Macarons three flavours

When we lived near Geneva we use to walk along the great shop of Ladurée. Amazing colours and flavours were in the shopwindow and you could not resist their charm. That is when I decided I would learn how to make them myself.
Making macarons is not easy but you will succeed if you are organised, methodic and patient.

There are three different merengues you can use to make your macarons: swiss merengue, french merengue and italian merengue. I have tried the recipes with the italian and the french merengues. I have not find a great difference in the taste or consistency of the macaronsIn Ladurée they use the italian merengue which is more elaborated and you will need a sugar thermometer to make it. The simplest one is the one based on french merengue and that is the recipe I bring you today.

Ingredients for 28 coquilles (14 macarons)
100g of icing sugar
45g of egg whites
a pinch of salt
15g of granulated sugar
60g of almond powder or almond flour

When baking it is always important to measure precisely the ingredients to obtain a perfect result but for this recipe is extremely important as any change in measuring will affect drastically to our macarons.
Once we have everything measure we start by sifting the icing sugar with the almond flour. I do it twice because any small grain in the mixture will spoil the shell of your macarons. This dry mixture is called "tant pour tant"
In a separate bowl we beat the egg whites with the salt on low speed until we get a foamy peak. We add the granulated sugar and we keep beating on medium speed until we get a firm peak and a fluffy mixture. We will add the food colouring at this point in case we want to use some. We need it to be in powder or gel. If we use the liquid format it will affect the texture of the merengue.

Now it is time to add the french merengue to the "tant pour tant". This process is called "macaronage". First we will add a half of it and with a spatula we mix it with folding movements. Once is integrated we add the rest and we keep folding until we get a batter that flows from the spatula to the bowl without breaking.

We put the batter in a pipping bag with a big round tip and we pipe them about 2cm round on a tray with baking paper on it. We tap the tray on the bottom a few times to let them get the round flat shape and it will help also to take out the big air bubbles that could ruin our macarons shells.

The next step is extremely important. We have to let them dry. This is the "croutage"phase. We will not put them in the oven until we can touch the "coquilles" and feel they are not sticky. How long would this take? It depends on the humidity you have in your kitchen. Here in Sweden it takes like 4 or 5 hours to get them well dried. If you do not respect this times this is what will happen. No foot on your macaron and they will come out all cracked.

Once they are dry we set the oven at 140° C and they will bake in 14 minutes in a medium-low position in the oven. We do not really bake them, we are drying them. This process is really delicate so you want to check them regularly and see if the foot is forming and if the colour does change. If they start to turn brown-ish it means they are overcooked. It really depends on your oven so maybe you will need to adjust the time of baking.

Once they are done we will let them cool completely before removing them from the parchment paper. If they are still hot they will break.

Now it is time to decide which filling you will use. I decided to put some lemon buttercream, chocolate ganache and raspberry mousse. You will use a pipping bag to make sure we put the right amount on each macaron and we distribute it nicely so it does not overflow.

Give them a try and let me know how it goes!

Vegan strawberry mousse cake

It has been a while since I wrote my last vegan post so here it comes!

I decided to make a victoria sponge cake this time which I think is more appropriate for the mousse because is lighter and fluffier than the madeira sponge cake I use when I need to put fondant on it. The thing with this cake is that it is more difficult to cut as it is not as thicker as the madeira one. That's why I chose to make two cakes and then just put one on top of the other.
The mousse was not going to be easy to figure out as ordinary gelatin which is used for making it has an animal origin. So there I was in the supermarket in the baking section trying to figure out a substitute when I discovered the vegan gelatin!!! I am telling you, there is a whole different vegan world out there.

One last thing before we move to the kitchen. I know I said there was going to be chocolate in it but in the end I thought strawberries and vanilla were a better choice. So let's get started!

The recipe for the sponge cakes
Ingredients for each cake
400ml of soy milk
200g of sugar
400g of self-raising flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

We whisk the flour, the baking powder and the sugar all together in a bowl. Then we add the soy milk, the vanilla extract and we mix everything with a whisk until we get a smooth batter. We won't use an electric mixer as we do not want to over mix the batter. This would affect the texture of the cake.
We bake the cakes in a 22cm round mould for 45-50 minutes at 180 C.

