La vie en rose

Hi all! I'm back, back to my roots, back to baking! I know, I know I haven't been an assiduous blogger lately, but I'm full of ideas for this upcoming spring, so I promise I'll post much more often.

Since the weather still isn't exactly spring-like and I'm longing for the sun sooooo badly, I decided to anticipate the smell of flowers and the taste of them... Yes, the TASTE of roses! 

So I baked pink muffins with rose flavour.

What you need for about 12 muffin:

110 gr. butter

110 gr. sugar

110 gr. flour

1 spoon of baking powder

2 eggs

1 spoon of milk

1 pinch of salt

rose extract

pink or red food colouring

How to proceed:

Preheat the oven at 180° C and prepare the paper cases in the muffin tray.

Mix the butter with the sugar, the eggs, and the rose axtract (as much as you like - I put one spoon). When you get a fluffy consistency add the flour, the baking powder, the food colouring, and the milk. If the dough is too sandy add more milk.

Put the batter in the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Before you eat them wait untill they cool down, otherwise you won't taste the intensity of the rose.

And when you'll savour them you'll see la vie en rose...

Enjoy ♥

Martina

The golden age

Hi all! Sorry I've been absent for a while but uni has got my full attention lately. Anyways today I simply have to tell you about saturday night's celebrations.

This year I'm turning 23 and since 23 is my lucky number (I was born the 23rd of January 1989; 2+3+1+1+9+8+9=23) I decided to give a party! Not just an ordinary one but a theme party: the golden age. From the Roman empire to the 80s' every epoch was allowed... and see what my friends came up with:

 Ivka chose the 50s', I was in the 30s', Anna was a geisha, and my mom was simply golden!

Umberto picked Mozart with a cat face and then turned into Casanova, Egon was a white jungle explorer...

Giovanni came from some oriental desert with his flying carpet!

Fanny & Christian directly from Asia

 Stephan was a rhino!!! Which epoch is that??? ;)

 Nils alias Fonzie! Yeah!

 Karina had a lovely Venecian mask and Romi wore golden shorts!

 

 

 Thankyou all for the lovely presents!

 And thanks to my mom who baked all day long and helped me organize the party. We were all delighted with a birthday Sachertorte and chocolate-nuts-muffins... no leftovers! Thanks also to Giovanni who has taken the pictures and has been the Aperol-Spritz-Master!

Enjoy :)
Martina

And this is how the party ended: fluo bracelets on an empty beer bottle.

Merry Xmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! 

Finally this day has come: family, lights, mistletoe, presents, cookies, cinnamon, games, candles, holly, and fun all together.

 Last night we had a family party so I decided to bake something special: "il tronchetto di Natale" or translated the Christmas log. Its real name is Bûche de Noël and it is a traditional dessert from France. You can also find it in Northern Italy; it was Napoleon who brought it... merci je l'adore! 

As the name indicates, the cake is generally prepared, presented, and garnished so as to look like a log ready for the fire. The traditional log is made with sponge cake frosted, filled with chocolate buttercream or ganache, and served with a portion of one end of the cake cut off and set on top to resemble a chopped off branch. It is then decorated with powdered sugar (snow), berries, mushrooms and trees made of meringue or marzipan.

That's how I made it!

For the sponge cake: 

Put in a bowl 70gr. of sugar, 2 whole eggs, and 2 egg yolks. Beat the ingredients in a bain marie until you get a light and fluffy consistency (takes about 10 minutes). 

Remove the bowl from the fire and gently stir, then add 80gr. of manitoba flour and 1 tablespoon of vanillin. When well mixed add 30gr. of melted butter.

In another bowl put the 2 egg whites with a pinch of salt and start beating. When you get the snow add 10gr. of sugar and beat for other 2 minutes.

Heat the oven at 220 degrees C. Put a sheet of baking paper on your oven dish and bake the mixture (about 1cm thick) for 5 to 7 minutes.

When ready take it out and lay it on a slightly damp dishcloth.

Then fill the sponge cake with Nutella (or any other cream you want) and roll it!

For the cream:

Beat 4 yolks with 150gr. of sugar until you get a light and fluffy consistency.
In a pan boil 1/2 liter milk with some vanilla and cinnamon, then let it cool a bit. Add 50gr. of flour and beat well. Then add your sugar and eggs mixture and keep stirring until you have a thick and smooth cream. Keep it the fridge for 1 hour.
Then spread it on your log and serve!

 Enjoy and have a great Xmas ♥
Martina