BROCCOLI CAKE

This is great for a weekend lunch. You need:

- 250 g flour
- one teaspoon of baking powder
- 150 ml sunflower oil
- 4 eggs
- 150 ml buttermilk (or 100 ml milk with 4 spoonfuls of yogurt)
- 5 medium size florets of broccoli (cut the base in a straight line)
- 150 g of cubes or small stripes of bacon
- 100 g feta cheese
- salt (not much as you have both bacon and feta)

Preheat the oven at 185 degrees and grease a loaf cake tin. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder. Separately mix the oil, eggs and buttermilk. Then mix the dry and wet ingredients. Fry the bacon, get rid of the fat and add it to the mixture. Put half of the mixture in the greased pound cake tin, then line up the florets of broccoli in the center. Cover with the rest of the mixture and sprinkle the feta on top. Bake for 40 minutes - it is nicer when it is served warm.

BLUEBERRY CAKES

These are not muffins, but mini cakes, which means that making them takes a tiny bit more time than muffins, but the result is much better. There is a dispute as to whether the recipe comes from the Ritz or from the department store that led to Macy's. It is because of the latter that I have dared to touch the recipe, because I have a physical allergy to 'anything Ritz' (which I hope I share with most other Europeans) since the London billionaires owners of that hotel became leading supporters of Brexit, Farage and then Boris Johnson - so much for these two being 'politicians of the people'!

You need:

-115 g butter

- 200 g sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

- 140  plain flour plus one tablespoon

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- half a teaspoon salt

- 120 ml milk 

- 350 g blueberries

- three more tablespoons of sugar

Preheat the oven at 190 degrees (375 F for those of you in America)

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisker. Then add the eggs (one by one) and the vanilla while you keep beating. Combine the flour, baking poder and salt  - add half of it to the mixture, then add half the milk, then the rest of the flour and finally the rest of the milk. Sprinkle a tablespoon  of flour on the blueberries and add them to the mixture. 

Put the batter into a muffin tray lined with muffins' papers. Sprinkle the three tablespoons of sugar on top. And bake for 30 minutes.  

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

These are always a winner, even amongst Americans who, let's face it, are so much better than us (N.B.- this is a 'European inclusive us' not a 'British nationalistic us') at chocolate chip cookies. The original recipe is from Mary Berry for cookies three ways, but the chocolate ones are by far the most popular 'chez nous' - and we have altered the recipe a tiny bit to make them less sweet over time.

You need:
175 soft butter
175 plain flour
55 g of sugar (the original recipe calls for more, but they come out too sweet for my taste)
75 semolina
70 g dark chocolate chips (or less if you follow the original recipe and do not like the bitter taste of dark chocolate)

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees, Mix all the ingredients but the chocolate in a food processor (pulse it). Then mix the chocolate chips by hand. Make little balls with the dough, put them on a lined baking tray, press them down with your fingers to flatten them and bake for 12 minutes.

If you want softer cookies replace the semolina with plain flour and add a teaspoon of corn starch.

BROCCOLI AND RICOTTA CAKE

It has taken us so long to get back to this blog - totally underestimated how much effort needs to go into relocating elsewhere - but one of my sons is keen we do not drop it altogether. Anyway, we are back to it now that have been a whole year in California and got a better hand of the routine here (bar the endless trips!)

You need:
- a tub of ricotta cheese (425 g)
- 6 eggs
- 300 g of broccoli (riced or chopped into small bits - just put it in the food processor and blitz it a couple of times) 
- two handfuls of spinach (chopped)
- a teaspoon of chopped mint
- a handful of grated parmesan cheese
- salt (a generous pinch)
- black pepper
- butter and flour for the tin

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Butter the baking tray (we bake this in a ceramic one, but pyrex works well too. Then sprinkle a bit of flour on top and move around so that the whole tray is coated in flour). Mix the eggs, ricotta, broccoli, spinach , mint, salt and pepper. Put the mixture in the tin. Add the grated parmesan on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden. That is all there is to it.

