King cake (Galette des rois in french)

Galette des rois is a traditional french cake that is made for Epiphany (6 of January). It celebrates the arrival of the Three Wise Men in Bethlehem to visit baby Jesus. 
It is composed of a puff pastry cake, and a small charm in china, the fève, is hidden inside. The person who finds it becomes the king or the queen of the day. It is usually filled with frangipane, a cream made from sweet almonds, butter, eggs and sugar but there are several other derivatives as well at modern times.
I would like to thank Vanille, a girl of my son's class that put a recipe in their class blog and I could not resist and did it! It is so easy to make actually, check it for yourselves...


Ingredients
2 ready-made disks of puff pastry 
125 gr softened butter
125 gr sugar
125 gr ground almond
1 vanilla
2 eggs 
1 beaten egg for the top

Procedure 

1. Preheat the oven at 220 degrees of Celsius and fan.
2. Prepare the "frangipane" cream by beating first butter with sugar to get fluffy and then add the rest and continue to beat until soften.
3. Put one of the puff pastry disk on a baking sheet and lay evenly the frangipane on it leaving 2cm of the edges. 
4. Add the charm ("feve"). It is very important not to forget this part!!! Otherwise kids will be disappointed
5. Cover with the second disk. Press the edges with a small fork to seal well. 
6. Using a knife, "draw" lightly patterns on the top. 
7. Brush the last egg on top to get a nice color.
8. Bake for about 20min or until it gets crispy and a nice golden color.

 

Enjoy! And let me know what you think if you try it :) 
Here's what was left a few hours later the same day ...

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Gravity cake

Happy birthday! 

My son just turned 10 and here's the best birthday cake that I decided to make that makes the buzz on the web and makes heads turn on it's sight... The GRAVITY cake!!!
My kids loved it, hubby thinks I'm a genius, friends were amazed and there were even people that took photos of it :))))
Special thanks to both of my children that helped me doing it, and my apologies to my daughter that I underestimated her capabilities as she has proved that often she is much better than me ! Kiss to hubby for the support, as always, to my crazy ideas.
So, let's get back to the cake. Procedure goes like this...

1. To start, you can use as a base, your favorite recipe for a cake. In my case, this was my chocolate cake recipe that I just love for birthday cakes. 
2. You can cover it with melted chocolate that you have added some fresh cream in it. 
3. Glue using chocolate, biscuits like the Cadbury fingers, almost all around it but leaving a small part uncovered. The most interesting part follows...
4. The magic is based on a hidden flexible straw that has m&m's on it, using melted chocolate as a glue. This is actually the most delicate part of the whole procedure. Start by covering one part of the straw, put it in the fridge (not the freezer!!! m&m's lose their color otherwise) and then repeat on the other side. 
5. Glue the rest of the m&m's simulating the falling part and finish by adapting the straw in a wooden skewer that you have put before in the center of the cake.
6. Cover the straw ending with the empty bag of the m&m's and let all overnight to harden.

The next day, just admire the result and feel proud under the envy look of the children and even adults around you :)  Isn't it great?

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Homemade all-purpose cleaner

What best to start the year than a recipe for a natural cleaner that apart from being natural thus environment-friendly, is fast, simple and cheap ?
Not to mention that might work better than store brands.
Your kids can make it easily too and use it, how about that???
Here it goes...


Ingredients
1.5 table spoons of baking soda
1 table spoon of white vinegar
1.5 table spoons of liquid castille soap
warm water
6 drops of essential oils like lemon or lavender (optionally, I do not use them and use with care only if you know how !)

Tools
1.5 lt bottle (water bottle might do, but glass opaque recipients are better)
funnel
table spoon
a glass

Procedure (respect the order!)

1.  Pour the soda in the bottle
2. Add some warm water and mix well
3. In the glass, mix well the vinegar with the essential oil of your choice or simply pour the vinegar in the bottle (in case that you do not want to use oils) and shake well
4. Add the soap
5. Fill the bottle with warm water, cover it and shake once again well

Use
Store in a dark place. Shake well before each use. Use it as is to clean surfaces such as shower, water-basin, table, etc or diluted to clean the floor (approximately 1 cup in one lt of warm water). No need to wash it out. 

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Happy New Year 2017 !

May this year is less violent than the previous one and people will smile more!

Let's all try to be more open-minded and try to find this little kid inside us...

Happy New Year 2017!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad