Unusual cherry and chocolate cake

I love to try all things new. Once I was talking to my friend and she called me "Culinary Casanova". That's because just like the famous (or shall I say infamous) Italian I am jumping from one dish to another, having a bite, savour it and then moving on to a new one. Well, at least I do not leave broken hearts behind me. Well, maybe broken plates, but that's it. :-)

This recipe comes from Ukraine. There it is called "Plyatsok", which means "half-cake". That's because the layers are made not from the cake batter, but from the dough which you would use to make cookies. Actually, the texture of a cake does remind you of very soft cookies. However, the layers are softened even further with creme-fraiche filling, so when you eat the cake it literally melts in your mouth. And of course chocolate and cherry is a classic.

I was intrigued when I saw this "half-cake" on the photograph and I immediately wanted to taste it. The result did not disappoint. I loved the taste and the texture. Needless to say, it looks stunning and can be a perfect show-stopper on your dinner table. Definitely give it a go, guys!

Unusual cherry and chocolate cake 

Recipe

For pastry:
1.5 Tbsp of cocoa-powder
15 fresh or canned cherries (stones removed)
2.5 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1/8 tsp of salt
200 g of butter or margarine (I used margarine)
3 large eggs (or 4 small)
150 g of sugar
Milk chocolate for sprinkling on top

For cream:
250 g of creme-fraiche
250 g of cream-cheese
100 g of sugar

For pastry: mix flour with baking powder and salt. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, then fold in flour mixture. The consistency of dough will be similar to that of soft cookies. Divide the dough into 3/4 and 1/4.

Line a 23x33 cm tin with baking parchment and put 3/4 of the dough into the tin. Spread evenly, so that the dough is approximately 1 cm thick. Good tip: do it with wet hands. This way the dough does not stick to your fingers.

Bake in a pre-heated to 180C oven for about 25 minutes or till light golden in colour. Do not overbake, as the pastry will turn dry! It should stay soft(ish). Transfer to a wire rack, peel off the parchment and cool completely. Then using a serrated knife carefully cut the pastry into two rectangles: each 23x16.5 cm.

Add 1.5 Tbsp of cocoa powder to the remaining 1/4 of the dough. Divide it into 15 equal pieces. Fold a cherry into each piece and form a small ball. Put the balls onto a baking tray lined with parchment and bake at 180C for 20-25 min. Cool on a wire rack.

For cream: mix all ingredients together and beat using a blender.

To assemble: if you have adjustable walls in your cake tin, then simply adjust the size to 23x16.5 cm. My tin is unfortunately not adjustable, so to make sure the cream is not leaking out and the cake stays in place I created a construction using an orange juice carton, like that:

Line the part of the tin which will be used for cake assembly with cling film. Place the first half of the cake on cling film. Spread approximately 1/4 of the cream. Arrange cherry cookies on top. Pour another 2/4 of the cream on top of the cookies. (Reserve remaining 1/4 of cream for the next day - keep it in the fridge).

Place the second half of the cake on top of the cookies. Cover with cling film and put something mildly heavy on top, like a wooden chopping board or perhaps another carton of orange juice. Put in the fridge for 8 hours (or better overnight). Do not skip this stage as the texture of the final product depends upon it. Overnight the cream will soak through the layers and will make the cake soft.

Next day remove the cake from the fridge and spread the remaining 1/4 of the cream on top. Put in the fridge again for another couple hours.

Transfer on a serving plate or board. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings before serving.

Enjoy!

Spelt flour cherry cake

I've never used spelt flour before. But a friend suggested I should give it a try and I did, and the result totally surprised me. This cake is wonderful : it is soft and porous. But what got me is I only poured 1 cm of batter into the tin, but it raised 3 times higher! Look at the picture - isn't that amazing?

Now spelt flour is my favourite ingredient and I'll definitely use it for a few other recipes. And if you have an opportunity, definitely try it yourself!

