Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone of you who read my blog, or who just come so say hello, or come just to have a look to the pictures and also the ones who never comment but they are there.

I'm happy my blog is almost one year, I love to share with you and the most important to learn from other blogs which I admire.

Happy 2013 and my best wiches for the new year!!!

Lots of love and thanks to be there ♥

Raquel

And for celebrate it here here you have the recipe of cupcakes of cava:

INGREDIENTS 12 Cava Cupcakes

110 g butter at room temperature

210 g white sugar

2 large eggs

200 g plain flour

1,5 teaspoon baking powder

60 ml whole milk

40 ml cava

Preheat the oveb to 160º and prepare the baking tin.

Sift the flour and the baking powder, and set aside. Beat the butter and the sugar in the mixing bowl and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs on at a time, beating well adter each addiion. Add the sifted dry ingredients altering with the milk. Add the cava and stir with a spatula.

Divide the mixture between the cupcakes cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let them in the tin for 5 minutes and cool them on a wire rack before decorate.

Cava Frosting
300 icing sugar
120 unsalted butter at room temperature
4 tablespoons cava

Sift the icing sugar and set aside. Crem the butter until smooth and add the sugar gradually. Add the cava and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy.

Wishing you Peace

This is just a quick post to wish you all the best for these days. Hope you enjoy with your family, days full of love, laugther, big nice meals and lot of peace. I leave you with these cookies with M&M's and a touch of ginger.

M&M Ginger Cookies
260 g all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
170 g unsalted butter at room temperature
130 g white sugar
140 g light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspons pure vanilla extract
200 g M&M, Smarties or Lacasitos candies

Preheat the oven to 170º and line the baking tray with sheets.

Sift the flour, the baking soda, the ginger, cloves and the salt. Set aside. In the bowl of your mixer beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until well combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. 

Make balls using an ice cream scoop or two spoons and place them on the baking sheet. Gently flatten each ball of dough and cover them with the M&M's. Bake them for 14 minutes or until they are light golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave them 5 minutes on the tray before transfer them on a wire rack to cool.

So for all of you who celebrate Christmas, and even those who do not, I wish you all the best and Merry Xmas!

Lots of love ♥

Winter Frost Cupcakes

Days are getting busier and busier planning all the Christmas holidays. There is lots of excitement around my home, it is time to share food with family and friends. I'm still planning menus for special dates but in the meanwhile I had time to prepare these cupcakes. Actually the intention was to be completly white with the silver cases, but since I used a special cake recipe they have grew quite a lot. You can see below on the instructions the method is some different and this gives a very soft and light texture to the cake. Cupcakes to welcome the winter time.

INGREDIENTS makes 12
175 g cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
113 g unsalted butter at room temperature
200 g white sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs ar room temperature
120 ml whole milk
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 160º and prepare the cupcake tin.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and the salt, set aside. In the mixer bowl beat the butter until soft and add 150 grams of the sugar. Beat until fluffy and light. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture alternating with the milk in three aditions. 

Beat the eggs whites in a separate bowl until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 50 grams of sugar gradually and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Add the mixture into the batter with a rubber spatula gently. Do not over mix the batter. 

Fill the cupcakes cups and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave them for 5 minutes before place them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Take note these cupcakes grow more in the oven, I would put little bit less than 2/3 of mixture in the cases.

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking

Frosting:

300 g icing sugar

120 g unsalted butter at room temperature

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Sift the icing sugar and set aside. Cream the butter until smooth and add the sugar gradually. Add the lemon juice and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy.

I topped these cupcakes with royal icing snowflakes which are so easy to make. Draw the snowflakes on a paper and place on a baking paper, follow the draw with the royal icing, leave them at least 24 hours for dry.

Enjoy your holidays ♥

Linzer Cookies

These cookies is belived to have originated in the Linzer Torte, the famous tart from the Austrian city of Linz. They are a holiday classic in the Austrian, German, Swiss and Hungarain traditions, often eaten in Chrismtas.  The Linzer Torte is said to be the oldest-known cake in the world. Old or not is always a good idea to make these cookies, not only for their gorgeous presentation also because their soft and delicate taste. I used almond flour into the mixture, but you can also use hazelnut, walnuts or even pecan nuts. Also with the jam are other alternatives, orinally is spreaded with a red jam such as raspberry, blackcurrant or like in my case with cherry jam, but you can fill them with your favorite jam taste.

INGREDIENTS makes 14 cookies

190 g all-purpouse flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup almond flour
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar, plus more for sprinkiling
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon groud cinnamon
110 g unsalted butter at room temperature
55 g white sugar
1 teaspon vanilla extract
1 large egg
Cherry jam for filling

Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl and place aside. Pulse the almond flour, confectioners sugar, salt and cinnamon in a food processor until finely groud, transfer to the bowl of the mixer.

