Rustic style fruit tart with thyme and rosemary

Considering the amount of fresh, ripe fruit you can now easily find everywhere, the end of summer is one of my favourite seasons! I mixed everything I had in my kitchen: pears, apples, raspberries flavoured with thyme and rosemary. This combination also works well with peach desserts – you have to try – herbs beautifully enhance the desserts taste.

Ingredients
Dough
4,5 oz (125 g) room temperature butter
3 oz (90 g) powdered sugar
1 egg
9 oz (250 g) wheat flour
pinch of salt
Filling
1 apple
1 pear
1 cup raspberries
lemon juice
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 sings of thyme
4 leaves of rosemary
2 tbsp almonds


Method
Dough: mix butter and sugar in a food processor, until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and whisk for about 30 sec. Add flour and mix until combined (not too long as the batter can’t become too hard). Wrap the dough in a cling film and for 30 min. keep it in the refrigerator. After 30 min. roll it out at about 5 mm. in thickness. Place it on the baking paper.
Peel the fruit and cut them cores. Cut into small pieces, drizzle with lemon juice – to preserve them from getting dark. Apple, pear and raspberries place in a bowl and mix with sugar and cornstarch, add chopped herbs. Place the fruit mixture in the middle of rolled dough, sprinkle with almonds. Fold the edges of the dough but leave the space in the centre. Bake it in preheated oven to 180 oC until golden brown. Serve slightly warm with i.e. ice creams or whipped cream.

Coconut milk chocolate cake

I was expecting something different after this cake. I thought it would be more coconut ( but desiccated coconut I sprinkled over vanilla ice cream compensated my disappointment) and more cohesive. Here I got a surprise because, although the cake was quite heavy it was also full of air bubbles – just delicious!
For sure I’ll make it once again and probably soon, because combinations of strong chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream was a real shot in the eye!
P.s. The cake was supposed to have a glaze, but my husband put it in the sink, thinking he’s washing dirty dishes…

Ingredients
2 oz (55 g) dark chocolate (70%)
3 oz (85 g) cocoa powder
¾ cup boiling water
5 oz (145 g) wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 oz (90 g) butter
8 oz (230 g) white sugar
2 oz (50 g) dark muscovado sugar
2 eggs
275 ml coconut milk


Method
Pour over the chocolate and cocoa powder the boiling water. Whisk until the chocolate the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. Combine the chocolate mixture with dry ingredients ( flour, baking soda and powder). Stir in sugar until combined. Add one egg and whisk to combine. Ann other egg and whisk for 3 min. Slowly add the coconut milk and the chocolate mixture. Bake in preheated oven to 180 oC for about 30-40 min. Serve it cool with a scoop of ice cream and roasted coconut desiccated.

Aromatic pumpkin pie with lemon frosting

I can not imagine an autumn without eating at least one piece of pumpkin pie. Luckily this year November weather is spoiling us but when it is grey outside there is nothing better than a piece of electric orange cake!
This cake is quite heavy, moist and very aromatic. It is an excellent combination of cinnamon aroma and lemon scent of cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients
120 oz (350 g) pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 ½ - 2 cups sugar (depends on how sweet cakes you prefer)
2 cups wheat flour
1 cup oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon gingerbread seasoning
9 oz (250 g) cream cheese ( I used Philadelphia light)
lemon zest of 1 lemon
juice of ½ lemon
4 tbsp powdered sugar


Method
To make a pumpkin puree cut the pumpkin (with the peel) into large pieces and bake in preheated oven to 360F/ 180 oC, until soft. After the pumpkin cools down place it in a food processor or use fork to mashed it, the mixture should be smooth.
Beat eggs with sugar, oil and pumpkin until smooth, Stir in sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices. Spread batter in a greased pan (I used a small baking pan, about 2/3 of traditional size one). Bake it in preheated oven to 360F/ 180 oC for about 30 min.
Mix all the frosting ingredients until well combined. Put the frosting on top of cool cake, you can also sprinkle it with walnuts or orange zest.

Pear Upside-Down cake with caramel and orange zest

This cake just enchanted me! It has been a long time since I have eaten such a delicious, easy-to-make and at the same time very impressive dish!
Frankly speaking, on Sunday two of us ate the whole…
For sure I will be experimenting with this recipe using different fruit and spices ( apples, cinnamon, honey, nuts..). The cake is sweet so I had decrease the amount of sugar: I added I cup of sugar and we had to eat it with a cup of very bitter coffee (but it was still delicious!). It reminds me of Greek or Turkish pastries – wet because of the sweet syrup or in this case of caramel. And wonderful orange aroma blends ideally with pears!

