Friday Sketchers Challenges

Hello every one here is another Friday Sketchers Challenge I took part in.

I start to like the Friday Sketchers cards more and more!

 Here is the lovely layout by Claudia. It might look quite tricky but when you take a good look at it, it is full of opportunity!

Here is my card.

It don’t have a title so I can use it for any event.

This is one of my favourite stamps!

It is called Demure and I think she is very pretty.

A glittered embossed border.

I’ve used my Cuttlebug, for the first time to decorate my card.

With my Cuttlebug I can emboss borders and patterns on paper.

This is a single border.

I’ve glittered the embossed border.

My mother is making my sister Danika an Ice cream pink dress-up dress and she used this ribbon.

I got the left-over ribbon.

I used some of my flowers collection to make it a perfect finish.

I love the Friday Sketcher Challenges because it is a challenge to make this type of card, and oh, I love challenges!

Crafty Greetings

Baking Chocolate Souffle Cakes

Hi every one, here is another cake I’ve baked, while doing my baking course. It’s not really a cake it’s individual little cakes for each person in a ramekin.

This was the last of the Sponge cakes.

These cakes are cakelike on the outside and hot and creamy on the inside - eating one is like eating warm cake with hot melting mousse on top. The souffle cakes are made in the same way as genoise, except that melted chocolate and butter are folded with the beaten eggs while the flour is being folded in. They are best when the outside is cakelike and the inside molten. To get this effect, freeze the souffles in their individual ramekins for at least a couple of hours before baking.

The unbaked cakes can be frozen, well covered, weeks before you need them. Just pull them out of the freezer and bake when you want to serve them. You can serve them in their ramekins or you can unmold them onto plates.

Chocolate Souffle Cakes

Make 6 servings

Ingredients:

Room-temperature butter and unsweetened cocoa powder for the ramekins

1/2 cup butter

220g (8 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup xylitol or granulated sugar

4 tablespoons Spelt flour or 3 tablespoons all purpose flour

Method:

Brush six ramekins with room-temperature butter.

Sift cocoa powder over a sheet of parchment paper, pour the powder into one of the ramekins.

Turn it until the inside is coated.

Pour the excess cocoa powder into the next ramekin and repeat until all have been coated.

Combine the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.

Stir with a whisk or silicone spatula until smooth and melted. Remove from the heat.

Combine the eggs and granulated sugar/xylitol.

Beat on high speed with a stand mixer for about 5 minutes or with a handheld mixer for about 25 minutes, or until the ribbon stage: when the beater is lifted, the mixture falls in a wide band onto the surface, forming a figure eight that stays for 5 seconds before dissolving.

Pour the egg mixture over the chocolate mixture and fold with a rubber spatula while sifting the flour over the mixture.

Alternate between adding flour - about one-fourth at a time - and folding until the flour is no longer visible.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared ramekins and smooth the tops. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or 425 degrees F.

Bake the souffle cakes for 17 to 20 minutes, until risen almost by half.

Serve while still warm. If you want to unmold the souffle cakes, run a knife around the inside edge or the ramekins. Turn the souffle cakes over onto plates, lift off the ramekins. Serve warm.

You can decorate it with a dash of cream like this.

I hope you like these cakes. It’s easy to make and you can freeze them for weeks, before baking.

Next I’m baking and studying butter cakes so come back next week and see!

Bon Appetite!

Friday Sketchers Challenges

Hi every one, here is another Friday Sketchers Challenges I did, this is one of my prettiest cards I have made.

Here is the lovely lay out by Jacque

And this is my card

It is the first time I use this stamp, it’s called: Country Garden, one of the Sugar Nellie Stamps that I’ve ordered from Funky Kinds.

It took my mom and I a while to choose the right colour papers that match and in the end it turned out well.

The big, glittered flowers, I bought for a Christmas card last year, but it was too big.

With this card it fits perfect!

