My gluten free baking was a disaster at the very beginning. I was quite lost and I had no idea where to look for advice or tips that might help me with this whole gluten free topic. I was in London back then (when I was told I have the celiac disease), and I remember entering a bookshop and discovering a huge shelf of books about gluten free diet. I was very happy to see so many options and so many "textbooks" that I might use from now on. I bought at least three books right on the spot and started digging into them immediately.
The excitement and happiness was gone the minute after I went through most of the recipes and realised that I will definitely not use any of them. I don't know why it is so, that all those recipes had to include some exotic ingredients which are only available online or in some very special stores that you definitely cannot find around the corner. It didn't make any sense to me. Is it really that impossible to bake gluten free using more "normal" ingredients..? I have spent days going through different books, websites and blogs, and finally I found some niche blogs and websites that were helpful (most of them are polish). So it turned out one does not need to have all those fancy flours that are ridiculously expensive. Rice flour, corn flour, potato flour, buckwheat flour and the fanciest one - amaranth flour are the solution! Of course I understand if people want to experiment with different ingredients, but for me it really was a problem to find them all and most importantly, they would probably completely ruin my home budget..

So, here is a proof of what one can do with rice flour. I promise, you won't be disappointed!

Ingredients:

160g rice flour

120g sugar

4 bananas (middle size)

80g lactose free butter (at room temperature)

2 eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

200g frozen cherries

a pinch of salt

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (top and bottom heat) and line the muffin tin with muffin cups.

2. Beat butter with sugar and a pinch of salt, then add the eggs and mix together. 

3. Mix rice flour with baking powder and vanilla sugar and add gradually to the butter and eggs, then mix them together.

4. Mash up bananas and add them to the dough. Mix thoroughly. 

5. Fold in the frozen cherries (with a spoon, not the mixer).

6. Fill the dough into the muffin cups and bake for 35-40 minutes.

(I have taken these out a bit too early - patience is not my strongest virtue... but they still tasted perfect! Although I didn't let them grow up much:) )

Recipe from: here

Chocolate mousse cake (gluten free + lactose free)

My cravings for chocolate, sweetness and warmth have officially peaked lately. Who doesn't need chocolate when we have Autumn outside..?! Coming home from a long day spent at work or school is so much better when you know a chocolate cake is waiting for you. I have spent the last weeks on trying out different recipes and soon you will see some results of those trials here. Going on the gluten free diet is not an easy thing, when one was used to baking cakes and cookies all the time. Now I am trying to figure out the ways to make everything I love most in the gluten free way. Hopefully I will succeed with at least some of my favourite things. For now, I am leaving you with this chocolate cake, which definitely has the best chocolate mousse frosting I have ever tried. It is so delicious and so easy to work with while decorating the cake! You have to try it out.

Ingredients: 

Cake base:

4 eggs 

100 g sugar 

80 g rice flour 

50 g cornstarch 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

pinch of salt

Chocolate mousse:

100 g milk chocolate, chopped

100 g dark chocolate, chopped

300 g softened butter (lactose free) + a tiny bit of salt, or you can use the salted butter

90 g powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder

pinch of salt

Tiny meringues:

2 egg whites (around 70 g)

pinch of salt

130 g sugar (crystal or powdered)

pinch of cocoa powder

Preparation:

Cake base (16 cm baking form)
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, top and bottom heat.
2. Separate the egg whites and egg yolks.
3. Beat the egg yolks with around 40 g of sugar in a bowl.
4. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until half stiff then add a pinch of salt and the remaining sugar, beat until stiff.
5. Gently fold in the egg yolks into the beaten egg whites, preferably using a wooden spoon.
6. Sift in the flours and the baking powder in three portions, mixing gently (by hand, not with a mixer).
7. Line the base of the baking form with baking paper and pour in half of the batter. (If you have 2 baking forms, bake them together at the same time. I only have one, so I had to do this twice)
8. Bake for around 25 minutes. Then switch off the oven and open the oven door slightly, letting the cake cool down slowly. When it is colder take it out and remove from the baking form.

Chocolate mousse frosting
1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside until it reaches room temperature.
2. Beat the butter until very pale and fluffy, then add sugar, salt and vanilla powder and beat together.
3. Add the chocolate and beat for another 3-4 minutes until the mousse gets fluffy.

