Tag Archives: cream

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

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

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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

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.

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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

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, suger, 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

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

add cream

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

add butter

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

Enjoy!

Crème brûlée

“Burnt” custard cream

Crème brûlée is a sweet & creamy dessert with crunchy sugar on top. In Spain it is also known as ¨crema catalana¨, and everyone will affirm that it comes originally from Catalonia. To the Spanish version of creme brûlée you usually add lemon or orange peal as well as cinnamon. Here, I’ll share with you first the traditional French creme brûlée recipe, which I got from the Larousse ¨Pierre Herme¨ dessert book.  I usually make it in small individual ramekins that perfectly serve one person.

creme brulee

creme brûlée

Yield: 8 portions

Ingredients:

  • 500ml milk
  • 500ml cream
  • 4 vanilla beans
  • 9 egg yolks
  • 180g powder sugar
  • 100g brown sugar

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Rhubarb mousse

A way to make rhubarb tasty

In Latvia we eat a lot of this wonderful plant, which has a lot of fibre and an acid taste. Most commonly, the plant’s leaf stalks are cooked with sugar and used in pies, drinks, and many other desserts. My husband is not particularly fond of this plant, so I’m trying different ways to convince him how tasty it really is. Believe me or not, but this mousse has convinced him ;) It has light, airy consistance and a very fresh taste – a perfect way to start the summer!

Rhubarb mousse with raspberries

Rhubarb mousse with raspberries

Yield: 4-6 portions

Ingredients:

These measures are very approximate, as I prepared my mousse without measuring anything – just tasting and making sure that the result is as wished :) The only important point is making sure that it doesn’t end up too acid – taste it often as you cook, and add enough sugar so that it’s sweet to your taste! If you want it to feel creamier, you can also reduce the amount of gelatin.

  • 4 rhubarb stalks
  • 80g sugar
  • 150g-200g water
  • 5 gelatin sheets
  • 1 vanille bean
  • 150g-200g whipped cream

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