Zeronic Cooks: Pumpkin Cake

Heey everyone, Zeronic here again for one of my experiments. Every now and then I find a recipe I would really like to try out and make it myself and due to Halloween and every pumpkin recipe you’ll find on the internet around that time, I decided to make an easy pumpkin cake with some leftover pumpkin we had from another recipe.

Pumpkin cake: (serves, errm a lot of people, less if we eat more, but around 12 slices)
- 200 grams of pumpkin
- 120 grams of butter
- 120 grams of brown sugar
- 250 grams of flour
- 150 ml Greek yoghurt
- 16 grams baking powder
- 3 eggs
- A pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. In a bowl, combine soft butter, sugar and the pinch of salt. Add the eggs, one by one and mix thoroughly. Now add in the baking powder and flour and mix it till you get a heavy sticky batter. To ease it up, you add some of the Greek yoghurt so stir it again. Now grate the pumpkin and add that to the batter and mix for 1 final time. Put some baking paper in a cake pan and put in the batter. Put it in the oven for roughly 50 minutes, or until you can put in a toothpick and it comes out clean. Take it out, let it cool and enjoy your wintery, halloweeny Pumpkin cake!

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Comfort Food: Pear Risotto with Mushrooms

Before the winter officially kicks in, let's share another autumn recipe :) I love cooking with fruit. I is hard for me to get enough fruits in, so every way I can manage it, is good to me. I love the subtle flavour of pear and I think this fruit is underrated in the kitchen. The original recipe is from An hour in the Kitchen and was made with blue cheese. But I don't really like blue cheese, so I made my version with feta instead. I like this recipe because unlike a lot of risottos, this one isn't dry on the 2nd day :)

Pear Risotto with Mushrooms: (serves 4)
- 5 to 6 cups vegetable or mushroom broth
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 spring onion, in rings
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 cups of mixed mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups risotto rice
- 4-5 medium-sized pears, chopped
- 150 gr feta, crumbled
- Salt/pepper to taste

Saute mushrooms, garlic and onion in butter for 5 minutes over medium heat. The the rice and toast until the grains turn translucent. Add a ladleful of hot broth to the pan and stir to prevent the rice from sticking. When the rice has absorbed all the moisture add another ladle of stock. Continue to do this until the rice is soft and creamy, for about 15-20 minutes. Never leave your risotto alone, the minute you do, it usually burns ;) When the rice is creamy, add pears and feta and warm through until the cheese has melted. Add salt / pepper to taste.

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Samhain: Pumpkin Ovendish with Cheddar

As promised I am posting another Samhain recipe this week, because I didn't want to post 2 in a row. We picked this dish because we love oven dishes and it looked like a very comforting dish. Which of course is perfect for this time of year. It is a bit like a mashpot with a twist. The original recipe comes from Veggie Variation.

Pumpkin Ovendish with Cheddar (serves 4)
- 1 pumpkin or butternut squash
- 800 gr potatoes
- 2 red bell peppers
- 3 spring onions
- 150 gr cheddar
- bit of butter
- pepper and nutmeg

Cut the spring onions in rings and the bell pepper in cubes. Peel and cube the potatoes. Clean and cube the pumpkin as well. Bring water to a boil and leave the potatoes to cook for 10 minutes. Then add the pumpkin and cook them for 5 more minutes together until they are both done. Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees. Drain the pumpkin and potatoes and  mash them together with a bit of butter, pepper and nutmeg. Scoop the bell pepper cubes through the mash. Scoop everything into an oven dish and top with the onion rings and lastly the cheddar. Place it in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheddar has melted.

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Samhain: Pumpkin and Kale Mashpot

On the 31st of October it was Samhain. And also Halloween. While the two do share certain elements, there are differences as well. The witches new year starts with Samhain and it is the time when the veil between our world and those who has passed is the thinnest. That is why there are often dinners where passed family members are being honoured. One thing there is in common though, is the use of pumpkin.

Normally I would have tried to publish the Samhain recipes before Samhain, but with my mother in the hospital, I am just glad that we got to cook for Samhain at all. So today I will share a recipe and another one next week :) The recipe for this mashpot that uses pumpkin as it's base instead of potatoes, I found on Voedzaam & Snel. I adapted it to a vegetarian version.

Pumpkin and Kale Mashpot (serves 2)
- 400 gr kale
- 1 kg Pumpkin
- 125 gr vegetarian / vegan bacon or ham bits
- 2 tbsp whipped cream or soy cream
- 1 tsp pepper
- pinch of nutmeg and salt

Wash, peel and cut the pumpkin into chunks. Add to a large pan and fill with water until just under. Add a pinch of salt. Place the kale on top. Bring to a boil with the lid already on. Lower the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile bake the bacon or ham bits until crispy. Drain the pumpkin and kale. Add the cream, pepper and nutmeg. Mash everything until you get the consistency you see on the picture. Stir in the bacon or ham bits. Would also work with feta instead.

