What's for dessert - Chocolate Guinness Cake

We've been on a healthy diet recently. By healthy I mean no wheat flour and lots of veggies and fruit and...(this always makes me depressed) little to no sweets. This is always the hardest part as we are completely addicted to sugar. Yesterday I had a bad day though and all I thought about for the whole day was chocolate cake. Oh, what a coincidence it was when I found this gorgeous recipe on bleubird's blog while reading my daily dose of blog posts. I simply had to make it, because it was chocolate but also because it was with...guinness beer. whaat? Frankly, I had to stop myself from eating the whole cake, it is this good. Even now I'm thinking that another little piece won't kill me, right? Damn you carbs! I really hate you! 

Here is the original recipe by Nigella Lawson:

(I love her cooking but she always uses way too much sugar, I used far less and it was just perfect) 

Ingredients

for the cake

250 ml guinness

250 grams unsalted butter

75 grams cocoa powder

250 grams caster sugar

142 ml sour cream

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

275 grams plain flour

2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

for the topping

300 grams cream cheese

100 grams icing sugar

125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)
optionally add 20ml of espresso or a tsp of coffee powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

What's for dessert - Chocolate Guinness Cake

We’ve been on a healthy diet recently. By healthy I mean no wheat flour and lots of veggies and fruit and…(this always makes me depressed) little to no sweets. This is always the hardest part as we are completely addicted to sugar. Yesterday I had a bad day though and all I thought about for the whole day was chocolate cake. Oh, what a coincidence it was when I found this gorgeous recipe on bleubird’s blog while reading my daily dose of blog posts. I simply had to make it, because it was chocolate but also because it was with…guinness beer. whaat? Frankly, I had to stop myself from eating the whole cake, it is this good. Even now I’m thinking that another little piece won’t kill me, right? Damn you carbs! I really hate you! 

Here is the original recipe by Nigella Lawson:

(I love her cooking but she always uses way too much sugar, I used far less and it was just perfect) 

Ingredients

for the cake

250 ml guinness

250 grams unsalted butter

75 grams cocoa powder

250 grams caster sugar

142 ml sour cream

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

275 grams plain flour

2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

for the topping

300 grams cream cheese

100 grams icing sugar

125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)
optionally add 20ml of espresso or a tsp of coffee powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake’s cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

What's for dinner - Sweet Corn Soup

This is officially one of the best soups I have eaten. I don't want to brag about it but I did not follow any recipe for this one. It's my very first, original soup. Classics like tomato or cucumber soups don't count so I'm particularly proud of this one. And, because I'm not in the best mood today I really didn't feel like spending more time than necessary preparing dinner. So, all you need is: 

3 corn on the cob

1 potato, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic

0,75 ml vegetable stock (I used dried veggies and boiling water, do not use stock cubes, boiling water will do)

salt & pepper

olive oil or butter

1 heaping tbsp sour cream

herbs and spices of your choice:

I used:

1tsp thyme

1/4 tsp turmeric for colour

1/4 tsp lemon grass powder

What to do:

Heat the oil and fry the onions, add chopped potato and grated garlic. Fry until potato softens slightly. 

Add the corn, stock and all the herbs/spices. Cook on low heat for 30mins. Blend well and add cream, season to taste. 

Serve with fresh herbs (basil, coriander, parsley or chives) or toasts. 

Enjoy!

What's for dinner - Sweet Corn Soup

This is officially one of the best soups I have eaten. I don’t want to brag about it but I did not follow any recipe for this one. It’s my very first, original soup. Classics like tomato or cucumber soups don’t count so I’m particularly proud of this one. And, because I’m not in the best mood today I really didn’t feel like spending more time than necessary preparing dinner. So, all you need is: 

3 corn on the cob

1 potato, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic

0,75 ml vegetable stock (I used dried veggies and boiling water, do not use stock cubes, boiling water will do)

salt & pepper

olive oil or butter

1 heaping tbsp sour cream

herbs and spices of your choice:

I used:

1tsp thyme

1/4 tsp turmeric for colour

1/4 tsp lemon grass powder

What to do:

Heat the oil and fry the onions, add chopped potato and grated garlic. Fry until potato softens slightly. 

