Bits and pieces

I'm doing a lot in the kitchen in the last days but nothing that new - what doesn't mean that's nothing different going on.

Last Sunday Matteo (the pizza king of this house) decided to try Hanna's (Bitter Sweet) pizza white sauce that I've seen a few weeks ago and was very excited to eat. We bought Nutritional Yeast for the first time and used two different tofu (green and smoked) in the pizza and the result was amazing. The sauce is really easy to make and it's delicious. And I had it with a natural orange and grapefruit juice (L).


On Monday, Valentine's Day, after a busy day I baked a chocolate cake to Matteo. Yeah, I'm eating it too so it wasn't just his treat in the end!



On Tuesday, to keep going with the sweet tooth and also because I'm back on baking in a daily basis, I decided to give a try in a real decorating activity. Everybody in my mum's family is an artist, with amazing motor coordination skills and I'm not that good on this kind of thing. Anyway I decided to make a teddy bear from scratch. The result is here:



And also on Tuesday I made a risotto (again? yeah, you know I love it) with the last broccoli, carrot and parsnip of my first organic bag! Today we'll get another bag and I can't wait to see what's on it :D



So this is it. I have a giveaway to announce soon, so keep coming here :P

In love with vegan chocolate cake

The first time I wrote here about cakes was after my first chocolate cake I tried to cook in Europe and it wasn't a good experience. After that, I gave up on the cake mixes and decided to cook the real cakes. And it's going very well. In Italy I cooked some carrot and chocolate cakes and everybody loved them. Vegan cakes are the kind of food that everybody asks how it can be vegan but when tasting one says that it's as good as all other cakes.

After moving we stayed some months without cakes because we had a lot of house stuff to buy and not enough money and some kitchen stuff had to wait. But now we have everything and I can cook all the cakes I want.

Our (me and Matteo) favourite one is the chocolate cake. And I always use a great and easy recipe that my friend Raquel sent to me: chocolate with nuts. I wish I could eat this cake every day, but I would become a ball have no time to do it!

Here the recipe:

1 ½ cup white flour
¾ cup sugar
½ cup crushed nuts
2 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ¼ cup water or soy milk
½ cup oil

Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Add the oil and then the water or soy milk. Mix until you have a consistent and smooth mass. Put in the oven for 30 minutes (180ºC).

I usually make a chocolate topping cream too with soy cream and cocoa powder. Just put them together in a pan and cook for 5 minutes after boiling. It will still look liquid. Wait until it gets cold and you'll have a delicious cream. Another option is make this topping cream with soy milk and a bar of dark chocolate.



And to my Brazilian friends, the recipe in Portuguese:

1 ½ xícara de farinha de trigo
¾ xícara de açúcar
½ xícara de nozes moídas
1 colher de sopa de cacau em pó
1 colher de chá fermento
1 ¼ xícara de água ou leite de soja
½ xícara de óleo

Peneire todos os ingredientes secos em uma vasilha. Misture e junte o óleo e depois o leite (ou a água). Misture até obter uma massa consistente e lisa. Leve ao forno por 30 minutos (180ºC).

Cobertura: leve ao forno um pouco de creme de leite de soja e cacau em pó (eu coloco as quantidades bem de olho aqui, quanto mais, melhor!) e deixe ferver por alguns minutos. Ela vai parecer ainda líquida, espere esfriar até que se torne cremosa. Uma outra opção é fazer a cobertura com leite de soja e barra de chocolate amargo ou meio amargo (se quiser bastante cobertura, use uma barra inteira!)