Paluszki

So far I’ve only baked sweet things but I fancied making something polish and came across a recipe for paluszki which are similar to bread sticks but are made with potato. They turned out wonderfully light and buttery and went down a treat with my boyfriend and my family.  Such a simple recipe and they can be decorated with pretty much anything you fancy. I used poppy seeds on one batch and sunflower seeds on the other. The only thing I would change next time would be to add some salt to the dough as I make it. So here they are from one of my Baked and Delicious magazines.

For approximately 50 small paluszki:

175 g cold mashed potato

175 g butter, softened

175 g plain flour

A selection of seeds

1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 180^oC (gas 4 or 360^oF).

Rub the butter into the flour (or cheat like me and use a mixer!) until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the mashed potato and mix together until it forms a sticky dough. Wrap it in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Turn out onto a well floured board and kneed for a couple minutes. I found my dough was still quite sticky so I used quite a lot of extra flour. Roll the dough out to about ½ cm thick and cut it into strips 1 cm wide and about 8 cm in length. Lay the strips onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and brush with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with your chosen seeds and bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool and then eat!

 

Lizzi :)

60th Birthday Cake

Now, birthday cakes are always about how they look more than how they taste so I went with simple sponge cake for my mum’s. I made a bigger vanilla sponge for the bottom layer and a smaller chocolate sponge for the top layer. I followed the tip for one of my earlier posts: weigh the eggs without the shells and use equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour. I used 4 eggs for the vanilla sponge and 2 eggs for the chocolate sponge. I iced it with vanilla cream cheese buttercream coloured with food colouring paste rather than liquid. It makes a more intense colour. I made little white roses with Mexican paste from a local baking shop – they are quite easy if a little fiddly. I found loads of tutorials on youtube so I won’t post how I made them (unless someone wants me too!). So here is the recipe and the pictures are below and I have to say I am particularly proud of it!

For the vanilla sponge:

4 eggs totalling 205 g, lightly beaten

205 g caster sugar

205 g butter, softened

205 g self raising flour, sieved

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp milk

Heat the oven to 170^oC (gas 3 or 340^oC)

Beat the butter until it’s very soft. This took me maybe a minute or so. Gradually beat in the sugar and keep going once it’s all added until the mix is very pale and light. This took about 5 minutes. Then add the eggs very, very slowly and beat well in between additions. The mix curdled again but not quite as badly as usual. Fold in the flour in about 4 batches. Finally fold in the extract and milk. Pour into an 8 inch deep cake tin (or silicone mould like me) and bake for about 45 minutes or until cooked. Check with a cocktail stick. Leave to cool in the mould for 15 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

For the chocolate sponge:

2 eggs totally 97 g, lightly beaten

97 g caster sugar

97 g butter, softened

97 g self raising flour, sieved, with 3 tbsp removed and replaced with 3 tbsp cocoa powder

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

Follow the same method as before. Pour the mix into a slightly smaller 7 inch deep cake tin (or silicone mould like me) and bake for about 25 minutes or until cooked. Check with a cocktail stick. Leave to cool in the mould for 15 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack.

For the cream cheese buttercream:

200 g butter, softened

100 g full fat cream cheese

1 kg icing sugar, sieved

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp milk

Food colouring paste (your choice of colour)

Beat the butter and cream cheese together. Add icing sugar in about 8 batches and beat. Half way through add the extract and the colouring. Use the milk to help add the remaining icing sugar. If the colour isn’t right keep adding it and beating the icing well until you get the right shade. Use the icing straight away.

To assemble the cake I used wooden kebab sticks as doweling rods to hold the cakes together. I literally just cut them to size, pushed them into the bottom cake and placed the chocolate cake on top of them. I used a lazy Susan (an icing turntable) to help spread the buttercream all over the cake. It made it so much easier! I used a slim metal spatula to spread and smooth it and the effect is quite nice. Once it was all covered I pushed in the roses all over the cake. I finished it with a diamante six and zero and some feathers from a baking shop.

Here are the results!

Lizzi :)

Left over sponge

It was my mum’s birthday yesterday so I made her a special cake but before I did I wanted to make sure that I would be able to make a good cake. Originally I was going to make Madeira cake but then settled on a normal sponge recipe. I found a great tip for sponges: weigh the eggs (however many you are going to use) WITHOUT the shells and use equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour. It will work perfectly. I made a sponge but didn’t have anything to do with it so I experimented and made some simple cream and strawberry cakes and some chewy chocolate truffles. I will link the sponge recipe after I write it!

