Cherry, Almond and Nutella Cake

Today, I simply felt like baking. I opened my pantry, found a jar of cherry, almond powder and Nutella and decided to challenge myself with a cake! I used a basic yogurt cake recipe and added my three ingredients. I came out really fine.

Ingredients

• 1 cup greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 cup raw sugar
• 2 cup self raising flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil (vegetable/canola)
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 1 cup cherries
• 1 cup almonds
• 3 to 4 tbs Nutella

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 20cm square cake pan with the butter and flour.

Use electric beaters to beat eggs and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add yoghurt, almond powder and oil, beat until combined. Gently fold in the sifted flour with a large spoon until combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan and smooth the surface.
Nicely place the cherries on top and spread the Nutella over it.

Bake in pre- heated oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out dean. Remove from oven and place cake pan on a wire rack.

Cut slices and serve warm or cold.



Enjoy!
Xx

King Cake / Galette des Rois

This cake refers to a really old french tradition. It is a bit after christmas, the cake is brought to the table and the youngest person goes under the table. The one serving the cake picks a slice and asks "Who's that one for?" the youngest one chooses a name and it goes on until everyone has a slice. Then the persone that find the 'fève' (bean) will become king, get a paper crown and choose a queen.

It's a puff pastrie and almond cream cake and you can hide any bean that you like in it. The please is the hunt! Here is a pretty good tutorial on how to make one.

Kids absolutely love this tradition!

Ingredients

• 2 sheets of puff pastry
• 1 cup almond powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 75g butter at room temperature
• 1 tbs plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbs rhum (can be replace by 1 tbs bitter almond fragrance) 

Preheat the oven 200°

To prepare the almond cream: beat 1 egg and 1 egg white with the almond powder, butter and sugar. Keep the egg yolk for later. Add the flour and rhum or fragrance.

Place the puff pastry on a cookie tray and shape it like a cercle by cutting the edges off. Prick the base with a fork, pour the almond cream on it and leave 1 cm on the side. Hide the bean in the cream. Add 1/2 teaspoon of water to the egg yolk and wisk it. Using a brush, go around the edges and spread some of the egg yolk, cover with the second pastry sheet (same shape) and gently press the border with your fingers to seal.

Brush the whole surface on top with the rest f the egg yolk and with a knif draw a pattern. Bake 20 to 25 minutes (golden brown).



Enjoy!
Xx

Préparez la frangipane : battez 1 oeuf entier et un blanc d’oeuf avec la poudre d’amandes, le beurre et le sucre. Conservez le jaune pour dorer la galette. Ajoutez la farine et l’alcool choisi.
2. Déroulez la pâte feuilletée sur une plaque, étalez la frangipane et déposez 1 fève.
3. Couvrez la galette avec la deuxième pâte. Soudez les bords avec un peu d’eau ou de blancs d’oeufs si nécessaire.
4. Badigeonnez le dessus de la galette d’un peu de jaune d’oeuf, à l’aide d’un pinceau. Enfournez 20 à 25 min dans le four préchauffé à 200°C.
5. Servez la galette des rois à la frangipane tiède ou froid.
Read more at http://www.odelices.com/recette/galette-des-rois-a-la-frangipane-r166/#ZBKRjo91ScoO1pYx.99

1. Préparez la frangipane : battez 1 oeuf entier et un blanc d’oeuf avec la poudre d’amandes, le beurre et le sucre. Conservez le jaune pour dorer la galette. Ajoutez la farine et l’alcool choisi.
2. Déroulez la pâte feuilletée sur une plaque, étalez la frangipane et déposez 1 fève.
3. Couvrez la galette avec la deuxième pâte. Soudez les bords avec un peu d’eau ou de blancs d’oeufs si nécessaire.
4. Badigeonnez le dessus de la galette d’un peu de jaune d’oeuf, à l’aide d’un pinceau. Enfournez 20 à 25 min dans le four préchauffé à 200°C.
5. Servez la galette des rois à la frangipane tiède ou froid.
Read more at http://www.odelices.com/recette/galette-des-rois-a-la-frangipane-r166/#ZBKRjo91ScoO1pYx.99

Baked eggs w/ grilled haloumi, cherry tomato, zuchini and mushrooms

Baked eggs are one of my favorite breakfast food but I love that we can have it for any meal. This is a veggie version of the dish that you can vary by flavouring the simple tomato sauce with whatever you have to hand.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red onions, chopped
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, sliced
• small bunch coriander leaves finely chopped
• 1/2 cup diced haloumi
• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms (which ever you prefere)
• 1/2 cup finely diced zuchini pre cooked)
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• 6 tbs of plain tomato sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar

 

Preheat the oven 200°

Heat the oil in a frying pan that has a lid, then soften the onions, chilli, garlic and coriander stalks for 5 mins until soft. Stir in the haloumi, mushrooms, zuchini and cherry tomatoes. Add the sugar and put aside.

Pour the mix into two small dishes then crack the egg into each one. Put the dishes in the oven and cook about 10 minutes or until the egg is cook the way you like.

Serve with warm ciabatta, garlic bread or crackers.


Enjoy!

