Fale Dunaju (Danube Waves)

‘Fale Dunaju’ is poetry, a symphony of taste and beauty: for your eyes and mouth… Inspired by the most poetic river, chocolate and white pastries of the cake shape regular waves inside the cake, whereas cherries on the top remind little boats on the river, floating on white and dark chocolate icing. Sweet and chocolate, but with a hint of sour cherries and lemon pudding, is a mouth-watering pudding for any occasion.

Prep time: 30 minutes, moderate

Bake time: 45 minutes

Serves: 20

Ingredients:

Pastry

350g flour

250g butter

250g sugar

6 eggs

Jar of seedless cherries (or frozen cherries)

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 tablespoons black cocoa

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon coconut shavings

Cream

250g butter

100g sugar

1,5 cup of milk

2 tablespoons potato flower

1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

1 teaspoon lemon peels

Juice from 1 squeezed lemon

Icing

100g white chocolate

100g dark chocolate

1 butter

200g fresh cherries

Method:

1.     Cream butter with an electric mixer in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and eggs, keep creaming.

2.     Sift flour into the bowl and add baking powder. Mix them all together.

3.     Split the pastry into two. Add cocoa to one of the half and mix it into dough.

4.     A baking tin, about 24 cm long, coat with butter and coconut shavings. (I usually use coconut shaving to coat a baking tin with, they bake well and taste nicely).

5.     Put white dough into the baking dish. Put the black on the top of it.

6.     Put seedless cherries in regular distances (about 2cm from each other) on the top of the dark pastry. Press them lightly so they sink in. Cherries will be sinking deeper and deeper while baking, creating the wave-like shapes inside the cake.

7.     Bake it for about 45 min in pre-heated oven.

8.     In meantime, you can start making the cream. In a cup, mix potato flower, sugar and vanilla sugar, mix the powder some milk. (about 5 tablespoons of milk).

9.     Boil the rest of milk, and add the melted in cold milk powder. Mix in a pot (don’t let it to boil), the mixture will be becoming dense. When it has a cream-like consistency, leave it to cool down.

10. In a mixing bowl, cream butter with lemon peel and lemon juice. Add the pudding mixture spoon by spoon, and mix them all together.

11. Spread the cream over baked and cooled down cake. Put them into the fridge so the cream starts becoming solid.

12. Prepare icing: melt dark and white chocolates (separately) in a chocolate baths (crashed chocolates put into bowls, and the bowl into saucepans with boiling water).

13. Pour dark chocolate over cooled down cake. Wait when the chocolate starts becoming solid, then pour white chocolate over it, creating wave-like patterns with a spoon. Leave to cool down.

14. When the icing is resting, decorate with cherries, placing them in regular spaces.

15. Cut into pieces to serve and enjoy:)

Strawberry Sponge Cake Roll

 

I was looking for some ideas to celebrate this year strawberry season, and I decided there is nothing better then a ‘Strawberry Roloda’ (Strawberry Sponge Cake Roll). The cake is light and sweet, and you can decorate it however you’d like, to pay a special tribute to strawberries. The cake is perfect for garden parties, casual teas with neighbours, or posh evening dinners. Delicious!

Prep time: 30 min, easy

Cook time: 10 min

Serves: 10

Ingredients:

Pastry

3 eggs

2 tablespoons powder sugar (icing sugar)

3 tablespoons wheat flour

2 tablespoons potato flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon vanilla sugar

Cream

Large cup of double cream

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon gelatine

500 g strawberries

Lemon juice, shot of vodka or strawberry jam (to moisture the pastry)

Decoration 

7 small strawberries

100g dark chocolate

(We will also use some cream from above)

Method:

Pastry

1.     Beat egg whites. My trick is to add little salt to them, so they whist better.

2.     When egg whites are stiff, keep beating and gradually add sugar, then egg yolks. The consistency should be dropping.

3.     Sift some flour mixed with baking powder into the bowl. Cream all the ingredients.

4.     Pre-heat the oven to 190C. Put the mixture into a baking tin. The tin should be about 28 – 34 cm long, 20 – 25 cm wide. Bake on a baking paper or greased tin. Spread the mixture over the tin so it’s smooth. Bake for about 10 minutes.

