I love holidays!!! Any holiday... especially when a "just on the calendar" holiday coincides with a Holiday! 1st of May is a day of all working people but it is also My Dad's Birthday!
Even if I am far away from you on your holiday, daddy, I dedicate this cake to you! You used to like it when I baked it ....
Don't get puzzled about the ingredients, the result will surprise you. Some people ask if the cake has any even slight mayo taste: I may assure you - this cake has a CAKE taste!!!
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 8-12
1 can concentrated sweet milk
250g mayonnaise
4 eggs
1.5 glass sugar + 3-4tbs
2 glasses flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
800g sour cream / Greek Yogurt (10% fat)
+ sugar for the cream (to taste)
1 can peaches in syrup
50g almonds
cake gel / cake glue
First thing to do is to drain the sour cream or Greek yogurt. I used the yogurt as it is very difficult to find sour cream in Italy.
Note: Greek yogurt has almost same texture and even wins in fat percentage: instead of 18-20% of fat in sour cream, in yogurt there is only 10% of fat (you may try the lower fat versions of Greek yogurt but to my mind it will be too much, reducing the fat in yogut will result in more liquid texture).
1. Use a medium colander which you will cover with a clean kitchen towel. Then pour all the cream / yogurt inside and keep aside for 3-4 hours or the time necessary to bake and cool the cake layers. You will see how much whey it will drain....
And now we prepare the cake itself:
2. Whisk the eggs with 1.5 glass of sugar till it doubles in volume.
3. Add concentrated sweetened milk to the eggs and whisk it in.
4. Add mayo and mix well.
5. Sift flour with the baking powder and add it some by some to the egg mix and stir well.
This is how the batter will be when all the ingredients are in.
6. Heat the oven to 220C.
7. I used a silicon mould of 23cm in diameter but you may use any, in this case cut the circles out of the baking paper to fold the bottom of the mould. If you use a silicon mould just grease the bottom with some vegetable oil and clean it with a paper towel each time you bake.
8.To bake 5 layers pour 7 tbs of the batter to the mould and bake at 220C for 5 minutes or until it's brown on the top.
Note: To bake 6 layers, ust reduce the quantity of the tablespoons of the batter to 6 per each layer.
Note: This kind of batter raises a lot.
9. Cool each layer over the cake rack or the "net lid", the one that is use to cover the frying pans in order to avoid splashes of oil.
Let's prepare the cream:
10. Mix the drained sour cream / yogurt with 3-4 tbs of sugar, the cake is quite sweet itself so don't overdo with sugar!
And finally we assemble the cake:
11. Spread some cream over the first layer which you placed over a nice dish (the one that you will use to serve it)
12. Take the peaches out of their syrup and cut one in tiny pieces.
13. Spread the peach bit over the cream.
14. Cover with the second layer of the cake and repeat with the cream and peach.
15. Don't add any peach on the top of the cake but cover well with the cream.
16. Spread the rest of the cream over the sides of the cake.
17. Crush almonds into medium small grains.
18. Use the almond crush to cover the sides of the cake.
19. Decorate the top of the cake with the peaches as your fantasy suggests you better.
To make the peach roses:
- slice the peach as thin as possible and dry the slices with a paper towel,
- roll the first slice tightly and start envelope the other slices around,
- place the rose on the cutting board with the edges of the peach around to fix the shape,
- fix the rose with a cake transparent gelatine used to frost the cakes,
- remove the peach edges from the rose and transfer it onto the cake.
Note: You may ask any florist for some real rose leaves (in any case they through them away) or do I did and use the lemon leaves or any other that are not toxic.
Note: To use the leaves, wash them carefully and clean with a paper towel soaked in vegetable oil. This will clean the leaves better and will render them more shining and attractive.
ENJOY !!!
The original name of these biscuits is "Desert Roses", they perfectly look like the crystals that can be found in the desert areas and have the same name...
I know so many people who buy Corn flakes because they want to have healthy breakfast... but then they don't eat them as the corn flakes turn out to be insipid. What happens then with the poor corn flakes' box? Stays forever in a sideboard! Don't keep it there, make some biscuits!!! These biscuits are perfect for the breakfast or as a healthy snack with some yogurt. They are quite substantial but yummy, so don't overdo!!!
