Tag Archives: strawberries

Summer

Hello my dear blogofriends! I’ve been out of blogging for some time, but I have a reason: I’m currently on holiday in my home-country. The weather is perfect here, only +30-35C during the daytime, and evenings are cool and fresh. Moreover, it’s a strawberry season here, and my parents have got lots of delicious strawberries in their garden, so you can imagine how many berries I’ve been eating every single day. 😀 Local strawberries are totally different from those ones in Dubai’ supermarkets, they are flavorful, sweet and of course organic!

Another amazing thing about fruits, that cherries and apricots are both in season in Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan), and fortunately for me, plenty of these fruits are sold in Russian markets straight from sunny Uzbekistan, which is known for their tasty fruits.

And here is the picture of ‘zemlyanika’ or wild strawberries which I picked myself in the wild woods near one Russian village. I have no words to describe them! These little germs are full of wonderful aroma! You need to try these little berries at least once. 🙂

Chocolate Cake with mascarpone cream

I do like sponge cakes, they are easy, simple and scrumptious! 😀 This one is absolutely worth making, the base is flavoured with coffee and chocolate, which can be your favourite – dark, milk or cherry-flavoured, for en extra twist add vanilla. You can use only mascarpone for the cream, add cherries or some ganache into the filling. The possibilities are endless!
What can I say about the cake. A light, moist sponge bursting with juicy strawberries and a creamy filling – a perfect teatime treat! 😉

Chocolate cake with mascarpone cream

Servings: 10-12
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If you’re not coffee-lover just leave it out, and replace with water or juice.

Ingredients for 20cm/8inch round cake pan

CAKE:

4 eggs, yolks and whites separated, at room temperature

100g white sugar (you can add 150-200g to suit your taste)

150g self-raising flour

pinch of salt

2 Tbsp non-sweeten cacao

3 Tbsp dark chocolate, chopped finely-almost powdered

40ml/2 Tbsp coffee, brewed and chilled (or coffee/chocolate liquor/amaretto)

1 tsp vanilla extract, optionally

50ml olive or sunflower oil

30ml/ 1 1/2 Tbsp water, cold

1/2 tsp lemon juice

CREAM:

120g whipping cream

50g icing sugar

80g mascarpone

50g hazelnuts or/and almonds, chopped finely

30-50g chocolate, strawberry-flavoured/dark or milk

100g strawberries, chopped, optionally

GANACHE:

100g dark chocolate, chopped coarsely

80-100ml cream, double or 20-30%

Preheat oven to 355°F / 180°C. Butter cake pan, line it with baking paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients except for the sugar.
In a small bowl, beat egg yolks with sugar until the mixture is pale. Add oil, coffee, water and stir well. Set aside.
Incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry.
Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt and lemon juice until soft peaks form.
Slowly incorporate egg whites into batter until just combined.
Pour into your greased dish and bake for 34-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Coll completely. Cut cake into two layers.
To make the cream, whip the cream and icing sugar for 3-4 minutes or until foamy (Be careful! Don’t overbeat!). Add mascarpone, chocolate and nuts, and combine. Optionally, you can stir in some fresh berries.
Spread the cream evenly over one cake layer, top with the second one.
To make the chocolate ganache, bring cream to the boil in small saucepan. Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth.
Spread the ganache over the cake, decorate with berries or chocolate.
Refrigerate cake 3-4 hours or overnight before serving.

Enjoy the cake! 🙂

Sponge Cake with Strawberries

The summer is over in some countries, and autumn’s come. Hope you enjoy it! If only it could be here for a day..

It was usual hot summer day, when ‘why not to make a nice cake with strawberries’ idea came into my mind. I went for the widely known sponge cake, which in Russia is often called biscuit cake. In the US it’s known as pound cake, while in the UK as Victoria cake. Pretty simple to make, could be layered with various berries and feelings.

I soaked sponges with cherry brandy to pep it up. 😉

Ingredients for 20 cm/8 inch round pan:

200 g self-raising flour
3 large eggs
160 g butter, melted
100/150 g granulated sugar*
1 tbsp lemon or orange zest (optionally)
1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla extract (optionally)
a pinch of salt

For cream filling:

200 ml whipped cream
80/100 gr caster sugar*

For brandy syrup:

6 tbsp water
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp brandy**
300-400 g strawberries***
2 tbsp icing sugar

Directions:

Heat oven to 160C (350F). Butter and flour a cake pan.
Whisk together eggs and sugar until light cream texture. Add melted butter, salt, lemon zest, vanilla extract and beat in.
Sift the flour over bowl and gently start to fold in.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until top of cake is golden.
Meanwhile, prepare brandy syrup. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan, simmer until sugar is dissolved. Remove from a heat and stir in brandy.
Remove the cake from oven, cool in a pan for 10 minutes. Take cake out of pan and put onto a wire rack and let it cool completely.
While cake is cooling, cut strawberries into medium-thin slices. Sprinkle with icing sugar.
Whisk whipped cream and sugar together (for 4-5 minutes).
Time to assemble our cake. With long knife cut cake horizontally into 2 layers. Brush each layer with brandy syrup. Spread 2/3 of strawberries over one layer, then half of whipped cream. Cover with another sponge. Spread whipped cream over it, top with remaining strawberries.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Serve with tea and enjoy!