Jul
6
Cooking with kids
by Sofia - in Random
Our girls love to hang out with me in the kitchen and to participate in the cooking. And baking days are their favourite. I have quite an extensive cook book library and I also have a Pinterest addiction so we have a lot of reference points when starting. It´s important to find the right sized tools for the kids so they are easy for them to handle. Little aprons teach them early on to cover their outfits and really just get them in the mood for kitchen rules.
The girls know my basic rules of cooking and baking. Without these they can not participate.
♥ Patience… especially in baking you need to have patience. Sometimes the adult has to count or concentrate and then you have to wait quietly or the project may get destroyed.
♥ Cleanliness… Tie your hair and if possible wear a scarf or a chef´s hat. Nobody wants hair in their cake. Also wash your hands very well before starting! And when you are finished.
♥ She who bakes or cooks also cleans… cooking together is only fun if the clean up is shared too. The kids can help wash dishes, wipe the surfaces and to return the ingredients to their original places.
♥ Taste… When you are cooking it´s not so important to follow a recipe to the letter. You can add a little bit of this and a little bit of that to your liking. Everyone has a different taste and when you cook you can and have to taste the food to know how it´s going to be ( and you can make it just the way you like). Just know which foods not to try raw ( like chicken). And when baking you get to lick the spoon & the bowl which is the absolute best part!
Jul
5
Calligraphy
by Sofia - in Random
Minulla on ollut pitkään haaveissa oppia kalligraphiaa ja vihdoinkin sain tilattua itselleni muutaman kirjan opiskelua varten. Ehkäpä lomalla, jos saaressa on monta sateista päivää, niin sillä aikaa kun tytöt piirtelevät voisin minä harjoitella kaunista kirjoitusta. Tämän linkin takana on video aiheesta. Minusta ainakin on ihana katsella kuinka vaivattoman näköisesti kauniit kirjaimet muodostuvat. Takana on toki varmasti paljon harjoittelua.
I have wanted to learn calligraphy for a long time! I find it so beautiful! I would love to know how to write place cards in a beautiful way and use it partially for cards and letters too. So I ordered myself a few books about calligraphy on Amazon and now I need to find myself some calligraphy pens. I´m ready to master a new art ( or in my case just a skill perhaps). So exciting! You can watch a video about calligraphy here.
Jul
4
Carrot Cake
by Sofia - in Random
The girls and I decided to bake a cake to celebrate the start of their summer holiday and I thought a moist carrot cake would be great! I had´t baked a carrot cake in a long time and took out 3 different books to find a great recipe. Then I asked my friend over dinner and drinks which is her favourite recipe and she answered that she still uses mine. What was it and where was it? It´s an old recipe I had long forgotten from about 15 years ago. She had made it for her sons birthday recently and her cake guru neighbour had said its´the best carrot cake she ever tasted so they compared the recipe to many others and came to the conclusion that the moisture was due to the lower degree of the oven and a little longer baking time ( 175°c for about 50 minutes). So I decided to mix and match to come up with the best carrot cake recipe ever! Let´s see what you think!
Carrot Cake
about 350g/ 5 carrots super finely grated ( hienoksi raastettua porkkanaa)
4 eggs separated ( munaa eroteltuna)
225g butter ( voi)
1 tbls lemon juice ( sitruunamehu)
2 tsp baking powder ( leivinjauhe)
1 tsp ground cinnamon ( kaneli)
1 tsp ground allspice ( maustepippuri)
175 g flour ( jauho)
225 g muscovado sugar ( muscovado sokeri)
100 g walnuts chopped ( murenneltu saksanpähkinä)
50 g ground almonds ( rouhittu manteli)
Cream cheese frosting
250g cream cheese ( tuorejuusto)
50-100g confectioners sugar ( tomusokeri)
125g butter ( voi)
2 tsp vanilla extract ( vaniljauute)
( lemon rind and/ or juice)
1. Whisk the egg whites in to peaks and keep separate.
2. Whisk the butter and sugar until soft and creamy. Add the eggs, nuts, grated carrots & lemon.
3. Mix the spices & baking powder into the flour. Fold to the butter, carrot & egg mixture. Mix until well corporate but not too hard to keep the cake light.
4. Fold in the egg whites carefully and spread in a buttered cake tin. Bake in a 175°c owen for about 50 min.-1 h or until a wooden stick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
5. Make the frosting by whipping the cream cheese & butter and then adding the vanilla & confectioners sugar. Add a few drops of gel food colouring.
With all my honesty I´m not sure if the egg whites really need to be whisked separately as this is quite a dence cake batter. So if you are not feeling the extra step go ahead and try to just whisk all the eggs in at the same time. I´m not sure if it will make a huge difference.