Meringues:
1. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees and line a baking plate with baking paper.
1. Put the egg whites in a dry mixer bowl, add salt and beat until almost stiff.
2. Gradually, still mixing add sugar, spoon by spoon.
3. Beat the mixture until the structure is smooth. If using crystal sugar, it might take a while before it melts, so the beating process takes some time.
4. Put a tiny bit of the cocoa powder on the sides of the confectionary sleeve (inside), fill in the sleeve with the beaten egg whites and create small meringues (the shape will differ depending on the cake tip you're using).
5. Bake for around 50 minutes, then turn of the oven and leave them to cool down, before removing from the baking form.

Inspiration:here

Linseed bread (Gluten free + lactose Free)

I think it's time for a bread recipe here! So far I have really been struggling with finding a recipe that would not take ages to prepare and tons of luck to succeed. Of course I used the ready flour blends for gluten free bread, but I am not entirely sure what they contain and their price is a bit ridiculous. 

I came across this recipe on one of the blogs I've been reading (olgasmile). I tried it for the first time already a while ago, but I wanted to make it at least a couple of times to make sure it's this kind of recipe that always works out. So many times I've tried a new recipe and the result was terrible.. I don't want to waste kilograms of ingredients and hours of oven work just to realise the recipe works out once out of ten trials. So this one, I can assure you, is perfect! Healthy, tasty and gluten free. Doesn't get better than this. At least until I figure out a new recipe that could beat this one:).

 

Ingredients: 

1 ½ cup of buckwheat flour
1 ½ cup of rice flour
½ cup of amaranth flour
⅓ cup of potato flour
500 - 550 ml of water
3 tablespoons of linseed (ground)
2 teaspoons of dried yeast
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil + a bit extra for greasing the form
optionally: 1 teaspoon of your favourite herbs like oregano, basil, etc.

Preparation:

1. Grease a baking form with some olive oil.

2. Put the ground linseed in a bowl and pour in 200 ml of boiling water, mix with a spoon and leave for 5 minutes. Afterwards blend it with a hand blender to get a sticky and smooth texture.

3. In a bigger bowl, put all dry ingredients and mix them together, then add the remaining 300 - 350 ml of water, the linseed mixture and olive oil. Mix together until smooth. The dough should have a rather thick texture.

4. Put the bread dough into the baking form, cover with a tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 50 - 60 minutes.

5. Bake at 190 degrees (top/bottom heat).

6. Wait with slicing until it's cold, otherwise you might end up with a sad layer.

Breakfast in bed: Gluten Free toasts with avocado and tomatoes

For me, Sundays should be the lazy days, when we spend hours covered in blanket and reading books or watching our favourite movies, surrounded by food. Maybe not for the whole day... but I don't mind that at all! If only that was possible more often than it truly is. With all the duties, things to do and take care of, we don't really get a chance to stop for a moment and relax, doing simply nothing. So when we do get that chance, I always make sure it's used to the fullest. And my recipe for such time is always filled with good, simple food, litres of tea and no hurry. Last Sunday was like this for me, I could relax a little bit and slow down. After waking up, still wearing my pyjamas I heated up the owen, took out some bread I baked the day before and gathered other things I could find in my kitchen. And so we ended up with tomato and avocado toasts for breakfast. Great begining of a day!

Ingredients: 

7-8 slices of gluten free bread

1 big avocado

10 cherry tomatoes

a handful of olives (I used the ones stuffed with pepper)

3 tablespoons of grated mature cheddar (lactose free)

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of oregano

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. And line the baking form with baking paper.

2. Take the bread slices and brush some olive oil on top of each slice, then sprinkle oregano on each piece.

3. Wash the avocado, remove its skin and stone, and slice into thin pieces. Spread the pieces around all bread slices.

4. Slice the olives in half and spread around the bread as well.

5. Finally distribute the cheese on top of each sandwich.

5. Bake for 15 minutes, then put on the freshly slices cherry tomatoes on each toast and sprinkle with some salt.

Enjoy while still warm!

Pasta with tomatoes and fresh basil (Gluten free + Lactose free)

During summer, everything I cook and bake tends to be quick and easy. When it is warm outside, I don't need to figure out meals that should warm us up and keep us cozy while we're covered with a thick blanket (although I truly prefer it!). During summer everything can be delicately warm and light.

This pasta is a perfect example of my favourite summer dinner. It tastes amazingly good, consists of few ingredients and is very, very light. Plus I need to mention the smell of it... fresh basil leaves are so good! I can't believe that back it time I didn't like basil...

I added some feta cubes which are not lactose free, but I couldn't resist it (I can easily eat dairy products). My boyfriend got his lactose free/feta free version and still was very happy about the taste.

