Pancake Talk

As I seem to be enjoying cooking and baking quite a lot lately, I still wanted to sneak in tiny little "recipe" that I made up on the go this morning.

Since my body does not really enjoy too much flour, I just mashed a banana, added an egg and then put in some stevia, cinnamon and a couple of blueberries. I topped it off with a tiiiiiiny bit of sugar-beets-syrup to add some sweetness. I always make my coffee with almond milk and add a little of white chocolate spread.

Soooo, while snacking on my pancakes I read up on the bachelor drama that happened monday night. Whoa, what a finale. I have to say I tried to believe in Juan Pablo as much as I could until then, but when the "glad I didn't choose her" came out of his mouth, I was shocked. We obviously don't get to see everything that's going on, so I try to keep an open mind and I still don't think he is a bad person and who cares what I think about him anyway (at least he shouldn't). The one thing I kept thinking was how ironic it is for the network to have taken a leap of faith with Juan, since viewers never got to see much of him before he became the bachelor, yet he let them down so much. Let's just hope that all of the women participating (including Nikki), came out of the process well and healthy-hearted.

On a different and much more important note. Our lawyer is sending out our last package concerning the immigration today. MAN! About time we get some good news! This means for us that we're gonna get an appointment at the consulate very soooon (I am hoping I will have the interview by the end of this month). That would mean I could probably fly to my husband early April and celebrate easter with his family! We had so much fun last year, I really want to go back there bad! At the same time though, it is getting harder for me to say goodbye to my family here, especially my mom. We've become so close over the past couple of months (moving and renovating DOES really bring you closer together). She moved into her new house (including a vacation apartment, check it out here) and is really happy here. I feel like moving into a place that she loves, in a city that she loves has changed her so much; it has always been her dream to live in a house and she can finally feel like she achieved this dream. I'm so proud of her! And the vacation apartment looks great!

I am hoping all of your weeks are going well!

xx Juli

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Blueberry Cake

For my grandma's* birthday I wanted to make something really special, so I skimmed through one of her baking recipe books and found this awesome recipe for a really impressive looking layered cake.
The recipe was really confusing, but it worked after all. I cannot not share this with you guys, so here's the recipe (in my altered version). Enjoy :)

What you need:

Batter:
2 (big) egg yolks
3/10 cups sugar (60g)
1/4 cup margarine (60g)
1/2 cups flour (60g)
2 tbsp wheat starch (15g)
1 tsp baking powder

Meringue:
5 egg whites
1 pinch salt
1 cup sugar (200g)
1 cup almond slices (100g)

Sponge Cake:
4 eggs
3/5 cup sugar (120g)
1/2 cup flour (60g)
1/4 cup wheat starch (25g)
1/3 cup cornstarch (40g)
2 tsp baking powder

Cream:
2 3/4 cups cream (650g)
1 tbsp powdered sugar
1 pack lemon drink powder

Other: 
1 glass blueberries
1 pack vanilla pudding
1 lemon
1 cake ring
1 or 2 or 3 springform pans

Preheat your oven to 320° (160 Celsius)

Soooo, you wanna start with your batter by whipping margarine and sugar until nice and creamy, then add your eggs. Add baking powder and flour. Pour into an 11 inch (28cm) springform pan. (I secretly used a 10 inch one, that's why the cake got 'thicker'. Also, I put a sheet of baking paper on the bottom of every springform used).

Now for your meringue, add your salt to the egg whites, then whisk until stiff. Slowly start adding the sugar (not all at once) until the mass becomes shiny. Pour onto your batter, spread your almonds on top (I think it looks nicer when it's messy) and bake for 35 minutes. When taking your meringue out pay attention to the temperature in your kitchen. If it's too cold it will slump a little.

While your batter is in the oven, you can prepare the sponge cake. Separate the eggs, beat your eggs with salt until stiff and combine with 2 tbsp sugar. Whisk egg yolks with the rest off your sugar until creamy. Pour egg white mass onto egg yolk mix. Sift your flour, wheat starch, cornstarch and baking powder onto mix and whisk carefully. Pour into your springform pan and bake for 25 minutes. After it cooled down you can separate your sponge horizontally into 2 separate sponges (I absolutely cheated and just poured the mix into two separate springforms because I know I suck at cutting).

Take one of your sponges and surround with a cake ring.  Heat up the blueberries on your stove, add the pudding powder and whisk until it starts to thicken, then pour onto sponge. While everything is cooling, whip your cream and add your powdered sugar and lemon drink powder (I used the ones you can make hot lemon drinks with).  When the blueberries have cooled down, spread half your cream unto the blueberries, take your second sponge and lay onto cream. Spread the rest of the cream onto that and lastly carefully put the meringue/batter on top.

To decorate I made little whip cream mountains, thinly sliced a lemon and neatly put the fruit on top of those little mountains. Voilá.

Everyone really enjoyed this cake and while it took me some time to make it (I swear, those instructions were really weird) it was totally worth seeing the look on my grandma's face. Priceless :)


xx Juli

*(Max and I have a family really close to us, and we consider them family, so don't get confused if I call people "grandma" instead of "the mother of my mother's best friend who I see almost every day".)