Cold evenings special hot chocolate

I love those long, cold evenings. Just wrap myself in a cosy blanket with a book in one hand and one of my "special winter drinks" in the other. 

Today I'll share my favourite hot chocolate recipe with you. I think it was my mum that invented it and it was our Sunday morning drink when we were kids. It's really delicious, sweet and super easy - hope you will like it too!

Ingredients: 
- full fat milk
- dark cocoa powder / unsweetened cocoa
- sugar
- egg

How to:

1. Measure 3/4 cup of milk and heat it up.

2. Meantime beat egg white, when it starts to get stiff add a tablespoon of sugar and continue beating. Keep on adding sugar and beating until it becomes stiff. You may add some vanilla sugar at this point if you want. I usually use three tablespoons of sugar at this stage.

3. Add two tablespoons of sugar to egg yolk and beat together until smooth.

4. Make the cocoa - put two teaspoons of cocoa powder in a mug and mix with little hot water, then add hot milk. Leave some room for your "fluffy egg".

5. Put beaten egg white on your cocoa, then pour the yolk on top.

6. Get a good book, sit comfortably and enjoy! 

Tips:

Don't sweeten your drink as the "fluff" is already quite sweet.

To spice your drink up just add 1/2 teaspoon of chilli, 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Please read: I always pour boiling water over raw eggs before I use them to reduce the risk of salmonella contamination. For more information about safe use of raw eggs please read this article.

This is one of my favourite recipes - it's quick, easy and really cheap. And it's really tasty!

What you need:

160g dark chocolate

115g butter

3 eggs

200g caster sugar

vanilla essence or vanilla sugar

140g plain flour

pinch of salt

you can also add some cinnamon, chocolate chips or chopped walnuts, but I always do mine without them

How to do it:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Melt the chocolate and butter
3. Beat together eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla until light
4. Stif over the flour and carefully fold in
5. Slowly stir in the chocolate mixture
6. If you want to add chocolate chips or nuts add them now
7. Pour the mixture into a greased tin
8. Bake for about 30 minutes, until just set - I usually bake mine for 20 minutes and then check it every two minutes to see if it's done. The cake shouldn't be overbaked as it will become dry - the brownies should be slightly moist inside.

 You can serve them hot with ice cream! Yummy!

Do slovenčiny to preložíme zajtra :)

Marshmallow Pops

That's how I made the 'lollipops' for The Sweetest Date. It's really very, very easy (and in my case very, very messy..). Oh, I just managed to take two pictures during preparations, my chocolate was melting like crazy and had to stare it all the time!

You will need:

• lollipop sticks - I used wooden sticks from my local craft shop
• marshmallows
• plain chocolate or cooking chocolate

Optionally:

• cupcake sprinkles
• ribbon to tie on the sticks - just to make them pretty

1. Start with putting marshmallows in the freezers for approx 5 minutes - they are so much easier to put on a stick when they are cold!

 

 2. Put them on a stick

3. Melt your chocolate in a bowl placed over boiling water, or alternatively melt in a microwave. I was advised to add a spoon of butter to the chocolate and melt it together - it was smoother.

4. Cover the marshmallows with chocolate. If you want to sprinkle it with cupcake sprinkle do it straight away. I regret I didn't have any at the time, they would look much nicer.


5. Leave to cool - I put mine in a tall glass and placed in the fridge to speed the process up.
It your marshmallow 'lollipops' or dunk it in hot chocolate :)

Valentine's date idea

I was thinking of an unusual way of celebrating Valentine's Day with Mr. Boyfriend. I wanted something more than dinner/romantic evening (nothing wrong with that of course! I just wanted to create something we haven't done yet). I came up with some ideas on how to spend the day a little bit different. So I'm starting a Valentine's series with ideas for a date, easy DIY's and original gifts. I hope you will find some inspiration here! Enjoy!

PS. I know the pictures are not good.. I'm saving up for a new camera, so hopefully soon they will get much better :)

The sweetest date

I don't think I know anyone who wouldn't like sweets! Surprise your date with hand-made sweets and have a great evening! After all, chocolate is a grate aphrodisiac :)

What I did:

• cinnamon cupcakes - you can find a recipe here (just add cinnamon and chocolate chips instead of coffee)
• waffles with a choice of toppings, like whipped cream, sliced banana, choco powder, jam, dried fruits, chopped nuts etc
• marshmallow lollipops 
• hot chocolate - the best recipe is from Isak - check it out here
• pink decorations to add even more sweetness 

I've planned super easy tutorials for everything I made for the date - I'll share it with you this week :)

Mr Boyfriend really liked the idea. Plus we got to eat everything after taking photos! 

Coffee and walnut cupcakes

The best cupcakes ever! Well, the best recipe I've tried so far anyway. Although I realise that the picture does not sell it too well.. Had few mishaps when making them last night (set too low temperature and the cakes melted, saved only 3 of them and the rest became one big mess...). They were delicious anyway! Making more tonight as Mr Boyfriend simply looooves them :)


You will need:
175g flour
175g butter at room temperature
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
45ml espresso coffee (or freshly brewed, strong coffee)
50g walnuts (or pretty much as many or as little as you want)


For the syrup
30 ml hot espresso coffee
50g light muscovado sugar


For the topping
150g butter
200g icing sugar
3 tsp instant coffee 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix together flour, butter, sugar, baking powder and eggs until smooth. Add coffee and chopped walnuts.
Spoon the mixture into 12 paper cake cases and bake for about 15 min (the tops should spring back when pressed with a finger).
While the cakes are baking, stir together coffee and sugar. You should get thick syrup.
As soon as the cakes are out of the oven, pierce them in several places and drizzle over the syrup, leave to cool.
To make the topping, cream the butter with sugar and coffee for about 3 min. Put the mixture into the piping bag and pipe it on to the cakes. As I don't have a pipng bag I used an ordinary plastic bag and cut off the corner. You could also spread the buttercream on with a knife.


Enjoy!


PS. I'll try to translate the recipe to Slovak tonight (need to ask my sweet assistant for help)


Kat 




As promised here we come in Slovak :)


Budete potrebovať: 
175g polohrubej múky
175g krupicového cukru
175g masla v izbovej teplote
3 veľké vajcia
1 lyžička kypriaceho prášku
45ml espresso kávy (čerstvo uvarená)
50g orechov


Sirup:
30ml espresso kávy
50g hnedého cukru


Na ozdobenie:
200g práškového cukru
150g masla
3 lyžičky instantnej kávy


Postup:
Predhrejeme rúru na 180 C.
Vymiešame do hladka múku, cukor, maslo, vajíčka a prášok do pečiva. Pridáme studenú kávu a nasekané orechy. 
Lyžičkou naberáme masu do 12 formičiek a pečieme 15 minút. Sú hotové keď ich zmačknete a oni sa vrátia naspäť.
Kým sú v rúre, urobíme si sirup. Do horúcej kávy pridáme cukor a vymiešame.
Keď ich dáme z rúry von, urobíme do nich dierky a polejeme ich sirupom. Necháme vychladnúť.
Na ozdobu vymiešame práškový cukor, maslo a kávu.
Keď cup cakes vychladnú, ozdobíme ich krémom.


Dobrú chuť!