Cheesecake

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!

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 ❤