“Firewood on Snow” Cake

This cake looked unusual even for me when I saw it first time: doesn't it resemble a bunch of firewood covered with a snow to you?

This recipe is Yuriy’s mom speciality dessert and it often appears on the table during family celebrations. Yuriy's mom preserves pitted sour cherries in their own juices under sugar each season, so there are always plenty of them ready for use.

If you don’t have sour cherries preserved in such way - you can always go with pitted cherry kompot like I did, but in this case add a bit of sugar to the dough, or cake will not be sweet enough.

I would want to tell you that this cake is easy and fast to do, but I can’t. It took me quite some time to make dough, prepare “firewood” sticks and then assemble the cake; but that is probably because I cooked it first time in my life.

After cake is assembled allow some time for layers to soak in sour cream frosting to get soft: leave it in cool place (but not fridge) at least over night (depending on how liquid sour cream is it may take longer). It is good idea to prepare cake at least a day before you are planning to serve it.

Baked Peaches with Chocolate and Ginger Stuffing

We bought a big box of peaches on our way back home from vacation in South Carolina ocean side. They were very ripe and sweet and most important they were a lot, much more than we can eat in 2, even for longer time.

Even after eating big portion of them fresh and handing some out, there were still some left. It was a time to cook peaches before they spoil.

I found this recipe for stuffed baked peaches, and must say that baked peaches become one of my favorite desserts - cooked peaches are very tender and flavorful.

I will definitely improvise more in this direction once my hands get ahold of more peaches to try various stuffings.

West Ukrainian Cheese Cake (Syrnyk)

This cake is similar to the cheese cakes so popular in west part of the globe. However this one is made from quark cheese (fresh farmers cheese), not from the cream cheese.

It is very popular dessert treat in West Ukraine. It is often being made with raisins, however I don’t like raisins, so I am doing it without any filling. Just add them if you like.

During the baking this cake will rise in the oven, and then it will fall down a bit while colling down. That i s ok, just important not to open oven while baking or cooling.

To make up for a bit uneven shape, you can cut uneven sides off before serving it.

Sweet Braided Bread

I am used to call this kind of braid sweet bread Hala (Хала in russian), however when I was preparing to write this recipe and did a bit of research to make sure I get name right in english, I discovered that real Challah (Hala) doesn’t contain dairy.

Considering this recipe have butter and milk and eggs in it, I didn’t risk to call in challah. After all it is a sweet braid yeast based sourdough bread.

It tastes good by itself and even better with a cup of yogurt or cultured milk (kefir or buttermilk).

Khrustyky Pastry (Hvorost)

This pastry is very popular in countries of ex-USSR. The shape is what gave them their russian name – "hvorost" – which means “dry wood used to make a fire”. Ukrainian name - “khrustyky” - describes texture – which it very crisp.

I had troubles trying to figure out what english name to use for this dish. Even if there is an equivalent of it in cuisine of some english speaking country, I don't know about it.

So, feel free to let me know if you have some ideas in this regard :)

Russian Beze Cookies (Meringues)

Beze cookies or meringues (probably more familiar name for you) are one of those desserts you can put together literally from almost nothing.

2 egg whites and a bit of sugar – that is all you need prepare a nice finishing for the romantic dinner or something to sweeten your life with when you need it.

Using of pastry bag, when you operate with sugary and bubbly “batter”, can be hard at the beginning, but it goes easier once you get used to it.

If you have choice – pick bigger bag so you have more room for maneuver when loading it with “batter”.

Strawberry Cream Dessert

Even though here I can buy strawberries almost any time of year, they are especially tasteful at summer. So yes, it is a strawberry time!

So if you looking for a nice recipe for strawberries – here it is: sweet whipped cream with puree of fresh sweet tasty strawberries and a bit of jelly. Easy to prepare, and even easier to eat :)

Of course, whipped cream is a bit heavy for the figure especially if it is mixed with sugar, but it is also totally delicious - so I allow myself to enjoy it every once in a while. But if you are trying to follow low calories / low fat diet this recipe is probably not for you.

Simple Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Yuriy had his birthday 2 weeks ago, so I decided to cook him a cake. Somehow we ended up eating whole cake just by ourselves; so we will need to work out more now :)

I've used this simple recipe of homemade cake which is very popular in Russia and other countries of ex-USSR. Because of the sour cream frosting it is often called “smetannik”, which basically mean “made of sour cream” in russian.

If you decide to make this cake - make sure you have enough time to let sour cream to soak to into each layer of the cake after it is assembled; 6-8 hours are usually enough. If you prepare cake a night before you are going to serve it and then put to fridge - it is even better.

Madeleines

It is easy to fell in love with those little butter cakes the first time you try them: it is exactly what happened to me :), I had to find the recipe. And then I've got hooked: every time I have extra 30 mins and a mood for baking – I am preparing madeleines.

Apart of eggs, butter, flour and a few other ingredients you will also need madeleine baking pan (madeleine molds) to prepare those french sponge cakes. Internet says they exist in two sizes: bigger and smaller.

I've spend quite some time before I finally found bigger ones in Williams-Sonoma, I was also lucky they appeared to be nonstick ones. By the way if you cook in small size molds – reduce cooking time to about 6 mins.

With ingredients described in this recipe will get you about 24 madeleines, enough for 2 baking forms with molds of bigger size. If you want more just double or triple the amounts.

Sponge Cake with Apples

Autumn always comes with tastes of a harvest: for me autumn tastes like apples, even though you can get them at any grocery shop any time of the year.

Since I've got my apples, a big pack of them actually, my house keeps smelling like autumn. During last weeks we had a duck with apples for a dinner, baked apples for a snack and even kompot with apples and cranberries.

I've also prepared this sponge cake with apples and light hit of cinnamon last sunday and now I can share this easy recipe with you, so you can enjoy the taste of autumn with me.