Easter and Happiness

Hello all,
and Happy Easter!

It's been almost two months since my last post, and while I feel a bit bad for not having posted anything in this time I've honestly never felt better... Those of you who follow me on Instagram will know that I feel great health-wise. As I said in a post on IG, usually me not being active on here would mean that I'm not doing too good. Previously it has been during my rough times with bouts of strong depression or anxiety where I've not been around here. But I am very happy to say that my health hasn't been this good for years. I can barely remember the last time I was doing so well mentally, and I am also really happy to boot. I am however quite busy, with work and other things... Good things.

Again, if you've seen my IG lately you will know that I now have a boyfriend, and he is making me so happy it's ridiculous. I've never been the type of person to leave my happiness to someone else. I believe that you need to make yourself happy, and to be honest, I never understood what the big deal about a romantic relationship was. I still hold on to the fact that your happiness lies within you, but I'm definitely understanding the big whoop about a partner. It's like icing on a cake, it heightens my happiness, makes everything that much sweeter.

Anyway, so that's what's been going on in my life, work and boyfriend are keeping me busy, and blogging has taken a backseat. For Easter I had to bake though, so without further ado, here is my Easter bake.

As by tradition, I made cupcakes for Easter, with chocolate eggs from Lindt and they were delicious. Also, my sprinkles are from Sweetapolita.

I hope you all have a fantastic Easter with a bit of spring (in my city it's snowing...).
Much love,

Three layers of yum

Hello all,
Wow! I'm still here... I'm so sorry I've been silent for so long and without notice. I was super busy and then I just felt like I needed a little break from the blog. But to hopefully make it up to you, I have a recipe for you today.

This recipe is from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf. I was actually lucky enough to be able to go to a Hummingbird Bakery Shop in London. I had a chocolate and caramel cake and it was soooo good *drools*.

Today's recipe is a glorified brownie, with three layers of goodness. The bottom is a regular brownie layer, but it isn't quite like my other brownie, it's a bit cakier and not as dense (although still very rich). The middle layer is a classic cheesecake layer with cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla. And to top it off there's a  layer of raspberry cream!

It really is a delicious combination. I adapted the original recipe quite a bit, with different amounts of several ingredients, and I substituted all the icing sugar in the original recipe to regular caster sugar, because I like caster sugar more. The original recipe is out there on the web, just search for it. I will share the recipe with my adaptions.

Cheesecake brownie with raspberry cream

Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook from Tarek Malouf.

Brownie layer

INGREDIENTS

• 200 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 200 grams butter
• 200 grams sugar
• 3 eggs
• 110 grams flour

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water. Whisk the butter and sugar thick and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the flour, little by little, until it is all incorporated. Lastly pour the melted chocolate into the batter. Mix well. Pour the batter into a pan that is about 30x20 cm. Even the batter in the pan, and DO NOT bake! Prepare the cheesecake layer.

Cheesecake layer

INGREDIENTS

• 400 grams cream cheese
• 150 grams sugar
• Vanilla powder (to taste)
• 2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Whisk the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until a thick batter. Add the eggs, one at a time. Whisk at a  bit higher speed at the end, but be careful not to over beat it. Pour the cheesecake batter over the unbaked brownie batter. Now bake the brownie/cheesecake for 30-40 minutes. Bake until the cheesecake layer is firm, the edges of the cheesecake layer should be golden, but the middle should be pale. Let the brownie/cheesecake cool and then cover and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours (preferably over night).

Raspberry cream layer

INGREDIENTS

• 3 dl whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons vanilla sugar
• 250 grams raspberry

DIRECTIONS

Mix and sieve the the raspberry to get a smooth purée. Whisk the whipping cream with the vanilla sugar until it is firm then add the raspberry purée and mix well but carefully not to lose the air in the whipped cream.

Spread the raspberry cream over the cheesecake layer, and even it with a spatula. Decorate with more raspberries or sprinkles.

The sprinkles are as always from Sweetapolita's Etsy shop.

Hope you are all doing super well and that autumn is treating you good.

I'll be back soon!

Much love,

Match made in heaven

Hello all,
Hope you're doing great!

I want to share with you a baking "experiment" if you will. It's not really novel in any way, but for me it was quite exciting because it was the first time I made this dough.

I baked éclairs!

Éclairs are these delicious little pastry made with choux dough, or pâte à choux, which is a dough that you cook. Yeah, you heard me. You cook the dough, and instead of a raising agent, the steam incorporated into the dough helps it poof up!

I've only ever tried éclairs once when I was in London, and bought a chocolate éclair from Ladurée. It was delicious, but I don't feel like it prepared me for the adventure of baking my own.

I decided to take the vanilla route myself, but then added chocolate ganache on top as a glaze. Yummy and a match made in heaven in my opinion - but apparently not something you'd do classically as a pâtissière, I was informed by a French friend. I have started rebelling lately after my quiet and calm adolescent years, so I'll put it down to that.

I've split up the recipe into two parts. One for the actual pastry dough, and one for the vanilla pastry cream that goes into it. For the chocolate ganache that goes on top click here.

Chocolate and Vanilla Éclairs

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Choux Pastry

INGREDIENTS

• 65 grams flour
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar
• 55 grams butter, cut into pieces
• 120 ml water
• 2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 200°C.

Whisk the flour and sugar together. Bring the water and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and the add in the flour+sugar mix. Return to heat and keep mixing until the dough comes away from the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball. Pour the dough into a mixing bowl and beat for about one minutes to let some of the steam rise away. Once the dough has cooled a little (it's still warm to the touch) add the eggs. Beat until the dough becomes a smooth, thick paste. Pour the dough into a piping bag and pipe oblongs, about 2 cm wide, and however long you want them to be. I made small ones of about 8 cm. Bake for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 180°C and bake for another 25 minutes.

Pastry Cream

INGREDIENTS

• 300 ml milk
• One vanilla pod
• 3 egg yolks
• 50 grams granulated white sugar
• 20 grams flour
• 15 grams cornstarch

DIRECTIONS

Scrape out the seeds in the vanilla pod and add that as well as the actual pod to a saucepan containing the milk. Bring the milk just to a boil.

Mix the sugar and egg yolks together. Mix the flour and cornstarch together and then add the egg mixture to it.

Remove the milk from heat (remove the vanilla pod) and add to the egg mixture whisking constantly. Then pour everything back into a saucepan and cook until boiling, whisking all the while. As it comes to a boil, let it continue for about a minute as the cream thickens up. Pour the cream in a clean bowl and cover the surface with plastic film. Let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate.

Assembly

Before filling the oblongs with pastry cream, dip the prettier side of the oblong in chocolate ganache. Let it dry for a couple of minutes and then you can either cut each oblong into two halves and add pastry cream in the middle. I used a piping bag and filled it with the pastry cream and then stuck the tip into the uncut oblong and pressed the pastry cream into it. It's a bit trickier, but it looks neater. I also added some 23 karat edible gold leaves as decoration to make it even fancier. I got my gold from the Etsy shop Layer Cake Shop (here).

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Much love,

Egg-stra Happy Easter!

Hello there!

This will be a mini post, just to let you all know that I am still here (only a bit busy), and to wish you all a Happy Easter!

Also, I want to show you my Easter bakes. These are my basic chocolate cupcakes, with my favourite frosting (find it here) and made Easter-appropriate with some chocolate eggs that I got from Hope and Greenwood at Covent Garden in London, which might just be one of my favourite places in the world.

I hope you all have a fantastic Easter time with lots of joy and chocolate!
Much love,