Lemon passion fruit semolina cake

I know it is bit late but I think it is never to late for a happy new year! I hope this year will be all that you want it to be.

Looking back at last year I can say that it’s been a very good one. Now that I’ve think about it, I don’t think I had any bad year at all. Or maybe I’m just good at ignoring any bad past.

Anyway it’s been really good taking a break from blogging and focusing more on getting healthier. I’ve stopped running since the days are getting shorter and the nights longer, but as soon as the temperature goes up to somewhat decent running temperature; I will be picking up where I left. Still have that wedding to go to in June...So far I haven’t gain any kilos, but I’m afraid I can’t hold that off for long.

I checked my pantry and notice that I had a bag of Semolina that was about to expire. I looked everywhere for a recipe and then I remembered that my Greek neighbor use to make semolina cake. All the recipes I saw were using 6 or more eggs. Somehow I just can’t justify using 6 eggs just for 1 cake. So lucky I found this recipe and decided to tweak it a little: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/20192/lemon+semolina+cake

For the cake I used:

-       130 grams of unsalted room temperature butter

-       ½ cup of sugar

-       Zest of one lime

-       2 eggs

-       ½ cup of milk

-       2/3 cups of all purpose flour

-       1 ½ cups of semolina

-       1 teaspoon of baking soda

-       ½ teaspoon of salt

Since I had a lot of passion fruits I decided to use them in the syrup.

-       ¼ cup of passion fruit juice

-       1 cup of water

-       1 cup of sugar

-       Juice of 1 small lime

-       Pinch of salt

I started with creaming the sugar, the butter and the lime zest. 

Then one by one I added the eggs. After the eggs were incorporated I added the milk.

I preheated the oven on 180C degrees.

In a different bowl I mixed the flour, semolina, baking soda and the salt. After the milk was mixed in I added the dry ingredients. I used a spatula to mix it a bit first and then with the hand mixer I made sure everything was mixed well.

I use a bit of butter to grease a square baking tin and added the mixture. I made sure it was somewhat flat on top.

The cake was in the oven for about 40 minutes.

This gives me more than enough time to make the syrup. I cut about 7-8 passion fruits in half and scooped out the seeds. It went into a pot and on the fire so it can boil for a little. After that I drained the seeds and poured 1 cup of water on top. I made sure I extracted as much flavor as I could. Then the pot went back on the fire. After it boiled it added 1 cup of sugar, a pinch of salt and the juice of 1 small lemon. I let the syrup boil for about 8 minutes.

By now the cake is done and has a really nice golden crust. To make sure the syrup can go through the whole cake I punched some holes. Then I poured about 2/3 of the hot syrup on the hot cake.

After it cooled for a bit I cut the cake in squares. I can see that the cake has not sucked up all the syrup so lucky I had some left so I could pour a bit more on top.

It was a very nice and easy cake to make. The only thing I would do different is I would double the amount of syrup so I can let the cake soak in more and maybe shorten the oven time to 30 minutes. This time I only poured it on top so the cake wasn't wet enough for me. Still a very good first try.

Strawberry cloud birthday cake

Today marks a very special day for one little lady. Although it’s her 22^nd birthday in my eyes she’s still little…that is till I realize how old she is. It makes me old thinking about it. In my mind I’m still 25 at most…

Since it’s her special day I’ll tell you a little something about her. You’ll have to know that my family has 4 girls and she is the last in the row. My other sisters and I are 2 and 4 years apart, but since this one was an attempt of having a boy we are 11 years apart. I remembered I had to take care of her when she was a baby because I was the big sister. Even now I’m taking care of her since she lives with me and my husband while she is in college here in The Hague. Our deal is: you pass every year and granulate or you go back to mom and dad. So far so good…she’s still here.

For her birthday she didn’t want to invite any friends over. Instead she’s at home playing on her laptop and chill out. This doesn’t mean that there is no cake. I saw this cake on Annabel Langbein’s show. Again one of those easy to make cakes that I had to give it a try and I followed her recipe to the letter. Well almost to the letter. Click here for her recipe.

