When I saw the recipe last night, and the photo, what I loved was the soured cream topping. It looked stunning and made me curious if it tasted equally good. So I made it this afternoon. It does! My own personal touch were the alpine strawberries from the garden.

For the base I used 140 g of crushed digestive biscuits, which I threw into 85 g of melted butter and added a tsp of caster sugar. All mixed and pressed together in the round tin bedded with baking parchment. Baked for 10 minutes in gas mark 4.The oven upwarmed immediately to gas mark 9 for later!

The filling I made of 450g of creamy Philadelphia cheese, 2 flat tbsp of plain flour, 2 whole eggs, about 150 ml of soured cream,a tsp of vanilla paste,  a zest of 1 lemon and juice of half and 125 g of caster sugar. All smoothed onto the base, baked in gas mark 9 for only 10 minutes, then lowered back to 4 again for another 25 minutes.And cooled in the oven afterwards. When cooled, I made the topping of some about 120 ml of soured cream, good squeeze of lemon juice and all that sweetened to taste.

I’ll be modest- excellent!

I bought the madeleine baking form inspired by green tea madeleines at work, which we serve as part of  a rather miserable petit four. Can’t remember if I used it before, but this afternoon I made half and half, some of the mini muffins and some of the madeleines. I used the recipe which calls for honey and orange zest, but made them a bit more exciting by adding a zest of one lemon, lost of yuzu juice,lots being around 60 ml I would think and and replacing ground hazelnuts by ground almonds. I also chucked a tbsp of crushed pineapple for extra moisture. So the final list of ingredients;

2 eggs whipped with 110 g of caster sugar, then 50 g of ground almonds, the zest, yuzu juice, crushed pineapple, a tsp of baking powder, 70 g of plain flour and at the end, 100 g of melted and cooled butter. All chilled in the fridge for roughly an hour before baking( 15 minutes in 180 degrees).

Moist, citrusy, enjoyable.

I’m back! Lacked  inspiration these last couple of weeks, cooked simple stuff or things that were not worth blogging, but the cake today made me sing again. I found the recipe last night on Good Food’s website, looking for something to bake for the boys at work, for the lovely dinner they made for Moka, Florek and me on Saturday.  I’m making one for them tomorrow morning, this one will not last till sunset, I think!

Having upwarmed the oven to mark 4, I creamed 50 g of soft butter with same amount of brown sugar, spread it all over the bottom and a bit of sides of the round tin, then arranged the tinned pineapples and cherries on the bottom. For the rest of the cake I used 100 g of soft butter, same amount sugar and self raising flour, a tsp of baking powder, 2 eggs, some vanilla paste, plus extras. One of the reviews said that the cake was a bit too sweet, so I added some lemon zest and 2 good tbsp of crushed pineapple, which I got by mistake, luckily! All this nicely whipped together went on top of the pineapples and baked for 35 minutes.

It came out of the tin no problem, I tasted it 10 minutes afterwards, it’s moist and excellent. Will be made again.

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!!!!! 🙂