Winter flower

I found this simple flower walking by my house on a snow day. The color combination chocolate brown flower on white snow caught my eyes. I simply couldn't walk by:)

Chocolate walnut brownies recipe

For Sunday lunch my husband Andrei baked chocolate walnut brownies from a book Sweet Melissa by Melissa Murphy. We fell in love with Melissa's pastry at her cafe Sweet Melissa in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York. The recipe is simple yet brownies turn out to be delicious.

To bake chocolate walnut brownies we will need:
2 sticks of unsalted butter
4 ounces of high quality Belgian unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup of walnuts, chopped



Melt the butter and chocolate. Remove from the heat and keep warm. In a separate bowl beat together eggs, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Add the melted chocolate and mix. In yet another bowl whisk together the flour and salt.



Add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture in 3 batches, mixing on low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the nuts by hand.



Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a square shape cake pan. Pour the mixture into the pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the sides begin to pull away from the pan. Remove to cool. When cool cut into 12 brownies and serve.

The secret of the brownies is in the high quality chocolate. A great place to buy such chocolate is Trader Joe's stores where it's sold in big bars for a very reasonable price.

Fresh Ginger Cake

This yummy and spicy fresh ginger cake was baked by Andrei Utkin. An inspiration came from David Lebovitz recipes book "Ready for Dessert".

We will need:
4-ounce (115 g) piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup (250 ml) molasses
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) vegetable oil
2 and 1/2 cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup (250 ml) water
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs



Preheat the oven to 350 F (175C) and butter a round cake pan.

In a food processor chop the ginger and set it aside. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, sugar and oil. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, cloves and pepper. In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, then stir in the baking soda. Whisk the hot water into the molasses mixture, then ass the chopped ginger.
Gradually sift the flour mixture over the molasses mixture, whisking to combine. Add eggs and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Bake until the top of the case springs back when lightly presses with a finger for about 1 hour.
The cake is moist and will store well for a few days. Enjoy the cake!

Coconut Macaroons recipe

These yummy and simple to make coconut macaroons were baked by Andrei Utkin. An inspiration came from David Lebovitz recipes book "Ready for Dessert".

You will need:
8 egg whites
2 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
5 cups dried unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large saucepan we mix together egg whites, sugar, salt, honey, coconut, flour and vanilla. We cook the mixture gently over a medium-low heat until the bottom just begins to sizzle. Let the mixture cool a bit.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. With your fingers form 1 and 1/2 inch pyramids out of the mixture and place them on the baking sheets.

Bake, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until the macaroons are evenly deep golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let macaroons cool on the baking sheets.
The recipe makes about 60 macaroons.

Blue and chocolate felted flower brooch

I continue experimenting with hand dyeing. It's such a fun process and I just love the colors that turn out at the end. To create my chocolate blue flower felted brooch I first hand felted flower petals in white and dark brown. I had all three types of wool available at home.

To add color to my brooch I hand dyed each felted petal with blue drink mix which contains food coloring. As the result my petals have spots of bright blue to contrast their dark brown color and they smell like raspberry. My pieces of hand felted wool look so different now. Bright blue color makes them vivid and summer-like.

After assembling all my hand dyed pieces into a flower and attaching petals to a hand crocheted jute base I've got an exotic flower brooch in blue, dark brown and white. It will go well with any neutral or white outfit and will add color to a business casual dress.

Felted Berry Brooch in Chocolate Blue

I keep experimenting with colors and shapes. My new version of a felted berry brooch comes in chocolate and blue. It's a very vivid and beautiful combination of colors that goes well with pretty much any outdoor and indoor outfits and attires. Unique shapes of my berry brooches make them standout. I get a lot of feedback from clients about how they get noticed everywhere they go wearing my brooch. It's so rewarding to know that!
The colors of the brooch make me think about chocolate and cotton candy ice cream that is pretty good by the way! The combination of tilted blue and dark brown is very rewarding and stylish.

Chocolate raspberry felted brooches as Christmas gifts

For me Christmas season colors are white color of snow, red color of holly berries, green color of pine trees and brown color of trees' branches. The combination of brown and white is especially typical for winter. It's always nice to add red and green to make it more colorful! Bright cranberries and holly berries are what we need. Perfectly shaped and small they look fantastic on white snow.
Christmas holidays are approaching and we all start thinking about gifts for our loved ones. I hand felted a few bright red beads and attached them to pieces of wire covered with chocolate brown wool. My creation turned into a brightly colored brooch. Pins and brooches are great gifts as they could be used not only to add color to an outfit but as home decoration and ornament as well. Such a brooch could be hanged either in a kitchen or living room or even an office cubicle. So much for a Christmas gift idea!

My second Etsy Front Page treasury Chocolates

I just found out that one of my recent Etsy east treasuries Chocolates was featured on Etsy's front page. It's quite flattering to get such a huge exposure and to be picked by Etsy admins out of hundreds of other beautiful and stunning treasuries!

Dark chocolate cocoa roll cookie recipe from Hungary

Dark chocolate cocoa rolls are my husband's favorite! Growing up in Hungary he used to eat them every morning hot, fresh and covered with white powdered sugar. In Hungary they are called "kakaos csiga" or a cocoa snail. Small bakeries all over Budapest bake these and lots of other wonderful pastries every morning spreading an amazingly sweet and yummy aromas all over the city.

We are now living in the US and just to remember flavors of the childhood we started baking these sweet and simple cocoa rolls.

You will need standard ingredients for the dough such as flour, butter, yeast, milk, egg yolks, sugar and salt. For the filling you will need butter, cocoa powder and sugar.
These cocoa rolls are made from sweet yeast dough. After the dough is mixed up roll it out so that it is thin. Spread a mixture of cocoa, butter and sugar all over the layer of dough and roll it like a piece of paper. Cut the roll into small pieces approximately 1 inch. thick. Bake them until they are done. After approx. 20 minutes of baking smear rolls with a mixture of butter and milk to make them look shiny and yummy.