Tiffanys Sour Cream Pancakes

Hi everyone! Im back! Thanks for all your well wishes! Im feeling much better now. Still slightly sore but I can chew more things now, thank God! I was going out of my mind eating eggs and pudding and mac and cheese every day.

This morning I decided to pull out a recipe for pancakes that was given to me years ago by my cousin Tiffany. I used the recipe once before and really liked it but I put it away and forgot about it since I dont get the chance to make breakfast that often. Well, let me tell you, I will definitely be making these again soon! They were so delicious and definitely worth the effort of making them from scratch. They arent the most figure friendly since they are loaded with butter but I instead of using whole milk I used skim plus. I had some reduced fat sour cream leftover and I had a new container of full fat sour cream so I used both. It turned out perfectly so I wouldnt worry about making swaps.


Pancakes

2 Cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups milk
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, sour cream, eggs, melted butter, lemon juice. Pour the milk mixture into the flour and stir until combined. Batter will be lumpy.

Brush griddle with olive oil over medium heat and make the pancakes like you normally would.

Makes approx 20 pancakes


My cousin Tiffany has her own business making custom window treatments. She is extremely talented and constantly impresses me with her creations. Please check out her website www.tanahome.com. Thanks guys!

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Instant Ice Cream

I received an email the other day from someone wanting to know how they can make ice cream without the machine I demonstrated in our vanilla ice cream video. I replied that you really can’t, since it’s the churning of the mixture while it freezes that gives you the desired texture.

Then, the very next day, I saw this video from my friend Johnathan Lynch, showing how to make a berry ice cream with no ice cream machine. Technically it’s frozen yogurt, but still. You do need to find a food processor, but if you can, this trick does work very well, and as you can see, its very fast and easy. 

By the way, yes, that is Fabio Viviani making a cameo appearance! Thanks to Johnathan for sharing, and I invite you to check out his YouTube channel for more. Enjoy!

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Cream of Chicken 奶油鸡汤

I was hungry one night and decided to make myself a bowl of Cream of Chicken with the homemade Chicken Broth I made earlier that day.



It occurred to me that I had never shared my Cream of Chicken recipe. This recipe here uses flour to make it creamy and thick, which is very similar to an old recipe I shared on Cream of Mushroom.



So heres my recipe for Cream of Chicken ...

Ingredients:

• 350ml Chicken Broth, homemade or instant


• 40g Butter


• 30g Plain Flour


• Salt to taste


• Some pre-cooked Chicken Fillet, chopped or shredded (optional)

How to do it:

1. Melt butter in a pot and at the same time add flour gradually.


2. Mix well to form a roux (cooking till dough-like).


3. Add chicken broth gradually while stirring.


4. Keep stirring till roux has blend in well with the broth and that it become creamy.


5. Bring to a gentle simmer.


6. Add salt to taste.


7. Serve with chopped or shredded chicken.

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Watch Cream Cheese Frosting Being Made and Relax

As promised, here is the cream cheese frosting recipe that co-starred in our red velvet cupcakes video last week. If you’re a regular cake baker, you may be wondering why a video is even necessary for such a simple frosting? I used to think like that.

When I posted the red velvet recipe on YouTube, and teased the fact that I’d show the frosting in a future video, I was instantly met with a huge wave of panicked comments, all having a similar message; something to the effect of, “When the hell is the frosting video being shown? I want it now. I need it now. Give it to me now!”

So, not wanting an angry mob of people waving pitchforks and unfrosted cupcakes in front of my house, I quickly edited the footage and posted it today. This shows that no matter how simple a recipe or technique is, people just feel better and more relaxed about making it, if they can see it being done first.

Anyway, the next time you whip up a carrot cake, or batch of red velvet cupcakes, I hope you give this ultra-simple and delicious frosting recipe a try. Enjoy!

Ingredients for a cake or 12 cupcakes (plus maybe some leftovers):
*Double recipe if you like a thicker layer of frosting.

1/4 cup soft butter

4 oz room temp cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cups powdered sugar (or to your taste - start with a cup and go from there)

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Review And Giveaways New Zealand Natural Ice cream Part II

Continue from the previous NZN Ice-Cream Giveaway, above are the 2 Lucky Winners out of the 53 entries. Congrats to Chocbundt(1st Winner) and Jade Koh(2nd Winner). Please contact me via email at ellenaguan@hotmail.com so that I could advice you on the collection details.

For those who missed out or did not win during this 1st Giveaway, dont worry we have another round two with more yummy icy treats which will whet your taste buds. Lets read more to find out.....

