English Tea and the carrot cake

Each nation has it's traditions and customs. England can be associated with many symbols, but when it comes to cooking traditions and food, first comes English Tea, fish & chips and the carrot cake.

English pastries are completely different from our traditional polish cakes, cheesecakes and yeast-cakes. I grew up on my grandmother's cakes, baked according to traditional old Polish recipes which were sometimes very time-consuming but full of sweet teast, aroma and calories :)

English bakings are different. The cakes are simple, easy and quick to prepare and sometimes very sweet and full of chocolate. During my stay in London I had the pleasure to taste some specialties from which one I liked the most. Well I had to like it couse that was the favourit cake of my youngsters.

This carrot cake is an exceedingly good cake. It's delicious, it works and it's better than any other carrot cake I've tried. I normally bake this in a square or round cake tin.

Ingredients

•      2/3 cup of flour
•      1/2 cup of  sugar ( You can use white sugar, caster sugar or brown sugar)
•      1 teaspoon baking soda
•      3/4 teaspoon baking powder
•      1 teaspoon cinnamon
•      1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
•      1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
•      1/4 teaspoon salt
•      1/3 cup oil ( sunflower oil, canola oil )
•      2 eggs, beaten
•      1 cup chopped walnuts
•      half a cup of chopped, drained pineapple (canned or fresh)
•      1 cup grated carrots on a medium-mesh
  
   
  

  
  

  Let's do it

  Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
  In one large bowl beat together eggs with oil, if you want you can add vanilla extract for extra flavour.
  In other bowl mix  the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, sugar, salt and cinnamon, spices.
  Now just mix together the content of the two bowls and add carrots, wolnuts and pineapple, stir with a spoon. Scoop the mixture to prepered cake tin ( 20 cm, lined with greaseproof paper)
  Bake for about 40-45 minutes.
  
  
  

  Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 300 g creamy cheese ( in the original recipe is used philadelphia cheese but you can also use mascarpone instead, if you don't like the taste of philadelphia cheese) 
  •  6 tablespoons of butter at room temperature 
  •  1 cup icing sugar, sifted ( I used less, its up to you how sweet you want the cream)
  •  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    
    
  
  Mix all the icing ingredients together and spread generously over the top of the cake. Finish off with a sprinkling of chopped walnuts. 
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  Now enjoy Your cake, it was easy - wasn't it?
  
  

   

 

Calzone, dumpling in Italian way...

Who likes pizza ?!?! Well I do and I guess that many people like it too. As we all know this is the most well know Italian dish. But today It won't be about the pizza, although I have to confess that I've discoverd a very good recipe for pizza dought- but about it maybe another time.

We, Poles have ours dumpling and Italians have CALZONE. The easiest way to describe calzone - It is a kind of pizza folded in the shape of dumpling. The best thing in this dish is that the filling is up to you.
You can fill your Calzone with leftover veg from the night before, or with various things that need using up, mixed with lovely tomatoes and some melting mozzarella. Great served hot or cold. I would only suggest to not making the filling to moist, cause the dought can be to soaked.

Here is how my calzone looked like:

and of course the recipe

Calzone dought:

•       450 g of wheat flour, for pizza I use flour 650 it's called bread flour
•      1 teaspoon of salt
•      2 teaspoon of dry yeast (8 g) or 16 g of fresh
•      2 tablespoons olive oil
•      250 ml of warm milk
•      a pint of sugar
  
  Sift the flour into a bowl, add salt, and dry yeast (if you use fresh ones, you need to make the leaven). Ad milk and olive. Knead the dough until it is soft and smooth; it takes about 10 minutes, and trust me it's better to knead it longer than shorter. Lay dough in a bowl, oil so it won't dry out, cover, and leave it in a warm place. Let it rise for about 90 minutes, until almost doubled.
  
         
  
  
  
  When dough is ready, knead the dough again, separate it into 4 equal parts. Roll parts out into thin circles on a lightly floured surface. Fill each circle with cheese and any filling you wish, the edges spread with water, and fold over, securing edges by folding in and pressing with a fork. Brush the top of each calzone with egg and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
  
  Bake at 200 C degrees for about 25 minut until strong browning.

Birthday cake in Italian style ;)

Well, last days I went back in my memories to the time I spent in Italy, and there was a great opportunity to stay in Italian theme.

Italy is associated with lots of things, but the most- I think- is the food. Pizzas, pastas, wine, tiramisu and even more. I love Italian food especially for it's simplicity. You need only few thing to prepare a testy dish, but what's important, the ingredients you use must be the highest quality.

And then I have a very good friend and he invited me for his birthday party. A friend who also loves Italy but from diffrent perspective. As I said at the beginning Italy for everyone is associated with something else, and for Simon it is Alfa Romeo.

So,  as we both have a fondness for Italian stuff and a big celebration was approaching I came up with an idea to combine my passion for baking with Italian flavors. As we know any birthdays can not do without a birthday cake so let's make a cake for Simon.

