Cheese cake

I’ve made this cheese cake two times already now. The first one was a great success. The second one was less so, since the sides caramelized and the cake completely collapsed. I renamed the second version Caramel Cheese cake and all was well again. I made the Caramel Cheesecake for my birthday for the family and I got a lot of compliments about it, even though I thought it was kind of a failure myself…
That’s how the post would’ve started had I actually posted it around three months ago. It’s the proof that I have been doing some things and saved them on my computer. The reason I’m posting it now is because I made another cheesecake just the other day. I never had time to take pictures of that one. It was gone in less than 24 hours! And I only ate one piece.



Ingredients for the cookie base:
850 grams digestive cookies
6 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar

Ingredients for the cheesecake:
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
900 grams cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs

1. Crush the cookies with a mixer or the back of a glass. Melt the butter and mix it, with the sugar, through the cookies. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a greased or lined cake tin and leave in the fridge.
2. Beat the cream cheese until smooth. This could take a minute or 3-4.
3. Gradually add the sugar and beat until it is completely mixed in.
4. Now add the vanilla and mix again.
5. Add the eggs one by one, while making sure one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Mix them in on a the lowest speed of your mixer as to not over-beat the mixture.
6. Pour the cheesecake batter onto the cookie base and leave in a preheated oven of about 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour.
7. Eat the cheesecake with a lemon jam or other and enjoy!

I noticed in some of the cheesecake recipes they ask to put the cake tin in a bath of water in the oven and leave it that way. I have tried this once and it was a complete failure! Also, I’m pretty afraid of something going wrong with that much water in the oven. This means that I’m probably using the wrong settings for my oven, as I’m not using any water. However, the temperatures worked for me before so I have no intention of changing it a lot. What I’m trying to say is that the texture is slightly different of the cheesecakes of the original recipe and there is a chance it will fall apart and, like my cake, caramelize at the sides. Still, there is no way this won’t taste good.



I’ve been trying to update my blog more lately and I’m also trying to push some changes through. See the row of pictures at the side? Or did you notice how my pretty recipe index at the other side, which took an awful lot of work, has turned into a simple drop-down menu? By the time I actually post this – mind you, I’m still typing this in Word – perhaps my banner will have changed as well. Changing the looks of my blog is always an exciting process, but it makes me feel bad too. All the time I spend in recipe indexes, blog banners and little adjustments here and there is all gone, because I’m erasing them and starting anew. I do like the way my blog is evolving though. I feel sometimes it’s starting to look more professional or at the very least less like the work of a 5-year-old who’s been messing with her computer. It feels like growing. Wonderful!

Marbled pound cake

There are people out there who have never eaten banana bread, peanut butter or even marbled cake. So spread the word. Or rather the cake in this case, because I’ll be showing you a recipe for marbled pound cake. Since I’m still not anywhere near my home I’ve had to browse the internet for a recipe. I’ve found one for a marbled pound cake. What the difference between normal cakes and pound cakes is I would for the life of me not know. I do know that this recipe works and it gave a very nice consistency to my cake. Plus the recipe is easy enough to make all over again and requires ingredients I have at home already anyway.
I also know that the pictures still don’t do any justice to the taste of the cake, or even the looks at that. I so wish I had a better camera and, most of all, more skills to convey the plain wonderfulness of the things I bake. Waiting for all of this takes so long!



Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup (unsweetened) cocoa powder

1. Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Beat the eggs in one by one while making sure to fully incorporate one before adding the next. Mix in the vanilla extract
3. Sift the flour with the baking powder and mix it through the batter.
4. Lastly add the milk and mix again.
5. Put about half of the batter in a separate bowl and add cocoa powder.
6. Grease or line a cake tin and put one spoon of vanilla batter on one side of the tin and one on the other, put a spoon of cocoa batter in the middle. For the next layer put the chocolate batter on the sides and add a spoon of vanilla batter in the middle. Keep layering the cake like that until you’ve used all the batter.
7. With a skewer, fork or spoon cut and twist through the batter to give it a swirly, marbled effect.
8. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit and leave the cake in for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.