COOKIES AND CREAM

Cookies and Cream is always an all-time favourite for those who prefer something more than a smooth and creamy ice-cream. With those crunchy and tasty bits of chocolate cookies swirling in between the creamy ice-cream definitely leaving each and every mouthful with a desire for more.

As you can see we love to have it with bread for our afternoon tea-snack in away to fill the stomach and cool the heat.

FOREST BERRY

Similar to Mango Sorbet(you can check it out HERE), Forest Berry is a almost 97% Fat Yoghurt product which taste great with its natural refreshing flavour and generous bits of berry traces in each scoops. For your information this Forest Berries is made with live probiotic cultures, strawberry juice blend, blueberry, raspberry and etc. Mostly it contains both the antioxidants fruits and yoghurt which is good for our body and at the same time rewards us with some healthy aftermeal treat.

HOKEY POKEY

Hokey pokey origin from Australia and New Zealand where it is make from plain vanilla ice cream together with small, solid lumps of sponge toffee. And friendly speaking this is our first time trying out NZN Hokey Pokey ice-cream and to our surpised it really taste great especially with those crunchy bits of honeycomb and chewy caramel in it. I bet you will help yourself with more than 2 scoops if you love caramel stuffs.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE THE

NZN ICE-CREAM GIVEAWAY(PART II)

Similar to the previous NZN Giveaway, if you are residing in Singapore and keen to participate this "New Zealand Natural Ice-Cream Giveaway", just leave your Name and Answers to the following questions in the "Comment Box" below. (example: Ellena, Ans: Hokey Pokey, Cookies and Cream......").

Questions:-

1. Name the 6 Flavour of New Zealand Natural Ice-creams mentioned in the 2 Giveaways post.

2. Name the Supermarket where you can purchase these pint size of New Zealand Natural Ice-cream? (hint: Read more HERE)


I will pick up ONE lucky winner with all the correct answers on Monday, 22 August 2011 and he/she will get  2(Cookies and Cream And Forest Berry) complimentary pints from NZN Ice-creams at NZN, Paragon outlet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Facebook Giveaway on the NZN Hokey Pokey Ice-cream:-
Please click on this link HERE to participate.


Good Luck everyone!!!! Have Fun!!!!

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Raspberry Lemon Cream Tart

Whoops! Only had 2 minutes to take pics and forgot to take the tart out of the pan.

Short and sweet recipe post today! I still had some cream cheese leftover from the wedding and the giant 3 pound Costco tub was taking up valuable fridge space. I was trying to do something with it but couldnt manage to use all of it. Then I made way too much filling for one tart shell so now not only is the gargantuan tub still sitting in the fridge, but I also have a container of whipped filling taking up even more room. Crap! Now Ill have to think of something else to use up the whipped filling but honestly Ill probably just end up eating it with some fresh fruit.

Too bad I didnt get a photo of the sliced tart because the hidden layer of raspberry jam is a nice surprise-an idea I took from Dorie Greenspans Hidden Berry Cheesecake. Speaking of which, I bet this recipe would work just as well with blackberry jam and fresh blackberries.

Raspberry and Lemon Cream Tart
1 Prebaked Sweet Tart Crust
2 oz. cream cheese
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 C heavy cream or whipping cream
1/4 C lemon curd
1/4 C raspberry jam, preferably seedless
1 C fresh raspberries

I scaled the recipe down to make enough filling for one tart. Depending on the sweetness of your lemon curd, you may want to use less sugar. I was using store-bought lemon curd (Trader Joes makes a good one) and its very sweet so I used 2 tablespoons of sugar. Homemade lemon curd is more tangy so you may need to use 3 tablespoons of sugar.

With a whisk attachment, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Fold in the lemon curd.

Spread the raspberry jam on the bottom of the baked tart shell. Then add the lemon cream cheese mixture. Top with raspberries and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.

Prebaked Flaky Pate Sucree
for an 8 or 9 inch pan

1 C flour
1/3 C confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 6 pieces
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp cold milk or ice water
1/2 tsp of vanilla

Add the flour, confectioners sugar, and salt together in a food processor and pulse once or twice to combined. Add the pieces of butter and pulse until the butter pieces are no bigger than a pea. Alternatively use a fork or pastry cutter to cut in the butter, or freeze the butter and coarsely grate it then use your fingers and rub the pieces into the flour. It is very important to keep the butter cold otherwise it will melt and make the crust greasy and youll lose all the flaky layers.