This is a great simple lunch with a green salad. Notice the broccoli flowers in the picture, my latest culinary discovery. Edible in salads, bitter and mustardy, delicious. 

LEMON AND CONDENSED MILK CAKE

And yet another lemon cake, this one with condensed milk, which gives it a really nice texture, and it means it lasts easily for two or three days.
You need:
- a small can of condensed milk (397g)
- five eggs
- 250 g flour
- two teaspoons of baking powder
- half a teaspoon of salt
- a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- 140 g sugar
- zest of two and a half lemons
- two tablespoons of lemon juice
- 275 g butter (room temperature)

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees.
Grease and flour the tin (we use a bundt cake one, but it will work no matter the shape).
Beat together the sugar with the butter with an electric whisk. Then add the eggs (one by one). Add the condensed milk, followed by the vanilla essence, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Separately mix the flour, baking powder and salt  (it helps if you sift it, but again, no big deal if you don't). Mix the flour mixture with the rest of the ingredients (folding it). Bake for 50 minutes to an hour.

LEMON MUFFINS

And yet one more recipe with lemons. You need:
- 300 g plain flour
- a pinch of salt
- one and a half teaspoons of baking powder
- half a teaspoon of bicarb.
- 200 g sugar
- 2 eggs
- zest and juice of one and a half lemons
- 85 ml milk
- 115 gr butter (melted)

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients but the sugar (flour, salt, baking powder and bicarb). Then mix separately the sugar, eggs, zest and juice of lemons, butter and milk. Combine both sets of ingredients loosely with a fork (do not over mix them). Put the mixture into muffin cases (10 very big ones or 12 normal ones) and bake for 25 minutes.

ECLAIRS - PETISUS

In my village these are called 'petisus' with an accent in the 'u'. I suppose this comes from the french 'petit-choux' as they are little bits of choux pastry filled with cream, but where I come from we are not good at languages, so 'petisus' it is. Our local bakery sells them with three types of icing: dark chocolate, white chocolate and caramel. And pretty much any celebration in the village happens with a big tray of these, so they epitomise happiness to me.

You need:
For the pastry:
- 65 ml milk
- 70 g plain flour
- 70 g butter
- 3 eggs
- a pinch of salt

For the cream: 
- 540 ml milk
- 60 ml cream
- 4 egg yokes
- 50 gr corn flour
- 120 sugar
- a teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the icing:
- 150 ml double crem
- 200 g dark chocolate

Start with the cream. Heat 400 ml of milk, the cream and vanilla extract until it is about to boil. Separately mix the rest of the milk with the corn flour and disolve it well. Mix the egg yokes and sugar beating well until they get frothy. Mix the egg mixture with the cornflour mixture, still mixing it well. Finally, add the warm milk to the eggs and cornflour mixture. Put it all back in a pan over low heat (while you keep stirring it) until becomes thick. Take it off the heat, put it in a piping bag and put it in the fridge until it gets cold (you can do this the night before you are going to make the petisus) 

Heat the oven at 180 degrees. Put a tray with water in the lowest part of the oven so that the oven produces steam.

Put the butter and the milk in a pan over low heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour and salt (all in one go) and beat well with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and wait for 10 minutes so that the mixture cools down. Beat 2 eggs and add them in little bits (you may not need all of it) Put the mixture into a pipping bag.

Pipe little strips of the mixture on a tray covered with silicone. Push down any peaks by patting them carefully with a wet finger. Beat the remaining egg and paint each blob with the egg wash. Bake for 22 minutes. make a little cut at the side of each strip as you take them out of the oven.

Finally make the icing by putting the chocolate and cream in a pan over low heat until the chocolate dissolves and you get a glossy mixture (around three minutes)

Pipe the cream into each strip of choux pastry and coat each one with the chocolate. 

Wait for 20 minutes or so until the chocolate gets hard and eat. 