For the strawberry cakes I used a circular cutter to cut the sponge, whipped up some double cream with a bit of sherry (I’m not 70 but it tastes good!), spread it on the cakes and topped with a whole strawberry. Simple but scrumptious.

For the chewy chocolate truffles:

About an ⅛ of a plain vanilla sponge which I guess is approximately 200 g!

100 g fruit and nut chocolate, melted

50 ml cherry brandy (alcoholic theme here!)

100 ml double cream

Put the oven on a low temperature, not more than 100^oC, crumble the sponge, put it on a baking tray and dry it out in the oven for about 15 minutes. Be careful not to burn it. Put the crumbs in a bowl, add the chocolate, cream and brandy and mix well. Divide them between mini muffin cases and chill in the fridge. These were completely made from whatever I had in the cupboard but I will definitely be making them again – when I got up in the morning my boyfriend had eaten all of them!!

And here they all are!

Strawberry cakes

Chewy chocolate truffles

Chewy chocolate truffles

Strawberry cakes

I hope you like them!

Lizzi :)

Chocolate orange cupcakes

My sister has just finished her degree and graduated with a first (congratulations!) so I decided to make her some cupcakes. I found a posh orange extract in Sainsbury’s so thought it would make a nice change to make some fruity cupcakes. I cheated and used chocolate fudge icing I bought from the shop but I have to say it’s YUMMY! I took the recipe from my Bake Me I’m Yours……Cupcake book (I have used this recipe in a previous post).

So to make 24 cupcakes:

225 g caster sugar

225 g butter, softened

4 eggs

225 g self raising flour

1 tsp orange extract

1 tub of Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing

Edible letters (I used Silverspoon white chocolate ones)

Heat oven to 175^oC (gas 3 or 350^oF)

Beat sugar, butter and flour together. Slowly add eggs and extract (….mine curdled!) and keep beating. Mix until well combined and quite light. The mix is described to be a ‘soft dropping consistency’ when it is ready. It doesn’t take me long to get to this stage. Divide the mix into the cupcake cases and bake for 10-15 minutes depending on your oven. I like using pretty cases and these ones were pink with butterflies on them. Use a cocktail stick to check they are cooked. I always check the biggest cake and the stick should come out clean. Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave for a good hour before icing. I just spread the icing on and then spelt out ‘congratulations’ with the white chocolate letters. For the left over cakes I sprinkled them with sugar stars. And here they are!

I'm sorry that the pictures are on the side but I'm not technical enough to work out how to change it! :(

Lizzi :)

Chocolate and pear cheesecake

I was always under the impression that cheesecake would be hard to make but it’s actually one of the easier things that I bake. I originally made it for my boyfriend the very first Christmas we were together because it’s a popular dessert in Poland at that time of year. This one went down a treat the first time I made it so I thought I’d share it on here! I always feel like chocolate and fruit together make a good summertime treat. This recipe is from the Philadelphia website but I actually used Sainsbury’s cream cheese, chocolate bourbons instead of digestives and double cream instead of sour cream! It worked perfectly though. So here it is!

For an 8 inch in diameter cheesecake (serves about 12 or less if you are hungry!):

175 g bourbons, crushed

40 g butter, melted

400 g full fat cream cheese

140 ml double cream

3 eggs, beaten

100g caster sugar

25 g plain flour

25 g cocoa powder

75 g dark chocolate, melted

2 ripe pears, pealed and cubed

Heat oven to 170^oC (gas 3 or 340^oC)

Line the bottom of an 8 inch springform cake tin with greaseproof paper (not baking parchment – it’s RUBBISH!) and grease with butter.

Mix the bourbon crumbs and melted butter together and push into the bottom of the cake tin. Beat the cream cheese, cream, sugar and eggs together until light and smooth. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder and melted chocolate. Fold in the pear once completely combined and pour onto the biscuit base. Bake for about an hour (always check at around 45 minutes to see how it is going) until set. Once the cheesecake is cooked, turn off the oven and leave it inside for another hour. After this, take it out of the tin and refrigerate for at least 3 hours although overnight is better. And here is the final product!

Lizzi :)