Thursday, June 26, 2014
New website and blog
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Marek’s Birthday Cake
I’ve been rushing to finish my entries for participating of my first Cake Show, that’s why I haven’t posted but I couldn’t leave my husband’s cake behind :) It was a carrot cake with ganache filling. He’s been dreaming with a car since we “lost” ours, so I gave him the car I could afford haha :P His birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated it last Saturday. But I have to say that I had a really hard time with the letters spray… Now I know why nobody writes or add letters on them. They get too heavy. Maybe just the letters would have been ok. Also, it was the first time I was using the patchwork cutters (not counting a class I took in 2010 that had a bit of patchwork subjects). It was fun, but I next time I’ll try to work with it more ahead of time, so the pieces dry harder. The spray and the car didn’t turn out as I expected but my husband was happy with it and that’s what matters. :)
Eu tenho corrido pra terminar as pecas para o meu primeiro Cake Show, e por isso nao tenho postado, mas eu nao podia deixar o bolo do maridao para tras :) Era um bolo de cenoura recheado com ganache. Ele tem sonhado com um carro desde que “perdemos” o nosso, entao eu dei a ele o carro que eu pude pagar haha :P. O aniversario dele e amanha, mas celebramos no sabado passado. Mas eu tenho que dizer que o “buque” de letras me deu um pouco de trabalho… Agora eu sei porque ninguem escreve ou adiciona letras neles. Eles ficam muito pesados. Talvez so letras teriam funcionado. E foi minha primeira vez usando patchwork cutters (sem contar uma aula que participei em 2010 que abordava um pouco desse assunto). Eu gostei, mas da proxima vez vou tentar trabalhar com eles com mais antecedencia para as pecas secarem melhor. O buque e o carro nao ficaram como eu esperava, mas o meu marido gostou do bolo e isso e o que importa :)
Well, that’s it for now. Probably next time I’ll be posting after the Cake Show.
Bom, e isso por enquanto. Provavelmente da proxima vez postarei depois do evento.
Enjoy!!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
A Bear and a Fairy…
I still had two baked cookies left from last week and didn’t want to waste them and had the ideas already, so I decorated them. I really enjoyed making the bear :) Don’t forget to check out the other tons of creative cookies for the contest here.
Monday, April 9, 2012
There’s still time…
Thursday, April 5, 2012
LilaLoa’s Creative Cookie Decorating Contest
Last week I was fighting a really bad flu that left me in bed for quite a few days. When I was able to sit and use my laptop, I went to check the blogs I follow and came across this great contest at LilaLoa’s blog (there’s still plenty of time to participate!). The idea is to create designs from the template below, that DOES NOT look like a present. We can add or extract pieces as long as we can still see it comes from the same template. Such a wonderful idea.
I wish there were more contests like this to challenge us and stimulate our creativity. I got very excited with the idea and couldn’t wait to get better to work on them. But I still was recovering, so I decided to start creating them. Since I had all the time in the world in bed, I begun to sketch the cookies and a lot of ideas came up as you can see. When I was 100% better, I made the cookie dough and cut out the cookies using the template. It was that easy since the dough I was using was very delicate, but I could remould the mistakes before baking.
