Coffolate Shortcake

A very tasty shortcake, perfect for an Easter table. I have never tried such shortcakes, as my family was used to such Easter shortcakes (which are, indeed very tasty too), but this year I decided to try something new and I am not dissapointed. Try, try, it is worth it ! :)

Recipe, slightly changed, comes from this website.

Ingredients (for a 20x30cm baking pan):

Bottom:

• 170g of flour
• 80g of potato starch
• 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 50g of sugar
• 150g of cold margarine
• 1 egg

Top:

• 200g of cherries
• 25g of milk chocolate

Frosting:

• 125ml of 36% cream
• 1 teaspoon of instant coffee
• 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom
• 30g of margarine
• 200g of white chocolate

Preparation:

Bottom:

1. Take a bowl, sieve flour and potato starch inside. Add sugar and margarine (cut into cubes). Knead or mix well. Add egg and knead again till well combined.
2. Make a bowl, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for an hour.
3. During that time, prepare the kitchen surface, to roll out the dough.
4. Start preheating the oven to 160C.
5. Take the cake out and roll out. 
6. Put in the baking pan, on the entire bottom + 1cm sides.
7. Using a fork, make holes on the entire bottom.
8. Put in previously preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes till gold.
9. Cool down.

Frosting:

1. Take a pan, put cream inside, add coffee and cardamom and heat, till it all dissolves. Stop heating, add butter and chocolate, stir till it all melts (if it is hard - heat it up a little bit).
2. Pour it on previously cooled down shortcake bottom and put in a cold place for an hour so that it stiffens.
3. Put pieces of cherries in any pattern desired, decorate.
4. Melt remaining milk chocolate and distribute all over the shortcake.
5. Store in room temperature.
6. Bon Appetit! :)

Sour-Sweet Shortcake

There are sometimes recipe on the Internet, which - when you see them - you know - they are going to be just awesome :) And this is a perfect example of such situation. This is a perfect combination of sour orange jam and sweet white chocolate with some more ingredients that will make you forget about calories ;) 

I do recommend! 

The recipe, slightly changed, comes from my favourite website.

Ingredients (for a 20x30cm baking pan):

Bottom:

• 170g of flour
• 80g of potato starch
• 50g of sugar
• 150g of cold margarine
• 1 egg

Top:

• A jar of orange jam
• a handful of dried apricots
• 100g of almond flakes
• optionally - 4 tablespoons of orange liqueur

Chocolate frosting:

• 150g of white chocolate
• 5 tablespoons of 36% cream

Preparation:

Bottom:

1. Take a bowl, sieve flour and potato starch inside. Add sugar and margarine (cut into cubes). Knead or mix well. Add egg and knead again till well combined.
2. Make a bowl, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for an hour.
3. During that time, prepare the kitchen surface, to roll out the dough.
4. Start preheating the oven to 160C.
5. Take the cake out and roll out. 
6. Put in the baking pan, on the entire bottom + 1cm sides.
7. Using a fork, make holes on the entire bottom.
8. Put in previously preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes till gold.
9. Cool down.

Top:

1. Distribute the orange jam (mixed with 2 tablepoons of liqueur if used) all over the bottom (probably not entire jar, but half or so).
2. Put apricots, in any pattern desired (I did the chequered pattern).

Prepare the frosting:

1. In a pan, melt 100g of chocolate with 5 tablespoons of 36% cream (and 2 tablespoons of liqueur if used). When done, add the remaining chocolate and stir till it melts. Put aside to let it cool down a little.
2. Distribute the frosting on a cake (any pattern desired, again) and sprinkle with almond flakes.
3. Bon Appetit!

Easter Yoghurt Muffins

Basic, classic, elegant. This is one of the most useful recipe, for all occassions. So today, as an Easter Muffins I want to present them - yoghurt muffins with a nice, delicate lemon taste and a raspberry surprise inside. 

I realize that the biggest surprise are the wrrapings, and some of You probably crave for them ;) They come from the website of one of the most known producent in Poland and you can find them and many others here. Have fun and Happy Easter! :)

The base, slightly changed, comes from this website. 

