Recipes – Cristina Arévalo- The Art Cake Experience

Fresh strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting.

6 de July de 20203 de July de 20201 Comment

For this super strawberry cake the secret is to use fresh strawberries and …. gelatin, yes GELATIN!

Let me share the recipe with you, I hope you like it!

For the Cake:

250 grams of butter

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

1 strawberry gelatin sachet

½ cup of milk

½ cup of fresh strawberry juice

½ cup fresh cut strawberries

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Preparation:

In a mixer, first, add the butter and sugar until it forms a soft and light dough.

Then add the eggs one by one until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. On a different bowl, mix together the powdered gelatin sachet with the flour and baking powder.

Alternately add the flour and the milk to the cake batter.

Finally, mix by hand in an involving movement the strawberry juice and fresh strawberries.

For the cream cheese filling:

2 packages of cream cheese

250 grams of icing sugar

zest of a vanilla pod

cream cheese frosting

In a mixer, mix the cream cheese with icing sugar and vanilla, until you get a fluffy cream.

I used edible gel dyes for the three shades of pink. I divided the cream into three equal parts and then added the dye, varying the amount to obtain three different shades.

Finally, just fill the cake in equal parts and put the three shades of pink around.

It is very important to refrigerate the cake between each step and to keep the temperature of the cream cheese cool.

This cake is recommended to keep in the refrigerator until party time.

Hope you like it,

Kisses!

Fresh Strawberries cake with cream cheese filling.

26 de May de 202026 de May de 20202 Comments

For this super strawberry cake the secret is to use fresh strawberries and …. gelatin, yes GELATIN! IMG-20170827-WA0005

Here I share the recipe with you, I hope you like it!

For the Cake:

250 grams of butter

2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

1 strawberry gelatin sachet

½ cup of milk

½ cup of fresh strawberry juice

½ cup fresh sliced strawberries

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Preparation:

In a mixer, first, add the butter and sugar until it forms a soft and light dough. Then we add the eggs one by one until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. Aside we add the powdered gelatin sachet with the flour and yeast.

Alternately add flour and milk to the cake batter. At the end mix by hand in an enveloping way with strawberry juice and fresh strawberries.

For the cream cheese filling:

2 packages of cream cheese

250 grams of icing sugar

1 tbsp of vanilla

cream cheese frosting

strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting

In a mixer, mix the cream cheese with icing sugar and vanilla, until you get a fluffy cream similar to the buttercream.

I used gel edible dyes for the three shades of pink. I divided the cream into three equal parts and then added the dye, varying the amount to obtain three different shades.

Finally, just fill the cake in equal parts and put the three shades of pink around. It is very important to refrigerate the cake between each step and to keep the temperature of the cream cheese cool. This cake is recommended to keep in the refrigerator until party time.

Hope you like it!

And don´t forget to like, comment, share, and subscribe.

Stay creative!

Love,

Cristina

Stout Beer Chocolate Cake Recipe

19 de May de 202019 de May de 2020Leave a comment

So, as I said in a previous post, I decided to have a chocolate bake-off in my kitchen. I already shared with you guys my Rich Chocolate cake recipe and now is the turn for the Stout Beer Chocolate Cake.

This is such an intense flavored cake, that it is not just the richness of the dark cocoa, is also the bitter taste of the stout beer that makes the difference. Besides, it is a super moist cake and not too dense.

Let me share with you this simple recipe, the great thing is that you mix wet ingredients first, all of them; and then the dry ingredients so it is simple to make.

Ingredients:

250grms of melted butter

3/4 cups of dark cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of Stout beer

2 eggs

3/4 cups of yogurt

3 tsp of vanilla

2 cups of self-rising flour

2 tsp of baking powder

a pinch of salt

Mix together the melted butter with both sugars, cocoa powder, stout beer, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla.

It may look crumbly when mixing but it will be a quite liquid and silky mixture at the end.

Once it is all mixed, add the sifted flour together with the baking powder and salt.

Bake at 200º for 35 minutes and let it cool on a cooling rack.

I top this cake with a simple American buttercream coffee-flavored.

It was absolutely delicious!

Please try this one out, compare it to the other cake and tell me all about it. And as always, remember to like this post, comment, share, and subscribe!

Did you pick a winner recipe?

I couldn´t!

Love,

Cristina

I just want a chocolate cake!

18 de May de 20201 Comment

Because at the end of the day, we are eating cake, doesn´t matter how artistic, how decorated, how innovative it is, we are eating a cake.