SWISS BUNS - BOLLOS SUIZOS

I am being told these are called Swiss buns in Spain because they were the signature bun of the famous Swiss Cafe in Madrid. But they are eaten all over Spain. A milky coffee (cafe con leche) with a  suizo is a breakfast that you can have perching around the counter of many Spanish 'bares'. In my village this is done at around 10 am while you read the newspapers and listen to the gossip of the day.

You need:
- 320 g bread flour
- 3 eggs
- 8 g dry yeast - though I have recently discovered fresh yeast, that you can buy in Amazon (and freeze) or at some supermarkets in the UK. It is a fantastic ingredient for baking. The proportion is 10g fresh yeast to 4g dry yeast. 
- 75 g butter
- 75 g sugar
- 3 eggs
- a pinch of salt

Heat the milk, butter and 55 g of sugar until the butter has melted and the whole mixture is warm. Add the yeast, mix well and wait for 3 minutes. Then add two of the eggs. And finally the flour and salt. Knead the mixture, put it in a bowl and let it rest (and rise) for 1.30 or 2 hours until it doubles its size.

Cut the mixture into 8 bits (around 50 g each) and shape them as little buns. Put them on a baking tray (with baking paper or silicone mat underneath) cover them with a tea towel and let them rest for 1.30 hours.

Preheat the oven at 210 degrees.Make a cut with a sharp knife half way through the buns, paint them with the remaining egg, damp the remaining 20 g of sugar with a few drops of water and sprinkle the wet sugar on each bun. Lower the temperature of the oven to 190 and bake for 12 minutes.

 

PROFITEROLES

These are sinful: you can get fatter by just looking at the picture; and so very difficult to resist. But they are just great for a party.

You need:
- 65 ml milk
- 70 g plain flour
- 70 g butter
- 2 eggs
- half a teaspoon of salt
-400 gr double cream
- half a teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150 gr dark chocolate

Heat the oven at 180 degrees. Put a tray with water in the lowest part of the oven so that the oven produces steam.

Put the butter and the milk  in a pan over low heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour and salt (all in one go) and beat well with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and wait for 10 minutes so that the mixture cools down. Beat the eggs in (in little bits) and put the mixture into a pipping bag.

Pipe little blobs of the mixture on a tray covered with silicone. Push down any peaks by patting them carefully with a wet finger. Put the tray with the profiteroles into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

When you take them out cut a little hole with a skewer or a tooth pick on the base of each profiterol and let them cool down on a rack.

Whip 275 gr of cream with the vanilla extract until you get a hard peak consistency. Put the mixture into a pipping bag and pipe the cream into each profiterol.

Finally, melt the remaining cream with the chocolate over a bain marie or in the microwave (check every 15 seconds). Pour the sauce over the profiteroles.

They are much easier to make than they seem.

LADY FINGERS - BIZCOCHOS DE SOLETILLA

These light little things are called bizcochos de soletilla. It is what elegant ladies eat with hot chocolate in Spain. As far as chocolate is concerned the Spanish population is divided in two: posh ladies who drink hot chocolate in the afternoon, served in fine china and with 'soletillas' on the side; and everybody else who drinks hot chocolate in the morning in normal cups with fried churros (see our recipe). I know what you are thinking, but elegant men eat churros and that seems to be fine.

After 382 posts in this blog I am sure you already know that I am more churros than soletillas. But still, I loved soletillas when I was growing up. In my village there was a really good bakery (Pasteleria Frias) which actually still exists. They used to make soletillas and sold them on strips of baking paper. Eating these with a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of milk seemed the height of sophistication at the time - little did I know then that they can be made cheaply and in almost no time!

You need:
- 2 eggs
- 60 g self raising flour
- 50 g sugar
- a teaspoon of vanilla essence
- half a teaspoon of baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- two tablespoons of icing sugar

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and beat well. Add the vanilla essence. Separately whisk the egg whites with the salt until they are stiff. Fold the whites into the yolks mixture.  Then sift the flour and fold it into the mixture. Pipe the mixture into 6 cm strips on a sheet of baking paper. Dust the strips with the icing sugar just before getting them into the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes (the precise timing depends on your oven, but they should be pale)

CHOCOLATE SWISS ROLL

Every time we make this my guests are impressed, but it is in fact really easy to make. In Spanish this type of cake is called 'brazo de gitano', ie. 'gypsy's arm', no idea why.  We first learned to make these decorations  a couple of years ago in a Spanish blog called www.recetadelafelicidad.com and since then we have changed colours, flavours and also slightly adapted the recipe. This is one of my children's favourite combinations of flavours.
You need:
- 30 g melted butter
- an egg white
- 30 g sugar
- 40 g plain flour
- 4 eggs
- 120 more g plain flour
- 25 g cocoa
- 120 more g sugar
- 4 tablespoons apricot jam
- a 250 g tub of mascarpone cheese
- two tablespoons icing sugar


The easiest manner to do this is with an indented silicon mat. We bought ours in Spain (see link: http://www.utilcentre.com/utensilios/pasteleria/tapete-relieve-silicona-60-c-a-230-c/tapete-relieve-relief-10-modeloflowers.html). We have not found them in the UK, but they send them internationally (the mats are huge, so we cut them in half and kept one in Spain, but you can always pass one half to a friend who likes to bake…) If you cannot/do not want to get the matt, you can also make this very easily by hand.

Just mix well the melted butter, egg white, 30 g sugar and 40 g flour and extend this mixture over the silicon mat ensuring the mixture gets into every indentation. If you do not have the mat, put the mixture into a piping mat with a very small nozzle. Print whatever pattern you like, put baking parchment on top of the paper with the pattern and then just pipe the mixture following closely the pattern. Put the silicon matt or baking parchment with the mixture into the freezer for 30 minutes.

Then, preheat the oven at 170 degrees. Whisk the eggs and 120 g sugar well (and electric whisk is best) until it acquires the consistency of whipped cream. Add the flour and cocoa and mix it all with an spoon ensuring you do not loose any air. Put this mixture on the swiss roll mat or on a swiss roll tin with the decorated baking paper at the bottom. Bake it for just 10 minutes (not a minute longer or it will get very dry!)

Take it the roll off the oven and put it over a clean cloth. Roll it over itself and let it cool down for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the mascarpone and icing sugar. When the roll is cold, extend it, spread the apricot jam on top and then the spread mascarpone over the jam. Roll it all tightly ensuring you do not leave any air inside it. Cut the extremes so that you get a nice swirl on the side and serve.

CHOCOLATE TART

Though I was having a really happy weekend, I had to resort to a bashing recipe after receiving on Friday a leaflet from the Education Secretary Justine Greening in my home. Full of superficial trivia (bash) like pointless letters she has written on everything from airplane noise to pollution - as if that could be changed with just a couple of letters! (bash, bash) -  but no reference of course to her draconian cuts to the secondary schools budget which are already having a devastating effect on London schools (bash, bash, bash). Gone are the days when politicians had to be accountable for the financing decisions they took... (bash, bash, bash, bash)

Luckily this recipe involves plenty of biscuit bashing. It is from Simply Nigella and all I have done is to replace vanilla essence in the original recipe with orange essence. The pastry case is made with crushed bourbon biscuits which is one of those truly genius Nigella ideas (together with frying gnocchi's) and it  means you do not need any melted butter.

You need:
- 300 g bourbon or oreo chocolate biscuits
- 50 gr butter (room temperature)
- half a teaspoon salt flakes
- 500 ml double cream
- 100 g dark chocolate (grated or cut thinly)
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons expresso instant coffee
- 2 teaspoons olive oil ( the stronger the better)
- 1 teaspoon orange essence
- 75 g sugar
- a teaspoon of salt flakes.
- 4 teaspoons milk
- 25 g corn flour

Bash the biscuits for as long as you need to get rid of any bad moods, worries or stress (if you are getting tired of bashing just think of the conservative education policy for a minute so that you can keep going) Mix them with half a teaspoons of salt and the butter. Take a flan case and cover it with the crushed biscuits so that you make a tart case. Let it cool down in the fringe for 2 hours.

