Citrus Snowballs

Here is another sweet recipe for cold, winter evenings at home. These snowballs are surprisingly tasty, sweet, orange, crunchy cookies which will be a good match for hot tea/cocoa, blanket aaand book or dreams ;)
Also, if you're running out of time, they're very easy and quick to make which gives them another big +. 
Sprinkled with powdered sugar or glucose, look like a snowball on a table :) And children will love them! Just make sure they're not using them as snowballs ;)

There original recipe is here, though I've made quite a lot of changes, such as replacing butter with margarine which I tend to do very often recently.

Ingredients:

• 250g of margarine
• 100g of powdered sugar (+ more to sprinkle the cookies)
• 1 teaspoon of orange extract
• 100g of chopped walnuts
• 100g of candied orange skin
• 375g of flour

Preparation:

1. Prepare a baking tray and put baking paper all over it.
2. Start preheating the oven to 180C.
3. Take a mixer and its bowl. Put margarine and powdered sugar inside and beat till bright and fluffy (around 10 minutes).
4. Add orange extract, walnuts, candied orange skin and mix till well combined.
5. Add flour and mix (or knead) again till well combined.
6. Start making balls (around 2 teaspoons of dough for 1 ball) and place on previously prepared baking tray (they might be placed close to each other as they won't grow).
7. If the oven is ready, bake for 10-15 minutes till golden brown.
8. Cool down on a wire rack.
9. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
10. Bon Appetit!

Walnut Circles

These are very nice, crunchy cookies, which might be prepared in any shape desired, if only You have a cookie cutter :) Margarine gives all of the bakery that characteristic, outrageous taste that makes you want another cookie :) I think they're wonderful for kids, especially when cut in a nice, (now) Christmas-theme shape :) Of course it is possible to decorate it with icing sugar, making Snowmen, Santas, Reindeers and other wonders (yes, yes, pinterest appears to be very helpful here ;) ), if only You have enough time and stomachs enjoying very sweet cookies.

Slightly changed recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 150g margarine
• 75g of powdered sugar
• 230g of flour
• 1 egg yolk
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla or orange extract
• 75g of walnuts, chopped
• 75g of candied orange skin

Preparation:

1. Take a big bowl, put margarine, powdered sugar, flour, egg yolk, salt and extract inside and knead.
2. Add walnuts and orage skin.
3. Prepare a baking pan, cover with bakig paper.
4. Start preheating the oven to 200C.

Here - two methods:

1. For circles - divide the dough into 2-3 pieces and make cylinders (the diameter of the cylinder is the diameter of the cookie), put in the freezer till it completely freezes. 
2. When ready, cut into slices, around 0,5-1 cm thick. The dough won't grow, so the cookie will look absolutely the same.
3. For cookie cutter shapes: put in the freezer till it is really hard but not completely frozen.
4. Take the rolling pin and roll out the dough to 0,5-1cm thick (use a little flour if neccesary). 
5. Cut the shapes.
6. Put the cookies on a baking pan, bake for 10 minutes in 200C.
7. Cool down, decorate with icing sugar if desired.
8. Bon appetit! :)

Winter Snowballs

Winter is coming, snow is slowly falling down from the sky and what's more important Christmas is coming as well, so here is another sweet recipe for cold winter evenings at home. These are surprisingly tasty, sweet, cinnamon crunchy cookies which will be a good match for hot tea, cocoa and blanket ;) Another huge advantage - if you're running out of time, these are very easy cookies and quick to make. Sprinkled with powdered sugar or glucose, look like a snowball on a table :)

There original recipe is here, though I've made quite a lot of changes, such as replacing butter with margarine which I tend to do very often recently.

Ingredients:

• 250g of margarine
• 100g of powdered sugar (+ more to sprinkle the cookies)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1,5 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 100g of chopped walnuts
• 100g of candied orange skin
• 375g of flour

Preparation:

1. Prepare a baking tray and put baking paper all over it.
2. Start preheating the oven to 180C.
3. Take a mixer and its bowl. Put margarine and powdered sugar inside and beat till bright and fluffy (around 10 minutes).
4. Add vanilla extract, walnuts, cinnamon, candied orange skin and mix till well combined.
5. Add flour and mix (or knead) again till well combined.
6. Start making balls (around 2 teaspoons of dough for 1 ball) and place on previously prepared baking tray (they might be placed close to each other as they won't grow).
7. If the oven is ready, bake for 10-15 minutes till golden brown.
8. Cool down on a wire rack.
9. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
10. Bon Appetit!