During these last months in the middle of this quarantine and social distancing, I´ve been meeting through social media new cake friends from all over the world, amazing artists with: out of this world cakes and confections; skills and techniques that I can only dream of and I am in awe about it.

As amazed as I am, I have a small feeling of missing something. In Portuguese, there is a word called ” Saudades” that according to the dictionary means: “a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia that is supposedly characteristic of the Portuguese or Brazilian temperament”.

I definitely have ” Saudades” of a cake!

just a Cake!

a simple chocolate cake!

entering your mom´s house or visit your grandmother and smelling that steamy fresh cake just out of the oven.

Going back to the basics, to baking, to tasting a cake by itself, I decided to dedicate this week´s of work to an old-time favorite flavor: CHOCOLATE!

Being me, I decided to have a small bake-off in my kitchen and this past Sunday I baked two recipes of my favorite chocolate cakes and have my family be the judge of it. None of them won, they ate them both!

Both cakes being of chocolate are very different in taste, moist and sweetness. One is my all-time favorite rich chocolate cake recipe that I found a long time ago on a magazine and the other is a Stout Chocolate Cake that someone gave me the recipe many years ago.

I´ll share one of them today and the other on a next post, so let´s begin:

Rich Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter

350grms of golden sugar

5 eggs

1 chocolate tablet of at least 55% of cocoa or more

150 grams of flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder.

butter and sugar

Mix together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add each egg at the time and mix well after each addition.

Melt the chocolate in bain Marie and let it cool before adding it to the mixture. Mix well and finally add the sifted flour.

( in the last picture you can see both recipes of chocolate cake, the Rich Chocolate Cake is the one on the left)

Now, my special twist to this cake: add a pinch of sea salt and just a 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, this will enhance the chocolate flavor!

This cake doesn´t rise too much, so for a taller, double this recipe and divide the batter into two molds of the same diameter.

Bake at 180º C for 40 minutes. This cake tends to sink in the middle so decorating requires a lot of leveling and carving. However, this cake is absolutely delicious and moist, it is similar to a brownie and is very rich in flavor.

I decided to top this cake with a simple dark chocolate ganache and some fresh raspberries.

Try it out and let me know how was it!

I really hope you like this post ( and this cake), and don´t forget to like, comment, share, and subscribe!.

Love,

Cristina

” Piña Colada” Jelly

8 de May de 2020Leave a comment

The weather is about to change and as summer is coming, so we want some fresh and tasty desserts and there is one flavor, in particular, that takes us to summer, party and the beach and that flavor is …Piña Colada.

This is a simple recipe with easy to find ingredients that will give you a very fresh summer dessert.

” Piña Colada” Jelly🍍

Ingredients

One box of pineapple jelly

1 cup of coconut milk

3 cups of water

some teaspoons of shredded desiccated coconut for decoration

2 tablespoons of clear powder gelatin

a cherry to decorate

How to make it:

Mix one package of the pineapple gelatin with one tablespoon of clear powder gelatin. Add two cups of hot water and mix until everything is dissolved.

Place this preparation on a plastic mold and let it solidify in the fridge for at least one hour.

In another bowl mix the other package of pineapple gelatin with one spoon of clear powder gelatin and add one cup of hot water and one cup of coconut milk. Mix it well until it is all dissolved.

Leave it to cool down before adding this preparation to the already set pineapple gelatin. The leave it in the fridge overnight before taking out of the molds.

I made some seashells using plastic molds and the coconut gelatin preparations to decorate.

Serve with the shredded desiccated coconut, you can paint the seashells and add the cherry on top to give it a cocktail look!

I hope you like this summer easy dessert and don´t forget to comment, like, share, and subscribe!

Love,

Cristina.

Coconut Gelatine

21 de April de 20201 Comment

Trying to find new flavors for the 3D gelatin flowers and since the weather is getting warmer and calls for more tropical flavors, I found a recipe from the ” Asian Gelatin Flavors”.

There is some information that these 3D gelatin flowers are originally from Asia and then became popular in Latin America, even though, Latinamericns claim that they invented it and the Asians copy them.

All I know is that being self-taught I found my own technique and instruments to work with in order to make these beautiful flowers with everyday knives and pharmacy store syringes. However, I am always open to trying new flavors so I found this very tasty recipe for my friends and students.

So, here I share with you these Coconut gelatins that are very clear and work perfectly to make the 3d Gelatin Flowers. Besides is very fresh and tasty, excellent for summer!