When the case is ready, mix the cornflour with the milk until it dissolves in it. Then in a pan heat the cream, salt, chocolate, cocoa powder, coffee, olive oil, orange essence and sugar. Put it over medium heat and stir it (without letting it boil) until the chocolate dissolves into the cream. Take the cream off the heat. Pour the milk and corn flour mixture in it, bring it back to the heat and keep stirring until it thickens (around 10 minutes). Put it in a jug, cover with cling film (so that the cling film touches the chocolate cream) and let it cool down for 30 minutes in the fridge. When it is cold, pour the cream into the pastry case and let it all cool down for 4 hours or preferably overnight.

This tart is divine. Definitely good enough to even make you forget for a while about the policies of this government. Final bash!

PHILO APPLE PIE

This is one of the easiest recipes of this blog and also one of the most delicious ones. All you need is:
- philo pastry: 10 sheets
- 6 apples (the trick of this pie is to use cooking apples, so that they become really soft and creamy and you end up with a kind of apple compote encased in crispy buttery philo)
- 125 gr butter
- 4 tablespoons of brown sugar

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Peel the apples and cut them into cubes. Heat 80g of butter in a pan, add the apples and the sugar and cook it all over medium heat for 8 minutes.
Melt the rest of the butter. Paint all the philo sheets with it and layer them over a round tin (the philo will be bigger than the tin which is fine, just keep overlapping the buttered philo sheets one over the other) Pour the apples over the philo. Cover the top of the apples with the excess philo tucking it all well so that you get a pie case. Paint it with some melted butter (see the picture) and just bake it for 20 minutes or until golden.

TARTA DE SANTIAGO - SANTIAGOS' TART

This is one of the most popular tarts in Spain and it is decorated with the cross of the Order of Santiago.  It comes from the spectacularly beautiful region of Galicia and it is a truly simple tart made with very few ingredients.

The tart takes its name from the patron of Galicia, the Apostle Santiago, who came to Spain from Jerusalem to spread the Gospel in the Iberian peninsula. The route that Santiago took is now the famous 'Camino de Santiago', a popular pilgrimage path that crosses the north of Spain from Roncesvalles, in the border with France, to Santiago de Compostela, around 35 Kms beside the Atlantic Ocean. The Camino is open to people of every age and physical condition - it is also open to those who are not catholic - and it is meant to be one of those occasions where you can 'find yourself'. If you are catholic it also has an added incentive as doing the Camino means that when you arrive at the stunning Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela all your sins - all!-   will be forgiven. Doing the Camino is indeed one of the outstanding points of my personal 'to do' list before I die - though I will probably need more than one Camino to be forgiven for all the swearing I am doing lately when I see some Prime Ministers and Presidents on television!

You need:
- 250 gr sugar
- 250 gr ground almonds
- 5 eggs
- zest of half a lemon
- a (small) pinch of cinnamon
- icing sugar
- a greased and lined tart mold

Preheat the oven at 174 degrees. Put the ground almonds on a tray and let them roast for 5 to 10 minutes until they get a bit golden. Then separately mix the eggs and sugar (with a fork) add the almonds and then the zest and cinnamon. Put it all into the greased and lined mould and bake for  50 minutes (still at 175 degrees)

When you take it out of the oven let it cool down. Then put the shape of the Cross of Santiago on top of the cake (I have an old metal shape, but you can just draw it on paper or simply print it from the many pictures on the internet) and dust the tart very generously with icing sugar. I do not know anybody who does not like this.

ROSCON

This is a recipe for Roscon, which is a cake that we eat in Spain with hot (very thick) chocolate on the evening of 5 January. Year after year the whole country goes out to the streets to watch the Three Kings (Reyes) parading through each town and village. Then we get together with families and friends to eat the Roscon, which always comes with a 'surprise' (a bean or a coin) inside it. Whoever finds the surprise has to pay for the Roscon. Then before going to bed we leave our shoes by the window, together with some left-over Roscon for the Kings and a bucket of water for their camels. If you have behaved well you get presents in your shoes by the following morning. And if you have behaved badly you get only coal (the Three Kings are much stricter than Father Christmas!)

