Homemade Yogurt

Honestly, I was never into this making-everything-by-yourself-at-home kind of stuff. I would always buy everything plain and simple at the supermarket. But now - since I've realised that making everyday food on your own is so surprisingly easy - it has changed. Yes, obviously, making your own food does take you a little bit more time than buying it. And yes, you sometimes have to make more efforts for one meal than just going to the supermarket. But it's totally worth it. Trust me. It's much healthier and more delicious to eat homemade food, no matter if it's homemade jam, juice, bread, ice cream, granola or in this case - yogurt. 

Not very long ago David Lebovitz wrote about his experience of making homemade yogurt on his blog. It sounded really simple and yummy and since I had a litre of full-fat milk and some yogurt left I decided to try it right away. And it is indeed that simple and yummy. The consistency can be compared to full-fat greek yogurt, really creamy and fluffy. And I was really, well, let's say, surprised by the taste, because it was less sour than plain supermarket yogurt and it had this strong natural sweetness, which I adore. 

But try it yourself. Here comes my attempt ...

Homemade yogurt

1 l milk (I used 3.5 % fat)
4 Tabsp plain yogurt

Heat the milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil while continously stiring. When the milk is boiling, remove from heat and pour the hot milk in a large bowl. Let cool down a little bit until it's a bit warmer than room temperature (about 30 - 45 minutes). Whisk in the plain yogurt until incorporated. Now cover the glass bowl with a plastic wrap and leave it in a warm spot for about 10 - 12 hours. Some say that 3 hours is enough, I left mine undisturbed at a very warm place for 11 hours and it was perfectly fine. When the yogurt has the consistency that you want, let it chill in the fridge for some hours. 
And now you finally have it, you're own homemade yogurt. It is really that easy. 

Enjoy it with whatever you like, e.g. with some apple rhubarb compote and honey like I did ...

 

Wedding Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream Frosting

A few days ago my great-grandparents had their 65th wedding anniversary. Since this is a huge number of years and and amazing event, my whole big family was celebrating as if there was no tomorrow. Everyone in my family loves to talk loudly, to eat a lot, to sing out of tune and to hug each other like crazy. So, in short, I was having a great time. Not only because of my lovely family but also because of all our delicious traditional food. And I can say with pride that somewhere on the dessert table between about hundreds of other cakes, there were some beautiful little chocolate cupcakes with a pretty buttercream frosting made by me. And now they are requested and desired for every future celebration or family event. 
That's why you should definitely try them. The batter is extremely moist and soft while the buttercream is very fluffy and creamy. They're perfect for any special occasion. So here comes the recipe ...

Chocolate Cupcakes With Caramel Buttercream Frosting
(cupcake recipe taken from raspberricupcakes, I slightly changed the recipe)

cupcakes (makes about 12 medium size cupcakes)
95gm white flour
150gm sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tabsp unsweetened cocoa powder
6 Tabsp hot water
85gm melted butter
6 Tabsp buttermilk or low-fat yogurt
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line 12 muffin pans with muffin paper cups. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine cocoa powder and hot water and stir until the mixture is a thick paste. (According to Steph, this step intensifies the chocolate flavour of the cupcakes. I think it definitely works. The cupcakes had a very strong and delicious chocolaty taste. So don't skip this process.) Beat together the chocolate paste, butter, buttermilk and the egg. Sieve over the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Fill the batter in the prepared muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes until done. Remove from the pan and let cool completely. 

buttercream
100gm butter, at room temperature
200gm cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar
2 Tabsp caramel syrup (or use any other kind of syrup you like)
3 tsp corn starch

Beat together butter and cream cheese. Sieve over corn starch and beat in quickly. Sieve over the icing sugar and continue beating for about 2 minutes until very smooth and well incorporated. Add the syrup and mix. The mixture should be very thick but smooth. Frost the 12 completely cooled cupcakes. (Optional: I decorated the frosted cakes with some dark chocolate roses. Use whatever you wish.)
Enjoy :)

It's Chai Time ~ Raspberry Black and White Cake

Have you ever experienced this lovely and precious moment when someone (your friend, or brother, or sister, or grandma, whoever) reaches out for a piece of cake that you have made and then takes one single bite and chews about two seconds and then closes the eyes and gives you a gentle "mhh... delicious!" and suddenly, your humble baker heart is smiling because you made someone's day a bit happier with one simple piece of cake. I adore those kind of moments.

This cake is and will be my favorite raspberry cake. Until Forever. Now it's official. I have to admit that it turned out that delicious by accident, because, as always, I did not want to use a recipe and consequently, almost ruined the cake. But, in the end, I must have done something right, because both parts of the batter - the black and the white one - go extremely well with each other. The white batter is very soft and spongy while the chocolate batter has an amazingly heavy and moist texture. Which is, in addition, lighten up by some fresh and fruity raspberries in between. 

My honest wish (from the very bottom of my heart) is that you have at least 200gm of raspberries in your fridge for trying this cake, because, trust me, you really don't want to miss this taste!

