Heading into Fall

In celebration of the new fall season coming to Sweden (yes a little earlier than I am used to, but nonetheless this is the season in Sweden now) and it's also my mother's birthday, I have been baking up a storm. Since I don't live anywhere near my mom (sniff sniff) I still thought it nice to honor her with some baking. The only problem I realized, was that if she were here, she would only enjoy one of my baked goods from today, because she is an avid hater of coffee "anything". So to usher in Fall I have made a coffee, brownie cake and in honor of my mother's birth I have made pear, cinnamon muffins.

Happy birthday mom! And welcome lovely Fall season!

Until my next post enjoy the beauty around you.

If you live near the west coast of  Sweden and are interested in some of my baked goods, please contact me grahamlr@gmail.com

Barefoot and Baking in the Kitchen

Melted butter and cocoa

Together with coffee gives a lovely glossy look













Coffee grounds

Eggs and sugar

Cold coffee made from yesterday's breakfast works great!

Nice silky smooth

Beautiful swirls made from the egg and sugar mixture

Flour mixture

Coffee, brownie cake done. Added up top for a nice
look is shredded chocolate and nuts

See that lovely white cake plate...this is my new
birthday gift! I think it's so classy and this chocolate
brownie looks divine atop.

So pretty

Chocolate Brownie cake

6 tbsp. butter (melted)
1/2 C cocoa
2 eggs
1 1/4 C sugar
2 tbsp. coffee grounds
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 C strong already made coffee
14 tbsp. flour  (sorry for the crazy conversion, 14 tbsp is also 4/5 cup)
Set oven to 325F or 175C. Melt the butter and mix in the cocoa. Whisk the eggs and sugar together set aside. Mix in the coffee and vanilla into melted butter and cocoa. Add egg mixture and flour, mix thoroughly. Pour into 9" baking pan, bake for 20 minutes or until the middle is not runny. Decorate with shredded chocolate pieces when it's warm. Taste really nice with whipped cream or ice cream.

Pear Cinnamon Muffins

Cut pears into small pieces

Mix eggs and sugar

Add yogurt and butter to whipped egg mixture

Throw in the pear pieces

Flour time

Added cinnamon and cloves

New muffin forms

Muffins ready to be baked

Fresh hot muffins out of the oven

Yummy pear goodness

Makes you want to cozy up on the couch and drink hot
tea and enjoy this savory muffin.

Barefoot and Baking does breakfast...

Greetings on this very unstable weather day on the west coast of Sweden. I heard someone say once of the weather here that it has PMS. I actually think that is true. This morning it was a complete monsoon of rain and within moments it's sunny and back and forth for several hours until it finally decided to remain sunny....at least for now. I don't usually post about my every day things, like Sunday breakfast my hubby and I love to make, but since it has been a little while since my last post and I haven't yet shared my amazing scones recipe here, I thought what the heck! On Sundays we tend to make a little more gourmet breakfast for ourselves in which we take several hours to enjoy. Today we made what I call in my recipe book "the best scone ever!" This is so I remember just how yummy they are. Along with the scones, we made yogurt smoothies full of fresh and frozen fruits and juice. It was a very filling breakfast.

Have a great day and enjoy your food!
Barefoot and Baking in the Kitchen

Here are pictures of the process and to entice you to also make some good food for your long breakfast enjoyment.

Yogurt, orange juice, bananas and nectarines

Frozen strawberries and mixed fruit added

Blend all together for a fantastic smoothie.
There are no added sugars.

First step to our coffee obsession...warm the milk
(notice our Aero Latte frother, it will change you frothing
experience)

Frothing, look at how high the milk got

French pressed coffee and two glasses of frothed milk

Learning to pour the milk slowly helps
make the layers in your glass. It looks
super pretty.

Coffee ready to drink

Both coffees done just the way we like them.
I add a little vanilla to mine for a nice flavor.

Fresh out of the oven, warm amazing scones ready to
savor.

Nice golden, flaky top.

Smoothie in our smoothie
glass. Perfect for sipping.

Recipe for "The best scones ever!"
2C  flour
1/4C sugar
1tsp. baking powder
1/4tsp. baking soda
1/4tsp. salt
1/2C butter cold and cut into pieces
2/3C milk or sour cream
Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut butter into small pieces and blend into flour mixture. Add milk/sour cream and stir until dough forms. Roll into disk or into smaller buns. Bake 15-20 mins. Can take longer, make sure the inside is completely baked.

