Dan žena / International women's day

V petek 8. marca smo lahko praznovali Dan žena. Dan, ki ga slavimo v znak ženske politične, socialne in ekonomske neodvisnosti. Čeprav je ta dan izgubil svoj politični namen, pa je to odlična priložnost za vse moške in ženske, da  izkažejo svojo ljubezen in občudovanje vsem pomembnim ženskam v svojem življenju. 

Mnogo ljudi na ta dan kupuje rože, bonbonjere in druge malenkosti s katerimi želijo izkazati svojo naklonjenost. V ta namen pa sem jaz spekla čudovito čokoladno torto brez moke, za svoje sostanovalke.

 

Torta je nekoliko rustikalnega videza in za mnoge perfekcioniste (kot sem jaz) ne preveč simpatičnega izgleda. Vendar s časoma priraste k srcu. :) Razlog za tak videz je v preprosti sestavi torte, saj ne vsebuje ne moke in mleka - pravzaprav gre zgolj za mešanico jajc, čokolade, masla in sladkorja. Med peko torta zelo naraste, ko pa jo pustimo da se ohladi se le ta na sredini sesede. Torta je zelo krhka vendar zato nič manj slastna. Za še bolj čokoladni oksu sem torto oblila s čokoladnim oblivom (ganache) kar je torti dalo nekoliko svežine. Je precej težka torta, zato sem zraven postregla vanilijev sladoled, ki je nekoliko ublažil res intenziven čokoladni okus.

Za znanje:

V ameriki imajo za torto dva različna izraza; cake, ki je klasična torta narejena iz plasti biskvita in nadeva, ter tart, ki navadno označuje torto Evropskega izvora, ki vsebuje zelo malo oziroma nič moke (včasih moko nadomestijo oreščki). In zgoraj opisana torta je torej tart :)

 On Friday (8. March) was the International women's day. It's day that celebrates women's political, social and economical achievements and independence. Even though it's international women's day, this holiday is not celebrated worldwide. Even though this holiday lost its political meaning it remains celebrated. International women's day become an occasion for men to express their love for the most important women in their lives (wife, girlfriend, mother, grand mother, sister, etc.). But on these occasion men are not the only one that show love. This holiday become kind of friendship celebration between women.

On this day people mostly bring flowers, chocolate or something small for gifts just to show their appreciation and love. This is why I baked this delicious chocolate tart (flour-less and milk-less cake). Tart usually means cake (that originated from Europe) and has little or no flour.
I decided to bake it for my girl roommates, just to show them how important they are in my life.

 

The tart has this rustical look. If you are more a perfectionist like I am the tart may not look pretty (like usual perfectly round cakes does). But because this cake has no flour and it is actually only made from eggs, chocolate, butter and sugar it's very fragile. During backing this cake rises a lot, but while it cools the center of tart collapse.

For even more chocolate flavor i covered it wit chocolate ganache. And the taste was amazing. I had really strong chocolate flavor, almost like fudge. Beside I served vanilla ice cream, just to ease the intensive chocolate flavor.

Božična torta / Christmas cake

Praznični pozdrav!            Holiday greetings!

Na predbožični večer sem spekla torto. Prejšnjič sem omenila, da bom torto okrasila z božičnimi listi, vendar pa vsak, ki ve kako božični list izgleda, lahko opazi, da jih na torti ni. Namesto božičnega lista so na torti navadni listi. In zakaj je do tega prišlo?! Preprosto zato, ker sem imela doma na razpolago izsekovalec navadnih listov, v vsej tej božični mrzlici pa izsekovalcev božičnega lista ni bilo nikjer več mogoče kupiti. Vem, da bi jih lahko naredila ročno, vendar pa sem želela, da so si listi med seboj podobni, prav tako pa mi ročna izdelava ni šla najbolje od rok. Vendar pa mislim, da torta kljub temu izgleda fantastično.

***

So I made a Christmas cake two days ago. I said I would be making Christmas leafs, but if you know how Christmas leaf looks like, you will soon realize that the cake on this picture does not have any Christmas leafs on it. How come?! Well, it is hard to make 38 individual leafs by hand, especially if you want to make them beautiful and more or less the same. So I used leaf cutter that I had at home. But still I think it looks pretty awesome the way it is.