Mix the egg yolk, milk, and vanilla together. Drizzle the mixture over the butter and flour mix in the food processor. Pulse again until the dough start to form large clumps. If it looks too dry add a little more milk.

Scrape the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and press the clumps together to form a disc. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and chill at least an hour up to overnight. Or store it in the freezer for as long as you want.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll out the dough to into a large circle. Move the crust around often to make sure it doesnt stick to your work surface.

Transfer the dough to an 8 or 9 inch tart pan. To make this easier, drape the dough over the rolling pin and lay it over the pan. Lift the edges of the crust and gently press the dough down into the pan. Roll over the top of the pan with a rolling pin to trim any overhanging dough.

Prick the surface of the dough with a fork. Press a sheet of aluminum foil onto a crust and add pie weights, beans, or clean pennies on top. I like using pennies because they are the best heat conductor. Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and baking weights (be careful the weights will be very hot!) and return the crust to the oven to bake for another 10 or so minutes until it is golden. Cool to room temperature before filling

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Mango Pudding with Mango Ice Cream 芒果布丁

Mango Season is here again. I bought 5 mangoes for under $5 which makes it less than a dollar each. The last time when it was in season, I made homemade mango ice-cream.



This time, I using it to make the very popular, Mango Pudding. Im serving it will a cheat mango ice-cream done using vanilla ice-cream, with the texture like milky shaved ice.



You probably have your own recipe but if you dont, you might want to try mine out.

Ingredients:

• 2 Mangoes, 1 1/2 puree and 1/2 cut into cubes


• 100ml Mango Juice (Im using Peel Fresh)


• 100ml Whipping Cream


• 10g Gelatin Powder


• 50ml Water

How to do it:

1. Sprinkle gelatin powder on the water and set aside.


2. Warm mango juice but do not simmer or boil.


3. Pour it over the gelatin mixture and mix.


4. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.


5. Pour into cups and chill to set.


6. Best served chilled with condensed milk or a scoop of ice-cream.

Note:

• I did not add any sugar as the mango I used was sweet and I added mango juice to it as well. In addition to that, I served it with a scoop of ice-cream.


• If you prefer it a little sweeter, melt some sugar with the mango juice in step 2.


• You can replace the mango juice with water.


• However, you will have to add sugar for sweetness.


• Melt about 50g sugar or to taste when warming the water before adding to the the gelatin mixture.

For cheat ice-cream:

1. Mix 500ml vanilla ice-cream (Im using Nestle) with half of a mango chopped into bits.


2. Add in 3-4 tablespoon of mango puree if you like too.


3. Do not stir the mixture vigorously. Use a fork to gently stir a little to make it airy.


4. Return to the freezer and repeat every half an hour till the ice-cream is frozen again.


5. The end results of the ice-cream will look rough and messy. Almost like granules sticking together.


6. To scoop, you can loosen it with a fork or bring the ice-cream out of the freezer for a minute before scooping.

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Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic 蒜蓉奶油蘑菇浓汤

This soup was inspired by Campells canned soup of the same name. :P



If you like that soup, youll be surprised how easy it is to make it at home and I dare say, tastier. ;P



Basically, it a combo of Cream of Mushroom and Roasted Garlic but I have tweak my Cream of Mushrooma little here.

Ingredients:

• 200g Brown/White Button Mushroom, chopped


• 100g Shitake Mushroom, sliced


• 15g Butter


• 300ml Chicken Broth


• 250ml Whipping Cream


• Salt to taste


• 1 to 2 tablespoon Roasted Garlic

How to do it:

1. Saute sliced shitake mushroom with 1/2 the butter till absorb the butter.


2. Dish and set aside.


3. Using the same pan, saute the chopped button mushroom with the remaining butter till it sweat.


4. Pour mushroom into the blender.


5. Add the broth.


6. Blend till desired consistency.


7. Pour into a pot.


8. Add in the previously cooked shitake mushroom and roasted garlic.


9. Bring to a simmer.


10. Stir in the whipping cream.


11. Simmer till garlic has soften.


12. Serve.

Note:

• You can use either white or brown or both button mushroom.


• Do consider adding Portobello Mushroom too. It makes the soups flavour richer. Its slightly more expensive though.

