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. 🙂

From the latest GF. Zatrybki are sitting on the plane from Wroclaw on their way over to spend a week with us, there had to be something sweet waiting for them. I already concocted an Oreo cheesecake for Kacper, a big Oreo fan I’m told, but I liked the idea and the maple glaze a lot, so I made these too.

For 12 muffins I used 250 g of plain flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp bicarb of soda, 140 g sugar, 100 g of melted butter, 50 ml of buttermilk, 2 eggs, 50 g of maple syrup and some vanilla paste. All the dry ingredients mixed together, the wet ones followed, took care not to overmix, as per the instructions. 200 g of bluberries went in at the end.

They baked in 160 degrees for about 25 minutes. While still warm I deglazed them with a thick mixture of love- 2 tbsps of maple syrup, 3 tbsps of icing sugar and a pinch of salt.

We now have 5 left. Robert came to pick up his car from our drive way, so I gave him one and he said- “Oh, I didn’t have my pudding yet”. Neither did I, said Florek, having had 2 before dinner. 🙂

Robert, former landlord and neighbour has kindly brought me a few pieces of lovely, home grown rhubarb from his garden. I searched GF website for another nice way to use it, I wanted something different than the usual tart with kruszonka. I found this one, with lemon curd frosting, very nice indeed, best eaten on the same day though.

For my small round 6″ tin I used 110 g of softened butter, creamed with same amount of sugar, a zest of 1 lemon, 2 whole eggs, 35 g of almonds and 100 g of self raising flour.

The rhubarb just cleaned and chopped in small pieces, tossed in sugar, half of it folded through the cake , the remainder went on top, plus some brown sugar. It baked in 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Moist, light, pleasant. Simple icing made of whipped cream and some lemon curd, that easy.  🙂

In mojewypieki.com I found a tempting recipe for Raffaello babeczki kinda things. Nearly made them long time ago, but when ordering Raffaello from Ocado I found out a box costs £5, I thought I’d wait till I go to Poland. Sure enough, same big box of lovely coconutty balls in Biedronka were 13 PLN.

Last night when checking up the recipe again I read the comments underneath, some saying the white chocolate cream was far too sweet. The alarm bells went off in my head, remember 3BIT cake from the same website that ended up in the bin, due to sugar overload.

I ended up making the muffin bases nearly exactly the way recommended in the recipe, if  I had checked I had enough desiccated coconut and some kind of coconut liqueur- it would have been exact.

Kitchen aid whipped 150 g of soft butter with 120 g of caster sugar, 3 whole eggs went in, 120 g of plain flour plus 1,5 tsp of baking powder. 70 g of desiccated coconut recommended was replaced by 20 g of coconut and 50 g of ground almonds.

This amount made me 12 large muffins, which baked for over 20 minutes in 180 degrees.

When cooled I spooned out some holes, filled with strawberry jam( next time it will be raspberry and fresh raspberries, for the tang), 3 small blueberries in top. Then the Dr Oetker chocolate cream, finished with toasted desiccated coconut and a Raffaello ball on top.

Very pleasant, not too sweet. Next time I think I’ll try some kind of white cream, but for now some of these will travel to Swindon tomorrow.

Recipe taken from mojewypieki.com. Baked, rested, placed on a chopping board in the evening sun, sprinkled with icing sugar. What’s not to like 🙂 ?

For the basis of the tart I used a tall glass of plain flour, 4 tbsps of icing sugar, 1/4 tsp of baking powder, 90 g of chopped butter, a splash of cream, 2 egg yolks and some cold water to bind it together.  When ready, it chilled in the fridge for 30 minutes, while I peeled and chopped my rhubarb, about 3 pieces of it, roughly 350 g. I quickly pan fried it with 3 tbps of sugar- not enough, I later decided,  then drained.

The oven was ready waiting at 180 degrees, so I coarsely grated  the pastry onto the bottom of the tin, flattened with fork and baked till lightly golden for about 15 minutes. Then some jam went on, strawberry was recommended in the recipe, I used what  I had the remains of in the fridge- pear and some blueberry too. Then the rhubarb, some raspberries for colour, then a bit of breadcrumbs and finally, what we call in Polish “kruszonka”. A delightful, crunchy topping, a bit like on a crumble, but better. And kitchen aid makes it perfectly. 90 g of flour, 50 g of sugar, some vanilla paste and then 60 g of hot, melted butter.

The tart baked in 180 degrees for about 30 minutes. When done, some icing sugar and ready to be devoured. 🙂