Tag: cakes

Three Christmas cakes to prepare for the holidays – Italian Cuisine

Scenographic, decorated, but also easy and quick to make. Here are some ideas to bring on the Christmas table some delicious alternatives to the classic panettone and pandoro

panettone is Pandoro they are two sweets that can not certainly be missing on the table Christmas. But for those who want to get out of the usual patterns and give a touch of originality to more party menu, of ideas for the Christmas cakes there are plenty of them. It ranges from those traditional to those more fast and easy to prepare, up to those decorated and scenic. Here then some recipe from which to take inspiration, to start experimenting and get the day X ready and tested.

Christmas cakes in the shape of fir

There Christmas tree cake It is certainly among the nicest to prepare for Christmas Eve dinner or the 25 December lunch. In this case what matters is not so much the substance as the form. Once we have got it mold suitable, in fact, you can choose to do it with the sponge cake, with the mixture of Margherita cake, or even, for the joy of children, to the chocolate. The ingredients for the latter are 180 grams of flour, 180 grams of dark chocolate, 180 grams of sugar, 150 grams of butter, 100 grams of drops of white chocolate, four eggs, a spoonful of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla yeast and 75 cl of cream for desserts. Melt the chocolate and butter cut into chunks in a bain-marie. Separately, beat the eggs with the sugar, add the sifted flour and baking powder. Mix and incorporate the melted chocolate and butter. Mix everything and add the drops of white chocolate. Pour the mixture into the mold e bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Once the cake is cooked, let it cool. in the meantime whip the cream with icing sugar, put it in a pastry bag, remove the cake from the mold and decorate the surface with some tufts of cream that remember snowflakes.

Donut Red Velvet, easy and scenic

Quick and easy as one donut, as scenic as the famous Red velvet cake. The union of these two recipes is born Donut Red Velvet. The ingredients for the dough according to the famous pastry chef Ernst Knam they are: 375 grams of flour, 375 grams of sugar, 300 grams of yogurt, 150 grams of butter, two eggs, 30 ml of red dye, 50 grams of cocoa powder, 10 grams of baking powder, 30 ml of vinegar White, 5 grams of salt. More powdered sugar to decorate and one mold of 26 cm in diameter. Combine the butter at room temperature with the sugar, whisk with an electric whisk and incorporate the eggs one at a time. At this point add salt, dye and cocoa powder. After mixing everything well and also pour the yogurt, flour, baking powder and vinegar. Stir and pour into the cake tin. Bake at 175 degrees for 35 minutes. When the donut is cold, instead of garnish with the cream-cheese-frosting as provided by Knam, to speed up the dusting time with the icing sugar.

Christmas tart decorated with biscuits

Another decorated Christmas cake, but not too complicated to make is the chocolate tart and cinnamon with a base of spicy shortcrust pastry. The ingredients they are 500 grams of flour, 300 grams of butter, 200 grams of sugar, five yolks, the grated peel of an orange, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, half a teaspoon of cinnamon in powder and a pinch of salt. For the stuffed of chocolate and cinnamon serve 300 grams of milk, 150 grams of sugar, 200 grams of chocolate melting, a teaspoon of cinnamon, 60 grams of flour and 50 grams of butter. First of all, do the short pastry, incorporating the orange peel and cinnamon when you insert the vanilla extract. After having made the dough rest in the fridge for a couple of hours, with one part line the mold and with the other make some cookies in the shape of a Christmas tree. Place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and place them to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. When they are cold, insert at the base of each cookie one toothpicks with a length of 5 cm and put them back in the fridge for another half an hour. For the stuffed chop the chocolate and put it in a saucepan with the sugar and flour, stirring well. Turn the heat on low heat and mix everything, using a wooden spoon. Add the milk a little at a time and keep turning until you get one thick and smooth cream. Remove the mixture from the stove and incorporate the butter, stir and put to rest in the fridge. When everything is ready compose the tart. In the mold lined with the dough pour the chocolate cream and cook in a hot oven at 180 ° for about 35 minutes. Cook the biscuits and, once cooled, put them in the tart and sprinkle with some granules of sugar, in order to simulate a nice snowfall.

How to decorate cakes: 10 ideas – Italian Cuisine

Melted chocolate, marzipan, butter cream, sugar paste, marshmallow fondant: here is how to embellish desserts without being necessarily pastry chefs

The cakes they must be good, but their appearance counts and therefore must never be neglected. And do not be discouraged if ours decorations they will not live up to the cakes we admire in the windows of pastry shops. Decorate cakes it is, in fact, a real one art, but we too can do it in our small way. Just know some makeup and the cakes will immediately become beautiful and spectacular. Here then 10 ideas useful.

1. A sprinkling of powdered sugar

Dust with it powdered sugar the method remains the most simple and fast to decorate a cake and, despite new techniques, continues to make its effect. Just arrange on the surface of the cake one stencil of the shape you want to make – for example flowers, stars, hearts or, given the coming holidays, a tree or a Santa Claus – and dust with powdered sugar. Once the stencil is removed, the design will appear on the cake.

2. Draw with the melted chocolate

The melted chocolate, that it is melting, to the milk or White, allows you to easily decorate cakes. Just arm yourself with one sac à poche and then decide whether to give life to the decorations directly on the cake or whether to work first on baking paper, to dry the decorations and then apply them.

