Carrot Cake

you might have had enough food this Christmas

but if you by any chance feel like baking a cake for new year's eve...

I love to share my favorite and easy cake recipe with you

~ Carrot Cake ~

happy Holiday week to all of you!

Carrot Cake

for the cake

500 gr grated carrots

250 gr brown sugar

200 gr flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 eggs

250 ml mild olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

100 gr chopped walnuts

50 gr grated unsweetened coconut

100 gr raisins

3 table spoons apricot jam

for the frosting

200 gr cream cheese (Philadelphia, or monchou in Dutch)

50 gr salted butter

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

450 gr icing sugar (about 2 cups)

preheat the oven to 180C - 356F. With a spoon, stir the first six ingredients for the cake. Add the eggs, olive oil, vanilla extract and stir again with the spoon. Add the walnuts, coconut, raisins and stir again. Separate the mixture into two round baking tins, put them in the oven for about 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool down.

Spread the apricot jam over one of the cakes, put the other cake on top.

~ sometimes I prefer 2 smaller sized cakes instead of 1 large one. I then use a smaller tin and bake 4 little cakes, spread the apricot jam over 2 of them, place the other 2 on top and voila: 2 cakes. Consider a shorter baking time (25 minutes instead of 30) and it works well to make 2 at a time, instead of buying 4 tins ~

For the icing mix at medium speed the cream cheese and butter to a soft cream. Add the lemon juice and vanilla extract, mix well. Add the icing sugar slowly and mix at low speed, to avoid a dusty kitchen. Mix well into a smooth icing cream. Spread the icing over the cake(s) and keep in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

yummy!!

Cupcake Love

today was a day of celebration

the husband and I passed the Canadian driver's license test

we are now free as birds again

and what goes better with celebrations than cupcakes?

so we drove to Cupid's Cupcakes

I mentioned them before in this post

and treated ourselves with princess, red velvet, carrot cake and chocolate mint

~ mmmm... ~

and I hear you thinking

very nice Maaike, but I don't live within driving distance to Cupid's

so what is in it for me?

I thought about that

and decided to treat you with a cupcake recipe

the easy recipe of the cute and delicious cupcakes I made this weekend, to be seen in this post

you can find it below here

so... let me know what you think!

~ happy cupcake baking ~

Mini Lemon Coconut Cupcakes

(for about 24 mini's)

100 gr butter

1 lemon

2 eggs

120 gr sugar

120 gr flour

50 gr grated unsweetened coconut

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

for the frosting

150 gr icing sugar

2 table spoons hot water

2-3 table spoons fresh lemon juice

Start with the frosting: mix the icing sugar together with the water and lemon juice for about 10 minutes for a white and shiny finish.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the mini cupcake liners in the mold. Melt the butter in the microwave, do it carefully so it does not overheat. Wash the lemon, peel it and press the lemon. Mix the eggs with the sugar until fluffy. Add the flour, melted butter, lemon zest and juice, salt and coconut. At last add the baking powder.

Fill the mini cupcake liners with the mixture and put them in the preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes, depending on your oven.

When the cakes are ready, take them out of the oven and let them cool for a moment. Add the icing when they are still a little warm.



yummm...!

Sinterklaas

Today Sinterklaas arrived by boat in Harderwijk in the Netherlands. For anyone who does not know him, he is the Dutch version of Santa claus. From today on he brings presents in your shoe by the fireplace every night {if you're lucky}, and brings most gifts on December 5th. Along with Sinterklaas comes the candy :-), so here is a recipe for gevulde speculaas in Dutch. A true tradition and I baked ours this morning. Enjoy!

Gevulde speculaas

100 gr licht bruine basterdsuiker

100 gr zachte boter

snufje zout

ong. 3 eetl melk

200 gr bloem

1/5 theel bakpoeder

10 gr  speculaaskruiden

50 gr  amandelen

1      licht geklutst ei

1      pakje amandelspijs

Oven voorverwarmen op 160 C. Basterdsuiker, boter, zout, melk, bloem, bakpoeder en speculaaskruiden in een kom doen en kneden tot een gelijkmatig deeg. Deeg in de koelkast laten rusten. Pakje amandelspijs behandelen zoals aangegeven op de verpakking (meestal mengen met half geklust ei). Deeg in 2 ballen verdelen. Bakplaat met bakpapier bekleden. De eerste deegbal uitrollen (gebruik hiervoor een glazen fles als je geen deegroller hebt) tot max 1 cm dikte en met de hand in de gewenste vorm kneden. Het amandelspijs gelijkmatig over het uitgerolde deeg verdelen en de randen vrijlaten. De tweede deegbal uitrollen en daar het deeg met amandelspijs mee bedekken. Randen goed aandrukken. Vervolgens versieren met de amandelen en bestrijken met de andere helft van het geklutst ei. Plaats in het midden van de oven voor ongeveer 25 minuten.

Kladdkaka

Scandinavia is my second big love, next to my boyfriend J of course :-), and especially Sweden since my brother moved there with his girlfriend July 2009. One of the things I like so much about Scandinavians is the delicious things they bake at home. The kladdkaka for example. We enjoyed it big time this weekend with the family. A great, quick and easy-to-make-chocolate cake. Therefore I like to share the recipe with you.

Any ideas or trics to make it even better? Scandinavian blog-readers? Let me know.

Kladdkaka

2 eggs

3 dl sugar (yes, dl. Even though not fluid)

2 dl flour

3 table spoons cocoa powder

1 table spoon vanilla sugar

100 gr butter

Set oven to 175 C. Make the butter melt slowly on low temperature. Take a bowl to gently stir eggs and sugar. Take another bowl to mix flour, cocoa powder and vanilla sugar; add this mixture to the eggs/sugar. Gently stir in the melted butter and put the mixture in a round cakeform. Put in the 175 C oven for about 15-20 minutes. It is finished when the inside of the cake is still a little soft/ fluid when you move the form. Tastes also great when still warm, together with whipped cream and cherries as a dessert...

Pumpkin

It is official now, fall has really kicked in today with lots of rain and cold in Amsterdam. This sounds sad, but... also chears up: time for pumpkin soup again! Whohoo. Let me share my favorite recipe with you, originally from my mom, who is one of the best home-cooks. Let me know if you enjoyed it as much as we do!

Pumpkinsoup

(Serves 4)

1.5 kg fresh pumpkin, carved and chopped

2 onions, chopped

2 apples (Jonagold) chopped, no peal

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 l chicken bouillon

1 dl cream

Nutmeg

Salt

Pepper

Put butter in large pot and heat. Add onion and stir and bake for 3 min, then add pumpkin, apples and brown sugar, stir for 5 min. Add some nutmeg, cinnamon and the bouillon, bring to boil and simmer for 20 min. Then blend.

Add pepper, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon to the cream, mix it and use as ‘topping’ when serving.

What goes well with it: some fresh baked bread, with a homemade butter-garlic-salt-pepper-spread on it.... yummie