It was so much fun to create and decorate them that maybe I will make more, :) I know it might sound too many already, but it was so much fun!! Have I said that already?? :) No, I’m kidding, I only have 2 designs waiting to dry and that’s it. :) I’ll probably use the inspiration for another cookie shapes. After I finished them, I went to see what the others were doing and it’s so nice to see what they created. I also saw that some people had already similar ideas to mine, but I decided to post them anyways. :) In the end of the post I added the bride and groom together because they are a supposed to be a set, but for some reason they appear too small in the post :/
So, here they are… which is your favourite?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Tapioca Pearls with Red Wine (Sagu)
Sagu is how we call the dessert made with tapioca pearls in Brazil. :)
This is another recipe that takes me back to my childhood. My mom used to make these and yes, with wine. But she boiled long enough so all the alcohol evaporated. However, we could still taste it. To me, it sounds and it looks a fancy dessert, maybe it’s just because there’s wine lol. You can use any red wine you want, I used a cheap one and still tasted wonderful! Husband approved too! :)
Sagu has a really interesting consistency. I feel almost like the pearls massage my mouth. It’s kind of funny for me :)
It’s not just because my mom used to make this dessert that reminds my childhood, but because they use to serve it as a snack in some of the schools I’ve studied. But instead of wine, they prepared it with grape juice. I don’t know if they still serve this for the kids in school as I’ve been away from Brazil for more than 5 years. I guess you could use any kind of juice or syrup and you would have a variety of flavours. I’d give it a shot with cherry juice or syrup. Maybe adding a little vodka it’d be great too. Poland makes a delightful cherry vodka called Wiśniówka. I think it would taste amazing with sagu.
I heard that some people like to serve sagu with a vanilla custard or pudding, but I prefer it pure like that, with nothing taking the taste of wine away :)
I used a mug instead of a cup to measure the tapioca pearls and the wine. Sorry, I know it’s not precise, but I worked for me :P And it yield a lot as you can see the big bowl in the background of one of the pictures.
You can use the whole bottle of wine, but you will get then a very liquid consistency and will have to boil for longer to get that sauce-like consistency. If the idea is to make sure all the alcohol is gone, then it’s ok. But I’d be afraid to lose that nice colour if boiling way too long.
I was researching to find out how long it takes for the alcohol to evaporate and I found this page. I had no idea about it, so I guess my sagu had retained about 50% of the alcohol, as I boiled it for about 10 minutes.
TAPIOCA PEARLS WITH WINE (SAGU)
Ingredients
1 mug tapioca pearls
3L water
750ml red wine
1 mug of sugar
Directions
In a large saucepan boil the water. Then, add the pearls and slowly stir until it boils again.
When the pearls have a clear looking (no white spots) remove from heat and let it cool.
After cooling, using a drainer to wash out the pearls for a few seconds, so that the gooey consistency goes away (some people leave it, but I think it tastes and looks better without it).
Put the pearls back to the saucepan and add the wine and sugar. Let it boil for about 5 minutes or longer, if you want the alcohol to evaporate more.
Transfer to a large glass bowl, let it cool and take it to refrigerate overnight.
Enjoy!
Friday, March 16, 2012
St. Patrick’s Day False Lime Mousse Pie
So tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and I couldn’t stay behind. :P I’ve been away for a while, but I’m back. I chose the recipe only for the colour because those were the ingredients I had at home. I do want to try some recipes with Irish coffee, Guinness, etc, but maybe another time.
This is a basic recipe in Brazil, so I just made it up. We use the mixture of condensed milk and cream in many desserts. Somebody might ask me “Why FALSE?”. Well, it’s false because it isn’t a real mousse. The real mousse calls for egg whites and this recipe doesn’t have them, but the final consistency reminds the real mousse.
I used real lime juice for the mousse and unflavoured gelatine powder. But some people use lime flavoured gelatine, which would even make more sense to call it FALSE :) If you choose this option, don’t use the food colouring. It’s a very refreshing dessert and not too sweet.
ST. PATRICK’S DAY FALSE LIME MOUSSE PIE
Ingredients
300g digestive cookies or other of your choice
70g melted butter (add more if necessary)
juice of 4 limes
300ml extra thick cream
2 cans condensed milk
green food colouring
20g unflavoured gelatine powder
1/4 cup boiling water
1 package lime or lemon flavoured jelly
Directions
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Using a food processor or blender, crush very well the cookies. You can use a rolling pin to do it if you don't have these appliances.
Add the melted butter and mix with your hands. Press onto the bottom of a springform pan. Bake the pie crust for about 15 minutes. Let it cool.
For the filling, beat (or whisk) first the condensed milk with the lemon juice. Add the cream and the food colouring (just enough to get the colour desired) and beat again. Dissolve the unflavoured gelatine in the boiling water and mix in to the lemon mixture. Beat very well to make sure there are no lumps. Grease the sides of the pan with a little bit of oil to help releasing.