Ingredients (for 24 smaller muffins) all of them need to be room temperatured.

• 250g of natural yoghurt (but not a "0% fat" one)
• 150g of margarine
• 4 eggs
• lemon zest from 2 lemons
• 300g of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 250g of sugar

Filling:

• Raspberry jam

Preparation:

1. Take a pan, melt butter inside. Let it cool down.
2. Start preheating the oven to 170C.
3. Prepare muffin cases and keep handy. 
4. Prepare a big bowl.
5. Put yoghurt inside and mix it with cool melted butter. Add eggs and lemon zest. Beat.
6. Now add sieved flour, soda, salt and sugar. Stir only till all the ingredients mix.
7. Fill the muffin cases with dough till their 3/4 height.
8. Put in the oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes, till you reach a dry toothpick.
9. Take them out and using a syringe with very thin 'needle' like ending and inject the jam inside.
10. Remove the excess of the jam that starts coming out from the muffin.
11. Let the muffins cool down.
12. Prepare the icing, for example from this recipe and decorate the muffins.
13. When done, you can dress up your muffins using this wrapping. Remember to cut it out precisely and laminate, before using :)
14. Bon Appetit! :)

Plum Dumplings

That's a very delicious, quick, easy and light dinner :) Soft, sweet, might be served with butter, sugar or shredded coconut. Children love it! It is definitely worth trying! :)

Recipe comes from my Grandmum :)

Ingredients:

• 10 boiled potatoes
• 2-3 pinches of salt
• around 300 g of flour
• 500 g of plums
• 1 egg

Extra ingredients:

• butter
• sugar
• shredded coconut

Preparation:

1. Take a middle-size clean pot, fill with water, add some salt (2-3 pinches).
2. Add potatoes and boil them till soft (10-15 minutes).
3. In the meantime, wash the plums, throw away the kernels, cut the plums into halves.
4. Take a pot, pour water inside, start boiling.
5. Take a big bowl, put boiled potatoes inside, smash till you get a smooth 'dough', cool down.
6. Add flour, and egg, knead till you get a dough, which is not extremely sticky and you can form a ball (which is why I put 'around' 300g of flour - depending on your potatoes - some of them come out more sticky after boiling, some of them less = in some cases you might need more/less flour). Make the ball flat. Put one half of the plum in the middle of the dough, add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, close(it needs to be done very precisely), forming a ball again.*
7. When the water in the second pot is boling, put your dumplings inside, boil for around 5-7 minutes.**
8. Take them out of the water (they cannot remain in the water).
9. Here you can distribute extra ingredients over boiled dumplings - some butter to melt or sprinkle them with sugar/shredded coconut.
10. Bon Appetit! :)

* It is not necessary to add sugar, you can make them without any sugar (but they might come out sour, especially if the plums are sour, so I do recommed adding it).

** If the dumplings 'swim' on the top of the water, they're ready.

Basil paste

I came across this recipe while looking for an alternative breakfast recipes. This paste sounded really perfect to me - something new, quick and easy to make. And - believe me, it tastes really, really good - some of you may know flavoured butters (smaksełko? ;) ) - they were extremely popular some time ago and very tasty, though I can't find it in any shop, can you? This is not a butter, as it is made of cottage cheese. Though I'm sure it would be same delicious as a butter! It is perfect for example with: fresh, hot bread/rolls, with cold meats, tomatoes, for brushetta, ciabatta bread... :)

Recipe, slightly changed, comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 250g of cottage cheese (low-, semi- or full-fat)
• a bunch of fresh basil
• 1/2-1 clove of garlic
• 8 tablespoons of oil 
• 1 teaspoon of black ground pepper
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of sichuan pepper

Preparation:

1. Put the cheese in a bowl, add spices (black pepper, salt, sichuan pepper). 
2. Take a blender and its bowl (or any bowl suitable for blending), put basil, garlic and oil inside, blend till smooth (or almost smooth). 
3. Mix basil paste with cottage cheese, blend till smooth.
4. Store closed in the fridge.
5. Bon Appetit! :)

Puff pastry cookies with strawberries and Nutella

Are unexpected guests coming soon? Don't you have a clue what to put on the table? Are you organizing a party where sophisticated cakes aren't a suitable match? This is an easy, quick, and overtasty solution :) I do strongly recommend :) They're outrageous!

