Hummingbird cake

 This cake is extremely amazing and would be done at least once a month. Sweet, dense and so good. Recipe from new Jamie Oliver book "Comfort food". I was so happy when my signed copy arrived and this cake was first choice to make. However I made few alterations as I decided to bake it late in the evening and not all the products were on hand. For example on 26th of December it was impossible to get icing sugar, so I made it myself (simple salt was also missing from the shelves, not sure why).
Maybe my homemade icing sugar (read - no added starch) was too much, so next time I would add only 300g of it and maybe juices from both limes.
I used chunks of pineapple - bit harder to cut nicely, but tastes amazing.
Used simply sunflower oil, as didn't had at home olive.
We don't have self-rising flour so I added 2 tbs to flours.
Baked in one tin - it took about 80 minutes. It was dense and tasty. Rise well when using simple flour and baking powder.
Fresh sliced badly, but next day it was easier.

23-26 cm tin
250 ml olive oil, plus extra for greasing
350 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
350 g golden caster sugar
4 medium-sized very ripe bananas
1 x 425 g tin of pineapple chunks
2 large free-range eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50 g pecans

For the icing:
300 g icing sugar
150 g unsalted butter, (at room temperature)
200 g cream cheese
2 limes

For the brittle:
100 g caster sugar
50 g pecans

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Grease and line two 23-26 cm round cake tins. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a mixing bowl, then add the sugar and a large pinch of sea salt. Peel the bananas and mash them up with a fork in another bowl. Drain and finely chop the pineapple and add to the bananas with the oil, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until combined, then fold into the dry mixture until smooth. Finely chop the pecans and gently fold in, then divide the batter evenly between your prepared tins. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until risen, golden and the sponges spring back when touched lightly in the centre. Run a knife around the edge of the tins, then leave to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Meanwhile, to make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a free-standing electric mixer, add the butter and beat until pale and creamy. Add the cream cheese, finely grate in the zest of 1 lime and add a squeeze of juice, then beat until just smooth – it's really important not to over-mix it. Keep in the fridge until needed. To make a brittle topping, place the caster sugar and a splash of water in a non-stick frying pan on a medium heat. Shake flat and don't stir it, just swirl the pan occasionally until dissolved and lightly golden. Add the pecans and a pinch of salt, spoon around to coat, and when nicely golden, pour onto a sheet of oiled greaseproof paper to set (check out the how-to video below). Once cool, smash up to a dust (you'll need about half to top the cake – save the rest for sprinkling over ice cream.

To assemble the cake, place one sponge on a cake stand and spread with half the icing. Top with the other sponge, spread over the rest of the icing, then grate over the zest of the remaining lime. Scatter over the brittle dust.

From Jamie Oliver Comfort food, 358

Red grapefruit sherbet with ginger

Happy 1st of June! I can't imagine 2nd month of summer is already here. And it's pity, as it's cold outside, not matter that June used to be hottest month in my childhood.
I was having an ice-cream machine since last autumn but barely used. And now summer is here and it's like +15 C outside and raining. No time for ice cream - more thoughts about coffee and blanket and heartwarming pie.
But I hope in other side of world you are having better days ;) These ice-cream were prepared for bloggers e-magazine - Cloudsmag (be sure to check our page here). Ant they were delicious! Hints of ginger bites a little so you sure have total refreshment here.

About 0,8 l
400 ml / 1.7 cups red grapefruit juice (fresh, or 100% from package)
200 ml / 0.8 cups + 1 tbs sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tbs orange liqueur
1 tbs grated grapefruit zest
200 / 0.8 cups ml heavy cream (30-40% fat content)
3 cm ginger piece

Place 200 ml of juice, 200 ml of sugar and vanilla sugar in a small pot.  Heat over low-medium heat, stirring, until all of the sugar has dissolved.  Pour the mixture into a refrigerator-safe bowl and let it cool to room temperature.
Add the remaining grapefruit juice, grapefruit zest and liqueur.
Beat cream with the remaining 1 tbs of sugar. Add it to the juice mixture.
Peel and grate ginger. You should get about 1 tbs from this amount. Add the ginger to the sherbet mixture, combine well and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.
Once the mixture has chilled and you are ready to make your ice cream, pour the juice mixture into your ice cream maker.
Churn the ice cream to your desired consistency. The sherbet should be ready in 30 minutes. Put it in a cold clean refrigerator safe bowl and freeze.
If you do not have an ice cream maker you can whip the ice cream mass with a fork every 30 minutes. Do this 6-7 times.
Remove the sherbet from the fridge 5-10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Scones with hazelnuts

