Coffee chocolate cake / Chocolate cake (for) coffee.

After last week filled with crazy temperatures, unusual heat and so much sunshine that even my sun batteries went to overheat mode, I'm really looking forward to fall. I never thought I would ever say it, since summer is my favorite season but this year I feel like I have had enough and with a big smile on my face looking forward to a bit colder season.

This summer was super intense, with traveling, working, summer visitors and overdue get-togethers with friends. So finally when this weekend seemed to be empty, I sighed with relief - ufff.... Maybe I will find a little moment to catch up with dusted-over hobbies...?

And a lazy weekend like this calls for something sweet. No more fruity cakes, sweet ice creams or sour sorbets - this weekend we are craving chocolate in big amounts, a cake that would go well with a cup of coffee or ...  why not combine those two into a coffee chocolate cake?

Coffee Brownies
prep time 15min, baking time 30min

125g dark chocolate
125g butter
150 g flour
1 teaspoon spoon baking powder
3 eggs
150g sugar
50g wallnuts
3 tblsp strong coffee
*opt 80g raisins/cherries

1. Melt chocolate in a thick-bottomed pan. Add butter constantly mixing.
2. In a separate bowl, beat 3 eggs with sugar for about 5min. Add melted chocolate/butter, then flour, baking powder, nuts, raisins and coffee.
3. Pour into previously buttered baking form (see picture). Bake for 30min in 180 degrees.

The idea comes from my brownie book, as usual slightly modified. Since before baking I quickly cleaned  the cabinets and found there some dry cherries, they also ended up in the cake, adding a nice touch of moist fruity taste to the deliciously dry chocolate-coffee substrate. 

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!

Tiramisu for a May weekend.

So finally it's really May! Sure - it still gets cold in the evenings, and I haven't dared to pack my winter jacket into the bottom of the 'seasonal clothes only' suitcase in the basement, but at least I did take out my spring coat! And in this very spring coat, halfway unbuttoned I paraded to and from work yesterday - with a big smile on my face.
Spring, it's really in the air, the Sun is shining brighter and the air smells like fresh grass. To make sure that it's really spring everywhere, we took a little car ride into the country side - and this is what we found:

perfect blue skies, green grass and yellow blooming fields.... What a nice beginning to this spring weekend!

Spring is the time for more light and fruity cakes - rhubarb, strawberries and blueberries... But before I officially start this kind of cooking, I want to tell you a story of one tiramisu...

I ate the original tiramisu at an Easter get-together with my high school girlfriends and completely fell in love with it. I realize of course that there's a recipe for tiramisu on every mascarpone box, but this was really special, and tasted amazingly delicious while chit-chatting and catching up after months of not seeing each other. So I decided to try it myself and as usual, all I needed was a good occasion. And then it appeared - another friend's from the office birthday +  I discovered that it was an anniversary of me working with them! Voilà, the excuse ready!

Tiramisu - simple cake for many occasions.
prep time 15min, cooling 2hrs

750g mascarpone cheese
3 eggs (separate yolks from whites)
3tbsp sugar
1 cup espresso, cooled and mixed with
2tsp dark rum or amaretto
24 packaged ladyfingers
2tbsp dark cacao

1. In a glass bowl (here 20x20cm) arrange half of the ladyfingers in order to fit the bottom, then soak them with half a cup of coffee + alcohol mix.
2. Beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale, for about 5 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese and beat until smooth.
2.  Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until thick (turn the bowl up side down, it's ready when the mixtures stays attached to the bottom of the bowl). Then gently add to the egg yolk mix.
4. Spread evenly 1/2 of the mascarpone + egg whites mixture over the ladyfingers (about 2-3cm layer). Arrange another layer of ladyfingers soak with coffee and top with remaining creamy mixture.
5. Cover tiramisu with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Before serving, sprinkle with dark cacao.

I've decided to share this recipe here because of the combination of its simplicity and deliciousness - very high rankings in both. The final product looks very yummy, unless of course it's more than halfway gone - as on the here attached photo. But it only means that they loved it - what else is there to want?

A feel good cake, or brownies at work.

Brownies, or chocolate cake is the very first cake I remember baking myself. I still remember the piece of paper on which I wrote the recipe, slightly yellow and with grease stains from the ingredients. I got it from a friend of mine who mastered the cooking skills way before me. She could instantaneously or using her magical powers make a big plate of crepes, hot cocoa, or chocolate cake. In my house I never even dared starting the oven - mom and dad were responsible for feeding us and I always knew that I'll learn when the right time comes.

The right time didn't come for a while until one day I met this very special someone that loves homemade meals... No other choice - and that's how I fell in love with mixing, tasting, and the idea of offering every single day something made with love....

I don't have anymore the little faded piece of paper with the chocolate cake recipe. I remember it's taste and many times try to recreate it. No success so far.

