at university, but I am taking a Gap Year before heading to university. So at the moment I'm living in Italy and working as an aupair.

I've been out there for 3 months already and seen so many beautiful places, met amazing people and best of all tasted incredible food. Through living and working within a family I am getting to experience Italian culture (and cuisine) first hand. The mom in the family has taught me multiple Italian recipes and the grandmother is a ledginary cook!

So Italy is known for its legendary food; in particular pizza, pasta and coffee. So here's my round up of where I've had the best of each of these during my travels .... 

So far the best PIZZA that I have tasted was in Florence in this cute little family run pizza shop. It was made with sourdough, so the crusts were gooey and the base crispy - just how I like it. The topping was classic tomato sauce and then rocket, mozerella and tomatoes as well, but the freshness and flavour was AMAZING! I might just have to go back to florence to eat this amazing pizza again! 

There's a joke with the family I live with as they know how obsessed I am with pesto PASTA. In the north of La Spezia there is a little fresh pasta shop, where the grandmother bought pasta from and then made homemade pesto to go on top! It was delicious especially with the toasted pine nuts sprinkled ontop. I would eat this for the rest of my life! Where I am is near Genova, which is the home of pesto. Interestingly a lot of people make the pesto without garlic which is a million times nicer! After eating pesto without garlic you appreciate the flavours more and they come through more clearly and subtly. Whereas with garlic it overpowers the pesto. So never again will I be eating pesto made with garlic! 

COFFEE - where to start? Thinking through the last 3 months I haven't tasted a coffee which has been bad. Some coffees stood out move then others due to the design on top (drizzled chocolate or shapes like hearts) or it was made with funky flavours (like the Nutella coffee (below) I had - where Nutella was put around the edge of the glass, then a double shot of espresso and finally whipped cream and a biscuit on top). In La Spezia there is one cafe that I love as the coffee is cheap (€1.30) and then they drizzle melted chocolate on top - heaven! 

The Tick of a Clock

Tick . . . tock . . . tick . . .  tock . . . tick . . . tock . . . tick . . .  tock  . . . tick . . .

Wow! How has time passed so quickly? How have I not managed to post in sooo long? I am completely overwhelmed with the lack of time in my life - hence why I haven't posted in yonks!

tock . . . tick . . .  tock . . . tick . . . tock . . . tick . . .  tock . . . tick . . .

After being absent for so long, I feel disconnected from the blogger world. So now I need  your help to reconnect. I am asking you (the kind readers of my blog . . . ) to help me come up with a new baking project for me to undertake. I am open to any ideas just through them my way!

tock . . . tick . . .  tock . . . tick . . . tock . . . tick . . .  tock  . . . tick . . . tock.

Sponge Creations

Today I was inspired by the scorching spring sun to go back to basics and experiment with flavours. Although it is exciting trying out a new recipe or method, sometimes it is fun to go back to basics and experiment with traditional flavours.
The 'baiscs' for this recipe was a sponge cake. I cooked the sponge cake in a square tin which allowed me to cut out different shapes and designs of mini sponge cakes. I decided to focus on 4 traditional flavours; lemon, chocolate, coffee and Victoria Sponge.

Firstly I focused on making a good sponge cake. Many people would argue that a 'basic' sponge cake in an all-in-one sponge cake, but I believe that the best way to make a sponge cake is through the creaming method.

CLICK HERE to see recipe (but emit the cocoa powder and cook in a 30cm rectangular tin)

Flavours:





Lemon Kisses



LEMON: For some people (me included!) lemon can come across as quites bitter and strong. So for this one I decided to make small bite size 'Lemon Kisses'. I cut little hearts out of the sponge using a heart shaped cookie cutter and then pipped the middle with some lemon curd.

Victoria Sponge

VICTORIA SPONGE: Always a delicious classic! It is universally agreed that a Victoria Sponge includes strawberry / raspberry jam but what you put with it is what is up for debate. Some believe nothing, others whipped cream and others a butter cream. I personally love whipped cream and raspberry jam!








Chocolate and Raspberry



CHOCOLATE AND RASPBERRY: Here I tried something different. Once I had cut squares out of the tray bake, using a pointed knife I scooped out the middle and placed frozen raspberries in the middle. As the raspberries defrosted they seeped into the middle of the cake, creating a gooey raspberry centre. I topped this with a rich chocolate ganache, whipped cream and then some chocolate shavings.





Coffee Cake



COFFEE CAKE: Another classic. I filled the middle of the cakes with a coffee butter cream (to make this add liquid coffee to plain butter cream). To create the marble effect I drizzled instant coffee over the warm sponge. It did give the cake quite a strong coffee flavour which wasn't desired but the cakes did look pretty good!

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Well, Santa did bring me The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. What an amazing cookery book! I love the all the inspiring mouthwatering pictures of cupcakes, cakes, whoppie pies and cookies. And finally I have had a chance to make something out of it. I didn't get to get any further then the first recipe in the book before I realised that I really wanted to make the Tiramisu Cupcakes.

