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!!!!! 🙂

I fancied a souffle this evening, had some strawberries in the fridge, which I quickly pureed with some sugar.It’s a shame that English strawberries most of the time don’t taste of much, I wish I could pop out to Mum’s garden in Poland and pick some real ones.

The recipe that seems to work every time, for 2 souffles  I whip one egg white with a tbp of caster sugar until stiff, then fold in a random amount of fruit, in this case berries, not too much, so that the mixture still held. In it goes into the buttered and sugared ramekins and then to the oven 200 degrees for 12 minutes. Light, fluffy, nice.

Last weekend I experienced a culinary disaster, worse even, as in presence of guests. I attempted a beautiful looking strawberry and marshmallow cheesecake, which fucking didn’t set, even overnight. 7 leaves of gelatine and it still poured out of the tin, making me want to throw it at the wall. Good thing, the guests were Zatrybki, who were polite enough not only not to take the piss, but eager to eat it from the bowls. Zatrybek even had seconds.

So this afternoon, in the middle of The Awesome Rota Week, I had a need to bake something, a dessert that worked and was delicious. I had some rhubarb, but didn’t fancy another crumble, so I adjusted Mum’s apple pie recipe and made it with rhubarb instead. If Sojka was reading it, she’d be annoyed, as I haven’t used any measurements. 🙂 I felt confident enough to put together a sweet, crumbly pastry with plain flour, some soft butter, a couple of egg yolks, some icing sugar and a bit of baking powder. And it worked. The rhubarb was cooked quickly with a drop of water, I threw a couple of apples, I thought it was not enough of rhubarb itself, cooked it with brown sugar and discarded the liquid though the sieve and followed Mum’s suggestion of making sure it will not be too runny in the oven- added a bit of breadcrumbs to it.

Baked in 180 degrees until golden, a bit more than 30 mins. Towards the end I put some flaked almonds on top and when cooled, finished with icing sugar. I’m very pleased with it, especially with the pastry, Florian says it could be sweeter. I disagree, rhubarb is rhubarb and must have some distinctive acidity  to it. It is now being enjoyed with a lovely cup of tea.

So simple, that it’s embarrassing. I had some blueberries in the fridge, some vanilla cream leftover from last night and some meringues. I crushed them into a bowl, added the berries, the cream, a good splash of lemon juice and mixed it. Then stuffed into the cooking rings, powdered with bitter cocoa and finished off with an almond- ran out of my favourite flaked almonds. Pretty and simple. And delicious.

I baked them this evening as a treat for doing a good job painting the front door. Found the recipe yesterday while flipping through the old “Good Food” mags.  As always, when using the recipe for the first time, I actually followed it…(!) 🙂

I whisked 2 large eggs with 110 g of caster sugar, added 70 g plain flour, a generous tsp of baking powder, 50 g of ground hazelnuts, a tbsp of honey and lots of cinnamon. Then the zest of one orange and 100 g of melted and cooled butter. The whole mixture went to the fridge for an hour and then the little delights got baked for about 15 minutes in 180 degrees. When done, I finished them off with icing sugar. They’re lovely and light, but the top is ever so slightly crunchy. Very, very nice indeed.