While in mythical Byblos at the end of last year, a yellow cake looked very appealing to me at breakfast. It included turmeric, but I loved it! When I returned home, I tried to bake it; it was a success.

This NoMoMoo challenge, which is very dear to me and started last week, made me push the limits of this cake, searching for and finding gluten-free vegan substitute ingredients.

The star? The cashew sour cream from NoMoMoo!

You will need a 20x20 cm baking pan and—

100g cornstarch

a pinch of sea salt

110g brown sugar

100g gluten-free oatmeal

1 teaspoon of turmeric powder

4g baking powder

140g cashew sour cream

orange blossom water

90ml spring water

35ml flaxseed oil

1 tbsp of tahini

9 pistachio beans

I like authenticity, so I choose my ingredients as much as possible from the countries whose recipes I prepare or from nearby countries. I love local producers!

If we talk about basic ingredients, I used Romanian cornstarch. I bought the sea salt from Lebanon in a convent from Anfeh village. I also bought the orange blossom water from Lebanon – and you may add more than just a drop. The tahini is from Turkey; the pistachio is Iranian but processed in Romania. The flaxseed oil is Romanian. The best ingredients can transform a regular meal into a terrific one, especially if we prepare it with love and support!

Returning to the NoMoMoo sour cream, it is special: fluffy, versatile, and great! Panda feels the same way.

To make this cake, which is perfect as such or as a tea cake, mix the cornstarch, the sea salt, the brown sugar, the oatmeal, the turmeric powder, and the baking powder.

Add the wet ingredients: the cashew sour cream, the orange blossom water, the spring water, and the flaxseed oil.

Stir with a wooden spoon until homogenised.

Grease the baking pan with tahini, pour the mixture, and add the pistachio beans in 9 (imagined) centres of slices.

Bake at 180°C in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Let it cool and enjoy it!

What flavours do you feel? 😊

40g brown sugar

salt

3 tbsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp cornstarch

420ml milk

80g sour cream

100g dark chocolate

Homemade puddings and pudding powder puddings are a million miles away. This one is the best version I’ve had. I hope that you agree!

Mix the brown sugar, salt, cocoa powder, and cornstarch in a deep pan. Then, add 120ml of milk and stir well until there are no more lumps. Pour the remaining milk and mix in the sour cream.

Start heating the mix on low heat. Stir from time to time. After boiling, add the chocolate (chips or cut into pieces); stir until it is incorporated.

Remove from heat and place the pudding into the serving dishes. Let the pudding cool; place the serving dishes into the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Enjoy it!

5 egg whites

2 tbsp vinegar

200g sugar

10g vanilla sugar

5 tbsp cornstarch

+

10 pcs of passion fruit

3 teaspoons sugar

+

250g whipping cream

25g sugar

I haven’t baked a large Pavlova in a while – only its mini version. After Christmas, I was, however, left with many egg whites. Without a cake made by me on my birthday, it was time to bake it!

Beat the egg whites; when they are stiff, pour in the vinegar. Continue to mix, adding the sugar and the vanilla sugar mixture bit by bit. The cornstarch comes in at the end.

Line a baking pan with baking parchment. Using a round shape (mine is 23 cm wide and 7 cm deep), pour the mixture, level it, and remove the shape. 

Bake for 2 hours in the preheated oven at 100°C (after baking, leave the meringue in the oven for 5-10 more minutes with the door slightly open; it will prevent it from cracking).

In the meantime, scoop out the passion fruit pulp. Add the sugar and mix.    

When the meringue has completely cooled, beat the whipping cream with the sugar. 

Decorate by using a pouch to add tufts of whipped cream (Marcel’s idea) and the passion fruit mixture on top.

Use what’s left from the passion fruit mixture for individual slices when you serve them – that is if your Pavlova keeps in the fridge without being munched. :D  

The crust

100g buckwheat flour

50g tapioca flour

a pinch of salt

50g water

1 large tbsp flax seeds

1 tbsp vinegar

50g coconut oil

25g agave syrup

The filling

150g coconut milk

200g vegan chocolate chips

2 tbsp cornstarch

200g berries (blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries)

+coconut oil and tapioca flour -> your baking pan

This recipe’s great after the Holidays. Do you know why? Because you’ve had enough of everything. And because the hard-working people surely have berries left in their freezers (some living in the Southern Hemisphere even have fresh berries!).

You can use this recipe for the tart crust.

Bake it separately, in the preheated oven, at 170°C, for 15 minutes (use baking beans if you have them).

While the tart crust is cooling, make the filling.

Mix the coconut milk, the vegan chocolate chips, and the cornstarch in a pan and place it on medium heat. Let it boil. After it cools, fill the tart crust and place the berries on top.

Savour it!

The crust

100g buckwheat flour

50g tapioca flour

a pinch of salt

3 tbsp of water

1 tbsp of flax seeds

1 tbsp of vinegar

30g coconut oil

30ml almond milk

20g agave syrup

The filling

3 rhubarb stalks (+3 tbsp agave syrup)

5 big strawberries

400ml almond milk

vanilla extract

20g agave syrup

25g cornstarch

+coconut oil and tapioca flour -> your baking pan

When May arrives, it’s all about rhubarb and strawberries to me.

So, I decided to bake this vegan tart using them as ingredients.

You can use this recipe for the tart crust.

Bake it separately, in the preheated oven, at 170°C, for 15 minutes.

While the tart crust is cooling, clean the rhubarb and the strawberries and cut them into pieces, then make the filling.

Pour agave syrup over the rhubarb pieces and let them sit for 10 minutes.