The strawberry mousse
It is amazingly simple!
Ingredients
1 bag- 6,25g of vegan gelatin powder (I use the brand I found in the supermarket of my town:
Vegegel from Dr. Oetker)
250g of strawberries
200ml of soy cream

We wash and cut the strawberries. We put them in the blender to get a smooth strawberry pure (around 200ml). We put it in a bowl, we pour the gelatin powder on it and whisk a little to get rid of the lumps. 
In a separate bowl we put the soy cream and we use the hand mixer to get a fluffy and spongy cream.
Now we take some of the cream with a spatula and 
mix it with the strawberry gelatin we made. We want to use folding movements to keep the fluffy effect. We will continue adding the cream in small portions and that's it! We could even use this as a dessert itself if we pour it in some cups and put in in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Now we need some buttercream to cover our cake. 
Ingredients
325g of 
250g of vegan butter
2 tablespoons of soy milk
2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

We put everything in a bowl and we use the hand mixer first on low speed for a couple of minutes and then on high speed for five more minutes. 
In this case I dyed part of the buttrecream with pink to make my decorations.

It is time to assemble the cake. 
I cut off the top of the cakes to make them flat. You can use the part you cut to make cake pops or just to eat at breakfast. My kids will thank me for that tomorrow.

Then I use a pipping bag with just a little buttercream in it to make a border around the cake we will place on the bottom. It will prevent the mousse to overflow when we put the other cake on top. Then we put the strawberry mousse in the centre and we keep adding until we cover the surface we have inside the buttercream ring. Then we
put the other cake on top and 
cover the cake with the rest of the buttercream. I put white on the top with some pink swirls and pink on the sides with a spatula but you can make your own design. 

The buttercream is quite versatile and allows a great number of different decoration techniques.
Hope you like the recipe and enjoy the cake!!!

Decorated Cake Roll

Last week was crazy here. My son turned 4 and we prepared a huge party with 15 kids plus their parents. It was incredibly fun for the children and for the adults too! He is all about Spiderman these days so I made a Spiderman cake and a lot of Spiderman cookies. You can see some pictures of them in the photo gallery. I took them with my phone in the last minute so they do not have the best quality.
This week was my birthday too! I decided to make a small cake just for the family using the cake roll technique which gives amazing results. This cake is dedicated to all of you who remembered the date and sent birthday wishes. Thank you!

To make this cake we will need to different types of batter. One for the decorations and one for the rest of the cake.

Ingredients for the decoration batter
100g of butter (room temperature)
3 egg whites
90g of sugar powder
125g of flour

We put the butter and the sugar un a bowl and we mix with the electric mixer until we get a creamy blend. We add the three egg whites and blend all that until is well combined. Next we add the flour gradually while we keep mixing. Next step is dying the dough. I used three colours so I divided the mixture in three bowls and add the colours I chose. You put the mixtures in pipping bags with numbers two or three pipping nozzles.
It is time now for making our design. I draw it myself on a piece of paper this time but you can print out any design you like. Remember it has to be reversed! You fix the design to the cooking tray with some tape and put baking paper on it and fix it too. Now you just go over the design using your pipping bags. It is just like colouring!
Once we are done we put the tray in the freezer while we prepare the other batter.


Ingredients for the rest of the cake
4 eggs
100g of sugar
90g of flour
60g of melted butter (room temperature)

First of all we separate the egg whites and the yolks. We mix in a bowl the egg whites with 50g of sugar until we get a fluffy soft blend. In a separate bowl we combine the yolks with 50g of sugar until we get a smooth yellow cream. Now we are going to incorporate the egg whit mixture in the yolk mixture. We take a spatula and with some egg white mixture, we put it in the yolk mixture and we fold it in. We continue like this until we run out of egg white mixture.

We add now the melted butter at room temperature and the flour. We will fold it in until we get a smooth batter.

