A taste of Cyprus

This is by far the tastiest, most beautiful cake i have ever made,it's known to be a typically sweet cake served in Cyprus. The use of yoghurt,semolina and rose water in this recipe makes for a golden, soft and light textured cake with the sweet scent of rose water coming through nicely. The addition of Rose water syrup poured over the hot cake brings together a fusion of the wonderful Mediterranean flavors. If your not a big fan of rose water, you can use other flavors in your syrup such as orange blossom water or vanilla extract. I like to add around 2 tablespoons of rosewater, a cinnamon stick and some crushed cardamom pods to mine.

                       The original recipe comes from Tessa Kiros' cookbook ' Falling Cloudberries'.Can be find online at Amazon.

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Falling-Cloudberries-World-Family-Recipes/dp/1741964318     /ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310228821&sr=1-3


Yoghurt & Semolina Syrup cake with Rose water syrup

120g slightly salted butter
230g caster sugar
250g plain yoghurt
1 - 2 tablespoons rose water
3 eggs, seperated
125g plain flour
125g semolina
2 teaspoons baking powder
55g ground almonds

Rose water syrup
230g caster or granulated sugar
250 ml water
1-2 tablespoons rose water
1 cinnamon stick
4 cardamom pods crushed
3 cloves

1 . Preheat your oven to 180c (gas mark 4/350 f). Grease a 9inch square cake tin and line with baking parchment.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, whisk in the yoghurt,rose water and egg yolks.
3. Add the flour, semolina and baking powder and mix well to incorporate.
4. Add the ground almonds.
5. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until fluffy and start to form soft peaks.
6. Add the egg whites to the cake batter until they are incorporated well.
7. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 35 - 45 mins.
8. When the cake has turned a deep golden colour and cooked through, leave to cool.

For the syrup put all the ingredients in a small saucepan and boil for 5-8 mins. Pour the hot syrup over the cake and leave it to cool. Serve at room temperature with some good quality vanilla ice-cream or as it is!

Fashion meets Cupcakes

From the creator of Cox cookies and cake in London's Soho, comes the bakeries new cookbook, created by Patrick Cox and Eric Landlard. Patrick Cox,a previously successful shoe designer and the award wining master patissier Eric Landlard have created a visually stunning cookbook filled with 75 do-able and creative recipes on glossy backgrounds that are sure to look and taste fabulous.

For those who have visited the bakery in Soho would have been struck by the beauty and somewhat erotic display of  the delicious sweet treats on offer. Cox cookies & cake certainly do not fail to impress and is the perfect destination for the fashionistas of London. Glamorous, sexy and delicious, it's the perfect cupcake!

"I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate." -- Julia Child, celebrity chef and cookbook author

Julia Child (1912-2004)

 Julia Child  the American chef and author is most famous for introducing America to the art of French cooking with her debut cook book 'Mastering the art of French cooking' with Simone Beck. While living in Paris she was introduced to fine French cuisine and attended the famous Le Corden Bleu cooking school, and later joined a cooking club where she met Simone Beck.

I don't really know much about French cuisine and i can't recall going to many French restaurants either, although i do know a few dessert recipes, floating islands being my favorite. Ever since i watched the movie 'Julie & Julia'  I've become slightly obsessed with the culinary delights France has to offer. I'm on the look out for Julia's 'Mastering the art of French cooking' and recently purchased Mireille Guiliano's 'French women don't get fat' which i have to say is a great read, filled with simple recipe ideas and helpful tips, it's not so much a diet book but more of a lifestyle book that preaches chocolate, bread and wine are not the enemy ( when consumed in moderation of course!). It's more about celebrating life and good food and learning how to do just that. I'll certainly be looking up some French dessert recipe's and ideas that i can start using.

Made of dreams.....

Out of all the cookbooks in my collection, the ones i treasure the most are those by Tessa Kiros. Tessa has a way of describing food so poetically, her words are beautiful and the photos are dreamy. These books are filled with love and joy on every page, it's hard not to feel a certain closeness to Tessa upon reading her work, from the way she speaks of her family to recalling her fondest memories as a child.Her life is in these books and she delights her audience with recipes that have meaning to her, it's like her personal journey through food.The photography is sure to capture your imagination, every page is a work of art.

The recipes are easy to follow and use simple ingredients, she explores the food of different cultures and puts her own spin on dishes.Food brings people together, to share happy times and create special memories, this is what Tessa does. If your looking for something homely, simple with a taste of different cultures and beautiful to look at, then Tessa's collection is for you.