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Lemon Cream Tart

My fellow Daring Baker, Mary, said "If the Daring Bakers were a Girl Scout/Boy Scout troop, then our manual with badges would be Dorie Greenspans "Baking from My Home to Yours". Mary, I agree with you completely! Before I started food blogging, I am so embarrassed to admit that I was oblivious to this life changing book and didnt even know who Dorie Greenspan was. *blush blush* But after reading post after post from other DBs, I quickly did my research and set myself straight. As a baking newbie, there are only 2 baking cookbooks on my bookshelf and Dories book recently joined them. This book was everything I thought it would be and more - its simply amazing! In the last few weeks Ive owned this book, Ive made more recipes from it than my 2 other books combined.

Dorie writes that she learned this lemon cream recipe from none other than the king of pastry, Pierre Herme. I know Im bad to fiddle with a recipe like this one. Why mess with a good thing you know? But hear me out! Since my tart pan is 8 inches, I had to scale down the recipe which was originally for a 9 in tart pan. So 4 eggs became 3, and the 3/4 cup of lemon juice became a 1/2 cup. After appropriately scaling down the sugar, I also decreased it a bit because I tend to use less sugar in my recipes and prefer my curds more tangy and tart, so 1 cup of sugar scaled down to 3/4 cup but I only used a 1/2 cup. Finally, (here comes the biggest departure) the original recipe called for roughly 2 and a half sticks of butter which scaled down to 2 sticks. As much as I love butter, I just couldnt bring myself to add the full 2 sticks. Butter is the key ingredient that transforms an ordinary lemon curd to "the most extraordinary French lemon cream" because instead of melting like in ordinary curds, it emulsifies into something light and dreamy. But I just couldnt do it! In the end, I only added 1 stick of butter. I cant call this an extraordinary lemon cream, only an ordinary lemon cream, but boy was it the best lemon curd/cream I have ever tasted! I can only imagine how astronomical it would been if I had added the rest of the butter.

Notes:
- The recipe can generously fill an 8 in tart but can also be stretched to fill a 9 in tart.
- To stay true to the original recipe, use 2 sticks of butter.


Lemon Cream
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan

1/2 C sugar
Zest of 3 lemons
3 eggs
1/2 C lemon juice (roughly 3 lemons)
1 stick of butter, cut into one tablespoon pieces
1 premade tart shell

Youll need an instant-read thermometer, a fine mesh sieve, blender or food processor. I didnt have a thermometer so I guesstimated.

Bring some water to a simmer in a saucepan. Meanwhile, in a heatproof bowl big enough that you can set over the saucepan, rub the zest with the sugar, off heat. Then whisk in the eggs and then the lemon juice.

Turn the heat down so that the water is barely simmering, and set the bowl over the saucepan. Whisk and cook the cream until it reaches 180 degrees F.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, strain the curd into your blender or food processor. You can discard the zest thats left behind in the sieve. Let the curd cool until it is 140 degrees F, stirring occasionally. This will take about 10 minutes.

Put the cap on the blender and turn the blender on high. Add the butter 4 tablespoons at a time. Keep blending for another 3 minutes. If the machine gets too hot, you can do it at 1 minute intervals, resting the machine in between.

I was expecting the curd to whip up in the blender, but instead the thick curd was as thin as soup after blending! *panic panic!!*

Pour the cream into a bowl or container and press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight (I would recommend the latter). After a night in the fridge, the completely soupy cream magically thickened into the best lemon curd/cream I have ever tasted! I didnt need to panic, I should have known that a Dorie recipe wouldnt fail me.

Assemble the tart just before serving. Spoon the cold cream into the tart shell and serve immediately.


P.S. Who says you need a tart shell. Its delicious on toast in the morning or *ahem* with a spoon. ;D

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Endomela ice cream shop in Akko Israel and a recipe for a wonderful apricot sorbet

 
Youll find the recipe for this wonderfully aromatic and flavoursome apricot sorbet at the end of this post.  

Endomela is a play of three Hebrew words, Ein-Dome-La. The meaning? "Similar to none" or "Unlike no other". This is the name of a small ice cream parlour in Akko (known as Acre in English), a small town in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel. Akko was first mentioned on the tribute-lists of pharaoh Thutmose III in the 16th century BC, and is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in this part of the world. A place with history indeed.

We visited Akko in the midday heat in the middle of the hot Israeli summer, so it was hard to grasp that the city is a home to some 45 thousand inhabitants. I guess that most of them were hiding in the safety of their cool and possibly air-conditioned homes and not wandering around the streets.

We were in Akko for a reason, of course. As we were exploring the culinary delicacies Israel has to offer, we had arrived to have a light lunch at a famous seafood restaurant URI BURI, meet the man behind the restaurant, Uri (Jeremias) Buri (pictured just below), visit his ice cream shop and enjoy a private tour of his recently opened beautiful boutique hotel Efendi and finish with a "light" tapas-style lunch at the hotel restaurant. Ill write about the fish restaurant and the hotel another time, today Ill give you a peek into his ice cream shop, the smartly-named Endomela.



