Free Dessert Calendars for 2015! 3 types for You

 Hey Guys! :) 

I brought a gift for You! 

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and finally I know where I will go to celebrate :D 

After that it will be 2015! 

Usually we got too many calendars, like now we have one for each and every walls in our room. Crazy. But guess what? This year I only got 1, and it's a smaller size, so I decided to make my own...

Of course, I involved desserts, and what's even more obvious, that I used my own pictures from this blog. 

They appeared to be super cool, so I decided to share them with You.

I created 3 calendars, each is different in the style and the size. 

You know, one basic for a room, one with big spaces to write in, and one little to a reminder.

 You only have to download it (it's free), print them out, and stamp them together. :) 

Decorated Christmas Cookies

Merry Christmas Dears,

I hope You are feeling wonderful, and had a special Christmas this year.

We just had our 3rd big Christmas Lunch... (It's definitely not the time for starting a diet... :D )

As I mentioned before, this year, nearly all of my family members got a plate of decorated Christmas cookies from me. Here I will show the steps of the preparations...

Christmas whoopie cookie

Merry Christmas Eve to You! :)

Today I brought a nice Christmas stocking filling cookie idea. 

It's tastes so Christmas-y, as it contains all the great spices and ingredients, that we use during the Holidays. Some examples: cinnamon, gingerbread spice mix, grounded walnut, candied orange peel, cocoa, caramel....Yum! :)

When You are ready, you can pack them nicely in a little bag, with more cookies, gingerbread, anything You like, like I did... 

Chocolate bread - Christmas style

Hi Dears, 

Christmas is almost here...

I don't know how You feel about it, but for me, December pasted really fast.

This used to be my favorite month of the Year , as I love preparing for the Holidays. 

I always create something hand.made for my family.

 Usually, a painted postcard, or a necklace, or I decorate a wooden box with napkin. Last year I edited photos and placed them on magic mugs. Do you know them? They are so funny, from the outside they look simple, 1 color-mug, but when you pour hot liquid in them, the pictures will be shown. 

This year, as I'm in the confectioner industry I will create many.many cookies and sweets and pack them nicely.

But now, I brought You a special Christmas dessert. 

This time, here in Hungary the Fruit-bread is really popular, which tastes like a pound cake with dry fruits in it, just the shape is different. 

My family doesn't like dry fruits. What do they like? Chocolate of course!

 So, I created a special version of the sweet bread.

Advent crowns made with gingerbread

Hi Dears, 

Are You prepared for the Holidays? :)

I still need to bake a couple of things, like more Beiglis, some snow crescents, Chocolate roll etc... 

But I baked these Advent crowns a while ago, to decorate the dining tables of my family members. I baked 6 different crowns. 

I hope You will like them as well. 

As for me, I always loved creating home-made presents. They are cuter and more personal. And this one is easy as well, only You need some free-time, a few hours.

Smiley Natural Christmas fragrance - Orange~men

"All I want for Christmas...." besides You, is smelling the orangy, spicy fragrance of the Punch, with the mixture of the freshly baked cookies... :)

I created these sweet gifts for my family members, with lots of great spices. I love all of them, like the cinnamon, the cloves, the star anises and the laurel leaves. Pricked in the oranges they create a really nice fragrance... And the cloves are really useful for nails for the leaves. 

I decorated them with some rosehip and apple decorations.  :) Let's see the babies...

Starting my confectioner (trainee) life

I mentioned it before, but I thought I should write more about this milestone in my life... 

I started my internship in one of the best confectionery / café in Budapest as a confectioner trainee.  

It's not really what I thought it would be...

Well, what everybody thinks of working in a pastry shop?

• plump ladies and podgy men with mustache are preparing beautiful cakes and muffins while they are singing yodels
• or at least there is a granny from Little Red Riding Hood who knows all of the recipes of the famous café by heart who is the head confectioner
• creating cakes is fun and needs lots of creativity
• confectioners have enough time to decorate the cakes, that's why they are so beautiful
• they eat, or at least they taste all the time, so that's a heavenly job

And what's the truth?

Confectionery studies - 9th week

Dear Readers,

Sorry for not posting lately, but as I am working now in a real confectionery I am more and more busier as time is getting closer to Christmas. We have sooo many orders, like last week we baked for a 6000 members event, which means thousands kilograms of cakes and savory scones to prepare.

