Happy Monday: Macarons Rainbow

 

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Ines

Jammie infographic!

 

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Ines

Food art

Dressing a plate gets a whole new meaning with these food plates by Boguslaw Sliwinski, he has lots of other great ones on his site too!

 

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Ines

First sunbeams + Birthday

Long time no post, I know. But I have an excuse. I was busy graduating. From now on, I will have a bit more time though.

So last week we had some summer time here in Belgium for the first time in... Well I guess since last year. And it was boyfriends birthday! We enjoyed the sun in the park with some strawberry tart, magazines, ice tea and each other of course. I loved it and I hope he did as well.

Here's my favorite photo of that day...

Yes, there was some Spiderman style kissing going on!


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Ines

Oreo love + recipes

Oh my love for Oreos! This deserves a place on my 'to try'-list.

Oreo Cheesecake Cupcake

Ingredients
22 Oreos: 16 left whole, and 6 coarsely chopped

2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature (Neufchatel is fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sour cream
Pinch of salt

Instructions
1.Preheat oven to 135 °C or 275 F.
2.Line 12 standard muffin tins and 4 ramekins (or 16 muffin tins, if you have them) with paper liners.
3.Place 1 whole Oreo in the bottom of each lined cup.
4.Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
5.Pour in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
6.Beat in the sour cream and salt.
7.Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
8.Pour the batter into the prepared tins, filling each almost to the top.
9.Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, 22-25 minutes.
10.Cool in the pans for about 15 minutes, on a wire rack, then transfer to a plate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Oreo Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour, plus 2 tbsp
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 cup sugar
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 package Oreo Cookies (about 45 cookies)

Frosting
6 tbsp softened butter
3 cups powedered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Oreo crumbs
2-4 tbsp milk

Instructions
Preheat over to 180 °C or 350F. Line 24 cupcake tins with paper liners.

Twist apart 24 Oreos. Place the cookie with filling on it, filling side up, in the bottom of each cupcake pan. Cut 12 of the filling-less cookies in half for garnish, and crush the others in a plastic bag with a rolling pin to make fine crumbs. Reserve these crumbs to mix into the frosting.

Roughly chop the remaining Oreos and toss with 2 tbsp flour.

Cream the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the milk and vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into the butter mixture. Stir a few times, then mix in the sugar and beat with the mixer on low for about 30 seconds. Add the egg whites. Turn the speed up to medium and beat for two minutes. Fold in the roughly chopped cookies

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and bake for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, beat the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and add milk 1/2 tsp at a time until it has a smooth, spreadable consistency. Add the Oreo crumbs and mix well. Put in a piping bag and pipe onto the cooled cupcakes, then top with half a filling-less cookie.


Photos


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Ines





 

It's up to you, New York, New York

In November I went to New York with four girlfriends and I just can't discribe what an experience it was for us girls from the little country, Belgium. The first day we just stared the whole time. Here are some pictures I took...

In tiny Belgium we know lemonade but not in the way Americans drink it. Here it's very very sweet (too sweet if you ask me) and sparkling. I actually prefer lemonade in America.

Visit the Empire State Building at night! The view is so beautiful then.

In Belgium me and the others fours girls who were with me in New York all dance. So we decided to take some lessons in The Big Apple. And I can say: Totally new way of dancing for us, but really adictive.

Have some of you ever been to New York City? And what did you think of the city? I definitely want to go back some day! Maybe with the boyfriend next time...

Love

Ines





New Year's Eve in London

I went to London for New Year's, with the boyfriend (and yes, I know, he like to make 'funny' faces before a camera). Here are some pola's from the trip.

My New Year's resolutions:

- Staying as hopelessly in love as I am right now

- Graduating as a journalist

- Becoming the best dancer as I possibly can be

- See more of the world

And since I'm rubbish in keeping to my resolutions every year, I'm not going to put up more. But the one's above I'm certainly going to keep!

Do you make New Year's resolutions?

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Ines



Christmas time = Dessert time!

First of all, merry Christmas to all of you!!

Hope you had a blast, I certainly did. I celebrated Christmas Eve with the family and Christmas Day with the boyfriend, but both with lots and lots of desserts, which made me a very happy person! I got the macarons as a gift from my mom from Lille and made the cake myself (proud face when I type this!). It's a recipe I posted earlier.

I hope you will have a good time at New Year's as well, enjoy!

Love

Ines

On my 'to try'-list

I saw this recipe this week and it looked so easy and yummie that I decided: I'm going to make a cake! And no that not a common thought in my head because I started hating kitchens ever since I'm a total disaster when I'm cooking. But every onces in a while things work out and I hope that they will when I make this.

Cheescake with clementines and 'speculaas'

The ingredients in this recipe are for 4 people.