 It was maybe 3rd time in my life when I made scones. Not sure why I'm not doing it more often as they are so delicious. Maybe because I prefer to sleep long in the morning and then to have quick egg scramble or thin pancakes.
But as today is 1st day of holidays (not real - for studies, so it's just 50/50 holidays) I decided I need to pamper myself a little and have tasty and amazing breakfast and these scones just popped up in my "blogs you're following" list. In original recipe they called for berries, but as I didn't have them, I used hazelnuts. And they turned out beautifully and so tasty. I hope I'll bake them again soon as recipe is easy to make (I think every scones are easy to make). To make them more fragrant I topped hot scones with piece of coconut butter. Ant it really made a difference - my kitchen smelled like heaven.

For the Scones:
1/3 cup / 80 g sugar
zest of 1 medium lemon
2 cups / 500 ml all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbs / 115 g unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup / 125 ml sour cream (30% fat)
1 large egg
50 g crushed hazelnuts

1-2 tsp coconut oil (solid)

For the Glaze
8 tbs confectioners’ sugar; sifted
2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest; mix with your fingertips until the sugar is moistened and fragrant. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until combined.
Chop butter to pieces and add into flour mixture; use your fingers to work in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream and egg until smooth.
Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Add in hazelnuts. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. The dough will be sticky first, but as you press, the dough will come together.
Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-inch / 18 cm circle about 3/4-inch / 1,5-2 cm thick. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Add small pieces on top of scones.
Cool for 10 minutes and prepare the glaze.
In a medium bowl, prepare the glaze by mixing together confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. Whisk until smooth. Top with spoon.
Serve with tea.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from My baking addiction

Cashew Nut Chicken

 Sometimes you see recipe and you know you can't live until you cook it. Sounds familiar? This chicken recipe with rice and cashew nuts was that situation. I saw this recipe on amazing Munaty Cooking blog and the same minute wrote to my BF to go shopping. And it was the most amazing Chinese dinner we had at home. It's was so quick - while rice are cooking, you can done meat. I know this one is going to be our home favorite - can't wait to tell this recipe to all my friends who loves Chinese food, but are afraid to cook it at home.

2-3 portions
2-3 tbs sunflower oil
1/4 cup cashews
1 red chili
300 g boneless, skinless chicken breast
pinch of black pepper
2-3 tbs white flour
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
few spring onions

Sauce:
1 tbs soy sauce (I used dark)
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp sunflower oil
pinch of black pepper
1/4 teaspoon sugar
5 tbs warm water


Heat in a wok 1 tbs of oil.
Cut chili lengthwise, take of seeds. Chop to your preferred size.
Fry cashews and chili in hot oil until golden. Set aside.
Chop chicken breast to bite size chunks. Season with black peppers. Mix with flour until well covered. Fry chicken in the same wok. Add 1 tbs of oil if needed. It'll be don in 3-5 minutes, when all sides are golden. Set aside and cover.
Prepare sauce - mix all ingredients and set aside.
Chop onion in to thin strips, garlic cloves to thin slices. Add them to the same wok, add extra spoon of oil if needed and fry for 1 minute.
Add then chicken, cook for 1 minute, then add cashew-chili mix.
Add sauce to the pan, stir well and cook for 30 s.
Serve while hot with rice. Chop spring onions and sprinkle on top.

Enjoy :)

Inspired by Munaty Cooking blog.

Coconut macaroons - only 2 ingredients!

When I first saw these macaroons on Hip Foodie Mom - I immediately knew I'm going to bake them. They are just gorgeous and so easy to make. Why I never thought about this before?? But better now than never ;)

 So no none of my friends can't tell they are unable to cook :D to all of them I'm going to print this "so difficult" recipe so they'll have lifesaving recipe when you crave for something sweet.
Original recipe proposed to dip them in melted choco and then freeze it, but it was sweet enough for me without it.

2 baking trays
400 g/1 can sweetened full fat condensed milk
3 cups/~250 g desiccated coconut

Heat your oven to 175 C/350 F.
In a bowl mix condensed milk and coconut. Batter must be quite thick so it hold its form. If not - add few extra spoons of coconut (it depends what kind of condensed milk you use).
With a spoon make small balls on top of lined baking tray.
Bake for 10-12 until golden.
Let them cool on the grating and then remove from baking paper.

