2012-02-25

The Lemon cake : one of my favourite classics


Each one has its own recipe, its own version of that cake. More or less buttery, acid etc...
I hadn't done it in a few months and suddenly I realized it shoud be on my bog since it's a recipe I've kept in my cookbook for a while now :)
I hope you'll like it as much as I do. Its advantage is that it can be baked in different kind of mold, 
it's really easy to make and it suits all seasons.

Why don't I have an lemon or an orange tree in my garden ?

  Preparation    Easy, it takes 15 minutes to put in the oven

  Tasting    I really do love that cake :) So fresh but amost like a pound cake, delicious !

  To conclude    It's definitly a recipe that I'll keep all my life


Serves 10 to 12
   You will need :   
1 stick softened unsalted butter (4oz)
- vous pouvez arrondir à 100gr en France -
2/3 cup white sugar (4.6oz/130gr)
1 cup 1/3 +1tbsp flour (6oz/175gr)
4tbsp milk :)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 organic meyer lemon
2tsp baking powder

For the icing
2/3 cup powdered sugar (100gr)
lemon juice

Making the cake
Grate the lemon zests. Reserve


Preheat the oven at 360°F
Butter your mold with a cooking spray

Using a food processor
Mix butter and sugar, then add in eggs. Add in the milk, the vanilla. 
Add in the flour and the zests. Mix everything at least 2 minutes.

By hand
Work butter and sugar until creamy,
stir in the eggs until homogeneous.

Stir in milk, vanilla.
Stir in the flour with the baking powder and the zests.


Pour it in your mold unil 2/3 full
Bake 30 to 45 minutes

Check cooking at 30 minutes by inserting a toothpick in the cake to check the moist.
Let cool down 20 minutes before turning out.


Making the lemon icing
Mix the sugar with the lemon juice. Add the emon juice spoon by spoon. 
Stirring after each spoon. And keep adding spoons until you have the right consistency.
It must be a cream, liquid enough to be spread, but not too liquid !

Pour it on your cake when it's out of the oven

2012-02-21

Double Chocolate Muffins


100% Dark chocolate Muffins

To celebrate our return to ths USA, I tried a 100% chocolate muffin recipe.


This recipe is from the Figaro's cookbook "Tendances gourmandes #02 "Intense chocolate"... My mum was probably in the need of some chocolate when she bought it :)
It's Syvie Girard-Lagorce's recipe. The picture were really bad but I wanted to try a chocolate muffin recipe :)

  Preparation    Easy, well explained, for a beginners

  Tasting    Good but nothing exceptionnal, they lack of tenderness, even if they are really soft.
Maybe it's the baking powder, or the cocoa instead of melted chocolate. They were better on the morrow.

  Ton conclude    I'm opened to other recipes.



For 2 dozen muffins
   Il vous faut :   
1 3/4c flour (200gr)
1 14 cup light brown sugar (250gr)
17 tbsp softened butter (190gr) 
3 eggs at room temperature
1 cup unsweetened cocoa (125gr)
2tsp baking powder (10gr)
1/2 tsp salt
1cup mik (25cL) 
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chip (175gr)


Preheat the oven at 370°F

Prepare your muffin tins with cooking spray or with butter
Soften the butter with the electric beater, beat in the sugar in 3 times.
Add eggs 1 by 1, beating each time until homogeneous.


In a bowl, stir flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in that dry mix to the previous batter.
Mix until homogeneous.


 Little by little, stir in the milk 

 

When your batter is homogeneous, add in the chocoate chip.
Fill 2/3 of your tins,  slighty higher in the center.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of your tins.
At halftime baking, turn the tray front to back.
Mine were done after 15 minutes.


Use a toothpick to check moist.
Cool down on a wire rack before turning out.

Keep under a plastic film :)