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Cakes, Bars & more, All Recipes, Bananabread & Co

Caramel Waffle Cookie Banana Bread

ByNicole | On June 08,19 | 1 Comment

Caramel Waffle Cookie Banana Bread

Caramel Waffle Cookie Banana Bread – that really is a mouth full. Caramel waffle cookies or ‘Stroopwafels’, literally translated as syrup waffle, are thin crisp waffle cookies, with a gooey layer of soft caramel in between. These Dutch stroopwafels are quite popular worldwide and have found their way to supermarkets across the globe.

United Airlines

In 2015, United Airlines even started serving original Daelmans stroopwafels on their flights. The stroopwafels were so popular, that when United Airlines stopped serving them last year, passengers kept asking on social media to please have them back in their snack rotation. And United Airlines listened. Since January of this year, the stroopwafels are back. read more

Cakes, Bars & more, Cookies, All Recipes

Sugar Cookie Bars

ByNicole | On October 15,18 | 25 Comments

Sugar Cookie Bars

Sugar Cookie Bars, I think these are fairly unknown outside of the US. That is, I have not met a person who was familiar with these. It’s like one giant sheet pan cookie cut into pieces. This is a recipe I have made for several years now. And I’ve made these cookie bars so often, it never occurred to me to actually right everything down and publish the recipe.

Lauren’s Latest

The original recipe is from an American food blog, Lauren’s Latest. It’s one of the first food bloggers I started following, about 6 years ago. When Lauren published this recipe a couple of years ago, I made them right away and it’s been a favourite ever since. In the original recipe, the sugar cookie bars are topped with icing, but I don’t think these cookie bars need that. I leave them plain. And with just a few minor adjustments, this recipe has become a staple in our house.

So, it’s safe to say that these are quite popular, whenever I make them. Though there is the odd one who doesn’t like them. There is almond extract added, which makes the cookie bars taste like marzipan. If you are not a fan of marzipan, you can still make these bars by simply swapping the almond extract by any other extract of your liking, such as vanilla or lemon.

Easy cookie

It’s just not the taste and texture (soft bite) that I like very much. These bars are so easy to make too. I love cookies, but sometimes it’s just too much hassle. Cooling the rough, rolling it, cutting it out, etc. These sugar cookie bars are way easier and faster. Everything goes into one bowl, all ingredients at once, kneed it together, press it into a baking dish, bake it, cut it, eat it. That’s it, now let’s get baking!

Ingredients

250 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

225 g sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

400 g flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180°C and line a baking dish with parchment paper. I usually use a brownie tin. You could of course use any other baking dish, like a 13×9”.

Put all ingredients into a bowl and quickly kneed into a dough. I love using my KitchenAid for this, but you can do this by hand as well.

Press the dough into the prepared baking dish. Use the back of a spoon or the bottom of a glass to smooth out the top.

Bake ca. 25-30 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Let cool completely and cut into pieces.

Enjoy!

Cakes, Bars & more, All Recipes

Lemon Crazy Cake

ByNicole | On May 07,17 | 8 Comments

This Lemon Crazy cake is egg and dairy free and super easy to make.

Origins

Most of you probably know crazy cake, also called wacky cake or depression cake. It is not very known in Europe, at least not by that name. If you search for it’s origins, the first documented recipes date back to the 1940’s. A time where certain foods were hard to come buy or were utterly expensive, like butter, eggs and milk. Hence the name depression cake. You had to make use of what was available and leave out what you could not get or afford.

No eggs, butter or milk

So this recipe uses no eggs, butter or milk. Those ingredients are mostly used in cake baking, but were hard to get (if at all) during the time of war. When I first read about this, I could not imagine that you could bake a decent cake without those ingredients. Over time I learned that you can bake a cake with almost anything, but when I first started out baking, I firmly believed that at least butter and eggs are a definite must.

One bowl

The basic crazy cake recipe is really simple. You throw everything into one bowl, mix and bake. When you got the basic recipe, you can add different flavors, spices and/or frosting to adjust to your own taste. Like a Lemon Crazy Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting. Now for the basic recipe:

275g all purpose flour

200g white sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

75 ml vegetable oil

240 ml water

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Using a glass or spoon, make one large dent in the flour. Using a smaller glass or spoon, make two smaller dents as well.

Pour the oil into the large dent, the vinegar into one smaller dent and the vanilla extract into the other smaller dent. Then pour the water over everything. Using a whisk, mix everything well so no lumps remain.

Pour batter into a greased or lined baking pan/dish and bake for ca. 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 170°C.

This basic recipe renders a perfect and tasty vanilla cake. You can eat it plain or frost with butter cream or whatever you fancy. You can also make muffins/cupcakes with this batter, though you will have to adjust the baking time.

Now with this basic crazy cake recipe, you can make many different cakes. Chocolate cake, add spices or other flavorings such as almond or make this Lemon Crazy Cake. Made extra special with a cream cheese lemon frosting. The frosting is totally optional, the cake is out of this world delicious without it, I promise. But if you do have butter and cream cheese in the house and don’t have to stay off lactose… go for it.

Enjoy!

Want something lemony but don’t feel like baking a whole cake? Try this Lemon & Raspberry Mug Cake instead!