Tiramisu Cupcakes

Here comes a new creation! We where suposed to be having an italian dinner tomorrow, but things don't allways go as planed right?

I have a friend that makes the best pasta I have ever eaten, so she will be in charge of making pasta, my sister will go for the antipasti and I will be making dessert! So here is my italian contribution for our future dinner:

I'm still looking for the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe. This one was great with the flavour, but the texture didn't quite convince me:

Ingredients (cupcake):

- 110 gr unsalted butter, softened

- 110 gr light brown sugar

- 110 gr self-rising flour

- 1 tbsp cocoa powder

- 1 tbsp espresso coffee powder (I used two table spoons of already made espresso coffee)

- 2 medium eggs

- 1-2 tbsp milk (I used 4 and one of olive oil)

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Beat all the cake ingredients together in a mixing bowl, until smooth and creamy.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Ingredients (topping):

- 400 ml mascarpone cheese

- 4 tbsp icing sugar

- Cocoa powder 

Whisk the cheese and icing sugar together, spoon into a piping bag and go crazy! I tryed roses (which have such a bad look) because I have never been able to make them, ever!

Then sprinkle cocoa powder on top and ENJOY!!!!

TWD: Blueberry- Nectarine Pie

I know I'm VERY late for this one... I've been up to so many things! but yet, every time I feel stressed out or sad, baking is the only thing that gets me back on my feet again.

I feel that if I bake (anything) and share it with other people, I will be able to reconect with them or make them smile in the slightest way. I am up for small "thank you smiles", it's the only way I feel helpfull!

This pie was one of those: "smile please" gifts. It was challenging because I didn't have a pan! I have given them all out and have to start collecting them again... But the result wasn't that bad!

I loved the fruit inside of the pie, with the flavour contrast of nectarine (more acid) and blueberrys (sweet, sweet, sweet). The one problem I found (like always) was the crust! I think it was too salty, and I think I do it wrong... It brakes when I try to roll it! I use tons of flour to dust the work surface because it sticks with all its strenght to it! Any ideas why it always comes out wrong?

The inside had to much liquid, so I couldnt get a good picture of a slice! The pan I used didn't help at all with that so sorry for the mess!

Any way, the finished pie was delicious and the friends I gave it to loved it, they even said it was better than my lemon meringue pie!!! I have to do it again because if they think its that good when it came out pretty wrong I can't imagine what it would be like when it turns out right!!!

You can find the recipe in Manchego's Kitchen and That skinny chick can bake. Hope everyone is having a great summer!! Enjoy!

SABOR RUSTICO: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've spent all morning thinking about making cookies. I have so many recipes I want to try for them that I didn't know which one to start with! I started looking through books, magazines and internet and decided to go ahead and try to do one from one of my recent acquisitions: Macaroons, brownies, cupcakes & cookies.

This book has some amazing images, and like allways my cookies don't end up looking so cute and yummy, but definitely they taste good! 

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 150 gr butter, room temperature

- 1 cup sugar

- 2 eggs

- 200 gr chocolate chips (I used white, milk and dark chocolate)

Preheat oven at 200ºC.

In a big bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In another bowl miz butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy.  Mix in eggs one at a time. 

Add the chocolate chips to the butter mix. Add the flour mix now little by little.

Make balls of the dough and on a oven pan separate the balls so that they don't stick while they bake.

Put in the oven and leave for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

I have about 30 cookies cooling down and you can't imagine how good my kitchen smells!! I hate waiting... so I tryed a hot one and loved it!! Hope you try and make them because it is worth it!

I'm looking forward to making these whith peanut butter also! Until then... Enjoy!

TWD: Hazelnut Biscotti

I'm not very keen on this, they do taste good, but I find them too sweet! Isn't that weird? I define myself as a "sugaraddict" so for me it kind of is... Must be the exams and the heat! 

