Just before Christmas, while watching a TV cooking show, my attention was drawn to a quite simple recipe for Swedish chocolate cake. I was intent on making this presently, because everybody in my family is a fan of chocolate. "Presently" turned out to be too optimistic, as I had to search for the recipe in the recesses of the internet. Found in a Lidl cookery book and printed, it went into my collection of recipes.

In my opinion, this cake is another type of brownie. It melts in the mouth and tastes best just after baking – still hot. According to the recipe, you should sprinkle the cake with caster sugar. I made chocolate glaze. Adding juicy fresh fruit also hit the spot.

Ingredients:
200g of butter
200g of chocolate
200g of sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar
250g of flour
chocolate glaze and fresh fruit for decorating

Do you like cakes and desserts which don't need baking? Baking is for me always hit and miss. Sometimes, even though you do everything according to the recipe, the cake is too dry or underdone. Gas ovens bake things differently from electric ones, so following old recipes is a toss-up.

Today's proposal is a caramel-banana cake with chocolate and whipped cream. When I make this dessert again, I will spread the cake with plum stew. I think that the slightly sour taste will go well with sweet caramel and banana.

The recipe comes from www.kuchnialidla.pl

Ingredients:
300g of biscuits
150g of melted butter
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
400g of fudge
120g of dark chocolate
200g of mascarpone cheese

We think of smoked fish as an ingredient of pastes or salads. When I go to the seaside I go to my favourite smokehouse and I buy the freshest smoked halibut, and I eat almost half of it on the way home. Recently, it emerged that smoked fish could be an excellent ingredient in soups. I had smoked salmon and smoked mackerel in the fridge, and I put this kind of fish into the pot, but you may use your favourite fish.

Ingredients:
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 carrot
half a tin of corn
1 tablespoon of butter
2 allspices
2 bay leaves
4 potatoes
300g of smoked fish
11 of vegetable stock
1 tablespoon of cream
minced parsley
salt and pepper

I like dumplings very much. Even though this dish isn't the most healthy, it is delicious. I think there aren't any children who don't like dumplings with blueberries and sweet cream.

You can make dumplings from French pastry or yeasty dough and bake them in the oven or from normal dough and boil them. The stuffing could be a surprise for your family. This time I made dumplings with spinach. As well as garlic and walnuts, I propose adding cheese to the stuffing. Use whatever you like: feta cheese, gorgonzola or grated emmenthal.

I serve them fried until golden with cheese or garlic dip.

If you would like dumplings from French pastry, you may find the recipe here. Below you will find a recipe for dumplings from normal dough.

Ingredients:
Dough
0.5 kg of flour + flour for sprinkling a pastry board
½ teaspoon of salt
60ml oil
200ml of hot water

Though Valentine's day is behind us, today I would like to share with you a recipe for cookies in the shape of a heart. Maybe you need to apologize to somebody, maybe you would like to raise somebody's spirits, or maybe you just like to have some nice, afternoon coffeecakes. It is really difficult to resist the temptation to eat all of them.

Ingredients:
150g of butter
125g of sugar
200g of flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon of cocoa
0.5 teaspoons of baking soda
150g of cherry confiture

Heat the oven up to 180C.