Enjoy :)

P!nk soup - cold beetroot soup

Ok this soup isn't related with singer Pink. We actually call it saltibarsciai, which means cold beetroot soup and it doesn't sound tasty. So some Erasmus students named it pink soup and now, when needed to present this soup to foreigners, I always say that I'm going to cook pink soup. Sounds tastier ;)
This soup was and is traditional spring/summer soup in Lithuania. With this soup me and my mom always start summer. This time we did it little bit to early - we still don't have fresh potatoes (ok, we have "fresh ones" from Holland) and fresh beetroots, but it's OK sometimes to cheat a little. I was so happy to see fresh dills and cucumbers that I immediately wanted to do this soup. Too we had very fresh eggs. It was so delicious! If you eat Tzatziki - try this soup, even small amount. It's really refreshing during hot summer days. Use the best ingredients you have.

4 portions:
0.5 kg fresh potatoes
2 eggs
1 liter of kefir or plain natural yogurt
250 ml preserved chopped/grated beetroots or cooked beetroots (about 2 medium)
1 long cucumber
few stalks of spring onions
fresh dills
salt

Wash your potatoes with brush (or peel them if they have thick skin). Cut them to 2-4 parts, then put in the pot and cover with water. Cook until tender (about 15-20 minutes).
Hard boil your eggs (about 10 minutes).
During this time in a bowl mix together kefir with preserved beetroots. If your beetroots are just cooked - grate them with coarse grater and then mix it with kefir. Add 2-3 spoons of water if it looks to thick.
Chop cucumber to small pieces and add to kefir-beetroot mix. Chop dills and spring onions and add them too.
Cool boiled eggs and peel then. Then chop them coarsely and add to kefir-beetroot mix.
Add pinch of salt.
Serve with hot boiled potatoes.

Enjoy :)

Hawaiian pizza

 This type of pizza is my all time favorite. Passion for it started many years ago, when my BFF shower me in local pizzeria with chicken and pineapple. Since then I can't resist and first pizza in any bar which I'm looking for is Hawaiian.
The dough for this pizza is amazing - my pizza goes out always bit crunchy on the bottom and soft on top. If you never prepared your own pizza base - give a try with this one. I promise - you won't regret. Also prepared base can be freeze and kept in the fridge for month until needed.
And just 2 days ago I found out that this pizza was invented in Canada by Greek! Amazing isn't it?

4 medium pizzas:
Dough:
250 ml milk
2.5 cup (625 ml) strong bread flour (type 550)
5 g active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
0.5 tsp salt
5 tbsp olive oil + extra for greasing

Topping:
4 tbsp very good tomato sauce (with at least 48% of tomato paste would be the best)
120 g grated yellow cheese (like Gouda)
8 tbsp canned pineapple pieces
4 big slices of pork ham
Mediterranean spice mix (basil, oregano, thyme, marjoram, pepper, savory, garlic)

Prepare dough:
Heat milk in a pot, but don't boil. Add it in stirring bowl.
Add to the same bowl flour, yeast, sugar, salt and 5 spoons of olive oil. With mixer prepare little bit sticky dough. Lightly coat it with oil. Cover bowl with cling film and put aside in a warm place for one hour.
Pizza:
Heat oven up to 220 C/440 F.
Split prepared dough in to two parts. Dust table lightly with flour and roll one piece of pizza. Transfer pizza base to the baking pan with baking paper.
With spoon add 2 table spoons of tomato sauce and cover pizza. Add grated cheese, then top with pineapple pieces and slices of ham. Sprinkle with spices.
Bake in the middle rack for 10-12 minutes until golden and cheese is melted.

Enjoy :)

Clouds magazine - Spring issue!

Please check our amazing Clouds magazine for spring!

Muffins with spring onions and bacon

 I always wait for spring. It's so good to see days becoming longer, evenings lighter. And also the best things are from the garden - spring onions, rhubarbs, radishes and others. On the first days of spring I always start to grow some parsley, dill and basil. And of course I add onion head to the water so I can get my own green spring onions. Amazing time, isn't it?
These muffins are from the recipe book of my friend Renata. She's trying to show all Lithuanians that even in our 4 season climate zone it's possible to eat seasonally all year round. As you can see this recipe is dedicated to spring and it's amazing.
These muffins are so soft and fluffy. One piece wouldn't be enough - I promise. Also by changing cheese and herbs you can always get different taste. If you don't use meat - skip it and add some smoked red paprika powder - you'll love it.