I think nearly every family has their own collection of recipes that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Over the years the recipes are tweaked, a little bit here, a little less there, sometimes not even written down just recalled from memory. I think these recipes are like little family jewels, to be treasured and kept safe, and passed on over the years.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to all the wonderful Fathers and Grandfathers in the world, how are you spending the day?

Today i've decided to prepare an Italian inspired 3 course meal for my dad, ( now i say Italian inspired simply because i'm using a few Italian ingredients), what could be better than good food and drink on a relaxing Sunday evening?! 

I woke up at 9am this morning, which is pretty early for me on a Sunday! I debated what dessert to make tonight over a cup of hot milk and espresso ( thanks to the new Nespresso machine in the house, if you don't have it yet it's a must for coffee lovers, i'm wondering how i've gotten by without this gadget for so long already!) It was either a fruity berry crumble or a cheesecake, maybe some pecan pie.

Lorraine Pascale Baking Made Easy

So i finally decided on a 'white chocolate and amaretti cheesecake' from Lorraine Pascal's Baking Made Easy. I love Lorraine Pascale's book, her recipes are simple and easy to follow with ingredients you can find anywhere, it really does make baking easy, the recipes i've tried from this book so far have always turned out beautifully and look just like the pictures in the book!








You can find this cookbook on amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_16?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=baking+made+easy&sprefix=baking+made+easy

I've made this cheesecake a couple of times before and it's fast becoming a family favourite, especially one my dad is crazy about and he doesn't have much of a sweet tooth so that's saying something!. Now instead of using Cream cheese as the main ingredient as you might in other cheesecake recipes, this recipe instead uses mascarpone cheese and whipping cream, combined with some good quality creamy melted white chocolate, a few splashes of amaretto ( the original recipe uses 1 tbsp of amaretto, but i'm a big fan of this liqueur as is my family so i added a good 50ml to my mix, the end result wasn't overpowering, the flavour came through beautifully and was just the right amount for me. However you can add more or less or adjust it to yours or your family's personal tastes. That's the good thing about this recipe you can experiment a little with it and add or adjust the ingredients.)
The filling was lovely white, soft, creamy, very light but full of flavour, and the base is a combination of digestive biscuits and amaretti biscuits crushed together  which makes it crunchy, sweet and buttery, it's a perfect combo. For a finishing touch i like to sprinkle some Cadbury's Flake chocolate on mine, or any other  chocolate you have in the house, you can grate it on. It's easy and quite a quick recipe to prepare, you can make it the day before you want it or a couple of hours before, 1-2 hours in the fridge and it's set.


'White Chocolate & amaretti cheesecake' -  original recipe can be found in Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy.

For the base :
150g digestive biscuits
70g amaretti biscuits
80g of slightly salted butter


For the filling :
250g mascarpone
50ml amaretto liqueur
300ml double cream
300g white chocolate

grated chocolate for the topping

1. Crush the digestive biscuits and the amaretti biscuits together, you can do this in a food processor if you like but i like to put the biscuits in a big zip lock bag and just crush them with a rolling pin so i have a few chunks of biscuit in the crumb mix. Place the biscuit mix in a large mixing bowl.

2. melt the butter in a small saucepan, and add to the biscuit mix, combine all together. 

3. Spread the base on to a pie dish or a round cake tin, i used a small spring form tin for mine, flatten the base well and refrigerate.

4. Melt 300g of white chocolate in a bowl under a small saucepan of simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, take off the heat and leave to cool completely. 

5. In another bowl mix the 250g of mascarpone with a spoon until smooth, Add 50ml of Amaretto liqueur. I use an amaretto that was picked up on one trip to Italy, you can use any good quality liqueur e.g Disarano.

 6. In a different bowl, whisk 300ml of Double cream until soft peaks start to form, add the mascarpone mix to the whipped cream and gently fold in. Add the 300g of melted white chocolate to the cream and mix in until all the chocolate has been incorporated. 
 

 

7. Remove the base from the fridge and spoon the chocolate and cream mix onto the biscuit base, smooth over evenly and refrigerate for 1 /2 hours or until set.

I hope you enjoy!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Hi Everyone,



Welcome to my blog 'I Dolci dell'amore'

I created this blog so i could have a place to share everything i love in life, cooking, books, art, travel and especially baking!

I would appreciate and love to hear from you guys, any input, opinions, recipes etc....get in touch!