Ingredients (serves 2-3 people):

200-300 g of Gluten Free Pasta

2 cups of cherry tomatoes cut in half, or smaller (leave a couple of them to put fresh on top of the plate)

70 g of Black Forest ham / prosciutto (gluten+lactose free)

a handful of fresh basil leaves

1/2 red onion

1 small chilli pepper

approximately 1/2 cup of olive oil

1/4 teaspoon of dried garlic

1 teaspoon of oregano

salt & pepper (according to your liking)

Optionally: feta cheese cut into cubes (don't put them if you prefer the lactose free option)

Preparation:

1. Wash the onion, tomatoes, basil leaves and chilli pepper. Peel the onion and cut the half of it into small pieces, then cut the tomatoes in halves and the chilli pepper into tiny pieces.

2. Heat up the frying pan, add some olive oil and start frying the onion, after 2-3 mins add tomatoes (leave some aside, to use them fresh afterwards), chilli pepper and all spices and fry together for 5 minutes. 

3. Chop most of the basil leaves (leaving a few for later) and add them to the frying pan, fry together with the onion and tomatoes. Add 1/4 cup of olive oil and stir it in. Fry for approximately 10 minutes.

4. In the meantime, boil the pasta with a dash of salt. 

5. Once the pasta is cooked, stir the remaining olive oil to it, add the fresh basil leaves and then pour the tomatoes and onion sauce. 

6. Use the hot frying pan for frying the Black forest ham (first cut it into small strips), fry it for no more than 3 mins and add to the pasta pot. 

7. Serve with fresh basil leaves on top and a couple of feta cubes. 

 

Pear and almond cake (gluten free + lactose free)

I made a cake. Again. I really wish I could finally show you some photos of breakfast/lunch/dinner proposals, but I end up baking more and more cakes! The thing is, whenever I make dinner or prepare something warm, it disappears so quickly that I cannot take any photos. Cause it's simply... gone. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's the reality. And I really am trying to work on it! I just got a package from my boyfriend's mom with (i.a.) so many amazing oils (hazelnut oil is simply incredible!!) that now I have to use them and show some results here. Especially that I really do prefer savoury to sweets! It doesn't look like this so far, I know. But there will be changes (hopefully!).

Anyway, the recipe of today is the the pear and almond cake I found on My Darling Lemon Thyme (slightly adapted). I love everything that has almonds in it, so I was more than sure that the cake must be good. It was a lovely day, so I dragged my boyfriend out of the house (come on, it's sunny!) and we started the pear-hunting. For the last two weeks the shelves that usually hold loads of vegetables and fruit very empty (terrible times!), so it was quite a challenge to find some pears. After stopping by to more stores that I can count, we finally found what we needed and we headed home. And so I started to peel the pears, gather all ingredients and to heat up the oven. I simply love this moment. When all the ingredients are out on the kitchen table, the oven is slowly heating up and I can just enjoy the kitchen magic. Wow, it sounds so terrible! Too bad, I really feel amazing, when I cook and bake. Especially when an hour or two later I can see pure joy in my boyfriend's eyes, when he's looking at his plate filled with food. Getting back to the cake! It turned out really tasty and aromatic, and the combination of pears and almonds is so good!

Ingredients (for a 24 cm baking form):

4 eggs

140 g of sugar

300 g of almond flour

3 pears

45 g of rice flour

80 ml olive oil / rice oil

lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger

a pinch of salt

powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease the baking form and cover it with a baking paper.

2. Peel the pears and cut them into small thin pieces. Leave out half of 1 pear and slice it into bigger (but still thin) pieces to put them on the top of the cake.

3. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together with a mixer, until thick and pale (for around 5 minutes).

3. Still beating, add lemon zest and oil. Then continue adding almond flour, rice flour, baking powder and the spices and keep mixing until the batter gets smooth.

4. Using a spoon, gently fold in the pear pieces into the batter.

5. Pour the batter into the baking form and distribute the bigger pear pieces on the top of the cake.

6. Bake the cake for around 55-60 mins (check with a skewer if the cake is dry). Afterwards take it out from the oven and let it cool for a while.

Hint for myself: prepare a caramel sauce next time you bake this cake! (The cake is amazing on its own, it's just a quick thought that it might be even better with a caramel sauce...)