This attempt was a 'happy bday' cake for someone at work. I'm very lucky to work in a big office with 20-something people and many many birthdays to bake for. Who knows maybe one day I manage to recreate that cake I remember, meantime discovering many others....?

Brownies - a feel good cake.
prep time 10min, baking time 35min

120g flour
1/2 tea spoon baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa
150 g butter
250g sugar
80g nuts (hazelnuts or walnuts) chopped
4 eggs (beaten)
200 g dark chocolate (150g melted + 50 g chopped into small pieces)


1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and flour an 35x 30cm baking pan.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, baking powder and cocoa.
3. Melt butter and sugar on low heat constantly stirring. When well combined set aside to cool.
4. In a separate pan, also on very low heat, melt 150g of chocolate then set aside to cool.
5. In a mixer, beat eggs (about 3min) then add butter/sugar/baking powder, constantly mixing. When all well combined add melted chocolate and then slowly flour mix, hazelnuts and chopped chocolate.
6.Spread batter into prepared pan and put to bake for 35min. 

This recipe comes from my very first cooking book Pascal Brodnicki ' just cook' vol 2. It reminds me a bit the American brownies and they definitely make everyone feel good!

Weekend carrot cake

Seems like winter just started with February. Scarves, hats and gloves are no longer optional. Temperatures falling, every day a bit colder and even the hours on the clock seem to have frozen in place.
Made a decision to stay in and have a lazy weekend with no plans. The only trip outside to get groceries, bundled up in extra socks and double fleece. I really don't remember this kind of winter. Tomorrow will have to leave the house and go to work, brrrrrrr..... Today drinking a fifth cup of tea, going from chair to chair, ensconced in the tranquility of Sunday ....

Carrot & Honey Cake
prep time 30min, baking time 50min


280 grams of butter (room temperature)
200 grams of cane sugar
3 table spoons of honey
5 eggs (separate whites from yolks)
1 orange (zest + juice)
200 grams of self-raising flour (or regular flour with 1.5 tea spoons of baking powder)
1.5 tea spoons of baking powder
100 grams of almond powder
200 grams of chopped nuts and raisins (here walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds)
optionally 50 grams of chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
1 tea spoon of cinnamon
optionally 1 tea spoon of muscat spice
3cm ginger piece (peeled and chopped into small pieces)
3 carrots (peeled and grated)

1. Put butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until paste like. Add honey, egg yolks, orange zest and orange juice. Continue mixing.
2. Slowly add flour, baking powder and almond powder - mix until well combined
3. Add nuts, ginger and spices
4. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites (stiff foam - turn bowl upside down - when ready it should stick to the bottom), then gently combine with the other mixture.
5. Pour into a greased tin (here rectangular 25 x 40cm) and bake for 50min in oven at 180C

I found this recipe in a Polish cooking magazine 'Kuchnia' under a Jamie Oliver section - but as usual I adjusted the proportions and added more nuts for some extra crunchiness. The cake tasted heavenly, the orange zest and ginger adding sparkling notes of citrus sweetness.
It takes a while to prepare all the ingredients but definitely worth every minute of it.

One sweet sour...

I've decided to stop focusing on the bad sides of winter, and hold on to the good ones. One thing that I can definitely get away is some sweet indulgence. Coming back home after work in this cold ugly weather is much more pleasant if a house filled with freshly-baked-cookies smell... On a dark winter night sinking into a big comfy chair, with a cup of a steaming beverage and a good book. Plus some baked goodies of course. Hmnmnm, that's my favourite part of winter....
Both Pe an I are big chocoholics, so I tend to make more brown desserts, but this time we tried something new, more sour and tangy. Turns out not so bad, and after having some people over, most of it disappeared from the plate leaving just a few crumbles. And one slice for me, for a lazy Sunday tea time.

Key Lime Pie

for crust:
250 grams of Digestive biscuits
3 table spoons of sugar
1 tea spoon of cinnamon
140 grams of butter

for filling:
4 limes
400 grams of condensed milk (sweet)
4 egg yolks

Crust:
Melt butter on low heat, then set aside to cool off
Crumble biscuits into powder-like pieces, add sugar and cinnamon, then melted butter - mix.
Pour this mixture into a 24cm round baking form, press over the bottom and up the sides of the form. Using the bottom of a spoon make sure the mixture forms a firm layer. Bake for 10min  at 160 degrees C.

Filling:
Remove the lime zest from whole limes, grate, and put aside. Cut the limes in half and squeeze out the juice.
In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk,  lime juice, grated zest, and egg yolks, mix well .

Pour filling into previously baked graham cracker crust and put in oven for another 15-20min (the middle should be still soft).

After cooling down, put in the fridge for at least 2hrs.


*the recipe comes from the same Danish cooking magazine ('mad' dec 2011) that I used for the onion soup. It's a definitely refreshing dessert that can taste just as good in summer as in winter (I'll definitely give it a try!)