Who knows what is the most well know Italian dessert ?? All right, I know that everone knows. The answer is - Tiramisu. But I won't make a classis tiramisu. I will combine the excellent, well-balanced taste of Italian cream with mascarpone with the sweetness and aroma of amaretto liqueure. Just to remind- The amaretto liquere is an alcoholic drink originating from Italy.

It has a sweet, slightly bitter taste, and it's made ​​from almonds. Sometimes in the production there are also used various herbs or vanilla flavor. And I used it to prepare an :

                                        AMARETTO CREAM CAKE

Ingredients:

 Amaretto mandelic sponge cake:

• 6 eggs (size M)
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 2/3 cup (100g) of plain flour
• 1/2 cup of potato flour
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee
• 200 g amaretti cookies (Italian dry almond cookies)
The saturation for the sponge cake: 12 tablespoons of amaretto liqueur

 Preparation of the sponge cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C degrees. On the bottom of the cake pan (diameter 23 cm) put a puck from baking paper. Separate the egg whites from the yolks. In a bowl sift flour and potato flour, add the coffee and stir.
2.  Crush the amaretti cookies but put abut 10 pieces of for decoration.
3. In a clean bowl, place the egg whits and whisk for about 2 minutes until well frothy. Add in parts a spoon of sugar, mixing all the time. Mix it for a few minutes until the dough will be stiff and glossy. Still whisking add successively the egg yolks.
4. Add the sifted flour, preferably in three parts, each time mixing at minimum speed of the mixer the ingredients combine into a homogeneous mass without lumps of flour.
5.  Finally add the crushed biscuits and gently stir with a spoon.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan, put in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. After cooling cut the sponge cake into 3 tops.

The Cream:

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 egg white
• 5 tbsp icing sugar
• 650 g of mascarpone

                                                 To the yolks and whits add sugar andwhisk it for about 8-10 minutes,

                                                                      until the mixture is light and fluffy

In another bowl mix the mascarpone cheese (about a minute). Add the beated eggs and mix shortly on low speed of the mixer until smooth.

To assemble and dercoration:

1. Place 1 cake layer on serving plate or cake stand.
2.  Drizzle the sponge cake with amaretto liqueur, and spread 1/3 of the mascarpone cream. Repeat, finishing with the other sponges.
3.  To finish, spread a very thin layer of the mascarpone cream over the sides and top of the cake.
4. Decorate the sides od the cake with choclate crumbs, or as I did with chocolate sticks. On the top place the rest of amaretto cookies and sprinkle with cacao.
   ENJOY YOUR CAKE

No matter where, No matter what, what really counts is with who…

Travelling is always a pleasure and adventure for everyone. To be honest I don’t know a person who doesn’t like to travel. The best thing in travelling is that you do this your own way. You can travel just for holiday to get some rest, to discover new places, to  sightseeing or to experience some kind of adventure.

Discovering new places, meeting new people and their culture was, is and will be a thing that enriches our personality. We expand our horizons, gain our knowledge and we enrich with new experiences.

 During my short journeys I've learned more than from school books, guides, or you tube. Being able
to feel and see from firsthand a different country, the surroundings, sights, culture and people is the most precious experiance which will stay with us all our life and nobody will take it from you. I think that You will agree with me?

But I have dicovered... hmm maybe not discovered- my belief was strengthened that no matter what You do or where You are, the most important thing is who is with You. Isn't it that the whole atmospher make the people around You? My best memories are associated with people with whom I had experienced these wonderful moments and this post ss for them.

Thank You Monika, Kornek and Grzegorz for the best time in Italy!

I could not wished for better holiday. Thanks to You I've experienced great moments that will stay in my memory for the rest of my life.
 
I add some pics, that remind me of those moments.

The most important part of any journey are PEOPLE.
What is important is with who you're going on a trip, because with this person You will spend most of the time.

Important are the people that you will meet on the way, because these people more or less will affect how your journey will look like.

about the blog

Never say never. This words perfectly describe the genesis of my blog.
I never felt that I need to pour out my emotions, feelings and thoughts on the web.

Nowadays everyone and everything is thrown into this great sack which we call internet, therefore we disappear in the enormous jungle of information. I said it's not for me, I don't need this, and to be honest creating my own blog was the last thing I thought I will do.

But You never know  what life throws you to the feet. I got a task, to create a blog in order to improve my writing english. This task will be evaluated and it's the base for passing the course, so if I have to write about something why not to write about what I like, what makes me happy and accompanies me throughout life.

In the end of all my trips, these small and big ones, it comes down to tasting. Each time - whether it's a weekend at the lake, or a week in Greece- I bring new culinary inspiration. Everone likes to eat, and to eat with test. Like everyone I like eating but I am fascinating about how the food was prepared, how it was served, how it looks on the plate and finally what excitement it evokes while tasting.

  

But in addition to eating, I'm watching, peeping, I recognize, I'm experiencing, I meet, I learn, talk, listen - I travel. And that is what this blog wil be about - about my travels the small one's and big one's which I hope, are still ahead of me.

 

PS. Please forgive me all mistakes and language deficiencies, I hope that with time I will improve.