3. A delicious cloud of cream

There cream it's a lot versatile and with it you can get different types of decorations. Less expert hands can make simple ones tufts to cover the cake, while those who already have a little 'experience can use the cream to make delicate and refined roses.

4. Fruit, healthy and colored

Healthy and colored: here are two good reasons to use the fruit. You can use many varieties and, once cut in pieces, all that remains is to free the imagination and arrange them as you want, imagining that they are small pieces of a puzzle to be interlocked with each other.

5. His majesty the royal glaze

Sugar, whipped egg whites and snow. From these three simple ingredients comes the Royal icing, also said freezes, a very elegant and refined decoration. There are also the frosting to water and the leaking glazes, including chocolate. The icing can be used white or it can be colored: it will be used to cover the cake and create delicious shapes.

6. A marzipan house

We know it thanks to the story of Hansel and Gretel, of which we remember the famous house. Let's talk about the Marzipan, very used in confectionery and easy to prepare. Give the creations a delicious taste and can be used, for example, to make flowers or butterflies.

7. A rainbow with chocolate sprinkles

If the recipients of the cake are i children, you can decorate the cake using i chocolate confetti, that will make it immediately colored. The easiest thing to do is to arrange them radiating alternating colors.

8. Decorate with the butter cream

There butter cream It is used to cover cakes and is excellent for hide imperfections. Thanks to its consistency and body, it is perfect to create decors of great precision, such as flowers.

9. Have fun with the sugar paste

There sugar paste It is one of the basic ingredients of the cake design and allows you to create original decorations for cakes. It is rather easy to prepare, but now it is easily found even ready. To create the decorations you need special tools that allow you to work the dough easily.

10. 3D objects with marshmallow fondant

Made from the famous candies from which it takes its name, the marshmallow fondant it's a moldable pasta used to decorate cakes. It is flexible and can also be used by the less experienced to create 3D objects.

Korean rice cakes, colored mezzelune to savor in company – Italian Cuisine

Discovering a dessert that comes from far away, the Korean rice cakes, try our five combinations and if you do not have enough to create new ones, have fun

The songpyeon they are rice cakes that in Korea are prepared on the occasion of Thanksgiving Day, which coincides with the mid-autumn festival that is celebrated in many Asian countries. These small crescent-shaped cakes (tteok) are stuffed with sweet filling of sesame seeds, sugar and honey, while the dough is formed from frozen rice powder combined with different smoothies, juices or powders that give a natural color to the dough. Traditionally it was used a short grain rice that was soaked for a whole night and then rinsed before being ground into powder, now they sell on the market already the frozen rice powder, which is then mixed with boiling water and natural dyes and then once the cakes are stuffed they come steamed on a bed of pine needles.

Recipe

Ingredients
A 1 kg bag of frozen rice powder will suffice for 3 different colored doughs, 150 g of pine needles to be rinsed 2 or 3 times and to dry, ideas for different colored doughs, each variant produces about 20 rice cakes.

Base dough (white)
2 cups of frozen rice powder, thawed at room temperature, 5 tablespoons of boiling water.

Green dough
2 cups of frozen rice powder, defrosted at room temperature, 2 tablespoons of green tea powder or matcha tea, 6 tablespoons of boiling water.

Yellow dough
2 cups of frozen rice powder, defrosted at room temperature, 1/3 cup of steamed pumpkin pulp, 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

Purple dough
2 cups of frozen rice powder, defrosted at room temperature, 4 tablespoons of warm cranberry juice (1/2 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries, finely blended with 1/2 cup of water, filtered and heated).

Pink dough
2 cups of frozen rice powder, defrosted at room temperature, 4 tablespoons of raspberry juice (1/2 cup of fresh or frozen raspberries, finely blended with 1/2 cup of water, filtered and heated).

Filling
1/2 cup of toasted sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 pinch of salt.

Method
Grind coarsely sesame seeds with a blender, add sugar, honey and a pinch of salt and mix everything together.
After thawing the rice powder, sieve it in a bowl. Divide it into three equal parts and prepare the ingredients to flavor and color the dough and add them to the rice powder, mixing them with a spoon.

Knead all right for at least 5 minutes, if the dough sticks to the hands or the bowl means that it is too wet then add more rice powder. If the dough breaks easily or is too hard and dry add a little bit of boiling water. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap or a damp cloth and leave to rest in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

To assemble the sweets, take a small piece of dough to form a ball as big as a nut. Form a bowl inside the ball by pushing the thumb into the mixture and then pressing it outwards with both thumbs to make a fairly large bowl. Put 1/2 teaspoon of stuffing into the bowl and seal by pressing on the edges, modeling it like a half moon. Repeat the operation until the end of the dough and the sweet filling.

Take a steam pot, add a little water to boil, place a thin layer of pine needles or a damp kitchen cloth on the basket and heat the water over high heat. When it starts boiling, place the rice cakes on the drum without the pieces touching each other. Cover with a thin layer of pine needles and steam for about 20 minutes.

Prepare a large bowl of cold water and with the help of a perforated spoon remove the rice cakes from the basket. Leave them in cold water for a quick rinse, removing all pine needles. Transfer the rice cakes into a colander and then serve hot or at room temperature.