My cake baking challenge for this weekend was to make a first communion cake for our friends’ sweet little girl. I decided to bake an open book cake with two layers of filling – first layer with chocolate ganache & sour pitted cherries and the second one with a mascarpone cheese filling. It was a […]
Romanian Easter Cake with Cheese (Pasca cu Branza)
Pasca cu Branza is a traditional Easter dessert that is specific to the north-eastern part of the country (in Moldavia). It can be simple, with jagged margins, or it can have dough braided edges. Sometimes a cross-shaped braid is placed in the middle, representing the crucifixion of Jesus. People usually take some Pasca, dyed eggs […]
Roasted Lamb with Rosemary and Lots of Garlic
This is a dish for lamb and garlic lovers! The only time of the year when we eat lamb is at Easter. It’s the second year I cooked lamb since we moved to Canada but the first time it actually tasted delicious. This is mainly because we found a very good place to buy fresh […]
Easter Cake with Bunnies and Eggs
This is the funniest cake I’ve ever made for Easter so far. It’s an easy-to-make cake with a delicious and refreshing yogurt filling and decorated with a basket weave pattern made of vanilla buttercream icing. I filled the Easter basked with green coconut grass, added some Smarties mini eggs and 2 chocolate bunnies. You don’t […]
How to Make Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
I got this recipe from Baking with the Cake Boss book. It’s a pretty basic vanilla frosting recipe, easy to make and great for icing your cakes. Makes about 4 cups, enough to fill and ice one 9-inch cake Ingredients: 2 ½ cups (5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 5 cups powdered sugar 1 Tbsp vanilla […]
How to Dye Easter Eggs with Leaf Imprints
If it’s Easter, it’s time to decorate some eggs! Dyeing eggs with plants is fun and easy and the nice part about this is that every egg will be wildly different :). You will need: white eggs Egg dye Cups for dyes Old pantyhose thread Leaves […]
Chocolate Cake with Walnuts
Ingredients for a 26.7 cm (10.5 inch) round pan : 7 large eggs 7 Tbsp water (40 ml) 10 Tbsp all-purpose flour (160 g) 4 Tbsp cocoa powder (50 g) 14 Tbsp sugar (210 g) 4-5 Tbsp chopped or ground walnuts (optional) The pan should be greased with butter and floured or lined with parchment paper. […]
Chocolate Ganache with Sour Cherries Filling
Ingredients: 300 g semi-sweet chocolate 300 ml whipping cream 250 g red sour pitted cherries in syrup, drained The standard ratio for chocolate ganache is 1:1 (1 part semi-sweet chocolate, 1 part cream). However, I find that with the type of chocolate that I am using it’s better if I add less chocolate since the […]
Grilled Chicken Wings with Garlic (Saramura de Aripioare)
Saramura de Aripioare served with polenta is a traditional Romanian recipe that is famous especially in the southern part of the country. So simple and so tasty! The other version of the recipe that is even more famous is the grilled fish ‘saramura’. It is well known in Dobrogea, a region located between the lower Danube river […]
