So…it’s really hard for me to bake in the apartments we rent.
Not everyone is a major foodie apparently!
I am having the time of my life, don’t kid yourself but I miss my kitchen, my tools and most of all, my tripod!
We bought a decent camera for our trip. (Sony NEX-5R).I would recommend it to everyone since it really does everything we want it to do but without a tripod and amazing light, its hard to take good and appealing food pictures.
I mostly cook at night (we are travelling after all!) so there goes my light! (I’m really jabbering about this as some form of excuse for my terrible pictures)
With all of that said, here’s a quick cake I managed to make with a cooking pot and a tart pan!
Go creativity!
I know you’re probably saying “here she goes again with her hazelnuts!”. I do admit I have an obsession but I promise it’s going to be good!
I basically made a very moist vanilla cake and added roasted hazelnuts to it to give it that extra flavour.
It took me about 5-10 minutes to get the cake mixture ready and I was lacking all the proper tools needed to make a cake…So it should take you no time right?
This is the kind of recipe you make when you have guests coming over and you don’t really have anything to serve them for dessert. It’s quick and simple and really delicious!
Feel free to add any kind of toppings you want! I love chocolate, fresh berries, whipped cream and roasted hazelnuts but you could just as easily put caramel à la fleur de sel with exotic fruits like mangoes or pineapple with whipped mascarpone or even greek yogurt!
I baked this cake in a 12 inch glass tart pan but you can do it in a 8×8 square cake pan if you want. Make sure to test your cake every 5 minutes or so after you hit the 15 minute mark. If your cake is thick enough, you can cut out your cakelets with a cookie cutter and then slice them in half and make a fancy looking two layer dessert!
Anyways,
Food for thought!
Enjoy!
Alex
xox
Recipe slightly altered from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-white-cake/Course: Dessert Yield: 4 servings Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 20 mins
Ingredients
- 1 Cup white sugar
- 1/2 Cup butter, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 2 Teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 Cup o all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 Teaspoon of baking powder
- 1/2 Cup of milk
- 1/2 Cup of chopped roasted hazelnuts + 4 tbsp to garnish
- 1/2 Cup of heavy cream, cold
- 1/4 to 1/2 Cup of Nutella
- 8 to 10 strawberries, cleaned and sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Line a 8x8 pan with parchment paper. Grease the sides of the pan.
- In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Mix in the chopped hazelnuts.
- Pour batter into the prepared pan, making sure it is even.
- Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until in the cake springs back to the touch.
- Let the cake cool off to room temp. With a 2 1/2 to 3 inch (in diameter) cookie cutter, cut 4 cake circles
- In a stand mixer, whip the cream until you get a firm whipped cream.
- If your cakes are thick enough, slice them in half to make two layers.
- To plate, start by placing one cake circle in the centre of each of your four plates (a plate per person).
- In the microwave, melt your Nutella for about 10-15 seconds, long enough for it to be easily spread.
- Spread a good layer of Nutella with the back of a spoon on each piece. Do it on the remaining 4 pieces as well and keep them aside.
- Now place slices of strawberries on each cake circle, making sure the tip faces outward (looks prettier ;)). Do this for the 4 remaining cakes as well.
- Now put a generous dollop of whipped cream on top of your 4 plated cakes. (You can use a piping bag to get an even finish.
- Place one of the remaining 4 cakes on top of each of the 4 plated cakes. (make sure you have Nutella and strawberries on these cakes as well!).
- Make a nice swirl of whipped cream on top of the four layered cakes and sprinkle some hazelnuts on each of them. You can also place a tiny piece of strawberry, chopped hazelnuts alnd fine drizzles of Nutella to make it all pretty!