Raspberry Black and White Cake

white batter
120gm margarine or butter, softened
100gm sugar (optional: vanilla sugar)
2 eggs
150gm flour
1 tsp baking powder

chocolate batter
100gm chocolate
120gm margarine or butter, softened
70gm sugar
1 egg
150gm flour
2 tsp baking powder

about 200gm raspberries


Preheat oven to 175C. Grease a round baking pan.

Prepare the white batter. Cream butter and sugar, using a mixer on high speed, until fluffy. Add eggs and beat them in. Sieve over flour and baking powder and beat in as well, until incorporated. Do not overbeat.

Prepare the chocolate batter. Melt chocolate and butter together in a large bowl and whisk until completely melted and there are no lumps anymore. Whisk in sugar and egg until well combined. Sieve over flour and baking powder and quickly whisk in until completely incorporated. 

Pour a bit of the white batter into the baking pan and spread evenly. Cover with some chocolate batter using a teaspoon. Sprinkle some raspberries on top. 

Repeat this procedure until batter and raspberries are used up. (Don't try to make it look 'pretty', it will seem to be horrible. After the baking it'll look gorgeous, on the outside and on the inside.)

Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until done.

Let cool completely and dust with icing sugar, if desired. Enjoy!

Gulchathaii

Delicious Oatmeal Pancakes For Breakfast

This is exactly what I love to start my day with. Some easy and delicious oat pancakes with cream cheese and homemade jam. And an amazingly sweet smell in my kitchen (and the whole neighbourhood, as soon as I open my windows). If you like to have oatmeal for breakfast but also freshly fried pancakes then combine these two dishes and try this recipe!

Oatmeal Pancakes
makes about 5 large or 10 small pancakes

250gm oats
550gm milk
5 Tabsp homemade vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
olive oil for frying

Combine oats and milk. Let soak for about 1 hour.
Add sugar, cinnamon, eggs and whisk until the ingredients are well combined.
Heat some oil in a medium size pan.
Fry pancakes until both sides are golden brown.

Enjoy with whatever your heart and your belly desire. Cream cheese, honey, jam, marmelade, fruits, ...

Gulchathaii

Vanilla French Toast

Breakfast is the best part of the day especially when the whole kitchen smells like vanilla. I wanted to have french toast for breakfast today because yesterday I was 'stalking' Wendy's blog (I totally adore her recipes and also pictures, she's extremely talented. I wish I was able to bake such beautiful cake like she does!) and found her recipe for French Toast. As I don't have any lessons today so I decided to have a delicious breakfast, which is always an extremely long procedure. 

 (my Mom's french toast covered with chocolate spread, which was definitely too sweet. French toast has to be eaten plain)

Vanilla French Toast

2 eggs
a pinch of salt
about 2 Tabsp homemade vanilla sugar
1 Tabsp regular white sugar
a pinch of cinnamon
+ 4 slices of toast
some butter for frying

Beat eggs, salt, sugar and cinnamon until fluffy. Heat a frying pan (I was using a small-sized pan) on medium heat and melt about 1/2 tsp of butter in it. 
Place one slice of toast into egg mixture and turn it around to have both sides of the bread covered with egg mixture.
Put it into the pan and fry until golden brown about 2 minutes for each side of the toast.
Continue until the whole egg mixture is used up. 
Enjoy :)

Gulchathaii

It's Chai Time ~ Raspberry Lemon Cake

This was the first time ever for me to bake this type of cake. It was for my aunt's and my uncle's 20th wedding anniversary and I wanted to bake something special. Since my aunt is totally in love with berries I decided to use raspberries. The lemon flavour was my own desire, as I'm crazy about citrus fruits. Raspberries and lemons go so well together. I'm so glad everyone liked it. Hopefully, you try this recipe and like it, too.

  

Raspberry Lemon Cake

about 2 cups of raspberries, drained (or use more, if desired)

Batter

2 cups white flour
2 teasp baking powder
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
zest of (at least) 1 lemon
1 cup oil

Preheat oven to 175C. Line 2 round pans with baking paper. Do not grease the sides. 
Combine flour and baking powder. Beat eggs until fluffy, then add sugar and beat in for about 2 minutes until you have an extremely light and bubbly mixture. 
Beat in oil and lemon zest. 
Sieve over flour mixture and quickly beat in just until incorporated.
Pour into 2 prepared pans and bake for about 20 minutes until done. Let cool completely.


Frosting

200gm сметанa (or sour cream, about 25% fat)
1/2 cup yogurt (not low fat)
about 2 Tabsp sugar

Beat together sour cream, yogurt and sugar until incorporated. Set aside.


Topping / Glaze

juice of 1 lemon
130ml water
1 teasp corn starch
(red food coloring, if desired)
+ some almonds for sprinkling

Put lemon juice, water, corn starch (and food coloring) into a medium-size sauce pan and bring to a boil while continiously whisking to avoid lumps. As the mixture starts to become thicker, remove from heat and let cool for about 1 minute.


