Delicious – Appelita

Around the holidays, it’s a tradition in Curaçao, to bake a liquor fruitcake.
This cake is all about preparation! For the best results, the dried fruits are to soak in liquor for a few weeks.

This year I tried it out and it came out good!

Ingredients

225 grams butter
225 grams sugar
225 grams flour
4 eggs
1 tsp Almond essence
Dash of Vanilla essence
Dash of Baking powder
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg

Fruit base

250 grams prunes
250 grams raisins
250 grams currants
1 cup rum
1 cup brandy

Pre-heat the oven at 325°C

Cut the fruits in small pieces and blend, to a thick mixture. Add rum and brandy to the mixture. Store this in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.

Boil 225 grams sugar, once this is caramelized, SLOWLY add 1/4 cup boiling water (carefully!!!).
Mix butter and sugar, add eggs one-by-one and the essences. Then, add dry goods: flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the fruit mixture and slowly, add the caramelized mixture.

Mix it all together and place this in a baking pan with baking paper.

Bake this for about 2 hours.

Merry Christmas & Bon appetite!

For some time now, I’ve been trying out cheesecake recipes; tweaking them, here and there. Finally, I discovered THE BEST recipe ever! A friend of mine tried it, fell in love with it and quickly requests for orders started flowing in.

Oh yes, it’s a success!

Ingredients

Crust

225 grams flour
100 grams sugar
75 grams butter
1 egg
Dash of salt
Dash of vanilla extract
Dash of baking powder

Filling

4 eggs
3 packages of cream cheese
3 cups sour cream
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Dash of salt

Frosting

300 grams powder sugar
100 grams cream cheese
75 grams butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Mix butter and sugar in a bowl, add an egg and vanilla extract. Mix all well and add flour, salt and baking powder. Wrap the dough in saran wrap. Store in the fridge for a few hours or a day.

Pre-heat oven at 350°C

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until its smooth; add eggs, vanilla and salt. When it’s all smooth and thoroughly mixed, add sour cream to the mixture. Store in the fridge for a day. The next day, insert the crust filling in a buttered oven pan, pressing the filling to the sides.

Insert in the oven for 20 minutes. Let the crust cool for 10 minutes or so, then add the cream cheese filling. Insert in the oven for 2 hours. Afterwards turn the oven off and open the oven door slightly, keeping this slightly open for 1 hour.

Let it cool off and place it in the fridge.

The next day, add the frosting on top… Cut the butter in pieces, use a hand mixer, to get an even smooth mixiture. Add cream cheese, vanilla extract and a little bit of powder sugar. Add remaining powder sugar bit by bit. Test the frosting while mixing, to adapt this to your taste buds.

Bon appetite!