Strawberry & chocolate cake

Today is my sister's birthday and I made her a proper birthday cake. It wasn't as easy as I though to come up with an idea as she is quite picky with things she eats. I was told that it has to contain berries, cream cheese filling and chocolate and it has to be decorated with silver pearls. Really wish that I could dictate what I want in my birthday cake and then it would magically appear out of nowhere, but that's never going to happen. Anyway, while I was making the cake, my sister scraped the bowls for the cake and for the filling so already during making it I knew the cake would be delicious. The moist and perfectly chocolatey sponge, the sweet and juicy strawberries coupled with the cream cheese filling just make an irresistible combination...

Ingredients
Sponge:
- 3 eggs
- 200g flour
- 200g sugar
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 200g butter, softened
- 100g milk chocolate chips

Filling:
- 50g white chocolate, melted
- 150g fat free Philadelphia
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 400g strawberries, sliced
- Silver pearls, to decorate.

Directions
Heat the oven to 160C fan / 180C. Butter and line a springform baking tin or a bundt cake tin. In a big bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, soft butter and sifted flour. Lastly add the chocolate chips and stir until they have spread out evenly. Place the mixture in a cake tin and bake for around 25 minutes (if using normal springform tin, then a bit longer). Leave to cool in a tin for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.

For the filling, melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water. Then let it cool a bit and whip in the Philadelphia cheese and the icing sugar, keep whipping until the filling is smooth.

To assemble the cake, cut the cake into half. Spread 2/3 of the filling on the bottom half of the cake, then cover it with strawberries and place the other half on top of the strawberries. Then spread the rest of the filling evenly on the top of the cake and decorate with the rest of strawberries. Then sprinkle over with some silver pears or icing sugar or any other cake decoration.

Honey & pineapple prawn stir-fry

Whenever I'm travelling somewhere exotic I first of all try to eat only local food and especially use the possibility of eating fresh fruit - they taste so much better than the ones you get to buy over in the UK or anywhere else where they have been imported to. I've spent the last week in Singapore (where I will be living for a next year or so) and thought of cooking something for dinner, which wasn't western. And as my boyfriend has got me hooked on stir fries, I did not have to think for long before I knew what I was going to make. After a trip down to the local supermarket and a bag full of fresh king prawns and local pineapple I was very excited of putting together this dish.

The thing I really love about stir fries is that you can put in whatever you want (they are great for using up any leftover vegetables in the fridge) and they are really simple, healthy and fast to make, which makes them perfect for weekday dinners. This one was my first with prawns (make sure you don't overcook them) and I will most definitely be using them instead of chicken in the future. Until now, I haven't put any fruit in my stir fries but after trying out a stir fry with pineapple my imagination went flying - can't wait to do one with mango now! The dish itself is slightly on the sweet side, but if you prefer spicier food add some sambal or chopped chillies. I served it with boiled rice, but it would go well with all sort of different noodles or even just on its own (but then increase the quantities).

Ingredients
(Serves 3)
- 600g raw king prawns
- 1tsp peanut oil
- 1 medium red pepper
- 115g snow peas
- 2 small cloves of garlic
- 0.5 pineapple, chopped coarsely
- 3 tsp kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
- 1.5 tsp honey
- Jasmine rice, to serve
- Sambal or lazy chillies (optional)

Directions
Put the rice to boil and have it ready before making the stir fry. Chop up all the ingredients before starting. Heat the peanut oil in a wok pan and stir fry the prawns, red pepper, garlic and peas until the prawns have changed colour. Then add the rest of the ingredients and stir fry until hot.

Divide the rice up between the plates and top it with the stir fry. Serve immediately.

Strawberry & Parma ham salad

I just realised that it has been 10 days since my last post! I guess I was so wrong when I thought that the moment summer holiday arrives I will start posting something every day - babysitting my baby brother and visiting grandmothers seems to have taken all my free time so far. But nevertheless, I managed to prepare a delicious salad, which we had for lunch, but it could very well be served as a light dinner. I really love Parma ham (Parma ham with melon is one of my favourite) and this time my father had managed to get hold of freshly cut Parma - it was heavenly just on its own. But, instead of enjoying it on its own, I decided to incorporate it into a simple salad. It was really interesting to choose the rest of the ingredients based simply on the criteria that they would have to go nicely with Parma. Resisting the temptation to incorporate melon, I decided to choose a bit more interesting ingredients. Rocket is nice and peppery and therefore perfect as a base (if you prefer any other salad green, feel free to use something else) for this salad and the sweetness and juiciness of the strawberries nicely balances that. The Parma ham is quite salty already, so I did not add any additional salt to the dish. To make the salad a bit more sophisticated I added the almonds, with give it a really nice finishing touch. To sum it up - this is a healthy, tasty and quick salad that is perfect for those hot summer days when you are craving something tasty but light.

