Afternoon tea party at home

 

I was thinking that after a long time, I might continue posting my baking adventures here. :) 

Since I started my graphic design business, working at home, 

I might have more time to keep up with it. 

We have visited London recently, and we wanted to recreate the atmosphere of their traditional "Afternoon Tea" for our families.

I made sandwitches, I baked English scones, and little desserts. And of course we served tasty rich flavours of teas, and a bubbly champagne and we listened to nice music.

Even though you need time to prepare everything, it is much more affordable having afternoon tea at home. 

I brought the scone recipe I followed, and the pink sandwich cookie recipe.

Nero

Hi Dears,

Today, I brought You little, sweet sandvich-looking darlings, that you can find in all of the traditional confectioneries in Hungary. 

When I was a trainee in one of them, for almost half a year, I filled thousands of these with jam. The fun part (which I think is the fun part) is to create the shells with the decorating bag, was always the professional's job, as that was the part where the neros could go wrong. Each and every neros should be the same size to look beautiful in a plate.

The other big challenge while baking it, is actually the baking time. One second you see them unbaked, in the next second they are burned. 

If you ask any confectioners which product burns the most, they would answer the neros.  

However, the customers love them, and so do we.

Why? After you fill them with jam, give them 2-3 hours (in the confectioneries they even give them 2-3 days to let them soften) and you will have the softest, and the tastiest  little sweet sandwiches of the World. 

I don't really know why we have the 'Macaron craziness' everywhere, when we have a much more delicious sweet, yes if you like the colors, you can color this sponge, too. And yes you can use any kind of filling for this sweet, too, like ganache, cream, etc..

So, Neros I am cheering for You, to win over Macarons!!!

Wedding Cupcakes with decorated cookies

Hello Dears, 

Last weekend, we were at a beautiful wedding ceremony, and party! 

(It was my second time to attend to one, and this time I was one of the bridesmaids, too! :) ) 

So as I am a pastry cook to be, what else could have been my gift, than some kind of desserts? 

The main color theme of the wedding was green with orange, that's why I've chosen the green cupcake liners, and even the cupcakes top were covered with green frosting.

Isler Cake

Hi Dears!

It's the end of March already? 

So much had happened since I last wrote here...

For example we had 3 birthday and 4 namedays to celebrate, for which I had to bake of course... :D 

I have 8-10, I don't really know for sure, how much, but I have a lot recipes to share with You! :) 

Another big happening in my life was to finish my internship in the Caffé I was trained for 5 months. Normally people would have a small break now, but me? Why would I? I'm starting tomorrow my extra internship in the hotel I was working before, as a receptionist, only now I will be confectioner trainee. :) 

But let's get back to this cake. This is my own idea, a revolutionary, to use the Isler pastry to make a cake.

The original recipe is here, for the little isler biscuits.

Pathés

Hi Dears, 

Do You know what's your nightmare cookie?

The pathé... It's so delicious, and moist, and it's only one bite right? You always want another one... So bye bye diet, it will kill that all...

But it worth it, I promise.

The best about them is the technique, as we can create dozens of different styles and forms, I studied this at school, so the recipe is their invention. :)

Let's see how to bake them...

Macaron challenge

 Hi Dears!

As You might know, I am not a macaron expert. 

I tried it a few times, the first became something totally different from a real macaron (pictures here), and the next was kind of a disaster (story here). 

But I found an easy-looking recipe on a Hungarian blog StreetKitchen. 

She makes it in a so easy way, I had to try it once more. I wanted to bake it for Valentine's Day for my fiancé.

The only question is, will I manage this challenge now? :D 

4 pastries with 1 dough

Hello Guys! 

Today I will show a fabulous, multifunctional dough, that we can use for dozens of pastries. Both for sweet and salty. 

And what's even better, this is the original recipe that most of the pastry shops use as well. I learnt it in the confectioner school, and the professional name is the"Blundel- dough " 

( You can read more about it in this post where I wrote about that course. )

The pastries that I show here are the mini versions of the original recipes, as I thought these are more edible in small sizes if you are serving them for guests. 

My boyfriend was amazed how quick I could present 4 really different pastries which tasted so good, and they looked nice as well.

 Finally, I could feel proud. :D (You know it's still hard to compete with his mother and grandmother in baking projects... I can thank this to my confectionery studies. :) ) 

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... 

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.

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. :)

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. :)

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...)

Bounty Cookie

Hi Dears! :)

Do You have a plan for the summer? I know You will work, we all do, but any plans for a vacation? 

This Bounty cookie reminds me of summertime, as Coconut, palm-trees grow in Mediterranean areas, just where people usually go for a summer vacation.   

I always wanted to go far away, to a hidden spot, preferably near a lake, surrounded by hills or mountains. 

Easter Cookies with cinnamon

Happy Easter My Dear Readers! :)

I hope You were all with Your family, and friends, having a picnic, or maybe you went egg-hunting? :D 

Here, the custom for Monday: for the boys, they study some little Easter poems, rhymes, and they visit the girls, douse them with buckets of water/cologne, to ensure they become good wives and bare many children. 

For that, they receive beautifully decorated eggs, that girls prepared for them days before the celebration. 

(But now chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies are also popular)

 So, how do You celebrate Easter?

For the occasion I brought chicken and bunny cookies, for which I used cute cookie stampers. :) 

Heaven cake with marscapone, cottage cheese and strawberries

Hi Dears! 

Do You have a dessert custom for Easter? 

Since it will be next week, I'm thinking about it for a while, what to bake/make for dessert. 

Here the usual dishes are boiled eggs with ham and milk loaf. 

But milk loaf is not a dessert in my opinion, it's a really tasty bread-like pastry, which happens to be sweet. We eat it as a side-dish with the ham, and sometimes with jam or with the nice company of honey and butter. 

Usually I bake a cake, or funny, fruity muffins for the occasion. Like my Bunny cake which I made 2 years ago. 

So if You have any suggestion, please leave a comment here. :) 

But now I brought a no-bake cake, that I made for a family gathering (again). 

It was a huge success, with the light creamy marscapone and cottage cheese.

 It was really like a tasty cloud from Heaven, and the strawberries were like the angels sitting perfectly on the cotton wool-like-cake.

For the base of the cake I used diabetic crushed cookies, just because I had them, but any cookies would make it perfect. :)

Cottage Cheese Biscuits "Túrós pogácsa"

Hi Dears! :)

I hope You are fine, and You can enjoy the beautiful flowers around You.

 I got so pretty tulips, roses, bromeliads for women's day that our kitchen is like a fairyland now. :D

 (A lot of thanks for the gentlemen of the family and friends for that. :D) 

- I will make a photo of  them tomorrow I promise, and post it on Facebook, because now it's evening and it's too dark. -

Also, I have an even BIGGER milestone to announce!

I had my Graduation on Saturday! YAY! I made it. 3 and a half year of full of studying.

 You know, tourism and catering.  I'm now an Economist. :) 

Sounds so clever. :D

 -photo will be of me at the end of the post-

The only thing I'd like now is a great job. Cross fingers for me, pls. :D

OK, let's speak about this biscuit, it's one of my usual recipe for salty snack. The cottage cheese makes it even more soft, so I recommend using it! :)