Add the butter and the sugar and beat until fluffly. Mix in the vanilla and the egg. Add the flour mixture and mix until combined. Divide the dough, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180º and prepare the baking tray with parchment paper or baking sheets.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut with your favorite cutter and cut out the centers of half.

Place the cookies on the baking tray, make sure you leave 5 cm between each other. Bake for 8-10 minutes until pale golden. Remove from the oven, leave the cookies on the tray for 2 minutes and transfer to racks to cool.

Sprinkle the top part of the cookies with confectioners sugar. Spread the jam onto uncut cookies. If jam is too liquid you will need to heat it to thicken. 

recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

These cookies are crisp, but once they are filled with the jam they become to soft little by little. So if you prefer to eat them cripy just fill them the day you going to serve them. Either options are nice.

Is just one week left to xmas eve ♥

Turrón and Chocolate Tartlets

And finally I come with a Christmas taste recipe! what better to start with a "turrón" treat? Turrón is a spanish Christmas delight, similar to nougat. There are a large variety of turrón but this time I used the one I like the most: the one called Xixona, which is soft and it is a paste of almonds, honey, eggs and sugar.
I told you in several times I love tartlets, so I decided to fill them with a mix of turrón and chocolate which combines perfect. I added a touch of Baileys to the chocolate which is also a good mix and Christmas is a good excuse to have a shot of this nice whisky cream. I bought the "turrón" in a jar, which comes ready to spread or bake. But is also easly to get the cream blending the whole piece.

INGREDIENTS makes 6
Pastry dough see here
150 ml heavy cream
190 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
4 tablespoons Baileys
6 tablespoons turrón cream (use penaut butter or speculoos cream instead)

Place the chopped chocolate into a bowl. Bring the heavy cream to boil on a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove just when starts boiling and pour into the chocolate bowl. Stir until smooth, add the Baileys and let it cool until few minutes before to set the shell.

Put some chocolate mixture with turrón into the shell mixing with a frok giving a marble effect.
I topped with a cookie.

Serve cold.

Only 12 days left for Christmas eve ♥

Chocolate Crackle Cookies

I would liked to begin this week with a Christmas recipe idea, but I really had not time after my days in Vienna. But last week, and just right after I've got my new books I decided to make these crackle cookies which they look quite like winter cookies and such as snowed delights which makes me think they are already a Christmas treat. Are very easy to make and they taste delicous, makes me remember the brownies taste.

So this is my recipe adapted for Martha Stewart's book.

INGREDIENTS makes about 40 cookies

225 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
135 g all-purpose flour
60 g cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
120 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200 g light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
90 ml whole milk
Sugar glaze for rolling

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl of simmering water stirring. Set aside and let it cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Beat the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffly. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add melted chocolate. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the milk until just combined. Divide the dough into four equal pieces and wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firms, about 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180º.

Roll each portion of the dough into balls of about 4 cm using your hands.* Roll them on sugar glaze and place them on the baking tray, making sure you leave enough space between each other since they grow in the oven.

Bake them about 14 minutes until have flattened and sugar splits.

Transfer from the oven to a wire rack to let cool completely.

If you can resist it beacause they are yummy when they are still warm! But you can keep them in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

* To prevent sticking you can use granulated sugar. I did not used.

I am gonna start with Christmas recipes right now, after my mini trip to Vienna I'm even more motivated, Vienna has a lot of Christmas markets around the city, typical sweets, xmas ornamets and of course Glühwein and hot punch to prevent the cold.

Have a nice week ♥

Honey Cupcakes

I love markets, even if I go there just to have a walk and have a look, specialy in winter time, though is not yet oficial winter, for me here has already begin since more than a month ago, specially today that was snowing this morning. So I have to be ready for colder days and that's the way few weeks ago a seller of a lovely stand convinced me to buy a honey jar in the biological market I use to go on fridays. I love the personal treatment of sellers and if they let you taste the products much better. 

Once I arrived home, and as is usual in me I decided to make cupcakes with it. As you can imagine the flavour of them is quite sweet, I did not add so much quantity on the frosting but instead I drizzle the top with some drops of honey.  

INGREDIENTS makes 12
110 g butter at room temperature
200 g white sugar
2 large eggs
200 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 ml whole milk
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 160º and prepare the baking.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and the salt, and set aside. Mix the milk, the honey and the vanilla and set aside.

Put the butter and the sugar in the mixing bowl and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs on at a time, beating after each addition. Add the sifted dry ingredients alterning with the milk.

Divide the mixtre between the cucpakes cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let them in the tin for 5 mintues and finally let them cool completely in a wire rack before decoratin.

For the decoration I used a buttercream frosting and I added a teaspoon of honey, just to give a taste touch.

Before serving top with a drizzle of honey.

I will need to start soon with the Christmas recipes! By the way on thursday I am going to Vienna until sunday, anyone can give me an interesting suggestion? 

Enjoy your week ♥