Hazelnut is one of the things that for me allways matches with chocolate, so here is my idea! The only thing is right now in Madrid, there is no way you can leave anything out of the fridge and expect it to cool down... I think it looks great and it makes it look inviting!

Problems I confronted with this recipe are the dough and the sweetness as I said before. The dough was very sticky and kind of hard to shape for the first baking part so it ended up very stretched out and thin! I have to say at home they loved it, specially my Grandmother who was here for 2 months. 

I will try this again because its an easy thing to have at home for coffee or tea afternoons, but I will vary the nuts I use (peanuts and chocolate, almonds, pistachio or even raisins). Find the original recipe in Homemade and Wholesome and Baking and Boys!

Looking forward to the next Tuesday! Enjoy!!

NEW THINGS: Fresh Pasta

This is not the typicall thing I make, but I find it intriguing to learn how to make pasta. I have now the machine to make spaguetti and tagliatelle and a machine to make raviolis. The idea Paco and I had was to learn how to make glutten free raviolis. Has anyone ever made some?

RECIPE

Ingredients: (1/2 kg)


- 350 gr all purpose flour
- 2 eggs

I never thought it would be so hard to make the dough! Its really hard and difficult to handle (it was too dry).

To make the dough put the flour on a bowl and make a hole in the middle of it. Crack the eggs and drop in the hole.

Mix this ingredients until an even dough is formed. You'll need to use your hands after a few minutes, it's very dry...

Now let it rest for a little while and start preparing the machine, or the rolling pin if it is the case! I personally divided the dough in many parts because it was hard to handle. After a few tries, you find that you need to add about half a cup of water to the dough in order to make it manageable.

My machine in particular, has different levels of dough thikness, from 6 to 1 (thik to thin). I started using each of the levels to get to 1. The best way is to alternate 6-4-2 using each of the levels twice (in my opinion this is of course). Level 1 es too thin, so I stayed in 2.

What you see in the picture is what you get, not the perfect even pieces you see in the machine's box... I cut the sides to make it even and proceeded to make the tagliatelle. It took a long time, but don't you think it looks great?

After making the pasta you need to leave it to dry for a while (I left it for the night and cooked them for lunch the next day)

Now, what do you do when you feel like pasta, but there is nothing to eat it with at home? My favourite recipe for that is chilli olive oil with parmesan cheese. This pasta is done in 3-4 minutes and tastes fantastic, way better than bought pasta!

Once the pasta is ready add some salt, the chilli olive oil (depending on how sensitive you are to spicy food) and sprinkle the parmesan cheese on top. Like I have said before, if my mother says I have to do it again, it means its better than usual! If you need a food critic, she is the best at that....!

I leave you with this for now! Back to my exams!

Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAKES

After exams the first thing I wanted to do was bake, bake and bake. It was tough to find where to start but events just happened. I had two birthday parties that week, and I decided to make their gifts. They are two of my closest friends and I wanted to surprise them with something really special.

VANILLA CAKE WITH LEMON BUTTERCREAM

This cake was for my friend Rosa, we met when we started college and have been friends since. So here is my present:

Cake Recipe:


Ingredients:


- 1 1/4 Cups cake flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
-  1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 Oil (I use olive oil, the most fruity scented one)
- 1/2 buttermilk (1/2 cupo of milk and 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice and set aside for five minutes before using)

Now this is my favourite part: Lemon Buttercream. I have fallen in love with this recipe. I have so many ideas for Lemon Buttercream... or maybe just eat spoonfuls of it.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- A pinch of salt

This is one of the best cakes I have ever made. I was so proud of it and loved my friends face when she saw it. Flours as you know are made of fondat paste. I need to get better with fondant technique but I am just a little bit proud of it!

CHOCOLATE DISCO BALL CAKE

Here is the second Birthday cake, this one is for my friend Maca. We met in high school, but started hanging together during college years. She is a real music addict, so I thought a disco ball should be the perfect gift for her.