On Epiphany (Reyes day on 6 January) you are meant to make some wishes for the rest of the year. Mine is that we all (all reasonable people that means - of which there are many, millions of us...we are actually the majority of people, so sure you are one of them!) speak out way more. In my dream world we would all (and especially all young people) decide to be involved in politics in whatever shape or form. We would be actually proud of being citizens of the world. We would try to convince all boys and girls to treasure excellence, and to aspire to being not ordinary, but elite, in whatever they want to do. We would speak up so loudly that nobody would care about what the trolls and populists say because we would be answering back, with reasoned arguments, to them. And we would defend with passion and conviction the need for more, yes more, enlightenment, rationalism, multilateralism and international engagement... I promise I was really good last year, so hope that the Reyes bring me at least a little bit of all this!

This is what you need for the recipe of the Roscon (it feeds 15 with a cup of hot chocolate for each):

- 850 gr plain flour
- 3 eggs
- 500 ml milk
-  pinch of salt
- 60 ml of orange blossom essence (yes, a whole bottle)
- 150 gr butter (room temperature)
- 150 gr sugar
- grated zest of a lemon
- grated zest of an orange
- 14 gr of dried yeast

For decoration (most of this is optional):
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- a handful of flaked almonds
- a handful of perled sugar (if you do not have this, then a handful and a half of normal sugar)
- candied peel
- candied cherries

Mix the yeast, two tablespoons of flour and 80 ml of milk. Let it rest for half an hour until it becomes foamy.Then mix the rest of the flour, salt, milk, orange blouson essence, butter and eggs and mix it all well. Add the yeasty mixture and mix it well, kneading it a bit until the mixture does not stick any longer (this may take you 10 minutes or so). Then put it all in a big bowl, cover with cling film and let it rest for 2.30-3.00 hours. It should double in size.

Shape the mixture as a ring (leave a big hole as it will close down as the mixture raises) and let it rest again for another 2.30-3 hours.

After that, paint the Roscon with the egg and milk. Decorate with the perled sugar (if you do not have perled sugar then mix  the normal sugar with half a teaspoon of water and decorate the Roscon with it), candied peel and cherries. Preheat the oven at 175 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes. Then paint some spots with a bit the egg mixture and add a few flaked almonds on it. Bake for a further 10 minutes.

This is best if it is a bit warm. But since the chocolate is hot it does not matter if you have prepared it some hours in advance (I always struggle for time, so I prepare it in the evening and let it rise overnight...and it is still good!) Just dunk the cake into the chocolate and enjoy.    

PONCHE SEGOVIANO

This is my favourite dessert of all times. So much so that we served it as a wedding cake when Nick and I got married. It is very filling, so all you need is a tiny square of it. But it is divine. Definitely a dessert for big celebrations. I made it for Christmas Eve (which is what we celebrate in Spain)
and it was a huge success.  

If you happen to be in Segovia (which means you are lucky because together with Seville it is  - in my view- one of the two most beautiful towns in Spain) then buy one of these at the bakery El Alcazar by the Plaza Mayor. Or just ask for it as dessert after a meal of lamb or sucking pig (one of the two culinary specialities in Segovia) in El Parador or the restaurant Jose Luis. Just the thought of these places makes me happy.

This recipe serves 18-20  people. You need:

For the cake:
- 6 eggs
- 200 gr sugar
- 45 gr plain flour
- 90 gr corn flour

For the whisky sirup:
150 ml sugar
150 ml water
60 ml whisky (if in Spain do it with whisky Dick, which comes from Segovia)

For the cream:
- 10 egg yokes (which seems a huge lot but remember it will be shared between lots of people)
-190 gr sugar
- 100 ml water

For the marzipan:
- 250 gr icing sugar
- 250 gr ground almonds
- 1 egg white

And more icing sugar for the top of the cake.