We take our tray out of the freezer and separate the template we used to make our design. Now we cover the design with the new batter and we spread it with a spatula to make it flat.
We let it bake in the oven for about 7 minutes.
When we take it out of the oven we immediately flip it over with help of another tray and we carefully and slowly remove the baking paper. We put on it a new piece of baking paper and we flip it again. We roll the cake to make it take the rolling form and we leave it like that to cool.

Once it has cooled down we unroll it carefully and remove the baking paper on the top to put the filling in. I chose chocolate ganache but you can use any cream or filling that you like. Remember to leave some room on the sides and at the bottom because now we have to roll it again and the filling will be pushed forward.

Happy birthday to me!!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Even though these are a classic it is always a surprise for everyone every time. These are the most elegant cupcakes you will ever find. They are spongy and moist and the colour makes a huge impression. Your guests will always remember the gorgeous red cupcakes you make. They are a warranted success.   Everyone loves them!

Ingredients for the cupcakes

150g of sugar
140g of all-purpose flour
120ml of milk
12ml of lemon juice
60g of butter (room temperature)
1 egg
10g of unsweetened cocoa powder
2,5ml of white vinegar
2,5ml of vanilla extract
2,5g of baking soda
2,5g of salt
2,5g of baking powder
red food colouring paste

We start whisking in a bowl the flour, the cocoa powder, the baking powder and the salt.
In a separate bowl we beat the sugar and the butter with the electric mixer on low speed until we get a creamy mix. We add the egg and the vanilla extract and we keep beating until it is well integrated.
We mix the milk and the lemon juice in a glass and we add the food colouring.
Now we incorporate half of the flour mix to the butter using the electric mixer on low speed. Then we add the milk and then the rest of the flour. We should not stop beating at any point.

We activate the baking soda pouring the vinegar on it and then we add this to our dough. We mix a little more and now it's ready to be divided in the paper cases. We bake them in the oven at 190 °C for about 25                                          minutes.





Ingredients for the cream cheese frosting

225g of cream cheese (cold)
75g of non-salted butter (room temperature)
100g of powdered sugar
2,5ml of vanilla extract

We mix the sugar, the vanilla extract and the butter in a bowl and when they are well combined we add the cream cheese. We keep beating until we get a smooth and creamy frosting.

When the cupcakes are cold we can start decorating. We can use a piping bag or just a spatula to cover the cupcakes. I made a couple of each so you can see the effect. We can finish our decorations with a small detail made with fondant.

 

Angry birds chocolate cake

Last week my friend Carmen asked me to make an angry birds cake for her nephew's birthday. He loves the game and she wanted to surprise him. I was delighted. Angry birds cakes are so cool!! 
That is why we will have to postpone the wedding cake I was planning to make. No time for everything! 
To make this cake you will need a madeira sponge cake, tons of chocolate and a great amount of fondant with incredibly high doses of patience.

This kind of cakes which are covered with fondant and have decorations of sugar on the top or the edges need to be quite tall to support the weight we are putting on them. The height is one of the reasons the portions we get from them are smaller than in a regular cake. Another reason is the amount of sugar we get in each piece and the strong consistency of the cake. This cakes can be filled with almost anything. The most common filling is buttercream, remember we can get buttercream with a great range of different flavours. But we can also use ganache, marmalade, cream...anything you can think of!!
The birthday boy loves dark chocolate so this cake will have a dark chocolate ganache filling.

Ingredients for a 18cm cake (10 portions):

300g of butter
300g of sugar
400g of all-purpose flour
6 eggs
2 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

We sift the flour and the baking powder and we reserve.
We put the sugar and the butter in a bowl and we mix until we get a smooth dough. We add the eggs one by one while we whisk. 
We add the flour to the mix but not all at once. We add it with a spoon while we keep beating until all the ingredients are well integrated.
We pour it in our mould and we put it in the oven at 160 for 70 minutes. We can check if it is ready sticking a barbecue stick in the middle. If it comes out clean our cake is done.

Dark chocolate ganache
Ingredients
300gr of dark chocolate (around 70% cocoa)
300ml of cream (40% fat)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (optional)

It is really simple to make. We heat the cream until it starts to boil and we remove it from heat. We add the chocolate in small pieces while we keep stirring up and all the pieces are melt. If we want we can add the vanilla extract now. We will get a nice and bright dark chocolate cream. We let it cool and we put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. 

