Cake thirty six - Easter Gingerbread Cookies

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I’d long associated gingerbread cookies to Christmas, considering the main ingredients like honey or the spice mix more wintry. Easter is usually the time for chocolate and cookies which taste more like sweetened breads. But if you try these cookies you’ll change idea, for sure, as I did! These chocolate gingerbread cookies are special, the right taste for Easter! 

125g butter, softened

165g brown sugar

1 egg

225g flour

35g raising flour

1 teaspoon ginger powder

25g cocoa powder

Beat butter, sugar and egg with electric mixer until combined. Stir in ginger powder, flours and cocoa in two batches. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Line oven trays with baking paper.

Using Easter cookie cutters, cut cookies and place them onto oven trays. Bake cookies from 10 to 12 minutes depending on size. 

Green Glacé Icing

125g icing sugar

some drops of water

green food colouring 

Mix icing sugar and water until spreadable. Add some green food coloring.

Decorate cookies to your taste!

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/04/easter-baking-cake-thirty-six.html

Cake twenty-six Sicilian Cassata

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It’s a cake which steals a lot of your time and patience of course. It’s not too difficult to make, anyway: you need some practice to get to the right combination of good taste and elegant decoration but it’s well worth a try! 

Consider one day to bake and assemble it, then another day in the fridge before decoration and a couple of days before eating so that all the flavours can harmoniously blend in.

Step 1 - Sponge Cake

6 eggs, separated

250 g sugar

250 g flour

Beat yolks and sugar with electric mixer until thick and foamy. Fold in flour. In the meantime beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold a little of the beaten egg whites into the batter to lighten it and then add the rest of the whites folding just until incorporated. Do not overmix the batter or it will deflate. Pour mixture evenly into a 20cm-round tin and bake cake at 180° for about 30 min.  or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

Immediately turn cake onto a wire rack prepared with baking parchment to cool.  

Step 2 - Ricotta filling

1 kg fresh ricotta

250 g sugar 

100 g chocolate, chopped 

Should ricotta be too wet, place it on a colander for about 30 min. Then whip ricotta and sugar with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth. Fold in the chocolate. Refrigerate.

Step 3 - Marzipan

200 g marzipan 

green food colouring

Knead marzipan and some green food colouring until you get a vivid green and the colour is uniform.

Step 4 - Cake assembling

sponge cake

green marzipan 

some vermouth 

ricotta filling 

plastic wrap

Line a 30cm frying pan with plastic wrap. 

Roll out a 10cm wide marzipan stripe. Line the side of the pan as in photo. Cut the sponge cake into 1cm thick slices and use them to line the base and sides of the frying pan. Sprinkle some vermouth over the slices until they’re moist but not wet. Spread ricotta filling evenly over cake base. Top with remaining cake slices and sprinkle vermouth over cake. 

Refrigerate for at least one day.

Step 5 - Royal Icing

2 egg whites

375 g icing sugar

some lemon juice

Whip egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer until hard peaks form. Pour in some lemon juice.

Step 6 - Cake assembling

Cake in the frying pan

Royal icing 

Candied fruit: cherries, citron, a tangerine, or any fruit of your choice.

Turn Cassata onto serving plate. Discard plastic wrap.

 Decorate the cake to your taste. Refrigerate for 3/4 hours at least.

also visit:

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/06/cake-twenty-six.html

Cake twenty-five Choco Lollipops

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You don’t need special ingredients for these lollipops: you need chocolate, of course, patience, some free time, your fancy and the right moulds! They’re not complicated to make but you have to proceed step by step and be extremely precise when filling the spaces if you’re using chocolate of different colours.

These chocolate lollipos are in the shape of an egg, and they’re typical of Easter but chocolate is too good to be limited to a special time of the year... so you don’t have to wait until next year to have a go.

g 100 white chocolate 

g. 200 milk chocolate

g. 300 dark chocolate

any food dye you like

lollipos sticks

1. Make sure your lollipop mould is clean and dry.

2. Melt chocolate first of all. You can use a microwave which is faster, if you like  but I prefer the double boiler as you can better control the temperature. Set up your double boiler with a small amount of water - the water should not be touching the top pan- and warm it over medium-low heat. 

Start with white chocolate. Cut it in small pieces and place them into pan,  stirring occasionally, just until the mixture is smooth, then remove the pan from the heat. White chocolate is particularly sensitive to burning, so take extra care and stir meticulously.

3. When chocolate is melted and smooth, take a spoon and dip it into the white chocolate. Place enough white chocolate in the bottom of each cavity. 

4. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes or until chocolate is set. 

5. Melt the milk chocolate following the same procedure. 

6. Place some chocolate spoonfuls into the mould and continue to add until cavities are full.

7. Position lollipop sticks in place. 

8. Refrigerate to set. 

9. Pop the lollipops out of the  moulds. Decorate to your taste. Place them in small cellophane bags with a ribbon, for example.

You can alternatively use dark, milk or white chocolate and add any food colouring too. It’s all up to you and you fancy!

 

also visit:

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/05/cake-twenty-five.html