Lemon Tart (Gluten free + Lactose free)

Surprisingly summer has come to Denmark for one or two days this week. Finally the rain was gone, the wind turned warm and the sun was shining for more than 5 minutes. While living in Poland, I remember being so tired of warm and sun during summer time. Now when I am here in Denmark I really cherish the moments when the temperature rises and the sun is shining. After all they do not happen very often. I should really get used to this already! Anyway. There is no summer mood without a summer cake, so the moment I realised how warm and sunny it was, I was on my way to the kitchen with a new recipe in mind. Thanks to Lisia Kawiarenka I had the recipe for a lovely lemon tart. It turned out extremely good! It is officially the best cake I have ever made. I made some adjustments to have the cake not only gluten but also lactose free and I am very happy with the result.
By the way, I found these amazing weights at my grandmother's basement and I just fell in love with them. When I am visiting again, I definitely need to dig deeper in all the old and vintage things that are hidden in my grandparent's basement..

Ingredients:

Pastry (for a 24 cm baking form)

60 g of corn flour

40 g of potato starch (any starch would work)

30 g of buckwheat flour

30 g of amaranth flour

¾ teaspoon of guar gum

a pinch of salt

115 g of lactose free butter

3-5 tablespoons of cold water

Filling

¾ cup of sugar

lemon zest (from 2 lemons)

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

¼ cup of potato starch (any starch would work)

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 ¼ cup of lactose free yogurt

½ cup of lactose free cream 36%

¼ cup of fresh lemon juice (from 1 big lemon)

a pinch of salt

Preparation:

1. Mix all ingredients for the pastry in a bowl and knead until nice and smooth. Once it is ready, put it in the fridge for 30 mins to 1 hour.

2. Take out the pastry and put it on the baking form. Everytime I do the cake, the pastry is rather sticky so I don't even try to roll it out into the form. I simply take small pieces of the pastry and consequently cover the whole form with it, by hand.

3. Puncture the pastry with a fork and put in the freezer for around 30 mins. Putting it in the fridge won't hurt either, if you have no space in the freezer (which is almost always in my case!)

4. Set the oven to 200 degrees, cover the pastry with baking paper and put for example lentils or beans to have some weight over the cake, and bake for 20-25 mins. Then remove the baking paper with lentils/beans and bake for another 5 mins.

5. Remove from the oven and let it cool for a moment, while you prepare the filling. Also, decrease the oven temperature to 165 degrees.

6. Mix sugar with lemon zest and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Add flour and salt.

7. Slowly add one egg (and additional egg yolks) after another mixing gently (low speed on the mixer) until it gets smooth.

8. Still mixing, add yogurt, cream and lemon juice and mix together to get a nice smooth mixture. It will be very liquid, but that's just how it should be, so no worries!

9. Pour the filling in the form with the pastry and put in the oven for 40-50 mins. If kept longer, the filling starts to crack a little, but it's still delicious so it's not a big issue.

10. Let the tart cool for a while before serving.

Chocolate & Coconut birthday cake! (Gluten free + Lactose free)

First it was my boyfriend sister's birthday, then it was finally his turn to get his own cake and some birthday presents. This cake was again a trial and error process. If I were to do it again I already know what should be different. However my boyfriend was truly happy about this cake and before I even noticed, it was already gone. 

While looking for all ingredients for the cake I came across these adorable popcorn boxes. I couldn't resist them so I had to include them in the photos. Another thing I was very excited about were the roasted coconut flakes. I have never tried it before, but the minute I saw it on the store's shelf, I could already imagine it as the cake's frosting. Eventually, I came back home with the package of the roasted coconuts, lactose free cream cheese, cocoa powder and a blurry idea of what I will do with all this. In the end, I decided to bake a sponge cake with added cocoa powder, use the cream cheese and some powdered sugar for the cream, add some homemade cherry jam and finish off with the roasted coconut flakes.

Ingredients:

Spong cake (16 cm baking form)

3 eggs

130 g of sugar

0,3 cap of corn flour

0,3 cup of potato flour

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder

(Baking this sponge cake once was enough to have 2 layers for the cake)

Frosting

300 g of cream cheese (lactose free)

150 g of butter (lactose free)

3/4 cup of powdered sugar

100 g of roasted coconut flakes

Additionally

~ 5 tablespoons of homemade cherry jam 

Preparation

Sponge cake

1. Preheat the oven to 160-170 degrees, then cover the bottom of the baking form with baking paper. (Sides should not be covered)

2. Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Start mixing the egg whites until they get thick. Gradually add sugar and then the egg yolks (one by one, while mixing). Keep mixing until the batter is smooth.