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Apple Month: Apple Sauce Cake

Yes, I realise I post 2 cake recipes in a row now ;) But this was the last recipe I prepared for apple month, so I have to post it this week ;) This is an really easy recipe to make and cheap too. It is also a fairly healthy cake. So all reasons why you should try to make this once :) It doesn't really taste like apple though, more like a stickier vanilla cake, but that's okay :)

Apple Sauce Cake:
- 125 gr organic apple sauce
- 150 gr sugar
- 3 eggs
- 150 gr self rising flour, sifted

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.
Mix the eggs and sugar until you have a yellow creamy substance. Stir in (not mix) the half of the flour and the half of the apple sauce until well combined. Then repeat this with the other half of the flour and apple sauce.

Line a cake tin with a sheet of baking paper. Pour in the mixture and bake it in the oven for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and done. Use a toothpick to check, all though the cake remains a bit more sticky than a normal cake.

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Typical Dutch: Stroopwafel Cinnamon Cake

There is something new in the Dutch stores: a boxed mix for stroopwafelcake. Stroopwafels are waffles with syrup in between. It is a typical Dutch cookie and loved by my international friends. I dislike to use boxed mixes because they are full of additional junk that we don't need. So when I saw this recipe for stroopwafel cinnamon cake by Lekker en Simpel, I knew I had to try this. It is really tasty and easy to make. I loved the combination of flavours. I am sorry for the people who can't get their hands on stroopwafels, but I think that any kind of waffles with syrup will do as a replacement.

Stroopwafel Cinnamon Cake:
- 200 gr butter on room temperature
- 200 gr self rising flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of koek and speculaas spices (use all-spice instead)
- 5 stroopwafels
- 150 gr sugar
- 50 gr brown castor sugar
- 4 eggs

Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees. Mix the soft butter with the sugars. When light and creamy, add in the eggs one by one. Make sure one is totally mixed through before adding the next. Add the self rising flour bit by bit. And mix until you have a nice cake batter.

Crumble the stroopwafels and add those lastly together with cinnamon, and koek and spaculaas spices. Stir through. Place the cake in the oven for 60-70 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

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Apple Month: Apple Cinnamon Yoghurt Pancakes

We made these cute pancakes for Mabon and then totally forgot to blog them. I think that everyone had apple pancakes in some point of their life. I always thought they were nice but not too special. These pancakes however are totally delicious. I think the great difference is that instead of just added apple slices on your pancake, the apple is grated in the batter. I loved this idea! The original recipe is from Julia's Album.

Apple Cinnamon Yoghurt Pancakes (makes 12)
- 1 egg
- 0.5 cup Greek yoghurt
- 0.5 cup + 2 tablespoons half-and-half (we don't have that in the Netherlands so use 12% light cream)
- 1 cup flour
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large Fuji apple

Mix egg, Greek yoghurt and cream together in a large bowl until evenly mixed. Then add all the other ingredients, except the apple and mix well until creamy. Peel and core the apple. Then grate it by hand or in a food processor. Add apple for the mixture and stir through.

Heat a bit of oil in a pan suitable for pancakes. Add about 0.25 cup of pancake batter at a time for 1 pancake and bake until golden brown underneath. The upper side will puff up and dry around the edges. Then flip the pancake. Bake them for about 2-3 minutes on the other side.

For serving use powdered sugar and syrup. We had agave syrup.

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Apple Month: Yoghurt Cake with Apple and Raspberries

I am very sorry that I haven't been able to post any other recipes in between the last apple recipe and this one. But at least I want to post the apple baked goods I made :)
This cake is another one from the Appeltaart book I got for my b-day. I choose for this recipe because the raspberries are still in season and I don't eat them enough ;) It is best to make this cake when you have a lot of people over to eat them right away. This cake is really delicious when served warm, but doesn't keep very well.

Yoghurt Cake with Apple and Raspberries
- 1 hand apple
- 100 gr raspberries
- 100 gr sugar
- 50 gr unsalted butter on room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 75 ml full fat yoghurt
- 100 gr self rising flour
- 1 tbsp grated almonds
- pinch of salt

Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees. Peel and cube the apple. Mix the apple in the oven dish with the raspberries and 25 gr sugar.
Mix butter with 75 gr sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the eggs one by one, mixing in between. Then add the yoghurt and mix again. Lastly sift the flour and mix until you have a smooth batter.
Scoop the batter over the fruit in the oven dish. Finish it off with the almonds. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
Serve warm.

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Apple Month: Apple Flapjacks

Last month was shortbread month, and I really liked baking with a theme :) Of course I won't bake every month with a theme, but because apple season has started and I got a book on baking with apples for my b-day, it seemed like a good excuse to use this book and blog a lot of apple recipes.

