Strawberry Cheesecake

Gaby had been sending me pictures of the strawberry cheesecakes she made lately for various occasions, making my mouth water, so in the end I asked her for the recipe and made a strawberry cheesecake myself. Mine is a lighter version of the original and it was a great success with husband and son, so I'm writing down the recipe, as I improvised it yesterday:

INGREDIENTS:

For the biscuit layer 

• 150 g biscuits
• 75 g melted butter 

For the cheese cream layer 

• 100 g cheese cream
• 400 g sour cream
• 50 g milk 
• 120 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• a pinch of salt

For the strawberry layer 

• 500 g strawberries
• 1 pack red cake glaze
• 30 g sugar
• 200 g water 

PREPARATION:

Grind the biscuits, stir in the melted butter and transfer the biscuit mixture into a cake form. Compact the biscuit layer with the bottom of a glass and leave to cool in the fridge for a few minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the batter for the cheese cream layer. Pour it over the biscuit layer and place the cake form in a preheated oven and bake at 175C for one hour. After the cake is baked, leave it to cool completely for a couple of  hours. 

Cut the strawberries into slices and arrange them tile-like on top of the cake. Prepare the cake glaze - mix the powder glaze with the sugar, add the water and cook on the hot plate until it thickens. Leave it to rest for one minute, then spread it on top of the strawberries with the help of a silicon brush. 

Leave the cake to cool in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. Serve with coffee and enjoy!

Strawberry Cake with Crumbs

This recipe and these photos have been waiting publication for over a month and I'm finally finding a couple of minutes to upload and write down the recipe.

I've already made this cake repeatedly, only a couple of days ago I tried a new version with chocolate chips in it - the best according to my taste, and it is recently one of the preferred cakes in our family.

What makes it so unique is the perfect combination of fresh fruit, sponge cake and buttery crumbs on top, but I should add, that it also works with frozen fruit - not as juicy, but still quite good.

Ingredients:

For the sponge cake:

• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 80 g vegetable (sunflower) oil
• 120 g milk
• 200 g flour
• 10 g baking powder

For the crumbs: 

• 30 g butter
• 2 table spoons flour
• 2 table spoons sugar

Preparation:

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the oil and milk, mix. Sift and add the four with the baking powder and a pinch of salt. I also add vanilla.

Pour the batter into your baking dish. Half the strawberries and arrange on top. 

To prepare the crumbs, grate the cold butter and mix it with the flour and the sugar, until you get buttery crumbs. Spread them on top of the cake.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for approx. 20 min. Serve with tea or coffee, best in the morning with your Duolingo lessons :)

These can also be made into muffins, if you don't mind the additional work :)

Peak Dupevitza During The Hot Days

It is hot! I know, it is summer and it is supposed to be hot, but for us, Sofia residents, accustomed to a bit colder mountain climate, temperatures above 30C feel HOT, HOT, HOT.

We were really tempted this week to go to the higher mountains, like Pirin or Rila, but we also felt like picking some wild raspberries, so in the end we chose the low mountain of Lulin and climbed peak Dupevitza.

I remember a climb of Dupevitza on a hot summer day a couple of years ago, when I really struggled in the hot humid air. This year I've been trying to increase my cardio-vascular capacity (which is unfortunately innately much below average) and so, apart from my daily walks (4-5 km), I also jog from time to time, usually once or twice a week. Maybe it's the jogging or maybe I just had a better day, but although it was one of the hottest days of the year, the climb to the peak felt like almost no effort at all. I really hope it's the jogging and not just a fluke.

Hike info:

Destination: round trail to peak Dupevitza

Mountain: Lulin

Total length: 10 km

Elevation gain: 320 m

Total duration (plus picnic and berry eating and picking): 3 and a half hours

Average difficulty: 3 / 10 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

Husband: boxershorts

I: lingerie, Love Notion's Tunic, Love Notion's leggings

:On Dobrinova skala peak

:All Saints Chapel. We had our picnic at the picnic area nearby

:The Monastery of Gorna Banya

:As we still had quite a few handfuls of wild strawberries, I made another tart today, with cake base and divine custard filling with whipped cream. The aroma of these strawberries is unbelievable!