But at school we continued our studies as well, on the 8th week (unfortunately I left my cell at home, so no pictures) but we learnt the basic sponge cake recipes.

That means, that the next week we started the real cake factory duties. :)  

So I brought many-many tasty and beautiful cakes this time! 

Isler

Hi Guys! :) 

I brought You, a nice recipe today, that is one of my favorite.

It was even more special as I baked it for my loved Fiancé's birthday. ♥

We usually celebrate on the weekends with the family with the actual birthday cake, but what happens if the Big Day is on a weekday? I just had to bake something for him, right? :D 

Plus, I have news for You! I am working in a real café & confectionery now as a trainee. I baked these before that,3 weeks ago and now (as I dipped more than 1000 little islers into chocolate I found mine really unprofessional, but still they were super tasty!)  Next time I bake it, I will bring more photos to change these. :D 

Confectionery studies - 7th week

Hello! :)

Last week we studied a bunch of Puff pastries. It means, that the pastries has many layers when they baked. We can reach that, if we use folding Technics, and two different dough.

The main ingredients for the dough (in portions): 1 flour, 1 butter, 0.5 water, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vinegar.

Beigli

Hello Dears, 

I brought You a real Christmas treat, the walnut Beiglis, that is one of the most popular dessert here, in Hungary  in winter. 

The dough and the stuffing is the same as the Walnut crescents, the "Pozsonyi kifli" dough, just the way of rolling is different.

Let's see how...

Confectionery studies - 6th week

Hello! :)

Last week we had a little "break" at school, as we didn't baked anything.

We had our first drawing lesson. We used melted dark chocolate for that. :)

2nd Blogiversary

Hello Dears!

I am happy to announce, that we are celebrating the 2nd anniversary of starting this dessert blog. :)

We have more than 130 post now, with mostly dessert recipes.

It is always fun to bake at home, and it is even better to share the results with you! :)

Since the starting, I hope I developed my photographic skills as well, besides the baking of course. 

And I started the confectioner studies as well, so the page will get tones of more exciting recipes soon! :)

As You might read, I share every week about the baking courses here, and I try to bake every week something from that course. :) 

As a thank you for following, and encouraging me gesture, I would like to give you some gifts.

I prepared 2 kinds of packages to win, on our Facebook page.

One with :

A cute Marie cat cookie cutter, my favorite gingerbread spice mix, and the best -without boiling - hazelnut cream mix from Hungary.

 

And another one with:

a pocket of Hungarian sweet paprika, the best quality from Szeged, the capital of paprika. And a wooden spoon with Hungarian folk decoration from the famous historical city, Eger. 

 If you wish to win you only have to SHARE the one, (or both) package that you would like to win, and on the headline, copy your favorite recipe's webpage from the site.

Let's celebrate together! :)

xoxo: Hajni

Confectionery studies - 5th week

Hi Dears, 

Last week, it was a really busy course in school.

At the same time we learnt 6 different pastries to bake.

It can be tough to look each groups, while we are baking our own pastry in our group. Usually that's why I bake at home something else to learn at least 2 of them properly. :) 

This time we have baked mostly mid-morning, or afternoon pastries.

Come and check them out!

Brioches

Hi Dears, 

I baked these beauties at home, so Brioches, and Sweet Bread baking project was ON (that I learnt in school). 

There are two kinds of shapes for the brioches, this one, and the roll form. Usually, the roll is sprinkled with sugar, and the sweet bread type is smooth, but as my family has really sweet teethe, it was not a question to sprinkle the rest, or not... :)

And as the dough is same for sweet bread, I baked them both.

Confectionery studies - 4th week

Hi! 

This week we made Sweet bread, pound cake and many more. :)

Walnut crescent ~ Pozsonyi kifli

Hi Dears, 

As I promised I brought this tasty walnut crescent recipe, that we learnt in school. 

The shining is not as beautiful as it was supposed to be. (It should be fragmented as the beiglis, you can reach it, if you lubricate the top of them with egg yolk a few times, and you should wait until it dries, then lubricate again. I didn't wait enough,because I baked them late in the evening, and I just couldn't wait. :D ) 

So, let's move on, I think they are still beauties. :)

Yogurt & Chocolate cake 2 in 1

Hi! :)

As I promised I brought the recipe of this yin-yang cake I baked last time! 