The base is made from coconut water, so you won´t have to include flavoring or essences or even add more sugar. With all the variety of brands of coconut water available in the market, you can even choose the amount of sweetness, light products or even bio or natural ones.

Ingredients:

3 cups of coconut water

1 cup of water

56 grams of clear powder gelatin

125 grams of sugar ( optional)

3 ml of lemon juice or 1 teaspoon of citric acid

Ingredients Clear Gelatin — Coconut clear gelatin

To make the gelatin is very simple:

1.) Mix the coconut water, the sugar (optional) the lemon juice or citric acid.

The Experience

3D Gelatin Flowers

2.) Then in another bowl, hydrate the gelatin with the water. Add the gelatin to the water and leave it to rest for a minute so the grain of the gelatin will expand and hydrate. Then heat it in the microwave at low temperature without boiling it.

3. ) Finally, mix together the liquid gelatin and the coconut water and let it rest for 5 minutes before pouring it in the container for the gelatine. Then place them in the fridge for 24 hours to solidify and to make the flowers.

If you want to check out the process of making the 3D Gelatin Flower, please check out this video on my YouTube channel so you can see how it is done.

Try out this recipe, it is tasty and fresh for the summer. I really hope you like it!

Don´t forget to like this post, comment, share and subscribe!

Love,

Cristina

Vegan Chocolate Cake

9 de December de 20199 de December de 2019Leave a comment

Every year for the last five years I´ve been making a cake for a fantastic group of people who created an association and a shelter for dogs and cats name UPPA.

For some of those years, some members of this group were vegans and it was my challenge to find a good, great-tasting recipe with great consistency to hold the fondant decorations and totally vegan. And I found it, and have used it for the last five years with great feedback from the client and using a variety of filling for flavor twists.

I want to share this recipe with you today, and I have a picture to show you how this cake rises and how fluffy and moist it is.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups of flour
1 cup and a half of sugar
1/2 cup of good quality dark cocoa powder
3/4 cup of sunflower oil
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vinegar
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 teaspoons of sodium bicarbonate

The great thing about this recipe is that you can mix it all by hand or in a blender, just add all the wet ingredients first and then the dry ones. In order to make the cake rise, I mix in a separate cup the vinegar and the bicarbonate until it stops bubbling, then add it to the cake mix at the end.

I use many kinds of fillings but to keep it to the vegan vibe, add a good homemade fruit jam and it will be delicious.

And to finish, I leave you with the cake I made this year for UPPA and the link to their page.

Hope you like it.

Love

Cristina

Animals cake toppers, sugar paste modeling, cake.

Sugar paste modeling

UPPA webpage: http://uppa.pt/Uppa

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/uppa.uniao/

Pumpkin Cake Recipe

28 de November de 201928 de November de 2019Leave a comment

Hi everyone and

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I personally have a lot to be thankful for, but today for me I´ll celebrate thanksgiving by GIVING!

I am giving you all my Pumpkin Cake recipe, the one everyone comes back to, my signature recipe that everybody loves.

It is quite easy to make, over the year my only addition to it has been the way I beat the eggs to make them fluffy and if you feel adventurous to use spices in order to make it a ” spice pumpkin cake”

INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of flour

1 cup of pumpkin puree

1 cup of oil

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

The first thing is to sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

Beat the eggs ( white an yolks) for a minute until light and fluffy, then add the sugar little by little.

After achieving a creamy texture, add the oil alternated with the flour mixture. Only at the end add the pumpkin puree, it must be at room temperature and with the least amount of water possible.

Bake it in the oven for about 35 minutes at 180º Celcius ( could be more time depending on the oven)

The cake is very light and I love to fill it with either chocolate ganache, swiss meringue buttercream or cream cheese frosting.

Have a great holiday and be thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving

Cristina

Black Buttercream (PT)

14 de October de 20193 de November de 2019Leave a comment

Esta é uma de aquelas receitas que ou amas ou odeias, vou explicar.

O sabor está bastante bem já que a base é buttercream de chocolate e acrescentamos o cacau em pó, mas o inconveniente para mim é o corante preto.

Vou explicar.

Há muito tempo que vejo lindos bolos com buttercream preto e vou confessar que tinha imensa curiosidade. Queria experimentar mas estive a procura de dois ingredientes chave, um é o carvão comestível que pode ser encontrado nas ervanarias, mas não usei. O segundo é um muito bom corante preto para não ter de deitar todo o frasco de corante no creme de manteiga.

