Thursday 29 August 2013

Oooooh-oreo-oooooh balls

These little things are soooo gooooood! And so easy peasy cheesy to do, you won´t be able to do without!!! It´s one of those things you can do with zero effort reaching a 100% result, which everyone will die for. When you bring them to the table you might want to wear an armour, just in case; people might start fighting over who gets the last one... Now here´s the recipe, it´s no magic!
Ingredients:
1 package of Oreo cookies or similar
1 block of cream cheese, such as Philadelphia
1 pack of cooking chocolate either dark, milk, or white

Procedure:
Place the Oreo cookies in a bag/blender and smash/blend until they reach the consistency of sand (bigger crumbs are fine too). Then add the cream cheese and mix well with the smashed cookies. Roll the mixture into balls. Melt the chocolate and cover your balls with it (this is probably the trickiest part, but hey no panic!). Last but not least, leave them to cool then set in the fridge. Finally as I mentioned take a helmet and go for it! Hahaha!

Enjoy 
Martina







Monday 19 August 2013

cHORSEcolate

I think you guys already know how much I love horses (see this post and this other post), nevertheless I simply can´t stop talking, posting, and baking about them. They are special creatures, able to make you feel special within that unique bond you have with them. I like them so much, that the thought of a horse cake makes me happy. I also really like this IKEA cake mould, so I guess this was just a perfect match! This time I made a really simple and fluffy chocolate sponge cake with confectioner´s sugar and melted chocolate. It´s so simple that I did not even bother to take it out of the mould, but I did take pictures instead, hahaha just because it does look nice! Recipe? No special one! I have no secrets to reveal this time; I am sure all of you have a mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin, neighbour, friend´s mother , and so on who bakes such a cake, so ask them ;) or if you really really really want to know and have this tremendous desire to ask me, then please do so in the comments below and I´ll post the recipe. In the meantime I hope you can enjoy this sight and this week.

"Horses are just like people; there are smart ones, dumb ones, miserable ones, honest ones, simple ones, cheats, freaks, leaders, and laggards. They have good days, bad days, and plenty of average days. They can be brilliant one minute, horrible the next. They can remember something that happened a year ago and forget what they learned yesterday. They´ll walk placidly into a metal starting gate that clangs and rings when the doors open, and then be scared of a bucket that wasn´t there yesterday."

The internet believes this was said by Quality Road´s trainer after he would´t load into the gate for the 2009 Breeder´s Cup Classic; doesn´t matter who he was, what matters is that he was right!
Bye 
Martina





By the way here is one more picture of him... ♥ Landi


Friday 9 August 2013

If life hands you lemons...

make a lemonade? No! Bake a cake! It´s light, fluffy, and refreshing. This amazing recipe is perfect for hot summer days when creamy cakes are simply too heavy and it is also ideal for using the egg whites yo might have left over from another recipe.

Ingredients
300 gr. of sugar
150 gr. oil (not olive oil)
300 ml. water
400 gr. flour
30 gr. baking powder
6 egg whites 
the peel of lemon
confectioner´s sugar
(for a smaller cake you can halve the amounts)



Procedure
In a mixer beat the sugar, water, and oil. Then add the flour, baking powder, and lemon peel. 
Separately beat the egg whites until stiff and then add them to the other mixture.
Spoon the batter in a cake mould and bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for 30 minutes. When ready let it cool, then sprinkle with confectioner´s sugar and garnish with candied lemons, which can be easily done at home. Just take a small pan, pour in the same amounts of water and sugar and heat until well incorporated. Then add some lemon slices and let them candy for about 15 minutes. Last but not least decorate your cake and enjoy enjoy enjoy!

♥ Martina 


Thursday 8 August 2013

My frog princes

Believe me one is not enough! Just in case I kiss him and it does not turn into a prince! Or in case a kiss turns into a bite which turns into me eating all of them ;) So I made a few frog-prince-cupcakes just in case and they have actually been my first attempt with fondant. What do you think? I am not a fan of extremely decorated muffins/cupcakes, since they are already so small and the topping ends up covering the taste of the muffin itself, but I decided to try just to use some creativity. I used the OGM free rollan fondant from Decora in the colour "leaf green" and as a matter of fact it was the packaging which gave me the idea.

Actually, did you know that in the original version of the story by the Grimm brothers, the frog´s spell on the prince is broken when the princess throws it against a wall in disgust?! I wonder who decided that the frog needed a kiss!? Animal-right-activists, male chauvinists or dreaming teenagers? Hahaha!

Well. . . I hope you enjoy my attempts 
Martina






I AmsterYUM

Hi honey I´m home!
Here I am back from Amsteryum eeeehm I meant Amsterdam, back from this lovely trip with my friend Sarah. 5 lovely days spent in museums, on the canals, sightseeing, exploring, cycling around, getting lost, shopping, eating Dutch cheese and sweets (that´s pretty much all the Dutch cuisine has to offer. Just joking!), loving frozen yogurt, having a lot of fun, sleeping too little, and and and... When we just arrived I wasn´t convinced I was going to like the city, since the first bit you see of it (when coming from the train station) is the red light district and all those coffee shops (none of my interest). But as we moved in the city, towards the Dam square, the Keizerskracht, and the museum district, everything is so beautiful and romantic, with a very unique atmosphere. We walked a lot for the first couple of days, but then we rented bikes and it was a real cool and easy way to get around. We seriously visited all museum we could possibly have, but since I know you are interested in hearing about the sweet side of the Home sweet Bakery´s on the road adventures, here is a selection of pictures for you!

Sarah at the airport getting equipped for the flight.

Very cool candy heads @Candy Freaks

1) Amazing cheesecake with red currant @Cafe Loetje a very nice place in the museum district for a yummy lunch. It is not touristic, infact the menu is only in Dutch, but if you ask a help on that they will kindly do so. 2) Frozen shake with strawberries and mint @Frozen Yogurt Comapany so refreshing. 3) At the park, taking a break, eating Dutch apple rounds. 4) Boat trip on the canals.

Very unique rubber ducky bike! I wonder how you sit on it ;)

1) Sarah sending love from the Vondelpark. 2) Funny signs in the Prinzeskracht. 3) Amazing appeltaart  @Cafe Loetje, remember: there is always some space left for desert!

Dutch-French macarons all flavours +1 @Dutch Homemade and stracciatella & cookies ice cream: yummy! This is such a lovely little place with also homemade chocolates of all kind.


1) NEMO science museum by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. 2) Armoured me at the Amsterdam museum. 3) Sarah has eyes only for Dutch almond rounds! 4) Very fine hamburger with a huge portion of homemade fries @Cafe Loetje (my very last one since I decided to stop eating meat - VEGGIES!).

!!!Kaas - Cheese - Käse - Formaggio - Queso - Fromage!!! 
Fine selection of dutch cheese and mustrads with a delicious warm fladenbrot. Probably one of the best meals we had @Cheese Factory.

Last but not least I want to leave you with some pictures of us and the video I made of this lovely vacation! I hope I gave you a couple of good suggestions and that you will enjoy your trip to Amsterdam as much as we did.

♥ Martina 





Tiny Hand With Heart