Tokrat sem uporabljala modelirno čokolado oziroma čokoladno glino. Tako kot vedno, sem tudi to maso naredila sama in moram priznati, da sem se zaljubila. Modelirna čokolada je odličnega okusa (ker ima okus po čokoladi) – mnogo boljšega okusa od tično mase in zelo priročna za izdelovanje okraskov. 

***

I used modeling chocolate or modeling clay (as some call it), for this decorations. I made it myself, for the first time and I must say that I fall in love with it. I mean I am basically a chocoholic and what is more fun than a chocolate you can play with. And most of all it tastes great – it is way better than fondant, because it tastes like chocolate.

Pri torti pa sem želela tudi tisti wau efekt. Vem, da že sama okrasitev torte izgleda fantastično, vendar pa se mi zdi, da ljudje prehitro pozabijo kako je torta izgledala, ko predse dobijo kos torte. Zato sem se odločila, da preizkusim na novo pridobljen trik in izdelam torto v obliki šahovnice, tako kot lahko vidite na sliki.

In čeprav je izdelava take torte precej preprosta, pri ljudeh izzove občudovanje in navdušenje.

***

I also went for a wow effect with this cake. Ok, it is looking beautiful but, when you start cutting the pieces for everyone to taste it, they soon forgot how it looked like. So a assembled a cake sponge to look like a chessboard, as you can see it in the picture. And as easy as it is to make it, people are really impressed with the results. And most of them can’t even imagine how you made it.

Skrivnost izdelave take torte pa je: spečemo dve (ali več) plasti biskvita različnih barv. In ko se biskvit ohladi iz njega izrežemo različno velike kolobarje. Na koncu pa je potrebno le še zamenjati kolobarje, tako, da se barve menjajo (kot je razvidno iz slike).

***

So the secret is: You bake two (or more) different color sponges. And when they are cooled enough, you can start cutting different sizes circles out of it. And then the only thing left to do is assemble the sponge, so that you have different color rings (like you can see in the picture). 

Se opravičujem za slabo ločljivost slik.                                                                       I apologize for bad picture resolution.

Poker torta / Poker cake

A few weeks ago I made poker cake for my brothers’ birthday. It was a simple pineapple cake, with vanilla-butter cream frosting (that I made for the first time). And I covered it with some homemade marshmallow fondant in green color (That was also my first attempt at covering a whole cake with fondant). For decorations on top of the cake I made poker chips and a set of Aces. 

Nekaj tednov nazaj sem za bratov rojstni dan naredila poker torto. Naredila sem preprosto ananasovo torto; po vrhu sem jo namazala z masleno vanilijevo kremo (ki sem jo naredila prvič). Nato sem jo oblekla z marshmallow tično maso zelene barve. to je bil moj prvi poiskus, da sem celotno torto odela v tično. Za okraske na vrhu torte pa sem naredila preproste poker žetončke in set asov.

Day off cake (''stresna'' torta)

Evo, tako pa izgleda torta, ko se malo zabavaš s sestavinami, ki jih imaš v omari :)

So this is how the cake looks like when you start to play with the ingredients that you have in your commode. :)

 

Če verjamete, jo je že skoraj zmanjkalo. :) 

Believe it or not, the plate is almost empty already! :)

Day off cake :)

Danes je day off. Po napornem obdobju končno malo počitka. Kaj je boljšega, za pregon stresa, kot peka torte (iz ostankov ananasa in smetane od prejšnjega vikenda).

Stressed - Desserts :)

Sporočim kako izpade moja "stresna" torta :)

Today is finally my day off. After a stressful two months I can finally rest. And what is better to push all the stress away than baking a cake (from some leftovers from last weekend – I still have some pineapple and cream in my refrigerator).

Stressed - Desserts :)

I’ll let you know how my "stressed" cake turns out :)  

Basket weave

Misija vikenda: speči sadno torto in jo okrasiti po stilu basket weave-a

Mission of this weekend: bake a fruit cake and decorate it in basket weave stile.