Super nice cake with strawberries.

Once again from mojewypieki. com. Dorota called it “the best strawberry cake” and she wasn’t entirely wrong. It was quick to make, turned out light, fluffy and delicious.

As usual, I made half a portion and I ended up with a nice size Sunday afternoon cake for us and something will be left for tomorrow easily.

For the cake I used 100 g of plain flour, a packet of budyn waniliowy, half a tsp of baking powder all weighed and waiting its turn while 100 g of soft butter got creamed with 80 g of sugar. To that went 2 whole eggs, then all the dry ingredients.

All this was placed in a round buttered tin and baking paper. Then lots of strawberries, halved, quartered, depending on the size, a few blueberries for the colour. Then on top kruszonka, this time made with 75 g of plain flour, 50 of butter and 25 g of icing sugar. I find kruszonka made with hot melted butter much nicer, kitchen aid makes it within seconds.

The cake baked in 180 degrees for about 40 minutes. It really is lovely! 🙂

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Blueberry cheesecake.

Found it a few days ago while browsing mojewypieki.com. It looked out of this world, plus I often have blueberries at home these days, as Izzie is a big fan. Dorota from mojewypieki was right though, the blueberries in the UK are a joke, if I could get hold of some of the great wild ones, that we pick in the woods in Poland, that would be quite another story, not only in terms of the colour of the cake, but the flavour.

One does what one can I suppose, so I blitzed about 190 g of bb’s, then strained them through fine sieve to get nice, smooth puree.  I made the base out of 75 g of digestive biscuits and 25 g of melted butter, all blitzed and pressed into the small round tin. That cooled in the fridge while in the kitchen aid I threw 375 g of soft cream cheese, 2 eggs, 110 g of sugar, a tsp of vanilla paste, 2 tbsps of plain flour, some lemon juice and the said bb’s puree. I also played around with the food colourants, as the colour of the cake was not too appealing, a bit of purple and a touch of pink did help. I followed Dorota’s tip not to overwhip the cheesecake mix, as too much air would cause it to rise in the oven and then collapse, so only mixed until all the ingredients were nicely mixed, then onto the base and into the oven.

It baked for an hour in 150 degrees.

125 g of creme fraiche, a tbps of icing sugar and some vanilla paste all mixed made a nice topping, which went onto the cake for the last 10 minutes of baking.

It chilled in the fridge overnight. Tastes refreshing and fruity. 🙂

Lamb a la Bozenka.

I’ve popped in to Toby the Butcher’s to get some of his lovely Gloucester sausages and while he was packing them, he told me that lamb is now in season ( it’s always in freaking season as far as I’m concerned), plus the price is quite attractive. Of course I ended up buying a piece of leg on the bone, alongside the sausages and 2 burgers for Florian, who doesn’t like lamb- weirdo!

As Florian is eating out with work mates this evening, I’ve marinated my lamb before lunch time and had it the way my Mum makes it.  It was superb, but I’m now thinking some sauce would be nice; it’s served in its own juices, but still, might work something out next time, as I might get the Dinings team come over by the end of August.

Bozenka’s marinade is made of generous amount of garlic, crushed and chopped with salt, in fact, I mash the salt into the garlic with a blunt knife, which makes the garlic juicy and almost creamy.  Lots of black pepper, herb pepper, some hot paprika and all this joined together by olive oil. The lamb in small pieces is rubbed all over and left in the fridge for a few hours, Bozena would probably leave it overnight.

I actually made good use of the bone as well. I made lunch for Izzie based on lamb stock made from that bone, stripped all of the meat from it when cooked and mixed all the veggies cooked in the broth.  My lovely little carnivore had her first taste of Cotswold lamb, she’s eaten everything and clapped afterwards- her own sweet way of applauding herself for finishing her food. 🙂

My lamb got sauteed on olive oil, then stewed for about an hour with a few splashes of water. Half way through cooking I added roughly chopped onion and a couple carrots, to add texture and taste to the sauce.  Served with rice and raw onion salad, that divides the crowd- it’s just chopped onion seasoned with vegeta and hot paprika.

The whole thing is rather awesome with a large glass of good red, but I only had water today- we’re having alcohol free week with Florek, after Zatrybki’s visit and a weekend in Suffolk.

Good stuff. 🙂

Sticky toffee pudding cake.

I’ve been feeling like sticky toffee for a while, but decided to make a batch rather than 2 small puds, found a recipe and got cracking. I decided to reduce the sugar a bit, as the toffee sauce on top has some too, plus Izzie tasted the cake as well. No need to pack her full of sugar at the tender age of 14 months.

For the cake I first soaked 225 g of chopped and pitted dates in boiling water, just enough to cover the dates, plus 5 g of baking soda.

75 g of soft butter and 100 g of sugar creamed together in kitchen aid, 2 beaten eggs added, followed by 150 g of self raising flour and 2 tsps of cinnamon- cause I like it. Then the dates with all the water they soaked in, maybe a bit too much as I found the batter too runny and added a bit of flour.

The cake baked for 30 minutes in 180 degrees.

I decided to use Greg Wallace’s toffee sauce recipe instead of the original recipe’s one. I had no evaporated milk, so made the sauce of 150 g of double cream, 75 g of brown sugar and 25 g of butter.

It is sweet, but not sickly, indulgent and mooreish. 🙂