AFTERNOON CUPCAKES

Today is a grey day, the first cold wintery day. I'm sure you have those days in which you just wish to spend your afternoon and evening rolling from the sofa to the carpet and back...like a cat with its puppies...possibly with your oven switched on...

This is what we proudly baked a while ago...

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes

125 g of flour 

125g of caster sugar

125g of soft unsalted butter

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of milk

12 muffin papers

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and line the tin with the muffin cases.

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs with a little of the flour.

Add the vanilla extract and add the rest of the flour, pour the milk in order to get a fluid texture.

Spoon the cream in, filling each case equally.

Put in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cup cakes are cooked and golden on top. As soon as bearable, take the cup cakes in their cases out of the tin and let cool.

Decorate with the toppings you love. We made a lovely and light icing, mixing a little water with icing sugar (125 g should be enough) and adding different food colours to it. 

Easy and sooo pretty!

And while cupcakes were cooking...they were painting... 

VISIT TO THE CULTIVATED FIELD AND AUBERGINE CHEESY PIE

 

Happiness has many faces.

I've seen one today, actually, two. 

Those of my children, being back from a visit to the cultivated field of a family friend.

My parents, extraordinary granparents, drove the two rascals to the beautiful garden, while my husband and I stayed home with little Mickey Mouse, downhearted with his roseola infantum.

They were back in three hours time, with a massive crate filled with fruit and veggies such as peppers, leeks, aubergines, black cabbage and green beans. 

They, of course, brought me an incredibly fragrant bunch of multicolour flowers as well, which I placed into a vase at the centre of my table.

I cooked the aubergines straight away and here is what I made.

 

Ingredients

2 small aubergines cut in slices (1 cm thick)

200 g of caciotta cheese (but mozzarella would do the trick as well!)

200 g of grated mature sheep cheese or parmesan cheese

a handful of basil leaves

3 eggs

salt, as needed (I don't use much anyway)

4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs

Stirfry the aubergines in a large pan with the olive oil and add very little salt. 

When they change their colour into a slight golden shade turn the heat down and cover with the lid. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Apart beat the eggs with the black pepper and sheep cheese or parmesan, depending on what you have in the fridge.

Arrange the first layer of aubergines in an oven dish, top with basil leaves and thinly sliced caciotta (or mozzarella, again depending on what you have) than lay the remaining aubergines on top. Finally pour the beaten cheesy eggs on the whole surface and garnish with breadcrumbs and more grated cheese.

Pop in the oven and cook at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes.

LEEK AND PARMESAN MINI SOUFFLES

More and more leeks. I think I'm just fallen in love with these gorgeous veggies and it's so hard to stop me from buying them!

Frankly I  believe that they have a "just-perfect-for-every-dish-taste" and that they give to your food a hint of irresistible homey flavour.

Ingredients for ten souffles

200 g grated parmesan cheese

350 g of bechamel

6 egg yolk, beaten

6 egg whites, beaten until stiff

2 leeks sliced in rounds

salt

ground black pepper

2 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of olive oil

breadcrumbs for dusting the oven shapes

Stew the leeks in a large pan with butter and olive oil.

Add the cooked leeks to the beaten egg yolks; pour the bechamel and the parmesan cheese, add salt and ground black pepper.
At last pour the egg whites and stir very gently from the bottom to the top.
Butter the shapes and dust them with breadcrumbs.
Divide the mixture into the shapes and cook in preheated oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees and for 15 minutes at 150 degrees.