The best Chocolate Cake ever and Dairy Free Cake.

Today I made my all time favorite Chocolate Cake. This cake is the almighty chocolate cake from the movie Mathilda. I think we all remember the scene were Bruce stole a piece of cake from the headmistress. She, obviously, is furious and Bruce needs to be punished. As punishment he needs to eat a whole chocolate cake. As delicious the cake is, one enormous cake is  actually a bit too much!

                   

You can do it Bruce! Bruce, Bruce, Bruce!

Well I love Matilda and I think Roald Dahl is a great writer. I enjoyed his books so much.
No suprise that when i came along the recipe of the the chocolatiest chocolate cake ever from the movie Matilda, I had to try it!  And my, oh my the cake is so GOOD! And it truly is "the most scrumptious cake ever"  as headmistress Trunchbull says. So I've made this cake a hundred times already, and people still want more and more! This recipe is worth a try, and I think no one will regret it! Its a very easy recipe and the result... well yes, you have to taste yourself.

So here is what you  need for the cake
225 gr dark chocolate (chips) (1 cup)
170 gr butter (2/3 cup)
225 gr powdered sugar (2 cups)
4 TBS flour 
6 eggs
and for the frosting:
225 gr dark chocolate (1 cup)
225 gr sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and grease a oven pan. I used a 18cm one.
2. melt the chocolate ala "au bain marie", (or read by frosting recipe) or just put it in the microwave until its completely melted. When you did it the au bain marie was, take your bowl from the pan.
4.Then add the butter, and stir until the butter is completely melted.
5.You need to separate the eggs. Put the egg whites in a clean glass bowl (I whisk the egg whites before i continue with the chocolate mixture, so I don't have to clean them while I'm busy) and put the egg yolks into the chocolate butter mixture. 
6.Add the flour and powdered sugar to the mixture. Mix really good on high speed for 5 minutes.
7.Beat the egg whites until they are stiff, if you haven't done it yet. 
8.Then add the first half of the stiff egg whites to the chocolate mixture. Give it a good stir. Then add what is left and stir once again until everything is combined.
9.Put it in your baking tin and put it in the oven for at least 40 minutes. Take out when pricker comes out clean. Mine took about an hour.

When the cake is the oven you can start with the frosting. Is is super easy and tastes real good.
 

Put the chocolate and the sour cream in a glass bowl and heat it up again ala "au bain marie"
Au bain marie: Put a pan with water on medium heat. Don't let it boil. Put the glass bowl into the pan, and make sure that the water does not touch the glass bowl. Let the chocolate melt and stir with the sour cream. 
Take the bowl from the pan and let it cool down.

When the frosting and the cake are cooled down, you can apply the frosting on the cake. You can just put it on with a spatula or put in a frosting bag and apply it that way. Whatever you prefer!
You can eat and enjoy the cake right away! Its truly Amazing!!!

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Unfortunately someone was allergic to dairy, and couldn't normally enjoy any cakes on birthday parties. So I wanted to make a cake she could eat. I made a Chocolate cake with soy frosting.

It was quite good had the taste of a normal cake.

Its an easy and quick recipe:

for the cake you'll need:

180 gr all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cup)

200 gr sugar (1 cup)

30 gr cacao powder(1/4 cup)

1 ts baking powder

80 ml vegetable oil (1/3 cup)

1 ts vanilla extract 

1 ts white vinegar

240 ml water (1 cup)

Frosting:

224 gr Crisco (1 cup)

440 gr powdered sugar (3 1/2 cup)

1 1/2 ts vanilla extract 

60 ml plain soy milk (1/4 cup)

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350 F). Grease in a baking tin 18 cm.
2. Sift together dry ingredients. Then add the oil, vanilla water and vinegar. Mix all together until its smooth.
3. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake it until pricker comes out dry. start testing after 20-25 minutes. Mine took about an hour.  When cake is done, remove from the oven and let it cool
The frosting:
4. Mix the Crisco until its fluffy, then add powered sugar  and mix aout 3 more minutes.
5. Add the soy milk and vanilla, mix for 5 or 7 more minutes. You can add food coloring.

Apply frosting on the cake the way you prefer.

Basil Chicken Lasagna

Hmm I love lasagna! One of the best dishes ever! Normally I make the just make the lasagna I think is most known by all people. The one with ground beef and Italian sauce. But today I wanted to try something different. I made Lasagna with chicken and a lot of cheese and spinach.

I really need to work on my photo's but this is the result:

Even though the picture is not great, the lasagna was! In my opinion of course ;)

So this was really tasteful, and i think.. that the people who ate it with me enjoyed it, too.

