One of the things I love most in the world, is weddings. They don’t come around in Cape Town too often, so we really relish in the simcha (joy) when we do attend. Is there anything like celebrating love with a happy bride and groom, not much?
Is Cape Town not the most beautiful?
We like to host Sheva Brachot when we can for couples. This is a tradition where friends and family host dinners for the newlyweds, it’s like a little party, continuing the wedding celebrations. At the end of the evening after benching (the grace after meals) we recite (well, sing) the Sheva Brachot (literally, 7 blessings) that are recited under the Chuppah.
We hosted on Monday night for a friend of my husband from school. We hosted a bagel night (kind of Holy Bagels, Israel inspired) with the option to toast them – and it went down really well (as it did the last time we hosted Sheva Brachot). It seems as though toasted sandwiches are total comfort food which people thoroughly enjoyed eating as kids 😉
Our bagel spread. Tip: People go more for the hard cheese than creamed variety.
Anyway, so because dessert is my favourite, and what I like to impress with – I made decadent chocolate truffles. So easy, and so delicious. Here is the recipe:
Chocolate Truffles
- 1/2 cup of cream
- 2 cups of chocolate
- a little flavouring (try vanilla or any other essence, a liqueur or coffee!)
And they’re super easy to make. Boil the cream on the stove and then add it to the broken up chocolate (the smaller the pieces the better). Stir with a whisk until a soft and delicious ganache forms. Then put it in the fridge for a for hours – I know you might not be patient enough (like me) but do it. The firmer it is the easier it is to work with. Scoop out and roll into little balls, and then roll them in cocoa/ground nuts/sprinkles/icing sugar/coconut… the options are only limited my your imagination. I wanted to coat some in white chocolate, but ran out of time.
I wish I could have taken better pictures of these, but I promise they taste better than this picture looks.
I also made one of my absolute favourite desserts, lemon meringue pie. My husband doesn’t like lemon, but we were at a friends party who made a deliciously sweet one that he just loved! So I got the recipe from her and made it for everyone 🙂
Lemon Meringue Pie
- 1 packet of crushed biscuits
- 125 grams of butter, melted.
- 3 eggs
- 2 tins of condensed milk
- 1 cup of lemon juice (or more or less to taste)
- 1/4 cup castor sugar
Let’s make it!
- Melt the butter and mix it with the biscuit crumbs. Press it into the base of your dish.
- separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the condensed milk and lemon juice, and mix with a hand mixer until thick. Depending on how much lemon you like, adjust the taste.
- Pour into the base and bake at 180 for 20 minutes.
- While it’s baking beat your egg whites and gradually add the sugar until it forms a yummy meringue.
- Once it’s done baking, add the meringue and use a knife, fork or spoon to create some pretty curls.
- Pop it back in the oven to brown.
This is what’s left of it. In it’s defense it was in the fridge in a packet, which whipped off some of the meringue. Oops. I promise it tastes delicious.
Needless to say, I’ve just brought all the leftovers in to work, and they got devoured in a second! So delicious. The perfect sweet and delicious treats after celebrating a special simcha! (or the end to a rough day at work 🙂
I’m always looking for new theme ideas for Sheva Brachot, so if you have any – send them this way! Have a great week, everyone.
Our Shabbos Menu 