Candy cake filled with strawberry jam, banana and vanilla cream

It was my birthday a week ago and my husband's birthday is next week so we did what we always do this time of  year. 1 birthday + 1 birthday = One cake and one birthday party! This year we made a candy cake with NonStop chocolate lentils and sweet jelly raspberrys. I really like how the chocolate lentils make the cake sparkle of colors!
Inside this cake of happiness we find three soft sponge cake bases holding up layers of thinly slices of banana, vanilla cream and strawberry jam.

Sponge cake bases
4 eggs
2 deciliter white sugar
1 deciliter flour
3/4 deciliter potato flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Put the oven to 175 Celcius.
Grease and bread a baking pan approximately 26 centimeter in diameter.
Whip the eggs together with sugar until you get a white fluffy mixture.
Mix flour, baking powder and potato flour and pour the flourmixture into the egg/sugar mix. Be careful and be sure to turn the flour gently into the egg/sugar mixture. It is important that the fluffy texture is maintained.
Pour the finished batter into the bakinf pan and bake it in the lower part of the oven for about 40 minutes.
When the cake is baked you need to take it out of the baking pan and let it cool on a oven rack.
When the cake is room temperature you divide it with a knife into three layers.

 Topping
2 deciliter whipped cream to cover the sides and the top
Non Stop chocolate lentils
Sweet jelly raspberrys

Filling
2,5 deciliter vanilla cream you can whip
2 bananas
2 deciliter strawberry jam

See the little picture at the right.
The darker yellow parts represents the sponge cake layers.
The red area is only strawberry jam.
The light yellow area is whipped vanilla cream
(approx 1 cm thick) + a layer of very thin slices banana.

Crocheted flower hairband

As I posted some weeks ago, chrocheted roses are so pretty and you can use them to several purposes. For this week I chose to make a hairband :) I usually have my long hair down with just a little barrette to keep the hair away from my eyes, but sometimes I think it's getting a bit boring. I feel I want to spice up my hairstyle with some pretty accessories, and maybe I have found a new way to make experiments regarding crocheting and hairstyling. I will definately sit down with pen and sketchbook and try to find out more ideas...!

This hairband is made of two parts, one bond and one flower. The flower is the same model as I made in a previous post which you can find here
You can also find the instruction video for this flower all the way from beginning to end here
The bond is made after this instruction video.
To fix the flower on the bond I pulled the bond through  two of the loops on the backside of the flower. To secure the flower you can always sew some stitches with needle and thread.

Happy crocheting everyone! :)

Chess Pattern Cookies

Chess is a difficult boardgame. I have always wanted to be good at it but I haven't really given it a good try, and I know I don't have the patience for it. Well, maybe chess is one of those things I just should let be undone and focus on other things I know I am good at :) Baking for example...!
This time I baked chess pattern cookies, and even though I can't understand the chess game, I understand these little darlings and their lovely taste.
I usually prefer to drink tea instead of coffee, but this time I tried coffee with these cookies and I must say the flavors of the two fit together nicely. Yum yum!

Chess Pattern Cookies (50 pieces)

4 1/2 deciliter flour
1 deciliter white sugar
200 grams margarine or butter
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa

Warm the oven to 200 Celcius.
Mix flour, sugar and margarine in a bowl with your fingertips and form a dough.
Divide the dough in two.
Mix one part with vanilla sugar and the other one with cocoa in two different bowls.
Divide each part in two so now you have two pices vanilla dough and two pieces cocoa dough.
Make all four parts to four rolls, about 20 centimeters long.
Lay one cocoa roll next to one vanilla roll and use your fingers to lightly pull them together.
Put the next two rolls on top of the two first rolls, so now when you look from the short side of the roll package you will see them forming chess squares.
Cut into 4 mm thick slices and put them on oven plates covered with baking paper.
Bake in the middle of the oven for about 10 minutes.

 

Soufflé with flavors of passion fruit and apple

The only true way to end a nice dinner is a nice dessert, and this dessert is first class. It is sweet and a bit sour at the same time, and the texture is so heavenly creamy!
As usual I thought it would be too difficult to make it, because I allways think like that with new things in the kitchen, but as usual I was wrong :)
This soufflé needs several steps and it takes some time but believe me it is all worth it..!
The best ting is that you freeze these babies and when you want to serve them you just put them frozen directly into the preheated oven for about 15 minutes. Perfect and easy when you have guests for dinner!