Ingredients
(Serves 1)
- 25g rocket
- 50g Parma ham
- 50g strawberries
- 1 tbs flaked almonds
- Freshly ground pepper, to serve
- Balsamic vinegar, to serve
- Olive oil, to serve (optional)

Directions
Place the rocket in a bowl / on a plate. Shred the parma ham into small pieces and scatter over the rocket. Then either halve or quarter the strawberries, depending on their size and then place them on top of the salad. Finally, add the flaked almonds, some fresh pepper and drizzle over with some balsamic vinegar and serve immediately.

If you wish, you can also drizzle the salad with some olive oil, in addition to balsamic vinegar, but I didn't as I prefer to have salads without or with minimum dressing.

Blueberry & lemon cupcakes

So much for keeping it light and healthy. My sister asked me to make something sweet for her birthday party and she managed to narrow it down to 'cupcakes' and 'blueberries'. As it was her birthday party, I did not want to do anything simple and plain (like my breakfast blueberry muffins, for example), but wanted to make sure the cupcakes have the 'wow' factor. They most certainly had the effect on my mum who tried one and then came to me to ask what had I put into the batter. They look gorgeous and very fancy and also taste heavenly - they are incredibly moist and fluffy and it kind of feels like eating clouds. But, they are quite sweet, so having more than one is out of question, at least for me. They are perfect for entertaining and when you want to avoid the mess of having a big cake - cutting it, splitting it and all the crumbs that result from that (e.g. garden party, children's party or even a tea party). They might not be the fastest to make, but they do not require any special skills and the result is worth the time spent on making them.

Ingredients
(Makes 17 muffins)
Cupcakes:
- 400g flour
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 110g butter, soft
- 220g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- 220g sour cream
- 200ml blueberries

Icing:
- 110g butter, soft
- 110g cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 220g icing sugar
- 17 blueberries to decorate

Directions
Preheat oven to 180C fan / 200C and line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases. In a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt. In a big bowl, mix the butter and sugar and whip until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs one by one. Add the vanilla sugar and the lemon zest to the mixture. Then add 1/3 of the flour to the mixture, then 1/2 of the sour cream, then other 1/3 of the flour and 1/2 of sour cream and finish it off with the last 1/3 of the flour mix. In between of adding the flour and sour cream mix well. Finally stir in the blueberries and divide up between the muffin cases. Bake for around 17 minutes until golden.

For the cream cheese icing, beat the cream cheese, butter and icing sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Place the icing in a piping bag and decorate the cupcakes with generous amount of icing once they've cooled down. To finish off the cupcakes place one blueberry on top of each cupcake. Serve and enjoy.

Nectarine & Serrano ham salad

As promised - a summery and light, but at the same time very flavourful, recipe. I am a huge fan of cold meats - especially dried ham - and it is no problem for me to finish off a big pack of Parma ham by myself as a snack. The salad I initially wanted to make required Parma ham, but unfortunately I was a bit too lazy to drive to the city and they only had Serrano ham, which is like the Spanish alternative, so I gave the ham a go ... And the result was gorgeous (I would not post something that doesn't taste good). Filling but light, fresh and fruity - exactly what one wants from a summer salad.

Ingredients
(Serves 1)
- 25g rocket
- 1 ripe nectarines
- 3 slices Serrano ham
- Balsamic vinegar, to serve
- Freshly ground pepper, to serve

Directions
Place the rocket on a plate. Chop up the nectarines and tear the Serrano ham into small slices. Place the ham on top of the rocket and sprinkle with the nectarine slices. Drizzle over with some balsamic vinegar and freshly ground pepper and serve immediately.

Eton mess cupcakes

I do apologise for leaving such a big gap between my last post and this - had to dedicate all my time and effort to revision. But as it is all now over (and I'm not due to start my masters for another two months) there will be plenty of summer themed recipes coming up, I promise.

As you all know, it was the Jubilee weekend and in addition to this fabulous royal event I also just finished my exams and therefore my friends and I have had plenty of reasons to celebrate. And as usual, I was taking care of the dessert. It took me quite a while to make my mind up what to make - traditional Victorian sponge cake would have be just a bit too boring. But, as I found this recipe (after hours of searching) I knew it was 'the one'. There nothing as summery and gloriously British as Eton mess - the classic dessert made up of strawberries, crushed meringue and double cream. But as usual, it was quite a lot of us and therefore the real dessert was out of question, but the cupcakes suited the occasion perfectly. And to top it off, I found the perfect cupcake cases and toppers to suit the very British occasion...

Ingredients
(Makes 12)
Cupcakes:
- 110g self-raising flour
- 110g caster sugar
- 110g butter, softened
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Icing:
- 120g butter, softened
- 200g icing sugar
- 1tsp vanilla sugar

- 200g strawberries
- Meringue pieces

Directions
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases. Mix together all ingredients and divide the mixture up between 12 muffin cases. Bake for 15 minutes or until slightly golden.

For the icing, mix together the butter and sugars. Then puree 50g strawberries and cut up the rest into small pieces. For the meringue pieces I crushed 4 bought meringue nests (but you can always make your own).

To assemble, divide the icing mixture between muffins and cover the tops evenly, then sprinkle over with crushed meringue and strawberries and to top them off, put a teaspoonful (or so) of strawberry puree on each. Serve immediately.