The recipe comes from this website, as usually, I changed a tiny little bit :)

Ingredients:

• 1 packing of good quality ready made puff pastry
• 1/2 jar of Nutella (or something very similar in taste to Nutella)
• 100 g of strawberries
• powdered sugar

Optional ingredients:

• chopped pistachios (to sprinkle the top)

Preparation:

1. If your puff pastry is totally frozen - defrost it. It needs to be in a room temperature (so that it won't shrink during baking).
2. Take your puff pastry and using a shape cutter (in every shape you want, it doesn't need to be a heart shape) make as many shapes as you can from your puff pastry. Roll the leftovers of the puffpastry and use it as well. If the puff pastry is too sticky - use some flour (sprinkle it on the puff pastry and rolling pin)
3. Put the cutouts on a baking sheet (remember to put the baking paper on your baking sheet)
4. Put in the middle of every cutout 1 teaspoon of Nutella
5. Take the strawberries and - optionally - cut them into halves.
6. Put the strawberries on Nutella.
7. Bake in 200 C for 15-17 minutes (may be ready faster - keep an eye on them - if the colour is gold - it is ready). Cool down.
8. Add some powdered sugar on the top.
9. Bon Appetit ! :)

Rafaello

Finally! :) After few considerations and reading many descriptions about this cake, I finally decided to prepare it :) Prepare - not bake, because it is a non-baking cake! ;) (and I really, really love such cakes - time&energy saving ;) ). I prepared it, mixing all the ideas for this cake I found on the Internet. I must honestly admit that all the people who tried it enjoyed it a lot. To my great surprise, among many (from my point of view) better cakes, this Rafaello was the one that disappeared first. 

And - this is another cake, after greatest-of-them-all Gourmet Sensation and it's brother Gourmet Sensation vol 2. which really gets better with time! (second day, amazing!) 

I do recommend! Easy, not expensive, wonderful cake, both in its appearance and taste :)

Though, surprisingly, this cake might be even better - try the second version of Rafaello here.

Ingredients: (for a small rectangular pan, otherwise there's not enough cream, but You can double the ingredients and make double cream, then You'll also need more crackers)

• 1 litre of 3,2% milk
• 2 vanilla powdered custards, 40g each (or double the recipe for this budyń, recipe here ;) )
• 2 tablespoons of potato starch
• 3/4 glass of sugar
• 2-3 vanilla sugars (16g each)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk
• 250g of butter
• 200g of shredded coconut (150g for the cream, 50g to sprinkle the top)
• 2-3(3-5 if bigger pan) packs of crackers (rectangular shape)

Optional ingredients:

• almond flakes, for sprinkling the top
• 1/2 glass of vodka or 
• 1/2-3/4 glass of advocaat (if You wish to add any alcohol, I would recommend this one)

Preparation of budyn/custard:

For those of You, who has powdered custard, follow the steps below, if You can't buy powdered budyn/custard then follow all the steps in that recipe, just remember to double all the ingredients.

1. Take a glass, fill 3/4 of it with milk. Add powdered custard and potato starch. Stir till smooth (no clumps please!)
2. Take a pot, put all the remaining milk in there, add sugar, start boiling. Stir from time to time to help the sugar dissolve. Bring to boil and add the mixture from the glass. Lower the heat, stir energetically till it turns thick. Cool down.

