Sparkle, Sparkle, and some Oreo...

Or: Massive Sparkling Oreo Cake

What to expect...Chocolate Oreo Cake

accompanied by Lee Fields album - thank you, genius

Let's get started!

But before...credit goes to Sprinkle Bakes! Thank you for the inspiration. 

This is what you need: 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

2 1/2 tablespoons cacao
3 eggs
3/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

10 Oreo's 

250 ml whipped cream 

Some Haribo 

Preheat oven to 220 degrees.

Grease the bottom and sides of a cake pans and line with parchment paper.  Grease parchment and set aside.

Mix all the ingredients together (apart from Oreo and rainbow sparkles), beat for 3 minutes, before putting in the some of the rainbow sprinkles. Pour the dough evenly into the pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean on the sites and still fudgy in the middle! Put some of the Oreo cakes in the middle part of the fudgy cake (yes, just do it!) and now let cool on wire racks.

Put the Oreo Cakes in the fudgy middle of the freshly baked cake

Finally... after letting it cool, cut into two pieces with a cake knife, put some whipped cream A variety of nonpareils, sprinkles, quins, sugar confetti and anything else you want to throw at this cake.  Sprinkle to your heart's content.

Done! For my friend Pumpi, who turned 18 last week! 

Homemade Mango Lassi

The Exotic Star Of India 

Mango Lassi 

Or: The Healthy Dessert 

The done Mango Lassi with a juicy non-mixed mango

Listen to Hurricane by MsMr as it fits the Berlin weather

Make your blender ready...

Ingredients:

650 ml Water

850g fresh mango or can of mangoes in syrup

500ml of natural yoghurt/soja yogurt

8 mint leaves

A pinch of ground cardamom

5 tbs Agave juive 

1/2 a lemon, juiced

Mix everything in your blender and use the mint leave to garnish. That's it. Yes I know. Very Simple, Very delicious. Altered but still: Credits go to The Perfect Pantry!

yummy... Mango Lassi

Hot Cinnamon Almond Milk

Rainy Day Hot Cinnamon Almond Milk

Or: Snug Into The Cozy Bed...Now!

Ready-to-drink almond-cinnamon milk with cute breech

Accompanied by The Great Gatsby Soundtrack - because it is so good!

This very delicious Cinnamon Almond Milk is the perfect supplement for a cold, rainy day. 

What you will need: 

4 cups almonds (soaked in water for 8 hours)

4 cups water

1 tbs agave syrup 

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbs Bourbon vanilla 

a pinch of salt 

This recipe makes approximately 1 litre of milk. 

Rinse the almonds well. Mix 4 cups of almonds with 4 cups of water and blend them with the mixer. Pour through a cloth and press the mixture a bit so that you get all the milk out of the almond meat. You can use the almond meat for other recipes, so do not forget to store it coldly in your fridge. Mix then the newly made almond milk with the rest of the ingredients and serve as you like - hot, warm or cold - either way your tummy is going to be thankful.

I thank Detox Berlin for this recipe.

Icelandic Carrot Cake

The Real Icelandic Experience 

Or: "How To Make 2 Swedes Come Every Day to Your Cafe"

Only the icing is missing...

accompanied by Zucchero for letting your dreaming float while baking 

What you need to make this heavenly piece: 

250g butter, softened

250g brown sugar

5 eggs, separated

zest and juice of 1 orange

1 1/4 cup canola oil

1 tsp bakin powder

100g almonds, chopped

100g walnuts, chopped

170g flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

250g carrots, peeled and grated

sea salt

more or less 2 tbs cacao

Ice, baby, Ice ice.... {Icing}:

150g mascarpone cheese

200g cream cheese

100g icing sugar, sifted

zest and juice of 1 lime

2 teaspoons pure vanilla

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and then you beat the egg yolks in one by one. Add the orange zest and juice as well as the cacao (I added this as when in the cafe in Iceland, the cake was quite dark. As I have not figured out why that was the case, I decided to go for this ingredient). Stir in the shifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla and cinnamon. Add the chopped almonds and walnuts and mix together with the grated carrots as well. 

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then fold them into the cake mix. Scoop the mixture into a buttered cake tin and bake in the oven for 45 minutes until golden and risen.

3. ...While the cake starts growing, you might as well do the creeeeeam cheese icing topping... Here look that the butter is SOFT and mix all the ingredients together....

