beach cake

A fun cake for my roommate Amy who is leaving Madrid to go to Valencia...I had been wanting to do this cake for a while, and here was the perfect chance because she will be near the beach! 

Ingredients this is a vegan cake!!!!

CAKE: (make the amounts double for this cake--sorry cant be bothered to change these instructions...) 

1 and  1/4 quarter cup of flour

1 tsp baking pwder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 cup of sugar
1/3 of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1/3 distilled white or apple cider vinegar
1 cup of warm water
1/3 of veg oil

Bake a 350 or 175 celsius 
8x8 pan----small pan(for quantities above, not for the double quantities!)

DECORATION: 

• 400 gm of vanilla icing--Betty Croker or any brand. 
• Barquillos or 
• Decorations for cake....liquorice, umbrellas, ...

• 1. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt with a fork making sure it is well blended

2. Add water, vanilla, oil and vinegar  and mix so well blended.  Bake at 350 degrees or 175 celsius. Bake until knife comes out clean

3. Begin with the icing to make the sea...I used this Wilton Celeste colour...it was the perfect bright colour to resemble a bright sea. And you know how much it cost me here in Europe.

4. Add as much colouring you think you need to make the colour you desire.

5. Yes it was getting there.

This is a shot of the different shades I did, to add detail and make the sea more realistic.

This is a shot of the icing I used. I couldnt be bothered to make it....it was very good this brand.

A photo of the barquillos that I used... WAFERS! 

The sand and water together. My sand was two packages of normal biscuits, Maria Fontaneda, really any type.

The candy I bough, fishes, sea stars, rocks, sour candy...

Some old fondant I had kept from previous cakes, to make Amy's flip flops. 

I liked a lot the effect of footsteps on the sand, so realistic! 

The mess I always create with these cakes ...but worth it

The vegan cake came out of the oven

The glaze of the cake ...

This is the baking tray I used 

I just flipped it over and fell in one piece luckily

I poured the glaze over the cake 

I left it to cool for 1 hour in the fridge

Ready to go, let's go

I started adding the water...a mess because the chocoalte and the blue water was mixing....do it really carefully! or just do not add the chocolate....next time I will not add the chocolate underneath the blue icing.

It was difficult to not mix it...but I think I managed...

Then I added the sand....it is necessary to have some chocolate underneath the sand because otherwise it doesnt stick to it

Almost done with the sand-biscuit...it was fun to do this cake 

And now I squirted some white icing with a piping bag to recreate the waves, the foam at the seashore, the effects and just make it more realitic and 3D

Looking good....

And now I started to recreate my bamboo fence 

I started to add details to the cake.

The fence! I broke the waffers into pieces....

It is cool if you can kinda follow a pattern of length in the waffers but seriously you can also do it randomly

I was careful in this cake with the fence, and wanted to make it really pretty...but it was taking FOREVER.

Almost done

Done! 

So fun....

OK, I am going to sleep cake ...good night

I did the flip-flops with the pieces of fondant left 

I drew the shape of the flip flops free hand...

Then I added the tiny bits of green to make the look like  the Brazilian flip flops Amy has

This is the following day with all the details 

And the sun and shadows ...

I like this detail 

the towell and the flip flops

The sea 

In case you cant tell it's Valencia

but then, I realized I needed to make another cake, because it turned out kinda small.....

So this one I made it an island...this cake I made it superfast....in 2 hours, and not vegan, but cow-friendly 

This is the way it turned out...a stormy and conflicted sea...

agitated waves...because I was in a rush, this cake came out with lots of turbulences... :) 

 These are the two cakes together at the pinic...as you can see I put sand all over...in between the cakes...it was really cool...

I totally recommend this cake, it was great great fun! 

I had a Garden

the harvest

One huge inconvenience about living in the third floor of an apartment complex in the heart of Madrid is that there is no place to grow a wee garden. I miss that so much! After 3 consecutive years in the States of planting a new garden every summer, I miss that...

It's crazy how some seeds and a little bit of water can make life so much more interesting and simple and pleasant. Plants don't talk back, or complain. They just wait for you to take care of them, and it only takes pulling out the weeds, some Miracle-Growth spray and if it rains you dont even have to water them.

 So this year, I'll have to be okay with just posting some pictures of my babies

with good friends

.

