Baletki, maczki, these gorgeous little things have lots of names. I had a craving for them when in Poland last spring. Sometimes they can be bought super nice, sometimes decent.  Thanks to mojewypieki.com I found out they’re super easy and quick to make, they taste great and no need to go to Poland at all.  So this afternoon I have won a title of The Mother of The Year and got busy with my cravings, while Izzie played around in the kitchen with various kitchen utensils. She did vacuum clean 3 of them in the end, so I guess I succeeded.

3 egg whites got whipped in the kitchen aid with slowly added 80 g of sugar, bit by bit. Then in went 75 g of plain flour, incorporated super carefully in order to keep all that air. Into the piping bag, then sprinkled with poppy seeds and then baked in 180 degrees for about 10 minutes. They cool quickly and in no time are ready to sandwich with a good jam or conserve- I used strawberry.  Delightful, I don’t think they’ll last until tomorrow.

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! 🙂

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. 🙂

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. 🙂

In the recent GF it stands as a “Queen of hearts” cake, but theirs has hearts on top, mine has flowers, due to not having a heart shaped cutter.  I baked the base last night, this morning made the mousse and the rest, then spent 30 minutes cleaning the kitchen. This cake belongs to the “Lots of pierdolenie” category, should one like that exist. 🙂

So, for the base;5 egg yolks got beaten with 160 g of caster sugar. A zest and juice of 1 lemon added( can’t taste any, to be frank),85 g of self raising flour, 25 g of ground almonds and a tbsp of poppy seeds, all taken care of by the kitchen aid. The egg whites whipped separately got added later, to loosen up the mixture. It all baked for about 25 minutes in 180 degrees.

This morning sliced horizontally, strawberries placed tightly around the edges, then all covered by the mousse. For the mousse I blitzed 400 g of strawberries with about 5 tbsps of sugar- less than in the recipe, I though 200 g was a bit mental.  I then passed it through a sieve to have it nice and smooth. Warmed up, melted 4 gelatine leaves in. Whipped around 350 ml of cream and added the strawberry mixture. And finally the top layer, which took a lot of time. I drew a template dividing it into 16 small squares, cut through some and filled in with strawberry jam. Sprinkled the other ones with icing sugar. Set in the fridge for a couple of hours.

The cake’s light, refreshing, easy to eat. It will be great in summer. Dustin has just licked the remains from Florek’s plate. 🙂

From mojewypieki.com.  I like Jaffa cakes,  but this recipe I had to try- the chocolate mousse on top and fresh orange in the orange jelly must have been money. :-).

I made the sponge the usual way, 4 eggs, 4 tbsp of plain flour, 2 tbps of potato flour, a tsp of baking powder all for a large sponge. When cooled, 2 orange jellies went on, but made with 750 ml of water, not with 1 l, as the packets suggested. The jelly was already in the process of setting when I poured it onto the sponge layered with chunks of fresh orange- what a lovely treat, next time I’ll use even more.  I left it all overnight to set and then made the mousse. 200 g of dark chocolate melted above boiling water with 30 g of butter, 3 tbsps of orange juice. 3 eggs, separated, whites whipped with 50 g of sugar, yolks slowly added to the chocolate mixture and whisked in. When the whites are ready, half of them go into the chocolate mix to loosen it, then also 100 ml of double cream, whipped. And the rest of the egg whites.  All this sets in the fridge overnight and right before serving, a generous sprinkle of cocoa goes on top. Excellent. 🙂