Goji berries Carrot cake with a Cheesecake topping.

Spring is back! which means I can now get out of my cave and pick up goji berries, sing songs and steal carrots from my neighbors' garden. Or I can go to the organic store, buy organic carrots and Goji berries that are very healthy. Perfect ingredients to bake a carrot cake. I usually add raisins or dates to it but I've decided to replace them by Goji berries. I also tried to add originality to the traditional cream cheese frosting - I'm not really fond of it for some reason- by topping the cake with a cheesecake - but for some other reason I love cheesecakes-.
And that's how I combined two things I like: moist carrot cake and creamy and light cheesecake!

Ingredients:
for the carrot cake:
-350gr shredded carrots
-260 gr all purpose flour
-150 gr brown sugar
-100 gr sugar
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-2 tsp cinnamon
-2 tsp nutmeg
-a pinch of salt
-30 gr goji berries
-4 eggs
-200 gr vegetable oil

for the cheesecake:
-250 gr cream cheese
-400 gr fat-free yogurt (let's be healthy!)
-100 gr sugar
-1 tbsp vanilla extract
-3 large eggs
-2 tbsp all purpose flour

Directions:
1) Let's start with the carrot cake. First preheat oven at 410F. Prep the goji berries by putting them in a cup of hot water to rehydrate them.
2) In a bowl, add all dry ingredients: 260gr all purpose flour, 150 gr brown sugar, 100 gr sugar, 1tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp nutmeg and a pinch of salt.
2) In a larger bowl, add the wet ingredients: beat 4 eggs and 200gr vegetable oil.
3)Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until it's homogeneous.
4) Incorporate 350gr shredded carrots and 30 gr rehydrated goji berries.
4) Spread the mixture on a square or rectangular cake pan and put in the oven for 30 minutes.
5) Meanwhile, mix 250gr cream cheese, 400gr yogurt, 100gr sugar, 1tbsp vanilla extract.
6) Add 3 large eggs and mix for 5 minutes. Add 2 tbsp all purpose flour and mix for five more minutes to get rid of the lumps.
7) Once the carrot cake is cooked, spread the cheesecake mixture on top and put in the oven at 310F for 40 minutes.
8) Let it cool down in the fridge for a few hours, cut in squares and serve.

Enjoy, K.

Lemon and Olive Oil Madeleines.

So I bought my first sillicon mould 3 weeks ago, and I was dying to try it but I didn't want to bake regular madeleines, so it took me 21 days to figure out what kind of madeleines I would bake. Why not try lemon and olive oil ( because there were the only ingredients I could find and that possibly could go together at least that's what I thought ...and I was right) .

 

Ingredients :

- 3 eggs

- 150 gr flour

- 75 gr sugar

- 50gr butter

- 3 tbspoon olive oil

- 1 lemon

- 3 tbspoon milk

- 1 tspoon vanilla extract

- 1 tspoon baking powder

Directions :

- Mix 3 eggs with 75gr sugar, melt 50 gr butter and let it cool down. Add 150 gr flour and 1 tspoon baking powder on the eggs and sugar mixture. Add the juice of one lemon and 1 tspoon vanilla extract. Add the melted butter and 3 tbspoon olive oil (you can also replace the melted butter by more olive oil -that's for the healthier version-) and finally 3 tbspoon milk. Mix and store in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350° and bake the madeleines for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy.

K.

Orange blossom water pound cake and papaya salad

It's cold here and it's cloudy, and it's going to rain (according to the weather forecast). So yes I want summer, I want holidays, I want white sand and hot blue water, I want to drink a cocktail on a beach and eat exotic fruits, but "you can't always get what you want" as they say. But If I can't go on a sunny exotic island, maybe the island will come to me.


I don't really think pound cakes are exotic but it depends on what you put in it and what you eat with it. You can turn a pound cake into almost anything. I added orange blossom water to reach Middle East and a papaya salad to finally land in Paradise.

For the pound cake :

Ingredients :

- 200 gr flour
- 200 gr sugar
- 200 gr butter (if you're on a diet, please don't try this at home)
- 200 gr eggs = about 4 or 5 eggs
- 2 tbspoon orange blossom water
- 1 tspoon baking soda
- 1 tspoon baking powder

Directions :

Quick and easy, you just need to add all the ingredients in a bowl and mix for about five minutes until you get an homogenous texture. Put in 455° F oven for 40 minutes. Let it cool for 15 minutes.

For the papaya salad :

Ingredients :

- 1 papaya
- 1 tspoon honey
- 1 tspoon coconut milk

Directions :

Cut the papaya into small cubes, add 1 tspoon honey, 1 tspoon coconut milk, mix together and place in the freezer for 20 minutes to get a refreshing exotic salad.
This is how I turn a pound cake into an exotic pound cake and an exotic pound cake into an imaginary flight ticket. Enjoy!

By K.

My Blueberry Days.

I love blueberry muffins. I could eat blueberry muffins all day long. Unfortunately, we hardly find them in France; the only place I can find some of them is at the Starbucks' but they're somewhat expensive so they're kind of guilty treats I allow myself to buy from time to time ...

Therefore, to remedy this existential problem, I decided to buy frozen blueberries and to give free rein to my greed and tadaaa! I did it! They were moist and flavorful, just like those from Mark&Spencer (I loveeeee M&S muffins; I buy several packs of them anytime I go to London). I got the recipe from Glamour magazine (okay, it's not exactly THE cooking reference but it worked this time) and I just changed slightly things.

PS: I just bought a "cooking" notebook because my parents were getting upset to see all these recipes in a big mess on the kitchen table ... So excited to jot down the first recipe.

Ingredients:

for half a dozen muffins (I agree, that's not enough. But who said you couldn't bake twice in a day?)

- 130g flour

- 80g sugar

- 1 tbspoon of baking powder

- 1 lump of salt

- 1 egg

- 20cl of heavy cream

- 5cl of sunflower oil

- zest of half a lemon

- and of course 100g blueberries

Directions:

1) preheat the oven at 180°C

2) wishk together the egg, the oil, the cream and the zest

3) add the dry ingredients

4) add the blueberries and stir carefully

5) bake for 25min.

By B.