Heres Uri Jeremias aka Uri Buri and me in front of his ice cream shop in Akko. American journalist Eric Westervelt described Uri Jeremias in his article for NPR.org as having stepped out of a Tolkien novel, with "his thick, long, elfish beard, ample paunch and mischievous smile". My 3,5 year old daughter is convinced that I was served ice cream by Santa Claus/Father Christmas himself :)

Uri (Jeremias) Buri had been making and serving ice cream at this fish & seafood restaurant for years, but as the restaurants kitchen is tiny, he had to move out his ice cream business into separate premises. He opened Endomela within a short walking distance from his restaurant just over a year ago. In addition to a number of sweet sorbets, ice creams and frozen yoghurts, he also makes some intriguing savoury combinations. We had a taste of this wasabi-sorbet, served with smoked salmon, as well of arak-flavoured sorbet destined as a palate-cleanser between various fish courses at his restaurant. 



Uri scooping some of his lovely ice cream for us. (Photo by Noa Magger). We got to sample pretty much all the available flavours.


Endomelas ice cream selection. (Photo by Noa Magger).

All ice cream is made at the premises and in small batches. At the time of our visit, they were churning a very refreshing pineapple sorbet. My very favourite one was Endomelas mint ice cream - so fresh and minty, definitely not your regular beach-front chocolate and mint concoction (you can see it on the right on the photo above). Uri told us he uses a combination of spearmint "Nana" (Mentha spicata, Israelis call it sweet mint or nana) and the highly aromatic Emperors mint or Roman mint (Micromeria sp)  to achieve the immensely refreshing and bright minty flavour.

The runner-up was Endomelas apricot sorbet. Yet pretty much everything else we tried was wonderful as well - cardamom ice cream, passionfruit sorbet, halva ice cream, lime and poppyseed frozen yoghurt - you name it.

Ive made apricot ice cream before, but not apricot sorbet, and thats what I decided to replicate at home first. As the reigning king of all things ice cream and sorbet, David Lebovitz, was also taking part in our trip to Endomela, I decided to use his recipe as a base. I know David provides his recipes both in Imperial and Metric, but his starting point is still the pound and not a kilo, so I did some minor revisions (if Id ask for 900 grams of apricots or 110 grams of chocolate chips in a store, Id get very weird looks. While these amounts would make perfect sense to someone whos grown up with pounds and ounces, then 900 grams (2 pounds) of apricots and 110 grams (1/4 of a pound) of chocolate would make perfect sense. For us, its a weird 100 grams less than a kilo and a funny 10 grams more than 100 grams, if you know what I mean). I also reduced the amount of sugar just a tiny bit, as the apricots I was using were very sweet and very ripe (ripeness and the amount of fruit sugar are related, you see).


The Bergeron apricots @ Marche de Saint-Antoine, Lyon, France. August 2009
 
My favourite apricots for making all kinds of desserts are the French Bergeron ones. This time I used a lovely Spanish alternative - dark orange, very sweet and just a perfectly slightly acidic. You may add more sugar or a dash of lemon juice to the sorbet mix, depending on the type of apricots youre using.

Apricot Sorbet
Slightly adapted from David Lebovitzs excellent book The Perfect Scoop
Makes about 1 litre



1 kg very ripe apricots (thats just over 2 lbs)
250 ml/1 cup water
200 ml/170 grams caster sugar (thats 1 cup minus 3 level Tbsp)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Split the apricots in half, remove the stones, and cut each half into thirds.
Place the apricot pieces and water in a medium saucepan, cover. Cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apricots are softened and begin to fall apart.
Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Once cool, pureé the mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth. Season with vanilla. Cover and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, preferably overnight.
Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Similar posts:
Erin Zimmer of Serious Eats writes about Endomela: Snapshots from Israel: Uri Buri and his ice cream.
Other posts about my trip to Israel.
Other ice cream and sorbet recipes here on Nami-Nami.
More ice cream and sorbet recipes on David Lebovitzs blog.

* Disclaimer: I spent six days in Israel in late June/early July as a guest of a non-profit social start-up Kinetis, more specifically their Vibe Israel programme. This particular trip hosted five international food bloggers and writers, introducing them to the multifaceted and pluralist Israeli culture and cuisine. Visit to Uri Buri restaurant, the Efendi Hotel and the adjacent ice cream parlour Endomela in Akko/Acre in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel was part of that trip.