Now, when the custard is ready: 

1. Using a stand mixer, mix butter with egg yolk, adding cooled down custard, one tablespoon after another.
2. Here is a good time to add alcohol and mix.
3. Add shredded coconut (leave around 50g for sprinkling the top), mix till it links.
4. Take a rectangular pan - preferably a rectangular springform pan (no baking paper inside is necessary, in both cases).
5. Put one layer of crackers and start adding some part of the cream, to cover the entire crackers layer (yes, I realize how hard it is to distribute the cream, You can use many techniques to make it easier - for example: put some lumps and try to link them or distribute the cream through syringe and then smooth it with a spoon)
6. Put another layer of crackers and cream - repeat till all the ingredients are used, the last layer is cream.
7. Sprinkle the top with shredded coconut or/and almond flakes.
8. Cover the cake with foil, put in the frigde for at least 3 hours.
9. Bon Appetit! ;)

Tropical Pavlova

I have no idea why I was hesitating for such long time... this is absolutely gorgeous... It exceeded all my expectations :) not only its appearance on the table is wonderful but the taste is just overdelicious! sweet meringue with tropical fruits! this is a real feast for senses ;) I do recommend! :) 

For those afraid of baking a meringue - here is a tip - you can buy a ready-made one in a good bakery ;) And they are probably available in a few sizes - you can make a couple of small pavlovas or one, very big :) all of them will be same delicious :)

Recipe for the meringue comes from this website, the rest is my idea, as Pavlova might be prepared in plenty different ways and will always taste good :)

Note: meringue and lemon curd might be prepared earlier. But - lemon curd must be stored in a closed box, in the fridge.

Ingredients:

Meringue:

• 4 egg whites from 4 big eggs 
• 250g of sugar 
• 1 teaspoon of potato starch 
• 1 teaspoon of white or rice vinegar 

Lemon curd:

• 3 eggs 
• lemon zest and lemon juice from 3 lemons 
• 100g of powdered sugar 
• 100g of cool butter 

Whipped cream:

• 500 ml of 36% cream 
• 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar 
• 1-2 packages of powdered whipped cream (to stiffen the whipped cream, or polish smietan-fix*) 

* remember to stick to the proportions while using powdered products. If powder package says it is enough for 200 ml of cream/milk (no difference), and you're using 500ml of cream - add 2 packages.

Top:

• Tropical fruit (any, tinned or fresh) 
• peach 
• mango 
• passionfruit 
• lychee 
• pineapple 
• guava 
• ... :) 
• a handful of shredded coconut, to sprinkle the top 

Preparation:

Meringue:

1. Preheat the oven to 120C (without convection, just this time) 
2. Prepare a baking sheet, cover with baking paper. Draw a circle (diameter: for M size eggs - 18 cm, for L size eggs - 20 cm). Put aside. 
3. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside, start beating. After a while, start adding sugar, one tablespoon after another, stiring precisely all the time. The beating should take 10-15 minutes, not less. The meringue after the beating should be stiff and shiny. 
4. When done, add potato starch and vinegar and beat for another few minutes so that it links. 
5. Using a spoon or spatula, distribute the meringue on the baking sheet, on the drawn circle. Pull up the sides. (please don't play with it much, just few good moves, because the meringue might be destroyed). 
6. Put in the oven and bake for 30 min in 120C. After that time, lower the temperature to 100C and bake for another 3 hours. 

Lemon curd:

Lemon curd requires a 'bath' so it is necessary to have a suitable pot and a bowl, that can be put one on another.

1. Chop the butter into smaller pieces. 
2. Take a pot, put some water inside, start boiling it. 
3. Take a bowl that matches the pot, put eggs inside, beat. 
4. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar and stir till everything links and there are no lumps. 
5. Now put the bowl on the top of your pot (make sure the bowl stands out from the pot so that you don't get burn) and slowly keep heating up the mixture (don't boil it). 
6. Keep adding the butter, one piece after another, stiring after adding. 
7. When all the butter is melted in the mixture, turn off the heat and put the bowl with lemon curd somewhere aside, to let it cool down. 
8. Then put your lemon curd in the fridge so that it stiffens more. 

Finishing:

1. Prepare fruit. If fresh - wash, peel (if necessaroy) and chop. Dry them on a paper towel. Put aside for a while. If tinned - half of the job is already done - just chop and dry. 
2. When the meringue is baked and cooled down, distribute cooled down lemon curd all over the top. 
3. Now, prepare whipped cream going through the steps below:
   
   Whipped cream: 
   1. Before preparing the whipped cream make sure your cream is really, really cool (I always put it in the freezer before beating, for around 10-15 minutes). 
   2. Take a mixer and its bowl, put cream inside, start mixing. After a while add powdered sugar and something to stiffen it (powdered whipped cream/smietan-fix). 
   3. Beat for around 10 minutes (depending on the power of a mixer it might take more or less time, keep paying attention not to make butter).
   
