Time:  120 min, Prep: 80 min.  Cook: 40 min.
Servings: 50-60 cake pops

Ingredients:

For red velvet cake:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
  
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt                       
• 3/4 cup butter
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp red food coloring

You also need a springform pan, greased with butter and floured.

For cream cheese frosting:

• 225 g (8 oz) cream cheese 
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp sour cream

For covering the cake pops:

• 600g blue & pink Wilton candy melts or white candy melts & paste food coloring
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

You also need ~60 lollipop sticks and two Styrofoam blocks.

Preparation:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for about 5 minutes.

Combine the flour with cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Mix in milk, sour cream, vanilla and food color.

Carefully mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overbeat.

Pour batter into the springform pan. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for about 10-15 minutes. Remove cake from pan and cool completely.

Frosting:

Beat cream cheese, softened butter, sour cream and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.

Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.

Shaping & decorating the cake pops:

Crumble the cooled cake into a large bowl. Add the cream cheese frosting and mix thoroughly.

Take about 1 teaspoon of the mixture and roll into golf ball-size balls. Place the balls on a tray or a pan and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

Microwave the blue candy melts with 1 tablespoon of oil at 40% power for 30 seconds. Stir thoroughly and continue to microwave for another 30 seconds. Repeat this process until smooth and completely melted.

Just a useful tip, use a tall & narrow glass because it’s easier to dip the cake pops in and there is less waste.

Dip the end of the lollipop stick into the melted coating and insert into the cheesecake ball. Don’t insert the stick all the way through the ball as it will crack.

Dip the cake ball into the melted coating, don’t swirl the cake pop around in the coating, just dip and get out. Gently tap the lollipop on the edge of the glass to remove excess melt.

Place cake pop in the Styrofoam board to dry.

Repeat the steps to make the pink cake pops.

Enjoy !

Time:  80 min, Prep: 40 min.  Cook: 40 min + ~2 hours for decorating the cake
Servings: 26-30                               
Ingredients:                     

For cake:

• 16 eggs
• 16 Tbsp water
• 350 g (1 1/2 cups) sugar
• 330 g (3 cups) all-purpose flour
• 5 tsp cocoa
• 5 tsp cappuccino (dry powder)
•  5 Tbsp ground walnuts

You also need one round oven-proof bowl that is 26 cm (10.2 inch) in diameter and a 24.5 x 9 cm (9.6 x 3.5 inches) springform pan, both greased with butter and floured.

For frosting:

• 1 l chilled whipping cream (4 cups)
• 3 Tbsp cappuccino (dry powder)
• 110 g white chocolate, grated
• 600 g sugar (2.5 cups)
• 1350 g (6 cups) mascarpone cheese

Mind you that I had some leftover frosting, maybe about 2 cups, so you could use just 2/3 of the ingredients listed above or you could enjoy the leftovers .
For syrup to moisten cake:

• I just used cappuccino but if you prefer you can make syrup using 200 ml water, 100 g sugar & 1 Tbsp rum extract

For decorating cake:

• 1.8 kg (4 lbs) white fondant
• Purple paste food colouring
• Fondant tools: smoother, roller, ribbon cutter, a ruler
• Some icing sugar

Preparation:

Cake:

Beat egg whites and water with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add sugar and beat until dissolved. Fold in the egg yolks.

Combine the flour with cocoa, cappuccino and ground walnuts.

Using a spatula, carefully blend in the dry ingredients until just combined.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Pour batter into the oven-proof bowl and the springform pan.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until brown (you can insert a toothpick in the centre and if it comes out clean then it’s ready).

Frosting:

This is the same as the frosting I made for the Bachelorette Party Corset Cake.
To make this you have to bring 2/3 of the whipping cream to boil in small saucepan. Slowly pour cream over cappuccino powder, whisking until dissolved. Add grated white chocolate and stir until smooth. Add remaining whipping cream and sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Chill until cold, at least 2 hours or overnight (cover before refrigerating).