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 25-30 biscuits
150g butter
2/3 glass sugar
2 eggs
100g almonds
1glass flour
2 glasses corn flakes
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbs ginger powder
1 pinch of salt
+ 2 glasses of corn flakes for breading
1. Chop almonds with 2 tbs of sugar with a blender to get a rough flour.
2. With the help of a mixer whisk butter with the rest of sugar.
3. Add the eggs to the butter mix and whisk again.
4. With a spatula or a simple table spoon mix the almond flour into the butter-egg mix.
5. Sift the flour with baking powder and ginger.
6. Add flour to the batter and mix well.
7. At the end add 2 glasses of the corn flakes to the dough.
Note: I advise to crash the corn flakes with the hands to have smaller bits.
8. Put a glass of corn flakes in a shallow plate.
9. Take a tablespoon of the dough and put into the corn flakes. Try to cover the biscuit with the flakes.
Note: If the corn flakes are too big, crash them a bit.
10. On an oven tray covered with the oven paper, outdistance the biscuits as they are going to get wider while baking.
11. Bake the biscuits at 180C for 15minutes, till they become slightly brown.
12. Serve the biscuits with the icing sugar generously sifted over.
Note: Keep the biscuits in a tight container to preserve crispiness.
I am so busy with the intellectual activity this period that I am absolutely craving for something sweet... The cake I am going to prepare this time is an authentic sweet bomb for the brain. 100% of smartness growth GUARANTEED...
INGREDIENTS:
Servings: 8
2 eggs
2 tbs honey
1 glass (200ml) sugar
100g butter
1.5 tea spoon baking soda
2.5 glasses flour
22-24cm cake pan
Filling:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
100g almonds
Note: In my recipes I often use "glass" and "tablespoon" as measures, it gets really easy to measure.
1. Two hours before you start preparing the cake, put the condensed milk can into a pan with water and boil the can for 2 hours. You may do it the day before. Cool the can down...
2. In a heat-resistant bowl mix eggs, honey and sugar. If honey is crystallized you may melt it in a mircowave.
3. Add soft butter, you may melt it a bit in a microwave oven.
4. Mix in 2 glasses of flour in which you added baking soda. Mix well.
5. Take a pan a bit smaller than the bowl, pour some water in it and start boiling over medium heat.
Note: This cooking technique is called Bain Marie, or in other words "double boiler". It is used for cooking very delicate dishes, like custard or sauces.
6. Put the bowl with the batter onto the pan with boiling water, cook the batter for 20 minutes mixing it frequently.
After 20 minutes the batter will result more liquid but also more homogeneous.
7. Let it cool down for half an hour and place in fridge for half an hour more.
8. Divide the batter into 8 parts and using a spoon take one.
9. I use a silicon cake pan but you can use any, in this case you need to oil the pan a little bit.
Using oiled fingertips spread 1/8 of batter into a very thin layer.
10. Cook the cake layer at 250 C for 3-4 minutes or till it's golden brown.
11. Put the cake layer on a cake cooling rack and clean the cake pan.
12. Bake all the cake layers, you may have 7 to 8 of them.
13. Using a circle stencil, smaller than the cake layers, cut the cake into neat circles.
14. Crumble half of the borders that you cut off the cake layers.
15. Chop half of the almonds with the blender.
16. Mix almonds with the crumbles.
17. Spread the "caramel" milk over each cake layer and form a cake.
18. Spread the caramel carefully over the sides of the cake.
19. Now stick the crumbles to the sides of the cake and then on top of it, you need to cover all the caramel with the crumbles.
20. Decorate the cake with the remaining almonds as you like it.
You'd better serve the cake the day after but if you are impatient to try it.... you are most welcome!!! ENJOY!!!
Note: You can use the leftover borders of the cake layer for breakfast with your caffelatte.
250g mayonnaise
1. Use a medium colander which you will cover with a clean kitchen towel. Then pour all the cream / yogurt inside and keep aside for 3-4 hours or the time necessary to bake and cool the cake layers. You will see how much whey it will drain....
Note: To use the leaves, wash them carefully and clean with a paper towel soaked in vegetable oil. This will clean the leaves better and will render them more shining and attractive. 