To be honest, I haven't decided yet, if I like the result or not. 

I wanted to make something different, than usual, something more interesting, and I think it worked. :)

Untill the yogurt solidified with the gelatin, I had placed a baking sheet in the middle to separate it from the chocolate part.

It needed a night to cool in the fridge.

I baked this for my father's, my brother's and for my birthdays, as we celebrated together. :)

Confectioner studies - 3rd week

Hello! :)

This week we really baked many many goodies.

This week was all about shortbread! 

I brought You great photos as well, so come and check. 

It was fun!

My Birthday Cakes...

Hi Dears,

In my family, September is the month of birthdays. 

We celebrate 3 birthdays together, my Father's, my Brother's, and mine... :)

That's why I have the occasion for baking a cake for myself as well, as we hold it together. :)

Guess which cake I baked myself? :D 

(As a little help, two of them came from confectioneries, my Mom made one, and me one) So?

Confectioner studies 2nd week

Hi Dears!

Last week was really fun in school, as we actually started to work in the kitchen. :)

Confectionery studies - 1. week

Hi Dears! :)

I am SO super excited, to announce that my Confectionery studies began this week! :D

I decided, that I would keep You updated in the blog as well, in a regular, weekly post, and if I manage, with photos as well. :)

For those, who don't know about me much, I already have a Bsc./BA degree certificate as an Economist specialized in Catering and Hotel management. 

But now I'm started a 1 year long course, which will give me a prof. confectioner degree as well, at the end. This certificate will allow me to start my own confectionery sometime if I will be able to do it ... :D

 And the most important part, with this school, I will develop my baking skills on a higher level! :)

So, let's start with the first week...

Cocoa CheeseCake

Hi Dears! :)

I brought You these beauties, a little cake with lots of goodies inside.

I'm sorry for not posting for a while, omg, two weeks without cakes...

But as I mentioned, besides my job, I finally started my Confectioner studies. 

It will be 1 year studying in school and I will have an internship as well in a Confectionery. So I figured that I will post here regularly about the real kitchen studies. :) 

So as a kind of compensation, from now on You will have at least one post per week from me on the learning project. :D I am super excited about it. 

The first day was yesterday, although it was just theoretical, and those I have already learned in the University, so for me it will be easy to pass.

The real practices will be on every Wednesdays. :)  

And next year around this time I will take the biggest exam to become a professional Confectioner. :) 

OK, let's get back to this sweet. We celebrated our 5th anniversary with my Honey. We met in a high school camp and soon we were starting dating. 

Now, we are engaged and a couple of month ago we started looking for our own flat. We are still on the project. :) 

I baked this cake for him, and I wanted it to be special, so I used quite a lot of kinds of ingredients, but the good part is, that I managed to do it really fast.

3 cakes with one sponge

Hello Dears! 

I hope You enjoyed the summer, to finish it nicely I brought not just one, but 3 cakes for You! :)

As for us, we had our late-summer vacation last week, for 4 days.

It was short but we filled it with very-many adventures. :) 

It rained for two days, but we still could go sight-seeing, and to bathhouses, and we even took a little fairy train ride in the forest, so it was super joyful.

When we arrived back home, a birthday party was ahead of us, with 3 birthdays to celebrate, so I jumped in a baking project again.

As we hold it as a pic-nic party in the Margaret-island, I tried to prepare them to be easily take-aways. 

I used one main mixture, and as a last touch I flavored them differently. :) 

Let's see how...

Home-made muesli bars

Hello! :)

As September is coming, oh it's so sad to even think about it...

So, school is coming again. Even for me, although I got my diploma in March.

But, I am starting a 1 year course to become a prof. pastry chef, hurray! :D

And for the school-/ or workdays we need some fast breakfast ideas.

 This muesli is like that.

 You can prepare it the previous evening in about 30 minutes, and the fast breakfast take-away is ready. :) 

I was inspired by this recipe, although I changed the elements for those I had at home. You can add honey, cinnamon, apple pieces, raisins, and so many options you have to flavor the basic recipe... 

I'm sure you can prepare your favorite.

Salty sticks and biscuits

Hey Guys! 

I am obsessed with my new cookie-cutter stampers that I ordered through ebay...

I have a collection now, like I have cat molds, Marie cat face from Disney, animal molds, Easter set, flower set, and now I tried my fruit and summer collection that just arrived. 

