The eccentric Cook

I can't imagine a weekend dessert that shouts summer more. Look at the colors! Divine! And the taste? Even better... Buttermilk cake meets lots of apricots and some peaches. Juicy and soft inside and crunchy on top due to the caramelized sugar. Ideal for cookouts since it's so light and not too sweet. Really, really hard to stop eating after a piece :) Oh and making it is ridiculously easy! So what are you waiting for? Go make it! :) Apricot Breakfast Cake recipe adapted from  Alexandra's Kitchen for a 20X40 cm rectangular pan 220 grams butter - 1 cup zest from an orange 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 eggs vanilla 4 cups cake flour 4 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons salt 5 cups halved apricots 1 cup buttermilk Grease the pan with cooking spray. Preheat your oven to 350F (175C).  Cream the butter, sugars and orange zest together for about 4 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla. Toss the apricot

Guess what!! I made with my own little hands a delicious Italian-style pizza!!! I know making pizza is not even in the difficult category but somehow it is perceived as it is. It might be due to the fact that everyone orders pizza. Hardly anyone makes it. But geesh, I was ready with it within an hour! An HOUR that is basically how long it takes for a pizza to arrive to your home. Approximately. And you know what? It was way better than the one you order. Duh! So so so delicious, I am crazy proud of myself that I was able to make a pizza that tastes like the ones you get from authentic Italian restaurants. Okay, a brick oven would have been lovely but a normal, old-school oven will do just fine. So whenever you think about ordering in, just give homemade a try! So worth it! Besides I can't imagine a better lunch on a hot summer day... Or a get-together. Next week I will have my college graduation and after that we'll have a smallish get-together and I decided to make pizzas

I really don't like to throw words like the best and the most wonderful at all. But these cookies were really the best of the best cookies I've ever made! And I don't take my cookies lightly. If I could eat one thing forever, it'd be cookies. I wouldn't even have to think! I am extremely excited to try a new recipe, I always think, maybe this time I'll have it right! Not that the other recipes I posted were bad. Not at all! They're all really good! It's just... I really don't feel like waiting 24-36 hours to have my cookie when I want that cookie now! And I get always so disappointed when I taste the dough and I'm like oooh-ahhh this is soooo good! Then I take them out of the oven... Wait that critical 10 minutes to chill and then have a bit and....Oh no! It's not that chewy, it's a bit too soft, it's cakey, it's not crispy enough, it's too dry, it's just sweet but tastes boring. So yeah, I am very very judgmental w

I am so so so excited to share what I'm about to say! I've been mentioning my constant studying and thesis writing for quite some time now. So... It all came to an end! I am a college graduate!!!!!!!!! It's all so weird for me to grasp it yet but it is such an amazing feeling... All my hard work paid off so I am officially an international relations expert. Or something like that :) Oh and I can't help but brag about my nerdy grade on my final exam. An A!!!! I was in such a trance-like state of mind the entire time I was studying for that exam because I had basically a huge amount of studying ahead of me and not a lot of time for that! And I'm the kind of person that if I study then I will study every single detail. So there's no little knowledge about everything. No, I either know something or I don't. That's why I was sooo stressed that what if I pick a topic that I didn't study for...But I kept a positive attitude and knew that whatever will

I am such a cookie fanatic. I could probably eat cookies every single day. Although I don't. I actually hardly ever bake cookies. Sadly or fortunately. :) So today I was not gonna bake anything, I am studying for my last final exam before graduating college. So fingers crossed for me!! But I had had enough for today. I literally couldn't make sense of anything I tried to study. So I decided that's enough. I need a break. I need comfort. I need...comfort food? Yup. Cookies make me so happy. Baking cookies make me even happier. Thus I made some! Okay, a friend of mine told me she was making one of my cookie recipes and I immediately got the urge to make some, as well ;) I didn't feel like waiting 24 hours for the dough to chill so I picked a recipe that looked pretty awesome, halved it since there's only 2 of us at home. And here you go. This cookie recipe is up to the point. Chewy, nutty, sweet, quick and easy!  Perfect for one of those days when you f

Okay, so it all started with a bag of marshmallows. I know... S'more always do start with marshmallows. But we had cake at home! And when you have cake at home, you don't go ahead and start working on a recipe that will end up being s'mores, do you? Not when you even try not to gain weight. So s'mores do not fall into the category that is a bit acceptable eating just a few bites. No no no. But oh boy... Look at this melted chocolate and smoky marshmallow bites on a deep dish cookie. Can you even attempt to say no??? I do not think so. This is something that shouts YES. Eat me. NOW.  This recipe will make 6 giant cookies. Like mini s'mores cake. Or s'mores pie. Whatev what you call them. They're insanely good and that is what counts. So share one with your bestie or hubby or kid and then grab your running shoes and hit the pavement. Or whatever you feel like doing as burning those calories :) I am about to pop in an insanity workout. I can't wait..

My mom brought quite a lot of nuts home. Hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts, brazil-nuts and walnuts. I was so happy when I saw all the packages that I was pretty much speechless. My mind immediately started searching for a recipe that I could use all these wonderful nuts at the same time. I didn't need to think too hard, granola just popped into my head right away. I mean, DUH. Granola is healthy, very filling and is there seriously anyone who is not into this crunchy and flavorful mixture? I don't think so! So you can imagine how excited I was to make my own oh-so-nutty granola mix! So then imagine my utter disappointment when I got the whole thing burnt. That's right. Despite my meticulous stir-in-every-10-minutes method. I put my oven 10 degrees hotter in the last 5 minutes and that's when the disaster happened. The whole thing became pitch-black. So so so annoying, let me tell ya. So all the delicious nuts and everything else went to the trash can. How sad is thi