Curacao fruitcake

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!

Carrot cake

Happy sunny Sunday

A few days ago, my mom mentioned she liked carrot cake, ahh yes, she planted a seed!!!

How was I, to resist the temptation of not recreating this?
Impossible!!
After some Pinterest’ing, I got it!
Fyi: there is barely a slice left, needless to say… it was a success!!!

Time for … Sharing is Caring

Ingredients

Mixture

• 250 grams thin sliced carrots
• 150 grams brown sugar
• 150 grams flour
• 125 ml oil
• 75 grams walnuts
• 2 eggs
• 2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 Teaspoons cinnamon
• 5 Teaspoon nutmeg
• 5 teaspoon ginger
• 5 teaspoon cloves

Frosting

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

Pre-heat oven at 350°C

Remove the skin of the carrots and use a slicing machine to cut carrots in thin slices. Mix in a bowl eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Add remaining ingredients, except carrots and walnuts, in the bowl. Mix all well together, add sliced carrots to the mixture.

Cut the walnuts in small pieces and heat these for max 5 minutes, in the oven. Dust the walnuts in flour, and set aside.

Insert baking paper in 2 oven pans; I used 2 oven pans to easily layer the cake. Insert the mixture in each pan and sprinkle walnuts in both. Insert both in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Proceed with prepping the cream cheese frosting. Cut butter in pieces, use a hand mixer to mix it well. Add cream cheese, vanilla extract and a little bit powder sugar. Add remaining powder sugar bit by bit. Test the frosting while mixing, to adapt this to your taste buds.

I love using sugar, so naturally I used a lot.

Remove the cake from 1 of the cake pans and spread frosting on top. Place the other cake on top and spread remaining frosting on top. Decorate with whole walnuts and sugar rocks, whichever way your heart desires.

Store the cake (properly sealed) in the fridge for a day, before eating, the following day the cake is much more frumptious.

Bon appetite!

Walnut cake

Happy Easter

What better way to celebrate this long weekend, than whipping up some delicious desserts? Homemade goodies are definitely the best!
Scrolling through Pinterest (yes, I’m a Pinterest addict!), I caught sight of a nut-filled cake. It’ll be a walnut cake!

Try it, your only worry will be, how to stop yourself from eating. Oopss…. my bad

Ingredients

Cake

• 250 grams flour
• 250 grams butter (unsalted Anchor butter)
• 250 grams sugar
• 4 eggs
• Teaspoon baking powder
• Teaspoon vanilla extract
• Dash of salt
• 5 cup crushed walnuts

Coffee frosting

• 400 grams powdered sugar
• 50 grams butter
• 2 Teaspoons milk
• 2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 Teaspoons water
• 2 Teaspoons coffee

Sift flour in a bowl and add baking powder and salt. In a different bowl whip, up sugar and butter to a creamy mixture. Add the eggs one-by-one to the sugar/butter mixture and add vanilla extract. Once done, add the flour mixture to the creamy mixture, and continue to mix. Store in the fridge for a few hours.

Pre-heat the oven at 350°C

Break walnuts in pea-sized bits and heat these in the oven for max 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, place the chopped walnuts in a small bowl with flour. Note: heating up nuts and placing them in flour, prevents the nuts from drowning to the bottom. Mix the nuts in the batter, insert this in a buttered oven bowl and place in the oven for about 1 hour. Use a toothpick to check if the cake is done; this should come out clean, if the cake is done.

Let the cake cool off for about an hour or so. Once the cake is cooled off, proceed with the frosting.
Use a hand mixer to mix butter and add half of the required powder sugar. Add milk, vanilla extract and remaining powder sugar; continue mixing, to get a thick and creamy mixture.

In a small bowl mix up water and instant coffee. Add this to the creamy mixture, and mix.

Cut the cake horizontally and smear the creamy frosting on the bottom section. Place the top section on the cake and top it off with the remaining thick creamy frosting.

Decorate with whole walnuts and brown sugar stones, as desired.

Bon appetite!

Blueberry cake

GoodMorning!

On such a beautiful sunny day (although super cold here in The Netherlands), it’s a perfect day to bake!

Fruits are super affordable in The Netherlands, nothing compared to back home in Curaçao.
We took a trip hand-picking fruits; very fun to do btw. We picked so much, the fridge and freezer were jam-packed.

What to do.. bake a blueberry cake!

Ingredients

Dough

• 350 grams flour
• 200 grams butter (unsalted Achor)
• 150 grams sugar
• 1 egg
• Pinch of salt
• Small packet of vanilla sugar
• Teaspoon of baking powder

Filling

• 1 egg (use yolk only)
• Cup of blueberries

Set the oven at 350°C

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and forming a ball. Wrap the dough-formed ball in a plastic wrap and store in the fridge, for at least 2 hours.

Butter a ceramic oven dish (I used a small round oven dish); unfold the ball on the bottom and the sides. Place 1/4 of the dough on the side, this is to be used for the upper section of the cake. Insert blueberries in the dough. Flatten remaining dough with a roller. Cut thin slices and place these vertically and horizontally on the cake. Paste the yellow eggyolk on the upper section, insert in the oven for 1 1/2 hour.

Remove the cake from the oven, when the upper section is golden brown.

Bon appetite!

Back to basics

Soooo after some time of absence, I have been keeping myself pretty busy.

Recently finalized my studies and started a new study. Working on updating my knowledge and making some chances along the way in my carreer path. 

I went on vacation to Holland, were I spend the time of my life with my sister and her kids. And yes, the kitchen is now a happy environment! During my stay in Holland, I took it upon me to cook on a daily basis for my family. It felt good to help alleviate my sister from this ‘chore’, so she can focus on the kids.

What started as being a support system to my sister, ended up being the best decision I made in a long long time!

It felt so incredibly good to be with her and the kids and spend time with them. We tooks trip to farms in the neighborhood to pick blueberries and strawberries. That was soooo much fun!!! Both farms, provided the opportunity to pick fruits and then at the end of the adventure, the fruits are weighed, which a very nominal value per kg is charged. The experience though …. PRICELESS!!! 

Now that I’m back home, the memories of being with my sister and the kids keep creeping up on me. Although it’s quite cold in Holland (specially to my standards; I’m a typical island-girl, sun/sea n sand all day everyday!), I cannot wait to go back.

Being a part of her family, felt good… actually it felt incredibly good! It even got to the point were I’m starting to consider starting my own family. That’s something I never thought to be in my future plans. But now, I got acquainted with the feeling of feeling overjoyed by another little human being (actually two little humans), that I want more!!!

Time has come to go back… back to my sister and her precious little ducklings. With the holiday season uphead, Christmas will be in Holland this year!!! 

Pure magic ❤ 

Almond filled biscuits (dutch)

This recipe is similar to Almond filled speculoos; another typical Dutch treat!

Rocking my roots!

Ingredients

• 150 grams butter
• 200 grams flour
• 125 grams sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 300 grams almondpaste
• Dash of cinnamon
• Almonds to garnish

Pre-heat the oven at 350°C

Mix flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon and milk, forming a ball. Place it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Mix the almondpaste with 2/3 of an egg and 2 teaspoons water. (Yes, this can get sticky!)

Grease an ovenplate and place half of the flour batter on this; this is the bottom. Place a layer of almondpaste, and place remaining flour batter ontop. If needed use a spoon dipped in water stroking this evenly. Garnish with almonds, stroke the remainder of the egg on top.

Insert in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Bon appetite!