Magic Fairy Cake

Recently I stumbled upon this magical recipe of a 3 layers cake using only 1 batter! The bottom layer is like cheesecake, the middle layer a custard and the top layer results spongy.

You will not believe how this cake turns out! Simply stunning! :)

Ingredients:

120g  flour
2 cups of warm milk
4 eggs
150g of sugar
125g melted butter
1 tablespoon of water
3 teaspoons of vanilla

Sugar powder

Bake for 60 mins at 325 F, 163 C. Cool for 15 minutes, then fridge for 2 to 3 hours, sprinkle some sugar powder on top.

Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Strawberry Tiramisu

This is a delicious spin to your classic Tiramisu recipe.
In Italy we have several variations of Tiramisu and the strawberry one is definitely one of my favorites!

Here is how you make it:

500 grams of lady fingers

500 grams of strawberries

3 eggs

125 grams of sugar

250 grams of mascarpone

200 ml whipping cream

Ingredients for the strawberry syrup:

200 grams of strawberries

100 grams of sugar

300 ml of water

2 tablespoons limoncello (optional)

Begin to prepare the syrup by blending the strawberries with sugar.

Add water and lemon and put it in a saucepan and boil until it thickens, turn off and let cool.

Start now to prepare the mascarpone cream ... separate the yolks from the whites and whipping cream in a bowl .

Whip the egg yolks with the sugar, add the mascarpone.

Add the egg whites and cream previously whipped.

Gently mix the mascarpone cream and put it in the fridge.

Dip the ladyfingers in the cooled strawberry syrup and arrange them at the base of your pan. 

Pour a layer of mascarpone cream over the ladyfingers .

Cover the cream with strawberries cut into slices leaving aside 1/3 for the top decoration .

Cover with another layer of ladyfingers soaked in strawberry syrup .

Finish with a layer of mascarpone cream .

Decorate with strawberries that have kept aside and refrigerate everything for at least 3 hours.

And there you have it! Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Carrot Cake

In honor of my Beautiful Sister Tami's Birthday I am going to post this cake recipe! Happy Birthday Tami!!!! I love you!
This dessert is becoming one of my favorites, especially after trying this wonderful version that Mrs. Darlene kindly passed me! Thank you Darlene! This recipe was wonderful!

Ingredients for cake: 

2 1/2 cup self-rising flour          1 1/2 cup oil

2 cups sugar                                 4 eggs, beaten

3 tsp cinnamon                            3 cups grated carrots

2 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients.  Pour into 2 or 3 greased and floured cake pans.

Bake at 350 F for 40 minutes.

Ingredients for Frosting: 

  8 oz. cream cheese, softened            2 tsp flour

  1 box powdered sugar                       1 cup pecan pieces

  1 stick butter

Mix butter and sugar.  Add powdered sugar and flour a little at a time. Add pecans last.  Frost cake. Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Chocolate Chip Yum Squares

Hey Y'all! This year I spent my Christmas Vacation in Birmingham, Alabama, and I had many occasions to try some very delicious southern food! The best! Among all of the delicious things I have tried there was one in particular that won my heart. I have to thank Mrs. Darlene for being so nice to pass me this great recipe that I am sure you will all love!

Ingredients:

1 egg, beaten                                        6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter, softened                    1 cup pecan pieces

8 oz. cream cheese, softened            1 cup coconut

1 yellow cake mix(Duncan Hines)   3 eggs, separated

1 box confectioners sugar

With a fork, stir 1 egg, butter, and cake mix.  Press into a 9x13 greased dish.  Using mixer, combine cream cheese, 2 eggs, and confectioners sugar.  Pour over crust.  Mix chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut together.  Sprinkle on top.  Bake at 325 for 55 to 60 minutes.  Cool before cutting. It's so good! You'll know what I mean when you bite into it! Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Formagelle

This is another delicious traditional dessert from my gorgeous Island of Sardinia. They are ricotta cheese little cups that just melt in your mouth!