Ingredients

For the crust:
• 200 g 'speculaas'
• 50 g butter (min)For the mousse:
• 500 g of cottage cheese
• 4 gelatine leaves
• 2 clementines (for juice)
• 3 dl cream
• 50 g of powdered sugarFor the finish:
• 6 clementines (seeded)
• 3 large tablespoons of apricot jam

Preparation
For the crust:
• Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Do not let it sparkle and color.
• Break the biscuits into pieces and put them in a blender. Grind the pieces into fine crumbs.
• Pour the melted butter and mix.
• Take the pie tin and cover the bottom with a round of baking paper. Cut it so it fits.
• Spoon the mixture into the tin. Flatten into a smooth bottom.
• Place the tin in the refrigerator so that the bottom can cool for fifteen minutes.

For the mousse:
• Fill a bowl with cold water and put the gelatine sheets to soak. (Use gelatin sheets that weigh approximately 3.5 g each.)
• Take a large mixing bowl and add the cheese.
• Press the juice from the clementines and add it to the cheese. Add the powdered sugar and mix with a whisk. Taste and add sugar to personal taste.
• Heat a small amount of cream in a saucepan. (Count about 1/6 of the cream) You can then solve the gelatine into the cream. Remove pan from heat immediately. Do not allow the cream to boil.
• Take a second mixing bowl and whisk the remaining cream with a large whisk half-stiff. (Similar to the thickness of yogurt.)
• Pour the cream and gelatin with the whipped cream, add the mixture of cottage cheese and clementinesap. Mix everything carefully to a smooth mixture.
• Take the tin out of the refrigerator. Pour the cheese mixture into the tin.
• Cover the dish with a sheet of plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator. Let the cake cool patiently. (Allow 1 to 2 hours)

To finish:
• Melt the apricot jam into a running fruit sauce.
• Peel the clementines.
• Take the cheesecake out of the refrigerator.
• Arrange the slices on top of the cake. Work in circles towards the center.
• Use a kitchen brush to glace the top layer segments with melted jam. This gives the cake a nice shine.
• Place the cake in the fridge.

And ready to serve!
Hope you enjoy and let me know how it turned out when you try it...

Source photo: click on photo


Love
Ines

Ice popsicles

I totally love maragritas and I discovered that you also can make margarita popsicles...

Photo

To make 12 popsicles:

Ingredients

Classic Lime Margarita (you can google the recipe)

12 disposable paper cups or something to poor your margaritas into
12 wooden popsicle sticks or spoons

Instructions
1. Pour the margarita into each cup.
2. Place the cups into a baking dish and put the dish in the freezer.
3. After about 2 hours, start checking the popsicles. Once they're frozen enough to support the wooden stick, insert a stick into each popsicle, pushing 3/4 of the way into the popsicle.
4. Let freeze several more hours or until completely frozen (overnight if you want to be sure)
5. To serve, peel the paper off and carefully remove the bottom.

Kiwi Orange Creamsicles...

Photo

To makes  24 popsicles:

Ingredients (for the creamy part)

1 cup heavy cream, divided into two 1/2 cups
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup (50 gr) sugar
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Place 1/2 cup of cream in a small bowl with a fine mesh strainer on top.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the milk, the remaining 1/2 cup of cream, sugar, and salt. Bring to just a simmer.
3. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks until light.
4. Once the milk is simmering, pour a small but steady stream of the liquid into the egg yolks while stirring constantly to temper. Do this slowly while whisking quickly. Once the milk and egg yolks are combined, return to the saucepan and to the stove.
5. Heat the egg yolk and milk mixture while stirring constantly, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan so that nothing burns or sticks. Slowly cook the mixture until it thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat immediately once it thickens.
6. Pour the hot custard through the strainer into the prepared cream and stir to cool. Whisk in the vanilla extract.
7. Chill the mixture thoroughly.

Ingredients (for the kiwi layer)
1 ripe kiwi, peeled
1/4 cup (50 gr) sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 tspn Grand Marnier

Instructions
1. Combine the peeled kiwi, sugar, water, and Grand Marnier in a food processor bowl and puree until smooth.
2. Chill thoroughly.

Ingredients (for the orange layer)
2 cups orange juice, chilled

To assemble
1. Pour each layer into the molds one at a time, freezing for roughly 30-45 minutes between each layer, depending on how thin you make them.




The second recipe is slightly more difficult but it pays off.
Enjoy!


Love
Ines

Summer bbq

Me and the family had a lovely bbq yesterday and I decided to make dessert. Me, who never cooked a thing in her entire life, made little vanilla spongecakes with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. And I was actually stunned that it all worked out. My dad could'nt stop photographing me while eating 'my creations' (feels good to say it like that) because I totally made a mess out of myself. But they were delicious and I learned that I'm not such a klutz with cooking after all.

Hope you're enjoying spring as much as I am.

Love

Ines



Spring is in the Air

 

Photo: cakejournal.com




Photo: latimes.com

I want to do so much lately. Spring gives me energy! Forget Red Bull and all those other energydrinks, just give me spring every day. I want to learn how to make macarons, which is going to be hard because I can't even bake an egg (I know, I should be ashamed, and I am sometimes) and make my own Ice Tea and cocktails. Then I just want to take my bike and have a picnic at a random place I find beautiful. What would you want to do this spring or summer?

Photo: mathasteward.com

Photo: dineanddish.net

Love

Ines