Nutella heaven

Hello you lovely people!
I want to share a recipe with you today for another one of my favourite Christmas treats. Last week I wrote about Knäck, which is a traditional Swedish toffee that we eat around Christmas time. You can see the post and get the recipe here.

Today I wanted to introduce you to a more modern sweet treat. It contains my favourite ingredient in the whole world -- Nutella. I'm a Nutella nutter! I love Nutella more than I should, and any recipe with Nutella is a good one in my opinion. This recipe is originally from Tasty Kitchen, but I found it on the blog Sockerrus. And it truly has become one of my Christmas must-haves.

Let's get to it...

Nutella Fudge

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (about 394 grams)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
• 200 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 400 grams Nutella
• 40 grams butter (I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted butter and add a bit of salt at the very end)

DIRECTIONS

Prepare a 20x20 cm square pan by lining it with parchment paper.

Put all of the ingredients in a bowl that can be heated, I use a glass bowl. Create a double-boiler by putting the bowl over a pan with simmering water. Melt the ingredients until everything is incorporated and smooth, takes about 5 minutes.

Pour the mixture in the prepared pan and smoothen the top with a spatula. Put in the fridge until set, at least 2 hours.

Cut into squares with a hot knife. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Much love!

Burgundy velvet

Hello all you lovely people!
I apologise once again for being absent from the blog in this past week. I've been busy and life has repeatedly gotten in the way of blogging. I do however regularly update my Instagram, so follow me there if you do not already. Find me @curlsncakes.

Moving on to the cake, because that why we're all really here, right?
I finally made Red Velvet Cake - or cupcakes really. And no, they weren't red because I didn't have any red food colouring, so instead it became Burgundy Velvet Cupcakes. Their colour makes them great for the festive season, and sweet is always a bit better in winter, don't you think?

It's an easy recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf. It contains a little bit of cocoa powder giving it a sort of hybrid taste - not quite chocolate, not quite vanilla. Still very sweet and tasty though. Especially with the cream cheese frosting on top.

Burgundy Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf

INGREDIENTS

• 60 grams butter, room temperature
• 150 grams sugar
• 1 egg
• 20 grams of cocoa powder
• Red or burgundy food colouring, preferably in gel or paste form
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 120 ml buttermilk (kärnmjöl in Swedish, can be substituted with filmjölk)
• 150 grams flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1,5 teaspoons white vinegar

• 150 grams icing sugar
• 50 grams butter, room temperature
• 125 grams cream cheese

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the egg.
In a separate bowl mix together the cocoa powder the food colouring and the vanilla. Add this to the egg mixture. Add half the buttermilk, then half of the flour and repeat until it is all well mixed. Lastly add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Pour the batter into paper cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

For the cream cheese frosting, mix the icing sugar and butter until well mixed. Then add the cream cheese. Beat until smooth. Do not over beat, stop as soon as everything is incorporated or the frosting will become loose and runny.

My first Thanksgiving

Hello all,
I'm sorry the blog hasn't been so active recently, but once again life happened and I couldn't find the time to update the blog, even though my thoughts have been with all of you!

I'll just jump right into it, I was to my very first Thanksgiving dinner last week. I have never celebrated Thanksgiving, but a group of my friends (an American in the lead) decided that we should have a Swedish version of Thanksgiving. It was loads of fun hanging out with people, but the food...

How can I say this gently, I don't really understand the big deal that is made about Thanksgiving food. It might very well be because I'm a vegetarian and can't eat the main dish - the turkey. But generally I don't really like food that is made for big festive events (I'm not too fond of the Swedish Christmas food either). A friend of mine made a really good vegetarian lasagne, which I believe is not really part of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but that might have been my favourite dish on the big table of food that we had set up. I was also very pleasantly surprised by green bean casserole - very yummy indeed.

However, anyone who knows me, or even people who may only have glanced over this blog will know that the desserts were where my hopes laid. And there was plenty of it.

I made a pecan pie, the first one I've ever made, and it turned out quite well if I may say so myself. I think I might have over baked it, but that's a story for another time. We had pumpkin pie, which I looooove. We also had tarte tatin (French upside down apple pie), made by the french friend in our group. So it really was all sorts of luxury. I might have rolled out of the place being so full.

All in all, my Thanksgiving experience was very nice, and for the desserts I understand why you would want to celebrate it year after year.

As for the outfit, I really can't take the credit at all. I saw Jenna Coleman wear this pinafore from Miss Patina in Doctor Who as the character Clara Oswald and just had to have it. In the show they had paired the pinafore with a mustard yellow turtle neck, and since mustard yellow is my favourite colour I did the same!

Pinafore: Miss Patina (here)

Turtleneck: Lindex (here)

Tights: Primark

Heels: ModCloth (here)

Much love to you all!
And Happy December!

Chocolatey kind of day

Today, the 7th of November, is a special day in Sweden. It is one of my favourite days, it is - Kladdkakans dag!

Kladdkaka literally translates to "sticky cake", but I have taken it upon myself to translate the kladdkaka to "Sticky Chocolate Cake", which I feel describes what it is a little more in detail. There is no actual chocolate in the cake, but cocoa powder, and it really is one of the simplest bakes ever!

The kladdkaka was the first cake I ever made on my own without the help of an adult when I wasn't even a teenager. It's that simple. And for something so easy to bake it really tastes amazing. The rich cocoa flavour and stickyness of it really hits the spot!

You traditionally serve it with whipped cream and it is just heaven in a slice.