Sweet Meringue Plum Cake

I always wait so impatiently for plum season. I do love preparing plum cakes, they're always so delicious (even though I'm not really a plum-fan ;) )! I know I've waited too long to share this cake with You, but I hope that - at least for some of You - it is not too late :) Besides, it is possible to use frozen plums ;)

This is another wonderful and elegant cake from KwestiaSmaku, which I share with You today and also I do recommend to try this one, right after the very best plum cake, which You can find here.

Ingredients:

• 250g of flour
• 50g of sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 200g of margarine
• 4 egg yolks
• 1kg of plums (without kernels, cut into halves) fresh or frozen (need to be defrost)

Budyń/Custard (it is possible to double the amount of custard in this cake):

• 1 packaging of vanilla custard (40g)
• 500ml of milk
• 2 tablespoons of sugar

Meringue:

• 4 egg whites 
• 200g of sugar
• 3 teaspoons of potato starch 

Optionally - one of these:

• A handful of hazelnuts, to sprinkle the top (I skipped it)
• almond flakes (to sprinkle the fruit) 
• shredded coconut (to sprinkle the fruit or to mix with meringue)

Preparation:

Dough:

1. Start preheating the oven to 170C.
2. Prepare a rectangular baking pan (around 26x36 cm), grease it and put baking paper all over it.
3. Take a big bowl, put flour, sugar, salt and baking powder inside. Mix. Add cold butter and knead till you get crumbles.
4. Add egg yolks and knead again.
5. Distribute evenly all over the bottom of previously prepared baking pan and bake in preheated oven for around 20 minutes, till it becomes gold.
6. Take it out from the oven.

Custard + plums:

1. Prepare the custard as the instructions on a packaging says (using 500ml of milk + 2 tablespoons of sugar). 
2. When the custard is ready, pour it all over the previously baked bottom.
3. Add plums, cover the entire cake bottom with them (there is no need to wait till the custard cools down). Make 2 layers of plums, one on another.
4. Optionally - sprinkle with almond flakes or shredded coconut if desired. Set aside.

Meringue + finishing the cake:

1. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside, beat, adding sugar gradually, till it stiffens (around 10-15 minutes). At the end, sieve potato starch inside and mix till smooth.
2. Here - if You haven't and You do fancy to do it - you can mix in some shredded coconut.
3. Distribute the meringue all over the top of the plums.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, setting the temperature as previously, on 170C.
5. After 20 minutes, decrease the temperature to 60C, turn on the hot air cooking, (optionally sprinkle the top with hazelnuts) and bake for another 20 minutes.
6. Take out from the oven.
7. Bon Appetit! :)

Carrot Cake #1

When the owner of MojeWypieki says this is the best carrot cake you've ever eaten, then... it really is the best carrot cake you'll ever eat, if you decide to prepare it. What a taste, my Godness! I can't believe how quickly did this cake disappear! I'm lucky I managed to snap some pictures for You!

This is a must-bake. It looks wonderful, it is possible to decorate it in many different ways, it can also be served as a birthday cake. 

What's more, the wonderful taste - thanks to all the spices - gives it a little bit an aroma of Christmas... :)

Here is the source, I changed it just a little bit :)

Before baking:

• This cake is for a small springform (diameter -> 20 cm), if You wish to make it much bigger, it is neccessary to double all the ingredients.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 2/3 glass of flour
• 1/2 glass of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinammon
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/3 glass of oil 
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 glass of walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 glass of chopped pineapple (fresh or tinned one)
• 1 full glass of ground carrots

For the filling&top:

• 250g of philadelphia cheese
• 6 tablespoons of butter (room temperatured)
• 1,5 glass of powdered sugar, sieved
• 1/2-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Decoration ideas:

• Any pattern desired made of cinnamon powder or cocoa
• Walnuts
• Edible carrots
• Chocolate flowers
• ... :)

Preparation:

