Life Update: cakes, bands and dresses!

Hello hello,

It has been a little quiet around here recently, but at least I'm not letting this blog die off completely xD
I'm in the middle of my preparations for taking entrance exams, so I don't have much time to do anything else - except when some special occasions occur!

Last weekend two of my bandmates from Daedric Tales celebrated their birthdays and I decided to surprise them by baking cupcakes and a cake for their party.

I tried working with fondant for the first time and it was rather giving me a hard time, being all bitchy and tearing on the edges of the cake, so I had to take it off the cake again and smooth th edges out completely.

The end result looked like this:

Baking Sunday #3

Baking Sunday #3 : Strawberry & sour cream muffins



Another 'Baking Sunday' ?

... Well, this time I cheated a little, it was a Wednesday.


Nevertheless, spring has (at least more or less) also arrived in Austria !

The birds have started to sing, the flowers and trees have started to bloom ...
& there's a sunny mood in the air !

Strawberries are even more popular in early summer, but I found some & they just had to be used for some bakery !

...

You'll need: (for 12 + muffins)

• 200 g of flour

• 60 g oat flakes
  

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

• 2 eggs

• 180 g of (brown) sugar

• 3 teaspoons of vanilla sugar

• 150 g of soft butter

• 300 g of sour cream

• 150 - 200 g strawberries

• confectioner's sugar for dusting afterwards

Go get your apron & let's get our spring time baking frenzy started ! ...

my lovely cupcake apron hurhur :B

Put flour, oat flakes & baking powder together into a bowl.

Now crack the two eggs & whisk them in another bowl.

Then add sugar, vanilla sugar, butter & sour cream into the bowl containing the whisked eggs.

Mix both doughs thoroughly together.

...

Now it's about time to let your oven heat up to 180°C !
...

Now it's strawberry time !

Those are quite positively not 200 g ...
I just couldn't resist scoffing some fresh strawberries in ... oh yummy ...

Cut them into small cubes.

And pull them carefully into the dough.
...



I got myself some flower-shaped muffin cups !

Before filling in the dough, be sure to grease your cups thoroughly,
using butter or vegetable oil.

So as soon as your oven is all heated up -
'chop-chop !' off they go !


Let them bake for about 20 - 25 minutes.

And then ...

Having a hearty bite ?

No, not yet.

...

My mum bought me this nice porcelain étagère !

A really nice option to display your bakery !



Dust with some confectioner's sugar & they'll become even more delicious !

Bon appétit !

A very easy & quick recipe !
The results were reeeaally nice mhhhm ... :)

Although the ingredients are intended for 12 muffins,
I actually got 16 out of it !
It would be good if you had more than 12 muffin cups at home, so you don't have to wait.

With the confectioner's sugar on them they tasted like 'Kaiserschmarrn' - a superb Austrian dessert !


Yummy yummy yummy ♪

I've got strawberry & sour cream muffins in my tummy ♪



That's it again !

Happy baking & Thank you for reading ღ


emily.

Baking Sunday #2

Baking Sunday #2: Tartelettes

... or the tale of an optical & textural failure ...

When I found those cute tartelette baking moulds at Tchibo,
I just couldn't resist purchasing them ...



And they had to be tried out right away !



You'll need for the crust: (for 2 tartelettes)

• 1 tablespoon of water
  

• 42 g of flour

• 21 g softened butter

• 21 g of confectioner's sugar

• 1 tablespoon (or basically as much as you want to add) poppyseed

• 1 egg

(actually you don't need a whole one, but the problem is rather: how to part a raw egg in ½ ? haha ...)

• a pinch of ground lemon zest

• a pinch of salt

You'll need for the topping:

• 200 g sour cream

• 1 teaspoon yoghurt

• confectioner's sugar (enough to make your cream stay stiff)
  

• 1/3 glass of lemon juice

• 2-3 tablespoons of vanilla custard
  

• 4 big strawberries, cubed

...

Add water to the egg in a bowl and mix shortly .

Now mix the egg with flour, poppyseed, butter, sugar, lemon zest & salt.
Let the dough rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Later grease the pans thoroughly & fill in the dough.

Put into preheated oven (on 170°C) & let bake for 15-20 minutes.

On to the topping !
Mix sour cream, yoghurt, sugar & lemon juice together.

