Carrot cake 2

Hi Dears,

I brought today another carrot cake recipe, I recently baked it for one of my colleague's farewell party. It's a little bit different from my first one. 

(If you wish to compare, click here.) 

You have might realized that I stopped posting recipes here this year, the reason is that I am quite busy to try out and make experiments with new recipes. I do bake regularly, but I tend to bake my favorite recipes over and over with only slight changes. 

The reason of my busyness, is that I have started another school, this time I study graphic design, where I can develop my artistic skills. :) 

You can view my continuously growing art portfolio here: 

https://hajnalkart.blogspot.com/

Also, I have found a new hobby, while I am taking care of a lovely dwarf hamster. I started making  short videos of him, with gentle music in the background. The aim is to create something cute, funny, calming and safe for children to watch. 

If you wish to check them click: Hamster Tales

Now let's get back to the cake...

Baking our wedding cake ♥

Hello Friends! 

The most beautiful day in my life (so far) was in June, we got married with the love of my life.

I was so excited, I wanted to do nearly everything by myself, the decor, the organizing, and yes... The cake! Now I wouldn't suggest it to any brides to bake their own wedding cake, as the days before the big day are already stressful enough, but it was so nice that I could tell to our guests, that I BAKED IT! 

The cake itself was a 4 layered cake, each layer with different tastes. And I baked a separate gluten-free cake, about 50 muffins for the dessert table and 160 heart shaped gingerbread as Thank you gifts.

Yes, I know, I am weird to do all this, but I loved baking them. The most stressful part of this was the way to the venue, as we had to deliver all this with our car, with the rest of the decoration and wedding dress. Fortunately, we could divide all these in two cars. 

So, In this post I will show you more details how I baked this huge cake, and the rest of the sweets. (And some insight into our wedding)

Gingy house project

Hi Dears,

So, I baked Gingerbread the first time of this year.

I know it is not even winter, yet, and You don't want to hear about Xmas yet, (do You?), but I have a deadline for baking a gingerbread house for the Advent season.

We will have a Gingy town, a complete town from gingerbread houses, in a big shopping mall in the centre of Budapest (in the Bálna from December 6). So, I participated in this event, and I have to give this house to the city, so all the children, families , and any passers-by can see our creations in one beautiful gingy town.

I am so excited to see my little house in a complete mini-town.

I brought You some pictures about the preparation, and of course I baked "normal" gingies as well. :D

Toffifee Cake

Hi Dears!

I hope You are not sick, like me, now. I'm just sitting here with my headache and flue, sipping hot tea, and a thought just came to me, to post this recipe to You.

A good cake can be a medicine, right?

I baked this cake twice, two days after each other.

Both were birthday cakes for my fiancé. One for his colleagues (Such a good employee, I think working with him can be great, he even brings the cake for his own birthday :D ) 

And they liked it sooo much, that he wanted the same cake for the family celebration.

First, I was just experiencing, but for the second I baked it consciously, and the result was even better.

Cream Bun - Képviselő fánk (Congressmen Bun)

Hi Dears!

Today I brought another popular Hungarian confection that we call "Képviselő fánk", which means Congressmen Bun.

To be honest I didn't really care why it had its unusual name for a bakery product, we just call it like that, no big deal. 

But as I am writing this recipe for you now, I looked it up, and I found the explanation. This product became popular in the 19th century, when café houses were common, and people could afford to buy confections on a daily basis. Even the buffets had cakes and these creamy bakery products in their variety, and according to the legend, this was the most popular bun among the congressmen in the buffet of the House of Parliament. 

Now I wonder what is the menu there, if there are any buffets today... :)

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!!!

Cottage cheese Cake with nectarine

Hi Dears,

I have 2 months till my final exam at my pastry school, and I still have some pastries, cakes, and creams to practice.

Last week I baked two of them, neros (which are little soft biscuits filled with jam - you can have the recipe in my following post) and this Cottage cheese cake. 

We celebrated my fiancé's grandma's Name Day as well, so the cake was my gift to her. :)

I am short in time as now I have a full time job, and at home we are under a home renovation. 

If I had more time I would cover the cake side with cream and maybe cover it with almonds, it would make the cake even more beautiful and would give a finished look. Anyway, I didn't bake it, just to look at it, we cut it right away, I took it from the fridge, and believe me it was tasty! In this hot summer it was great refreshment as we cooled it for 3 hours in the fridge.

How to make a Cat Cake

Hi Dears,

Today I brought You an easy technique for making a cat shaped cake. :)

Little pies

Hi Dears,

I brought a new recipe for pies, and great personal news!

 I am the chosen cook of the week on the biggest Hungarian recipe sharing site - at Nosalty.hu! Yay! A whole article is about me, with my cakes... http://www.nosalty.hu/ajanlo/het-szakacsa-habcsok-mezi

But this recipe of the pies is only Yours, it's not on that site, yet. :D 

I baked them in muffin trays, but You can bake it in one big tart form, if you prefer those. I used fresh fruits for the filling, and the result was really tasty.

Visiting the SÜTI. Home-made-style cakes, shop & manufactury

Hi Dears, 

It's time to introduce a really nice little Cake Shop & manufacture the SÜTI.  

I have visited it yesterday, and tried one of it's cakes...

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. :) ) 

Chestnut Cake

Hi Dears! 

I brought You one of my favorite cake, the one with chestnut purée and whipped cream. The sponge is a brown cocoa sponge cake, which is cut to 3 layers, and filled with this chestnut cream. 

The taste is amazing, the preparation is easy, so I can only recommend this recipe. :)

I was playing with the decoration, I hope I didn't overdo it. :D

 I decorated it with chestnut hearts, which have a circle of chocolate on them, and I draw chocolate pastilles on it, with a twist of the other cake, the Eszterházy's style. 

Let's see the preparation...

Confectionery studies - 10th week

Hi Dears!

I haven't posted of the last 5 weeks of my studies, as this period was so busy with all the Holidays, exams and working in the Café.

But now I will show you the details, because these courses were really exciting, and I learnt many many tasty desserts.

This is the second post about cakes. We learnt 7 different cakes that day. (I haven't got the chance to make a photo of the 7th, as it was quickly cut and we ate it... :) ) 

Apple Pie with walnut

Happy New Year! 

Any plans for the future?

I only had one vow for this year... I will do more sport activities! :D

I am lucky to gain only just a few weight while I'm baking and obviously eating a lots of cookies, cakes, pies... etc.

But anyway, I can see on myself the result.

A year ago I was quite sporty, as I did aerobics every week (even twice a week). Then I started working full time, and I was much more tired than at school. 

But this year, I will keep this vow. I even started with a full aerobic program, and my thighs are killing me now. :D 

But no worries, I won't start a diet, I will keep on baking. :D

Like this apple pie got so many praises from my family, then I have to share it with You the recipe. The base recipe was the original apple pie from my confectionery book. I only changed it at the decoration part.

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.