Author Archives: Ilze Tolpeznikova

Cielaviņa – chocolate & meringue cake

Cielaviņa is a typical Latvian cake that combines crunchy meringue with a tasty chocolate cream. It reminds me of my childhood; when I was little we always bought it from “Staburadze” – a Latvian confectionary manufacturer. But I always wanted to try a home-made version of it and my last birthday seemed to be the right occasion! Now I’m publishing this recipe right before Latvian National Day (the 18th of November). So, try this delicious Latvian cake to celebrate it!

Cielaviņa

Ingredients: Meringue

400g powder sugar
6 egg whites
a pinch of salt
2 table spoons of corn starch
200g hazelnuts

Chocolate butter cream

6 egg yolks
4 table spoons of sugar
40g water
250-300g butter (room temperature)
200ml sweet condensed milk
4-5 table spoons of cacao
a pinch of salt
1-2 table spoons of rum

Chocolate glaze:

100g dark chocolate
50ml sweet cream

Decoration:

50-100g hazelnuts

Fraisier – strawberry cake

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The ”Fraisier” is a French strawberry cake with a sponge base and cream filling. It is light, creamy, and brings a taste of summer. Now it is an excellent time to make this cake! It is important that you use big strawberries, so that you can place them nicely around, building the “wall” of your cake. This fraisier recipe has several steps, but they are all pretty easy. If you have the chance, you can also make much of it in advance. For example, I prepared the sponge cake for my fraisier 2 days in advance.

Le fraisier

Yield: 12-16 portions

Ingredients:

Sponge:

1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
120 g caster sugar
100 g wheat flour
50 g butter
4 eggs

Syrup:

150 g sugar
20 cl water
1 tea spoon vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean
the zest of half a lemon

Strawberries and decoration:

500 g strawberries
Some strawberries and almond paste for decorating the top

Cream filling:

25 cl sweet cream
25 cl semi-skimmed milk
2 egg yolks
40 g cornstarch
50 g sugar
2 gelatin leaves (2g each)
1 vanilla bean or 1 cup vanilla extract

Medus kūka

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The Medus kūka or Honey cake cake is a multi-layered cake with honey as its main ingredient – of course. It also has a creamy filling made from sour-cream between the layers. It is a sweet and delicious treat that goes very well served with an afternoon tea. The honey cake is one of the most popular desserts in Russia as well as the sourrounding countries. In Latvia you can find both traditional and very modern versions of the cake, which makes it even more attractive. It is one of my favorite childhood sweets and I’m happy that I finally managed to bake it. I hope that you will enjoy my recipe!

Honey cake

Yield: 12 portions

Ingredients:

Dough:

300ml honey
100g brown sugar
3 eggs
ca. 600g flour – I used whole-wheat flour
120g butter
2 tea spoons baking soda
1 tea spoon apple vinegar

Cream

700g sour cream
500g light philadelphia cream
2 table spoons honey + some sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla extract

You can add some more sugar to the cream if you prefer a sweeter taste. Since I had used a lot of honey and sugar in the dough, I added less in the cream itself.

Pavlova with figs

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Light Meringue cake with fruits

Pavlova is a meringue cake with a crunchy exterior and a soft interior, which is usually topped with whipped cream and berries or some fresh fruits. It is soft, light and very delicisous. Pavlova is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, and got this name after her 1920s tour through Australia. Still, it is unclear where the dessert itself originated from: some argue it comes from New Zealand, others say it is Australin and some even say that it comes from the United States. It is a dessert most identified with the summer time, but is eaten all year round in many Australian and New Zealand homes and has become as well very popular in Europe.

I had wanted to make this cake for a long time, but somehow I was afraid of it being too hard. Now that we have moved homes, I have a new oven and it seems that together “we” can master this elegant and fragile cake very well. I hope that you will enjoy my recipe.

Pavlova with figs

Yield: 5-6 portions

Ingredients:

Meringue

5 egg-whites
270g powder (caster) sugar (minimum 250g of sugar)
1 table spoon white vinegar
1 table spoon maizena
1 tea spoon vanilla extract

Topping

250ml cream
1 tea spoon vanilla extract
1 table spoon of sugar (if you don’t like your cakes too sweet, you can also skip it)
400g of fresh figs
some mint for the decoration

Caramel au beurre salé

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Salted butter caramel

This time I’ll share with you a very simple recipe that contains only three main ingredients: sugar, cream, and salted butter. French people use this caramel in many different ways: as “macaron” filling, adding caramel flavour to cakes, cookies or any other pastry. It is very typical in Britanny, where they often eat it with crêpes (pancakes) as a dessert.

By changing the quantity of cream, you can make it more or less liquid. You can also add some nuts, chocolate, dried fruits to give it a more original taste. For fillings, you need to use half sugar and half cream + butter to give it a more solid consistency.