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 pears
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( or few drops of vanilla oil)
½ cup brown sugar ( or ¾ cup if you prefer less sweet cakes)
lemon zest of 1 lemon
orange zest of 1 orange
1,5 oz (50 g) butter, melted
1,5 oz (50 g) vegetable oil (oilseed rape)
1 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt


Method
Pour the water to a saucepan, add sugar. Heat it slowly on low heat (about 20 min.), until you will get the golden caramel. Pour it into the baking pan lined with baking paper.
Place pieces of pears on caramel.
In a bowl beat eggs with sugar until fluffy, add lemon and orange zest, vanilla essence and butter (melted and cooled) with oil and salt, combine. Stir in sifted flour with baking powder. Spread the batter directly over pears. Bake for about 40 min. in preheated oven to 360F/ 180 oC. As soon as the pan is cool enough to touch, place a plate over the cake and invert the cake onto the plate.

Christmas spice cake with Guinness

I baked this cake for work because of the Saint Nicholas day. It is really very moist (a bit of it stick to the pan, so don’t forget to floured the pan), with intense spice aroma broken with caramel aftertaste of Guinness, which not only taste great but also gives deep, chocolate colour .
Recipe (modified) from brown eyed baker

Ingredients
¾ cup Guinness
½ teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup molasses
¾ cup brown sugar
1 ½ cups wheat flour
1 ½ teaspoons grinded ginger
2 pinches pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil


Method
Bring the Guinness to a boil, remove from the heat, stir in baking soda ( it will foam up !!), after stir in sugar and molasses until combined. Set mixture aside.
Whisk the flour with the rest of dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Set aside.
Transfer the Guinness mixture to a large bowl. Whisk in eggs and oil until combined. Whisk the flour mixture in thirds into the wet mixture , stirring vigorously until completely smooth after each addition.
Transfer the mixture to the buttered and floured pan. Bake for about 40 min. in preheated oven to 360F/ 180 oC.
Cool the cake in the pan, decorate the cake with icing.

Gingerbread pound cake

If you don’t have time to prepare the “original” gingerbread, which has to rest for a while I suggest this quick –to- make cake. It is both light and moist. I really wanted to add some prunes to it but because of the shortage in the supply I used dates – and it was great!
To bake it I used small loaf pans but you can easily use muffins tins.

Ingredients
5 tbsp butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
½ cup molasses
2 eggs
1 ¼ cups wheat flour
1 tbsp cocoa
½ cup warm milk
1 teaspoon backing soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon gingerbread spices
handful of chopped prunes or dates


Method
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add molasses and beat in the eggs, than stir, set aside. In another bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, spices and salt. Mix the baking soda with warm milk in a separate cup. Gently fold 1/3 portion of flour mixture at a time into the egg mixture until combined. Pour the milk with baking soda and dates (prunes) and mix.
Spread into lightly buttered pan (you can also use flour or line it with the baking paper), and level the mixture with a spatula and bake for about 20 min. in preheated oven to 360F/ 180 oC.
Dust with powdered sugar or glaze it if desired

Banana cake ( for Easter?)

What would you say to add some tropical taste to Ester? As a dessert after a Sunday Ester breakfast I suggest the banana cake. The bananas make the cake well moist even the third day after baking it and a walnut liquor makes the cake perfect for Easter. I was inspired by the recipe found on myrecipes.com.

Ingredients
3 cups wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup bananas (mashed)
¾ cup milk
¼ cup Baileys (or other liquor i.e. Malibu)
¾ cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs


Method
In one bowl mix flour with baking powder and salt. In another bowl mix bananas, milk and liquor. In a large bowl mix butter until fluffy, partially add sugar. Continuing mixing add one egg at the time. Add the banana mixture and the flour mixture. Spoon the batter into a greased and floured cake pan. Bake at 180 oC for about 1-1,5 hour until the toothpick inserted in the centre of a cake come out clean.

Beautiful chocolate cake

I couldn’t call it different. The recipe I found almost a year ago in a Coochnia’s website and since then I was thinking about it. I was waiting for a special occasion to bake this cake. And finally I served as a dessert in the before- Christmas dinner.