Spelt flour cherry cake recipe

100 g of butter (or margarine)
350 g of fresh or frozen cherries (pitted)
175 g of spelt flour
100 g of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of lemon zest
3 eggs
1/8 tsp of salt
75 g of cornstarch
1 tsp of baking powder
50 ml of buttermilk (or youghurt, or kefir)
icing sugar for sprinkling on top

If you are using frozen cherries, defrost and strain the liquid.

Beat butter, sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest till light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time.

Mix all dry ingredients and add to the butter mixture, alternating with buttermilk.

Pour the batter into the tin (mine was 24cm in diameter). Put cherries on top. Bake at 180C for about 45 minutes (or until the wooden skewer come out clean).

Enjoy!

Popcorn cake

If you think that it is a chocolate cake on the picture, think twice. Because it's not! This cake is made of popcorn. Yes, you heard me right - popcorn. I know it is unusual, but that's exactly why I chose to make it. Because I like trying unusual things.

I saw this recipe on the Tolerantvegan blog (it was adapted from the Taste of Home magazine). Being a vegan recipe this cake has all the goodness packed in it: no animal fats, no eggs, and to top it all up - no flour. So it is suitable for pretty much any person with any diet restrictions. Perfect, isn't it? And as if it's not enough, this cake does not require any baking!

And of course it's tasty too! Rich caramel, peanut butter, cocoa... What not to like? So, join me in this exotic (so to say) feast. I am sure you'll like it too!

P.S. I have made a few alterations to the recipe according to my taste.

Popcorn cake recipe

To make popcorn:
1/2 cup of corn
3 Tbsp of vegetable oil
1/2 tsp of salt

For the cake:
9 cups of popcorn
1 cup of roasted chopped peanuts
1 1/2 cup of cracker chunks
3/4 cup of light brown sugar
3/4 cup of golden sugar syrup
3/4 cup of peanut butter
1 tsp of vanilla extract

For the frosting:
3/4 cup of peanut butter
3/4 cup of vegetable shortening (or butter is you are not vegan)
1 1/8 cups of icing sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbsp of milk
3 Tbsp of cocoa powder

We will start with making our own popcorn. You can use store-bought, but I always prefer fresh flavour of a home-made product. Honestly, there is no comparison!

You will need a large (approximately 4-5 litres) saucepan with a thick bottom. Heat the oil in the saucepan for about 4-5 minutes. Put your corn into the saucepan. Add salt, mix quickly and close the lid. Keep the saucepan on low to medium heat. Corn should be dry - do not wash it!

Wait for couple of minutes. And now it begins: first pop! pop! And then a few seconds later a real shelling: ta-ta-ta-ta-ta! Do not be tempted to open the lid at this point - it is quite possible that a popcorn can land right into your eye. Let alone the whole lot will fly around your kitchen.

Once it became quiet in the saucepan, switch off the heat and transfer your popcorn to a large bowl. Half-cup of corn will make approximately 12-13 cups of popcorn.

Additional preparations before we start making the cake: line two 9" (20-21cm) round cake pans with kitchen foil and grease generously with vegetable oil. (Do not line them with cling film, as hot caramel can melt it). Measure all the ingredients and have them at hand. When caramel is ready you will have to work fast.

Break crackers into chunks. Chunks should be approximately the size of popcorn. Roast and chop peanuts.

We can now start making the cake. Mix together popcorn, peanuts and cracker chunks, so that they all are evenly distributed in the bowl.

Mix sugar and syrup in a small saucepan, bring to boil. When it starts bubbling, remove from heat and quickly stir in peanut butter and vanilla extract. Stir till the mixture is smooth and pour it over the popcorn mixture. Mix all together and quickly divide between two prepared pans. Using a spatula press the mixture into the pans, so that the surface of each cake is flat. Leave to cool completely (you can put them in the fridge, but I left my cakes on a kitchen table).

To make the frosting: mix all the ingredients together (for better results they all should be at room temperature) and beat with the mixer for 2-3 minutes, till the frosting is light and fluffy.

Assembly: remove the cakes from the pans. Make sure no foil is stuck to them. Put the first layer on the serving plate, spread with frosting, put the second layer on top. Decorate with the remaining frosting and popcorn.

