Strawberry weekend.

It was a perfect weekend. Just the right amount of everything - food market, sun, fresh veggies, brunch with friends, afternoon nap, delicious dinner, evening with a book, wide open windows until late, coffee with cream and fresh strawberries....

It really feels like the weekend was a day longer or at least somehow it squeezed in an extra couple of hours.

Summer food is definitely more veggie / fruity - heavy dishes turn into salads, soups into fruit smoothies, desserts into a simple bowl of fruit, lightly sprinkled with sugar. Unless there's an occasion to make a real fruity masterpiece.

Strawberry bday cake with vanilla cream.
prep time 30min, baking time 40min + breaks to cool things down

for base:
6 eggs (separate yolks from whites)
160g sugar
180g flour
1sp baking powder
50g almond powder (grained almonds)

for cream:
4 egg yolks
50g sugar
1 cup milk
1 vanilla stick (cut in the middle)
1sp gelatine (soaked in 2tbsp of cold water)
1 cup of cream (36%)

+ 400g of fresh strawberries

1. Mix egg yolks with sugar, beat whites until stiff then gently add to yolks/sugar mix. Constantly mixing add flour and baking powder, then almond powder. Pour into a round spring form (greased). Bake for 40min in 180 degrees. Take out of the oven, set aside to cool. When cold cut the middle part out (don't throw out, just set aside for later), leaving just thick rims and bottom.
2. Prepare cream. Mix egg yolks with sugar. Boil milk with vanilla stick, then slowly add egg mixture. Pour back to into the pot and continue boiling, constantly mixing until thickens. Take vanilla stick out and add gelatine - stir to make sure it's well dissolved. Set aside to cool.
3. In a separate bowl beat cream until thick. Add cold yolk mixture (point 2) and crumbled pieces of remaining base. Gently pour into the base, decorate with strawberries and leave in fridge for min 30min before serving.

This recipe is not easy and it involves multiple little steps. You need to make sure you have enough time in between to let things cool. The result is stunning and will make every bday person (and I guess not only) happy. I only used half of the remaining base for the cream and only half of the cream to fill the cake. The remaining cream will be used as extra and to decorate the plates.
Last but not least - I have been waiting to make it for a year. The cake was on the cover of last years 'Kuchnia' magazine and I just could not get it out of my mind...

Voilà! Enjoy!

Finally a weekend at home and some summer muffins!

After a few weeks of traveling this weekend was supposed to be about relaxing, catching up, cleaning, de-cluttering, organizing, and hundred other things that I'm forgetting about. All of that crammed into 2 short days, which now I know was just wishful thinking....

Saturday started with perfect blue skies and sun, ideal for catching some sun rays on the beach with a good friend. I managed to quickly bake a batch of summer muffins, to take with. Nothing better than a lazy summer afternoon spent talking, in company of heavenly tasting muffins!

Unfortunately I forgot the camera to save those beautiful moments... So the photos here come from this morning, as usual my colleagues were tasting the remaining few pieces.

 

 

 

Upside down rhubarb muffins

prep time 15min + baking, makes 12 muffins

for fruit topping:

6tbsp brown sugar

4tbsp butter

2 cups of rhubarb, washed and chopped into 1cm pieces

 

for muffin batter:

4tbsp soft butter

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1.5 cup flour

1sp baking powder

1/2sp baking soda

pinch of salt

pinch of muscat spice

1/2 cup milk

orange zest from one orange

1. Combine sugar with butter, mix until butter gets soft and sugar partially dissolves. Add rhubarb pieces and mix again. Place into bottoms of previously well greased muffin form (no muffin lining).

2. Using a food processor or mixer mix butter with sugar, then add an egg and stir until well combined.

3. Mix all the dry ingredients and then slowly add to the butter mixture - little by little alternating with milk. Lastly add orange zest. 

4. Place in the muffin form on top of the fruit topping. Bake for 25min in 180 degrees.

5. When baked, cool for 5min in the form, then gently take out each muffin and place up side down - with fruit topping on top (if needed for more stability, cut the bottoms even). Serve and enjoy!

(as said, didn't need to wait long for the muffins to disappear...)

The muffins have a sweet-sour summer taste, they are very fluffy and light. I found this recipe in a Polish cooking magazine 'Kuchnia' and got an idea to experiment a bit and maybe one day changing those muffins into a cake.... Just have to wait for another weekend.