So here is the recipe ( it is really easy!)

2 chicken breasts (boneless)

a few chery tomatoes or mushrooms to taste.
4-8 clove garlic

1 TBS Basil chopped

salt

pepper

250 grams of spinach (2 - 2 1/2cups)
mozzarella
ricotta
Parmesan
lasagna sheets 

bechamel sauce 

Preheat oven to 200C (400F). Cut the chicken in small bite pieces. add salt and pepper. Put some oil into a skillet and add chicken, on medium heat, until they are golden brown. Put the chicken in a bowl and set aside. Then put minced union in the same skillet and saute this for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, lower the heat and saute for 2 minutes. Chop the spinach and add this in the skillet. Dice the chery tomatoes or slice the mushrooms, or both, whatever you prefer. Saute this on medium low heat, about 10 minutes.
Add the chicken and stir everything real good.

set aside.  You can either buy bechamel sauce or you can make it yourself. Its really quite easy
Here is the recipe:
 

50 gr butter (2 TBS)

50 gr flour   (1/2 cups)

500 ml milk (2 cups)

Melt the butter in a saucepan. When butter is melted add all the flour at once. Use a spatula to stir everything good until you have a paste, roux. Stir the roux on a medium low heat for 2-3 minutes. Then add the milk bit by bit.. When all the milk is added, put the pan on the lowest pit, cook it really low for about 5-10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put it aside until  cooled down.

Grease in an oven dish with butter. Start with a bit of bechamel sauce on the bottom of the oven dish. Then a few lasagna sheets on the sauce. Put some ricotta on the sheets. Put half of the chicken filling on top of that. Then add some Parmesan and  mozzarella and again some bechamel sauce. After the bechamel sauce is added put again some lasagna sheets on top of that. Then do the same things as before. Put some ricotta on the sheets, then put the rest of the chicken filling on, then first add a bit of bechamel sauce and top it of with a bit of parmesan and mozzarella so they will melt in the oven. Put the basil on top.

Put in the oven for 40 minutes on 200C (400F). After 40 minutes and wait 10-15 minutes before cutting, so it sets up.

Enjoy a lovely lasagna!

The power of natures spices and herbs

Did you know that herbs and spices keep you healthy and do a lot of good things for you mind and body?
Sage; My mom always used to give me tea with a few leaves of sage when I had a sore throat. It always helped really good. Studies have shown that spraying sage solution in throats gave an effective pain relieve.
Other studies have shown us that sage is good for your memory. Students who took a sage capsule, preformed better on tests than other students who didn't took the capsules.

Cinnamon; is a really delicious spice what can be used in many different ways.

It can be used in coffee, on toast, cinnamon rolls and many other things.

It can help alleviate pain and soreness. Recent studies show cinnamon may help to improve the cells’ ability to take in glucose and lower blood sugar in diabetics. How great is that? Also it can help lower "bad" cholesterol. 

You can also combine honey with cinnamon. Use this mixture for a better condition of the heart. Spread the honey and cinnamon on your bread and eat on a regular base for breakfast. It will lower the cholesterol and can sometimes save a patient heart attack.
Amazing and tasteful spice! 

My favorite power spice right now is ginger. I always take one cup of water with fresh rasped ginger in the morning and one glass of milk with rasped ginger before I go to bed.
This amazing spice is good for a lot of things. Ginger is  really good for the digestion for calorie burning. It also reduces nausea. Ginger stimulates the blood circulation and immune system. Ginger detoxifies and cleans the body. Three or four cups a day as part of a detoxification program.
When you have a cold, chew on a piece of ginger, it will open your naval cavities. Also chewing ginger can relive a toothache and helps relieve morning sickness. But when pregnant, do not use it too often. Taking a hot bath with a few cups of ginger tea can also be a helping treatment for fever and flu. 

Ginger is good for a lot of things. My no#1 power spice. 

Korean snacks and instant bubble tea

Finally! The weather is getting much better! Sun all day and don't need to wear a coat!

I've been looking forward to this so long now.

On this lovely day, we went to the 'Oriental". This is a supermarket with a lot of products from Asia. They got really nice froze products like durian, a fruit from Asia, and dimsum.. actually anything you like. I got this rule, that every time I go there, I have t buy something I haven't tried before. So i bought Korean vegetable seaweed rolls.

We also found some bubbletea powder. You only needed to apply water and as a bubbletea addict, I needed to bring this home.

We bought a bunch of other stuff like; Indonesian icecream, hot sauce, noodle soups, malt beer and one of my favorite things: lemper!

