Last weekend my children placed an order for cake. It had to be baked and chocolatey with cream and fruit. Additionally, the cake should be quick to prepare, because when young people want something sweet, they want it right away and not after dinner the next day. From this idea (and with the ingredients I had in my kitchen) I made shortbread chocolate cake with blancmange, apples and blueberries. The cake was accepted and eaten very fast. An unmistakable asset of this cake was the caster sugar and the blackcurrant sorbet, which perfectly suited the cake.

I managed to save a few pieces of the cake from the hungry gourmands, and this beautiful cake was excellent with hot coffee on a warm spring afternoon.

Ingredients (28×24cm cake tin)
dough
0.5 kg of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
200g of sugar
200g of butter
1 egg
3 tablespoons of cream
2 tablespoons of cocoa
blancmange
2 packets of powdered blancmange
0.75 ml of milk
3 tablespoons of sugar

I don't like throwing away food, so I try to plan my meals first and then do the shopping. I avoid buying unknown products and only then thinking about how to use them. I generally don't use recipes for which I have to buy a few unusual ingredients and then only use a few grains of them. Then I forget that I have them in my kitchen and before I can use them again they are past their use-by date.

Sometimes I have leftover ingredients and I have to make a dish thanks to which I won't feel guilty taking out the rubbish. That's how it was this time. In my fridge was some leftover chard. There was not enough to prepare a soup or my husband's favourite cold soup, but it was enough to make some very interesting buckwheat groats. So I prepared a yummy light dinner which surprised us with its simplicity and choice of ingredients.

Ingredients
100g of unroasted buckwheat groats
half a bunch of chard
half a bunch of asparagus spears
2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
parmesan
almond flakes
salt and pepper

Tomato soup is one of the most popular soups in Poland. Apparently, the first written recipe comes from 1872 and was written by Maria Parloe in the USA. Since 1897 famous Campbell's soup has been very popular. Every country has its own recipe for tomato soup. In Poland it is served with rice or noodles. In Italy tomato soup is thicker and seasoned with basil and olive oil. The Spanish serve gazpacho – cold pepper and tomato soup or hot with chili peppers.

Today I would like to share with you the recipe for Indian style tomato soup: with cumin, rosemary, and red lentils. I served it with fried bacon and crunchy pistachios. It was great!

Ingredients:
300g of red lentils
1 tin of tomatoes
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
half a chili pepper
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 teaspoon of butter
1 teaspoon of sweet paprika (powder)
half a teaspoon of cumin
salt and pepper
1 litre of vegetable stock
100g of smoked bacon
pistachios
2 tablespoons of nigella

Since last weekend I have had a new recipe for a quick dinner without any meat. The sweetcorn pancakes will be a perfect dish during the summer holidays: simple, quick and they don't need sophisticated ingredients. I like this kind of dish as much as my children like to eat it. My children said that only courgette pancakes are better, but very few dishes can compare with them. Courgette pancakes have been an absolute hit for many years.

Today I added chili pepper and parsley to my sweetcorn pancakes. They were excellent with spicy yoghurt and chives. You can also prepare them without extras, and serve them sweet with fruit or maple syrup. Choose your favourite version or come up with your own idea for these beautiful sunny pancakes.

Ingredients:
1 tin of sweetcorn
150 ml of milk
10 tablespoons of cornflour
1 tablespoon of potato flour
half a chili pepper
a fistful of minced parsley
salt and pepper
oil for frying

Sometimes my children ask me for budino for afternoon tea. They like chocolate budino with chocolate glaze. I prefer vanilla with raspberry sauce. Today I also prepared budino, but this time it was a base for a layered dessert with fruit and nuts. That way the budino changed from a pre-school snack into quite a smart dessert. I mixed the sweet chocolate layer with light chia budino, pomegranate and salty, crunchy pistachios. A surprising combination? Maybe, but it was excellent.

Ingredients (for 4 people)
500ml of milk
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of butter
1.5 tablespoons of potato flour
1.5 tablespoons of wheat flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
2 teaspoons of chia seeds
100g of dark chocolate
pomegranate
chopped pistachios (leave a few nice ones for decoration)