Xx

Sweet corn cake

I love going out for breakfast more than dinner because it's not something that we don't have in France and I got addicted to it.
I’ve been looking for a good corn fritter recipe for a while – one that doesn’t produce pancake – like fritters. These are nice and crunchy, and with the lemon and chilli, have a bit of zing to them.
I made a creamy salsa to go with them, it can be switch for tomato salsa, relish, sweet chili sauce, sour cream or guacamole. You can also add bacon!

Ingredients

• 2 cans of sweet corn
• 2 birdseye chillies chopped finely
• 2 shallots chopped
• handful roughly chopped coriander
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• juice of 1 lemon
• pinch of salt and pepper
• olive oil
• side to serve

Heat a non stick pan with a little olive oil and fry the shallots until just golden.  Drain the sweet corn and mix in a bowl with the shallots and remaining ingredients until combined.

Heat another tablespoon of olive oil in the pan on medium to high.  Drop 2 teaspoons of mixture per fritter into the pan and pan fry on each side until golden brown.  Remove from pan and place on paper towels.

Serve with relish, salsa, sour cream, sweet chili sauce or guacamole to serve.

Enjoy

Xx

Stir fry Hookien noodles with chicken and cashew

Lately, I've been feeling like asian food, thai in particular. So after spending a little forture at the thai place near home a couple of times i decided to try my own recipe. So here you go, it's pretty basic so you can add or remove ingredients or swap chicken for pork or duck.

Ingredients 

• 200g chicken breast fillet cut in chunks
• 1 handful of snow peas
• 1/2 cup of cashew
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup of pinaple chunks (optional)
• 1 packet of fresh honkkien noodles
• 2 tbs say sauce
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Sea salt
• 1 tbs cooking oil (vegetables)
• 1/2 tsp paprika

1. Add water in a small sauce pan, bring it to boil and add the snowpeas. Leave it to a gentle simmer for about 10 minutes or until soft. Drain and set aside.
2. Add water in a medium sauce pan, bring it to boil add the honkkien noodles and cook 2 to 3 minutes or follow the instructions on the packed. Drain and set aside.
3. Set a wok pan over medium heat, add vegetables oil and onions, cook about 5 minutes. Add the cashew, cook another 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown. Add the chicken chuncks and lower the heat when it becomes white. Cool another 5 minutes or until the chicken is ready. Add thai sauce, fish sauce, balsamic vingear, salt, pepper and paprika. Season to taste.
4. Finaly, add the noodles and snowpeas and heat a few minutes, stir occasionaly.
5. Serve immediatly and add pinaple chunks if desired.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pear Crumble

The very best thing about crumbles? You don’t really need a recipe for them.
Also? You can use any kind of fruit you have in the kitchen. The ripe and in season and the starting to attract fruit flies. You can toss them all in with each other, mostly. Avoid bananas and watermelon. Otherwise, it’s all fair game.

Ingredients

• 3 Pears
• 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 80g icing sugar
• 80g brown sugar
• 1 tbs cinnamon
• 1/2 lemon juice

• 200g plain flour
• 100g rolled oats
• 75g brown sugar
• 150g unsalted butter at room temperature
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• Pinch cinnamon
• 75g almond meal

Preheat the oven 180°

Peel, core and cut into 2cm chuncks the pears.Combine the pears, icing sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice in a large mixing bowl, toss together throughly. Add the chocolate chips and tip into the baking dish.

Combine the crumble ingredients together to get rough crumbs. Scatter evenly over the fruits. Bake 45 minutes or until the fruit is bubling and the crumb is a crunchy golden brown.

Enjoy!

Chocolate fudge brownie

I've been having chocolate cravings lately and when my boyfriend came back from the shops with baking chocolate I could resist! I recently viewed this recipe in a children book: guaranty for a rich in chocolate and easy recipe! Nothing to fancy but just a well balanced recipe and super quick! I did changed the cooking time because I like my brownie softish and 30 minutes would have been too much.

This recipe also suggest a frosting on too. Not being a big fan of frostings I decided to elaborate two versions, one with, one without. So I baked a really thin cake I slices one half and served it like that. The other half were filled with chocolate. I would have say I preferred the plain one but everyone else went back for the frosted one! You try it and let me know :)

Ingredients

250g dark baking chocolate

80g butter

3/4 cup raw sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoon Greek yoghurt

1 1/2 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup confectioner sugar

Preheat oven 180 degrees.

In a heavy duty sauce pan melt butter and chocolate together, stir often. Once smooth, set aside.

Mix sugar and eggs well until light and fluffy. Then add flour, salt and vanilla extract. Pour the chocolate mixture in the mixing bowl and incorporate all the ingredients together.

Grease the cake pan with butter and flour and tip the batter in the prepared pan. Cook between 15 to 20 minutes depending on how wide your pan is so how spread the mixture is.

To make the frosting, melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Then add cocoa, honey and vanilla. Mix well. Add the confectioner sugar and yoghurt. Beat until it looks like frosting.

Now if you made a thick brownie you can spread the frosting evenly over it and cut it into squares. If like me you made a thin cake, you'd better cutting squares, speed some frosting and cover by another square until you used all the cake.

Enjoy!