Add mascarpone to chilled mixture and using an electric mixer beat on low speed until blended and smooth. Increase speed to medium-high; beat until mixture is thick and medium-firm peaks form when beaters are lifted, about 2 minutes (do not overbeat or mixture will curdle).

Assembling the cake:

Place the cakes onto your work surface. Cut the bowl-shaped cake (this will be your belly) horizontally in three and the round cake in two.

Place one of the round layers (we’ll use the other half for the boobs) on your cake platter and moist it with cappuccino syrup. Using a spatula, evenly cover the top of the first layer with cappuccino frosting.

Place the first layer of the bowl-shaped cake on top (the biggest one) and moist it with cappuccino as well and cover with frosting. Repeat the steps with the remaining cake layers. You should save some frosting for the boobs and to crumb coat the cake at the end.

Now it’s time to make the boobs and for these you need two small bowls. Line the two bowls with plastic foil. From the remaining cake cut thin layers. Place a layer of cake, moist it with cappuccino and top with frosting. Repeat until you fill each bowl (the top layer should be of cake).

Refrigerate both the corset and the boobs overnight.

Crumb coat the cake before covering it in fondant.

Take two small pieces of fondant and shape the baby feet. Place them on the belly, they will easily stick to the cake since it’s covered with frosting.

Colour 3/4 of the fondant in purple using the paste food colouring. Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll a little more than half of the purple fondant to about 1/6 cm (1/10 inch) thickness. Cover the belly in fondant and cut it around to make it look like a dress.

For the boobs I rolled the remaining purple fondant and made creases as seen below.

To make the fondant bow, roll a small piece of white fondant (I actually used some ivory fondant) to about 1/4 cm (1/8 inch) thickness. Using the ruler as a guide cut 2 rectangular shapes about 10 cm by 2.5 cm ( 4 inch by 1 inch). Brush one side of the rectangular with water, fold it from one end to the other and pinch the ends together.

I inserted some rolled paper towel into each loop to help hold the shape.

For the knot in the middle of the bow cut a small rectangle and place it on top of the pinched ends of the loop. Tuck it underneath and stick the ends together using water.

Make the tails of the ribbon bows by cutting two more rectangles using a ribbon cutter if you have one, same width as the ones you used for the loops but longer. Cut a V-shape on one of the ends for each tail. I have also made another ribbon and placed it on the belly to define the waist. I glued all these onto the cake just by brushing the undersides with some water.

Lastly, I made the dress straps using the ribbon cutter again and arranged them onto the cake board.

Time: 20 min, Prep: 20 min.
Servings: 8-12 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 small beets
• 3 cans mixed beans
• 1 can lentils                                        
• fresh parsley
• juice from 1 lemon
• apple cider vinegar
• olive oil
• 2 Tbsp sugar

Preparation:

Peel and shred the beets.

Place the canned beans and lentils in a strainer and thoroughly rinse them with cold water.

Mix the oil, vinegar, lemon juice and sugar in a small bowl.

Combine the rinsed beans, lentils and beets.

Add the chopped parsley and salad dressing.

Toss to combine, serve and enjoy!

I made these lard cookies for Christmas (yes, I know, took me a while to post this ). It’s a very basic and old recipe that I know from my mom. She always used lard for these cookies but you can use butter as a substitute. The texture will be a little different though (sandier when using lard)… and the taste as well. You might think that lard is just fat and not good for you but it’s actually healthier than butter. Lard is great in pie crusts as well; it adds a great flavour and gives the crust a nice flaky texture.

Time: 95 min, Prep: 80 min.  Cook: 15 min. per batch
Servings: ~100 cookies

Ingredients:                           

• 200 g lard (or butter)
• 200 g (1 cup) sugar  (add a little less sugar if using butter since butter is sort of sweet, lard is not)
• 440 g (4 cups) flour
• 2 pouches vanilla sugar (18 g)
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 250 ml milk
• Zest from a lemon
• 2 eggs
• 100 g Turkish delight (lokum)
• icing sugar  for dusting

You also need a cookie press or cookie cutters in whatever shape you prefer.

