My carrot Cake - Happy Birthday to me !

I've worked a lot on this one, usually carrot cakes are a bit too heavy/buttery for me, 

I can't eat it all without filling a bit sick.

My recipe contains no butter and no oil and a lot less flour than the usual one, it's a lighter cake,

with a surprisingly smooth texture, a bith firmer than the usual one

 but with as much or more flavour in it.

This recipe is one of my favourite, that's why I did it for my birthday :)

We went on a little road trip for Thanksgiving, we brought it with us :)

- Me : My cake is so cute -

- Him : My Poupoule is so cute (Poupoule is my nickname) -

For 8 to 10 people

   You will need :   

for the cake

4 oz of brown sugar (120gr)

2/3 cup of flour (80gr) de farine

1tsp of baking powder

-5gr-

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp of almond meal, grounded almonds (80gr)

4 eggs

10.5 oz of carrots (300gr)

- 5 to 6 carrots -

3 tbsp of lemon juice

1/2 lemon zest, grated

1.5 oz of coarsely grounded nuts (40gr) 

3tsp of ground ginger

3tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of salt

for the icing

3.5 oz of creamcheese (100gr) 

2tsp of lemon juice

1/2 lemon zest, grated

4 to 5 tbsp of confectionner's sugar (powdered)

Prepare the carrots

Rinse, peel and grate the carrots

put them in a bowl with lemon juice, salt and half of the sugar

- 1.7 oz / 50gr  of sugar -

Put in in the fridge for at least 1 hour

Prepare the nuts

Blend them coarsely and add a hint of salt in it, set aside

turn the oven on at 420°F

Prepare the cake

Beat the eggs with what is left of sugar in a bowl for at least 3 minutes, it has to be foamy

In another bowl, stir the flour and the baking powder, make a well in it and stir in the eggs+sugar mix

Stir by hand until smooth and stir in the almond powder, the spices and the lemon zest

Stir for at least 2 more minutes, the dough has to be soft

Finally, stir in the carrots and the nuts

- 1st: eggs and sugar, 2nd: added flour and almond, 3rd: added nuts and spices -

Pour everything to fill your buttered mold at 3/4 

Cook approximatively 45 minutes

Check the cooking by inserting a smooth and clean knife in the middle, if it gets out clean, it's cooked!

Creamcheese and lemon icing 

Soften the creamcheese with your electric beater at low speed for 2 minutes,

add in the lemon juice and the zest, keep mixing at low speed

Add in the sugar, spoon by spoon, you can go up at medium speed,

it must be thick enough, but soften enough to be spread

Keep it in the fridge until use !

Bon appetite :3

How to make sushis and makis, sunday night : sushis night !

Since we got a rice cooker as a wedding gift, every sunday night, it's sushis night !

We have fresh fish from the morning's market, avocados, cucumber,

rice is prepared in the morning, and in the evening it takes me an hour to make them :)

I make 1 cup and a half (of the rice cooker's cup) for 2 people, like that we have some leftovers for monday's lunch.

You can either make more makis or sushis, it depends on your taste, I'll explain it all

- 8.8 oz of dry rice allow me to make 4 rolls or 30 sushis

For 2 people,

   You will need :   

For the rice

8.8 oz of pearl rice, short grain

- I take the Hinode's rice -

5tbsp of rice vinegar

- I use Marukan's vinegar -

2tbsp of white sugar

1 tsp of salt

To garnish

Seaweed's sheets for the rolls

1/4 cucumber

- we eat the rest as a snack with the sushis -

1/2 avocados

- depending how many rolls you make -

11oz 3of really fresh fish,

Pick the thickest one you can, if you are mostly doing rolls, you won't need that much

Wasabi

- japanese mustard -

Tools

1 big smooth knife

1 large spatula

- the one with the rice cooker is perfect -

1 bamboo mat

- I use my table sets :) -

- Let's go ! -

Prepare the rice : vinegar rice

Rince your rice until the water is clear, and cook it in the rice cooker, or in a casserole following the rules
I think that for 8.8 oz of rice, it's 8.5 fl.oz of water 