3. Add flour and the cocoa powder to the batter and mix together either using a spoon or with a mixer at the lowest speed.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared baking form and bake for 30-40 minutes. (Avoid opening the oven door while baking)

5. Once the cake sponge is ready, take it out from the oven and carefully throw it (in the form) down to the table from the height of approximately 50-60 cm. This will make the cake flat and well shaped.

Cream and Frosting
1. Beat the butter until it is light and creamy. Then add powdered sugar and keep on mixing until it gets smooth. Beat in the cream cheese afterwards and put the ready mixture in the fridge for a while. It will thicken and get more stiff, which makes it easier to distribute it on the cake afterwards.

2. Spread a thin layer of the cream on the cake layers using a spatula. Refrigerate for around 15 minutes. (I also put some homemade cherry jam in between the two layers of the sponge cake, again, to make the taste of the whole cake more characteristic and interesting). In the end, spread the remaining frosting all over the cake and cover with the roasted coconut flakes. 

Summer fruit tart ( Gluten free + Lactose Free)

While spending two weeks back at home I could finally relax and enjoy the summer weather. Sitting for hours in my garden, drinking strawberry smoothies and reading was my daily routine. I miss this already, now when I am back in Denmark, writing this post! This tart here was a result of a lazy afternoon spent with my mom and my grandma. With 30 degrees outside, we were sitting in my grandma's backyard, chatting and breathing in the hot but still fresh summer breeze. 

The institution of a grandma in Poland is very special I must mention. A grandma is almost always the most important person in the family, who with all her experience can advise everyone on everything. Or at least she is very much convinced about it. But most importantly a grandma will NEVER let her kids, grandkids, friends or even strangers walk away without forcing them to eat a full meal, huge dessert and to drink a cup of tea. And a cup of tea can never be drunk alone... you need a piece of cake to it, or two pieces, or three. "Look at you! You are way too skinny!" And there is no way out, no excuse. But the truth is, no matter what grandma prepares, it tastes amazing. So even if you are not hungry, you would eat it all.

Sitting and chatting, I started to look around and I noticed these beauties. The watchful grandma's eye immediately spotted my interest and 2 minutes after she handed me over the two big jars so that I could fill them in with the redcurrants. And so I did, so now it was the time to think about what I could do with them. My mom came up with an idea to bake a tart, so once we got home we heated up the oven and less than an hour later we enjoyed this delicious tart, sitting in the garden (again!).

Ingredients 

Pastry (for approximately 20 x 30 cm tart)

110 g rice flour

20 g amaranth flour

20 g potato flour

110 g butter (lactose free)

60 ml of cold water

Filling

(Any kind of fruit could be used in any amount to be honest)

I used:

1 liter jar of redcurrants

a couple of blackcurrants

a couple of raspberries

2-3 teaspoons of cane sugar

3-5 spoons of honey

Preparation

1. Heat up the oven to 180 degrees.
2. First add all ingredients for the pastry and mix them together in a bowl. Knead until the batter gets smooth.
3. Cover a baking form (of any kind) with baking paper and put the batter on it. You could roll it out on the baking paper, I just spread it quickly with my hands and shaped into a rectangular. Not to lose too much of the juice from the fruit later on, I marked the edges and raised them a little.
4. Puncture the pastry with a fork and put in the fridge for around 30 minutes. After that, bake it for 10 minutes.
5. In the meantime, put the redcurrants in a bowl, add some cane sugar and 4-5 spoons of honey. The redcurrants are rather sour, so it really is necessary. Mixt it together and put aside.
6. After 10 minutes of baking take out the pastry and cover it with the redcurrants, add other fruit as well and put again in the oven for the next 15-20 minutes.
7. Serve hot or cold, in both cases it tastes amazing.

(The photos were taken with my phone, so unfortunately the quality of them is not really good, but I could not resist posting them anyway)

Pasta with Turkey and Spinach (Gluten free)

It was one of those days, when I was absolutely exhausted, hungry and cold (yes, cold! Summer in Denmark is a rather abstract expression). The inside of my fridge was staring at me with the ironic look of a small piece of turkey ham, eggs and some milk. Obvious sign that I really need to go out and buy some groceries. And I cannot use the fact that it is raining as an excuse anymore. It has been raining for the last week. Non stop. 

After taking out the turkey ham and eggs out of the fridge I attacked the freezer and found some spinach. Lucklily I tend to buy a lot of frozen vegetables and fruit, almost as if I was preparing to survive a month without leaving my apartment. It happens to be very useful. 