Salted butter caramel can be a perfect gift as well, for example to your loved ones during Christmas time – I have received several orders already

salted butter caramel

Yield: 500ml of caramel, enough to serve with pancakes for 5

Ingredients:

200g sugar
250ml cream
50g salted butter (or 80g if you want a stronger taste)
a pinch sea salt (ideally “fleur de sel”)

Step by step:

Prepare all ingredients: cream, sugar, salted butter & sea salt.

cream, sugar, sea salt

Pour sugar in a saucepan and let it melt – mixing in the solid sugar grains from time to time with the melted sugar. Make sure that the sugar does not burn, keep the heat low. Meanwhile, pre-heat the cream in another sauce pan.

let melt sugar & warm up cream

When the sugar is melted and dark brown, add the pre-heated cream little by little, all the while whisking it quickly with the help of a spoon.

add cream

Once the cream is well incorporated, add the salted butter and a pinch of salt.

add butter

Serve in small jars or a bowl, depending on when you plan to eat it.

Enjoy!

Plum-almond cake

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Sour & sweet cake combination

In France it is very typical to bake a cake based on almond cream or – as it is known here – frangipane cream. One of the most popular is “tarte aux poires”. To make the traditional recipe a bit different, I’ve used plums this time. It gives nice sour taste to the sweet almond cake.

plum-almond cake

Yield: 8 portions

Ingredients:

300g pâte sucrée (sweet tart dough)
400g of red plums
280g of almond cream (frangipane cream)
- 100g butter – room temperature
- 100g grounded almonds
- 100g icing sugar
- 1 tea spoon of cornstarch
- 2 eggs
- 1 tea spoon of amaretto
- 125g of pastry cream

Galette des Rois

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French-style “Kings’ cake”

Between the 6th of January and the end of the month, French bakeries are filled with a special cake called galette des Rois. The cake is one of the ways that French people celebrate the Epiphany –the arrival of the Three Wise men– which happened on January 6th according to Christian tradition. This galette is a cake with a surprise, since there is one lucky charm, la fève, hidden inside. The person that gets the slice with the lucky charm becomes “the king/queen” for the day. French bakeries include a paper golden crown with the galette, which the king of the day is supposed to wear. The epiphany is celebrated in Spain as well in a similar way, by eating the roscón de Reyes (“Kings’ donut or Kings’ cake“) The roscón is a crown-shaped brioche decorated with candied fruits and filled with pastry cream or whipped cream.

There are different types of the galette de rois in France. I’ll share with you the traditional one, which is a round cake of puff pastry with a dense filling of frangipane (almond paste). Next year, I plan to bake –and share with you!– the Spanish version of the roscón de Reyes.

galette de rois

Yield: 8 portions

Ingredients:

2 rolls of puff pastry
100g butter
100g sugar
125g ground almond
2 eggs + 1 egg to spread on top of the cake
2 tea spoons of amaretto or rhum

Two mousse chocolate cake

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A delicious and beautiful cake for times of celebration

Last year I took a patisserie course in Paris and, just before Christmas, I learned this wonderful cake recipe. I made it for my family’s Christmas party last year…and it took me one year to post the recipe online. Actually, I’ve made this cake already 3-4 times since then, including for my birthday, and it is one of my favourite recipes now! It is composed with several different layers, the best ones being combination of white and black chocolate mousses. Go ahead and dare preparing a spectacular and challenging dessert this Christmas!

two mousse chocolate cake

Yield: 15 portions

Ingredients:

1) Custard

140g cream
140g milk
75g egg yolks
40g sugar

2) Chocolate financier

70g ground almonds
50g icing sugar
90g egg whites
25g cream
5g cornstarch
30g black chocolate

3) Crunchy chocolate base

110g pailleté feuillantine (crispy crepe style cookies)
185g praliné paste
75g black chocolate

4) Black chocolate mousse

150g custard
175g black chocolate
225g whipped cream

5) White chocolate mousse

150g custard
250g white chocolate
225g whipped cream
4g gelatine leaves (usually, 4 leaves)

6) Glaze and some decorations

60g water
50g cream
110g sugar
40g cacao
4g gelatin leaves
Additional cacao, golden powder, etc. for decorating

Piparkūkas

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Latvian gingerbread cookies

In Latvia gingerbread cookies are very typical for Christmas. Around that time, every single house is filled with gingerbread cookie smell. In Latvia, you usually buy the gingerbread cookie dough and bake them at home, but living abroad this isn’t possible. So, for the third year in a row, I’m preparing my gingerbread cookie dough myself. I still don’t get the perfect consistency, but the taste and smell are better than the store-bought ones. Prepare your home for Christmas and bake some cookies!

piparkūkas

Yield: ca. 4kg of dough (which means – a lot of cookies!)

Ingredients:

400g honey
400g brown (or white) sugar
400g butter
1,5kg-2kg flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
20-30g of gingerbread spices: you can mix them yourself using cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, ginger, black pepper… or just buy a prepared gingerbread spices packet, for instance from Santa Maria (from Sweden)

Cinnamon rolls

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Kanēļmaizītes

In Latvia cinnamon rolls is a very popular treat for breakfast and a great snack to accompany coffee or tea in a cold winter afternoon. My grandmother used to make them quite often and I loved them. They are soft and with light caramel on top. Make sure you eat them freshly baked, that’s when they taste best. Enjoy!

cinnamon rolls

Yield: 40 small size cinnamon rolls

Ingredients:

250ml warm milk (ca. 40C)
2 eggs
80g butter
560g flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
140g brown sugar
1 packet instant yeast
sugar & cinnamon & some butter to spread on top of the dough
1 egg