Heart cake pops!

I like deserts on a stick! Cake pops are just my favourite and they are a hit at every party!

This time I made little heart cake pops. My very first pops in a shape other than balls!

I baked an orange flavoured cake.

I prepared a dark chocolate ganache for bonding.

I crumbled the cake and mixed it with the chocolate.

I decided to cover my pops with plain white chocolate.

To form the hearts I used a cookie cutter and simply pressed the pop dough in the cutter.

Insert the sticks.

Cover.

Ready!!
The combination of orange and dark chocolate gives a strong taste, but it is sooo good!

Daring Bakers - May 2012

This is my second challenge! I am so happy!

This month we had to bake a CHALLAH, a traditional Jewish sweet bread.
Thankfully we make something similar during Easter here in Greece, which is called "tsoureki", so I was rather familiar with the process.
The braiding? Well, I hadn't done that before... But it was fun and I liked the final result. The challah looked really cute!
The recipe was chosen by Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood!
I used the "Easy Challah" recipe in a chocolate version!

I added cocoa.

See the yeast bubbling?

It was rather sticky.

I let it rise.

I made 4 strands.

I tried to braid a 4-strand...

I added white chocolate chips.

Also, I gleazed it with milk, not egg wash, because I just don't like egg wash!

Fresh from the oven.

It is cute and round!

We ate it with brown sugar strawberry jam and butterscotch!

The end result was good, it is a sweet bread, but not too sweet. You can also eat it plain, just tear a piece with your hands.
It did not rise as much as I would like to, but well that was my first attempt.
Hopefully the next time I make it, it will be better!

Thank you for the challenge Ruth!

Pinterest!

I think I just found a new addiction.....

Pinterest.
I can go through boards and pins for hours, all day long! The time passes and I do not realise it. I am like "Oh my God is it 12 already?"


I love it though. So many things, so many images, so many ideas, such a great selection of everything, so many inspirations!

You can follow me!

Cupcakes & Sugar Cookies!

Have I mentioned enough times that I like home made presents?

Well, I made cupcakes and sugar cookies!!!

Orange cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and sugar paste roses!

For the cake I used self rising flour enriched with orange aroma, I made a simple buttercream frosting, which I tinted with Wilton Gel colours and the roses are made with sugar paste.
This is actually my first attempt with roses. I cut very thin strips of sugar paste and rolled them!

I also made large heart double decker sugar cookies (vanilla).

The number "7" is painted on using a brush and some thinned gel colour.

I attached the small hearts on the large ones, using melted white chocolate.

I decorated them with sugar paste.

The colours are so fresh!
And the taste so good (not to mention the smell!!)!

Brown Sugar Strawberry jam!

Whenever I have time in the morning, usually on Sundays, I like to have a nice rich breakfast.
So I prepare orange juice, a cheese and ham toast, jam and some home baked bread or even muffins and cereal with milk, nice hot coffee...
Sunday is my free (off diet...) day, so I try to enjoy myself!

Generally I make my own jams, I rarely buy ready made ones. Whenecer I have fruit that is a week old, I turn them to jam. This way I always have jams on hand to use on bread, in a pie or in a pastaflora tart!

This time I had some strawberries, so I made some jam..... with a twist...

I added brown sugar and a tablespoon of butter...

I use the Kenwood Bread Maker and its recipe, which also makes cakes, jams, pizza dough and other delicious things!

I cut the strawberries in rather large pieces.

I put everything in the bin. Can you see the brown sugar and the butter?

Love the dark colour.

Yum!

Glorious morning!
The picture does not do it justice.
It was actually a lot brighter and the sea had such a vivid blue colour! There were a couple of ships in the horizon and you could see the masts of the yachts down at the marina.This is the view from my terrace!!
So serene!

Chili Hot Chocolate Bonbons!

One of my favourite tastes is the combination of chocolate with hot red paprika or with chili.

It is not something that you can easily find in the supermarket.
I have seen that sometimes the supermarket I go to carries the Lindt chocolate bar with chili.

So many times I make my own chocolate treats!

This time I made small bonbons, using pill cases and small moulds and I also added some cinnamon for a more intense aroma.

I melted the chocolate in the microwave.

I used both milk and dark chocolate and added hot red paprika and cinnamon.

I had kept some pill cases.

I filled them.

I also filled some chocolate moulds.

The turned out really cute...

The taste, if you like strange combinations, is great and you can definitely feel the hotness!

Muffins!

I think I have a thing for savoury treats you can eat in small portions with your hands.
Muffins, any kind, fall into this category.

So I made Tomato - Feta cheese muffins!

The recipe is so basic, that you can use it either for savoury muffins or for sweet ones.

Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

* for sweet muffins just increase the sugar or any other sweet thing you want to add, i.e. honey.

1) Mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients.

2) Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones.

3) Add any extras you want. I added chopped tomatos and crumbled feta cheese. I also added dried oregano.

4) Bake in a preheated oven at 180o C for about 30 minutes.

They are very tasty and so versatile. You can bake any combination you want!

Bake in a tin!

I have a nanny for Ioanna who is from Russia.
One day she asked me to keep the tins from Ioanna's formula, because she wanted to use them in baking.
What?

She said that it is a very common method. So I did a little search on Google and it turns out that baking in a tin is very popular!

Naturally I gave it a try...

I used some coconut cake batter.

This is a rather tall tin...

The cake is short because I didn't use a lot of batter...

 It baked nicely in the middle...

It turned out really well and I will certainly use these tins for mini cakes.
Can you imagine mini cakes with buttercream ruffles? I do!!!!

Coconut Cupcakes!

My mom has a couple of close friends and they meet regularly for afternoon tea! Not a Greek tradition, but a nice one though! They have many varieties of teas and a lot of delicious treats.

They met the other day and since I had promised them to make a little something, I decided to bake a few cupcakes.

I chose coconut cupcakes with cocoa buttercream.
The recipe is very easy. I just made my favorite vanilla cake and simply added shredded sweet coconut.
The buttercream is a simple one with butter, powdered sugar and a little heavy cream, I just added cocoa powder.

The batter is not very liquidy...

I always weigh my cupcakes...

Just out from the oven...

The buttercream is not very dark, because I used cocoa and not chocolate...

I sprinkled some coconut on top...

They turned out soooo cute!!!!!!!!!

My mom's friends loved them!