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.