Food art blog

07/01/2023

Orange and chocolate cake, a perfect match of flavors. 🍊🍫A decadent dessert that can be the centerpiece of New Year’s Eve table. 🎂✨
Because we all love chocolate, right? 🤗

Here is the recipe if you want to try it 🧡🍫

Cake sponge (4 layers, 20 cm diameter)

170g butter, softened
420g flour
130g dark chocolate
2tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2tsp salt
200g sugar
3 eggs, separated
2tsp vanilla extract
450ml milk

Syrup
200ml water
200g sugar

Chocolate ganache
480g dark chocolate
400g heavy cream
40g softened butter
Zest from 2 oranges

Decoration
Dried orange slices
Rosemary sprigs

Make the sponges. Preheat oven at 180 degrees C. Grease 4 round cake pans and line the bottoms with baking paper.
Melt chocolate at bain-marie. Sift together flour, baking puwder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg yolks and vanilla extract, then the melted chocolate. Mix until well combined. Add dry ingredients alternating with milk and mix to incorporate. In another bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy then fold them in the cake batter with a spatula.

Divide batter into the pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Let the cakes cool.

Make the syrup. Add sugar and water to a small pan and bring to boil. When it's boiling, keep it for 2-3 minutes and remove from the heat. Let it cool before using.

Make the ganache. Melt chocolate at bain marie. Add cream to a pan and heat it until almost boiling. While it’s heating, add orange zest into the cream. Pour it over the melted chocolate using a sieve to retain the orange zest and mix until smooth and shinny. Add butter cut in small pieces and stir to combine. Let it thicken.

Assemble the cake. Brush each cake layer with syrup. Spread the ganache on the first layer, add the second layer and repeat until you finish all cake layer. Spread some ganache on the sides also. Decorate with dried oranges and rosemary sprigs. Enjoy ! 🤗✨

Make it delicious

06/29/2023

Starting this new year with a mug of delicious mulled wine. ✨😋 One of my favorite winter drink keeping inside all winter lovely flavors: cinnamon, star anise, cloves, oranges, apples, cranberries. ❤️
Coming back to busy days soon, but until then, I still enjoy my wine and drawing new plans in my mind.
Are you still on holiday mood or ready for action? 🤗

Mulled wine recipe
1 bottle red wine (750ml)
2 cinnamon sticks
2-3 star anise
5-6 cloves
Juice from 1/2 orange
3-4 orange slices
3-4 dried apple slices
2-3tsp honey (sweeten to your taste)

Topping for mug
1 slice of orange
1 slice dried apple slice
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 clive
2 cranberries

Pour wine in a stainless steel pot. Add all ingredients and put the pan on medium heat.
When it starts simmering, turn heat to slow and keep it for about 10 minutes.
Pour the mulled wine in a mug and decorate with cinnamon stick, star anise, clove, cranberries, orange and apple slices. Enjoy! 😋

06/27/2023

Crepes with honey and lemon ricotta 💛🍋Delicious treat for lazy mornings (we still have those until kids will go back to school 😀) or as dessert. We all love crepes in our family so this new recipe was a wonderful surprise. 😋😍
What is your favorite filling for crepes? 🤗

Easy peasy recipe ❤️✨

Crepes:
250g flour
1 pinch of salt
1tbsp sugar (optional)
4 eggs
500ml milk
50g melted butter
Oil for frying

Filling
300g ricotta (well drained)
2tbsp honey
Zest from 1/2 lemon (organic)
1tsp lemon juice

Topping
Fruits of your choice
Honey to drizzle

Make the crepes.

Add flour, salt and sugar to a large bowl. Make a well in the middle, add milk, eggs and melted butter. Mix to combine and obtain a smooth batter. Cover the bowl and let it rest in the fridge for 1-2 hours (or overnight if you want them as breakfast). When you remove the batter from the fridge, it might seem separated, but do not worry. Give it a good stir and it will become smooth and ready to use. Heat a pan with a little oil and fry the crepes, one by one. Set them aside.

Make honey-lemon ricotta
In a mixer bowl add ricotta, honey, lemon zest and juice. Mix well to combine (for about 5 minutes).

Fill the crepes with ricotta filling and serve with fresh fruits on top and a drizzle of honey.

06/27/2023

Lemon madeleines 🍋💛. Perfect little treats for your coffee or tea, with a marvelous citrus flavor.
What other goodies are on your baking list now as the citrus season is here?

Easy peasy recipe

100g flour
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs
100g melted butter
100g sugar
1tsp honey
Zest from 1/2 lemon
2tbsp lemon juice

Lemon glaze
120g icing sugar
3tbs lemon juice (adjust it depending on the thickness of the glaze you want)
Zest from 1 lemon

Make the batter. Mix eggs amd sugar until creamy and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes). Add honey and lemon juice, mix again.
Combine flour and baking powder then sift them over the egg mixture. Use a spatula to fold it in.
In the end, add melted butter and fold it with the spatula. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the batter for at least 2 hours or better overnight.

Bake madeleines. Preheat oven at 225 degrees C. Butter a madeleines tray.
Using a spoon, add batter into the molds (don’t fill them completely, 3/4 is just fine).
Bake madeleines at high temperature (225 C) for 4 minutes then reduce heat at 200 C and bake them for 4-5 minutes more until golden brown. Remove from the oven and turn them on a kitchen towel to cool. Bake another batch following the same instructions.

Make the glaze. Sift icing sugar in a bowl then add lemon juice gradually, until you have the desired consistency.

Glaze madeleines. When the madeleines are cool dip them into the glaze bowl with the shell side down. Put them on a wire rack to set. Sprinkle lemon zest over the glaze. Enjoy! 🤗🍋

06/27/2023

Pear and hazelnut cake, a wonderful love story 🍐😋. For these gloomy days I’ve baked this delicious cake to bring some sunshine into my home ✨. It was soooo good with a cup of good coffee and a book. ❤️
Perfect start for this new week, isn’t it? 🤗

Pear and hazelnut cake

175g butter, softened
150g sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
170g flour
50g hazelnut flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
130g Greek yogurt, room temperature
5 medium-small pears (ripe, but still firm)
30+20g hazelnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease a cake pan (20cm diameter) with butter.

Place softened butter in a mixing bowl. Mix until creamy texture.
Add sugar and mix again for 2-3 minutes, until incorporated. Pour in the vanilla extract and mix.
Start adding the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition until fully incorporated.

In a separate bowl combine flour, hazelnut flour, salt and baking powder.
Add the flour mixture and the yogurt alternately, mixing gently after each new addition, just until incorporated.
Pour the batter into the baking pan.

Cut off the end of the pears to help them stand vertical. Remove the core and seeds with a small knife.
Add the pears to the pan, pressing lightly on top of the mixture and moving the fruit gently to position them as vertically as possible, stems up.
Sprinkle 30g of chopped hazelnuts on top of the cake.

Bake the pear cake for 55-60 minutes at 175 degrees C.
If you think the tails of the pears are getting burnt, wrap them in some aluminum foil.

When it's baked (you can do the toothpick test), remove the cake and let it cool in the pan.
Before serving, sprinkle 20g of chopped hazelnuts on top. Enjoy! 🤗🍐

06/27/2023

Brownie-tiramisu, an absolutely gorgeous dessert. 🤎It’s such an amazing mix of flavors and textures. You can’t go wrong with it, right? 😋😍