When we got home we really wanted to try those Korean rolls. They needed to be fried.  

My God. It was really delicious!! Small rolls filled with rice noodles, carrot, green onions, garlic, leek. Rolled up in seaweed. Best thing ever!

We also tried the instant bubbletea. Wasn't far as good as the one we buy in a bubble tea store and when its fresh.  But it was okay.
You start with this. 1 package of milk tea powder, 1 package of little balls called "popping" a cup and a straw.

First add the milk tea powder stuff.

 Now add the little balls. They were actually really gross and chewy, reminded me of gum. and who wants gum in his drink ;) hehe

Apply hot water, until the cup is almost full. Stir and enjoy.

Lemon Cake and Quiche

My sister, her husband and their kids just moved to this amazing new home.
This is the perfect reason to get family and friends together and enjoy a nice afternoon with lovely food.
My sister and brother in law had these amazing quiches with goat cheese and vegetables, one with tuna and leek and another one with potatoes and zucchini.
They were all really worth a try. I really need to make more quiches too. They are so good!

Of course there needed to be cake!! So I dove into my kitchen and started right away.

I wanted to make something fresh, but sweet.
So i finally made this amazing lemon cake with frosting. I was really glad that everybody liked it. And even a few asked me for the recipe!
First I was a bit scared that maybe the cake was too heavy and people were only able to eat really small pieces..  But I worried for no reason, at the end of the night, there was no piece left. Pfieuw!

First I made the cake:
You'll need:
230 gr Butter, soft (2 sticks or 1 cup)
400 gr caster sugar (2 cups)
4         eggs
360 gr self rising flour (3cups) 
240 ml milk (1 cup)
zest of whole lemon.

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F) and butter the bottoms and sides of 2 cake pans. I used 18 cm (7inch) cake pans.
2.Mix the butter until its light and fluffy. Add sugar and keep mixing this about 6 to 8 minutes until it looks like a smooth creme. 
3.Add the eggs one at the time.
4.After you mixed all the eggs you can add the flour and the milk. You first need to add a little bit of flour, then a bit of milk. Keep doing this until you used all of both ingredients. Start with the flour and end with the flour. Do this while you keep mixing.
5. Last thing you need to do is throw in the zest of lemon. 
6.Scrape the mixture in the 2 cake pans. Bake the cakes for 20 to25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. My cakes took about an hour. When the cake is ready flip it upside down on a rack and let it cool down for 20 minutes.

Now for the filling, you can either buy lemon curd or make lemon curd. Depends on how much time you've got or if you like making lemon curd.

I had no time, so I did a bad thing and just used lemon curd I bought in a shop.. aii!

7. Fill the cake with lemon curd. You've got 2 cakes, so fill them both 2 or 3 times. Add a little lemon curd on top of one cake, and apply the other cake on top. 

Now its time for the frosting. I made the 7 minute frosting for this one.
You'll need:
45 ml water
1/4 TS creme de tartar 
265 gr sugar
2 egg whites
1 TBS Corn syrup 
1 TBS vanilla extract

8.Mix with a whisk the first 5 ingredients together.
9.When you mixed it a little, put the bowl in a pan filled with water. Au bain marie. The water must not touch the bowl! Heat the water, but don't let it cook. Stir all the ingredients until the sugar has melted.
10. Remove the bowl from the pan. Now mix this for 5 minutes on high speed. then add the vanilla extract and mix again for 2-3 minutes.
Apply on cake. You can either put it on with a spoon or with a piping bag, or any other creative way you can think of.  I used a creme brulee burner to get the frosting a little bit browner.

Really worth a try!

  

Bubble Tea, and Korean Noodle Soup

Hi,

Today i'm starting my first blog. A bit scary because I dont know if people will like it, but I will find out soon enough ;). 
This blog will be about all the things I cook, taste, see and love.
I love to cook and to try new things. Not everything works out great, but that's the way we learn. 

Today we went to this small Korean restaurant, called Gamasot. I wanted to eat here for a long time now. A Korean couple owned the restaurant.
The meals were really authentic Korean. We ordered 'bibimbap' and 'ramyum'. Bibimbap is rice with vegetables, beef and pasta from chile. Ramyum was sort of a noodlesoup with beef. Both were delicious. 

After, we went to this place we're totally addicted to. Its called Yoyo and they serve bubble tea. You can decide whatever drink you want. Warm or cold tea, milkshakes or a yoghurt shake. Then choose a flavour and choose your 'popping'. This popping can either be aloe vera or ittle balls with liquid in them. They splash open when you bite them. Really great, can drink one all day, everyday!

Delicious, delicious day!