I made a super easy, comfort food, You can call them snacks as well. The main taste is salty, but they are enhanced with cumin, that I love in snacks. :)

Our vacation at Lake Balaton

Hi Dears,

I was wondering how much You know about the Hungarian sea? :)

Here, I think most of us, from the little ones to the grandpas, and grandmas, everyone loves going to Lake Balaton for a week, or just some days, every summer. 

A summer without Balaton is like a wasted year, it's like a nonsense for the Hungarians. 

Of course if a family can afford going further, like to a real sea, to Italy or Croatia is another thing, but to go there by the motorway , it crosses the area of Lake Balaton as well, so they can have a rest there, too. :) 

This year we spent here just 3 days, but it was a real refreshment for us.

Cherry or Chocolate sponge cake

Hello Dears,

Look what a spongy, moist cake pieces I brought you today! :)

Sorry for not posting for a while, but if you work in hotel industry, you know weekends are on weekdays, and usually you get the two days separately, so I usually have a good sleep, do some household duties, watch some shows on TV, (of course recipe, food channels are the favorites of mine..) and the day is over... 

But don't worry, I didn't stop baking, just I am a bit late with posting these.

+ We are in another project besides the usual, we are looking for cute, small flats with my fiance. 

This will be our very first own property, so it's really exciting.

 (And tiring also, but it should be, right?)

Now let me introduce a bit this cake. It is a tricky cake, as I hided mashed peaches in the cake batter. :) It made it extra tasty, and soft. 

And even my boyfriend didn't recognize it, as he doesn't like any fruits in cakes. 

(That was the reason I made the cake half chocolaty, and the other half  with cherries, because I do love them in pastries, so everyone could enjoy the cake)

Lemonade in another way

Hi Dears,

I hope You all feeling fine in the warm middle of the summer. :)

I brought a bit of a refreshment today, and with it, 

I'm continuing the "How to use more the silicone ice-cube mold?" topic... 

Part II.

Firstly, I showed how You can freeze coffee in them to have ice-coffee any time You wish in 3 seconds.

Now it's kind of the same preparation, only with lemon juice to have a fresh cold lemonade. :)

Visiting the Chocolate Museum

Hello! :)

Guess where I was! 

I have been to a Chocolate Museum, and I can tell You it was like Heaven! :) 

We tasted so much chocolate, that usually I never consume half of that amount in a month, but since You are there, You just can't resist any of them.

I brought You many-many pictures, and a story of course, 

so let me start Your virtual-tour...

Peach cake with marzipan coverage

Hi Dears,

So I'm back from our 3-day-long holiday, we were at Lake Balaton, as You might know it from our FB page (where we can meet almost everyday, come and join :) ) 

But, before that we celebrated my Mother's birthday, and I baked here a light, summertime Peach cake. I covered it with yellow marzipan, and decorated it with marzipan flowers that I cut out with my new flower mold fondant cutters. 

(I ordered it from ebay, 4 pieces for just 1 dollar or so, and they make life so much easier, I love them. :) )

Coffee & Cocoa Cookie Sandwich

Hi Dears,

Last time I brought You an ice coffee,now here's a side biscuit for the morning coffee. 

The upper cookie is coffee flavored, the other is with cocoa and with chocolate, yum! :) I glued them together with cappuccino cream. In a box You can consume it for 2 weeks. (If You don't eat them immediately...)

Ice coffee

Hello! :)

Probably every one of You have made ice coffee someday. 

Everyone has preferences, with or without ice cream, vanilla or chocolate? With or without sugar, etc... For me it's usually with a lot of sugar, and if I have, with a cookie. :D

So, why I brought this recipe? Because I show a different way to do it. Quite simple, and fun! 

Pink sponge rolls

Hi Dears!

As I promised yesterday on our FB page, I have brought today a sponge roll recipe! 

I'm not usually a pink wearing person, but in the summer even that can change...  This is a happy color, so I thought that a dessert  like this would be cute. 

The cream and the sponge are so light, they melt in your mouth,

I made the rolls for my friends, as we were having a pic-nic in the City Park, which is by the way one of the most beautiful place in Budapest, with a castle, a lake and with a nice park. After that we headed to the Scorpions concert , so a bit rock was a nice contrast to this pink dessert. :D