Onion rings.

There were burgers on the menu this evening, not a single onion ring in the freezer though. Good Food website had a few suggestions. I picked a simple recipe with 2 ingredients, 150 g of self raising flour and 180 ml of sparkling water.  The comments were very useful in this case, somebody suggested using lager instead of water and lots of seasoning. I had the last bottle of Birra Morretti in the fridge from last weekend, which came useful.  Simple recipe that worked a treat. Lovely, crispy rings, I think I’ll cut them thicker next time though.

Spinach and strawberry tartlettes.

My lovely child has just turned 4, so a cake has been baked according to her very brief brief- the cake is to be green, end of.  I bought some matcha and was going to make a matcha sponge with some kind of strawberry topping. And then Dorotka published her latest entry in the blog and that was that. Matcha stayed in the jar, I purchased fresh baby spinach and got to work. From the whole portion in Dorota’s recipe I baked 2 separate sponges, used them both, but one was a bit too high, so I took 1cm off the top, cut 4 small bases with rings and I’m glad I did, cause my photos of the birthday cake were rubbish, while the mini ones I’m happy to show off.

So, for the 4 layer cake( 2 sponges and 2 mousses) I used 5 whole eggs, separated, whipped the whites with 6 tbsps of sugar, yolks in., one by one.  A puree of 120 g of baby spinach and 150 ml of sunflower oil was made, I pushed it though the sieve too, as it was not fine enough. Added into the airy egg mixture. 260 g of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking powder. Into the oven, 35 minutes in 160 degrees.

When baked and sliced, some lime juice was used to moisten the cakes.

650 g of fresh strawberries quickly cooked with 2 tbsps of sugar, blitzed into puree. A strawberry jelly in. All cooled till it begun to set and then 450 ml of cream got whipped and the strawberry mixture added.

Fun to bake, fun to assemble. Finished off with chopped pistachios and crumbs from the green cake.  The Child enjoyed the mousse the most, left the green base behind, unaware of the spinach content.  Not a piece was wasted by our guests. 🙂