At this point disaster struck in my kitchen! While I was busy with cooking my husband sneaked in and took the bowl with the remaining popcorn - and ate it all! So I had to quickly come up with plan B. I decorated my cake with chocolate drops which are meant to remotely resemble popcorn. But the end result actually looked good, and I was happy with it.

So here's my popcorn cake.

Enjoy!

Gingerbeer bundt cake

The other day I was craving some Christmas food. Well, you know, gingerbread cookies, spiced nuts, rich pudding... So I decided to to give myself a Christmas treat before Christmas. And I am happy to share it with you guys! See how generous I am? :-)

Gingerbeer bundt cake

Recipe

For the cake:
2 1/4 cups of AP flour
1 3/4 tsp of baking powder
1/3 tsp of salt
2 tsp of ground ginger
190g of butter (or margarine)
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs (separated)
1 tsp of vanilla extract
3 Tbsp on milk
1 cup of gingerbeer
1/8 tsp of cream of tartar

For the glaze:
1/2 cup of icing sugar
1/2 tsp of ground ginger
2-3 tsp of gingerbeer (can be more or less to make a runny consistency)

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Mix all dry ingredients.
Separate egg yolks and whites.
Cream butter and sugar for at least 3 minutes, or till fluffy. Add yolks and vanilla extract. Add dry ingredients alternating with gingerbeer.
Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar till soft peaks. Fold them into batter in 2 additions (one third first, then the remaining two thirds).

Pour batter into a baking tin and bake at 180C (gas 4) for approximately 1 hour (or till a wooden skewer comes out clean).

To make the glaze mix all the ingredients till they make a runny consistency. You might need to add more or less gingerbeer, so add it to icing sugar gradually.

Enjoy!

Kransekake - Traditional Norwegian Cake

Kransekake is made of rings of chewy and delicious almond cookies.Norwegians bake these fir-tree-shape cakes on big occasions, for example Christmas or weddings. But when I got Kransekake pans as a present I could not wait till Christmas. I had to bake them now!

Yes, you will need special pans to make this wonderful treat. Last time I checked they were available on Lakeland.co.uk and Amazon.com (or your country's Amazon). They look like this:

And now let's get started. The recipe which I am using here was printed on the Kransekake pans packaging.

Kransekake - Traditional Norwegian Cake

Recipe

Dough:
450g of icing sugar (also known as confectioner's sugar)
500g of ground almonds
4 egg whites
1 tsp of baking powder

Icing:
150g of icing sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp of lemon juice

Slightly beat egg whites with a fork till foamy. Like this:

Mix icing sugar with ground almonds and baking powder. Add to egg whites and mix. The dough will be quite stiff, somewhat resembling pasta dough. While you are preparing the dough, boil water in a large saucepan. Put the bowl with the dough over your bain-marie and warm the dough till 40C (this is slightly warmer than your body temperature). You will need to stir the dough constantly to make sure it's warming up evenly. That's how it will look like:

Once the dough is warm remove it from the heat, cool to room temperature and put it in the fridge overnight. Next morning pinch pieces from the dough and roll them into long strips of about 1cm thick. Put these strips into your Kransekake pans. You don't need to oil pans.

Then bake at 200C for about 15-20 minutes till golden. You'll know your cookies are ready if they easily pop out of the pan. If they stick to the bottom or break when you try to remove them from the pan put them back in the oven for a few more minutes. Cool the baked rings on the rack.

Now let's have fun: assemble our cake and decorate it. Mix all the ingredients for the icing till it looks like a mildly thick paste. If it's too runny add more icing sugar. If it's too thick add a bit more lemon juice. Put the icing into a zip-lock bag and cut a very small hole (about 1-1.5mm). Arrange all your rings in order from the biggest to the smallest. Take your largest ring and put it on your serving plate. Apply icing in U-pattern along the ring. Put the second ring on top, sticking it to the previous ring. Like this:

Continue to the very top. You can decorate your Kransekake with M&Ms, sugar snowflakes or sugar flowers - apply them while icing is still wet. Then let the icing dry - and enjoy!

Happy baking!!