Preparation:

In a small bowl combine dry yeast with 1 tablespoon of sugar and some lukewarm milk. Mix for 1 minute to dissolve the yeast and let it rest for 5-7 minutes in a warm place.

In a large bowl place the white flour and make a hole in the centre.  Add the lard, eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest. Pour the yeast and the remaining lukewarm milk mixture over flour.

Mix to incorporate all ingredients with a spoon. Then knead with your hands or (using a stand mixer) for about 15 minutes, until dough will not stick to your hands.

Dough will be soft and maybe a little sticky. I used a cookie press but I think it would have been easier and faster to just roll the dough and use cookie cutters.  Or I should have made the dough a little softer to make it easier to shape the cookies using the press.

For the flower-shaped cookies I cut tiny pieces of Turkish delight and placed one in the middle of each cookie.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).  Place the cookies about 1-1.5 cm apart in a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes or until they are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and dust the cookies with icing sugar.

The Winter holidays are just around the corner so I started looking for some new and creative recipes for our Christmas and New Year’s Eve parties. I thought it would be a good idea to share 50 of my favourite recipes with you (in no particular order)… some from my blog, some from other great blogs/websites out there.

You’ll find great ideas from appetizers and finger foods to salads, main course dishes and crazy-looking desserts.

Hope you have fun browsing through the list.

Happy Holidays and Happy Cooking  !!!

~

~ Appetizers ~

1. Cheese Christmas Tree

3. Egg Snowman

 4. Ham Rolls Stuffed with Boeuf Salad

5. Christmas Tree Tart with Spinach

6. Feta Cheese Balls

7. Christmas Tree Relish Tray

 8. Smoked Salmon and Cucumber

9. Christmas Tree Vegetable Platter

10. Sweet Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Bacon

11. Cream Cheese Pancakes with Smoked Salmon

12.  Simple 4-Ingredient Appetizers on a Stick

~

~ Salads ~

13. Toasted Pita and Bean Salad

14. Beet Salad

15. Greek Pasta Salad

16. Bean Salad

17. Red Cabbage Salad

18. Caprese Salad with Balsamic Maple Reduction

~

~ Main Course & Side Dishes ~

19. Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

20. Turkey Breast with Herb Stuffing Wrapped in Bacon

21. Ratatouille Christmas Tree Pie

22. Pork Tenderloin with Pan Sauce

23. Country-Style Baked Potatoes

24. Lemon-Garlic Roast Turkey with White- Wine Sauce

25. Cauliflower Gratin

26. Layered Mashed Potato & Mushroom Casserole 

27. Slow-Roasted Turkey with Cream Gravy

28. Smoked Sausage and Sauerkraut 

29. Balsamic and Dijon Glazed Ham

30. Brine-Roasted Turkey with Gravy, Cranberry Jam and a Pear Salad

31. Rosemary-Garlic Potatoes

32. Crispy Grilled Trout with Parsley and Lemon

33. Roast Chicken with Portuguese Seasoning

34. Ground Beef and Pork Lasagna

~

~ Desserts ~

35. Linzer Cookies

36. Strawberry Christmas Tree Brownie Bites

37. Christmas Tree Cake 

38. Gingerbread House

39. Reindeer Cupcakes 

40. Santa Gingerbread Cookies

41. Snowman Cake

42. Sweet Bread – Romanian Cozonac

43. Fruit Tree

44. Happy New Year Cake

45. Tiramisu Cake

46. Cinnamon Rolls

47. Peppermint Meringue 

48. Cake Pops

49. Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

50. Fruit Mince Pies

Time:  Prep & Decorating: 5 hrs. (this includes time for making the fondant/buttercream/decorations as well) Cook: 30min. per batch of cakes & 15min. for the filling + 3 hrs chilling time
Servings: 35-40                   

Ingredients:

For cake:

• 10 eggs
• 10 Tbsp water
• 14 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 6 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 20 Tbsp sugar
• 6 Tbsp ground walnuts

You also need a pan that is 8- inch in diameter and another one that is 6-inch in diameter. They need to be greased with butter and floured.

