I only thought about the Polish national colours when I look at the photo. I also thought- great sponge!!! ;-D

The recipe comes from Smaker.pl., I spotted the photo of it and I knew I’d be making it. The parcel arrived this morning from Mum, with the jellies and budyn and other great Polish stuff  that I love baking with. First I baked the sponge, as usual to Mum’s recipe,half a portion, as I wanted a small one,  then blitzed 400 g of strawberries with some sugar, heated it up and added half a portion of dry strawberry jelly and a gelatine leaf. Left it to cool. When it was beginning to set, I poured it over the sponge and placed in the fridge. The white topping was a tricky one. I whipped the cream as usual, with sugar, then started pouring a yellow jelly, all cooled, but poured it in too early, as it wouldn’t thicken. I whipped some fresh one and added the other mixture slowly, then , in despair, placed it in the freezer hoping it would get the jelly working. IT DID. I topped the now set strawberries and left in the fridge in peace.

The game this evening is Czech – Portugal, which we’re not really watching, just peaking. I hope the Christiano- Gayaldo team won’t win, I hate the knob with a passion.

The cake- very good. Very light. Very pleasant. 🙂

A triumph!!!!! When I took the sponges out of the oven, my knees were trembling, when I put the cake together, I clapped my hands like one mentally challenged, was so pleased with myself!!!

The recipe comes from Good Food, followed a long search for kirsch, I finally settled for some cherry brandy from Tesco.

First, the cocoa sponges, really good recipe, I will remember it. I used 225 g of softened butter, same amount of caster sugar, 4 whole eggs, 160 g of self raising flour,  65 g of cocoa powder and half a tsp of baking powder all got mixed together, lovingly flufffed up and poured into 2 tins, buttered and lined up with baking paper. They baked for about 30 mins in 190 degrees. The smell that filled the kitchen was magnificent, sweet and chocolatey.

For the cherry filling I used a 340 g jar of morello cherry jam, 2 packets of soured cherries, 80 g each and a good slosh of cherry brandy, about 4 spoons. I cooked it all slowly for about 10 minutes while the sponges rose in the oven, then left to cool. Finally I whipped the cream with icing sugar and lemon juice. When the sponges were cool and rested, I sliced the thicker one and soaked all 2 of them with cherry brandy. I will be more generous next time though, couldn’t really taste it that much, I would have liked some more booze I think. The cherry filling went on, then the cream, the sponge, same again, on the top the cream, grated bitter chocolate and fresh cherries. I freaking loved the way it looked when I finished. It must be the best looking cake I’ve ever made, taste- wise 9 out of 10. More booze and it would have been 10.

Happy!!!!! 🙂

I fancied a souffle this evening, had some strawberries in the fridge, which I quickly pureed with some sugar.It’s a shame that English strawberries most of the time don’t taste of much, I wish I could pop out to Mum’s garden in Poland and pick some real ones.

The recipe that seems to work every time, for 2 souffles  I whip one egg white with a tbp of caster sugar until stiff, then fold in a random amount of fruit, in this case berries, not too much, so that the mixture still held. In it goes into the buttered and sugared ramekins and then to the oven 200 degrees for 12 minutes. Light, fluffy, nice.

Last weekend I experienced a culinary disaster, worse even, as in presence of guests. I attempted a beautiful looking strawberry and marshmallow cheesecake, which fucking didn’t set, even overnight. 7 leaves of gelatine and it still poured out of the tin, making me want to throw it at the wall. Good thing, the guests were Zatrybki, who were polite enough not only not to take the piss, but eager to eat it from the bowls. Zatrybek even had seconds.

So this afternoon, in the middle of The Awesome Rota Week, I had a need to bake something, a dessert that worked and was delicious. I had some rhubarb, but didn’t fancy another crumble, so I adjusted Mum’s apple pie recipe and made it with rhubarb instead. If Sojka was reading it, she’d be annoyed, as I haven’t used any measurements. 🙂 I felt confident enough to put together a sweet, crumbly pastry with plain flour, some soft butter, a couple of egg yolks, some icing sugar and a bit of baking powder. And it worked. The rhubarb was cooked quickly with a drop of water, I threw a couple of apples, I thought it was not enough of rhubarb itself, cooked it with brown sugar and discarded the liquid though the sieve and followed Mum’s suggestion of making sure it will not be too runny in the oven- added a bit of breadcrumbs to it.

Baked in 180 degrees until golden, a bit more than 30 mins. Towards the end I put some flaked almonds on top and when cooled, finished with icing sugar. I’m very pleased with it, especially with the pastry, Florian says it could be sweeter. I disagree, rhubarb is rhubarb and must have some distinctive acidity  to it. It is now being enjoyed with a lovely cup of tea.