The cake is the same as the vanilla one on the top of the page, I justed added about 200 gr of melted dark chocolate. I know, it looks like the disco ball fell on top of the real cake but that wasn't the original idea... The ball was just to heavy for the bottom cake to hold. 

For the mirror squares I used silver edible powder mixed with confectioners sugar on white fondant squares. This one was a difficult one, but I hope I can make it again to make it the perfect disco ball cake.

I will keep making special birthday gifts for my friends and family, I think its the best way to learn and make people smile! for now this is what i have! 

Enjoy!

FLAVOUR COMBINATION: Asia de Cuba

After months of only being in Madrid I couldn't wait to spend a week in London! There is one thing that surprises me everytime: How easy it is for me to be happy in a simple supermarket where I can find everything I need for baking. It's just so easy there!

London is becoming a very special place for me, he knows why. This trip involved a great restaurant called Asia de Cuba with a fabulous chef called Paul Whittick. My mother is cuban and really feels like one even though she only lived there until she was two with my grandparents. The cuban spirit in my family is very strong. It looks like I have not inherited the dancing skills or the tanner skin...

There is one thing I love more than they do though (maybe not more, but yes a lot) and its cuban food. I wish I could learn to cook cuban food! I have to start! 

My boyfriend knows how I feel about this so he decided this was the perfect place for dinner. It was a perfect night out.

So Asia de Cuba is near Picadilly, and just when you walk in you think "this place is different" round columns  with round bookshelves or with flower pots or black and white pictures. 

You have an amazing list of cocktails to start... we asked for:

Chili Passion Caipirinha: Cachaça, muddled lime

raw sugar, passion fruit purée, 

dash sriracha.

Canteloupe Pisco Sour: Pisco, fresh lemon, muddled

canteloupe, cane sugar egg white

Amazing, I loved mine because of the spicy touch. To eat you have a lot of options, its more of an asian influenced menu, but still has many cuban inspired dishes. To start you have Ceviches & Tiraditos with options like Scotish Salmon and salted Avocado Helado or Scallop Tataki and Dragon fruit.

Smoked Salmon on Crispy spring

onion pancake

(very simple... we thought it was a 

mistake to ask for this one..)

Other starters are Tunapica, Ropavieja of Duck, Asian noodle Box...

Honey-Rum glazed Pork Belly: platain

maduros, Shangai bok choy and

enoki mushrooms

(I have never tried something so soft

sweet, delicious...)

Now to the amazing main dishes, where you can find Miso Cured black Cod, Spiny Lobster Wok Chi or Cuban BBQ Chicken.

Pan Seared Ahí Tuna: wasabi mashed potatoes

 and crunchy peas with cilantro ahí

(I personally fell in love with the idea

of wasabi mashed potatoes. It's

DELICIOUS)

The side dishes are the ones that have more cuban influence, or so I wanted to believe, because I only asked for the cuban ones... Lobster Boniato Mash, Platain Fried Rice with Avocado Salad or Thai Coconut Sticky Rice.

Black Bean Croquetas

(this is what they call Frijoles, try making 

them and teach me please!)

Yuca Mojo Fries

(amazing but can make you full with

a few bites)

It's time for dessert and though I feel I should never eat anything else, you can not go off without checking the dessert menu. Now that is the issue, when you see it, you need to ask for something. Every dessert has the someliers recommendation of drinks that match perfectly with the dessert. 

You can find the famous Bay of Pigs (no wonder they calle it that), Cuban Opera or more typicall Caribbean Carrot Cake.

Cuban Coffee Brownie: Chocolate fudge

sauce, Khalua glaze and Fudge 

Brownie icecream

(it's just the perfect brownie!)

It was in all, a fantastic evening. Though it's a bit expensive, sometimes you find it worth the sacrifice... I believe sacrificing for food is something I never regret! (OK maybe I do, but just a few hours/days until I'm back in good shape)

Hope you visit and ask for delicious things. Enjoy! 

Here is a link if you ever want to make a reservation...