The cake is amazing! All its parts are harmonized. Butter shortbread base, prune layer with brandy and dark chocolate mousse…

Looking for another occasion to bake it! Seriously!

Ingredients
base:
7,5 oz (210 g) flour
5 oz (150 g) cold butter
2 egg yolks
3 oz (75 g) powder sugar
pinch salt
prune layer
10 oz (280 g) prunes
3 tbsp brandy
chocolate layer:
3,5 oz (100 g) dark chocolate
3 eggs (separate whites and yolks)
10 fl oz (285 ml) slightly whipped cream
3,5 oz (90 g) sugar


Method
Sieve flour, add sugar, salt and chopped butter. When the mixture will start reminds crumbles, add egg yolks and knead until smooth. Wrap in a plastic foil and place for 30 min in a fridge (or for a night). Roll out the dough and fit it into the tart pan. With a fork, make holes in the tart dough to prevent it from rising, place parchment over the shell and place a pile of beans on it as added weight while baking. Bake in preheated oven to 360F/ 180 oC for 20 min.
In a saucepan cook (for about 5-10 min.) prunes covered with water. Sieve prunes, blend them with 3 tbsp brandy. Spread prune mixture evenly on the cake base.

Crushed chocolate melt in a bowl with boiling water. Melted chocolate leave to cool down. Whisking add one egg yolk at the time. Whip the cream. Gently combine chocolate mixture with whipped cream. Beat egg whites until stiff. Gently combine them with the chocolate mixture. Spread chocolate mixture evenly on top of prune layer.

Bake for 40 min. at 360F/ 180 oC. Serve when cooled down.

Pear and yoghurt cake

The recipe for this cake I got from Pascal Brodnicki’s TV programme. And as long as I don’t watch this programme anymore I still bake this cake! It’s very delicate and healthy! It almost doesn’t contain any fat, and a half of used flour is a whole wheat flour. Usually I make it with apples and almonds but this time I used pears, walnuts and linden honey. This is a light, delicious Summer time dessert!

Ingredients
3 eggs
3,5 oz (100 g) sugar
4,5 oz (125 g) natural yoghurt
3,5 oz (100 g) wheat flour
3,5 oz (100 g) whole wheat flour
1,5 teaspoons baking powder
4 pears (or apples)
3,5 oz (100 g) almond flakes
5 tbsp brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
vanilla sugar


Method
Peal and cube the fruit (you can leave some fruit slices to decorate the cake). Mix eggs with sugar, vanilla and pinch salt, add yoghurt. Sieve flour and baking powder. Mix flour and the egg mixture. Add cinnamon and pears. Spoon the batter into a greased cake pan. Decorate with pear slices, sprinkle with almonds and brown sugar. Bake for about 40-50 min at 360 F/ 180 oC.

Quick the end of the Summer cake

Recently I’m always busy, so I don’t have as much time as I wish also for cooking . Complaining that the day and night has only 24 hours and I feeling like having ‘something’ sweet, I looked trough internet and found….. the quick cake which taste excellent. For me the revelation!

The recipe is from notderbypie.com

Ingredients
1 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
lemon zest of 1 lemon
sugar or vanilla essence
½ cup oil
2 eggs
1 ½ cups fruit (I used plums and nectarines)
1 tbsp Demerara sugar


Method
It can’t be easier: mix dry ingredients and combine with wet ingredients (mixed eggs and oil). The batter is thick. Spoon the batter into a greased loaf pan, decorate the top with fruit, sprinkle with sugar. Bake about 50 min. at 360F/ 180 oC.

Raspberry cake. Déjà vu?

I must tell you it’s been a while since I baked the same cake twice in a row… but as I found a really good recipe and had fresh raspberries…..

Below slightly modified recipe for a plum cake. The base is the same but instead plums this time I used raspberries. Officially this experiment was a success!


Ingredients
1 cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
lemon zest of 1 lemon
sugar or vanilla essence
½ cup oil
pinch salt
2 eggs
1 ½ cups fruit – raspberries
2 tbsp Demerara sugar and 2 tbsp almond flakes to sprinkle
(I also added few blueberries to add some colour contrast)


Method
It can’t be easier: mix dry ingredients and combine them with the wet ingredients (mixed eggs and oil).The batter is thick. Spoon part of the batter into a greased loaf pan, put 1/3 fruit on top, and again the batter. Decorate the top with fruit, sprinkle with sugar and almonds. Bake about 50 min. at 360F/ 180 oC.