Don't forget to butter the baking-tin

4. Leave the cake to cool for one hour until you put on the icing OR start cutting it, depending on what style you want (either icing in between and on top or only on top). If you decide for the 2nd option slice with a thin serrated knife off the very top of the cake. Do this by using a sawing motion.Then cut the cake in 2 or 3 equal layers. Slide the layers onto a cardboard round or any other flat surface. The false bottom of a tart pan works perfectly. Using an spatula spread the frosting evenly over the surface of the first layer. Repeat for the rest of the layers.

Thank you Zoe bakes for this great Carrot Cake recipe, that I altered a bit to make it Icelandic!

Juicy and rich carrot cake

Voilà

Enjoy!

Homemade Kanelbullar / Swedish cinnamon buns

Anna Blom's Kanelbullar 

Or: "The Most Delicious Import Of Sweden" 

Kanelbullar before they go into the oven

accompanied by Django Unchained's "Freedom" to make the dough real fluffy or Ekdahl's Playlist to improve your Swedish while baking 

The ingredients: 

400ml milk 

250g butter 

1 time ~47g yeast (found in the freezer in the supermarket) 

200g caster sugar 

750 - 800g plain flour 

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon salt 

2 teaspoon ground cardamom 

4 tablespoons of pearl sugar 

cinnamon 

pearl sugar (do not forget!)

if wanted chocolate drops

Melt the butter (110g) in a pot gently on a low heat and then add the milk (400ml). When the mix is lukewarm (very important, lukewarm, meaning that your finger can last in the milk/butter mixture more than 10 seconds...), remove from heat and add the yeast, that you crumbled before. Whisk to mix. 

Then you will mix the flour, sugar (110g), salt and cardamom in a big bowl. Now mix this with the milk/butter/yeast mix. Always use a wooden spoon for that. Only when the dough is not sticky anymore (you might have to add a bit flour), turn out onto a clean floured surface and knead for about 6 minutes (to make it fluffy...very important). 

After this exhausting work-out put the dough back into the bowl, cover it with a towel that no light "hits" its surface and let it rise for 45 minutes in a warm dark place (here I always suggest, very logically, next or on the heater...).

Preheat the oven to 200 celsius. 

When the dough has risen (if it has not risen the butter/milk mixture was too hot...), cut it in half and roll one of the halves into a rectangle about 3mm thick and then ... 

Carefully role the dough

Spread first the butter, then a sugar/cinnamon mixture (and if wanted chocolate drops...) and roll the dough so that you get a snail effect and slice into approximately 12-14 pieces. Lay them flat on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper face up, coat with beaten egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar. 

Bake the buns in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Even though this is my Mom's kanelbullar recipe, however I got the inspiration to bake them here in Germany thanks to the lovely blog Alexandra cooks

Bake the Kanelbullar carefully in the oven

Smaklig måltid!

Delicious Kanelbullar

Chocolate Fudge Cake

The Devil's Best Companion

Or: "Probably The Best Chocolate Fudge Cake On Earth"

Choc Fudge Cake that is waiting to be eaten

accompanied by Chopin's Nocturne to let the Wild Child out

This too delicious cake is quite worth a sin. Or two! 

What you will need...

For the cake:

250g Self Raising Flour (if you don’t have self rising flour you can use 250g all-purpose flour + 1 tablespoon baking powder + 3/4 teaspoon salt)

325g Caster Sugar

1/4 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda

3 heaped tablespoons Cocoa

250g Butter

250ml Coca Cola

125ml Milk

2 Medium Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

For the - to die for - frosting:

200g Butter

4 tbsp Coca Cola

3 heaped tbsp Cocoa

400g Icing sugar

For decoration (if wanted): 

a bar white chocolate 

Grated White Chocolate

Start Chopin's Nocturne to set the mood for inspirational baking. Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda. Melt the butter together with the coca cola and then add to the dry ingredients along with the milk, eggs and vanilla. Gently combine before putting in a lightly greased cake tin. Bake at 180 degrees for 40 mins or until a knife comes out clean. Now let it cooooool down! 

For the frosting melt the coca cola with the butter and pour into the icing sugar. Add the cocoa and beat until smooth and thick, let it cool slightly (max. 3 minutes) and then spread over the cake. If wanted, decorate with grated white chocolate. 

If you are not already pulled by your desire to taste, put the cake into the fridge to let the icing set firm. 

Very Fudgy Fudge