Take the first layer and place it onto a plate.
Spread half of the frosting mixture on the first layer.
Place half of drained raspberries on the frosting while gently pressing them in.
Cover with second layer.
Place the remaining raspberries equally onto the second layer (For this step I used the pretty raspberries while I put the not-so-pretty berries between the layers, as mentioned before.)
Take the lightly cooled glaze, pour over the top of the raspberries and spread all over.
Now frost the sides of the cake using the rest of the frosting mixture. 
Sprinkle almonds on top. Let sit for about 3 hours.
And enjoy.

My aunt's delicious Raspberry White Chocolate Tiramisu

And of course her amazing Honey Cake. That cake can really make my day.

Gulchathaii

It's Chai Time ~ Having Dessert

Just a quick post about my everyday life. Today it's about having a dessert after a kazakh meal. As already mentioned earlier my family uses to cook typically kazakh dishes which are very similar to the middle eastern dishes, sometimes it's even the same.  I'd like to show you a typical dessert which contains lots of sweets but also fruits.

 Халва (Halva) one of my favorite sweets ever

  Баурсаки, drowned in honey syrup

(In the back you see some honeydew melons 

and homemade apple grape juice)

Fresh Watermelon

 Fresh fruits such es grapes, peaches and nectarines

I hope you liked it, thank you for reading :)

Gulchathaii

Sweet As Honey

I took some pictures of 3 sorts of honey that I got yesterday and which I'm totally in love with. Actually, I read that the origin of the word 'honey' comes from aramaic or something and means 'enchanting'. And to be honest, it is enchanting. Honey can be used for almost everything, e.g. cakes, chai or sweets like baklava or chakchak (чакчак). Especially honey soaked cakes are amazingly delicious and sweet. Maybe I'm going to post something about that sooner. 

 White creamy honey

 Light brown solid honey

Dark liquid honey

Even though every sort of honey is absolutely amazing, I still have my favorite ones *.* I have to admit that the white creamy honey has the best consistency and the absolute best smell ever! But still the liquid honey is my favorite one forever. 
Well, that was a bit of my everyday life, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Feel free to comment, I appreciate that!

Gulchathaii

It's Chai Time ~ Strawberry Jam Chocolate Cupcake

Honestly, I cannot get used to here though it's been 1 week since I've left Almaty. One weird thing is that everything tastes and smells boring especially fruits and sweets. The food in Almaty is middle eastern food and the sweets and cakes are unbelievably amazing. They use a lot of honey, syrup, raisins, almonds, dried apricots and dates and so on. Yesterday I tried a piece of a strawberry cream cake with a looot of cream and sugar - cause everyone was like 'mmh such a yummy cake' - and it tasted like nothing, absolutely nothing. It's funny seeing how traditional delicious food from home influences people's taste. 

Anways, yesterday I baked cupcakes with strawberry jam and dark chocolate. Like already mentioned, they are nothing compared to the sweets and cakes in the Almaty or somewhere else in the middle eastern area. But still, they're pretty good and I hope you like the recipe :)

Strawberry Jam Chocolate Cupcakes

2 cups flour
1 full teasp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
6 teasp cocoa powder
120gm very dark chocolate, in pieces
1 cup oil
1 cup strawberry jam
2 eggs
1 cup hot boiling water


Preheat oven to 190degC. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, cocoa powder. Add the hot water together with the pieces of chocolate so the chocolate melts a bit, then mix well. Add oil, strawberry jam. Beat the batter, then beat in eggs, for about 1 minute. Fill into prepared muffin cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Let cool. Makes 12 muffins.

I hope you liked the pictures and that the recipe was helpful :)
Thank you for reading

Gulchathaii

Pictures from Алматы ♥

I'm back! So I havn't been blogging for the last 3 weeks, or maybe more... because I was in Almaty. It's the city where I was born and where a part of my family comes from. Words cannot describe how much I love being there, it's just home. I left 6 days ago and I already miss it. 

During my time there I also took some cute pictures which I'd like to share. Enjoy :)

That's it for now, I hope you liked the pictures :) I hope I'm going to be blogging about new recipes, nail designs, hair care and other stuff very soon. Thanks for reading

Gulchathaii

White Chocolate Chip Five-Minute Cupcake

Today I have to start working at 12 am so I had enough time left to have a five minute microwave cupcake for breakfast for my mom and me. Actually, I wanted to use this five minute cupcake recipe but I changed it a bit. And I added white chocolate chips which was soo delicious, can't wait to bake them again. 

 White Chocolate Chip Five-Minute Cupcake


(2 servings)
6 tabsp whole wheat flour
1/4 teasp baking powder
2 tabsp sugar
2 teasp cocoa powder
50gm white chocolate, in small pieces
4 tabsp jam (I was using homemade grape jelly)
2 tabsp oil
8 tabsp milk
1 egg


Combine all ingredients, fill into two cups. Bake for 2 minutes and 30 seconds, one at a time. 

(I liked the melted pieces of white chocolate in my cupcake)

Optional: Use homemade jam with pieces of fruits, it will make your cupcake moister. This time I used jelly and it was not as good as a cupcake with jam with pieces. 


I hope you liked it :)

Gulchathaii

'Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.'

 Me. And south east.

Gulchathaii