Chocolate cake reminder

I woke up this Sunday morning with an urge to make this cake as a breakfast surprise for my family. A classic and versatile recipe that everyone should have, that of a Chocolate cake... yeah!

An old recipe that I am making it for years. Very handy as a base for a birthday cake (see some old photos below). Personalize it infinitely according to mood and cravings : adding fresh or dried fruits (bananas, berries, coconut, nuts. ...) and/or covering with chocolate ganache, jam or whatever your imagination might come up with or even better, that of your children. Today's version with smashed bananas and coconut. Click on "Read more" to see the old photos.

Feta cheese balls

Remember the recipe of feta cheese pies (tyropitakia)?
It's one of our favorite salty starters and if you have never tried it before this is the moment to do it!

I am giving you an alternative that is pretty simple, much simpler than the original recipe.

👉Check also 2 variations using an Air fryer:

• Greek Tyropitakia with Fyllo in the Ninja Crispi Air Fryer
• Easy Kourou Tyropitakia (Feta Balls) in the Ninja Crispi Air Fryer

Halloween shortbread biscuits ("sablés" in french :)

 Halloween is approaching and I just found some really spooky biscuit stamps that I knew that would drive crazy my kids, especially my son, who is fond of Frankestein :)

I found it as a good excuse to test a recipe on shortbread biscuits that in french they call them "sablés". 

I cannot describe enough the excitement at home when they discovered the stamps! 

I can only tell you that we ended baking late at night, on top of a really busy day.... 
I was not in my best of mood, knowing that they will be tired for school the next day, but my... they had so much fun that eventually I thought, what the hell! I could make an exception :)))) 
Here it goes... and hope that you will have as fun as we had making them!

Kmix cookies

My first chocolate cookies with my brand new Kmix are a pure success! Just try them... *yummy*

I have used first the "K" tool to beat the butter with sugar and eggs and then changed to the kneader tool as you can see in the photo to finish the final dough with flour and chocolate chunks.
I made about 30 delicious cookies.
Just play with baking time as depending on your flour it might vary slightly.
And if you want something exceptional in taste, just try my daughter's idea to make a cookie sandwich with ice-cream!!!

Playing with pastry or the "snail pie"

Want more ideas to play with the puff pastry? Here's one more ... the snail pie :)

Aperitif (or cocktail hour) flower!

Living in France, I became keen with the idea of an "aperitif" that is a cocktail hour in between meals that might include a simple drink or a small buffet with some finger food.
Have a glimpse of the latest trend that I did in a hurry with whatever I had in my fridge and that was still delicious despite all odds :)
I had only 1 pastry dough so I made half the flower but it's enough to get the idea still...

Recipe reminder (muffins)

I am currently reading an interesting book about consuming sugar. So, I was resisting in making a sweet treat, but I admit that I am addicted and I cannot avoid it :)
Have a look in my chocolate-banana muffins to see why I could not resist...
Try NOT to do them! :P

Sweet Braided Bread (Tsourekia)

Check also a marvelous similar french recipe :

French brioche bread

Tsourekia are traditional Greek sweet breads, similar to French brioche, soft, fluffy, and lightly sweet. Fragrant with vanilla and optional mahlab, perfect for breakfast, brunch, or festive occasions, they are lightly scented and golden, with a tender crumb that melts in your mouth.

Grissinis

Hubby loves Grissinis, so here's a reason to try to make them :) I have to admit that he likes the Greek version but I will try today the original ones from Torino...  that I like sooo much :) And with the remaining dough, I will make some nice small rounded breads, what do you say?
Who does not like those crunchy delicate fluffy delicious thinny bread sticks? No excuses of not trying, as it is pretty easy...

Desert roses or "roses de sable"

These chocolate treats with corn flakes have the looks of  "desert roses" and despite the fact that they are not "gourmet cuisine" (you do not even need to bake!) they will definitely charm your children :)
My son likes them a lot and it's thanks to him that I tried them today with his help of course ...

Oat flakes cookies

Healthy (?) cookies today! I had some left overs of oat flakes from a visitor and I was thinking what to do with that. Until I have seen in the package a recipe for cookies... The ones that know me, can predict the rest :) I was waiting the opportunity to try it. And guess what? I did it!
I cannot say that I am thrilled but they have a nice surprising taste of sesame that I love and a friend of mine that was passing by could not wait them to get out of the oven and found them delicious. Your turn now...