Ingredients for the dough:

4 cups of flour
6 tbsp lard
2 tsp sugar
water (just enough to make it doughy)

Ingredients for the Filling:

16 Oz ricotta cheese
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
Orange or lemon zest
(You can also add some raisins to it if you like)

Roll the dough very thin and cut little rounds. Place a scoop of the filling on each round and pinch the dough with your index and thumb finger to seal it. In a separate bowl beat a yolk and brush the top of each formagella with it. They will look golden and nice in this way. bake in the oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes. Enjoy! Buon appetito!

Peanut Brittle

I made this recipe the other day! I am impressed on how long this candy can last in a tapper ware container outside of the fridge! :)


Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup raw peanuts
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preparation:

Combine first 4 ingredients in 2-quart microwave mixing bowl. Microwave on HIGH for 8 minutes, stirring after 4 minutes. Add butter. Microwave on HIGH 2 minutes. Brittle should not get too brown. Stir in vanilla and soda until light and foamy. Spread on buttered baking sheet as thinly as possible. Cool. Break into pieces. Soak mixing bowl in warm  water immediately for easier clean-up. Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Papassini

In my first attempt making this traditional Sardinian Christmas cookies I was surprised that they tasted like the ones my Nanny makes! So happy I can have some of my traditional food here in South Florida too!

Ingredients for the cookies:

4 cups of flour
9 Tbsp of Lard
1 cup sugar
3 eggs + 1 yolk (Save the egg whites for the frosting)
1 cup walnuts
1 cup raisins
2 Tbsp baking powder

Ingredients for the Frosting (Cappa):

1 egg white
3/4 cup sugar powder
Decoration sugar

In a bowl mix the lard, flour,eggs, sugar, crushed walnuts, raisins (previously soaked in warm water for 30 minutes and drained), and baking powder at the end.  After creating a nice dough, start rolling your dough in tubes shape, flat their top and cut them in a shape similar to a mashed square as you can see from the picture. Bake in the oven at 365 F for about 12 minutes.

For the frosting, simply whip the egg white and the sugar powder until thick. Coat each cookie with the frosting and top each one with the decoration sugar. Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Mitarashi Dango

Being Half Japanese gave me the opportunity of being in contact with the Japanese culture, people, traditions and food. When I was 6 years old I went to Japan several times to visit my Father's family and I fell in love with this delicious desserts, Mitarashi Dango, which is simply rice flour balls dipped in  sweet mitarashi sauce... soo yummy! When biting into them again after 20 years since I had my last one it was like the experience Proust had with his Madeleine... wonderful memories and flashbacks of a very fascinating country. I never thought I could ever make this delicious dessert myself.... but here it is!

Ingredients:

Rice Flour
Corn Starch
Soy Sauce
Sugar
Wooden Skewers
Water

For The Rice balls:
In a bowl mix 1 and 1/4 cup of rice flour with 200 ml of hot water. Knead it until it becomes an elastic dough. Start forming little bite size balls. Boil them, and you will know they are ready when they come up to the top floating. Drain and start creating your skewers by wetting the skewer with water.

For The Mitarashi sauce:
In a saucepan mix 100 ml of water, 2 and 1/2 Tbsp of soy sauce, 1 Tbsp corn starch, and 5 Tbsp of sugar. Bring it to a boil over medium heat. Until it reaches the right thick consistency, as shown in the picture.

Finally you can pour the sauce over the rice flour balls.... enjoy your Mitarashi dango! Buon Appetito!

Zucchini Nut Bread

I love this recipe and this year I tried to make it myself and I was very pleased on how it turned out! :)












You will need:

2 cups Flour
cinnamon
1 Tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 Tsp baking powder
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
Vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup shredded apple
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup coconut flakes

Mix everything in a large bowl, incorporating the zucchini, apple, walnuts and coconut for last.
Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for about 1 hour. Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Delicious Cupcakes from Crumbs, NYC

During last year trip to New York City, Rachel took us to the best cupcake place ever!

Crumbs is a little place situated on one side of Bryant Park. The presentation of each cupcake was just amazing... for all tastes! The flavor of each one we had was incredible! Soooo yummy! If you happen to be in that area of NY you might want to stop by! Enjoy! :)

Pecan Pie

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Today to celebrate this holiday I wanted to show you one of the many delicious things that are going to be part of our thanksgiving super dinner... Pecan Pie! I always bought this delish desserts, but this year I wanted to make it myself and I am very proud of the result!


