Portuguese party and cupcakes

As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend I participated in the Portuguese party that took place in the Parc du Cinquantenaire. I had a little stand where I sold my cupcakes and I must say it was a huge success! I was kindly visited by several familiar faces and others that were not familiar yet, but who knew my blog, so they came. I was always busy between talking with the people who visited me, promoting my goodies to the other visitors, hanging out with the organization staff... that time flew so fast in both days and in the end I had sold all of my 100 cupcakes! If only I had made more... but creating a home made production of these delights takes its effort, especially with me alone doing them at night, so I was "only" able to make that amount. Here's some photos of how it was:

Cupcakes for day #1

Cupcakes for day #2

My stand at the fair

Kids are the best costumers!

My friend Filipa = happy costumer!

'Cause two sweets are always better than just one!

Parc du Cinquantenaire invaded by Portugal

I want to express a BIG thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit me and who helped me pursue my quest and tasted one (or more) of my cupcakes. You made this whole thing feel like I was just hanging out with friends and time flew by so quickly :) I was really happy I came - also a big thanks to the organization for having let me participate in this, especially when my request to do so was made with such short notice! - and had another great weekend in Brussels. Especially today, the party was so full of people, a lot of families strolling with their kids... lots of non-Portuguese attendants, which was great! All the other stands were selling typical products and I saw a lot of people buying them, so I hope they had two great days as well. Overall, it was just great!

Portuguese party and cupcakes

As my traineeship finishes in the end of July and with me already thinking of what to do next, I have applied for a summer school on regulation of local public services that will take place in Turin, Italy, in September, for 2 weeks. This week I received the confirmation saying I was accepted (among 500 candidates from 70 different countries, only 25 were accepted)! However, participating in this summer school has its costs, namely, 150€ for the participation fee (which includes accommodation) and 164€ for the flights (Lisbon-Turin-Lisbon). As at that moment I will not be working (transitioning from being a trainee here and finding a new job), I thought about using my time here to collect some funds that would help me participate in this summer course.

So, given the fact that I love baking, I proposed to sell cupcakes in the Portuguese party that is going to take place this weekend in the Parc du Cinquantenaire, which was indeed kindly accepted by the organization. So, during all day on Saturday and Sunday, I invite you to pass by my little stand and maybe help me with this initiative (or just to say "hi") :) looking forward to see you there!

(this is the image of my city's University – Coimbra – which was declared last weekend as part of UNESCO's heritage and which is also part of the World Guinness Record book for having baked the biggest cupcake ever made!)

"Cake" of tuna and surimi

Last week I have made this salted cake, whose recipe I am now sharing with you (very easy to make!).

Ingredients

 

Dough:

• 360g of flour
• 5 eggs
• 4dl of milk
• 1dl of oil
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Filling: 

• 3 cans of tuna fish
• 12 rolls of surimi
• 1 small onion
• 2 pieces of garlic
• 1 branch of persil

Turn on the oven at 180º. Cover a shape with butter and flour. Take the tuna out of the cans and save the oil in them. Cut the onion and the garlic into small pieces, add the tuna's oil to it and cook it until it's soft. Take it out of the cooker and add the surimi cut into pieces, as well as the persil. You can then add salt and pepper, to your taste.  Mix very well and all together the eggs, the milk, the oil, the flour and the baking powder. Pour half of this mix into the shape, then add on top of it the tuna and the surimi mix. Cover it with the rest of the dough and leave it for 40 minutes in the oven.

Cupcakes

Two weeks ago I made these cupcakes, with a pre-prepared mix I bought at HEMA (you just have to add eggs, butter and water). Then you can decorate them however you like, or just eat them plain. They are very tasty (all my visitors who tried them agreed!) and, of course, easy to make.

Quiche and apple crumble

Those of you following me on Facebook already know that this is is what I have made for lunch today... and, as promised, here are the recipes!

Quiche

Ingredients

- Tart base

- Ham

- Mushrooms

- Cheese

- A cup of milk

- 4 eggs

- Pepper and oregans

How to make it?

• Take the tart base from the fridge 15min before using it and then spread it on an overware, making little holes in it with a fork
• Put some ham, cheese and mushrooms on top of it (if the mushrooms are fresh and not canned, you should cook them a bit first in the cook)
• In a bowl, mix the eggs, the milk and the spices and pour them on top of the tart
• Put it in the oven for about half an hour

Apple crumble

Ingredients

- 5 apples
- Raspberry jam (or frozen raspberries)
- 200g of flour
- 200g of sugar
- 150g of butter
- Cinnamon

How to make it?

• Take an ovenware and grease it with butter
• Cut the apples in little pieces and put them in the ovenware
• Add cinnamon (or sugar or both) to the apples
• Put a little layer of raspberry jelly on the apples
• Put the sugar, flour and butter (in little pieces) in a bowl and mix it with your hands until it has a crumbled structure
• Put the crumble over the apples
• Put the apple crumble in the oven for about half an hour

Cookies!

Photo by Filipa Bento

A great program for a cold day of snow (if you have an oven at home) is to bake. So, this weekend I invited a friend over and we were baking for the whole afternoon. We made all these cookies and I will share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 150g of sugar
• 350g of flour
• Half a cup of olive oil or butter
• Half a cup of milk
• One teaspoon of baking powder

You mix everything together and then separate the dough in two pieces. We then added some lemon peel to one part and chocolate to the other. You then put some flour on a table and in your hands and spread the dough in order to cut the cookies. Put them in trays in your hot oven and keep an eye to see when they are baked (it will take approximately 15 minutes).

Then you can let them cool (which happens fast as they are small and thin) and after decorate them however you like. You can find the decoration materials (vannilla and chocolate cream and candy, that's what we used) in the supermarkets or in HEMA.