Rose cake

Lime pie with strawberries and whipped cream

Ingredients for the pie

200 g of biscuits in crumbs

4 tbsp sugar

6 t tbsp unsalted butter, melted

3 eggs, yolks and whites separated

400 g of concentrated milk

125 ml of freshly squeezed lime juice

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp. of grated lime zest

Garnish

Strawberries

Whipped Cream

Mix together the cookie crumbs, half of the sugar and the melted butter. Pour into a 23 cm oiled baking pan with removable bottom and press well. Place in refrigerator while preparing the lime cream.

Whisk the egg yolks until frothy. Add condensed milk, lemon juice and lime zest. Beat until the mixture thickens slightly. In a bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff. Stir in remaining sugar and continue to whip until soft peaks form. Using a metal spatula, gently fold the whites into the lime cream.

Pour the lime cream into the baking pan. Smooth the surface. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 160° until the cream feels just firm to the touch and is lightly browned. When cold, place the pie in refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Slice the strawberries and place them on the top of the cake. Decorate with some whipped cream.

Serve the pie cold.

Notes:

The recipe calls for 400 g of concentrated milk. A can of Nestlé ‘lait concentré’ is just under that. I found it just works fine.

My 3 limes didn’t add up to 125 ml so I used a lemon.

Not really very fond of whipped cream. That’s why I replace the proposed topping from the original recipe (dessert Trop Bon – Marabout) by strawberries that happened to lie around in the house!

Wait to take the pie out of the pan until it has cooled down in the refrigerator. I didn’t as you can see on the pictures.

Orginal garnish

25 ml cream

1 tablespoon icing sugar

Vanilla extract

A few slices of lime for garnish

Whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla extract. Spread the cream over the tart cool. Decorate with slices of lime.

European Soccer Championship Cupcakes

As of sunday evening 11.30 pm: For sale:

• cupcake cases: color: orange
• sprinkels: color: orange
• foodcolor: orange

Wanted:

Performant Dutch soccerteam 

All that's left are the memories 

Orange Cake

To be honest, I made this cake for Queens day. April 30 is a national holiday in the Netherland, when we celebrate the birthday of our queen's mother: Juliana.
The royal family's name being Orange, this color is known as our national color.


Today is a big day for 'Oranje', our national soccer team. In order to go to the next round in the European Championship, they must beat Portugal with a 2 goal-difference. And at the same time hope the Germans beat Denmark.


Will tonight bring victory or defeat? Anyhow: there will be cake !

Black&White Layer Cake

Whenever my baking urge is strong at the beginning of the weekend, and cupcakes are not an option since I always want them to be as fresh as possible when taking them to work, I go for a big layer cake! 

This one has 5 layers and is made of devil' food cake and a white cake. In between some home-made strawberry jam. Strawberry Swiss Meringue Butter Cream to finish it !Very yummy !

Macarons

Finally I made some macarons for my new (well since 6 months) colleagues. THey had been told about the raspberry macaron I made for my french colleagues from time to time and were very curious to tast a bit of Paris. 

It being the season of fresh strawberries, I started by making a strawberry jam. And since I was on a roll, I decided to transform the ripe pineapple who was waiting in the fruitbasket to be eaten into jam as well. Great jam, with some lime juice !! 

Apparently the macaron gods were on my side, because they came out great looking ! Don't you just want to bite into that strawberry one where the jam leaked out?

Hummingbird Cake

It's not the first time I baked a Hummingbird Cake. This cake must be my favorite cake. It is so moist thanks to the bananas, has some freshness because of the ananas parts and the ever-needed crunch of the pecans. 
And, off course: cream cheese frosting!
What more do you need?

For the recipe of this scrumptios cake: see my Hummingbird Cake Cupcakes.

Cupcake workshop with Ingrid and Sarah

Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes with Mandarine Marmelade filling

Vanilla Cupcakes with Ingrid's home made chocolate mousse filling

Mango-Strawberry Cupcakes

When rains pour down all day, you have no other choice but to put some sunshine in your cupcake: mango and strawberries!

The cake is a basic vanilla one, which is then filled with a puree of delicious mango and frozen strawberries. In season you can off course pick fresh ones.

Cake

125 g butter
150 g sugar
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
175 g cake flour
½ tsp baking powder
3 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 180°C and prepare your muffin pan.

Place the butter, sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of a mixer and cream for about 7 minutes or until mixture is light and airy. Add the eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition. Mix for 2 minutes.

Combine flour and baking powder in another bowl and then add it in to the sugar-butter mixture. Add milk and mix for another minute.

Fill the cupcake liners for 2/3 and bake for about 25 minutes.
Let cool on the rack.

For the filling

To make the mango-strawberry puree you will need 1 mango and 5 strawberries. Blend them until they have the consistency you like.

After the cupcakes are completely cool, cut a cone formed whole in them for the filling. Replace the top.

You can use a Mascarpone frosting with these cupcakes, as suggests The Love Bakery in the recipe. I used the classic Cream Cheese Frosting. 

Up next: Almond, cherries and chocolate: a delightfull combination

Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe must be the one I use most. Chocolate cupcakes always encounter a great success. It’s a simple recipe and gives perfect results.

This time I tweeked it up by adding crushed oreo’s in the batter and the frosting. No quantities to give you there, just add as you feel like.

Cakes

135 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
25 g cocoa powder
175 g brown sugar 

1 packet of vanilla sugar
50 g butter, softened
125 g of cream

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 170 ° C.
Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder and add a pinch of salt, the brown sugar, the vanilla sugar and the softened butter. Blend on low speed to obtain a sandy texture. 

Mix the cream with the first of the eggs and then add the other one. Pour half of this into the mixture and mix until smooth before adding the other half.

Fill the baking cups to 2/3 and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan before removing from pan and continue cooling on the rack.

Frosting

100 g butter
300 g of icing sugar
40 g of cocoa powder
40 ml of milk

Mix the softened butter with the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Add the milk and beat until light and fluffy. The longer the better!