Recipes by chef Eugenia Carmona for OFELIA Home & Decor.

After 25 years as a police officer, Eugenia Carmona decided to retire and dedicate herself to her passion, baking and cooking. After her time on Masterchef, where she was one of the 50 finalists out of 70,000 contestants, she has changed her life.

During the last 5 years she has been trained as an amateur in pastry making and cooking, and then went on to become a professional chef. She has made incursions into the world of catering and confectionery, thanks to professional friends in the sector in Madrid, where she has done internships in their facilities. Always looking for excellence and in continuous learning, she has completed her training at the Basque Culinary Center, where she has studied the course of Specialization Bases and Techniques of pastry focused on sweet cuisine, with a special focus on restaurant desserts. Homemade pastries and, particularly, Elegant Cakes are her weakness.

She is currently developing her bakery/pastry and cooking school for enthusiasts, located in a natural paradise in Cantabria, focused on bringing the world of home-made sweets to a professional level. In the recipes she creates, both quality and aesthetics are paramount, because, as she says, we also eat with our eyes. This allows her to develop her passion for decoration and gastronomic photography. She enjoys three of her hobbies in one: food, photography and table decoration.

Very soon you will also find her cakes available to buy in Cantabria or you can join the workshops that she will be giving in her new space. Last January he took part as a jury member in the "Sabor del año" awards and in February he started the Master's Degree in Haute Patisserie (Madrid) with Paco Torreblanca.

Here you have three of their best recipes, prepared exclusively for Ofelia Kitchen. The sweetest flavours in our kitchen section.

Red berry Pavlova

Ingredients:

For the French Meringue:

5 egg whites at room temperature 250 g
Pinch of salt
0,5 g cream of tartar (if desired, to give the meringue more consistency)
45 g cold water
250 g white sugar (superfine, can be crushed in a food processor)
20 g cornflour (Maicena)
5 ml vanilla extract
5 ml white vinegar

For the Chantilly Cream:

250 g cream 35% fat
65 g mascarpone
1⁄2 u vanilla

To decorate:

Assorted red fruits, such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries... at your discretion and creativity.

Elaboration:

For the MERINGUE

Preheat the oven to 135ºC and draw a circle about 15 cm in diameter on a piece of baking paper. Place the whisk attachment in the food processor, add the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar, if available, and beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.

Then change the speed to medium-low and add the water in a rain shower, gradually adding the sugar in several times. This will take about a minute.

Now switch to high speed until stiff peaks form. This will take approximately 5 minutes. Using the whisk attachment or a spatula (by hand) gently mix the cornflour (cornflour), vinegar and vanilla into the beaten egg whites. If you want your Pavlova to look whiter, skip the vanilla.

Pour the meringue in the centre of the circle you have previously drawn on the baking paper. Be careful, place the pencilled side down or it will transfer to the meringue.

Gently create a volcano and place it in the oven. The baking will follow this pattern: Start at 135ºC - 15 minutes, move to 120ºC - 15 minutes and finish at 100ºC - 30 minutes.

Important NOT to open the oven during the process and let the meringue finish drying inside the oven without opening it, at least 3 hours (it can be all night).

For the CHANTILLY CREAM

Whip everything together with the very cold ingredients and the whisk attachment in the food processor.

Set aside in the fridge in a piping bag with a smooth nozzle.

Setting up and presentation:

Transfer the Pavlova very carefully to the presentation tray where you are going to serve it. On this occasion, Eugenia used one of our pie plates from the Attic collection, along with one of our wooden cutting boards.

Once out of the oven, your "volcano" should have a sunken top (if it doesn't, gently tap it a few times to make it sink).

Inside, pipe the mascarpone Chantilly filling into the pastry bag.

Finally, arrange the berries on top and sprinkle with icing sugar.

In our tableware section, we have a variety of dessert plates so you can serve your guests this special cake.

apple and puff pastry roses

Ingredients:

260 g puff pastry dough (1 rectangular packet)
Cinnamon for sprinkling
4 tablespoons cane sugar
juice of one lemon
25 g butter at room temperature
3 apples

Elaboration:

Wash and cut with a mandolin (if you have one) or by hand, the apples so that they are very thinly sliced. It will be easier and more cpmfortable with a cutting board.

Bring them to the boil with the lemon juice. As soon as they start to boil, turn them off. Then drain and cool on a dry cloth.

Roll out the rectangular puff pastry dough into strips about 4 cm wide by the length of the puff pastry sheet (about 20 cm). Brush the surface where the apples will go with butter and sprinkle with cane sugar and cinnamon (if you like).

Arrange the apples side by side and roll the strips into shapes.

Grease a cupcake tin and place the roses in it. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 180ºC. If you notice that they are browning too much on top, you can cover them with baking paper.

Once they are out of the oven, you can place them all together in one of our trays or arrange them individually in ceramic plates that you can find in different sizes.

The delicacy and elegance of this dessert make it perfect to amaze your guests, so the way you present it should be at the height of its result. In our tableware section you will find endless plates and kitchen accessories that will help you achieve this purpose.

Guinness beer cake

Ingredients:

(For a 22 cm cake)

To make the sponge cake:

250 ml Guinness beer or similar
250 g butter
75 g cocoa powder
400 g sugar
140 ml Greek-style yoghurt
2 L eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
275 g plain flour
10 g bicarbonate of soda

For the topping:

300 g cream cheese
150 g icing sugar
125 ml cream

Elaboration:

Grease a springform pan with butter and sprinkle with flour. Heat the oven to 180ºC.

Put the beer and butter in a saucepan and heat until it has melted. It does not need to boil, it is enough if the butter is melted. Then remove from the heat. Pour the cocoa and sugar into a bowl and pour the butter beer into it.

With a whisk, mix the Greek yoghurt, eggs and vanilla. Then add it to the cocoa, sugar and beer mixture. Then add the flour and baking soda (previously sifted), and mix with a spatula or a food processor.

Pour the batter into the greased and floured baking tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. You can check with a toothpick until it comes out clean.

When ready, remove from the oven and leave to rest on a wire rack. Unmould when cool. You can place it on a ceramic pie plate.

Whisk together all the ingredients for the topping and set aside.

Presentation:

To serve this sweet, you can use a pie plate or a tray. Once you have it, cover the surface with cheese, cream and icing sugar, giving it the look of beer foam.

Chef Eugenia chose one of the plates from our Siv crockery to serve the cake portions. A precious collection in ceramic with stone effect finish and grey colour that brings simplicity and elegance to this tasty dessert.