DIY: Creative Christmas cupcakes!

T

 oday I made some cupcakes for the Christmas Eve dinner with my family and kin.
It has become a tradition that every year I create new desserts to amaze them, this year I tried to make some cupcakes, it's the first time for me and I'd like to show you the final result and the recipe I used.
I made vanilla cupcakes, here are the decorations I created:

   
Merry Christmas!!!

WHAT I USED:

For 12 vanilla cupcakes
- 4,5 oz. Butter
- 4,5 oz. Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 4,5 oz. Flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 spoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

For frosting:
- 2,7 oz. Butter
- 2 spoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 8 oz. powdered sugar

For decorations:
- White fondant
- Food dyes
- Red glitter for food
- Candied cherries

Step1: Cupcakes
First of all heat the oven to 374 F(190 ° C)
In a bowl combine the butter and the sugar, whisk until well blended

 Whisk the eggs

Add slowly the aggs to the butter together with a spoon of flour and whisk

Add the milk and all the flour and whisk until completely incorporated into the butter mixture

Now you can pour the batter in the baking cups

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

Here is my first cupcake ready to be decorated!

Step2: Frosting

In a bowl whisk the butter with the milk and add the powder sugar. Whisk to combine.
Cover the cupcakes with the frosting:

You can add food dyes to color the frosting, I left it white because I want some snow for Christmas!

Step3: Decorations!

I made polar bears with white fondant, here are the elements for the bodies:

Then I made penguins:

I hope my guests will like the cupcakes!

Polar bear Christmas cupcake

Polar bear cupcake with stars and cherries

Penguin Christmas cupcake

A more simple cupcake with a star decorated with red glitters:

Star cupcake with cherries

A total white cupcake covered with fondant with a simple white rose

White rose cupcake

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

DIY: Bio ricotta cheese Ice Cream!

As every year when the summer is coming, I like making ice cream at home with natural ingredients, today I would like to share with you my recipe for ricotta cheese ice cream...is simply exquisite!!
For this ice gream I use very fresh ingredients, ricotta cheese and cream that I take from a near dairy, this is very important to get a perfect ice cream! 

Here is the recipe:
You need
Ricotta cheese  14 ounce (400g)
Cream  8,8 ounce (250g)
Sugar   6,5 ounce (180g) 
Ice cream maker

 In a bowl put ricotta cheese and cream and mix well.

Add sugar and stir very well, no lumps should remain, the mixture should be quite liquid.
Now you can put it in your ice cream maker, will be ready in about half an hour.

It's wonderful with fruits, is delicious with raspberries!
Enjoy your ice cream!!

 

My mint cake recipe...with a surprise!

I love mint and I think this cake is really delicious, and very simple to do.
And makes a beautiful effect when cutting...with its wonderful mint pastel color. It is perfect for a birthday!

If  you also love mint I suggest you to try it!

And I want to introduce you my little, cute, green dragon!

Here is my Mint Cake recipe:

Ingredients:

For cake

3 eggs

1 jar of natural yogurt

important: jar will be used to measure all the ingredients

4 jars of flour

1/2 jar of seed oil

1/2 jar of mint syrup 

1 jar of coconut powder

1 packet of vanillin

1 packet of baking powder

For green icing

375g of icing sugar

water

green food coloring ( or yellow and blue to mix togheter to obtain green)

Preheat oven to 350 degree F (180 degree C).

In a large bowl beat 3 eggs until they are smooth and fluffy. 

Add 1 jar of natural yogurt and mix

Add 4 jars of flour and mix

Add 1/2 jar of mint syrup and mix togheter

Now the mixture have a beautiful green color!

Add 1/2 jar of seed oil

Add 1 jar of coconut powder and mix

Pour mixture into a round greased cake pan ( I used a 10"round cake pan). Bake at 350 degrees F(180 degree C) for 40-45 minutes or until done.  

Let the cake cool.

Meanwhile you can prepare the icing to cover the cake:

In a bowl pour 350g of icing sugar, add some drops of food coloring. Add slowly some water,
icing should not be too liquid.

 When the cake is cold you can cover it with icing.

Cake is ready but if you want you can decorate it, with candies, marshmallow, chocolate...Use your creativity!

You can also create a cute creature to decorate your cake, or flowers, hearts, pois... I thought to decorate my cake with a cute green dragon made with almond paste, a typical sicilian recipe, but also fondant is perfect to use, here is a recipe to make fondant:

http://thecookduke.com/fondant-recipe/

Almond paste is made of almonds, sugar and water

I colored it with food colorings( yellow + blue to make green)

I modeled the dragon body, his head, his paws, his ears and his tail...

I added some details

And here is the finished dragon!

To make brown paste I added some chocolate powder.

Do you like mint?
Do you like this recipe?
Let me know if you tried it and what do you think!
Have fun with cooking!

It is autumn, time to grape harvest and “Sughi”!! ( a delicious recipe…)

I

n my region, Emilia Romagna, it’s time to grape harvest. 

Farm wagons full of grapes go to wineries for pressing and processing into Lambrusco, a typical wine of this area.

At this time of harvest, for generations, grapes are squeezed in farmhouses also to do a traditional grapes juice pudding, called “Sugo”(plural: "sughi").

Grapes are well washed and grains squeezed to obtain grape juice.

This is my grandmother recipe, that my mother follow, as she taught her.

I love the colors of this recipe: the beautiful purple of the grape juice, the bright colors of the grapes, are perfect to start autumn…

First of all grape juice is placed in a bowl.

•´¯`*♥*´¯`•The secret is: to each glass of grape juice correspond a flour spoon, so you have to count how many juice glasses there are and add the same number of flour spoons.

Gradually add the juice to the flour, stirring all the time not to form lumps.

You can also add some sugar, but if the grape juice is sweet, like this year, it’s not necessary.

I love this mix of colors!

 

Wonderful purple!!

 

This mixture is poured into a steel pan and cooked over low heat, always stirring with a wooden spoon.

When it boils, is cooked.

With a ladle is poured into dishes, bowls and mugs.

Leave it to cool.

Then it keeps in the fridge for a week, but I have never achieved this record, they have always been eaten first!

For me it’s the taste of autumn, taste and color of my land, that makes me feel the weight of lost things.