Sticky Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

• 100 grams butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 225 grams sugar
• 105 grams flour
• 35 gram cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 ml baking powder

DIRECTIONS

Heat your oven to 175°C. Mix the melted butter with the eggs and sugar. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Pour into a 20 cm baking pan. Bake for about 18 minutes.

Much love!

Icing without the cake

Last year I made a pumpkin pie for the very first time (see it here on the blog), and while I was extremely happy with how it turned out because of the "crust work" that I did on that pie I did find the pie filling to be the tastiest part. Let's be real, a pie's filling is why we eat pie. The filling is what makes the pie and it's usually the most delicious bit of the pie. The crust is just the casing. So I had the idea of making pumpkin pie without the crust, sort of like having the icing on a cake without the cake.

I made a pumpkin pie filling and then poured the batter in cupcake cups in a cupcake tin. It was quite the experiment and I had no idea if it would work or the batter would hold once baked. But to my surprise it turned out quite well. It is possibly one of the easiest bakes I've ever made, you'll see below in the recipe how simple it actually is. All in all I conclude it as a successful experiment.

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 425 grams (one tin) pumpkin purée
• 397 grams (one tin) of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 90 grams flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Heat oven to 175°C. 

Mix everything together in a bowl. Pour batter into cupcake cups in a cupcake tin (to hold their shape). Bake for about 20 minutes.

Leave to cool completely and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve with whipped cream and some sprinkled cinnamon on top.

Much love!

Donut worry

This doughnut dress is one of my favourite dresses of all time (most probably because it's got embroidered doughnuts on it! Doughnuts!). I first saw this dress on my Instagram/blogger bestie, the intelligent, lovely and stylish lady, Liana of Finding Femme. Liana's blog is one of my big blog-inspirations, her posts are elegant and eloquent, and her style is always beautiful. When Liana wore this dress she styled it impeccably with a beautiful belt and scarf, and fantastic heels. As we are going towards colder weather here in Sweden, I styled it with a pair of thick tights and warm cardigan (that I didn't wear for the pictures, because the dress looked better without). We are already reaching temperatures below zero during night and early mornings. So tights were an essential.

I've proclaimed my love for doughnuts on the blog before. As I said then, good doughnuts are hard to come by in northern Sweden. We don't have the immensely famous Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts, so from time to time I embark on the adventure of whipping up my own doughnuts.

So far I have only ever tried making "Cake Doughnuts" and if I am to be honest I didn't know that there were different types of doughnuts until quite recently. With the info I've gathered Cake doughnuts are more old-fashioned and are raised by baking powder rather than yeast and therefore have a more "cakey" texture. All I know is that they are delicious and easy enough to make.

The recipe I use can be found here from Joy of Baking. I've mentioned Joy of Baking earlier and I cannot rave about it enough, what a brilliant place it is! I often use recipes from Joy of Baking so don't be surprised if you see it again on the blog.

CAKE DOUGHNUTS

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• 165 grams sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 390 grams flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used regular salt)
• 3/4 teaspoon powdered nutmeg
• 40 grams butter, melted
• 120 ml milk, room temperature

DIRECTIONS

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a bowl.

In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla. Alternately add the flour, milk and melted butter. The batter will be soft but cover it with plastic film and let it sit at room temperature for half an hour.

When the batter is firm enough to roll out, do so on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin to about the thickness of half a centimetre. Cut out with doughnut cutter or cookie cutters. I used two cookie cutters, one 8 cm one and another 2 cm one for the doughnut hole. Heat up oil in a fryer to 190 degrees C. I used canola oil, but you can use any oil you prefer. Carefully place two doughnuts at a time in the fryer and fry each side for about 60 seconds or until golden brown. Remove doughnuts from fryer and let sit on paper towel until cooled.

The doughnut is ready for icing, sugar or ganache. Or you can eat them as they are, they're delicious as they are without anything on too.

Homemade doughnuts are really great, and they are fantastic straight out of the fryer. So delicious when they're still a bit warm. I love to fry the doughnut holes on their own and roll them in cinnamon-sugar and eat them before I eat the actual doughnuts, but don't tell anyone... 

Dress: Nishe via Asos (old)

Nail polish: Barry M - Gelly Hi Shine in Blueberry

Much love!

That Cinnamon Scent

There aren't many scents that create such a feeling of warmth and cosyness as the scent of cinnamon. For me the scent of cinnamon reminds me of coming in from a cold autumn day, having strolled in a beautiful park with the leaves glowing in beautiful colours. I can picture it - sitting in a comfy armchair with a favourite book, wrapped in a blanket with a steaming cuppa in hand, the spicy scent of cinnamon wafting in the air. The rich scent of cinnamon invites cosy memories and transforms your home into a welcoming retreat.

This cinnamon and apple cake is not only delicious but smells heavenly of spicy cinnamon, and manages to warm the soul. It is an easy cake, and originally it is my mother's recipe, but I will share it with you, so that you can experience the same warmth and pleasure that this cake grants.

Apple Cake with Cinnamon

INGREDIENTS

• 100 grams butter
• 2 dl sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3,5 dl flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 apples
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 175°C.
Beat the butter and sugar light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. In a separate bowl mix the flour and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Pour into a 24 cm round baking tin.

Peel apples and cut into slices. Mix the 2 tablespoons of sugar with the cinnamon in a bag and add the apple slices. Shake bag so that apple slices gets covered in sugar and cinnamon.
Push the apple slices into the cake batter in the baking tin starting along the outer edge and moving inwards. Pour some sugar and cinnamon on the cake before baking it for about 40 minutes in the oven. Serve with vanilla ice cream.