Apple flapjacks seem to be British from origin and are eaten as breakfast or snack bars. This falls in the fairly healthy snack category. But still the sugar content is rather high, but for 1 portion it is not too bad. Especially if you make 12 portion of it instead of the original 6. Of course in this case it really is a snack and no breakfast ;) I choose to make this recipe because we had some maple syrup that was about to expire. Originally this is made with golden syrup, but this works just as well.

Apple Flapjacks (6-12 portions)
- 100 gr unsalted butter (margarine for vegan)
- 100 gr light brown castor sugar
- 100 gr golden syrup (or maple syrup)
- 200 gr oats
- 2 small hand apples
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Optional you can also add dried apple, nuts, raisins, dried cranberries or pine nuts.

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees. Melt in a pan the butter, syrup and sugar. Remove from heat and add oats and cinnamon. Peel and cube the apples and add them to the mixture. Place a baking sheet in an oven dish and scoop the mixture in the dish. Flatten the top with a spoon. Place in the oven for about 30 minutes. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before cutting. This way the outside gets crispy and the inside stays soft. Of course mine crumbled apart ;) But they were still good :)

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FoodBlogSwap: Apple Sauce

For this months Foodblogswap I was cooking from a blog called Gewoon Lekker Koken. The blog has some easy accessible recipes and is just about non nonsense and tasty food. It seems that I am getting in the habit of cooking multiple recipes from a blog in the past months, because I did so again this month. I choose the apple sauce because it was something that was on my to make list for a long time, but I never felt comfortable enough to do so. But it seemed easy enough, so I thought I would give it a try. Especially since Mabon was approaching at the time I made this and apple recipes fit that theme perfectly. Mine did turn out a bit then. Maybe I used a bit too much water, but it was tasty!

 
Home made Apple Sauce (serves 2)
- 1 apple per person (so in this case 2)
- sugar
- cinnamon

Peel the apples and cut them in little pieces. Bring apples with a tiny bit of water to a boil. Turn heat to low and leave the apples to simmer until they are soft. Stir regularly and break up the apples each time you do so. It will take about 30 minutes for the apples to soften. When the apples are soft, transfer them to a bowl and mash them until you have the structure you want. We used the handheld blender because we like a smooth apple sauce. But just mash it with a fork, if you like it chunky. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste.

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Recipe Review: Cashew Cream of Mushroom Soup

This post is a part of Vegan MoFo. For more information about Vegan MoFo, visit their website.

It had been a while since we made soup. I often look on Pinterest for inspiration because I pin a lot of recipes from other blogs there to try later. Of course there is already more on there than I can ever hope to try ;) But I pick something from there on a regular basis. Last week I decided to make a cashew cream of mushroom soup from Vegan Sparkles.

This very filled mushroom soup can easily serve as a meal on it's own. I only took a piece of bread with it. Using a variety really adds to the flavor and I loved the depth of it. It is not a very fast recipe because the broth needs to simmer for 45 minutes as do the cashews. But it is still easy enough because you only need to stir it every now and then. So it is a very hands off recipe. However I do strongly suspect that our kitchen machine wasn't strong enough to make a proper cashew cream. The reason why I say that is because there we still tiny pieces of cashew in the soup and our soup has a totally different color and texture than the original. It doesn't look creamy at all/
Therefore my boyfriend didn't like it all that much. He only likes nuts when you don't notice the texture of it. So sadly we won't be making it again. But for people who do have a strong kitchen machine, please go ahead and try it! I loved the flavor and the soup is very satisfying. Great for the upcoming fall. The recipe is under the link above :)

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Weekend Cooking: #104 - First Soup Bento

I really wanted to have a thermal bento for a few years already and now I finally got one! This is great because I am now able to take soup with me to school.

The bento has two compartments, one for soup that has a watertight lid and one that you can place on top of that to take some side dishes. As you can see the 2nd compartment isn't too big, since I could hardly fit in two broccoli muffins. This bento comes as a set and also part of it is a fitting bag and chopsticks. But I was in a hurry that morning before school, so I forgot to take a proper picture of the whole set. The bento did hold up very nicely and the soup was still warm when it was lunchtime, so I am very pleased about my new bento set. If you are interested to get one of your own, I bought mine on e-bay. You can click here to go to the seller and to see many great pictures of this set.

I also have a recipe for you of the soup I made. I really wanted to make pumpkin soup because the pumkins are in season again but I added sweet potatoes as well :)

Sweet Potato Pumpkin Soup (serves 4)
- 500 gr pumpkin
- 500 gr sweet potatoes
- 500 ml vegetable stock
- 300ml coconut milk
- juice of 1 lime

Peel the sweet potatoes. Remove the seeds from the pumpkin and cut both pumpkin and sweet potato in pieces. Toss the veggies in a large pan and add the vegetable stock. Let it boil for about 40 minutes until the veggies are soft. Mash the vegetables with a hand held blender until you have a smooth texture. Add the coconut milk to make it more creamy. Let the soup simmer for a bit and lastly add the lime juice for a sweet and sour taste.

The post is part of weekend cooking. Please go check out what others have made this weekend as well.

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