Tag Archives: Cakes

by | 2013/05/06

Upgraded Simple Chocolate Cake

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 Sorry it took me a while. Here is the translation for the the simple chocolate cake recipe I posted in hebrew last month. Enjoy!

Moist, Beautiful & Delicious 

Cake:

  • ½ cup canola oil
  • ½ cup organic whole milk
  • 1 ½ cup sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup organic plain yogurt
  • 1 cup organic cocoa powder
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ cup dark chocolate, chopped not finely nor coarsely, something in the middle

Chocolate icing – optional

  •  ½ cup heavy cream (120 ml)
  •  4.5 ounce dark chocolate 

 Decoration - optional

  •  Bougainvillea / any flower (for decoration only but still make sure, nothing poisonous) – optional!

 Prepare the cake:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8 inch cake pan (the smaller the pan the higher cake and vice versa).
  2. In a medium bowl stir together oil, milk, sugar, eggs and yogurt. Add cocoa, flour and baking powder into the bowl and stir until the mixture is well blended. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
  3. Pour the mixture into the cake pan and put into the oven for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center of the cake comes out clean.
  4. While the cake is in the oven prepare the icing: Put the heavy cream in a small sauce pan and bring to boil. Stir in the chocolate until is completely melted. Remove from the heat and let it cool. 
  5. Let the cake cool then gently remove it from the pan onto a plate or a cake stand. 
  6. Pour the chocolate icing on top of the cake and with a knife or offset spatula, spread it evenly over it (Feel free to let the icing spill sideways or to keep it on the top as is in my cake). Gently place your flower in the middle of the cake and serve.

 

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by | 2013/03/04

Blood Orange Bars

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Our little one, Alex (aka Alexander, aka Jacob, aka Sooshi) is obsessed with names. 

Yesterday when I picked him up from school he told me he doesn’t want to be called Alex anymore, not even Alexander, from now on he is Franklin. Last month, when we put together his first art book, he insisted on giving a name to each one of the creatures he drew. And when I said that a orange with red juice is called a blood orange, he said, “No, it’s not, it’s called fire orange or red orange.” Continue reading →

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by | 2012/12/03

Lemon Cake (dairy-free) by The Baking Magician

Eema (me): “Alex, this is delicious, are you sure you don’t want to be a pastry chef when you grow up?”

Alex: “What is a pastry chef?”

Eema: “A pastry chef is someone who makes cakes and cookies for a living.”

Alex: “What is for a living?”

Eema: “‘For a living’ is for money. You get money for making sweet things.”

Alex: “Can I be a pastry chef now, and a spy when I grow up?”

Eema: “Sure, why not, that’s a good idea.”

Alex: “How much money do I get for the cake I just made?”

Eema: “I’ll pay you one dollar for making the cake, and ten dollars if you clean up the kitchen.”

I didn’t know what to eat first, the cake he made, or him. He and his cakes are the yummiest things in my life. Our little baking magician is only five, and already shows some serious talent. His chocolate chopped cookies are well known for their flavor, texture and appearance. Whenever I buy or make chocolate chip cookies, Leo always says, “They’re good, but Alex’s are better.” If you haven’t tried his chocolate chopped cookies, you must! Continue reading →

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by | 2012/10/28

Quick (Asian) Pear, Almond & Cake – Parve & Gluten-Free

Life sucks when you are intolerant to dairy. I have no doubt that my life could have been ten times better and sweeter if  I could just eat some stinky cheeses or buttery pastries, without having to pay the price.

Creativity and improvisation in the kitchen are the name of the game when dealing with allergy restrictions and frustrations. (God, how I envy those people – like my husband – who can drink their lattes with milk, and can eat a big bowl of cereal, minutes before bedtime, then sleep through the night without snoring or going through an entire package of tissue!)

Three days ago, an amazing cake came out of my hideous frustration. I swear, you would never guess that there is olive oil in the cake instead of butter (NEVER margarine or any other poor substitute). I know olive oil sounds like a turn-off, but, believe me, it blends in very well. (So does coconut oil.) None of the people who ate this cake suspected that it’s non-dairy.

For a while now, I’ve been fantasizing about a real pear pie, with butter and cream, like Karin Goren’s recipe, but I know that it would cost me my health, so I give up. Luckily, this improvised cake came out just as good as the one in my fantasies, and managed to calm my taste buds and the frustration.

Again, Alex’s help made the cake magical and yummy. Just as good as the muffins he made two weeks ago. Continue reading →

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by | 2012/10/03

Orange Semolina Muffins with Dark Chocolate (& Pad Thai)

There are days when I am like a Moroccan grandmother. I spend all day in the kitchen. Last Monday was one of those days.

