Lots of birthdays

And we start the new year in a new apartment!

Dario and I we’ve just moved in together in what we called “the best apartment ever”, he is so happy he even runs around the house. We have so much light (if we’re lucky and get a sunny day...), big rooms and awesome kitchen (I’m definitely in love with the kitchen cause it has its own wine rack), with two small balconies and plenty of room for our guests, that means now you don’t have an excuse to come visit us!

Back to the cakes, the first one I’m making is for Lucia and I was wondering why shouldn’t I try some good old flavors like peanut butter and jelly, let’s do a bit crazy. Since Dario hung up the US flag on the kitchen wall, all those memories come back to me. And Pjb is definitely one of the most common things in America so I decided to give it a try and make a three layer cake, vanilla, chocolate, vanilla and spice it up with some homemade peanut butter and some berries jam.  

For the cake:

- 4 eggs 

- 200gr flour

- 200gr sugar

- 6gr baking powder    

- 40gr water

- 20gr oil 

(-20gr cocoa powder; 180gr flour)      

For the Italian merengue:

- 4large eggs 

- 350gr sugar

- 75ml water 

- 1 pinch salt 

- 450gr unsalted butter 

- 1tsp vanilla extract 

Method:

I made two vanilla cakes and a third chocolate one. We separate the egg whites from  the egg yolk and beat the whites with half of the sugar till it's stiff, then set them aside in the fridge while mixing the rest of the ingredients. 

First put in your mixing bowl the egg yolks, sugar, water, oil and vanilla extract, mix until well combined and then sift in the dry ingredients, flour and baking powder, and the cocoa when making  the chocolate cake. 

Once everything is ready add the whites we previously whisked and do this slowly cause you don’t want to break them, so grab an spatula and carefully integrate them in your batter. 

Your cake moulds are already buttered and floured and your oven preheated at 180 degrees, fill up your moulds and introduce them in the oven for at least 50min. Always check your cakes after 45min, maybe you’ll need to add some time up or maybe your cakes will be ready, every oven is a different world but more or less at the temperature should take you around the 50min.

For the Italian merengue (since I discovered preppy kitchen’s recipe I always make it, soooo good) #preppykitchen it’s really simple and everybody loves it. 

We beat the egg whites with 75gr of sugar till you get those peaks of it.

 

In a saucepan we make the sirup by melting the rest of the sugar with the water let it melt and reach around 115 degrees centigrade.

Then while the mixer is running slowly drizzle the syrup into the egg whites and let it turn till your mixture’s temperature has lowered up to around the 37 degrees centigrade.

Now cut your room temperatured butter into small cubes and add them one by one until your merengue has a smooth texture. Adding color is up to you ;)