All you need is:

Pie Crust
1-1/3 cups of Pecans
3/4 cup corn syrup (Light or dark)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
3 eggs
Preheat the oven at 425 F and cook the pie crust for 15 minutes, until golden. (Remember to make some holes in the pie crust with the fork, so it wont rise... or if you prefer put some aluminum foil with dry beans)
In the mean time, just mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, adding the chopped pecans for last. Pour the mixture in the pie crust and bake at 350 F for 45-50 minutes. Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Sbrisolona Ricotta & Nutella

This delicious recipe is called Sbrisolona, which means crumbly cake in Italian. It's a typical dessert from the north of Italy and this time I wanted to make it with ricotta, nutella, and chocolate chips. Of course you can make variation of it: vanilla custard, fruit jam, berries, etc...

• For the crumbles you will need:

2 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp white sugar
7 Tbsp butter
1 egg
1 lemon zest
1 yeast

Mix the flour with the butter (room temperature), sugar, lemon zest, and yeast. Create a crumbly texture and pour half of the crumbles into a greased and floured pan. The rest of the crumbles will serve as the cover layer for our cake.

• For the filling you will need:

16 Oz Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
Nutella
Chocolate chips
sugar powder to decorate

In one bowl mix the ricotta with the sugar. Now separate the ricotta in 2 bowl. In one bowl mix the ricotta with nutella (As much as you like). In the other bowl mix the ricotta with the chocolate chips. At the base put a layer of the ricotta and nutella mixture, and as a top layer, put the ricotta with the chocolate chips. So you will have two different color layers... I put too much of the ricotta and nutella and you can barely see the white ricotta with chocolate chips :) As a final top layer you will have the crumbles. Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 35-40 minutes. When cold sprinkle some powder sugar on top. Enjoy! Buon appetito!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Fritters

This is a very fun way to make your usual Peanut Butter and jelly sandwich. You will need some white or whole wheat sandwich bread, Peanut butter, jelly and vegetable oil to fry. Just make some rounds out of the sliced bread. Spread some Peanut butter and jelly on top, leaving some space from the edges. Place another slice of bread on top and pinch firmly with your fingers, sealing the 2 bread slices. Now fry the until golden brown. Drain them on some paper towel sheets and sprinkle with some powder sugar on top. Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Ciambella

Ciambella is a traditional Italian Ring cake that can be made in a variety of ways: yogurt, chocolate chips, ricotta, and so on. This is a picture of a simple and basic ciambella that was taken in Sardinia, Italy, and this wonderful masterpiece was made by Inna! Thank you Inna!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar (150 gr.)

1 cup flour (300 gr.)

1 glass of milk

1 glass of vegetable oil

1 lemon zest

1 packet of yeast

Mix everything together working the batter until smooth. Pour the batter in a greased and floured pan, and bake for 30 minutes at 340 degrees.

Enjoy! Buon appetito!

Crostata di Frutta - Fruit Pie

Ciao Everybody!

I wanted to share with you one of my favorite Italian desserts... Crostata di frutta, or fruit pie in English. This is a perfect summer desserts since it's served cold right out of the fridge! Yummy!

Ingredients for Pie crust:

1-1/4 cup of flour

1/2 cup white sugar (150 gr.)

1/2 cup powder sugar

3 yolks

2 tbsp cold water

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Mix everything together and when you form a nice ball of dough place some plastic wrap around it and let it cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

When the dough has cooled down, roll it and cover the whole surface of a pie pan.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Ingredients for the custard (Crema pasticcera):

4 yolks

1/2 liter of milk

2/3 cup of white sugar

1/4 cup flour
Lemon zest

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Bring the milk and the vanilla to a boil. In a separate bowl beat the yolks with the flour and the sugar until smooth. Pour the yolks cream into the boiling milk and continue stirring until it reaches the desired consistency. Set the custard aside and let it cool down.

Once cool, pour the custard into the pie crust and start decorating with the fruits that you've picked for your pie.... you can chose whatever you like! As you can see this time I used: kiwi, Maraschino cherries, peaches, strawberries, bananas.

