Summer Berries

Now that is raining and miserable, at least in here 🙂 I want to bring summer back ever for few minutes. I always tend to take my holidays in July, because I absolutely love the weather, people are relaxed and happy, water is warm to swim and berries are ready to be picked.

I rarely go to kitchen in my holiday but once or twice a summer this treat has to be done. And I am happy to spend that time indoors to make this happen 🙂

This is the dessert for summer 🙂

Pavlova with summer berries:

• 4 egg whites
• 250g sugar
• 1 teaspoon of white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoons of corn flour
• 1 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Pre heat oven to 150 degrees (Celsius)  Whisk the egg whites with a hand mixer until they form stiff peaks, then whisk in the sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until the meringue looks glossy. Whisk in the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla. Put a baking paper on an oven tray and form a circle with the merengue on it. Make the sides higher leaving a crater on the centre. bake in the oven for 1 hour and then turn off the oven and let the merengue cool down in the oven.

When merengue is cooled down, put it on a serving dish. Fill the crater with vanilla cream and pour on top loads of berries or fruit. I enjoy mine with a glass of sparkling 🙂

I love Ice Cream

Like mentioned above, I love ice cream and it does not matter is it winter or summer. Many times I have considered buying an ice cream making machine but somehow never have got around to it.

Here is a little tip how to make soft ice at home very easily and surprisingly healthy way.

chop well-ripened bananas into pieces and put them in to a freezer. Leave them there over night. For one portion you need about one chopped banana and 2 to 3 tablespoons of greek style yogurt and 0,5 to 1 teaspoon of either sugar, honey or sweetener. Banana is quite sweet by itself so the sugar, honey or sweetener are an option. Mix ingredients in a blender and there is banana soft ice. When flavouring add cup of frozen strawberries or any other frozen fruit or berry to make it perfect.

On the picture below I “spiced” my ice cream by adding cocoa powder into the base mixture. Don’t worry if it melts it is delicious also as a smoothie 🙂

Mocca Cocoa Swiss Roll

Today I wanted to share my absolutely favorite swiss roll, to be honest this is one of the best treats there is.

What you need for the base:

• 4 eggs
• 1,5 dl sugar
• 1,5 dl potato flour (or corn flour)
• 0,5 dl cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder

Whisk eggs and sugar into a stiff foam. Mix dry ingreadients and mix them into the egg foam. Spead the dough on a big oven tray on top of baking paper. Bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes in 225 degrees (Celsius).

Take a squae piece of baking paper (that fits the base) and sprinkle sugar on it. Flip the bakin to it after taking it from the oven. ( I added a picture to help out the explanation 🙂 ) And then remove the original baking paper.

What you need for the filling:

• 4 tablespoons of strong coffee (ready made)
• 40 g of melted butter
• 3 tabelspoons of cocoa powder
• 4 dl icing sugar
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Mix ingreadients together. Take 3rd of the mixture a side for later use.

Add in with the rest of the mixture 200g of cream cheese and whisk. Spread it on to the base. Roll the the base to a roll (baking paper helps you do this),after it is rolled place it on a serving dish.

Now take the rest of the mixture and pour it on the top of the roll. You can decorate for example with sprinkles.

This is a very sweet roll so you wouldn’t eat more than one or two slices at once 😀

Gluten free sponge cake

We have big family party coming up and it seems like no matter the occasion, there is always need for non gluten option. Many times you can see that the “normal” cake is done by using huge amount of effort and then there is the sad looking gluten free readymade cake in the corner. That is one of the reasons I tend novadays do a cake or any baking that fits for all invited: gluten free, lactosis free and so on…

With this recipe you are guaranteed a soft sponge base for everyone to enjoy. And I bet no one would know by the taste that this is gluten free.

So here it goes, what you need:

• 4 big eggs
• 2dl sugar
• 1dl gluten free flour mixture (this should be novadays available in most stores)
• 1dl of potato flour (can be replaced with corn flour)
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder

Whisk eggs and sugar into a stiff foam. Mix all the dry ingredients together before mixing them into the egg foam. Butter the cake tray/dish and sprinkle coconut flakes on the dish throughout. Pour the dough into the dish. Bake in 150 to 175 degrees (Celsius) between 45 to 60 minutes. You know the cake is ready when it comes of the sides of the dish. Let is cool down 10 minutes. Take the cake out of the dish and slice in 3 levels.

When it comes to decorating the cake the sky is the limit. This cake was made for a little boy who loves motorbikes 🙂

• Moist the base with strawberry juice or lactose free milk (no need to use much as the sponge is very soft already).
• Fill between layers with crushed strawberry-banana mixture (I put in a small bit of jam to give sweet flavour) and a layer of whipped cream (also lactose free).
• After the cake has been filled I put a thing layer of whipped cream all around the cake.
• I place the – marzipan decoration on the top and pipe the sides with cream to finish the cake.

Note about marzipan: Marzipan is gluten free. However, a part of marzipan contains wheat starch syrup, which is gluten free, but some of the most sensitive of all celiac patients (for example, many dermatitis herpetiformis skin disorder) can not necessarily be able to tolerate it. If you bake a stranger, you should check the ability of the explicit use of celiac wheat or choose from marzipan which it is not.

= Wheat starch, which is industrially removed from the gluten fraction of the protein, leaving the starch has remained gluten-free.

Enjoy!