Black forest cake - recipe (including photos)

Ingredients:

• 450 milliliters of milk
• 200 grams of flour
• 200 grams of sugar
• 50 grams of cocoa powder
• 40 milligrams of sunflower oil
• 1 pack of baking powder
• a small jar of cherry jelly

Mix the flour with the sugar, the cocoa powder and the baking powder.

Pour the milk and the sunflower oil over the flour composition and mix slowly until well incorporated.

Put it in the oven at 160 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes.

Let it cool, then slice it in two layers.

Add the cherry jelly over the first layer. 

For the cream, we've beaten well with a mixer all the ingredients below:

• 350 grams of fresh cream
• 3 spoons of sugar
• 2 packets of vanilla sugar
• 1 spoon zest from a lemon

Add the cream over the cherries.

Add the second layer of the cake.
Cover it with the remaining cream.

On top we used the same cherry jelly, but you can use fresh cherries and chocolate.

Enjoy!

Hotel review - DoubleTree by Hilton, Olbia, Sardinia

The room was clean and the bed was nice :).
Free wi-fi and free parking.

The breakfast was average and did not raise to Hilton standards.
Apart of what you can see on the plate you could have also scrambled or fried eggs with bacon.

Blue Ice - icecream shops (gelateria) in Rome

You can find it in every corner of the city, and it is one of the best ice creams we ate in Italy.

Lemon cake - recipe (including photos)

Ingredients for the filling:

• 3 eggs
• 200 grams of brown sugar
• 40 grams of butter
• the juice from 3 lemons
• the zest from 2 lemons
• 1 spoon of baking powder

Mix the sugar with the eggs and the zest from the lemons at slow fire until the sugar is melted.

Mix the juice from the lemons with  baking powder.

Add the butter and the baking powder over the eggs and mix over a slow fire until creamy.

When ready let it aside to cool.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 4 eggs and 2 egg yolks
• 100 grams of brown sugar
• 100 grams of flour
• the zest from one lemon

Mix the eggs and the egg yolks with the sugar until creamy.

Add the flour and mix slowly.

Add the zest from the lemon.

Put it in the oven at 180 Celsius degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Let the dough cool.

Ingredients for the meringue

• 2 egg whites 
• 4 spoons of sugar (white)

Beat the egg whites with the sugar.

Add the filling over the dough then add the meringue and put it again in the oven for 10 minutes or until the meringue becomes brown.

Let it cool and then put it in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Enjoy!

The original recipe can be found here

Hotel review - Best Western Bastia Centre, Bastia, Corsica, France

Overall negative impression:
- first of all, they explained that the standard rooms are all adapted for people with physical handicap. While we perfectly understand the need for such rooms in hotels, we do not understand why all standard rooms have to be like this;
- when we insisted that it is unlikely that all standard rooms are like this, the receptionist upheld her position. Upon further argumentation, they accepted to give us a comfort room for the same price, though initially she told us it will cost 10 euro more;
- breakfast is disappointing: limited selection and low quality products.

Castel Sant'Angelo, Vatican, Rome, Italy

The Castle it's closed on Mondays but you can enjoy the view it offers from the exterior.

Two cookies in Rome, Italy - Mondo Arancina

The cookies were good although they could have been better.

They have several shops in Rome, see their official website: http://mondoarancina.it/

Gratin dauphinois with bacon - recipe (including photos)

Ingredients:

• 800 grams of potatoes
• 100 grams of Gruyere cheese
• 250 milliliters of milk
• 20 grams of butter
• 2 eggs
• garlic (according to taste, we put 4 cloves)
• 2 spoons of fresh cream
• 150 grams of bacon
• salt and pepper

The original recipe didn't include bacon, but we did :).

Peel the potatoes and boil them.

Cut them in thin slices.
Grease a pan with a bit of butter and add a layer of potatoes.

Crush the garlic and mix it with the remaining butter.

Add the fresh cream and mix.

Add the pepper and the salt.

Above the potatoes add the bacon and the fresh cream and garlic sauce.

Add the grated cheese.

Add another layer of potatoes and repeat the steps above until you finish the potatoes.

The last layer should be composed from potatoes and grated cheese.

Mix the eggs with the milk and pour it over the potatoes.

Cook covered with aluminum foil in the oven for 30 minutes at medium fire, and then uncovered for about 10-20 minutes or until is cooked.
 

Enjoy!

The recipe was taken from an old french cook book we bought at a flea market.