Chocolate naked cake with mascarpone cream and fresh berries

What is your first thought when I say "Birthday"? Or "Wedding anniversary"? Presents? Or big party? Maybe surprise? For me it is all in one - a perfect cute cake. On those days I believe, we can create a perfect mood with only one cake, even despite all the problems or anything else that disturbs us at the moment. And I have a prefect recipe. Proven by my own experience. 

As my husband's birthday and wedding anniversary happen to be within 1 week, I decided to dedicate my time once and bake a really perfect cake. Chocolate layers with tender mascarpone cream and seasonal berries will literally make your day. I promise!

Just prepare all the ingredients, one 24 cm round baking form and a mixer. Get ready :)

Ingredients:

For cake:

220 g chocolate (I chose 85% cocoa)

200 g almond flour

150 g sugar

1 banana

9 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayanne pepper

40 g cacao powder

pinch of salt

3 tbsp home-made marmelade (mine was made from different berries)

50 ml water

For cream:

500 g mascarpone

300 ml whipping cream

180 g sugar powder

For decor:

strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or else

Firstly preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Separate in 2 bowls yolks from egg whites. Beat the egg yolks with mashed banana, pinch of salt and half of sugar until light and fluffy. Melt chopped chocolate and add it to the batter. Set aside. 

Beat egg whites with the rest of sugar until stiff peaks. 

Mix dry ingreadients in another bowl: almond flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon and cayanne pepper. Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter. Add dry ingredients and gently fold not to ruin the air bubbles. 

Coat 24-cm baking form with butter. Pour the batter into the form and bake the cake 50 minutes. 

Split the cake into 3 layers. Mix water and marmelade and bring them to boil. Brush the top of each layer with the hot marmelade sirup and let them soak for half an hour.

For the cream combine mascarpone, whipping cream and powdered sugar. Whip them thoroughly until stiff peaks. Spread the cream over each layer and on the top of the cake forming nice untouched waves. Wash summer berries/fruits of your choice and decorate the cake from the sides and on top. 

Tip!

The bigger variety of fruits and berries you choose, the more colorful your cake will look. In combination with dark chocolate it will leave you speechless.

Chocolate dipped dried plums

Who has never ever had hunger cravings?! We all did... In my everyday life I observe people prioritizing work more than anything else: health, family, friends, yourself... Unfortunately we get in a trap trying to prove the best performance at work, unbelievable productivity etc. And then having no time to eat is a usual thing you can hear from as an excuse. But that is not the way to survive. We deserve having time for ourselves, enjoying nice friends' company, taking care of our family. Moreover, we always have to reserve time for our eating habits as this has the biggest impact on the other spheres: work, ability to think, analyze, being productive, happy etc. I can write the list much longer... But is it worth to?! We just have to understand one thing: Taking care about our nutritional habits will make a much bigger outcome than working overtime months through. Now back to the recipes :)

As I already mentioned, hunger cravings are a common thing. But taking them into everyday life will only cause a lot of health problems, weight gain and stress. To avoid them: STOP eating sweets-crackers-bounty-mars-twix-whatever-unhealthy-staff instead of lunch. BEGIN cooking for your body and taking care!

The recipe of this post comes actually from my motherland. A widespread and typically from regional manufacturer these sweets became one of the most favorite things I usually ask for when someone visits us and asks what to bring from Ukraine. Today I decided to prepare piece of my motherland at home. Easy, quick and tasty! I bet these sweets will not live until tomorrow even :)

Ingredients: (outcome: 12 sweets)

12 dried plums, pitted

12 pieces of greek nuts

30 g dark chocolate (I chose 85% cacao)

Stuff each plum with small piece of nut. Shape to form round shape. Set aside. 

Tip!

Instead of nuts, you may always be creative and use marzipan, dried ginger, dried cranberries. It's up to you.

Now let's melt chocolate. Place it into small bowl, set in pot of hot (not boiling) water over low heat; allow to melt, stirring until smooth.

Remove chocolate from heat. With the help of a fork, dip dried plums into chocolate; drain excess. Put them on the baking sheet and place in the refrigerator immediately until set.

When chocolate is set, you may finally enjoy the perfect taste combination. Sweet, yet in moderation, healthy.

Grilled squids with lemon-garlic sauce

It's a loooong time since my last post...WOW... unbelievable. This summer was quite different from the previous ones. The major point is, of course, that Hamburg could not really enjoy the summer as there were about 5 really warm days since June in total. And then in a routine you get lost somewhere in the everyday problems between work, gym, home, cleaning, husband's birthday, wedding anniversary etc. And then you only notice - two summer months are gone :(

But nevertheless, I enjoy this season a lot. Summer is always full of fresh and local fruits, berries, meaning - a lot of smoothies, pies, desserts and even more. But today not about that. I will follow up with summer fruit recipes in my next posts. Menawhile I would like to stay in memories back in our vacation. 

Croatia, +45 degrees C, Biograd na Moru. When having such a nice grill near our apartments we could not keep away from it and ended up having grill-dinner everyday. Because it is just amazing - meeting sunset with a nice fresh grilled fish, veggies, local wine and calm atmosphere. This was the evening of squids. My grill-chef-husband was the one to cook them and I'm lucky to share the recipe with you. 