To make the vanilla custard, heat (here only a little) milk on the stove & prepare the custard according to the instructions on the package. Make sure to let it it cool off before further use.

So after ~20 minutes the tartelettes were all baked !

As the dough started to rise when they were in the oven, I took a fork & pinched in some holes. Usually you weigh down the dough with pebbles or beans, but I have none.

Furthermore the sides started to run down & no matter how desperately I tried to fix them, nothing helped.

Therefore my tartelettes only had a very small & thin rim, which made it hard to fill in the topping, because it kept running out all over the place ... (._.)/

Strawberries for the topping ! :D

Somehow my cream didn't get creamy at all & remained all runny :(

So in all my despair (I had to take these tartelettes with me to a party), I decided to mix in a bit of boiled Agar Agar - usually fastening EVERYTHING and you don't taste it at all (AND it is much healthier than Gelatine!)

But oh well - this time not even Agar Agar managed to fix my cream.
So I just tried my best to fill as much as possible it in the tartelettes & decorated them with strawberries.

Tadaaaaaah~

But: I have to say they were tremendously delicious &
were very well recieved by everyone !

Yum Yum.

...

Afterwards - it's just always afterwards that we do so - I realized what I had done wrong !

A problem I often have when I'm in a hurry to finish things - not reading close enough !
And so I managed to miss an important step when making the vanilla custard & therefore it didn't turn into anything creamy ...


I'm definitely going to give them another try soon.
And then with reading instructions properly hahah ... ;D

...

That's it again !


Thank you for reading. ღ



emily.

Baking Sunday #1

A very heartly 'Welcome !' ღ

to the beginning of a series I have been longing to start for months now !

As often as time will allow me, I may post about my attempts on baking various treats !
I am far from a professional, only a lover of all sweet things - so I shall document all my fails and victories :)

After all all : 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained !'

Baking Sunday #1: Lemon Bars

Original recipe spotted on Bakerella's delightful page !


You'll need for the crust:

• 225 g butter
• 205 g flour
• 75 g confectioners sugar
• a pinch of grounded lemon zest
  

For the topping:

• 340 g plain sugar
• 30 g flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 175°C

Use a pan of ~9 x 13.

(I converted all the measurements from cup to gram, I hope I got everything right :))


Here we go !

Mix together flour + confectioners sugar + lemon zest + butter.
Take a fork and make sure that you press the pieces of cold butter firmly, so that it gets all crumbly !

Now fill your mixture into a greased & floured pan & press it down so it stays solid.
Put into the preheated oven & let it bake for 20 minutes !
...

Meanwhile let's prepare the crust !

Ooops I didn't notice until now that I had only used 3 eggs instead of 4 ... oh well :)

Anyways, now beat your eggs lightly !

In another bowl prepare flour, sugar & baking powder.

I had thought that I'd be needing only 3 lemons for the juice ... way to go !

Good that I had bought a whole net of lemons !

Juice out of 7 lemons !

Lemon graveyard hahahah :B

Now add the eggs & lemon juice to the bowl you had set aside. Mix everything well !


20 minutes are over, the crust has taken a golden colour - now pour the topping over the still warm crust !

Put it back into the oven for another 20-25 minutes.

'Hrmmm smells like Lemon Bars !'

Tadaaah fresh out of the oven !
Now let it cool down completely.

... yum !

Just dust them with confectioners sugar & they're ready to be served !

...
...
Now wait a minute !
There's a piece missing !!
WHO ate that ?

...

*lalalaaaa Mummy won't see me if I hide here*
...

Oh well, how did it turn out ?

I think maybe I baked the crust a little too hot, because I misjudged the Farenheit to Celsius conversion for 5 degrees (I preheated on 180°C) & baked it with circulating air, so it would have needed even lower temperature ...

So the crust was more firm like the ones apple pies usually have, but not bad at all !

Whilst looking for the baking powder, I found some grounded lemon zest in the store room & decided to use it for the crust ! I like it because it gives a subtle aroma, not overpowering at all.

Anyways - superb lemon power !
The confectioners sugar dusting makes it perfect !

All in all this is a very nice cake - perfect for a picnic or an afternoon coffee party !

Very light & creamy !

...

Alright, we're done for now !

Thanks for reading ღ

emily.