Tiramisu is originally an Italian dessert made with ladyfingers dipped coffee, which are layered between a marscarpone and egg mixture. The Hummingbird bakery have transformed it into a cupcakes. How these cupcakes work is the base is a plain vanilla cupcake. Then the centre of the cupcake is cut out and a coffee syrup is poured in. Next the hole is filled with coffee marscarpone icing and the top covered in this too. Finally the cupcake is dusted with cocoa powder. Yum Yum!

The thing that intrigued me the most about this recipe is the order in which the ingredients are added to make the cupcakes. Firstly the butter, sugar and dry ingredients are creamed together then the wet ingredients poured in. This is like the way you would make a muffin with the separation of dry and wet ingredients but the butter is creamed into the dry ingredient at the beginning. Whatever the science behind this recipe, it works and produces beautifully light and fluffy cupcakes.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Makes 6 large cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the sponge:
40g unsalted butter

140g Castor sugar

120g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

120ml whole milk

For the soaking syrup:

125ml strong coffee

2 tablespoons coffee essence (I used the Camp chicory and coffee essence)

3 tablespoon Castor sugar

For the filling and frosting:
200g marscarpone cheese
2 tablespoon coffee essence
150ml double cream
15g icing sugar
Cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

1. Preheat oven to C190 and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases.
2. Place the butter, sugar, flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment and beat at a low speed until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
3. Pour the milk into a jug and add the egg. Whisk together with a fork. Slowly pour 2/3 of the wet mixture into the dry mixture whilst beating at a low speed. Then stop the whisk and scrap down the sides to check all the ingredients are incorporated before adding the final amount of wet ingredients. Beat until just combined being careful not to over beat.
4. Divide the mixture evenly between the 6 cupcakes cases and bake in the preheated oven for 18 - 20 minutes. Leave to cool completely before icing.
5. Meanwhile to make the soaking syrup add all the ingredients into a pan and bring to the boil. Keep the mixture boiling slowly until it has reduced by half. Take off the heat and leave to cool. It should turn into a thick slightly runny mixture, once cooled.
6. To make the icing place the marscapone and coffee essence in the bowl of an electric whisk and beat together. Then add the icing sugar and double cream. Beat until the mixture forms soft peaks.
7. To construct the cupcakes use a small sharp knife to cut out a small hole from the centre of the cupcakes; about 2 cm in diameter and 1 -2 cm deep depending on the depth of the cupcakes. Make sure the hole is only as deep as 2/3 of the cupcakes.
8. Pour about one teaspoon of the sugar syrup into the centre of the cupcakes.
9. Next fill the centre of the cupcakes with the icing mixture before icing the top of the cupcakes with it.
10. To finish dust with cocoa powder.

Christmas Cupcakes

So after the inspiring visit to the Hummingbird bakery, I decided to create my own Christmas cupcakes.

For the cupcakes I used a basic vanilla sponge cake (CLICK HERE to see recipe) and to decorate I used a basic butter cream icing (CLICK HERE to see recipe).  This meant that I could therefore focus on decorations.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

To make these I died the butter cream a deep green colour, to  imitate the colour of a Christmas tree. I then used a large piping nozzle to pipe the butter cream in a swirl on top of the cupcake. To decorate I put a white chocolate star on the top of the 'tree' and then sprinkled with baubles and sugar crystals. If you don't have a mold to make the white chocolate stars then you could easily make them at home. Have a look at step 12 of this blog post for directions.

It's warm inside!

Snowmen Cupcakes

Firstly cover the cupcake with white butter cream icing to make a flat surface for the snowmen to sit on. For the hat I used a minstrel. To make the snowmen use two marshmallows - cut the top off one and squish it to make it smaller. Then using butter cream stick the two marshmallows together. To make the face on the marshmallow I used the small piping icing from the supermarket to pipe on a face.

Bow Cupcakes

Spread the white frosting over the cupcake in a swirl design using an offset spatula. Tye a ribbon or stick a picture onto a toothpick and then pierce this into the top of the cupcake. Sprinkle with sugar crystals.

Humingbird Bakery

Humingbird Bakery

Today I went into London. I saw the Christmas lights along Oxford street, the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, the beautiful window displays in Selfridges and best of all I visited the Hummingbird Bakery, as I am hoping Santa might bring me their cookbook!

The window was filled with a grid of boxes hanging from the ceiling and each box had a different cupcake inside. Most importantly everything inside the shop looked delicious! Apon entering the bakery it was like heaven with cakes, cupcakes, whoopie pies and rocky roads on display. The walls of the shop are painted brown with bright pink cupboards. The displays were very simple, with cakes on elegant glass cake stands and the cupcakes displayed on baking trays. But the window display was a different story.

