Strawberry and Cream Cake

You know how sometime you need a break from things you love just to renew that love and not feel satiated? Well, that feeling hit me recently and I needed to take a break. A break from chocolate that is. I absolutely love chocolate and it would so be among the list of things that I would take with me to a deserted island but lately, I've just been having so much of it that I feel my enthusiasm for it dip a little bit. I no longed seem to be calling dibs on the last slice of chocolate cake or that last bite of absolutely sinful dark chocolate and even worse, I seem to be the one passing on the last bite to someone else. **Gasp** and so, I took a break and decided to do something completely non-chocolatey and what can be more non chocolatey than Strawberries and Cream. Plus, I had agreed to bake something for a friend and so thought this could be my chance for the break from chocolate. I have to admit, I din't really expect this cake to be amazing or anything. Seriously, what chance did poor strawberries have against chockies but they surprised me. They seems very moist, melt in your mouth and very very light. The only downside that I saw to the cake was that it was a tad too sweet for my liking and thats really my fault cause when I bought the cream for the cake, I din't really check to see if the cream was sweetened or not. Well mine was and that I think brought the cake down a couple of notches. So careful with your cream selection. Anyways, here are the things you need.

For the cake,

• 200 grams of flour
• 25 grams of cornflour
• 3 tsp of baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence/extract
• 225 gram butter (about 2 sticks and little more)
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 2 cups of sugar

For the filling,

• 1 cup of fresh strawberries sliced or a cup of strawberry preserve.
• 400 mils of cream whipped until stiff.

Method,

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree celcius.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Then add the vanilla extract and whisk.
4. Now whisk in the eggs one by one. Add a spoonful of flour in between each addition of egg.
5. Then, fold in the remaining flour, cornflour and baking powder.
6. Once its all folded in together, add the milk and slightly loosen up the batter.
7. Pour it into a baking tin and bake for 35 minutes or until the top of the cake browns and the tester comes out clean.
8. Remove and let it cool completely.
9. Then using a sharp knife, slice the cake into two equal halves. (You could actually save the trouble slicing the cake if you have two identical cake tins, in which case, all you need to do is spoon in the batter equally in to both the tins. Also, remember to lower to baking time to about 25 minutes)
10. Spread the strawberries (fresh or preserved) equally on bottom half of the cake.
11. In a bowl, whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks and then spread it generously over the strawberries.
12. Now sandwich together the cakes and voila! its done.
13. Dig in. 

I wish I could have shared the pic of a slice of the cake with you. But like I said, I din't make it for myself and so when I took the cake over to her place and sliced it up, I forgot to take the pic. But take my word for it, it was so pretty. Golden cake with white and pink inside. Pretty as a picture!

Creamy Spinach

Here is yet another recipe to turn those reluctant veggie eaters into religious veggie eaters. Yum! Creamy Spinach!

Here are the things you need:

Spinach - 1 bunch, washed and dried
Onion - 1 (Roughly diced)
Garlic - 2-3 cloves (Roughly diced)
Lemon - One half
Cream - 1 cup
Butter - 2 tsp
Salt - To taste

In a pan, heat oil and sweat the onions and garlic.
Then add the cream and butter to the mix along with the salt and allow the mix to reduce slightly.
Once the reduction has begun, add the spinach to it and let the leaves wilt down.
Once the spinach has begun to wilt, remove the pan from fire.
Squeeze one half of the lemon on to the spinach and toss it well so that the sauce spreads on the leaves evenly.

This dish works perfectly with almost any main course and better still, almost any veggies can be used instead of the spinach. All you need to do is keep in mind the difference in cooking time of the different veggies.

Pic courtesy : Diana's kitchen