Chocolate-rapsberry birthday cake

I made this cake for my dear older sister's birthday, I'll publish the recipe later :)

Red currant and raspberry sponge cake

The garden is full of red currant and raspberries and luckily the family loves sour fruits so this is why this very easy sponge cake was born last week. I found a perfect sponge cake recipe on the internet once and it is practically impossible to mess it up. Before that my sponge cakes were never really good but with this recipe you can always make a perfect one without baking soda. The only flaw of it could be that it's a little bit dry because the recipe doesn't include any butter but you can always add some, according to your taste.

Ingredients 

• 6 eggs
• 25 dkg of plain flour
• 12 dkg of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or flavour
• red currrant and raspberries

When you make a sponge cake, always use cold eggs! Separate the eggs. Beat the whites up with the sugar until it's firm enough. This is the most important movement in making a sponge cake, because if you beat the whites up with the sugar in it, it's gonna be much firmer. This way the sponge cake won't collapse in the oven and it will rise nicely. Stir the yolks with the vanilla extract and if you want to, this is the time to add the lukewarm butter too. Pour this mixture onto the beat up egg whites and give it a careful stir. Then you will have to sift the flour into the whites and stir it very carefully, just until it's homogenous. Line some baking paper into an oven pan (that has at least 6 cm high sides) and pour the mixture into the pan. Put the fruits on top and put it in the oven at 160 deg Celsius for about 35-40 minutes. When it's done, let it cool down in the oven so that it doesnt't collapse.

Heart shaped muffins with raspberries

As a gift from my family, I got this heart shaped silicone muffin pan and of course, I couldn't resist, I had to try it out.

Ingredients for 24 pieces:

• 25 dkgs of fresh cheese
• 15 dkgs of sugar or some kind of sweetener that gives the same amount of sweetness 
• zest of one lemon and juice of half a lemon
• 15 dkgs of plain flour 
• 1 packet of baking powder 
• approx. 2 dls of milk
• 2 eggs 

Combine the fresh cheese with the lemon juice, the zest and the milk and stir until it becomes this smooth cream. Add the sweetener and taste it, because if not sweet or sour enough, you will have to add some more lemon juice or sugar/sweetener. Now it's time to whisk the eggs into the mixture, and give it a good stir again. Measure the flour and mix it with the baking powder before you combine the wet and the dry elements. The flour mixture goes into the cheese cream, and if it's too thick after a thorough stir, you can add some more milk. Get the muffin pan and fill the heart shapes with the muffin dough. I usually bake them on a low heat, at 160 degrees Celsius for about 25 minutes.

You can make a thicker vanilla custard with store bought vanilla pudding mix or from scratch.

A Sunday lunch for my friends

All of it disappeared, I hope that was the sign of success.

The menu:

Mozzarella and tomatoes with basil
Mustard and rosemary chicken rolls
Rapsberry-coffee cream

Mozzarella and tomatoes with basil
Cut the tomatoes in pieces and mix it with the mozzarella balls and olives. Mix some basil leaves with olive oil and pour it on the tomatoes. Add some freshly ground pepper and salt.

Mustard and rosemary chicken rolls





Ingredients:

• chicken breast
• rosemary
• mustard
• garlic
• salt, pepper
• yarn to hold the chiken together

Cut the chicken breast in halves. Its better if you marinate it the night before, all you need to do is to mix the mustard with the smashed garlic and slush the chicken with it. The next day put fresh rosemary leaves on the slice of chicken and roll it up. Fix it with the yarn. Pre-fry the pieces in a pan and then put them in the oven, covered with aluminium foil, at 200 degrees celsius until its done. You can sprinkle some cheese on it in the end and wait until it goes golden.

Rapsberry-coffee cream

 
















Ingredients:

• mascarpone
• rapsberry (can be frozen)
• instant coffee
• milk
• caster sugar
• ladyfingers
• rum or rum flavour

Dissolve the coffee in a little hot water. Mix the mascarpone with the coffee, the sugar, and the rum or rum flavour. Modify the amounts according to taste. Dissolve some coffee in the milk and add some rum or flavour. Dip the ladyfingers in the milk for a couple of seconds and then put them on the bottom of the cup. Put some of the rapsberry on the ladyfingers and then comes part of the cream. Then rapsberry again and the rest of the cream. Let it rest at a cool place for some time.