You’ll need 3 times the ingredients listed above to make three 8-inch cakes and three 6-inch cakes for a two tier cake.

For filling:

• 900 g semi-sweet chocolate
• 1l whipping cream
• Rum extract
• 300 g red sour pitted cherries in syrup, drained
• 8 Tbsp ground walnuts

For syrup to moisten cake:

• 375 ml boiled water
• 9 Tbsp sugar
• 1.5 Tbsp rum extract

For decorating cake:

• Buttercream frosting for the crumb coat– you need half of the quantity indicated in the recipe
• Fondant – you need to double the ingredients indicated in the recipe
• Paste food colouring – purple & black
• Round cookie cutters, different sizes
• Fondant tools: smoother, roller, cutter
• Foam cake board
• A cake cardboard for each tier
• Dowel roads
• A cake turntable would be useful as well

Preparation:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

Beat egg whites and water with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Add sugar and beat until dissolved.

Fold in the egg yolks.  Combine flour, cocoa powder and ground walnuts.

Carefully blend in the dry mixture until just combined.  Pour batter into your two springform pans and bake for about 30 minutes, or until brown (you can insert a toothpick in the centre and if it comes out clean then it’s ready).

Repeat the steps to make two more 8-inch cakes and two 6-inch cakes.

Filling:

To make the chocolate ganache, heat the whipping cream in a bowl over a pot of boiling water. Add the chocolate and stir until completely mixed and glossy.

Add the rum extract, remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Then refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Whip the chilled chocolate mixture until light and fluffy. If it’s too thick you can mix in a few tablespoons of whipped cream.

I wanted to fill the bottom (and bigger) tier with chocolate ganache and sour pitter cherries and the top tier with chocolate ganache mixed with ground walnuts. So you’ll need to take about 1/3 of the filling and mix in the ground walnuts.

Syrup:

For the syrup, melt the sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan over low-medium heat. Stir constantly with a spoon until sugar reaches a golden-brown colour. Pour the boiled water over the caramelized sugar and bring to a boil. Add the rum extract and remove from heat. Set aside to cool.

Assembling the cake:

To assemble the bottom tier cut two of the 8-inch cakes horizontally in half. The cakes should be turned upside down since the bottom of the cake always has a nice and flat surface. Secure the bottom layer on the cake board with a little buttercream.  Moisten the cake with sugar syrup using a brush.

Add chocolate ganache filling and spread some sour pitted cherries on top. Add the next layer, moist with sugar syrup and spread chocolate ganache. Add the third layer, sugar syrup, chocolate ganache and cherries and lastly, add the forth layer, moist with syrup and spread chocolate ganache. You’ll notice that I only added the cherries on the first and third layers… it’s up to you if you want to do the same or not.

Now what are we going to do with the third 8-inch cake? Well, let’s do some carving using a serrate knife! Carve down at an angle carefully from one top edge to the opposite bottom edge. You can stick the top piece that you just cut out on top of the base (after you rotate the cut top at 180 degrees) if you want to create a sharper angle to the cake. Use the chocolate ganache to stick the two pieces together and then place it on top of the other 8-inch layers you just assembled.

You can carve a bit of the edge away so that its diameter is smaller at the bottom and wider at the top.  I didn’t have too much time to spend on this now…  will definitely need to practice more in the future to make sharper angles (this time I only tapered down the top 6-inch tier to a 5-inch diameter base but more on that later).