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Multekrem or Cloudberries with Whipped Cream

Ive sang praises to cloudberries before on this blog, including recipes for Goat Cheese Mousse with Cloudberry Compote, Home-Made Cloudberry Jam, Squeaky Finnish Cheese with Cloudberries and Mascarpone, Rye Bread Canapés with Cloudberries and Blue Cheese. And I must admit that most of these recipes are extremely simple. But then when youve got such delicious and luxurious ingredients in hand, then theres no need to really get finicky, is there?

Heres a dessert I served couple of weeks ago at a dinner party we cooked when catching up with an old friend and her husband. Apparently its very popular in Norway during the festive season, but serving cloudberries - either fresh or as a jam or compote with whipped cream is typical at home, too. I used a jar of cloudberry compote that Ks mum had graciously given us.

A true Nordic summer in one serving. 

Multekrem or Cloudberries with Whipped Cream
(Murakad vahukoorega)
Serves 4

200 ml whipping cream
2 Tbsp caster sugar
a 0.5 tsp vanilla extract
100-200 ml cloudberry jam or (drained) compote
lemon balm or mint for garnish

Whip the cream with sugar and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Fold in the cloudberries (if using compote, then drain it first) and divide the dessert between small serving bowls.
Garnish with couple of cloudberries and a lemon balm or mint leaf.

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Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

   My hubby and I had our 7th wedding anniversary on July 1st. Since it landed on a Monday, we celebrated on Sunday, and because it was the only day we could get a babysitter. Before our date, I whipped us up this amazing Strawberry Cake!

   I admit, it does start off with a box cake mix. Some of you may gasp, but if youre like me, you are proud of those box cake mixes because they make pretty darn good cakes. I doctored mine up a bit, by adding sour cream (which makes it super moist) and fresh chopped strawberries.

  Cream cheese frosting is what I topped it off with and the results were the most delicious strawberry cake I have ever had in my life. Kale said the same. We all loved it. This one is a keeper, fo sho.



Strawberry Cake
with Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (18.25 ounce) box Strawberry Cake mix ( I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme)
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
3 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup fresh, chopped strawberries


Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 ( 8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with non-stick spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, add the cake mix, water, oil, eggs and sour cream. Using a hand mixer, beat on low speed until combined, and then on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Dump in the cup of strawberries and mix by hand, until just combined.

Pour batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let cake cool completely before frosting.

For frosting: In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until combined and creamy. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, until combined. Add the milk and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until frosting is smooth and free of any lumps. Frost cake and serve! ♥

Store cake covered in the refrigerator, if you have any leftovers :) 

I love the pink color of the batter. Especially, once the strawberries are mixed in.

I forgot to take pictures of the batter in the pan, and then baked, so this is all I have...

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Chocolate date cake with strawberries and cream

Frú Hnallþóra: So delicious!
Originally uploaded by Netla.

A friend of mine made this cake for her sons birthday party in August.

Heres the recipe:

Chocolate-date cake with strawberries

The most common way of serving this kind of cake is with bananas, but since the photo is of one with strawberries, I am putting strawberries into the recipe instead.

4 eggs
150 g sugar
50 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 g dark (semi-sweet is best) chocolate
100 g dates

Whip together eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sifted flour and baking powder by the spoonful until fully mixed. Chop chocolate and dated (raisin-sized pieces are good) and fold into batter.

Line two round baking tins (approx. 22 cm in diameter) with baking paper and put in the dough. Level dough with a spatula. Bake at 180°C on the middle rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until firm when poked gently with a finger.

Filling and decoration:
1 small or medium box fresh strawberries (depending on how much decorating you plan to do) OR 1 small can strawberries in syrup OR 2 bananas
250 ml cream

Whip the cream stiff. Mash a handful of strawberries or one banana and fold into the whipped cream. Put between the layers of the cake. Decorate the cake with the remaining strawberries or banana (sliced). Its good to dip banana slices into lemon juice to prevent them from going brown.

Some prefer to smother the cake in frosting:
3 egg yolks
4 tbs icing sugar
100 g dark chocolate

Whip together the egg yolks and icing sugar. Melt the chocolate over a water bath and mix well into egg/sugar mixture. Fold in 2-3 tbs of whipped cream.
Frost one half of the cake with about 1/3 of this icing before adding the cream. Then cover the cake with it and decorate with strawberries or banana slices.
My friend adds a bit of melted chocolate as well.

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