During that time, in a small casserole, melt the sugar in the rice vinegar on low fire,
 - you have to move it from the bottom of the casserole with a wooden spoon -

once it's totally melted, turn off the fire and let it cool down a bit

When the rice is cooked and tepid, put it in a bowl and pour that sugar/vinegar in it,
mix carefully with a spatula so all the grains are covered with it, and don't break the grains
Cover it with a humid tissue

Let it rest until the sushi-making

Prepare the ingredints

Cucumber

Cut it in half in the longest way, remove the heart/seeds with a spoon
Then cut it in long slices of 1/4 inch thick

Avocados

Cut it in half, then in 4, cut it in long slices of 1/4 inch thick

Fish

Tuna can be cut vertically, in the thickness of the steak, if it's not thick enough, cut it obliquely

 you have slices of fish 2.8inch long on 1.1 inch wide

Use the small pieces and what's left to garnish the rolls

Salmon has to be cut horizontally start by dividing it in 2 or 3 filets of 1/6 inch thick,
then cut them in long slices of 1.1inch wide and 2.8inch long

                                                                    Good to know :                                                            

When touching sushi rice, have your hand cold and wet, rince them after each use with cold water to avoid having rice sticking all over you.
Do the same with your tools, the knife and the spatula.

                                                                                                                                                         

Doing makis (rolls)

Place on your bamboo mat the seaweed sheet, in the sens it bends easily

- try to bend it in your hands -

The shiniest side is on the mat
Spread some rice with your hands, leave 0.4inch towards you and 1.2 inch on the top with no rice

Flatten it with your wet spatula, using the knife as a wall on the side so it won't go out

Put avocados, cucumber and fish at 1/3 of the rice from you, as shown on the drawing.

Use a wet finger to put a line of wasabi along the garniture,

it must be really light, be careful, it's strong

Then roll it, use the mat toward you with your thumbs, squeeze it but not too much,

use your free fingers to keep the garniture in place otherwise it will slide

Cut the extremities at 1/4 inch, and then every inch or so

Use a smooth and wet big knife, do it carefully

Doing sushis

Take a nut-size amount of rice in your fresh wet hands, squeeze it to obtain a cylinder

of you littlefinger-size

Take a slice of fish, spread some wasabi, lightly with a humid finger along the slice of fish

And put it on the rice,

The fish has to be long enough to cover all the rice in the long way

- as on the photo I took -

Don't make it too big, otherwise it's hard to eat

It's so good, we are done for the week after eating them :)

If I did more that 8.8 oz of rice, we would eat it all anyway !

Halloween recipe, a soft and tender pain d'épice (gingerbread)

Le Pain d'épices from Vovoi's cookbook :) Special Halloween season recipe !

It's a pretty classic cake, especially around halloween time ! The warmness of the mild spices as honey, anis and ginger are perfect for the autumn when the weathr gets cooler.

 I had never made one before, I thought I didn't like it, obviously I was wrong !

It's a light recipe, with no butter 

The cake is soft and tender, really tasty and smells really good.

I love it with my caffeine free tea, the honey has a lot of charm, and it mostly tastes like honey :)

The dough has to rest 1 hour, but beside that it's really quick-made cake, 5 minutes top.

For one big cake pan or two small ones :

  You will need :   

8.5 oz of flour (less than 2 cup / 240gr)

1tsp of baking soda

1/2 cup of white sugar (4.2 oz / 120gr)

4.4 fl oz. of milk (12 à 14cL)

- I've put whole milk -

1.4 to 1.8 oz of honey ( 2 big tbsp / 40 à 50gr)

1 big pinch of anis

a hint of ginger

In a bowl, put the flour, the sugar th baking soda and the milk,

blend it with a wooden spoon, cover with a wet napkin and let it rest for 1h

After 1 hour, turn on the oven at 275°F,

Add the hony and the spices, mix

Butter the cake pan, if it's a metallic one (non-silicone) butter & flour it

Fill the cakepan by half and put in the oven

It will double its size, the middle of th cake will rise at the end of the cooking.

It took mine 35/40 minutes of cooking, in 2 small silicones cake pan.

For metallic cakepans, it will be quicker, check the cooking after 25 minutes 

by inserting a clean and smooth knife in the middle, it has to go out clean.

For one big cakepan, it can be slower (like 50 minutes) 

you will have to check every 5 minutes after 30 minutes of cooking.