   
4. Distribute whipped cream all over the top. 
5. Just for the sake of safety, dry all the fruit again on a paper towel, before putting them on the meringue with whipped cream (as the juice from fruit may destroy both whipped cream and meringue). Make any pattern you wish out of the fruit. 
6. Sprinkle with shredded coconut. 
7. Store in the fridge. 
8. Bon Appetit! ;) 

Monte Coffee

I really enjoy trying new tastes of coffee out! That's why, for example, I never order in a restaurant a coffee that I can prepare on my own at home ;)
So, today, here is a cute and very sweet idea from MK Cafe website :) It contains a well-known dessert/yoghurt for children, that I think everyone loves - ohh yes - Monte :) 
....The real taste and pleasure begins, obviously, when you stir all the coffee layers together... ;)
Mmmmm, I will come back to this recipe very soon, I'm sure!
Bon Appetit, everyone! ;) especially Monte Lovers ;)

Ingredients (for 1 coffee):

• 1 monte
• 50-100 ml of milk
• 100-200 ml of black coffee
• 50-150ml of milk foam 
• brown sugar (optional)

 For the top:

• whipped cream, chocolate (chips), cinnamon, cocoa, caramel, nuts... :)

Preparation:

1. Take a latte spoon. Using it, take the first, white layer of monte, put it on the left or right bottom side of a latte glass. Do the same with the dark, chocolate part of monte, putting it on the opposite bottom side.
2. Gently patter the latte glass on the surface, so that monte  won't mix that easily with the milk.
3. Prepare your favourite coffee (without adding milk).
4. Add sugar to the coffee if you wish and stir.
5. Hold the glass, tilt it a little and start adding milk, pouring it slowly down through the glass's side.
6. Using the same method as with the milk, slowly add the coffee.
7. Cover with milk foam or whipped cream and additional toppings.
8. Bon Appetit! ;)

Eggs In Dressing

A nice, light starter, which looks (and tastes) surprisingly wonderful. It is also an interesting variation for casual, well-known boiled eggs. This is the kind of recipe that could be described as 'you wouldn't come up with such idea even though it is so easy and seems so obvious' ;) Everyone enjoyed it a lot :) It disappeared quite quickly from the table, if that will persuade you to try it ;)

The idea derives from this website.

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of mayo
• 1-2 bunches of dill, chopped
• salt, pepper
• boiled eggs, cut into halves
• 5-7 radishes, cut into slices
• a bunch of chive, chopped

Preparation:

1. Take a blender with its cube cutter, put the dill inside, mix. Add mayo, mix again till smooth.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Put aside for a while (it will change its taste a little). Season again, if necessary.
4. Put egg halves on an oval plate, pour the mayo dressing on the plate. Sprinkle with radishes and chive. 
5. Bon Appetit ;)

Pasta with basil pesto

Ohhh my! this is the very best meal I've recently eaten! And it might be prepared in many different variations as there are a few types of pesto :) Another advantage, for those of You, who has little time - some of the ingredients - like pesto - might be bought, ready-made, no need to prepare home-made pesto :) though I do encourage You to try ;)

Recipe for a good basil pesto.

Just one important thing about basil pesto - home-made or ready-made: do not heat it up, as it may change its taste, into bitter, because of the basil, so that you may not like it anymore.

Ingredients:

• 1 packaging of lovage-flavoured pasta
• 1 jar/packaging of ready-made pesto (or see the pesto ingredients&recipe below)
• 500g of chicken breasts
• salt, pepper, oregano (optionally something else to make it more spicy, like cayenne pepper)
• grated cheese
• chopped parsley leaves

Home-made pesto:

Ingredients:

• 25g of fresh basil leaves
• 1/3 small clove of garlic
• 25g of pine nuts or pumpkin seeds or cashew or walnuts
• 10g of 'hard' cheese, (like permigiano, grana padano, pecorino)
• 70ml of olive oil
• sea salt, freshly ground black pepper

Pesto preparation:

1. Take a blender, put all the ingredients inside and crush them all into very small pieces. In the end, season with spices.

