For as long as I can remember I’ve helped my mother bake. I must’ve been 4 or 5 when I first recall standing on a kitchen stool and mixing butter, sugar eggs and flour to make a cake. The best part of “helping” my mom make cakes, [...]]]>

For as long as I can remember I’ve helped my mother bake. I must’ve been 4 or 5 when I first recall standing on a kitchen stool and mixing butter, sugar eggs and flour to make a cake. The best part of “helping” my mom make cakes, was licking the spoon, and the bowl, after the batter was poured into the pan.

I never had the patience to wait for a cake to be completely cooled. And honestly, I liked her cakes better when they were still slightly warm. Even though my mom told me not to cut the cake before it had cooled, I could hardly ever hold myself back.

I’d guess I was about 8 or 9 when I baked my first cake on my own. Using my mother’s trusted recipe for cake (equal parts flour, sugar and butter and a number of eggs and flavoring) I really didn’t need her help anymore.

My mom’s cake recipe was probably the only recipe I used until I moved out. The only other recipes I knew existed, were my friends’ mothers’ cakes that were made from a boxed mix.

In the years since I’ve moved out from my mother’s house, I’ve experimented with many many more recipes. Some have worked, and some have failed. Most of them have been recipes I found online and altered. Some were written down on envelopes, or scraps of paper. I don’t know the origin of most of my cake recipes, but I know exactly which ones I like, and which ones need some improvements.

The second time I met (and went to visit) Laurens’ parents was quite a while ago, but I still recall the cake I brought. Laurens had failed to inform/ask his parents about us visiting, so he called the evening before we planned to go. His mom was happy about having us over, but told him ‘I don’t even have a cake to serve you’. After the phone call I asked what was up (my understanding of Italian back then was worse than the despicable state it’s in now) and he laughed and mentioned the cake.

I went to rummage in our kitchen to see what ingredients I had available. I proceeded to google ‘chocolate hazelnut cake’ and found a plethora of recipes.

The recipe I chose was easy enough to make and seemed tasty. The next morning, before we left for the in-laws, I baked a cake.

The cake turned out to be wonderful. The ground hazelnuts in combination with the almond extract and chocolate gave it something different. The cake in itself was full in taste and moist. My in-laws were at first confused about me bringing a cake – hey, they hadn’t gotten used to my food obsession back then – but very enthusiastic once they tasted it.

Since that date, I’ve brought them more goodies. They don’t look all that surprised anymore when, instead of flowers, I present them with something I’ve prepared myself.

Recently I remembered that cake. I hadn’t made it since that first time, but I had all the ingredients and a free hour on my hands. The cake was still wonderful.

As always – if you’re certain you know who’s/which recipe I wrote down that fateful day, please let me know so I can credit them appropriately!

Now I realize that making cheesecake a second time isn’t really an accomplishment worth [...]]]> I’ve written about my first ever attempt at making and eating cheesecake. How it was a huge success and I suddenly realized I like cheesecake. Well, I’ve done it again.

Now I realize that making cheesecake a second time isn’t really an accomplishment worth tooting your own horn about, however, I improved my recipe.

I’ve improved it so much, that it would be mean not to share it.

See, my cheesecake is one with chocolate, caramel and nuts. Recently, while browsing through a bunch of other blogs, I read about someone using chocolate chip cookies instead of graham crackers for her crust. It sounded like a grand idea. A grand idea which could however be improved.

How about using chocolate chip cookie dough for the crust. Unbaked cookie cough as a bottom and up the side, filling it with cheesecake batter and baking it to creamy delight.

And then, while I was working on my cheesecake (and running back to the store for some forgotten ingredients – it was quite the weekend for forgotten ingredients) I decided to alter the cheesecake batter as well.

See last time, while the cake was very tasty, it was also the slightest bit tangy. Not unpleasant, but I figured that taking that tang out would make it even creamier and smoother. Turns out that (for a chocolate/nuts/caramel cheesecake) I was right. I think I’ve achieved my ultimate cheesecake batter. I don’t think I will, or should, ever alter it one bit. Until I find more improvements that is!

Because google recipes code and/or this plugin and/or maybe even this latest version of wordpress doesn’t work correctly, I’ll first give you the links to the recipes you need to complete your ingredient list:

• chocolate chip cookie dough
• caramel sauce
• ganache

This recipe is also linked up from Sweet as sugar cookies. Check out the other sweet treats posted there!

When [...]]]> A little while ago I recieved an e-mail from a co-worker. She stated that another co-worker had presented her with a chocolate cake and she wanted to share it with the rest of the office. Being the nice person that I am, I was obviously willing to help her eat it.

When I saw the cake, I thought it was actually a brownie. I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t. Not that I have anything against brownies – not at all. But this cake had a completely different, but very appealing structure. It was light and airy, slightly sticky, like the inside of an almost-baked meringue and it had a little bit of a grainy structure in it, which obviously came from nuts. It was delicious!

I walked up to the co-worker who had baked the cake to let her know how much I liked it and to see if I could convince her to give me the recipe. My co-worker informed me that it was an old family recipe and that if she’d give it to me, she’d have to kill me. the fact that I’m still alive, typing this up means that either she wasn’t serious, or my pleading eyes work better than I ever imagined.

I will not give you her exact recipe. I told her I wouldn’t. I will give you my adaptation of her recipe though. I made it into little cupcakes to take on a picnic. I altered the recipe to accomodate what I had in my pantry, and what I thought would be tasty. The result was a very very airy and light, but oh so delicious cake. They were very different from the cake I ate at the office -or any other cake I’ve ever baked –  but a nice addition to my repertoire.

But why should I adapt anything, Valerie?, you may ask. Shouldn’t people just be following your [...]]]>

Cookies are one of these things where correct measurements and ingredients are of the highest importance!

The attentive visitor of this blog might have noticed it already, but with the new layout of the blog, I added an extra page, solely dedicated to ingredient adaptations to the (top) navigation bar on this site.

But why should I adapt anything, Valerie?, you may ask. Shouldn’t people just be following your recipes to a T?
Well, yeah, sure, that’d be great. However. I live in the Netherlands. The readers of this blog live all over the world. Some ingredients have different names in different countries. Sometimes something just doesn’t exist and you need to replace an ingredient. And cup-measures are different from a cup you drink from, so if you don’t realize how I measure my ingredients, you might end up following the recipe to a T and ending up with rock-hard cookies. (Yes, I’ve heard that complaint before!)

Since I can’t come to every single kitchen and personally show you (Nonononono, baking soda is not baking powder. Nonononono, this calls for cilantro, not coriander seeds) I figured it’d be useful to pull all these notes and messages together and make a list. It’s a page in development. And it’ll probably always stay that way. I might divide the page up a little more, into categories and sub-pages, maybe add more sub-pages, who knows. But until I find the time for that, this is it. A fairy long list with translations, explanations and adaptations of ingredients used in my recipes.

The adaptations go from American to Dutch products (or vice versa) and any cuisine the original ingredient or dish is from, if I happen to know what that is. If I know that some other region uses something entirely differently, I’ll obviously add that too – again, provided I actually know it.

I hope my little (big) list is useful for any of you who struggle with old family recipes, foreign cookbooks, or blogs like mine.

And if you have any suggestions for items that should be included on the list, I strongly urge you to leave a comment or send me a message!

Thanks, and happy cooking!