12 muffins:
100 ml light olive or sunflower oil
100 ml 2,5% fat milk
3 medium eggs
100 g white flour (extra white - 405 German type)
100 g strong bread flour (812 German type)
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly round black peppers
pinch of marjoram
100 g yellow cheese (Russian, Gouda or Cheddar) (you can change it to hard cheese)
100 g spring onions
50 g smoked bacon

Heat oven to 190 C/374 F degree.
With a mixer mix together oil, milk and eggs.
Sieve in flours. Grate cheese. Add salt, peppers, marjoram and cheese. Mix until you don't see dry flour, but don't whisk.
Chop spring onions to small pieces. Chop bacon to cubes. Add them to dough and mix with spoon.
Line muffin tin with papers and divide batter to them.
Bake until top is golden, for about 20-25 minutes. Cool on the rack.
They are tasty warm and cold.

Enjoy!

Golden-glazed carrot, mushroom & pecan tart

 An amazing tart which I found in BBC Good food 2013 December.
I decided to make it bit more festive and add pecan nuts. That was good idea - very tasty and crunchy. Serve it with glass of cold beer and you'll enjoy it much more.

3 carrots, peeled and cut in half lengthways, or about 10 baby carrots left whole
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp maple syrup + extra
salt
pepper
15 x 12 cm rectangle of all-butter puff pastry from (about 200g)
1/2 yellow medium onion or 1 shallot
2 tsp butter
140 g/about 8 units chestnut mushrooms, very finely chopped
50 g chopped pecan nuts, plus a little extra to garnish
2 tbsp low-fat cream cheese
1 tbsp grated Parmesan
pinch of dried Italian herbs
few spring onions

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
Pop the carrots in a pan of boiling water and cook for 4-5 mins until tender.
Take our carrots from pan. Cut lengthwise big-ones. Spread the carrots out in one layer on a baking tray. Carefully toss with olive oil, season with salt, peppers and half the maple syrup. Bake for 20 mins, turning once.
Next, place the pastry rectangle on a baking parchment-lined baking sheet. Score a 1 cm border. Prick the center area with a fork and put in the oven for left 12 mins with the carrots.
Fry the onion/shallot in butter until totally soft, then stir through the mushrooms. Fry for several mins until mushrooms are tender and the mixture is dry. Spread out on a plate to cool.
Whiz cooled mushroom mixture with the nuts, cream cheese, hard cheese, Italian herbs and season with salt and peppers, so you have a coarse texture.
Remove the pastry base from the oven and gently press down the center area with the back of a spoon. Spread the mushroom mix inside and lay the glazed carrots on top. You may need to tuck the ends round to fit the carrots in. Drizzle over the remaining maple syrup and bake for a further 12-15 mins until the pastry is golden. Sprinkle with spring onions and add some more chopped nuts to serve.

Enjoy!

Recipe inspired by Good Food magazine, December 2013

Hello world! and carrot cupcakes

Cupcakes and miracles - food blog about nice and tasty things like cupcakes and miracles.
I hope you'll enjoy your visit and will come back to get know more about it. This is my first blog in English and second in my life. Still some changes must be done, but my Facebook fan page is already on. So if you'd like to know about new recipes - be sure to follow me.

These carrot cupcakes are not so fatty as their relatives with butter. They are moist and tasty. Not to sweet from inside and with nice sweet topping. Without topping can be stored for a few days or easily converted in to present.

16 units cupcakes
For the batter:
250 ml brown sugar
63 ml sunflower or light olive oil
2 XL eggs
125 ml natural yogurt (3-4% fat)
1 l shredded carrots (about 4 medium)
500 ml coarse wheat flour
125 ml almond flour
125 ml all purpose white flour (we use number 550)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp dried ginger powder
pinch of salt
100 g hazelnut

Cream:
250 g curd/cottage cheese 9% fat
2 tbsp sour cream
125 ml icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 C.
Mix brown sugar with oil. Add eggs and mix again. Stir in yogurt.
And carrots and mix.

In second bowl mix together all flours, baking soda, powdered ginger and salt. 

Add flour mix to carrots mix and stir well.

Chop hazelnuts. Take of 3 table spoons for toppings, others add to carrot batter and mix in.

Fill in cupcakes tin lined with paper cups 3/4 of batter.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. 

Cool on the rack

For the cream - beat with handheld mixer.or whisk curd, cream and icing sugar.

Top each cupcake with cream and garnish with leftover hazelnuts.

Enjoy!