Quite a lot of the comments on the original recipe stated that the cake was far too dry. I made some adjustments to prevent this, but this cake still tastes better with a glass of milk. Other than that you’ll love the taste. Somehow I found my cake to taste slightly different from the normal vanilla or chocolate cake, in a good way.
I had some left over peanut butter meringue frosting and that goes very well with this as well. I still have to post the recipe for this one, so I owe you one! Just don’t remind me of all the things I still owe you and all the things I have on my computer that haven’t been posted yet. Oh, I have so much to do!
Until I see you next time then – I promise it will be soon. Enjoy!

Banana Cake

It’s been raining banana’s here. Okay not really, but everyone seems to buy them and no one’s actually eating them. This is one of the first things I thought of to get rid of them. I’m no fan of plain banana’s, but I’d never say no to banana cake. I browsed the internet until I found something that would work for me. I found a Banana Cake that required melted butter. Having found a recipe that sounded good enough to me, I set straight to work.



Ingredients:
200 grams unsalted butter
175 grams caster sugar
100 + 150 grams plain flour
4 eggs
1 lemon
200g banana (about 2 bananas)
3 tablespoons baking powder
Powdered sugar and lemon juice for glazing

1. Start with mashing the banana and zesting the orange.
2. Melt the butter and mix it with the sugar until smooth. Add 100 grams flour and mix again.
3. Beat the eggs lightly and add them to the mixture in 4-5 additions, beating well in between.
4. Lastly mix in the lemon zest, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and the mashed banana.
5. Sift 150 grams flour with the baking powder over the batter and use your mixer one last time.
6. Line or grease a cake tin and pour the mixture into the tin. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius or 320 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Leave the cake in the oven for about 35-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
8. For the glazing, add lemon juice with enough powdered sugar to make a thick, but still liquid consistency. Spread over the top of the cake with a brush.

The cake came out so beautifully moist! I was quite surprised this came out so wonderful. I can’t even begin to describe how horrible the oven is I’m using so anything that comes out the way I want it is a miracle.
I’m going to have to admit again that I could’ve spend more time on taking pictures. Or on the glazing I put on it at that. I just couldn’t help but want to eat it. I wish I could tell you how it smelled or made it look better to make you drool all over the place. But you’re going to have to do with this. And take my word for it. You want this.

Banana Oat Cookies (2 ingredient cookies)

I haven’t posted anything in ages! I’m so SO sorry. But I’ve got a good excuse! I’ve been abducted by aliens who got stuck in traffic mainly because the bridge was open and they forgot time and all they really wanted to do was keep me from posting. Good news is they weren’t after my brains so I survived all of this. No. Actually I have vacation and I’ve been too busy and too lazy. I’ve been baking a lot and wrote down a lot of recipes, but I simply haven’t posted them. I have some actual Good News though. I’ve been trying to hone my photography skills so my pictures should start to look better from now on.

So now for some actual baking. I found this recipe when I was searching the web for some DIY things to do. The writer was totally enthusiastic about the two ingredient cookies. For the most basic cookie I can think of you need at least butter, sugar and flour, so cookies with just two ingredients sounds amazing! I’m not sure what made me make these cookies as banana’s are definitely one of my least favourite fruits and I was never a fan of oats either. The idea of adding raisins was nice though. But I think what made me make these cookies was the writers enthusiasm about her 2 ingredient cookies and my curiosity on actual two ingredient cookies. So I made it. And ate them all. I didn’t actually share them either. I’m horrible, I know!



Ingredients:
2 bananas
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup extra’s (like raisins or chocolate chips)

1. Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork until you’ve got rid of the biggest lumps. I like a few banana chunks in there, but feel free to mash it all the way.
2. Add the oats and whatever else you’re adding (or not) and mix away.
3. Dump the ‘batter’ in cookie-sized bites on an oven plate (either greased or lined with greaseproof paper!!) and dump into a preferably preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-15 minutes.

See? It’s totally easy right? This is the easiest 100% no-fail recipe I’ve ever seen and I actually like it. It’s totally healthy too! I’ve made it quite a few times since the first time and added chocolate instead of raisins as well. I’m going to have to agree they don’t look the most appetizing, but I’m sure you’ll be surprised!
Enjoy! And have a nice vacation to those of you who have also gotten lost in the space-time continuum!