Once we have the cake ready we can start filling it. We take out the ganache a half an hour before we start working with it. We cut the top of the cake with a cake leveler or a large bread knife so we get a nice straight top. Now we cut the cake again to put our filling in. I always put two layers of filling so it is more tasty. As this cakes are quite dense we can also add some vanilla syrup before we spread the ganache. Once it is filled we need to cover the whole cake with a layer of ganache so our fondant sticks to the cake. Something like this.

Now it is time to roll out the fondant. We do not want to make it too thin because it will break as we cover the cake. We will make sure we have around a 5 mm thickness. 

Now all you need to do is choose the colours you will need for your decorations and start modelling with patience and time.

             
                                                                       

Marcos was the happiest birthday boy ever!!!

Banana and cinnamon vegan cupcakes

Om

This is the symbol I found when deciding the decoration for today's cupcakes. Can you guess the theme? Yes! It is yoga day!
Today I bring you a vegan recipe for 10 cinnamon cupcakes with banana and cinnamon "buttercream".

Ingredients for the cupcakes
160g of all-purpose flour
160g of sugar
2 teaspoons of corn starch
3 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of juice lemon
90 ml of olive oil
240ml of soya milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder

First we sift the flour and the baking powder. Then we add the sugar, the corn starch and the cinnamon powder. We whisk until they are all mixed up. 


In a separate bowl we mix the juice lemon, the olive oil, the soya milk and the vanilla extract with a hand mixer. We pour the blend in the bowl where we have our dry ingredients and we continue beating until we get a nice well-integrated dough.
We preheat the oven at 180°C while we divide the dough in the paper cases. We use the ice scoop to get nice even cupcakes. I usually fill 2/3 of the cases so the cupcakes reach the edge when they are done.
We bake them for 22-25 minutes.
While we wait for them to cool we prepare our "buttercream".

Ingredients for the "buttercream"

250g of vegetal butter (room temperature)
300g of icing sugar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of soya milk
1 ripe banana

We start by sifting the icing sugar so we do not find find any lumps when we eat the cupcake.
We put all the ingredients in a bowl and we use it at on low speed for one minute and then five minutes more on high speed. Now we need to crush the banana with a fork and add it to the "buttercream" carefully with smooth movements so it does not lose consistency.

I used a star pipping nozzle to decorate today and then I made om symbols with vegan royal icing.

Cinnamon and lemon cookies

We arrived from Amsterdam a couple of days ago and I am still exhausted. 
We have been walking non-stop. The kids? They were absolutely happy in the park next door. They just don't need more! By the way, a huge thank you to Elena and Ruben for having us and taking such a good care of the kids.
The city is quite easy to visit and the public transportation is amazingly good, a little expensive though. We visited all the typical places any tourist would visit in Amsterdam and a couple of non-that-common ones. 

The Mad Bakers

De Leukste Taarten Shop

Yes! My credit card is on fire! I have found many little gadgets to make my baking life a little easier.
Today I tested some of them with the recipe I bring you today: Cinnamon and lemon cookies.

Ingredients:

125g of butter (room temperature)
125g of sugar
250g of all-purpose flour
1 egg
10g of cinnamon
the zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon of baking powder

We put the flour and the baking powder in a bowl. 
In a different bowl we take the sugar, the butter, the cinnamon and the zest. We blend all the ingredients with our hands until they are well integrated. Then we add the egg and we continue mixing with our hands. We put the mixture in the bowl with the flour and the baking powder and we knead until the dough separates from the bowl and it is not sticky anymore.

We wrap it on a plastic paper and we let it stand in the fridge for an hour.

We extend the dough with a rolling pin and we cut the cookies with our selected cutters. They need to bake in the oven for 10 minutes at 180ºC. Once they have completely cooled down we can start decorating.

Today I have chosen some cutters for different special occasions. I have decorated the cookies using fondant with different colours. Here you can see the finished products.