Me and my seeds having a good time

strawberry french toast-french toast de fresas

Una receta genial para un desayuno familiar o de varias personas. Lo hice el otro dia para unas amigas que vinieron a mi casa. Estaba muy muy buena y es muy facil.

Necesitas:

• 1 barra de pan y media.
• 6 huevos
• 3 "cups" americanos de leche.
• 1 "cup" de azucar moreno.
• 1/2 cucharadilla de vainilla.
• 1/4 cucharadilla de nuez moscada.
• 1 "cup" of nueces.
• 2 "cups" de fresas cortadas en trocitos.

1.Pon el pan en una bandeja cortado en rodajas. 

2. Mezcla la leche, el azucar y los huevos y la vainilla y la nuez moscada. 

3. Ahora pon todo el liquido por encima del pan y pon por encima las fresas y las nueces y metelos en los agujeros que quedan entre las rodajas de pan.

4. Dejalo todo reposar  por 30 minutos para que el pan absorba bien el liquido  y el pan quede mejor.

5. Y ahora pon un poquito de azucar moreno por encima de todo para que se tueste (este es un buen toque) y metelo en el horno 30 minutos, a 190 o asó por encima  y por debajo y luego bajalo a 160 o así un ratito más...se tiene que tostar por animar pero no lo quemes. 

6. Ya está, estaba buenisimo, pruebalo. Tuve que hacer muchas fotitos :)

 La mesa de desayuno con mantel bonito es mejor

yum

limones de colores

Una receta divertida que saqué de este blog.

Perfectos para cuando estes aburrido este verano....o para cuando tengas invitados y quieras hacer una limonada original, o agua con limon original....claro, con una jarra transparente. 

Solo necesitas.......

• Limones
• Colorantes Wilton.

Superfaciles: pon una gotita de nada en varios cuencos

Yo probé estos colores: naranja, azul, verde, rosa y morado

En mi opinion el rosa y el verde es el mejor...ahora pon las rodajas en el agua y dejalos por varias horas (como 3 horas).

El azul luego quedó un poco raro...

Y el morado también...pero el rosa mola mucho

Estos son los colorantes que usé...y otros más

Tachán!!!!! por la mañana...

Habian quedado guays, y ahora los puedes congelar y guardar para ocasiones especiales. Ya se que son una chorrada, pero a veces las chorradas molan mucho! :) Recuerda: verde y rosa, los mejores colores, más vibrantes y que más pegan con el amarillo cítrico.

spinach salad with goat cheese, cranberries and nuts

This is a great salad I made the other day...honestly I cannot remember where I got it from...so my apologies if I am plagiarisng anyone out there.  Not my intention. The photos are not great either, because it was late at night.  Anyway, here it is, great for a party for those time when you are asked to bring a dish, or a salad.

A bag of spinach.
Goat cheese (like 50 grms)
Some walnuts
Cranberries (about 100 grms)

I had some german sausages with it

Raspberry vinagrette

1.  No mistery in this salad. Clean the spinach and cut it up.
2. Add the cheese in small pieces, and the cranberries.
3. Add the dressing. The way I make the dressing is:
4. Use 6 spoonful of olive oil, and 3 of balsamic vinegar, and 2 spoonful of rapsberry or strawberry jam and stir well.
5. Add a little salt and pepper. You are ready to go. Pour it over the salad. 

Yummy for those who like salty and sweet and strong flavours like goat cheese.

Strawberry sangria

Stacey and I made this great strawberry sangria the other day that I loved! Strawberries are about to disappear because summer is coming fast!

TIP: buy some and freeze some for the rest of the summer.



 Ingredients:

• 1 litre of wine
• 1/2 litre of gaseosa.
• 3 cups of strawberries
• 2 lemoms
• 2 oranges
• 4 spoonfuls of sugar
• 1 stick of cinammon.

1. Clean the strawberries and cut them up in pieces and blend them in a hand blender. 3 cups.

yum! it looked like tomato sauce....but better taste

2. Add the wine to the strawberries.

and take a photo of the situation, so cool! 

3. Add the juice of one lemon and the juice of one orange.

4. Cut up the other orange and the other lemon in slices and throw them in the pitcher.

5. Put the cinammon stick and the slice of 1 orange and one lemon.

6. Add the sugar and some ice, ice REALLY HELPS!

 7. let it sit for 10 minutes.

8. Voila! awesome sangria. enjoy.

Stacey and I rocked it again....and we had some pimientos del padrón with it  :)