THE FRIDAY NIGHT RECIPE: CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM CUPCAKES

Hello to you all! This week I receive a special request from Mons to translate one of the firsts recipe that I published on the blog. I was really honoured by this, so I decided to share with everybody the translation of my previous post. After all, yesterday started a brand new FiestaFriday party, isn’t it?

INGREDIENTS: (10-12 cupcakes)

– 125 gr. butter (room temperature)
– 1 vanillin bag
– 165 gr. granulated sugar
– 150 gr. flour 00
– 3 eggs
– 1 teaspoon baking powder for desserts
– 60 ml milk
– grated lemon peel (optional)

FOR THE BUTTER CREAM

– 200 gr. powdered sugar
– 100 gr. butter
– 100-125 gr. milk chocolate

PREPARATION:

Preheat the oven at 180°C. Amalgamate well all the ingredients with the mixer: you start mixing the sugar and the butter together. After that, you add the flour, the vanillin and the baking powder. In the end, you add the eggs and two-three spoon of milk. Continue mixing the ingredients at maximum speed until the dough will turn into a soft and yellow cream.
Pour the mixture in a  muffin pan (every mould must be half-filled) or use directly the cupcake wrappers. Cook the cupcakes in the oven for 15-20 minutes till they become lightly golden on the surface: now let the sweets cool down before decorate them.

For the chocolate butter cream: use the whisks to amalgamate well 200 gr. of powdered sugar – previously sifted – with 100 gr of butter at room temperature. Now you can flavour the cream: I added the liquefied milk chocolate. (molten at bain-marie) Amalgamate again with the whisks till the mixture will be uniform. Use a pastry piping bag to decorate the cupcakes with the chocolate butter cream. Add some coloured sugar flowers on the top.

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POSTCARDS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD: LONDON

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life: by seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.” Samuel Johnson 

“Non troverai nessuno, soprattutto un intellettuale, che voglia lasciare Londra. Quando un uomo è stanco di Londra, è stanco della vita: a Londra c’è tutto ciò che questa vita possa offrire.”

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SWEET VALENTINE/2

Hello! This Friday I was busy preparing a cake for Davide, my sweetheart. This year I choose something so quick to make that I’m a bit bashful of my choice, dictated from the lacking of available time.
However, the result is similar to a Margherita cake, with chocolate chips inside, with a decoration of chocolate and caramel. I mean, everybody can make this cake!I’m really attached to this recipe, because my granny teached me: it reminds me at my childhood. Here the recipe (so late for FiestaFriday!):

INGREDIENTS:

– 300 gr flour 00
– 250 gr sugar
– 150 gr of butter (not too cold)
– 1 bag baking powder for desserts
– 3 eggs
– juice of an half lemon (or orange, if you prefere)
– chocolate chips
– a glass of whole milk

PREPARATION:

First of all, put the butter chopped in cubes and the sugar in the mixer, to obtain a soft and grainy mix. Put the mixture in a bowl, and add the egg yolk – which you had previously divided from the egg whites-  to the mixture, one after another. Every time you add a yolk, mix with a spoon to amalgamate better.

Aside from this, add the baking powder to the flour and mix them together. Start adding the flour and the baking powder to the mixture of sugar, butter and egg yolks: add it inch by inch, mixing every time. In the meanwhile, you could start adding also the lemon juice, and after the glass of whole milk, always in several times.

At this point you must have obtained a great yellow, elastic dough. Put the chocolate chips in the dough and mix again from bottom to the top to amalgamate them.
Aside, beat the egg whites until stiff, and then add it to the mixture as final ingredient. Mix again from bottom to the top in two-three times.

Now the dough is ready to be cooked: light up the oven at 180°-200° C, and cook the cake for 45-50 minutes. For Valentine Day I used a heart-shaped mold, of course.

Let the cake cool down and when ready, sprinkle it with powdered sugar: now it’s just ready to serve. This time I have added a decoration also with caramel. This cake is perfect for those who love the ciambella dough and the soft cakes. You’ll love it! Hoping that a spent a lovely Valentine’s day. Cris

A SPARKLING NIGHT IN LONDON

Hello! Finally I can write something again about our short trip!Let’s go on with our promenade in London: Piccadilly Circus is the most famous square in London, as well as meeting place and beating heart of the City, located in the City of Westminster.

They call it the “Times Square” of London. Built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly, became during the years one the main street junctions of the urban traffic.

Its position, in the hearth of  West End, and the proximity to the major points of interest as Shaftesbury Avenue’s theaters, and streets like Coventry Street and The Haymarket, full of  shops and trendy clubs, have made Piccadilly Circus a symbol of London. Famous for the bright displays and the insignia LED, located on a building on its northern side, and for the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain – which depicts the Angel of Christian Charity but was later renamed “Eros” after the Greek god of love and beauty – the square is surrounded by imposing buildings like London Pavilion (an entertainment complex – Trocadero) and Criterion Theatre.

It’s hard to resist a tour of the nearby Mayfair, with the galleries of luxury boutiques, and the gorgeous hotels. Piccadilly Street and the most chic clubs, seems so far from an ordinary life. They made me feel quite in awe.

We went back slowly to Regent Street: this elegant street, marked by white and refined residences, divides Mayfair from Soho quarter. Drawn by the architect John Nash, today connects the crowded Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus. It’s particularly suggestive during Christmas time when it’s decorated with beautiful illuminations.

Spend a saturday night in this area is pretty exciting. London is just full of lights, people, life! Every cafè, every brasserie slowly fills of people in the evening. Traffic in the peak hour is just happily frantic, and it’s part of the lively atmosphere. Taxi cabs hurtle up and down the streets, but differently from other big cities, also the vehicles have a kind of ordered. With a beautiful walking, you could reach easily also Soho and Covent Garden: in Soho don’t miss the Chinese Quarter, always crowdy.
Soho is a menagerie of shops, clubs, pubs, restaurants and populace. It’s an area which is very much like a maze with streets crisscrossing each other. Originally a hunting ground, legend has it that Soho got its name from hunters crying out “So Ho!” – pretty curious, isn’t it?

Soho is famous also for its Chinese quarter, with its numerous restaurants and shops, as well as some very good Italian restaurants. In fact some may say that Soho is a gourmet’s paradise ’cause it gives the visitor the choice of all sorts of possible tastes as well as to suit all budgets. Soho is now celebrated as one of the most fashionable parts of London.

to be continued…