Chocolate,fruity cake


I’m not really a Winter person.Well I’m not sure if anyone is!Sure I love the leap into New Year, making exciting plans about the months ahead, dreaming about new destinations to visit and goals I would like to achieve. But the fact that the nature is still dormant and the nights come way too early,and are way too long,makes me want to curl up under the quilt and wake up in the Spring!

March makes me happier. It makes me excited. Everyday I’m on the outlook for the first blossoms, and although I know it will take some time until  I’ll sit down in the garden,swinging my bare feet and warming my face in the sun, I can feel that Spring is finally in the air!

But I decided to learn to be patient(no,it’s not easy!!!) and to accept the world the way it is(not easy either!!!),not to hate this the least likeable season, indulge myself in the cosiness and try to find a way to fight the winter blues.

I was fed up with early evenings and long nights so…..I lit the candles around the house and cooked special dinners to celebrate this time we could spend together. I couldn’t stand the cold weather and gloomy days so I baked, I experimented more in the kitchen and I added chocolate to almost everything. Well, chocolate always helps! I missed the light that would allow me to take pictures all day long, and somehow I lost the inspiration, so I redecorated the studio to breath new life into it, and into me. Oh,how it helped! Sometimes, the simplest things, like changing the colour of the wall, works it’s magic and injects inspiration you’ve been looking for and suddenly you can’t help but spend all day with a camera in your hand. Huge thank you to the Pixers team to help me choose the perfect design of this Pixerstick that turned my boring studio into a beautiful creative space and made me believe that redecorating can be easy, hassle and mess free.It’s far the most favourite wall in my house!What’s even better,I can always peel it off and stick it on another wall in the house!(Yes it’s a sticker!How cool is that!)





So now LET’S EAT THE CAKE!

Recipe:

For the base:

300g self raising flour(preferably self rising fine sponge flour)
350ml natural yoghurt(room temperature)
100g cane caster sugar
2 eggs(room temperature)
125g butter,melted and cooled
6 tablespoons cacao powder
pinch of ground nutmeg

+butter for greasing

For the cream:

200g dark chocolate(I used 85%), broken into smaller pieces
150ml double cream + additional 60ml
60g sugar
250ml mascarpone
2 TBSP cocao powder

Additionally:

Around 700g blueberries, blackberries and cherries
40g dark chocolate, chopped

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190C.Grease 2 x 19cm round baking tins(or one!)Sieve the flour into a bowl.In a separate bowl place eggs,yoghurt,butter and sugar.Add nutmeg and cacao powder and mix all the ingredients until smooth.Pour it over the flour and stir with a spoon,the mix should look lumpy and may have the odd fleck of flour still visible but don’t be tempted to overmix the batter.Divide into two baking tins smoothing the tops with a spoon.Bake for around 30 minutes or until tooth-pick comes out clean.

You can also bake it in one tin for 45 minutes or until tooth-pick comes out clean and then cut it in half after it cooled down.

For the cream, boil a little water in a small pot and place a metal bowl over it so that it doesn’t touch the water.Turn the heat down to minimum and place dark chocolate pieces in the metal bowl. Mix from time to time until melted, then take it of the heat and let it cool down.

In a separate bowl whip 150ml double cream with sugar until thick. Don’t over mix it, you still want the cream to have a smooth consistency.

In another bowl, whip mascarpone with cacao powder, add whipped double cream and melted chocolate and mixed with an electric mixer until combined, for around a minute. Pour over double cream and whip to desired consistency. Add more double cream if needed.

Now all the fun – assembling the cake!

Place one of the cakes onto a serving plate. Add the cream and spread it out evenly, but leave a 1-2cm gap around the edge so when you place the second cake on top, all the cream won’t ooze too much out around the sides. Top the cream with blueberries, blackberries and cherries(just remember to pit the cherries that go into the middle layer!). Then place the second cake on top and repeat again with the cream and the fruit.Add some chopped chocolate on the top of the cake.

Enjoy xxx

*This post was created thanks to collaboration with Pixers (which I am really grateful for!),however all the words, opinions, recommendations are honest and totally my own(of course) 🙂

Mum’s Polish apple pie

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I’m back!!!

2014 was rather crazy.It was a great year, full of amazing opportunities and I truly appreciate every single one of them,but there was also very little time to be ‘me’,to read books, to walk for hours, to watch movies,to get bored…and I really missed that.So I made a pact with myself.January was going to be my month, filled with lazy breakfasts in bed, quality time with my family, and everything I love but didn’t have time to do.It felt right.

I enjoyed that little break, I feel it balanced my life and helped all my priorities fell into place and I’m so happy to be back! And here I am with a very special recipe that always reminds me of home and brings back sweet memories!Welcome Mum’s ‘Jabłecznik’ aka best Polish apple pie 🙂

You’ll find this recipe at Life and Thyme, where you can also read my little personal story and I really hope you’ll enjoy it!

I also have some GREAT NEWS!I’m very excited to announce that Bea’s cookbook is a finalist in
UK Blog Awards!!!I still don’t know who nominated me(husband promised it wasn’t him!) but whoever you are-Thank you!

See you guys very soon!

Bea xxx

MOUTHWATERING BLUEBERRY AND LEMON CAKE

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Hi!It’s just a quickie! I really wanted to share with you this lovely recipe that I made for In Clover magazine.

You should know me well enough to realized that I get excited about exciting recipes and I just cannot keep them to myself so I’m spreading the news!This cake is my “dream come true”. A cake that I want to make special memories with…bake it for our anniversary,my mum’s birthday,picnic party with friends and a lazy Sunday afternoon…It’s perfect.

MOUTHWATERING
BLUEBERRY AND LEMON CAKE
with almonds and maple syrup

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs
100g unrefined caster cane sugar
200g self-rising flour, sifted
120g ground almonds, sifted
60g unsalted butter, melted
juice and finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
40g almond flakes
60ml maple syrup
150g blueberries

+butter and ground almonds for greasing a tin

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 180C.Grease a 19cm springform cake tin with butter and sprinkle with ground almonds. Place the eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer for around 10 minutes until pale and tripled in volume. Add the flour, ground almonds, melted butter, lemon juice and grated lemon zest and gently mix to combine the ingredients. Gently fold the blueberries into the batter and transfer the mixture to the tin and spread it evenly. Sprinkle with the almond flakes, drizzle with 1/3 of maple syrup and bake for 50-55 minutes or until cooked and tested with a skewer.
Leave to cool for 15 minutes then carefully unclasp the tin and move the cake to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Brush the remaining maple syrup over the top and enjoy!

TIP: Halfway through baking, you can place a layer of baking paper or kitchen foil over the top of the cake to prevent over-browning.

HAPPY BAKING!