To get a shiny look for your pie, get a bag of gelatin for pies, follow the instructions on the bag and pour it right on top... it will prevent the fruit to get brown and it will give it a yummy and shiny look! Enjoy!! Buon Appetito! :D

Torta di Mele - Apple Cake

Yesterday I made one of the most delicious apple cake ever! Thanks to my BFF Lilli and her mamy for this amazing recipe!


Ingredients:

2 large apples
120 gr. Flour (1 cup)
200 gr. white Sugar (1 cup)
100 gr. butter ( 7 Tbsp)
3 eggs
120 ml milk (1/2 cup)
1 pack yeast
1 lemon zest
1 dash of vanilla

In a large bowl whip the butter and the sugar, then add the rest of the ingredients, leaving the eggs for last and adding them one by one very slowly. Pour the batter in your cake pan and place the very thinly sliced apple on top and the push them inside the batter. Do this for like 3 layers. It's important that the apple are very thin, in this way they will melt with the batter and they will create like a cream inside! Bake in the oven @ 180 C (350 F) for about 40 minutes or until golden. Enjoy this yummy delicious recipe! Buon Appetito!

Halloween Cake Pops

Since we are in this spooky period of the year I decided to make a Halloween treats. Pumpkin cake pops.













All you need is: Some candy sticks, a cake mix ( I picked the yellow cake mix), a can of frosting, some candy melts.

Just bake your cake according to the directions in the back of the cake mix box (or if you have time you can make it from scratch). Once the cake has cooled down, crumble it and mix it with the frosting, until it becomes a ball. Form you little balls and place in the fridge for 1 hour. Melt you candy melt and dip the tip of each stick before inserting it in the cake ball. Let it harden. The next step is dipping the cake pops and place a jelly bean on top, so that it will look like a stem. Place the in a Styrofoam to dry. If you have some markers you can even draw some faces on them. I suggest to have a cup of this delicious Pumpkin tea along with these cake pops... this tea is so good, when I made it, it smelled like I just made a pumpkin pie! Yummy! Enjoy! Buon Appetito!

Peach Strawberry Cobbler

Here is a very quick and easy recipe for a cobbler that is out of this world! I made it with peaches and strawberries, but you can go crazy with your imagination and use blueberry, blackberry, apple, bananas... anything you like! (Thanks to my friend Vicky that gave me this wonderful recipe!)

1/2 stick of butter

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup, plus 1 tblsp sugar(to sprinkle on top of mixture before baking)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

2 heaping cups fruit (peaches, cherries, blueberries, blackberries,

raspberries, strawberries or combination of berries)

Adjust oven to 350 degrees and melt butter in 9x9in glass baking dish.

While butter melts whisk all dry ingredients in mixing bowl, then

whisk in milk. Let stand approximately 3 minutes, or until butter is

melted.

Once butter is melted, pour batter into baking dish, then place fruit

evenly into dish. Sprinkle 1 tblsp sugar on top of mixture. Bake at

350 for 50 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with Ice Cream and a smile :) ... and share with good friends!

Diet Version of Strawberry Shortcake

Ok so the other day I was watching some youtube videos about strawberry shortcakes, and this one HCG P2 friendly came out! I wanted to share it with you because I tried it and it is delicious!

Slice 8 strawberries and put them in a container with 1 and 1/2 packet of Truvia. Leave them in the fridge for about 15 minutes. In this way the strawberries in contact with the sugar create a yummy juice. After you add the 1 tbs allowed of milk, 2 tbsp of Torani vanilla sugar free syrup and 1 Wasa cracker ( I bought the multi grain one, which is only 45 calories per slice). Mix everything together and Enjoy!!! Buon Appetito!

Ruioli - Sweet Ricotta Balls

This is a traditional recipe from my Gorgeous island of Sardinia. It's a great dessert made by little fried ricotta balls drizzled with honey. Everybody loves them and they're super fast to make! (Thanks to my nanny Tata for the recipe!)

To make the Ruioli you will need:

500 gr. ricotta cheese (16 Oz.)

1 grated orange skin

3 Tbsp white sugar

3 eggs

2-3 Tbsp flour

Vegetable oil to fry

Drain your ricotta cheese very well. Then mix everything together. The mix will result very soft. Just form little balls and fry them. Place the fried balls on paper towel sheets to drain. Drizzle with honey and serve warm! Enjoy! Buon appetito!