After preparing a nice little breakfast for the kids (a banana raspberry smoothy and toast with avocado) and a lunch box (whole-wheat pita bread with omelet, grape tomatoes & sliced cucumber on the side), I sent them to school and went to the West Hollywood Farmers Market. I bought two big bags packed with a large variety of beautiful produce.

When I got back home from the market, I went straight into the kitchen to continue with the Idli Rava preparation I started the day before. Idli Rava is an Indian breakfast dish that my lovely neighbor, Satya, introduced to me. After I tried it at her house a few times and fell in love with it, she taught me how to make it. I am still debating if I should publish the recipe on the blog. It’s not exactly quick-quick, but  it’s definitely yum-yum, and it’s also very healthy (it’s mostly protein).

After I finished making the Idli, which took a bit of time, I took a short break to drink my morning tea (rooibos) and eat a few Idlis as a late breakfast, with a tomato chutney I made while the idlis were steaming in the pot.

Later I emptied the bags from the market, and tidied up the refrigerator and the pantry. While organizing the pantry, all the noodles reminded me that Leo and Alex had been asking me for a while now to make Pad Thai. So that’s what I prepared for lunch.

In the afternoon, Alex the Sugar Junkie asked me, “Can I have something sweet?” As if the strawberries he had earlier were not sweet. The truth is that I was also craving something sweet, so I didn’t mind making something. This clumsy stubborn little boy insisted on doing everything himself, including a big mess, some flour and egg that never made it into the bowl. Never mind the mess. What’s important is that, somehow, his baked goods come out delicious every time. Seriously, everything he bakes is amazing. The muffins were excellent. These poor kids, who always complain, “How come we never have sweets in our lunch bags?” were finally happy to find these muffins in their lunch box the next day.

Of course, that wasn’t even the last thing I made that day. Later on, I made a light dinner, starting with a big healthful salad from all the veggies and herbs I had gotten at the market, and a lovely omelet of freshly picked free-range eggs, also from the market. Continue reading →

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by | 2012/04/27

Moroccan Vegetable Cake (El-Machamar)

On Monday we celebrated Alex’s fifth birthday with my own version of a South American tres leches, which I had a feeling he would love, because this year he didn’t want a chocolate cake (?!?) And to make him feel even more pleased, I put my health concerns on the side and I put some (natural fruit-colored) jelly beans around the cake to make it colorful, just how he likes.

Upon the little sugar addict’s request, I also made meringue kisses, just like the ones he saw on the cover of the Martha Stewart’s Living Magazine. To make sure I didn’t change anything, he said,”Mommy, but the same!” Poor kid, he knew I would modify something in the recipe. As they say in India, “same-same, but different.” I made them the same, but a different color – because artificial colors are not an option and because I couldn’t find a natural yellow or orange at Whole Foods, plus the red one they have was pretty expensive, so I juiced my own fuchsia. Beets produced the most vibrant and beautiful pink-purple color. When Alex saw them he forgot all about the yellow and orange.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been eating and sharing a lot of sweet recipes. Unfortunately, when I overdose on sugar, my health gets compromised. So if I can’t make any sweet cakes, I’ll make different kind of cakes. Machamar is a Moroccan fluffy cake (pashtida in Hebrew) that my mother always makes. The basic original recipe is much more simple, but I like to play with it. It is an excellent vegetarian main dish. You can add all kinds of vegetables, like zucchini, leeks, peppers, sweet potatoes, or spinach – either mixed in, on top, in the middle, or on the bottom. Continue reading →

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by | 2012/04/14

Black Cherry Jammers

I was so happy when she said yes and wrote this post for my blog. Introducing, Yael, the master pastry chef, who thought me almost everything I know about baking! 

When Shelly asked me to be a guest at her blog, I was very thrilled, we share a love for baking and I think in a way she started swimming this waters under my supervision. Shelly came to stay with my family when she was sixteen and stayed with us for over five years. She was the only one of all my four daughters, who showed at that time any interest in cooking and baking. So as I previously said, I am so excited to be a guest here.

We had a week of matzo and I must admit I am not crazy over matzo meal cakes and cookies, so during the week of Passover I usually go to my few flourless recipes. The moment those three stars came onto the evening skies of the last day of Passover, I went to my most basic fast recipe for jam cookies, it takes 20 minutes to prepare, and another 35 minutes to bake, so that to finish the day I can have tea with regular cookies. I used to make it only with home made jam, but lately I found that I like it even more with Hero jams, especially the black cherry one, since it is sweet though with a significant sour zest to it. But seriously you can use any kind of jam you like, yellow or red, it’s open for experiments. Continue reading →

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