Equipped with some of the basic ingredients I started to heat up the frying pan, look through various spices and to finally prepare some dinner. After no more than 30 minutes I was already finished and I my dinner turned out really tasty.

Ingredients

500-700 g of frozen spinach leaves

3-4 shallots

a small pack of turkey ham 

(I used a ready one from the store, but I think chicken would also be fine here)

gluten free pasta

eggs (1-2 for each portion)

dried garlic

salt

pepper

dried parsley
coconut oil for frying

Preparation

1.Boil some water for the pasta, and cook it following the instructions from the package. I used gluten free pasta.
2. In the meantime, warm up the frying pan and put some coconut oil on it.
3. Fry the cut shallots until they turn golden, then add the spinach and fry it together for a longer while. Add the spices (dried garlic, salt, pepper, tiny bit of chili pepper). Mix together and fry, then put aside for a moment.
4. Cut the turkey ham into small pieces and fry it well. I didn't use any oil to do so, but it required some more mixing while the ham was frying, to avoid burning it. Once it is fried, put aside.
5. Finally put some oil on the frying pan and break the eggs on it. Add some salt and pepper and fry for a moment.
6. On the plate, put some pasta, shallots with spinach, the turkey ham pieces and finally cover it with the fried egg. I spreaded some dried parsley all over the dish to get even a better smell and taste.

Birthday cake! (Gluten Free + lactose Free)

For my boyfriend's sister birthday I decided to try something new. Even though we had a gift ready, I thought that I'd like to prepare something special. Personally, I believe that spending hours in the kitchen and then sharing a meal together with others shows how much we care about them. And I love spoiling my loved ones with food. It can be an early morning sandwich with a favourite smoothie or a special dinner by which we can sit for hours, talk and laugh.

Having spent days on going through many food blogs, different recipes and pinterest pictures I got extremely excited about baking a proper birthday cake. With layers, frosting, candles and decoration.

I must admit this was my second trial of making a cake with many layers and frosting all around. The first one..., lets just say was not as good as I hoped :). The cake base itself was fine. The recipe I got thanks to a Polish blogger (lisia-kawiarenka.blogspot.dk) made my life so much easier, and better! The sponge cake is simple, does not require many ingredients and most importantly I had no troubles with cutting it or shaping nicely so that the whole cake had a desired shape and looks. The frosting is another story....
Without much thinking I decided to prepare a butter based frosting. Not only did it seem to look nice but I also hoped it will taste fine. Nothing like this! I turned out nicely looking (more or less... ok, less!). But the taste was just terrible in my opinion. Very, very heavy.
So I looked through my fridge and decided to go with another approach. I used a light cream cheese and combined it with a smaller amount of butter and powdered sugar. This time the result was great.
In the end the cake turned out to look nice and taste really wonderful. Of course with more practise I hope to be better at the decorating part... My kitchen looked interesting after I was finished with covering the cake with frosting!

Ingredients

Sponge cake (16 cm baking form)

3 eggs

130 g of sugar

0,3 cup of corn flour
0,3 cup of potato flour

Frosting
300 g of cream cheese (lactose free)
150 g of butter (lactose free)
3/4 cup of powdered sugar

Additional
Fresh strawberries
Dried raspberries for decoration

Preparation

Sponge cake

> Preheat the oven to 160-170 degrees, then cover the bottom of the baking form with baking paper. (Sides should not be covered)

> Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Start mixing the egg whites until they get thick. Gradually add sugar and then the egg yolks (one by one, while mixing). Keep mixing until the batter is smooth.

> Add flour to the batter and mix together either using a spoon or with a mixer at the lowest speed.

> Pour the batter into the prepared baking form and bake for 30-40 minutes. (Avoid opening the oven door while baking)

> Once the cake sponge is ready, take it out from the oven and carefully throw it (in the form) down to the table from the height of approximately 50-60 cm. This will make the cake flat and well shaped. (Although it sounds a little bit confusing!)

Cream and Frosting

> Beat the butter until it is light and creamy. Then add powdered sugar and keep on mixing until it gets smooth. Beat in the cream afterwards and put the ready mixture in the fridge for a while. It will thicken and get more stiff, which makes it easier to distribute it on the cake afterwards.

> Spread a thin layer of the cream on the cake layers using a spatula. Refrigerate for around 15 minutes. Optionally put some freshly cut strawberries in the middle of each sponge cake. (Avoid putting them close to the edges, as this will make it hard to cover it with the frosting in the end.)
Afterwards spread the remaining frosting all over the cake.

> Decorate with fresh fruit, or dried decorative fruit, as I did.