5.     Take the pastry out of the oven and leave to cool down for a while.

6.     Spread some vanilla sugar over a clean, linen tea towel, and put the still warm pastry on it.

7.     Roll the pastry with the tea towel and leave it to cool down in this shape.

Cream

1.     Wash and peel strawberries. Pick up 7 small and prettiest ones for decoration and put them on a side. From the rest of them, take half and blend them. The other half chop into small cubes.

2.     Melt gelatine in ¼ cup of hot water and leave to cool down.

3.     Whip double cream so it’s stiff. Mix in some sugar.

4.     Take out 2-3 spoons for decoration, put it into the fridge.

5.     To the main cream, add blended strawberries and still warm gelatine. Mix them together.

Rolada

1.     Unfold the sponge pastry.

2.     Spread some lemon juice, vodka or strawberry jam over it to moisture the sponge. I used lemon juice this time, but the other options are very good too, and give your cake a special personality.

3.     Make a layer of chopped strawberries on the pastry.

4.     Spread some pink cream over the pastry. Make sure your layers are not too thick; otherwise it can be difficult to close the cake.

5.     When the layers are ready, start rolling the cake, in the tea towel. Roll it so it closes. Spoon out the excessive cream. Hold it for a while so it sticks together.

6.     Leave it to rest for a while. Cut the edges on both sides so they’re smooth.

7.     Now you can put your cake on a serving dish and decorate it! I used some melted dark chocolate to make a pattern on the top, and then put some of the leftover cream and decorated with strawberries. You can be really creative here!

8.     To serve, cut in slices. But make sure your guests can see the whole masterpiece first! Enjoy!

Ciasto Drozdzowe (Yeast Cake)

Yeast cakes are traditional, delicious cakes in Poland. Long-term traditions developed numerous recipes: cakes with fruit, raisins, sugar, chocolates or jams. This recipe is for the most basic, but yummy cake. It might seem that a yeast cake needs long time to be made, but in fact, it’s not hard, and most of time it needs for resting and growing. Simple but nice! The best is served still warm, with butter, jam or glass of milk.

Prep time: 20 min

Waiting time: several hours

Cook time: 50 min

Serves: 30

Ingredients:

Cake

Glass of milk

100 g yeast (dry or fresh)

1 glass of sugar

1 kg flour

4 eggs

3 tablespoon of oil

1/3 butter

Glass of raisins

Crumble

200g flour

200g sugar

100g butter

Method:

1.     Warm up ½ glass of milk, add yeast and stir as long as they melt. Add 1/3 glass of sugar and ½ glass of flour. Cream them altogether.

2.     Cover the mixture with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for 2 or 3 hours so it can grow. It should get three times bigger.

3.     Melt butter, add it into the mixture, add slightly whisked eggs, oil, the rest of sugar, milk and sieved flour.

4.     Mix all the ingredients together with your hands for about 10 minutes to achieve a cream mixture. You might find the mixture very sticky and maybe too watery, but don’t worry, that’s how it should be.

5.     Leave the mixture for about 1-2 hours to rest and grow.

6.     Soak some raisins in hot water, and add and mix them into the mixture when it finishes resting.

7.     Put the mixture into a well-grossed tin (about 14”x10”). The cake doubles its size while baking. You can use two separate loaf tins, or use half of the ingredients to have a smaller cake. Bake it for about 50 minutes in the pre-warmed to 180C oven.

8.     When the cake is in the oven, prepare the crumble: put flour and sugar into a bowl, add melted butter, and mix them all together. Spread it over the cake when it’s baking, about 15 minutes before taking it out of the oven.

9.     When the cake is ready take it out of the oven. Check if it’s ready: stick a little wooden skewer in the middle of the cake, if the little hole stays, the cake is ready, if the pastry is still watery, put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

10. You can cover your cake with sugar icing (icing sugar melted in hot water). The cake is delicious served warm, with jam or butter, or just on it’s own. Yummy!