Ingredients:

4 big squids

1/2 lemon

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp origano

1/2 tsp salt

6 garlic cloves

Firstly, the squids have to be prepared. To make it properly I (and my husband) recommend you to follow these steps:

1. Grasp the head, pull it carefully, twisting if necessary. The internal body and tentacles will come with it. 

2. Cut the tentacles from the head. They are situated below the eyes. There is a  beak in the center of the tentacles. Squeeze to remove and discard.

3. Set aside the the tentacles. Discard the head and ink sac.

4. At the top of the body, there is a clear piece of cartilage. Pull it out and discard.

5. If the squid has an outer spotted membrane-type skin, pull it off and discard.

6. Wash the tube an tenticles thoroughfully under cold running water.

Then they will look like you may see on the picture below.

It is time to prepare the sauce. Best combination for squids (and this is how they are usually served in Croatia), is lemon-garlic sauce. Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, origano and mashed garlic. Pour part of the sauce as pregrilling marinade. The rest put aside for serving.

The best way is to grill the squids on the open fire grill. They will become firmer and loose their juice. So be prepared :)

As a side dish you may also grill zucchini or other veggies (pepper, mushrooms, tomato etc.)

Of course, you can also use baking oven instead of grill. You might need a bit longer time then.
On the grill you will approximately need 15-20 minutes until readiness, changing sides every 3-5 minutes. To make them really crispy, pour the water out of them as they get ready. You will notice that they are quite juicy :)

Immeadiately after taking squids out from grill, pour them with the sauce from all sides. Being warm helps them to get the most of the flavors from the sauce.

I used 1/4 of avocado to serve. It's up to your taste, what to choose as a side dish. But a good white wine is a must here :) We chose Malvasija this time.

Enjoy the summer.

Because good food is always a good idea.

P.S. Hopefully you also like fish and seafood. Otherwise I seem to be literally attacking you with such recipes during my last posts.

Grilled sea bass

Summer.... Vacation period, when you're travelling around exotic places, exploring different cultures and tasing local for someone, but new for you, food. I think being on the seaside and not eating fish is a biiig-biiig mistake, that I would never forgvie myself :)

Therefore today is the FISH-day! 

Wherever you go, if it is close to the sea, go to the market or fish-market. There you can find local specialities of the best quality. 7 a.m and we are there to buy fish :) Sea bass this time. Nothing new for us, good fresh local fish. But!!! The way we will cook it is perfect in the summer: Grilled! Master class was given by a Croatian with big life experience and warm hospitality.

Ingredients:

2 sea basses of middle size

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/2 tsp sea salt

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 lemon 

As you might see from ingredients, the recipe is very simple and easy. No special secret ingredients, just a cup of love and a tablespoon of patience:)

Prepare charcoal fire. The heat should be medium-high. Rinse fish and pat dry with paper towels. 

Tip!

While baking in the oven or on the grill, you usually end up with the fact, that fish sticked to the surface? Now this won't be a problem anymore. When you prepare the fish, dry it well with paper towels and use little bit of oil to prevent stickiness.

Sprinkle the fish in and outside with salt and pepper. 

Lightly grease grill rack; place fish on hot rack. 

This is how nice our fish looked like on the grill: golden-brown stripes were charming

Grill about 10-12 minutes from each side, then carefully flip it over. Let the grill pattern cover the skin. It is so beautiful!!!

Squeeze lemon on the fish and enjoy perfect summer taste.

I wish you a wonderful vacation and full recharge for new challenges!

Sorry for being short. Sea is waiting :)

Enjoy every moment: eat well, train hard and smile!

How to grow cress indoors?

In one of my posts about top 5+1 best veggies I mentioned cress as the best product for your health. You may wonder if it is possible to grow it at home. I can definitely state - Easy and possible!

Here are the steps:

Step 1

Prepare some dish (I chose plastic package from some veggies I bough in the supermarket). Lay two-three pieces of kitchen roll in a dish. Spray a little bit of water onto them to make them damp.

Step 2

Sprinkle a fair amount of cress seeds over the tissue. I bought mine in DM store here and for one time I usually use 1-2 table spoons, so this package lasts long. Make sure the seeds don't clump together.

Cover the top of the dish with two pieces of kitchen roll.Put into dark place for 1-2 days.

Step 3

Check your cress every day and sprinkle everyday a little bit of water until it begins to sprout to 1 centimeter. When it is at this height remove the cover, and put it somewhere sunny - not forgetting to use the same method of watering when they become a little dry!

It took about a day to see a big progress. Then I took my dish out and placed it on a sunny place. In 3-4 days cress was ready to eat.

Step 4

As soon as cress has reached more than 2 cm, cut off the amount of cress you want to use. Rest of the cress you can put in the fridge and use within 2-3 days.

If you are hesitating, where to use cress, I ensure you - it is a magic note for almost every dish. Meat, salad, sandwich, even smoothie will be a powerful vitamin bomb when including cress in it.

Enjoy! Stay healthy!