Red Velvet

Cake is always a good idea but what's even better is if the cake is chocolate, carrot or red velvet. 

Then what's even better is if it's served with some pretty summer fruit to embrace those short lived glimpses of sunshine we're currently having.

The cake doesn't look as red but the taste makes up for what the colour lacks, after all cake is all about the 'mmmm' and 'OH MY GOD' when you take that first bite.

Valentines Day treats

Valentines Day treats

So what's happening in 4 days? None other than Valentines Day of course, so I've gathered a few treats that  I think would be lovely for the day.

1.) Waffle strawberry and mascarpone easy dessert - a few weeks ago I watched James Martin's 'Sweet' and the episode was called 'Supermarket' where he made easy desserts with supermarket bought items and I literally spent 5 minutes making this beautiful dessert and gave it to my dad. Let's just say he 'OH MY GOD'ed at it at least 3 times. Easy, beautiful and delicious = perfect.

2.) Chocolate cupcakes with cherry toppings and heart shaped shortbread sandwiches with jam filling  - Okay, I may have cheated with these ones since they were made from last year and I just re-used the pictures but I'm planning to make them again so I guess that makes up for it? maybe? Anyway these are pretty easy to make and if you're lazy like me, just buy cupcake/cake mix and then follow the instructions and top with icing and some nice cherries for Valentines touch. For the shortbreads, make sure you don't roll them out too thin since they're not nice crispy or brown at all, fill with jam and you have some nice cookie sandwiches. 

3.) Sweethearts chocolate and hazelnut sandwiches - I made this the other day with the recipe from Good Food's February magazine and my heart shaped cutter was bigger than the brioche bread so I had to make the smaller ones and then made the tiniest hearts as well as to not waste the off cuts and I must say this is a pretty heavenly breakfast. Fill the brioche bread (butter ones are really nice and soft) with Nutella for that hazelnut goodness, dip in egg, milk, vanilla extract and caster sugar mix and dip in chopped hazelnuts for that crunchy texture then fry until brown for that crispiness.

I decided to serve with mascarpone cream instead of ice cream like it said in the recipe as I thought it better with the creaminess and goes well with the strawberries as well :)

You better half would totally love this and it's totally a good start to V Day.

4.) Ferrero Roche cupcakes - who doesn't love Ferrero Roches (you there who just replied 'me' better re-think your answer). Ferreos for me are the ultimate Valentines/Christmas chocolates ever but then my opinion is biased since they're my favourite chocolates but they're just so lovely with the different layers and the surprise nut inside *sigh of love*

Buy a cake mix, follow the instructions, place the Ferrero Roche in the middle before putting in the oven and then bake it and voila = you have the awesomest and easiet cup cakes.

5.) Macarons - macarons are just the ultimate treat, they're light, they're sweet and they're oh so cute with the different colours. I haven't perfected making macarons yet but this batch wasn't so bad. Just use butter cream, add pink/red food colouring for Valentines and tada! You have some pretty nice macarons :)

 I hope you all have a lovely Valentines Day with you loved ones and if you're single then hey, all the better, you can make all these and keep it all to yourself right? Greedy you say? Of course not, not if it's Valentines Day!

Sunday's Treat

Sunday's Treat

(Banana split with hot chocolate sauce, Hershey's sauce, ferrero roche, raspberries and Halo-Halo ice cream)

Ever since being health conscious, I decided that I will only have proper treats every Sunday and this Sunday  I made banana splits. 

Not the typical ordinary banana split with just bananas, chocolate sauce and ice cream but I went the extra mile and added Ferrero Roches as well to add that crunchy texture on top of the halo-halo ice cream. If you don't know what halo-halo is, click here. It's this amazing Filipino dessert made into ice cream and it's just so heavenly. I'm so glad China Town stocks it because its the closest I will come to having it here in the UK.

Also used Hershey's sauce on top of the hot chocolate sauce I already made since the hot chocolate sauce wasn't quite dark enough to my liking. I added raspberries to add colour (this part was inspired by the recipe in Rosemary Conley's low fat cookbook)

Still deciding on what Sunday treat to have for next week, any suggestions?

A Mosaic of Food

A Mosaic of Food

 A part of my New Year's Resolution this year is to cook more as well as to lose weight and be healthier and  I know it's a big battle to lose weight especially if you love food but then this year I've started to touch on and learn a lot of ways I can still enjoy food.

Here are some of my dinner meals I have made, nearly all of them from the recipes of the Hairy Dieters which are healthy approved but at the same time oh so good.

I find that my taking snap shots of my meals, I also feel better looking back at them and also realising I am meeting my resolution of cook more and also blog here more.

Follow me on Instagram: @marieljanina where I post my meals before I indulge in them :) 

The Irish Pub

The Irish Pub

 

Second Day in Paris for our short holiday and we dined in a restaurant called 'The Irish Pub' near our hotel by the marina. The funny thing is the restaurant has an English (well Irish) name but the menu and the waiters cannot speak any english at all.

But aside from that, the food was great and so is the service despite the language barrier. The menu mostly consisted of filling food like burgers, steaks, sandwiches, etc.

We ordered burger, sandwich and my dad ordered a crepe meal which had salad and all sorts of accompaniments with it. The food was really filling but we didn't stop there, we shared desserts of ice cream with cream and chocolate sauce and banana split.

From having the banana split, it made me want to create my own back here at home and I shall do it soon when I can.

More food updates later :)

La Cour De La Huchette

La Cour De La Huchette

 

This week, me and my family went to Paris for a short holiday for the 3rd time and along great company and great city comes great food.

We dined at nice restaurants and had amazing food that certainly fuelled us up ready for the excursions of the day. 

Here is the first of the restaurants which is called 'La Cour de la Huchette' in English 'The Court of Huchette' and 'Huchette' being one of the oldest streets of Paris.

The restaurant was really nice and had a really nice atmosphere where there is an outdoor restaurant which is like a greenhouse because of the roofing being clear and there were plants running along the walls and stone walls. The tables also had flower setting in the centre and the room was just so bright and vibrant.

On to the menu, the menu was really varied, there was pizza, pasta, meat, fish, frog legs and even snail dishes. My sister and her boyfriend shared a pizza dish which had ham, olives and mushrooms as toppings (very Italian-like). They also had snails or 'escargos' as the French say it as starters. I'm not really a big fan on snails as they are or as food, I just think they are slimy but I must say from what my sister and her boyfriend have said about the snails, it must be really good. They were served with garlic butter sauce which gave them their flavour and also served in their shells for presentation.

For my starter, I had ham platter with salad and gherkins. There were two types of ham on the platter one is cured and one is regular ham. I'm also not a big fan of gherkins so I left that but out. 

The main, on the other hand, was not only appetising but also very delicious. It was beef cooked in red wine served with potato layer bake, braised rice with tomato sauce and salad. 

It was a really good balance with the texture and taste. From the softness of the potatoes and rice to the tender beef and crunchy salad.

This restaurant and it's food were really satisfactory and in my opinion really worth the cost. I really recommend it if even you visit the city of Paris.

More travel food from this holiday and this majestic city in later posts.

P.S. For lifestlye and more pictures from this holiday, click here.

Chocolate sponge cake in chocolate sauce

Chocolate sponge cakes with chocolate sauce and bananas that we had to create in college last Monday except the bananas of course. I added that and the chocolate sprinkles and icing sugar for the pictures.

I love chocolate and hopefully tomorrow, we'll be making these again so I can have more of it :)