Little Honey Cakes

"Momy, you won't be too sad if we leave you alone?... it's only for two days!"
Excitement for her first travel by train was even stronger than her momy-attachment. And they left me alone... for two days. The girls are visiting their grandparents and I'm enjoying a few moments of relax and peace, to a certain extent that is. Because this huge belly of mine and the little kicker inside it don't really help. After an almost sleepless night, sweating despite the A/C constantly on, I got up at 5 o'clock this morning, and managed to go back to sleep again after a cup of camomile tea. And I can tell you there's a big difference when you wake up at 10:30, after several hours of sleep, compared to some other days.
However, with the little ones around there's always so much to do, they have so much energy to spend, and when the temperatures are so high like in the past weeks it's even hard to take them out to play and they end up being little zombies in front of the TV and video games.
I wish we could spend more moments like those in the pictures. A kind of picnic in the nearby park. Fill a basket with a few of these honey cakes and some fresh fruit like Little Red Riding Hood, stop to breathe fresh air and watch the animals, run, play and the whole day has a different sense, different flavour.
As I told you before, I often have excess egg whites in my fridge. This recipe was a perfect start to use some of them.These mini cakes are perfect as a snack with a glass of milk, or with a cup of coffee or tea. Since my kids don't like either raisins or cranberries, I added some chocolate to chips to one part of the batter, that way everyone was happy, me and them. Those little hands were really busy taking the chocolate chips out to eat them first.

Honey Cakes

* 100 ml milk
* 40 g brown sugar
* 80 g acacia honey
* 1/2 lemon
* 1 TBspoon vegetable oil
* a pinch of ground cinnamon
* 50 g whole wheat flour
* 60 g AP flour
* 50 g potato starch
* 2 egg whites
* a pinch of salt
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 40 g raisins or dried cranberries or chocolate drops
* 1 TBspoon powdered sugar

Put the warm milk into a mixing bowl, add the honey, the sugar, the oil, the finely grated lemon zest and cinnamon. Whisk until the sugar and honey have melted.
If adding raisins or cranberries soak them in some lemon juice diluted with water, then drain and add to the milk and honey mixture.
Mix in the flours and starch mixed and sifted together with the baking powder.
Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Stir them into the batter, gently and slowly using a hand whisk.
If using chocolate chips instead of dried fruit, add them now.
Pour the batter into small round cake pans (10-12 cm) or muffin pan, previously greased and floured. Sprinkle the tops with some powdered sugar.
Bake the cakes in an oven preheated to 170°C for 20-25 minutes.
Remove them from stamps and let cool on a cooling rack.

Tortine al miele


* 100 ml di latte
* 40 g zucchero di canna
* 80 g di miele d'acacia
* 1/2 limone
* 1 cucchiaio d'olio
* un pizzico di cannella in polvere
* 50 g di farina di frumento integrale
* 60 g di farina bianca "00"
* 50 g di fecola di patate
* 2 albumi
* un pizzico di sale
* 2 cucchiaini di lievito per dolci
* 40 g di uvetta o mirtilli rossi secchi o gocce di cioccolato fondente
* 1 cucchiaio di zucchero a velo


Scaldate il latte, mettetelo in una terrina e aggiungete lo zucchero, il miele, la scorza di limone, la cannella e l'olio. Mescolate con una frusta a mano finché lo zucchero e il miele non si saranno sciolti.
Se volete aggiungere l'uvetta o i mirtilli rossi, lasciateli prima in ammollo nel succo di limone diluito con l'acqua, poi scolateli e aggiungeteli al composto di latte e miele.
Mescolate e setacciate insieme le farine (integrale, bianca e fecola) con il lievito e aggiungetele al composto.
Montate gli albumi a neve ferma e incorporateli al composto precedente usando una frusta a mano.
Se al posto della frutta state usando le gocce di cioccolato, aggiungetele adesso.
Versate il composto nei stampini individuali (possono andar bene anche quelli per i muffin), imburrati e infarinati. Cospargete con lo zucchero a velo e infornate a 170°C per circa 20-25 minuti.
Togliete le tortine dai stampini e lasciatele raffreddare.

Tortice s medom


* 100 ml mlijeka
* 40 g smeđeg šećera
* 80 g meda od akacije (bagrema)
* 1/2 limuna
* 1 žlica ulja
* prstohvat cimeta
* 50 g integralnog pšeničnog brašna
* 60 g mekog pšeničnog brašna
* 50 g škrobnog brašna
* 2 bjeljanjka
* prstohvat soli
* 2 žličice praška za pecivo
* 40 g suhih grožđica ili brusnica ili čokoladnih kapljica
* 1 žlica šećera u prahu


Zagrijte mlijeko pa ga stavite u zdjelu, dodajte šećer, med, ulje, naribanu koricu limuna i cimet.
Dobro sve izmiješajte pjenjačom da se šećer i med istope.
Ako ćete stavljati grožđice ili brusnice, prethodno ih namočite u soku od limuna razrijeđenom s vodom, a zatim ocijedite i dodajte pripremljenoj smjesi.
Pomiješajte i prosijte sve tri vrste brašna s praškom za pecivo pa ih umiješajte u prethodnu smjesu.
Bjeljanjke umutite u čvrst snijeg i dodajte prvoj smjesi miješajući nježnim pokretima od gore prema dolje ručnom pjenjačom.
Ako ćete umjesto suhog voća dodavati čokoladu, umiješajte je sada u tijesto.
Rasporedite tijesto u male okrugle kalupe ili u kalupe za muffine (malo namaštene i pobrašnjene), pospite površinu šećerom u prahu (stavite šećer u malo mrežasto cjedilo i posipajte) i pecite u pećnici zagrijanoj na 170°C, 20-25 minuta.
Izvadite ih iz kalupa i ostavite da se ohlade.

Don't you envy this turtle?

"Oh, man, it's so hot today!"

"Do you think they'll leave us a few crumbs, they seem really hungry?"