Merry Christmas!!

Dear all,

For the final post of this year I would like to share (some) of my christmas bakes with you. Enjoy, and a merry christmas to you all!

Xoxo Jennifer

Experimental Persimmon cake

Dear all,

As part of a little experiment I chose to make a cake this week without adding sugar. I bought some persimmons at the market that turned out to be rather overripe when I got home. These were super sweet, so I figured I wouldn't need to add sugar if I added enough of the fruit.

I thought wrong. I puréed 2/3 of the fruit  and chopped up the rest to add to the cake. I also some freshly squeezed orange juice as the cake needed a little extra moisture.


Asides from the fruit(juice) I also added walnuts. And below you see the results.


Although the general texture of the cake was good it wasn't even remotely sweet! Even the chunks of persimmon seemed to have lost their sweetness. Also, while in my experimental phase I decided to use vegetable oil rather than butter - maybe next time I should check what a good ratio would be, as the cake also tasted rather of... vegetable oil!


All in all however not a total disaster. The cake was, let's say, different, but we didn't enjoy it any less. Served with my friend's sugar free hot chocolate (with real vanilla and a dash of cayenne pepper - fantastic!) it can still be called a success I think.

I want to try experimenting more, see what happens. So stay tuned!

xoxo Jennifer

Fondant chocolate cake

Dear all,

This week I would like to share something that a friend made, as it was just SO delicious and perfectly executed. So kudos to my friend Maaike for making the most fantastic chocolate fondant 'lava' cakes for my graduation party. Now tell me these pics don't make your mouth water!!

These absolutely gorgeous chocolate fondant cakes were served with a bit of whipped cream, raspberries and some fresh sprigs of mint. SO yummy.

Thanks again Maaike for these fantastic cakes - you're welcome to make these again anytime!

xoxo Jennifer

Pear cake

Dear all,

I recently found myself facing a huge pile of ripe pears from the market - perfect for making a cake!

This cake had bits of pear mixed in as well as on top. For added texture I added ground hazelnuts.


For extra shine I brushed over some warm apricot jam. Never tried that before, works well!


The only thing not visible (there was no time for pictures while devouring this cake!) was the extra special surprise: dark chocolate chunks. Not many, but enough for a pleasant surprise while sampling this delicious pear cake. Worth making again!

xoxo Jennifer

Courgette bread and Sweet potato and Parsnip soup

Dear all,

It's not just baking, it's cooking and experimenting with food in general that I like. This week I would like to share the courgette and mushroom bread I made with sweet potato and parsnip soup. Because I can! Ha!

So this required grating the courgettes, salting them, draining the water, rinsing them, and then squeezing them until no more liquid came out. Lot of work! Add mushrooms and garlic, and hey presto.

The bread was lovely and moist, and stayed moist for several days because of the courgettes. And the sweet potato, parsnip and carrot soup was quite sweet, but could be deliciously offset with some bacon bits (not pictured).


And would you look at that, I seem to have all the same ingredients in my fridge again - time to bake/cook!

xoxo Jennifer

Carrot CupCakes

Dear all,

Sometimes you need to use a trusted recipe and do something 'new' with it. I say 'new' because of course this is not an original idea, just new for me! So, carrot cake cupcakes. In pretty wrapping/boxes. Enjoy!





xoxo Jennifer

Tarte au Citron

Dear all,

As a belated birthday gift I recently received a French patisserie recipe book. This had to be tried immediately of course, so therefore I present you with, Tarte au Citron!

Grate and juice a bunch of lemons, add lots of eggs, flour, sugar etc.... and make a pastry base. Seems simple enough!


Look at this beautiful result! Beautiful colour and perfect texture. Success!!


This tart went down a treat, served with a bit of ice cream... yum!


And as a bonus, the recipe was a bit overzealous. There was plenty to make two whole tarts, so no one had to go without. Lovely!

xoxo Jennifer

Stripey cake

Dear all,

For my brother's girlfriend I attempted to make a cover recipe from Good Food magazine (my favourite magazine). It was a very time consuming cake to make but the result was spectacular and I think the recipient was very very happy with it! So what is all the fuss about? See for yourself:

The cake consisted of chocolate and orange flavoured cakes. It required making 8 separate cakes, rectangular and round. The rectangular cakes were then cut into strips.


I spread a thin layer of orange flavoured butter cream icing over the strips and started rolling them up, by alternating the chocolate and orange cake strips.


Spreading more butter cream icing on top of the rolled up cake (aiming for a 20 cm diameter) I placed the round cake on top, flipped it, and then added the second round cake.


Once fully assembled I crumb coated the cake with a similar buttercream icing in preparation for decorating it with fondant.


I then covered the cake in white fondant and started decorating. I decided to add a message in Portuguese as the recipient is Brazilian. Thank goodness for Google translate which helped me tell her 'happy birthday'.


I have over the years acquired many decorating tools but there was one I had been dying to use for ages. Kind of an art deco/baroque feel to it (correct me if I'm wrong - I know next to nothing about art history) and just totally awesome.


The real question was of course, what does it look like on the inside? Tadaa!


It turned out looking really neat, those stripes and I got a ton of questions as to how I had done it. And even after showing them the 'making of' photo's some people were still confused. Success!


The only comment on this cake would be that I didn't get the texture quite right. As someone pointed out, it tasted rather eggy, rather than like a sponge. It didn't diminish the flavour, it made for rather an interesting texture, but IF I ever decide to attempt this cake again I would have to rethink the size/number of eggs (possibly Dutch sizes vary from UK standard sizes or something).

Still fantastic cake though!!

xoxo Jennifer

Bickies!

Dear all,

I had a bickie moment, went for 3 of my favourites to help my mum out with some visitors. Big success!

 I baked these little gems at home, filling the place with the best smell ever!

And then I used my mum's beautiful cake stand for presentation. Shortbread fingers, mocha shortbread rounds and German strawberry jam cookies.

And we had beautiful weather to boot. Yum yum yum!

xoxo Jennifer