Mix the almond milk, vanilla extract, agave syrup, and cornstarch in a pan and place it on medium heat. Let it boil. After it cools, fill the tart crust and place the rhubarb and strawberry pieces on top.

Makes 10 portions (10*5 choux)

Choux pastry

125ml water

60g butter

a pinch of salt

130g flour

4 eggs

Filling

2 eggs

330ml milk (+3-4 tbsp milk)

120g sugar

50g flour

a drop of vanilla extract

2 sachets vanilla sugar

Chocolate sauce

200g dark chocolate

30g butter

500ml milk

20g cornstarch

Éclair – chou – profiteroles. The perfect triad – even my Mom had them written down one after the other. I had baked the first two; so, profiteroles were still on the list. Marcel is crazy about this dessert, so I made it today and…

To make the shells, add the water, the butter, and the salt into a pan and place it on low heat. When the mixture boils, add the flour at once, stirring fast with a wooden spoon. Turn off the heat and let the dough cool. Add the eggs one by one, stirring continuously. Don’t add an egg until the one before was fully incorporated.

I’ve recently read that using a mixer for an extra-airy dough would be a smart trick. Why do we think that mixers should only be used with cold ingredients? J

Fill a pastry bag with a 1-cm nozzle (I still use a cup to make my life easier) and – on a baking tray lined with parchment paper – pipe out small balls, about the size of large sour cherries (says Mom). Leave a 2-cm space between them.

Bake the shells in the preheated oven, at 190°C, for the first 15 minutes, and then at 170°C, with the oven’s door slightly open, for 5 more minutes.

Take them out of the oven, place them on a rack (I also placed aluminium foil underneath the rack).

When the shells cool, by using a pastry bag nozzle, make a hole on the back of the shells and start filling. I usually fill all the shells once, I leave the cream set, and then I fill them one more time.

You need to make the pastry cream. Mix the yolks with 2/3s of the sugar amount until you get a foamy cream. Add 3-4 tablespoons of milk and mix again. Add the flour and immediately pour into the milk (simmering with the vanilla extract). Stir continuously until it boils. Remove from heat and add the egg whites beaten until stiff with the remaining sugar. Finally, add the vanilla sugar for that extra touch.

I ate profiteroles often in Turkey. They use a pretty gooey sauce there – and I’m still researching the recipe. However, at the end of 2020, in Egypt, I found a delicious chocolate sauce while having one of my breakfasts. I ended up talking with the chef and he told me the ingredients used.

Inspiration for the chocolate sauce came from these two sides. Melt the chocolate and the butter on a steam bath, add the milk; when the mix is hot, stir in the cornstarch. Continue stirring until it boils and you’ll get a wonderful chocolate sauce.

In the end, put 5 choux into a cup and cover them with chocolate sauce. You’ll probably ask for a refill.

...the wait was worth it.  

Makes 5

500ml milk

8 teaspoons sugar

vanilla extract

50ml water

20g cornstarch

2 egg whites

30g powdered sugar

250ml sour cream

It is a homemade şarlota [=a type of Romanian custard that we eat separately, as a pudding], which took me back to the walks around my grandparents’ village, stopping at the only sweet shop in the area to buy the inexpensive yellowish dessert that calmed my cravings for ’something sweet’.  

How did I make it?

Mix the milk, sugar, and a little bit of vanilla extract in a pan; leave it for 5 minutes on low-medium heat and 15 minutes more on low heat, without stirring. Then, add the cornstarch dissolved in water and let the mix cool.

Separately, beat the egg whites with the powdered sugar until stiff and easily stir in the sour cream, using a wooden spoon. Pour this cream into the milk mix and split the final mix into 5 cups. Let these cups sit in the fridge overnight.

I served şarlota with whipped cream. What about you? J

One of my all-time favourite desserts. And Marcel's. :-)

We first discovered it in a Lebanese restaurant in our hometown and I tried several recipes, but this one's delivering the real experience—

(makes 3)

240ml whipping cream

120ml milk

15g flour

15g cornstarch

5 teaspoons sugar

a drop of rose water

a drop of orange blossom water

+ 1 large banana

+ 9 tbsp honey

Bring the cream/milk/flour/cornstarch/sugar mix to a boil.

Add the rose water and orange blossom water.

Let the ashta cool for 1 hour in the fridge.

Divide into 3. Cut a banana into slices and add them to the small bowls of ashta.

Serve with honey.

When your week is really hard (and you’re like me), you will crave some comfort food.

I made fried bananas, for 2, as follows:

50g flour

2 teaspoons of sugar

a pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 tbsp of cornstarch

zest from half a lemon

60ml milk

2 medium-large bananas

6 tbsp honey

+oil for frying

Mix the flour, the sugar, the salt, the cinnamon, the cornstarch, and the lemon zest. Add the milk.

Cut the bananas into larger pieces and roll them through the batter.

Fry them until brown when the oil is hot.

We ate them with honey... yum!

…hoping for a better week ahead! ☼

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been in love with strawberries. I remember picking them in my grandparents’ garden and I immediately start smiling.

That was a long time ago and this recipe is also old, but you should test it, as it’s a very light dessert, being able to cool you on hot days. J

You will need

a baking pan of 20x20 cm (+flour and butter)

+

2 eggs

70g sugar

45g (melted) butter

7g cornstarch

½ sachet vanilla sugar

180g strawberries

Mix the yolks and the sugar; add the butter and the cornstarch. Beat the egg whites until stiff with the vanilla sugar and add them to the previous mix. Pour this into the floured and buttered baking pan and place the strawberries on top (cleaned and cut into 4).

Bake for 20 minutes, in the preheated oven, at 180°C.

Enjoy, cool off, and... let’s continue our summer!