Lastly take a 5-inch cardboard, place it on the top of the cake (in the middle) and mark an outline. Cut off the top across to make a flat surface for the next tier to sit on like in the picture below. Ice the cake with buttercream to cover all holes and imperfections and refrigerate for about half an hour.

I tapered down the 6-inch tier to a 5-inch diameter base.  I basically cut the first 6-inch cake to make it 5 inches in diameter instead, the second one to about 5.5 inches and I left the top cake as it was. Same as with the two bigger cakes, I cut two of the smaller cakes horizontally in half. Then I carved the top cake at an angle, secured the bottom layer on a 5-inch cake board, used sugar syrup to moisten the layers, spread the chocolate ganache mixed with ground walnuts on each layer and crumb coated the cake with buttercream.

Decorating the cake:

Colour most of your fondant in purple and the remaining in black. Roll out purple fondant and cover your foam cake board as well as both cake tiers. Smooth the fondant and trim the edges at the bottom.

Insert four dowels into the cut out section of the bottom tier. Add a small layer of buttercream icing on the foam cake board covered in fondant and place the first tier on.

Spread some buttercream on top of the bottom tier where the top tier will sit. Carefully place the smaller tier on top of the 8-inch cake.  If you feel you need to stabilize your cake a little more, insert a long dowel in the middle of the cake through both tiers.

You’re done with the cake and can move on to the fun part – decorating! Make your fondant decorations – strips, balls, circles in different sizes and attach them to the cake using some water or sugar syrup. You’ll notice that I added some more purple food colouring to some fondant to make the strips in different shades of purple.

And here’s the final result!

Are you a big fan of salmon? Check out another delicious recipe I posted a while ago for Roasted Salmon Steaks.

Time: 35 min, Prep: 15 min.  Cook: 20 min.
Servings: 4-6                                                 

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds (1.3 kg) salmon fillets
• Juice from 2 lemons
• 4 Tbsp honey
• 230 ml (1 cup) olive oil
• 200 ml (1 cup) soy sauce
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 1 large red onion
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cedar grilling planks, soaked for 2 hours in warm water

Preparation:

Mince the garlic and slice the onion.

Combine the olive oil, soy sauce and honey in a large bowl. Add the minced garlic, half of the sliced onions (I grilled the remaining onion slices separately) and the lemon juice.

Sprinkle salt and freshly ground black pepper onto the fish fillets.

Place the salmon fillets in the marinade, turn to coat and marinate for 30 minutes to an hour.

Preheat the grill to 180°C (350°F) and place the planks on the grills. When they start to smoke, lay the salmon fillets on the planks skin-side down.

Close the grill lid and cook for about 15-20 minutes, depending on thickness of fillets. Small fillets will cook more quickly than larger cuts.

Time: 65 min, Prep: 30 min.  Cook: 5-7 min. per batch
Servings: ~50 cookies

Ingredients:

For dough:

• 350 g  (3 cups) white flour
• 130g (1/2 cup) sugar
• 130g unsalted margarine or butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 12 Tbsp milk
• 1 pouch vanilla sugar (9 g)
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• 1 tsp baking soda

For filling:

• 200 ml milk
• 200 g ground walnuts
• 2 Tbsp rum extract
• 4 Tbsp apricot jam
• 100g sugar (or less if the jam is too sweet)
• 1-2 tsp cocoa powder
• 50 g Turkish delight (optional)
• icing sugar  for dusting

Preparation:

Cream the margarine, sugar and egg yolks. Add vanilla sugar.

Add the juice and zest from a lemon. Pour in the milk, a little at a time, stirring continuously.

Stir in the flour mixed with the baking soda, one tablespoon at a time. Knead with your hands or using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.

For my walnut mold I had to shape the dough into small balls that were close to 1cm in diameter (used about ¾ teaspoon of dough for each ball).

Preheat your walnut press on top of the stove. Place the dough balls into the walnut mold and press down to shape your walnut shells.