Preparation:

1. Take a pot, put water inside, add a little salt, boil. When boiling, add pasta and boil for around 10 minutes, stiring from time to time (basic pasta preparation).
2. Take the chicken, chop into small pieces and put in a bowl. Season with salt, pepper, oregano (and optionally cayenne) and stir/shake, so that it covers all the pieces.
3. Take a frying pan, add oil, start heating. Add chicken and fry till gold.
4. Strain the pasta, put some on your plate, add some chicken, put pesto on it. Sprinkle with grated cheese*, some freshly ground pepper and parsley leaves.
5. Bon Appetit! :)

*If the meal isn't hot enough anymore to melt the cheese, it is ok to add cheese before pesto and put it for a few seconds in a microwave.

Cinnamon Buns

Slightly changed, the recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients (for around 20 buns, depending on size):

• 20g of fresh yeast
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 glasses of flour
• 1/2 glass of milk
• 1 egg
• 63g of melted, cooled down butter
• pinch of salt

Filling:

• 70-80g of melted butter
• 1/3-1/2 glass of brown sugar
• few teaspoons of ground cinnamon

Optional filling ingredients:

• raisins

Preparation:

1. Take a bowl, put yest, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour and half of the milk, stir, to prepare a leaven and put aside in a warm place, for around 15 minutes (it needs to double its size).
2. During that time, melt 63g of butter and cool down a little.
3. Take another bowl, put remaining flour, salt, egg and the rest of milk and sugar inside. Add the leaven. Knead for around 10 minutes, till smooth. 
4. Add milk and knead again till it stops sticking to a hand. Put aside in a warm place, so that it doubles its size again (it may take more time than previously).
5. During that time, melt the butter for the filling.
6. Take a baking tray, put baking paper on it. Put aside.
7. Divide the dough into 3 parts. Take a rolling pin and roll out (using only a little flour) the first piece. Distibute the butter all over, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and opitionally raisins.
8. Roll up (tight, tube shape) and cut into 3-4 cm pieces.
9. Put every piece gently on previously prepared baking tray, leaving some space between every bun, cause they will grow up.
10. Bake for 10-15 minutes in 180C.
11. Bon appetit! ;)

Mascarpone Pancakes

That's a very tasty idea, for instance for those of you who don't eat meat on friday or enjoy eating something cruelly sweet while drinking coffee ;)

Ingredients:

Pancakes:

• 160g of flour
• 300ml of 3,2% milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoon of sugar
• 16g of vanilla sugar
• pinch of salt
• 30g of melted, cooled down butter

Filling (optional):

• 250g of mascarpone cheese + 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
• chocolate and caramel sauces
• almonds
• fruit

Preparation:

1. Take a mixer and its bowl. 
2. Put flour, milk, eggs, sugars and salt inside, mix till smooth.
3. Add melted butter, mix till smooth again. Put aside.
4. Take another bowl. Put mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar inside. Mix with a fork or spoon, gently, a little.
5. Take a quite big frying pan(flat one, preferably), grease it with oil, and using a paper towel, distribute the oil on the entire frying pan.
6. Turn on the heat so that it heats up.
7. Put some dough on the pan and distribute it immidiately on the entire frying pan, to make a thin pancake.
8. Fry for few minutes on both sides.
9. Put the pancake on a plate.
10. Distribute mascarpone mixture on the entire pancake surface. Add caramel sauce.
11. Fold the sides of the pancake, then its bottom and at the end the top.
12. Overturn. Decorate with chocolate sauce, almonds, fruit.
13. Bon Appetit!

Bajadera

Bajadera. What is it? Well - that's a fantastic, last second idea which always works, always tastes delicious as it is chocolate sweet, soft and moist. 

I do recommend, especially when you have no time and your oven is tired as it is a non-baking recipe ;)
But - if You have time and enjoy baking, decorating, creating sweet wonders - see also Bajadera Reindeers.