Add the corn, stock and all the herbs/spices. Cook on low heat for 30mins. Blend well and add cream, season to taste. 

Serve with fresh herbs (basil, coriander, parsley or chives) or toasts. 

Enjoy!

Limoncello citrus trifle

I'm not the biggest fan of tiramisu. I love coffee but I don't like it in desserts. Usually tiramisu has too much booze, it's too wet and the bitterness of coffee simply takes all the sweetness away and what are all desserts about if not sugar, right? The citrus version is so much better and full of flavour. Thanks to lemons and oranges it's a perfect summer dessert. So, yet again, thanks to Jamie Oliver (who else), we indulged ourselves with another mouth watering after dinner treat. 

Here is the full recipe:

3 oranges

75ml Limoncello

100gr ladyfingers

250gr mascarpone

2tbsp icing sugar

100ml milk

1 lemon

1 cup of seasonal fruit (strawberries and raspberries but apricots, nectarines etc. will also do)

1/4 bar good quality dark chocolate

In a good sized serving dish (it will need to fit a single layer of your sponge fingers) squeeze the juice from the oranges. Stir in the Limoncello and taste to check sweetness and alcohol; adjust if necessary. Layer the sponge fingers in the serving dish – they will absorb all the juice.

Put the mascarpone and icing sugar into a separate bowl with the milk. Zest the lemon and add to the mascarpone and squeeze in the juice of half the lemon. Whisk well. Spread this mixture over the sponge fingers, top with the berries and shave chocolate over the top. Refrigerate until you are ready to eat.

And here is a pic of Ginger, because well, why not :)

recipe borrowed from jonoandjules

Limoncello citrus trifle

I’m not the biggest fan of tiramisu. I love coffee but I don’t like it in desserts. Usually tiramisu has too much booze, it’s too wet and the bitterness of coffee simply takes all the sweetness away and what are all desserts about if not sugar, right? The citrus version is so much better and full of flavour. Thanks to lemons and oranges it’s a perfect summer dessert. So, yet again, thanks to Jamie Oliver (who else), we indulged ourselves with another mouth watering after dinner treat. 

Here is the full recipe:

3 oranges

75ml Limoncello

100gr ladyfingers

250gr mascarpone

2tbsp icing sugar

100ml milk

1 lemon

1 cup of seasonal fruit (strawberries and raspberries but apricots, nectarines etc. will also do)

1/4 bar good quality dark chocolate

In a good sized serving dish (it will need to fit a single layer of your sponge fingers) squeeze the juice from the oranges. Stir in the Limoncello and taste to check sweetness and alcohol; adjust if necessary. Layer the sponge fingers in the serving dish – they will absorb all the juice.

Put the mascarpone and icing sugar into a separate bowl with the milk. Zest the lemon and add to the mascarpone and squeeze in the juice of half the lemon. Whisk well. Spread this mixture over the sponge fingers, top with the berries and shave chocolate over the top. Refrigerate until you are ready to eat.

And here is a pic of Ginger, because well, why not :)

recipe borrowed from jonoandjules

Weekend in pictures

Crickets have taken up residence on our blog recently, no doubt about that. I think it's high time we kindly asked them to leave, right? We've been busy lately, busy working and busy taking some time off, too. Last weekend we spent filming a hotel near warsaw which was quite exhausting. Three days of non stop pictures and by non stop I mean a fifteen hour shift. This weekend was a total im-not-even-moving-my-finger kind of weekend. Three days (yes, a three day weekend) of absolute chillout. We went to Czorsztyn with our dearest friends Roxy and Michał. The coolest thing about them is that we are so utterly and completely ourselves with them. And the dogs, oh the dogs were in heaven. We also  diagnosed our dog with adhd, that's for sure. This dog's batteries never go flat. Anyway, apart from just lying in the garden, doing mani/pedi and chatting we took a stroll by the lake, sat by a bonfire until late night, had some great food, played Settlers of Catan and watched some chick flicks. Ok, the boys were more into the game. So, let the picture overload begin...