Cook walnut shells on top of the stove turning the cast iron press every 1-2 minutes until the cookies are set and lightly brown.

Remove the cookies from the mold and trim the edges.

Soak the edges in milk, you’ll be using them for the filling.

Add the ground walnuts over the soaked edges as well as the rum extract, cocoa, sugar, apricot jam and Turkish delight cut into small cubes. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Spread one teaspoon of walnut filling onto one cookie. Press another cookie onto filling to sandwich. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling.

If you can resist the temptation to eat the cookies, it’s better if you store them overnight into an airtight container. The shells will soften a bit and will be perfect.

For a final touch, sprinkle some powdered sugar on top before serving.

Enjoy!

Time:  220 min, Prep: 120 min.  Cook: 100 min
Servings: 24-28                                

Ingredients:

For cake (x 2):

• 5 eggs
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 110 g (1 cup) flour
• 55 g (½ cup) cocoa powder
• 80 ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil

You also need a 24.13 x 8.57 cm (9 1/2  x 2 3/8 inch) fluted tube pan greased with butter and floured. You’ll have to double the quantities to make 2 cakes.

For filling:

• 500 g cream cheese (2 packages), at room temperature
• 115 g (½ cup) butter, at room temperature
• 250 g (2 cups) powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract

I also made some sugar syrup to moisten the cake (125 ml water + 3 Tbsp sugar + 1Tbsp rum extract).

For cake decoration:

• Fondant – see my post on How to Make Honey Fondant (add 1.5  X ingredients indicated in the recipe)
• Orange, green, brown, black food colouring
• Leaf cutters
• Large (16) and small (17) ball tool
• Veining tool – small point (4)

Preparation:

Cake:

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until the mixture is thick, shiny and ivory in colour. I used a stand mixer – on low for 1-2 minutes and then on medium for approximately 12 more minutes.

Carefully blend in the flour until just combined. Pour in the oil and fold in until fully absorbed in the mixture.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Pour batter into the pan and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until brown (you can insert a toothpick in the centre and if it comes out clean then it’s ready).

Remove from the oven and let it cool( in the pan) for about 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan.

Repeat the steps to make the second cake.

Filling:

Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and gradually mix in the sugar.

Assembling the cake:

Place the cakes onto your work surface. Place the first cake and lightly moist it with the sugar syrup.   Using a spatula, evenly cover the top of the first layer with half of the filling. Moisten the second cake, place it on top and cover with the remaining filling.

Decorating the cake:

Video Tutorial:

Roll out fondant and cover the cake. Smooth the fondant and trim the edges at the bottom.

Use the small and big ball tools and then your fingers to make some lines and sculpt the cake into a pumpkin shape. Make sure you don’t let your fondant dry out as you won’t be able to shape it properly.

Mix a few tablespoons of water with orange food colouring (I used gel colours). Paint the cake with a pastry brush.

Make the eyes and mouth out of black fondant and attach them onto the cake by brushing the back of the decorations with sugar syrup.  I used the left over sugar syrup that I made to moisten the cake.

Make the stem out of brown fondant.

Roll out some green fondant and make the leaves using a leaf cutter. Use the veining tool to create texture on the leaves. Roll green fondant to create the vines. Use sugar syrup to attach them to the cake.

Time: 35 min, Prep: 10 min. Cook: 25 min.
Servings: 4 servings                               

Ingredients:

• 12 peppers
• 12-14 garlic cloves
• vinegar
• oil
• salt

Preparation:

Wash and dry the peppers. Place the peppers on the preheated grill. If you don’t have a grill you can roast them in the oven as well.

When the peppers begin to blister and form dark scorched areas flip them over.  Remove the peppers from the grill when they are all charred black and the flesh is soft but not too mushy.

Let the peppers cool down for a while (otherwise you’ll burn your fingers ) and then peel off the skin.

Mince garlic and add over the peppers. Add salt, oil and vinegar to taste. Toss to combine, serve and enjoy!