The only thing I did different is using about 300 grams of whole grain biscuits and about 300 grams of strawberries.

I like a thicker biscuit layer so I used more biscuits. Here I’m mixing up 300 grams of biscuits, 100 grams of melted butter, 2 cups of shredded coconut and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. 

What I would do different next time is mashing the strawberries first before mixing it. Because I left the strawberries still a bit chunky they went flying everywhere when I started mixing it. I’m mixing 300 grams of strawberries, 2 egg whites, 1 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Also I would mix it on low speed first and then increase it to max till it fluffs up. And I would mix it a bit longer too. This morning when I checked on the cake some of juice was running out of the cake.

This probably means that I haven’t beaten it well enough. I would also reduce the sugar; 1 cup was a bit too sweet, so I’d go for ½ cup next time.

The cake was really fluffy and tasted like cotton candy. Who knew you could make something this easy with just 2 egg whites and some soft fruits.

Apparently you can freeze this cake to so after we all had a slice I put it in the freezer. Hopefully it tastes even better frozen!

Happy birthday baby girl!

Easy apple pie cheese cake

I've been IMA for so long it feels quite weird to start blogging again. But I noticed that I've missed it so I'll try to post more frequently.

I hope to be able to persuade you to make this. It's a real "Dutch" treat. Or at least I think it is a Dutch treat since I've never seen it made like this anywhere else.

This cheese cake is not your traditional cheese cake, but it’s a nicer “lighter” version. Normally I would make it with quark, which is a slightly thicker version of yoghurt, but it works with yoghurt as well. And you can make it in any flavour you like. All depending on what flavour yoghurt or quark you have.

I’ve been wanting to make this for a while now, but somehow it wasn’t the right time. Now that the expiration date is coming closer I didn’t had a choice. Either I use the ingredients or I had to through them in the garbage. So I gathered all the stuff and just got started.

For this super easy cheese cake I used:

-          500 grams of Dutch spice cookies (speculaaskoekjes)

-          75 grams of butter

-          300 ml of whipping cream

-          500 ml of apple pie yoghurt

-          5 tablespoons of sugar

-          6 sheets of gelatine (= 9 grams of gelatine powder)

-          Juice of half an orange

I stared with crushing the cookies with my pestle. It takes quite some time to crush them so if you have a food processor…use it!  

You can use any cookie you like. I know that some people like to use Graham crackers, but I like to use a cookie that already has lots of flavours so I don’t have to add any extra. I think ginger cookies will work as well.

While I’m working hard on the cookies I headed some butter in the microwave, only for 30 seconds. Just enough to make it melt.

Then I added the butter to the cookie crumbs and mixed it together till all the crumbs are coated with butter.  

I poured the mixture in a big cake mould and started to press it with a glass to make it all stick together and to make a smooth bottom. This will go into the fridge while I prepare the rest of the cake.

I mixed the whipping cream with 5 tablespoons of sugar till it was nice and firm and set it aside.

In the meantime I soaked the gelatine sheets in some cold water till they feel rubbery. I heated the juice of ½  an orange and dissolved the gelatine in it.

Then it was time to mix the yoghurt with the orange/gelatine mixture. And when that was well mixed I added the whipped cream and mixed it for just another couple of seconds.

The whole mixture went on top of the cookie bottom and back in the fridge so it could set.

It set perfectly! The bottom was nice and thick and worked so well with the light and fluffy yoghurt.

I normally make it one day ahead so all the flavours can combine. Since I used a big cake mould there was plenty to share with my neighbours.

As you can see I like my cake plain, without any decorating. I figured there are a lot of calories in the cake already so I don't have to add any extra. And I don't feel too guilty taking another slice...

Next time I would make it in a glass so everyone can have their own individual servings. Give this cheese cake a try. You'll love it!