Start with the cake. Preheat the oven at 170 degrees. Mix the eggs and sugar and beat them well for around 10 minutes until they become very fluffy and double their size. Then mix the flour with the corn flour - sift them together and add them to the eggs and sugar mixture folding them carefully so that you do not loose any air. Divide the mixture between two swiss roll tins lined with baking paper and bake them for 15 minutes. When you take them off the oven let them cool down for 5 minutes and them flip them over a (clean) kitchen towel sprinkled with caster sugar.

While the cake is baking in the oven, prepare the syrup: just boil the water and sugar for 8 minutes and then add the whisky. Let it simmer for a further 5 minutes.

Now the cream: boil the sugar and water for 15 minutes first over high heat and as soon as it boils, over low heat. Put it aside and let it cool down for 15 minutes. Beat the egg yokes and add the boiled sugar with water to the egg yokes very slowly while you keep beating. Put it all in a pan over low heat for a further 5 minutes while you keep stirring constantly. Let it cool down completely (better in the fridge).

 And finally the marzipan:  just mix well the almonds, egg white and sugar. Make a ball with the resulting paste, cover it with cling film and let it cool down in the fridge for an hour.

To assemble the cake put a cake lawyer over a serving tray. 'Paint it' with half of the whisky syrup. Spread half of the cream on it. Then add the second cake lawyer. Paint it again with the remaining syrup and spread the remaining cream on it. Put the marzipan between two cling film sheets and roll it until it is very thin (as thin as possible). Put the marzipan layer on top of the whole cake (the easiest way to do this is to flip the cling film with the marzipan on top over the cake with the help of somebody else). Cover the top of the marzipan generously with icing sugar. Take a spaghetti or a skewer and draw parallel lines to make a rhomb pattern on the icing sugar  (see the picture) Then get a blowing torch and caramelise the lines and also the sides of the marzipan. Let it cool down for at least 30 minutes.

And this is the impressive Roman aqueduct in Segovia:

UPSIDE DOWN ORANGE CAKE

This is a really nice cake for for the Christmas holidays. Really simple to make and properly seasonal. We also make a version of this with pineapple when it isn't Christmas.
You need:

- one and a half oranges
- 2 handfuls of brown sugar
- 150 gr brown sugar
- 150 plain flour
- a teaspoon of baking powder
- 150 butter
- 2 eggs
- grated zest of and orange

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.

Take a round cake tin. Sprinkle the 2 handfuls of brown sugar over it. Slice the oranges thinly (the thickness of a pound coin or a bit less) and arrange them nicely over the sugared tin. Separately beat the sugar and batter, then add the zest and eggs and keep beating it. Finally add the flour and baking powdered and fold it into the mixture. Put this batter over the oranges - the batter is a bit thick to absorb the water of the oranges, so you may need to spread it a bit to cover the whole tin. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

When you take it out of the oven wait for 5-7 minutes, run a knife around the edges and then unmould it carefully. It  should come out easily. It is very nice with unsweetened greek yogurt.

'CHOC DRINK POWDER' CAKE

This cake has been branded the 'best-est' cake by my kids. It is neither wet, not dry, neither bitter, nor too sweet. Simply superb. And truly one of the easiest caked to make, to the point that when we were about to put the cake in the oven they asked 'is that it!?'.

The recipe comes from Samantha Vallejo-Najera, a very well known chef/caterer/business woman in Spain, who -together with eleven wonderful women at the top of their fields and many many more guests - helped us launch Inspiring Girls in Madrid last week. Samantha is a woman I have always admired, with a positive and fun attitude in life, a woman 'with style'. If you happen to speak Spanish, read one of her books, they are great.

In addition to the pictures of the cake you can see couple of pictures and a video Inspiring Girls event. Thanks so much to all the people, companies and media who helped us on the day and also to the hundreds of them who have got in touch to offer support since then. The response has been so overwhelming that, though there was a bank holiday weekend in Spain, our team had to cancel their holiday plans to be able to answer to all those who want to join in.  We could not be any happier! You can get more pictures at www.inspiring-girls.com  or on my instagram (miriamgonzalezdurantez). And if you want to get in touch (especially if you are a woman, but we now have many men who are helping as well!) do email us. We are always looking for more volunteers and ideas for this international campaign.