1. All the ingredients needs to be room temperatured.
2. Take a springform, grease it and put baking paper all over. Set aside.
3. Take one big bowl, sieve into it all the 'dry ingredients' inside (flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, spices)
4. In another bowl, beat eggs and oil.
5. Mix both bowls, add carrot, walnuts, pineaples and stir precisely with a spoon.
6. Pour the dough into the springform and bake in 175C for 30-40 minutes (to the point when the toothpick comes out dry).
7. Set aside, in the springform, to let it cool down.
8. Meanwhile, prepare the filling&top.
9. Take a mixer and its bowl, put all the ingredients inside and mix till bright. (It is advisable firstly to add 1/2 teaspoon of the extract and check if it isn't already too strong).
10. When the cake cooled down completely, open the springform and cut the cake lengthways into two pieces.
11. Put half of the filling on the first piece of cake, cover with the other one, distribute the remaining filling on the top and decorate.
12. Keep in the fridge (though the filling is strong and will remain as beautiful as it is in a room temperature for a quite long time).
13. Bon Appetit ! :)

Sunflower cake

Ohh delicious! Remains in a constant battle with Gourmet Sensation ;) I have no idea which one is better! Easy to make, will smitten all your guests ;) 

P.S. here is a small secret: as this cake contains sunflower seeds, it is claimed that it is very beneficial for men (prostate).

This particular recipe is my cousin's own :) 

Greetings for you my Dear and thank you for sharing the recipe :)

Ingredients:

Sponge cake:

• 7 egg whites
• 7 egg yolks
• 1 glass of sugar
• 2/3 glass of baking cocoa
• 2/3 glass of flour

Sunflower frosting, part 1:

• 200g sunflower seeds (or 100g sunflower seeds + 100g walnuts)
• 100g of butter
• 8 tablespoons of sugar
• 4 tablespoons of milk

Sunflower frosting, part 2:

• 300g of butter
• 1 tin of fudge

Optional ingredients:

• 1/3-1/2 glass of vodka

Preparation:
Sponge cake:

1. Take a rectangular baking pan, put baking paper all over it. Put aside.
2. Take a bowl, sieve flour and cocoa to that bowl, twice.
3. Put egg yolks in another bowl and stir/beat, so that they link. Put aside.
4. Start preheating the oven to 170C.
5. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside and beat on a low rotation for around 2-3 minutes, till the foam appears. At this moment start adding sugar, spoon after spoon. The mixer can work faster right now. Now beat the eggs for additional 8 minutes.
6. After those 10 minutes or so, while still mixing, keep adding egg yolks, one spoon after another, making sure that the egg yolks linked precisely with egg whites before adding another spoon. 
7. Turn off the mixer and using a spatula, slowly, gently, in 3 parts, add flour+cocoa to the mixer's bowl.
8. Pour the dough into previously prepared baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, checking, with a toothpick, if it is ready as it may take a little bit more or less time.*
9. Take the cake out from the oven and throw on a kitchen's surface.
10. Cool down.

* and, as always - if you see that your toothpick is absolutely clean and the cake seems ready - don't hesitate to take it out from the oven. Also, if you know that your oven tends to burn the top of the cake and you can see that your top starts to burn, put foil all over that top, it will prevent it from burning, and keep baking. On the other hand - if your oven tends to burn the bottom - put a baking tray under your baking pan with a cake.

Sunflower frosting, part 1:

1. Take a pot, put butter, sunflower seeds and milk inside, boil.
2. Take a baking paper, put the mixture on it and bake in the oven for 20 minutes in 180C.
3. After that time, take the sunflower seeds out from the oven, let it cool down and crush into small pieces. 

Sunflower frosting, part 2:

1. Take a mixer and its bowl, beat the butter (around 8 minutes). Add fudge, mix again till it links.
2. Add some sunflower seeds-mixture (part 1), leaving some part of it to sprinkle the top, and mix again.
3. Here is a moment to add alcohol, if desired. Preferably - add one tablespoon of vodka, taste if it is strong enough for you - if yes, the frosting is ready, if not - keep adding till you feel it is enough.

Finishing:

1. Distribute the frosting all over the cake, sprinkle with remaining sunflower seeds mixture from part 1.
2. Store in the fridge, covered.
3. Bon Appetit! ;)