Conclusão, consegui um ótimo corante da Sugar Flare, chama-se Extra Black , é em gel, e só com duas colheres de chá consegui o tom que queria mas tem desvantagens.

A base do corante é mais para o azul, dá um tom bastante intenso mas os reflexos acabam por ser azulados.
Os nossos dentes ficam também azulados e pretos, é muito forte e não recomendo para crianças. Só penso se a nossa boca fica assim como ficará o nosso estômago???

A nível visual é lindo, agora para o Halloween acho o máximo, mas não sou fã na hora de comer, confesso.

Igualmente vou partilhar convosco o passo a passo desta receita e o resultado final. É questão de experimentar e decidir se gostam ou não. Para a próxima vou usar o carvão comestível para comparar resultados.

Ingredientes:

uma receita de Buttercream de Merengue Suíço ( podem ver a receita aqui)

uma receita de Ganache de Chocolate Preto ( podem ver a receita aqui)

1/4 chávena de cacau magro em pó

2 colheres de chá de corante preto

Primeiro misturamos o creme de manteiga com o ganache de chocolate para fazer uma base de creme de manteiga de chocolate.

Depois adicionamos o cacau em pó e misturamos bem.

Adicionam as duas colheres de chá de corante preto, e misturar tudo até obter a cor desejada… e claro, usar nos seus cupcakes ou bolo para decorar o rechear!

Como podem ver, fica muito lindo, mas experimentem primeiro antes de oferecer a alguém ou usar para os seus clientes.

No meu Instagram podem ver o resultado de estes lindos queques decorados para o Halloween.

Se gostaram de esta receita, não se esqueçam de comentar, partilhar, gostar e subscrever ao blog.

Beijinhos

Cristina

Chocolate Ganache (PT/EN)

7 de October de 20193 de November de 20192 Comments

Chocolate Ganache is a simple chocolate cream made out of heavy cream and chocolate, it can be used for filling and covering a cake. Depending on the ratio of the ingredients it can be good for piping aswell.

O Ganache de chocolate é uma simples crema elaborada com natas e chocolate , pode ser usado como recheio ou para cobrir um bolo. Tendo em conta a proporção dos ingredientes pode ficar mais liquido.

Here is my simple but always a good recipe for chocolate ganache. I use it mainly for covering a cake to achieve great sharp edges but also for mixing it with Swiss Meringue or American Buttercream to get a very tasty dark chocolate buttercream.

Esta é a minha simples receita para o Ganache de chocolate, eu uso o Ganache sobretudo para cobrir os bolos e obter um resultado muito liso e com arestas perfeitas, mas também gosto de o misturar com Buttercream de Merengue Suíço para um delicioso creme de manteiga de chocolate preto.

IMPORTANT: always use good quality chocolate, at least 55 %, and heavy cream, light whipping cream won´t have the same result

MUITO IMPORTANTE: usar sempre uma boa qualidade de chocolate preto, pelo menos 55% de cacau e nata com alto percentagem de gordura, as natas light não vão ter o mesmo resultado.

Ingredients:

200 ml of heavy cream

200 grms of chocolate cut into pieces

Ingredientes:

200 ml. de natas para culinária

200 gramas de chocolate cortado aos bocados

Cut the pieces os chocolate and place them on a glass bowl

Cortar os pedaços de chocolate dentro de um pyrex de vidro

Heat the cream without letting it boil

Aquecer as natas ( sem deixar ferver)

Once the cream is hot, pour the heated cream into the chocolate

Deitar as natas quentes no recipiente com o chocolate em pedaços.

Cover the bowl and let it rest for 2-4 minutes before mixing it.

Cobrir o pyrex e deixar repousar por uns 2-4 minutos antes de misturar.

Stir together the cream and the chocolate, at the beginning it will look like the ingredients are not mixing well, but keep going until the final result is a glossy chocolate cream

Misturar os ingredientes, no principio vai parecer que não esta a ficar bem misturado, mas ao insistir vão obter um creme suave e brilhante de chocolate.

A good chocolate Ganache can be the base for a lot of recipes and a great looking cake, once you learn how to do it it will be a before and after of your baking skills.

Um bom Ganache de chocolate pode se a base de muitas receitas e a diferencia entre um bolo e um bolo fantástico, aprender a fazer o Ganache é um antes e um depois na cozinha.

Hope you like it and have found this post interesting, if so, please comment, share, like and subscribe!

Espero tenham gostado deste post e não se esqueçam de comentar, partilhar, gostar e subscrever!

Love/ Beijinhos

Cristina