Recipe for smoothies
3/4C yogurt (flavored to what you prefer)
1/2C orange juice
1 banana
2 nectarines
5-7 strawberries
1/3C frozen mixed fruit
Blend and be happy!

Back in the saddle again...with three winning cakes!

Greetings from a very sunny and nice day here in Sweden. After a long summer break from baking, I am finally "back in the saddle again" and therefore have something to blog about. My most recent baking job was for a large group of people (60-70) celebrating a graduation. I was asked to bake 3 specialty cakes and I chose my top favorites. Lemon filled Loveliness (my name) Chocolate Divine (also my name) and Carrot cake with ginger and orange cream cheese icing (aka Carrot, Ginger and Orange Goodness). These cakes are winners all the way around. I have blogged about each one in the past and can confirm again that they are top cakes and you should try them if you have a chance. I am glad to be "back in the saddle" of baking. I have missed it, but with traveling to the States, swimming at the beach and visiting various friends, I have had a wonderful summer break! I have some more baking jobs coming up and hopefully will get a little more busy during the fall season (which leads into the best baking seasons of the year!!) On my baking schedule for the upcoming week, I have an English cinnamon cake, a cinnamon roll cake and an apple crisp...with cinnamon.  Okay, so I got stuck on cinnamon...there are worse things in life for sure! Sometimes cinnamon "anything" just hits the spot for me. Let's hope it hits the spot for those eating them.

It's good to be blogging again.

Enjoy the rest of your summer days...
Barefoot and Baking in the Kitchen!

Pictures of my top three favorite cakes...(recipes can be found in earlier posts)

#1 Lemon Filled Loveliness

First stages of preparing the filling and icing in the
middle of two baked sugar cake rounds

Yummy lemon goodness!

Like a big cake sandwich!

This filling makes your mouth pucker with it's tangy
citrus taste

Icing is now on and spiked (not with alcohol though)
This affect makes it look awesome, I totally recommend
you have a bit of fun with your icing.

Pretty!

I sprinkled some coconut shavings on top to make it
even better

Spikes

All pretty on it's glass plate ready to be displayed

#2 Carrot, Ginger and Orange Goodness

Almonds and sprinkled cinnamon help this cake look
delicious.

Nice silky smoothness with the cream cheese frosting

Yummy!

#3 Chocolate Divine

This cake just oozes sweet, yummy delectability.

Ribbons of chocolate give it that extra flare!

Go ahead and indulge your cravings...

And all 3 together like a gorgeous display of sugar,
sweetness and freaking hard work!

Complete with name cards for the customers to know
what they are getting.

Summer muffins!

Greetings on this sunny and windy day. Yes I realize that I suck at being consistent with this blog, but that's just how life is sometimes. Moving right along...this morning I am making super yummy, summery, strawberry and oat muffins. They are the perfect little treat for a morning coffee with friends or an afternoon tea. They are from my normal muffin recipe that I use quite often, but this time I added strawberries (so delicious) and some oats. They are the daintiest pink color, but are not dainty in size. Since I am hosting 6 lovely ladies this morning I made them the super size, coffee shop type...sometimes too much of a good thing...is still a good thing! These scrumptious muffins are currently in the oven plumping up and smelling the house of serious goodness. If you are looking for a simple, but awesome muffin recipe try these. They don't take very much time to prepare or bake.

Short and simple this time, but at least I wrote something.
Until next time, enjoy the beauty that surrounds you in different ways.

Barefoot and Baking in the kitchen

Ingredients ready to go

Eggs and sugar

Yummy strawberries













Whisk the eggs and sugar, not too much













Soften the margarine

Next add yoghurt

Then melted butter

















Might be a little lumpy, but that's okay

















Add berries

Flour and dry ingredients

 Oat added
















Mixed all together makes a nice batter

Batter dropped into 6 large muffin holders

6 plump and ready to serve strawberry muffins!       

 

Recipe for muffins ( I substitute the berries if I don't have any, also I use flavored or plain yogurt)

2 eggs
2 dl yogurt or sour cream
1dl butter or margarine (softened)
5 dl flour
1.5 dl sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
2-3 dl berries or cut up pieces of fruits
1-2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
1.5 dl oats (optional)

Whisk the eggs and sugar together. Mix in the yogurt and butter, then add the berries/fruit bits. Batter will be lumpy. Blend in dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, batter should be thick. For large muffin form, 2-3 tbsp. of batter in each. For small muffin form 1-2 tbsp. of batter. Bake at 300F or 225C for 15-20mins. Muffins should look cracked on top.