I was though a little disappointed with the flavours of the cupcakes, as they were very simplistic and there was nothing that I thought was special or exclusive to the hummingbird bakery. They had cakes such as red velvet, vanilla, chocolate and some plain vanilla cakes with Christmas decorations. I was expecting a few more eccentric flavours or christmassy flavours such as a mince pie cupcake.

From the array of delicious treats I choose the red velvet cupcake. The store packaged the cupcake in a cute Chinese takeaway sought of box and stuck a hummingbird bakery sticker on top. I thought that this was a brilliant idea, as putting a cupcake with frosting in a paper bag wouldn't work well!

Even though the cake was simple it still tasted pretty good! After my lovely visit I was inspired to create my own christmassy creations. I thought that I would stick with the vanilla cupcake and focus on the decorations.

Citrus Poppyseed Cake

This is one of my all time favourite recipes! The light and fluffy cake combined with the tangy citrus flavours and the nutty texture created by the addition of the poppy seeds. For a twist the cake uses lime as well as lemon to create the citrus flavours.

The recipe for this cake uses the basic sponge cake recipe with a few alterations. For one there is one less egg, but to help make the mixture wet enough yogurt is used. The exclusion of another egg makes the cake more light and fluffy. Also extra flour is used (to bind the cake together better) and there is the addition of the poppy seeds, lemon rind and lime rind.

Citrus Poppy Seed Cake
Makes 1 20cm cake or 16 small cakes.

Mini Citrus Poppy
Seed Cakes

Ingredients:

175g butter, softened

175g castor sugar

3 eggs

250g self-raising flour

50g poppy seeds

grated rind of 2 lemons

grated rind of 2 limes

4 rounded tablespoon natural yogurt

Cream Cheese Frosting:

100g unsalted butter
100g cream cheese
300g icing sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to C150. Butter and line a 20cm tin.
2. Place all ingredients into a bowl of an electric mixer and mix until smooth.
3. Poor the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 - 45 minutes for a large cake or 20 minutes for small cakes.
4. Take cakes out of the oven when they are cooked. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
5. To make the icing; put all the ingredients into a food mixer and whisk until smooth and creamy.
6. Spread the icing over the cooled cake and decorate with the rinds of a lemon and lime.

The Birthday!

Chocolate Carrot Cake

So knowing me not everything went perfectly! The cheesecakes were yummy and the carrot cake was exquiset but the brownies. When I made the brownies I was tring so hard not to over mix the mixture that I didn't mix it enough! The brownies came out of the oven with parts that were not the colour the brownies should have been. Also they didn't hold thier shape and turned into a crumbily mess when I tried to cut them. On a positive note they still tasted really good!



Chocolate Carrot Cake



 

For the recipe for Passion Cake (Chocolate Carrot Cake) CLICK HERE.

For the recipe for Brownies CLICK HERE.

Peanut Butter Cheesecake

These are irrestabily peanut buttery goodnes. They remind me of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. I made a large cake and then cut out mini cheesecakes and piped whipped cream on top just before serving. Another idea is to drizzle dark chocolate over the top as this will contrast nicly with the rich peanut butter.

Chocolate Carrot Cake in
 foreground, Peanut Butter
Cheesecakes behind and
Brownies in the background.

Ingredients:
For the base:
500g chocolate chip digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted
2 tablespoons milk

For the Filling:

210g crunchy peanut butter

125ml double cream

250g cream cheese

110g castor sugar

Method:

1. Grease a 24cm round loose based flan tin.
2. To make the base: Whiz the biscuits in a food processor until  fine. Add the melted butter and milk and whiz on a high speed until combined. Once combined pour into the prepared tin. Using the back of a fork press into the base of the tin. Place in the freezer until needed.
3. To make the filling: Combine the peanut butter and cream in a small saucepan and place over a low heat. Mix together until the mixture is smooth. Cool.  Beat the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the peanut butter mixture into the cream cheese mixture and beat until combined.
4. Remove the base from the freezer and pout the peanut buter mixture on top. Smooth out and then place in the freezer for another 3 hours before serving.
5. To serve drizzle with chocolate or whipped cream.

American Desserts

So my mom's birthday is coming around again. I was trying to think of an interesting idea for a birthday cake. Over the years I have created the chocolate cakes, the cupcakes, the pies, the sponge cakes etc. So I wanted to so something new, interesting and different.

I am a big fan of mini cakes and desserts. Soon  after lots of deliberating and flicking through cookery books, I came up with the idea of using a tiered cake stand and filling it with lots of mini desserts. But the next question was which desserts should I choose?

Again I went back to the cook books. After looking through the cookbooks I came up with the idea of doing an American themed 'thing'. Next I did some research into what are the top American desserts. From this I choose to make Chocolate Carrot Cake Cupcakes (Passion Cake), Mini Peanut Butter Cheesecake and Brownies. These are quintessential American flavours / treats and all have a running theme of chocolate so they will compliment each other in flavour.

Therefore the idea is to fill a tiered cake stand with these desserts and then decorate with candles. Sounds easy? We'll see! Check back on Monday to see the results!