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,

Brownie cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Hello all!
I hope you are having a majorly awesome week. I'm so busy at work I hardly have the time to breathe - but it's good. I love being busy with my research. Things are finally happening in my project and it is seriously exciting.

Having been so intensely busy my baking has taken a back seat. I don't find the energy to bake after the workday and during the weekends I'm so busy with other things. However, this weekend I finally had the time and energy to do some light baking. What better to reintroduce myself to baking with than cupcakes.

I know cupcakes are a bit "out", but I don't care. I love cupcakes! I love baking them! And I love eating them!

I used a brownie recipe and added a white chocolate cream cheese frosting to it. Find the recipe of both the brownie cupcakes and the frosting below.

Brownie Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

• 150 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 110 grams butter, cut into pieces
• 15 grams cocoa powder
• 150 grams sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 95 grams flour
• 100 grams walnuts, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Line a cupcake tin with 12 paper liners.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of heated water. Add the cocoa, sugar and vanilla, whisk. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the flour. Add the chopped walnuts.

Add about a half decilitre to each cupcake liner.

Bake for about 15-18 minutes.

Let cool before adding the frosting.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 200 grams white chocolate, chopped
• 1,5 dl heavy cream
• 200 grams cream cheese
• Pink food colouring, optional

DIRECTIONS

Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan until just before it starts boiling. Pour over the white chocolate and stir until smooth. Place in fridge for a couple of hours to overnight, until it firms up.

With an electric mixer, whisk the ganache until a bit fluffy, then add the cream cheese and continue whisking until smooth and pipeable. Add some food colouring if desired.

Pipe onto the brownie cupcakes with an closed star tip.

I added beautiful sprinkles from Sweetapolita (here) to my cupcakes. I adore these sprinkles and find it hard to resist putting them on everything I bake!

I hope you all like this recipe. Let me know if you try it!

Wish you all an amazing rest of the week.

Much love,

Mona

Screaming for Ice cream

Hello all you beautiful people!
Hope you are all doing well, and I hope that spring has reached you where ever you are. I wish I could say that spring has reached me here in northern Sweden, but yesterday we had a snow storm, and it seems like spring will never come.

I wanted to write a post about this really easy-to-make ice cream, and I thought that the end of April would be a good time to share the recipe because the weather has warmed up then, but no Sir!

Petulantly I will share this post anyway, cold weather be damned!

So about this ice cream, it is a recipe that I saw on Manuela Kjeilen's (of Passion For Baking) tv show "Baka med Manuela" that aired here in Sweden. It's really easy, and doesn't require an ice cream making machine (which I don't have), so you can just about do it without any tools (although an electric mixer is good to have).

Easy Vanilla Ice Cream

Recipe adapted from Manuela Kjeilen.


INGREDIENTS

• 1 can (397 grams) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 dl whipping cream
• 0.5 teaspoons ground vanilla pod

DIRECTIONS

Place the condensed milk and the whipping cream in the freezer for 20 minutes before you start. Take out the condensed milk from the freezer and pour it into a bowl. Whip it with an electric mixer until it is a bit lighter and fluffier. Pour in the whipping cream and continue to beat until it becomes thicker. Add the vanilla and whip some more until it is fluffy and thick. Pour into boxes or bowls and place in freezer chilling it, preferably over night.

I served my vanilla ice cream with my chocolate brownies, and they were SO good together. To see my brownie recipe click here. I added a bit of colour with sprinkles from Sweetapolita (here).

It really is super simple to vary this recipe and create different flavours. In another post I will show you how you can create other yummy ice cream flavours.

For now though, I wish you the best of days!

Much love,

Chocolate Brownies

Hello all!
Hope you are having a great day and a wonderful weekend.
I recently went over to a friend's for afternoon tea or "fika" as we call it here in Sweden. I don't like going empty handed anywhere so I brought brownies with me.

The brownies were popular and I was asked for the recipe, at which point I very quickly wanted to say that it was on my blog. But guess what? Even though I've talked about brownies on the blog before, and have shared the recipe in a feature on Lindsey's blog Have Clothes, Will Travel, I have never actually shared the recipe for my favourite brownies on the blog. I am making amends to that now.

Chocolate Brownies

INGREDIENTS

• 120 grams dark chocolate, chopped in pieces
• 115 grams butter, chopped in pieces
• 200 grams sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 100 grams flour

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 165°C.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of heated water. Add the sugar and vanilla, whisk. Whisk in the eggs, on at a time. Stir in the flour. Pour into a 20x20 cm pan and bake for about 25 minutes.

I usually add chocolate ganache to the brownies once they've cooled for extra chocolatey-ness. Find the recipe for chocolate ganache here.

And lastly add sprinkles. These sprinkles that I used here are from Sweetapolita, and it's called Galaxy Twinkle Sprinkle Medley (on etsy: here). I just love Sweetapolita's sprinkles. They are so beautiful and really add to anything you put it on. These plain brownies looked so pretty with the sprinkles.

Now I can finally say that my famous brownies are up on the blog!

Have a beautiful rest of the week.

Much love,

Frosting and Sprinkles

Hello all you lovely people!
I am currently feeling poorly, but it's been a while since I shared a recipe on the blog so I thought I'd share my go-to chocolate frosting.

I love chocolate cupcakes more than any other type of cupcakes, even more than vanilla cupcakes, and that is because with chocolate frosting you get such a great and rich texture and flavour. The consistency of this frosting is perfect for piping and it creates the most beautiful swirls of chocolatey heaven.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 200 grams dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 dl heavy cream
• 200 grams cream cheese

DIRECTIONS

Make a chocolate ganache by heating the heavy cream in a pan. Just before it starts to boil pour it over the chopped chocolate. Stir until you get a nice and even chocolate ganache. Then let it cool to room temperature.

In a bowl, whisk the cold cream cheese with a hand mixer, pour the ganache into the cream cheese and whip until just combined. You should have a frosting which is perfect and lovely for piping.

I made these lovely mini brownie cupcakes with the very same chocolate frosting for my Birthday last year. They were a real hit, and my mouth is watering just thinking about them.

You can find my favourite brownie recipe on the lovely Lindsey's blog Have Clothes, Will Travel. I shared the recipe for my brownies with her for a feature, so check it out: here.
And instead of baking the brownies in a pan, pour the batter into mini cupcake tins and bake for about 10 minutes at 165°C.

And lastly, add sprinkles! Because sprinkles are fun!

Much love!