Cheesy Gratin of Brussels Sprouts

This dish is very flexible, it can be made early in the day, refrigerated, then baked before mealtime. If you're not a sprout fan, you can substitute one very large head of cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets. 

My daughter had this with the veal scaloppine and red ruby grapefruit and loved the combination. So, here comes the recipe:

Layered Cake with Caramel and Orange Cream

Today was my daughter's birthday and I made this cake for her to take to school. There were two 9x2x13-inch baking trays she brought back home absolutely empty :)).

Happy Birthday, my sweetheart! I am so happy to have you in my life!

Recipe for 6 layers:

- 2 eggs
- 12 tbsp sugar
- 9 tbsp milk
- 12 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- about 650-700 gr flour
 
Cream sugar with eggs, then add the milk and the oil, mixing well after each tablespoon. Combine baking powder and baking soda with a bit of vinegar, then add to the egg mixture. Gradually add the flour until dough is no longer sticky.

Divide the dough into 6 equal parts, then toll each part into a layer (9/13-inch); bake each layer on the back of a baking sheet, in the preheated oven at 350F.

Recipe for the caramel and orange cream:

- 3 eggs
- 4 tbsp water
- 4 tbsp flour
- 350 gr sugar
- 2 pints milk
- 50 ml orange juice
- orange juice extract, about 1 tsp
- 200 gr butter

In a small saucepan, on low heat, combine sugar with 4 tbsp water and melt until caramelized, stirring continuously. Mix the flour with eggs, add the flour then pour everything over the caramel, and continue stirring. Add the orange juice and the orange extract, then allow it to cook until it resembles a thick pudding. Turn the heat off and allow mixture to cool, but not completely. Cut the butter into small pieces and mix into the caramel cream little by little.

Allow the cream to cool completely, then start assembling the cake: layer, cream, layer and so on, finishing with a cake layer. Let it rest overnight, preferably with some weight on top.

Prepare a glaze from 1/2 stick butter, 100 gr sugar, 100 gr cocoa and about 10 tbsp water. Mix everything on low heat, then pour it over the cake and decorate either with coconut flakes (as I did) or in any way you like.

Enjoy!

Champagne Lemon and Black Currant Cake

Today is a very special day: Roxana celebrates her birthday! I am honoured because she invited me to write a guest post and because she accepted to have a cake from me for her day! Yupiiii!

So, to combine the best of both worlds, I chose to make a cake with champagne and lemon cream, plus black currant jam. Of course, since the cake is for GreenGirl, green glitter could not be omitted :))

Checkerboard Cake

I haven't been neglecting my blog lately, I just didn't cook that much, since my little one is away at summer camp and I'm putting in long hours in the office. Speaking of that, we have a colleague that recently decided to complete his studies, therefore quit his job and returned to school. As is the tradition in our office, we were going to have a small party for him, and my colleagues asked if I could make the cake. I said yes, and this is the result (the quality of the photos is not that great, they were taken in the office)

I used 9-inch pans.

Peach, Pecans and Cinnamon Cake

My daughter and I were invited to a barbeque upstate today, at one of my colleagues' country house. I knew it was an approximately 3 hours drive to get there, so I needed a cake that would travel well under any weather conditions. I decided to make this one:

This cake can be made with fresh ripe peaches or pears.

Lemon Meringue Pie

After I had sworn to myself that I won't set foot in the kitchen today, I received an e-mail from the class moms, a reminder to bring food for tomorrow morning's end of Junior schoolyear party in my daughter's classroom. So, with a heavy heart (because of the heat), I had to turn the oven on :)) and make some lemon meringue pie. Now, this is the first and the last time I'm ever going to use store-bought crust pie; I wanted a shortcut and it fell short, meaning that the crust cracked in several places and was not rolled out uniformly. No problem, lesson learned!!

 

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell 

Three Colours Chocolate Mousse Cake

This recipe is quite easy to make, although quite time-consuming, but it has a great visual impact once it's finished. I made this cake for my daughter's birthday and let me tell you, the children (and their mothers) were impressed, some of them even did not believe it was homemade and not store-bought.

I started out with the base of the cake, which is in fact a brownie recipe. We need:

- 5 eggs

- 200 gr sugar

- 200 ml vegetable oil

- 1/2 cup water

- 250 gr all-purpose flour

- 10 gr baking powder

- 2 tablespoons cocoa