First attempt of a princess cake

One bad thing about the new year is the end of year I'm faced with in the office, lots of invoices and counterchecking spreadsheets. Anyway, this year my invoices were late as I had to wait to close some files and this meant my invoices were late when I had to give them to a colleague for payment... I think I caused her quite a bit of time and trouble... so I promised her I would bake a cake just for her one day.

Yesterday I baked her cake. I used a pound cake recipe and filled it mascarpone and cream and raspberries, on the outside it was covered in whipped cream and decorated with little love hearts and smarties. I didn't really think about this, but I really shouldn't have used smarties, they had all lost their colour over night due to the humidity of the cream... So you should put smarties only on chocolate!

(Please note the floating plate!)

Pound cake

4 eggs

225g butter

220g sugar

2 table spoons vanilla sugar

225g all-purpose flour

15g baking powder

a pinch of salt

a dash of real vanilla extract for some extra vanilla taste

Sift together in a separate bowl the flour and the baking powder. Prepare a bundt cake tin.

Beat butter until light and fluffy, add the sugar and vanilla sugar and mix until almost dissolved. Add the eggs and at a time and mix until well combined before adding the next one (beat for about 30-60 seconds). Add the salt. Add the flour in two lots and mix on low speed until just combined. Please don't overbeat it now because otherwise the mixture will toughen!

If you are using vanilla essence or extract just add it together with the flour. 

Fill the bundt cake and bake at 175°C until the cake is golden brown and when you test it with a little wooden stick it come out clean.

Let the cake cool on a rack before removing it from the tin.

I cut my cake in three layers and filled the layers with a mixture of mascarpone, cream and raspberries.

Just whip 400ml of cream until stiff and mix it with 150-200g of mascarpone. At the end I just added the raspberries and mixed it with a spoon.

Fill the cake layers with the mixture and assemble.

I covered this cake only with simple whipped cream and added some decorations adn off course the barbie.

For her top I just used a normal ribbon that I wound around her neck/ body and tied at the back with a bow, I thought it looked prettier than the usual barbie tops. 

I forgot that my cake transport box is still at my friends place so I had to come up with something so I could take the cake on the train the next morning. I just took the barbie out and put a bowl over the top and fixed it with cling wrap. It worked!

My colleague loved the cake and thankfully shared it with all the other girls and she said I'm allowed to mess up the invoices any day if she gets a cake like this!

Raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes

Mmmmmhhhh, I LOVE cupcakes! 

These are my standard (mini-) cupcakes and I've got a good excuse to make some today. My friend from work is moving to Paris and I thought I'd surprise her by making some as a farewell present.

They are a combination of different recipes that I have tweaked a little so they are to my liking now.

Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted from Crabapple Bakery)

2 cups (about 250g) plain flour

2 tsp baking powder 

200g softened unsalted butter 

1 cup (about 350g) caster sugar 

4 eggs 

1 tbs vanilla extract 

1 cup milk 

About 85 raspberries (one for each mini cupcake)

I started by defrosting some frozen raspberries this morning, of course you can use fresh raspberries, but unfortunately the season is over, and frozen ones work just as well.

Sift flour and baking powder together. In a medium-sized bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes.

Add the sugar a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. When all the sugar has been added, beat until the mixture is light and fluffy and the sugar has almost dissolved. 

Add eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. 

Add a third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the milk and beat until combined. Repeat this process. 

Add the remaining third of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined; take extra care not to over-beat otherwise the mixture will toughen and not be light anymore.

Spoon mixture into cupcake papers, filling each about three-quarters full. Put a thawed rasperry on top.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove cupcakes from the trays immediately and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before frosting. 

For the frosting I just melt some white chocolate with 1/4 cup milk, meanwhile while the chocolate is cooling down again after melting, I cream abt 60g of butter and add icing sugar until I get the consistency I want, I then add the melted (and cooled) chocolate. If the frosting is too liquid just add some more icing sugar.

Et voilà!

Moroccan (or preserved) lemon

Have you every tried Moroccan lemon? They are divine and great to add some taste to fish, poultry or veggies.

Back when I lived in Melbourne I prepared a jar of Moroccan lemons, also known as preserved lemon, but never actually got to taste them as I had to pack up my stuff and move back to Germany before they had sat long enough in their juices.

Anyway, I gave it another go when I found some nice looking, untreated, thick-skinned lemons at my local market.

Making these is easy and they also make a nice gift.

All you need is...

- a preserve jar

- rock salt

- lemons (of course!) I think I used about 5 for a medium-sized jar

- a cinnamon stick

- a garlic clove

- bayleaf

Cut lemons in quarters and roll each quarter in rock salt. Squeeze the lemons into the preserve jar and continue packing them tightly. Add a layer of salt in between the layers of lemons. Put the cinnamon stick, garlic clove and bayleaf between the lemons and continue packing and squeezing until the jar is full of salty lemon juice and tightly packed lemons.

If need be, add juice of one more lemon or some hot water to top it up so that all lemons are covered in juice. Close the lid.

Now the waiting begins... you have to leave the lemons for at least two months before you can use them, you can turn the jar over a few times in between so the salt doesn't just sink to the bottom (but make sure it's properly sealed!!!).

Once the wait is over, open the jar and smell the lemons! They smell soo intense and especially in winter they take you back to warm and exotic summer nights.

To use them, just take out a quarter and get rid of the flesh, all you want is the lemon peel.

You can dice or slice the peel and add it to your dishes for some extra flavour!