Coffee cake

As we need to empty the cupboards because we are going on holidays, I wanted to try a coffee cake. I didn't have enough to do a sponge cake so I looked on the Internet for the recipe of a normal cake. 

Ingredients:
For the cake
-75g butter or margarine
-75g sugar
-2 eggs
-75g self-raising flour
-1/2 and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
-1 tablespoon boiling water
-1 tablespoon coffee granulates

For the filling:
-200ml double cream
-2 tablespoon icing sugar
-1 teaspoon coffee granules for 2 tablespoons boiling water

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Grease your tin.
• Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy. This will take only a few seconds.
• Lightly whisk the eggs in a mug. Gradually add them to the mixture. Add flour a tablespoon at a time whilst beating. Beat in baking powder.
• Dissolve the coffee granules in boiling water and fold it gently. 
• Pour the mixture in the tin and bake for 30 minutes and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. 

• For the filling, add all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until the cream forms soft peaks. 
• With a piping bag or a spatula spread the filling on the cake and done!

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Almond cake (the easiest and quickest cake ever!)

Rubbish at baking but want to impress your loved ones? I have the solution for you! Let's just hope they are not allergic to nuts. This is the recipe for an almond cake. If you look on the internet we basically all have the same recipe: it's simple and quick. So you have no excuses now! Ready - Steady -BAKE!!

Ingredients:
-4 medium eggs
-200g ground almond
-200g sugar
-100g melted (unsalted) butter

• Mix the eggs and the sugar. Add the almond powder and melted butter. Mix well and pour in your greased tin. Place it in the oven (200°C) for about 20 minutes. 

• Now admire your great work! 

Windsor Great Park

Last weekend it was a new adventure for Annabelle and Lola! This time we went to Windsor Great Park... yeah we were too poor to visit the castle and July is not the best time of the month if you don't want to be annoyed by the tourists (sorry tourists!). We had a nice walk all through the day under a lovely British weather. Windsor Great Park is huge so we stayed at the 'Long Walk' starting at Windsor Caste and finishing at the statue of King Edward VII. To get back in the car we decided to go through the city of Windsor. It was really charming and there was a nice market walk. 

We could see Wembley Stadium and London's buildings from the top of the hill

Et voilà! Honestly I think it was my last "trip" in UK. From September I will have to start saving money if I want to stay and carry on my studies in England. Now I will go more often in London and I would like to plan a weekend in Paris so I could see my friends. I will probably have some more adventures when I will be settled and I will have money to travel in the North of the UK. My list is sooo long: Snowdonia, Lake District, Manchester/Liverpool, Scotland,... I wish I could visit some European cities too such as Berlin, Brussels, Florence,... I have to admit I am a bit sad to stop discovering UK for a while... but well, I love London and I can't wait to find some hidden gems out there and share it with you! :)

Easy couscous recipe

If you are running out of recipes try this easy couscous! I will start by writing the original recipe I found on BBC Good Food and then I will tell you how I did it the other day. I forgot to take a picture of it so next time I will cook this for dinner I will take a picture for the article. 

Ingredients:

- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 200g chicken breasts diced
- 1-2 tbsp harissa paste, plus extra to serve
-10 dried apricots
- 220g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- 200g couscous
- 200ml hot chicken stock
- handful coriander chopped

• Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion for 1-2 minutes until softened. Add the chicken and fry for 7-10 minutes until cooked through and the onions have turned golden. Stir through the harissa to coat everything and cook for 1 more minute.
• Tip in the apricots, chickpeas and couscous, then pour over the stock and stir once. Cover with a lid or tightly cover the pan with foil and leave for about 5 minutes until the couscous has soaked up all the stock and is soft. Fluff up the couscous with a fork and scatter over the coriander to serve. Serve with extra harissa if you like. 

As I was cooking for children I didn't dare to follow the recipe so here are the few tips I can give you:

• I replace the harissa with tomato purée for a non-spicy version
• I didn't put apricots because I don't like it and I'm not sure the children would have liked it too. 
• Next time I will do more than 200ml of chicken stock because the couscous was quite dry. To me 200ml is not enough, it burned the bottom of my pan and I was only on medium heat.

London, July 4th

 Last Saturday, under this beautiful British summer, me and my friend Lola went in London looking for clothes and books. We first stopped by the gigantic shopping centre of Stratford: Westfield, located in the Olympic Park. So we had a little shopping spree to see what the summer sales had to offer... Well not much! We both ended up with an item each. But the atmosphere out there was exotic. The sun, the heat, a bridge which vaguely reminded me of Barcelona's Maremagnum... We felt like we were in Spain and not at all in the British capital city. 

Quick lunch outside and we took the tube to Camden. When you live near London all the year, you tend to forget this is one of the most visited places in the world. So obviously in July you have a mass of tourists visiting trendy places (including Camden). We searched for presents in the market or at souvenir shops but nothing really interesting. Completely dehydrated, we decided to grab a drink at Costa Coffee. From our table, we could see several street arts on the walls outside. Once we finished our cups we took some pictures and carrying on walking we found out a nice little street with colorful houses (if you often read my blog it's no secret this kind of street is my weakness). 

Arrived at Chalk Farm Station, we headed to Granary Square because Lola (bookaholic) heard of a barge selling second-hand books called "Word on the water". The place is made of a big building with water jets in front of it and stairs with synthetic grass leading to the canal. Because of the heat, Granary Square was full of people tanning in their swimming costumes. We went on this barge searching for books. Once Lola came out with the one she bought, we finished our lovely day in the shade of Hyde Park. 

Mango sorbet

Summer is definitely here and the heatwave too! So to cool us down from these crazy temperatures, why not making a quick and easy sorbet? You can find the recipe in "Simple and delicious desserts".

All you need is:

• 2 large ripe mangoes

• the juice of 1 lemon

• a pinch of salt

• 115g sugar

• 3 tbsp water

Using a sharpe knife, thinly peel the mangoes, holding them over a bowl to catch the juices. Cut the flesh away from the central stone and put in a food processor or blender. If your mangoes are not giving any juice squeeze them over the bowl. Add the mango juice, lemon juice and salt and process to form a smooth purée. Push the mango purée through a nylon sieve into a bowl.

Put the sugar and water in a heavy-based saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, without stirring, then remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly. 

Pour the syrup into the mango purée and mix well together. Leave to cool, then chill the mango syrup in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or until cold.

If using an ice cream machine, churn the mixture in the machine following the manufacturer's instructions. Alternatively, freeze the mixture in a freezerproof container, uncovered for 3-4 hours, or until mushy. Turn the mixture into a bowl and stir with a fork or beat in a food processor to break down the ice crystals. Return to the freezer and freeze for a further 3-4 hours, or until firm. Cover the container with a lid for storing.