Vanillicious.com – Easy Desserts

There’s nothing better than beating an urge for a home-made treat, with muffins. Very easy to prepare and it has a relatively short baking time. Basically, this recipe can be used for many muffin variation, just replace the berries with almost any addition of your choice. I’ll keep posting different muffin variations from time to time and even present a healthier version as well.

If you prefer, the following batter can be baked as a cake. Just place in the right tin and bake for 45-50 minutes.

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Summer Berries Cobbler

OK, summer’s long gone, but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some berrylicious desserts. Today I bring you berries cobbler, a quick and easy dessert, that’s supposed to come out messy looking, because the berries and their juices mix in with the batter and make it all gooey, and if you ask me – that’s the best kind of cobbler!

Thanks, Elie, for introducing me with cobblers and the recipe.

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Magos Guba

Hungary has a special place in my heart. So does its cuisine, especially the desserts.

I was introduced to the Makos Guba (Pronounced: Makosh Gooba. Translation: poppy seeds dough. Not literally, though) during one of my visits in Budapest. I fell in love with it immediately (Just like other Hungarian desserts I’ve had). I decided to replicate it in my kitchen, and after checking several recipes, I created my own version of it. I was already told by certain Hungarians mine was the best Makos Guba ever.

This dessert is not only for the poppy seed lovers! Let me put it this way: even if you had bad experience with poppy seeds (like me), have no experience or you’re not too sure about your feelings, you must give it a try.

Maoks Guba is a sweet, warm bread pudding with poppy seeds, served with vanilla cream on top. Custard can be a sufficient substitute if you can’t find vanilla cream at the nearest store (or too lazy to prepare it yourself). It is very easy to prepare and will consume very little of your time.

Ingredients tip: if you’re living in Ireland or the British Isle, I recommend the M&S brioche rolls (8 mini rolls per pack should be enough to serve 2-3) and their Madagascan Vanilla Cream to serve with. In Ireland (Dublin), poppy seeds can be found in Nourish (the health food stores) or Fallon & Byrne.

Strawberry Trifle

This dessert was created when I ruined a perfectly baked white chocolate and coconut cake, that was meant to be a surprise for my friend’s parents. It just flipped out of my hands (with some help, of course), and smashed on the work surface in my kitchen. For a minute or two I was staring at what used to be a perfect cake and turned into uneven and messy cakes chunks and crumbs moments later. Something I will never serve, not even to my biggest enemies…

When I came back into my senses I knew immediately I’ll have to bake another one. And then I realized we can always enjoy those chunks and crumbs with vanilla ice cream (did I mention we always have some in the fridge?).

Few hours later I figured I can turn it into a trifle, a very easy dessert to make!The traditional recipes require a sponge cake, but honestly, I think my cake made this trifle taste so much better!

You can have your trifle with your favourite fruits and/or berries and have as many layers as your serving bowl can hold. So basically, you can use this recipe as a general guideline on how to prepare your own trifle. You can also scatter some fresh fruit between the layers.

A quick note: I manged to prepare 2 trifles (one for ourselves and one for a dinner party we were invited to. It involved loads of compliments) with half the amount of the original recipe as published here in the blog. Needless to say I was snacking around with it as well. But only a little (I had desserts to prepare!). Anyway, what I’m trying to say is the amount of cake you’ll need for this recipe depends on the size of your serving bowl and the number of cake layers you prefer.

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No bake cheesecake

As a young teenager, no bake cheesecakes were a shocking discovery! I got so used to my mom’s amazing (baked) classic cheesecake and couldn’t understand how it was possible not to bake a cheesecake. Not to mention how surprised I was to discover how good they taste.

My first try (at my early teenage years) was a big failure. When I tried to cut the cake into slices, it all collapsed. When I grew older I understood I had to either add gelatine or use fat cream cheese. Back there and then, 9% fat considered to be a very fat cheese. Funny, huh? I had to relocate to Ireland in order to discover 9% fat is very slim; not to mention there was no such thing as mascarpone cheese available!

So now, 15 years older and wiser, I’m sharing another delicious, vanillicious recipe.

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Walnut Cinnamon Cake

Sponge cakes are very easy to bake and will take so little of your time to prepare. The idea for this cake came from a very simple orange sponge cake that my mom used to bake. I exchanged some of the flour with ground almond because I just love what it does to the cake’s texture and the juice with sour cream (Creme fraiche can be used as well). And just so the cake won’t be too boring, I added the walnut-cinamon mix as filling and topping. The end result is just lovely. If you want a cake with no effort, here’s a cake for you!

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Berry fool

Fool is a British summery dessert (though I don’t see any reason why one should not have it all year long), which is probably hundreds of years old. This amazingly elegant, simple and delicious dessert is basically made by a sweetend fruit purée, stirred and folded into whipped double cream (single cream when it’s not available, or when you want your dessert less fatty, of course).

The name fool is derived from the French word foulé, which means crushed, and refers to the crushed fruit. In the following recipe I’m using mixed berries. My favourites for the purée are blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrant, redcurrants and strawberries. Though it can be made with any berry or berries of your choice. Remember to serve in sophisticated looking glasses (ice cream or wine glasses), just to make it look even more delicious than it already is, and top with some fresh berries!

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Maple pecan cookies

Once I was at a friends house and couldn’t stop eating the cookies she baked. I made sure the cookies were right next to me the whole evening. By the end of that evening, I went home with a box full of those cookies.

The next day, when I had friends over and nothing to serve with their tea, I had no choice but offer some of the precious cookies. They liked it and with each and every cookie they ate I felt something deep inside me. I think I was grieving…

Anyway, few months later I found a recipe online and the outcome is similar to my precious ones. I hope you like it as much as I do.

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Chocolate cake

I never really liked milk and dark chocolate (you already know I’m a white chocolate person), so chocolate cakes were never my thing. Until I tried my mom’s chocolate cake for the first time two months ago. Everybody were enjoying her chocolate cake that afternoon. Everybody except me, the cake lover. As you know, difficult times call for difficult measures, so I decided the least I could do is try. I loved it! It was surprisingly delicious and very easy to prepare.

I baked the cake last friday for the first time and it was a big success. By monday morning there was non left! This is a 2-persons household and we had no guests this weekend. Now you do the math.

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