Pour the lemon cream onto the pie crust and put in the fridge until completely firm.
Prepare the lime jelly according to the instructions of the package, let it cool a little (before it starts to harden) and pour onto the lime mousse. Refrigerate until the jelly is firm.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Fat Tuesday, Pancake Day!... not today.
So here I am a little late again, but this time I got to prepare them on the actual day! :) So yesterday was the Fat Tuesday (also known as Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras, in French). It's similar to the Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) in Poland.
It is the day preceding Ash Wednesday (today), the first day of Lent. Fat Tuesday is observed mainly in English speaking countries, especially Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States but is also observed in the Philippines and Germany. Fat Tuesday is linked to Easter, so its date changes on an annual basis. In most traditions the day is known for the eating of pancakes before the start of Lent. Pancakes are eaten as they are made out of the main foods available, sugar, fat, flour and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fasting associated with Lent. - Wikipedia
As for the photos, I am re ally enjoying taking them. Still have a lot to learn, but it's been fun. My husband has photography as a hobby (all the equipment is his actually) and thanks to him, it has become mine too. I have a little trouble with the light on them because I'm using our old laptop and the screen is not very good, so I never really know if I am seeing what you guys will see. I hope this will change in a couple of weeks. The last picture is from my instagram. It's my favorite angle. I don't know why I didn't do the same with the camera.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Pączki (Polish donuts)
- Sift flour with salt in a large bowl. Add the yeast and mix.
- Add the eggs and sugar. Combine the milk, water and vodka and slowly pour into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir.
- Gradually add the butter and knead to combine all the ingredients until you have a nice and smooth dough.
- Sift flour with salt into a large bowl.
- Make a nest in the center and add the yeast.
- Pour over part of the warm milk. Add two tablespoon
- s of sugar and let stand for 20 minutes to let the yeast "work".
- When the time is up, add the remaining milk combined with water and vodka, the rest of the sugar, eggs, adding at the end the butter.
- Knead until you have a nice and smooth dough.
- Cover the bowl with a towel and leave it in a warm place until double in volume, about 1 and half hour.
- When the dough has doubled, put it on your working surface sprinkled with flour and knead it a little. Divide the dough in half and keep one half covered so it doesn't dry out.
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1 cm.
- Use a pastry cutter or glass to cut out circles with a diameter of about 5 - 7 cm. If you want mini donuts, just use a smaller cutter (I used I shot glass). Place them on a baking tray, cover with towel and wait for them to rise again, about half an hour more. Repeat these steps with the rest of the dough.
- Heat oil in large saucepan to a temperature of 180 º C (a piece of bread should brown in 40 seconds). Fry for 3 - 4 pieces (no more) at once, about 1-2 minutes on each side. When fried, transferred them to a plate covered with paper towel for absorbing the oil.
- After frying them, fill them with the marmalade using a pastry bag (if you don't have a pastry bag, just use a knife to cut a hole on the side being careful for not crossing to the other side and use a teaspoon to fill with the marmalade).
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tłusty Czwartek, in Poland
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Last Valentine Post...
Valentine's Day No Bake Mini Cheesecakes
- Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until beginning to turn to crumbs, then add the butter and whiz again to make the mixture clump.
- Press about 0.5cm of this mixture into tiny springform tins. Don't add too much here or you won't have enough space for the cream.
- Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.
- Lightly whip the double cream, and then fold it into the cream cheese mixture.
- Hydrate the gelatin in about 2 tablespoons of warm water. Before it hardens add it to the cream mixture stirring slowly.
- Spoon the cheesecake filling on top of the biscuit base and smooth with a spoon. Put the tins in a bigger form and leave them in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.
- When you are ready to serve the cheesecakes, unmould them and spread the preserves over the top.
- Additional information - for vegetarains make sure the cream cheese is a brand suitable for vegetarians.