For the cake you need:
- 4 eggs
- one and a half glass of sugar
- a glass of 'hot chocolate' powder: Nesquik, Cadbury's… though if you are in Spain use Cola-Cao, of course!
- half a glass of milk
- half a glass of sunflower oil
- one and a half glass of plain flour
- a teaspoon of baking powder
- a tiny bit of butter and flour to prepare the tin (we used a round one)

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.  In a bowl mix the sugar and eggs with a whisker (we use an electric one) While you keep whisking add the milk, oil, hot chocolate powder, flour, and baking powder. Grease the tin with butter, dust it with flour and bake for 60 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean) Oustanding!

 

And if you clock here you can find is a video of the event prepared by Yo Dona (http://videos.elmundo.es/v/0_5eij9yq8-inspiring-girls-se-presenta-en-espana?uetv_pl=yodona&count=1)

QUESADA - SANTANDER'S CHEESE CAKE

AT LAST we have gone over the £60 threshold that we had set to ourselves. In fact we have gone comfortably over it. My children are keen we keep writing the blog though, as it has become part of our weekend routines. As I am going through a particularly indulgent time, I have agreed to go on. So you will keep getting our weekly recipes, at least for a good while.

The recipe today is 'quesada', a very plain but very delicious cheesecake from the region of Cantabria in the north of Spain. It brings fond memories to us because this summer we had the chance to try the quesada of Ana, the 'queen of quesada', in the Casona de los Villa in the stunning village of Santillana del Mar. If you click in our instagram (miriamgonzalezdurantez) you can see a picture of the village there, but in any case, if you go to the North of Spain, Santillana is a village you should not miss.

Normally quesada is made with curd milk or fresh Spanish cheese, but when we were there she had made it with ricotta, which works well for making this recipe in the UK where it is not possible to find fresh Spanish cheese.

You need:
1.5 tubs of ricotta (250gr per tub, i.e 375 gr in total)
1 measurement of the tub of plain flour
2 measurements of the tub of sugar
2 measurements of the tub of milk
3 eggs
the zest of one lemon (grated)
a pinch of salt
a tiny pinch of ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Blend all the ingredients together (we do this with a hand blender) Put the mixture on a shallow tray previously greased with butter ( we use a swiss-roll one but if you like the quesada thicker then use a smaller tray) and bake for 45 minutes. Wait until the quesada is completely cold. In Spain it is normally eaten on its own, but it is also nice with berries (especially raspberries) on the side.

VALENCIANAS

This recipe is at the request of Emily, who got in touch to ask for this recipe for her nan after watching me talking about the Made in Spain book at Lorraine"s.

Valencianas are elongated cakes. The whole point of that shape is that you normally dunk them in hot milk for breakfast. It is actually very difficult to buy the long paper cases in the UK so we did them  mini-loaf paper cases instead.

There are lots of recipes in the internet, all very different. We had to phone a friend of mine from Valencia to find the closest one to the real thing ( which is normally shop bought in Valencia from any of the fantastic bakeries there). This one comes from http://recetastradicionalesdecocina.blogspot.com.es/2014/07/receta-de-las-magdalenas-valencianas.html. We have only adjusted the quantities a tiny bit.

For nine Valencianas you need:
- 2 eggs
- 200 gr sugar
-200 gr plain flour
- 85 ml sunflower oil
- 170 ml milk
- a teaspoon of baking powder
- grated rind of a lemon
- caster sugar


Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.
Mix the sugar and eggs ( we did this by hand) until they become pale. Add the oil, lemon rind and milk and keep mixing. Then add the flour and baking powder.  Pour the mixture into the cases (use double paper cases so that they do not expand too much) sprinkle a bit of sugar on top of each valenciana and bake for 25 minutes (check after 20 minutes - they should be golden but pale)

The children loved them and they really make your kitchen feel wholesome.