Quite changed recipe comes from this website.

Ingredients:

• 400g of dried pound cake (preferably lemon or vanilla flavoured)
• 120g of mascarpone cheese
• 80g of nutella
• 350g of milk chocolate
• favourite mincemeat (including for example nuts, almonds; or  baking cocoa)
• some plastic small sticks
• sprinkles for decoratation

Optional ingredients:

• 10-25ml of Rum
• dried fruit - but in very small pieces

Preparation:

1. If your pound cake isn't dried enough, it is a good idea to crumble it into very small pieces and put it in the preheated oven(over 180C) for a couple of minutes.
2. Take a mixer and it's bowl. Put mascarpone cheese and nutella inside. Mix till smooth.
3. Put dried pound cake to the bowl and mix everything till smooth. 
4. Here is the time to add and mix optional ingredients if desired.
5. Cover with foil and cool down in the freezer for 45 minutes.
6. During that time, prepare a rectangular bakewell pan or loaf tin or - something that you can put in your freezer. Put some baking paper on its bottom.
7. Take the dough out from the freezer and start making small balls, put each of them in previously prepared pan/tin.
8. Put back in the freezer for another 30 minutes.
9. During that time prepare small paper muffin cases and sprinkles around you.
10. Also, take a pot, put chocolate (in small pieces) inside and melt on a very low heat.
11. Take one ball from the freezer, dip 1/3 of a stick inside a ball and dip in the chocolate, so that it covers the entire ball, take out from the chocolate, wait till the excess of chocolate falls down.
12. As the ball is very cold, the chocolate will stiffen on it very fast, so as soon as you take it out from the chocolate pot, take out the stick, put it on a muffin case and decorate.
13. Store finished bajaderas in the fridge.
14. Bon Appetit! ;)

Gourmet Sensation vol. 2

Here is another version of my Gourmet Sensation. Don't try to call it 'worse' or 'poor'! ;) You will have problems to stop devouring it ;) It is same easy and same tasty :) 

And - it gets better with time :)

Ingredients:

• 2-3 packs of biscuits (butter ones)
• 2 vanilla custards (here is a recipe for home-made custard called 'budyn', you'll probably need to double the ingredients to make it suitable for that cake)
• 2 tins of fudge
• 36% cream: 2 options:

*if powdered:

you will need 2 sachets which need to be combined with milk (the method of preparing it is written on the sachet, you will probably need around 200 ml of milk per sachet)
* if real, fresh, liquid one, to whip it up: 1 packaging(around 330 ml, but it is ok to use more)  + 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar + here I do recommend using some kind of powder that can stiffen the cream (in Poland: śmietan-fix, made mainly of glucose and starch)

• baking cocoa, to sprinkle the top of the cake (or grated chocolate, preferably dark chocolate, because the cake is really sweet itself)

Preparation:

Briefly, tiers:

1. biscuits
2. custard/budyń
3. biscuits
4. fudge
5. biscuits
6. whipped cream
7. chocolate/cocoa

Preparation:

* every tier will cover the entire surface of the tin.

1. Take a rectangular springform cake tin.
2. Put one tier of biscuits on the bottom of your cake tin.
3. Prepare the custard and pour it on biscuits (don't wait till it cools down).
4. Take a pot, pour some water inside, start heating.
5. Open tins with fudge, put them in the pot. Boil on a low heat (keep looking at it, but nothing bad should happen). Stir from time to time.
6. Put another tier of biscuits - no need to wait till the custard is cold.
7. Stir the fudge slowly, check if it isn't burning anyhow (though it shouldn't).
8. If the water with tins already boils, stir the fudge and turn off the heat. Using for instance a tea towel, take the first tin and a spoon, and pour the fudge on the biscuits. Distribute all over the biscuits. Take another tin and reapeat the action.
9. Put another tier of biscuits.
10. Put everything in a cold place or in a fridge, so that it cools down completely.
11. Prepare whipped cream.
12. When the cake is cooled down, distribute whipped cream all over the top.
13. Shortly before serving, sprinkle the top with chocolate/cocoa.
14. Keep in a fridge.
15. Bon Appetit! :)