The little flowers are the same ones I used in my previews two cards.

I glittered the girl’s blouse, the little bow in her hare and some of the flowers.

I’m enjoying the Friday Sketchers a lot!
Have a lovely weekend.

Crafty Greetings

Baking and Decorating An Angel Food Cake

For my mom’s birthday we baked an Angel Food cake out of the Baking book.

We had family the Sunday morning before my mom’s birthday (her birthday was on the Monday) and we had friends for supper so my mom suggested we bake the Angel Food cake

Angel Food cake, which is sponge cake made only with egg whites (no yolks), must be baked in an ungreased tube pan.

It can be made with a handheld mixer, but a stand mixer makes it easier.

Here is the recipe:

Makes one 9-inch tube cake

15 egg whites (2 cups)

Pinch of cream of tartar, unless using a copper bowl

1 cup sugar (we used Xylitol)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 3/4 cups spelt flour (or 1 1/4 cup cake flour)

Preheat the oven to180 C or 350 F.

TIP:
Separate the eggs like this:

Hit with a metal spatula or knife, quick not to soft or to hard

Like this

Carefully open the egg

Let the egg white fall in a small plate, do NOT let the egg yolk fall in too.
When egg yolk mixed with egg white, the fat in the egg yolk, will prevent the egg white to stiffen when beaten.

Beat the egg white and cream of tartar (if using) with a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, with a handheld mixer for about 8 minutes, or until medium peaks form.

Add the sugar (or Xylitol) in a steady stream and beat for about 2 minutes more in a stand mixer, or 5 minutes more with a handheld mixer, or until medium to stiff peaks form. Don’t over beat it-its better to under beat the egg whites slightly than to over beat them.

Sprinkle the lemon juice over the egg white mixture

And sift over the flour.

Alternate between adding flour-about one-forth at a time-and folding until the flour is no longer visible.

Carefully transfer the batter to the ungreased tube pan.

We had too much batter for our tube pan, so we put the excess batter in another cake pan.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a paring knife or skewer comes out clean and the top of the cake feels firm and spring back to the touch.

Turn the tube pan upside down and set over the neck of a bottle to cool, for 45 minutes. Our tube pan has three little pieces of metal which extend above the top of the pan, so that you do not have to set it over the neck of a bottle.

To remove the cake from the tube pan, roll it on its side and slide a knife or small spatula around the inside of the tube pan against the outside wall and around the tube in the middle. Invert the cake onto a cake rake and lift off the cake pan.
We had quite a challenge getting the cake out of the normal round cake pan, but we managed!

For decorating, we made a Butter Cream Filling and Dark Chocolate Ganache.

First spread a thin layer of butter cream over the Angel Food cake, and put it in the fridge to harden, for at least 4 hours.
Make sure you put on a very thin layer Butter Cream, because this is what can happen with a thick layer:

The butter cream melted and the slightly warm chocolate ganache kept falling off. (See the middle)

Chocolate Ganache

When it’s hot, Ganache has a consistency of rich chocolate sauce; when cold, it sets into a firm glaze. For this reason, Ganache can be used both as a sauce and as a glaze for cakes.

When Ganache is whipped, it becomes fluffy and pale and makes a perfect frosting.

Recipe:

Makes 1 ¾ cups or 2 cups when whipped, enough for 2 layers

225g (8 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.

Bring the cream to a simmer.

And pour it over the chocolate.
Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, or long enough to melt the chocolate.

Stir the ganache with a rubber spatula for 1 minute and then switch to a whisk and stir until smooth and the consistency of sour cream. If you are using the ganache to ice a cake, let it cool for 4 or 5 minutes before you use it (or set it over an ice water bath to cool quickly), so it thickens and adheres better to the cake. If you are using it as sauce, use it right away.

Put it on a cake rake under a site pan and start decorating the cake.

Here is the cake we baked in the normal cake pan with the excessive batter and it was just as pretty.

Bon Appetite!