Pink birthday cake and a try on ermine buttercream!

I have made many birthday cakes and baked goods in general. I really find it is no fuss to make a sky high birthday cake! 1-2-3... ready!

When I bake for others and by that I mean my kid and my husband as well, I take into account their tastes and preferences.
When I bake for me on my birthday, I always try something new, be it a flavor or a technique.

This time I tried a new recipe for white cake and for buttercream? Well I had on my mind for a long time the "cooked" or ermine buttercream!

The white cake is by the lovely Sweetapolita.

Very good, very tasty!


I found the ermine buttercream recipe on the site of Summer's Cake Paper Party! A very trusted site with great recipes!
You start with a roux, which you beat in the butter.

I couldn't get the buttercream to be as silky as SMB, but it is very tasty!

The colour is rather intense, but I loved it!


Louise!

Purple birthday cake!

My mom usually doesn't celebrate her birthday... But I always, always bake her a little something!

This time at the time of her birthday she wasn't in Athens, so we decided to visit and make a day of it!

I baked her a birthday cake, which was rather simple in taste.Vanilla cake layers with orange Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

For the decoration, though, I wanted something special and impressive!

I tinted the SMB purple with gel colour and I piped rosettes on the top half. I sprinkled some golden sugar and..... perfect!

My mom loved it! And the taste was light and refreshing! Great with a cup of hot coffee!

Louise!

Travelling Tic Tac Toe!

My little one likes playing tic tac toe very much!

We play on paper, use an app...... You get the idea.

So, I decided to make a small tic tac toe game, using pebbles we had picked up from the beach!

I used a permanent marker and a small pouch. I tied it with satin ribbon.

Easy and cute, right?

She likes using it even at home!


Louise!

Chocolate cheesecake!

A twist on my classic baked cheesecake!

I often make my favourite baked cheesecake. This time I made it chocolate!

Instead of digestive biscuits for the base, I used plain chocolate cookies.
For the filling, I simply added melted milk chocolate, about 200gr.
Everything else remained the same.

Easy and oh, so good!!!!

You know me, I have to have my chocolate!

Louise

Chocolate chip cookies with marzipan!

Do you like marzipan?
Me, I adore it!
I eat it on its own. I nibble it while I am supposed to bake something with it.

I buy it ready, I make it myself, whatever, it is so good....

So, I made chocolate chunk cookies the other day, using a recipe I love and as there was some leftover marzipan in the cupboard (forgotten....), I added it on the cookies.

The cookies themselves are soft, so I simply took a cookie, folded it around the marzipan piece and ate it. There is no better way to eat a cookie and enjoy the combination of chocolate, brown sugar and marzipan!

Yum!


Louise

Brown butter carrot cookies!

I love brown butter. I like the taste and the smell, even the process of making it, all these brown bits that start to form!

I found I recipe that seemed interesting.

Brown Butter Carrot Cookies
recipe adapted from here

170gr butter
1 small stick of cinnamon
1 egg
170gr sugar
185gr carrots, shredded
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
240gr all purpose flour

* Put butter and cinnamon in a small sauce pan and heat until the butter begins to brown and smells like caramel.
* Throw away the cinnamon stick and pour the melted butter in a mug and place it in the fridge for 30 min.
* Beat butter until smooth.
* Add sugar and the egg and beat until combined.
* Add carrots and vanilla and mix until just combined.
* Add salt, baking powder and flour.
* Form small balls of dough with your hands and place on baking pans lined with parchment paper.
* Bake in a preheated oven 180oC for about 18 min.until the centres are set.
* Cool on a wire rack.

There were tasty and smelled nice. Quite fragrant actually! They are a very good choice, if you have a lot of carrots and it is also a nice alternative to a carrot cake!


Louise!

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies!

It is actually my goal to try and bake as many sugar cookies as possible in every possible flavor.

This time it was pumpkin!

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

1 dose basic sugar cookie dough
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice mix
a little orange food colouring, optional

* Prepare the dough as directed and add the pumpkin puree, spices and orange food colouring, if you want.
* Roll, chill, cut and bake until the edges are golden.
* Remove from the oven, cool a couple of minutes on the pan and then place them on a rack to cool completely.

If you like, you can frost them. I left them plain and colourless and were great!

Louise!