Soufflé with flavors of passion fruit and apple

1 dl white sugar
1/2 dl Maizena corn starch
5 egg whites
2 tablespoons butter + white sugar for cover the inside of molds
1 dl juice of passion fruit (about 8 fruits)
2 dl applesauce (sweetened)

How to:
1. Brush eight small molds (about 8 cm in diameter) with softened butter. Cover the inside with white sugar and place the molds in the freezer.
2. Scoop out the passion fruits, pass the juice through a a fine sieve.
3. Boil the applesauce. Mix the passion fruit juice with Maizena and pour in the applesauce. Boild 1 minute while whisking. Allow the mixture to cool.
4. Beat the egg whites fluffy, add sugar and whisk to a stiff meringue. Fold 1/3 of meringue into the passion/apple-mixture and mix well. Then turn the rest of meringue into the passion/apple mixture with gentle movement - it is important to keep the fluffy texture.
5. Fill the molds and cut around the edge with a small knife to loosen the batter. Put them in the freezer for about four hours, until they are completely frozen. It is also possible to bake them at once, but remember to check them often, the baking time is only about 8-10 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 200 Celsius.
7. Bake the frozen soufflé in the lower part of the oven 10-15 minutes, until they are nicely golden brown and hopefully the surface have risen an inch.

Pretty Crocheted Roses

I have not crocheted anything since I was in fourth grade. This weekend I thought it would be fun to experience somthing new and I said to myself, "Hey, why don't I try to crochet something? Nothing difficult, just something small and pretty to begin with". And I did.
As I have mentioned several times by now Drops Designstudio has the most amazing website with free patterns in both knitting and crochet, and this time when I was browsing through their archive I found some pretty flowers I just had to try :) To make it even better and easier for us beginners, there is a "How to" video on the website of these flowers and you can find the video here and the pattern here. If you would like other languages for the pattern you can choose language in the menu to the left under the picture.

Classic Apple Sponge Cake with Cinnamon

Sometimes I get a huge need to bake, often I don't know what I want to bake - just something - and I end up browsing through my baking books to find out what it will be. A scenario like this took place yesterday and the lucky winner was.... Apple sponge cake!
When I found the recepie in the book I realized that I had forgotten about this kind of fruit cake and when I took the first bite and tasted the sweet/sour apple pieces together with the sponge cake and cinnamon I realized how much I missed it. Apple sponge cake is far too underestimated and I swore to myself that I will bake it again very soon. And then again and agian and again....
Oh and remember, you can replace the apples with whatever you like such as pears, rhubarb, blueberries and raspberries! 

Apple Sponge Cake with Cinnamon

Oven temperature: 175 Celsius

125 grams of margarine or butter
1 1/2 dl white sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 dl flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk

Garnish
3-4 apples
1-2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

How to...

1. Grease and cover the inside of a baking pan (with removable rim), about 24 cm in diameter.
2. Melt the margarine/butter and let it cool down.
3. Use a baking assistant machine or stir by hand the melted margarine/butter with the sugar until it gets light yellow and light in the consistency. 
4. Pour one egg at the time into the sugar mixture.
5. Use a spoon and evenly distribute the baking powder in the flour and then add the flour into the sugar mixture little by little. 
6. Add milk into the batter and stir until it gets smooth and even. 
7. Pour the batter into the baking pan and use a spoon to even the surface.
8. Peel the apples and cut them into thin wedges.
9. Insert the apple wedges into the batter close togheter.
10. Spread white sugar mixed with cinnamon over the cake.
11. Bake the cake in the lower part of the oven for about 30-40 minutes. 

Brown/Off White Knitted Baby Cardigan

Last winter I started knitting on this baby cardigan but for some reason I don't remember I forgot about it and it was left unfinished in my sewing box in a mess of fabrics and yarns. But a couple of months ago I found it (when I finally organized my messy, messy sewing box) and I decided to finish it.
When I started this blog I had several unfinished projects at home just waiting for me to take care of them, and one by one I have managed to finish them :) Yay!

The pattern for this cardigan comes from Drops Designstudio where you can find free patterns for any occation and severity. Click on this link to get to the pattern I used! If you would like another language for the pattern, just click on the menu at left under the picture and you can choose your language!

I used 100% cotton yarn for this cardigan and therefore it is very soft and light in the texture. Personally I like it better when the yarn is a bit more hairy because it makes the loops in the knitting more tighter together - when a yarn is a bit more hairy it fills up the little holes that the knitting texture natuarally comprises.

Overall I am pleased with the result and maybe in the future this cardigan will come to good use for someone, but for now it gets its own place in the "Finished Project Box" :)

Happy Sunday everyone!