Vivian's king's cake or "Vassilopita" in greek

In Greece, the 1st of January we make our favorite cake or a special recipe from our region and we hide inside a coin (covered with aluminum foil, of course :) and we call it "Vassilopita". It's the equivalent of the "king's cake" or the "Galette de roi" that we find in other christian countries for the Epiphany.
We gather in family and share the cake and the one that will get the hidden coin will be the king of the year, aka the lucky of the year...
I will share with you the recipe that I adopted since the birth of my daughter, that is a very fluffy cake scented with orange zest and rich in ground almonds. You can make it all year through but it has some luxury touch that makes it a good candidate for a special occasion :) Here it goes...

"Juicy" apple pie

Apples are a great ingredient when baking cakes, so find today one more way to enjoy them always with a cinnamon touch :)
Review with the occasion, all the other apple cakes of this blog like this Apple pie, or the apple cake with coconut crust and let me know which one you prefer more (given that you have baked them of course...).
Excellent cake for Autumn!!!

Ingredients
250gr butter
1 cup of sugar
5 eggs
2 cups of self-raising flour (you can replace some with almond powder btw)
2-3 apples (depending how much you like them :)
Some extra sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle on applesas well as ground walnuts

Fresh cranberries crunchy muffins

My program is very heavy this period, so I am not cooking and baking so much and when I do, I do not have time to describe it here... But I have discovered by chance (looking for something completely different) a blog recently that I liked and that I think that has the same philosophy with my blog. I am talking for the blog "Les recettes de Virginie".
So, I could not resist and woke up very very early this morning to make one of it's recipes to surprise my family for breakfast. I will share with you the result only in photos as I am telling you, no time for more :)

Tomato-mozzarella-oregano cake

Summer is coming soon and I would like to urge all the fanatic ones with cakes like me to calm themselves down by doing salty cakes ! I start the sugar banning :) today by proposing to you a tomato-mozzarella cake that has my favorite oregano to boost it. Easy, fast and excellent starter for a nice dinner or a fancy aperitif.
I would add feta cheese instead of mozzarella to be honest, but I live far from Greece and feta is a precious cheese at home, especially for my daughter :)
As far as it concerns the sugar banning... it was a joke ! I am addicted to sugar, so it's not easy to ban it, for the time being, I can only lower my daily intake ...
Ready? Let's go for it then!

Bugs Bunny's cake or Carrot cake :)

If you want to change from the classic chocolate cake then this tasty carrot cake would do :)
It's simple to do, just mix the ingredients, bake and taste! Try it and you will be addicted as it tastes really nice.
The problem is, that I am not very concentrated these days and although I did 2 times this recipe I made a mistake with the ingredients :)
In the first version (as I call it in the photos :) I added one more cup of flour. Taste was amazing but texture was not very good I have to admit ... We ate all of it in a few hours though! No-one could resist to the smell of cinnamon and the sweet touch of the carrots.
In the second version, I forgot to add the sugar and I came up with the idea to add a light syrup (made by boiling for 5 min 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water) and add it once the cake has cooled a bit down after baking.

See photos of both versions and judge for yourself. Imagine still, that if I am persisting so much in doing this cake it has to be very good in taste :))) I am still working the looks though and once I have a better one I will keep you informed !   

The greek focaccia with feta ("tyroklouri")

Want to try a different focaccia, this time with feta? Actually it is a traditional greek recipe from my region Thessaly, that looks like focaccia but more to the crunchy side.
It is very tasty and for the ones that like focaccia style breads, you will love this one!
It takes time to make it, so choose a cold day that you will stay at home, as you will have to wait for the dough to rise.
The result will reward your patience :)

Nefeli's breads

This is a very important recipe for me that I will share with you, today 2 of May. It is a recipe that my grand-mother used to make and I have so many sweet memories and makes lots of small breads that have a sweet topping. These breads are soooo delicious and fluffy that will touch directly your soul!
In Greece, those breads very often are made to commemorate someone dear that you have lost and we distribute them to people at the church.
As there is no name for this recipe (my grand-mother used to call them small breads) I decided to give my first daughter's name to this recipe...
For my amazing grand-mother and all the stories that was telling me when I was a child... she would be very proud for me seeing me making this recipe!
For my father, the best father ever, that is watching over me... and would be very surprised that his little girl is not only good in maths but has finally learned to cook :)  

Whole grain bread

A bread today with the healthy (and also tasty) touch of the grains. It's an easy recipe and apart from the fact that I use whole grain flour, the procedure it's similar to the one that my mother and grand mother were doing for any kind of bread. The result was soooo great that I would urge you to try it@!

Cookies with hazelnuts

I had a crave for cookies today, not the usual ones with chocolate chips, but with hazelnuts. I searched for a recipe and I share today the one that I ended up to make. We all in the family, found them delicious and ate most of them extremely fast :) Unfortunately, I made a tiny mistake and put some more milk that I think that made the cookies to spread a little bit more. I will try again soon with the right amount of milk and will come up. Enough talking, start baking :)