Strawberry festival & a recipe for a chocolate cake with strawberries!

Last week was a hard week... and on friday I was at school till 1:30am, whilst I woke up at 5:30am on Saturday morning, to bake goodies for the evening's "Cuisine, Cultural & Artisan Festival", which was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Brownies & Kwarezimal at my stall

Despite the interesting exhibition and the varied amount of stalls displaying their wares, attendance to the event was very sparse, which was also positive, because it gave me time to speak to some very interesting people. Sales weren't too bad either. It seems that wherever I am, the brownies will be grabbed up immediately. So were the kwarezimal. Most of the pudina was sold to my family and friends who came over en masse and spent the evening chatting around my stall. Some locals bought some of the pudina too, and said they liked it. (They might have been trying to be polite though... :p) On Saturday night I fell asleep much before my head hit the pillow!

My version of the traditional Pudina (bread pudding)

So it was with great effort that I woke up early on Sunday morning, in order to beat the traffic and the crowds attending the "Festa Frawli" (Strawberry Festival). I made it a point to go, because I had heard good things about it, on previous years.

Festa Frawli: Waffles with strawberries and ice cream

But oh! What a disappointment! The stalls were few, the traffic was terrible, even at 10:00am and there was only a single point from where you could buy fresh strawberries! 

Festa Frawli: Mqaret with strawberry sorbet

Festa Frawli: Strawberry lolipops

It wasn't all bad... the strawberries I managed to buy from there were sweet and tasty, the goodies prepared with the strawberries looked nice, and the onee I tasted were also good. There were really beautiful displays of strawberries and flowers and some interesting, cultural entertainment. 

Festa Frawli: Strawberry and flower displays

Unfortunately, the small bottle of "imbid tal-frawli", a strawberry liquor of sorts, I bought for €4.50 from one of the stalls, wasn't too good. 2 sips of it (the second sip was to confirm that it was complete and utter rubbish) gave me a bad case of heartburn and the rest of the bottle went down the drain. All in all I'm not sure the whole trip was worth it at all!

Festa Frawli: Entertainers in traditional maltese dresses

Festa Frawli: Entertainers holding traditional instruments

Apparently there were other things going on in the area, other than the stalls, but I did not see any signs anywhere so we must have missed all of them!

Talking about strawberries, here's the recipe for last week's pictured chocolate cake with fresh strawberries. It was a huge hit and altough I baked it at 7:00pm, not a crumb remained for the next day! So I guess it's worth a try. Recipe adapted from Larousse Gastronomique.

Chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting and fresh strawberries

Chocolate cake

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 125g sugar
• 150g dark chocolate, broken into bits
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 125g butter, softened
• 125g sifted flour
• small box of fresh strawberries, washed.

Method:

1. Grease an 18 cm round baking tin and dust with cocoa powder.
2. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees centigrade.
3. Beat the egg yolks and the sugar until the mixture leaves trails of ribbons.
4. Stiffly beat the egg whites in a clean bowl.
5. Put the chocolate into a saucepan with the milk and heat gently on a bain marie. 
6. Add the butter to the chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. 
7. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl and add the egg yolk mixture, stiring briskly. 
8. Add the flour and stir until just comined.
9. Quickly fold in the egg whites.
10. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for around 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
11. When sufficiently cooled, split in half and spread the chocolate frosting (recipe below) on the inside and on top.
12. Slice some strawberries and layer onto the chocolate frosting in the middle of the cake. Decorate with strawberry halves, with leaves still attached.

Chocolate frosting

Ingredients:

• 100g icing sugar, sifted
• 125g dark chocolate, broken into bits
• 65g butter, softened
• 100ml cold water

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate on a bain marie and add the icing sugar, working it with a wooden spoon. 
2. Add the butter and stir until the mixture is completely melted. 
3. Remove the mixture from heat and slowly stir in the water. 
4. Use the frosting when slightly cooled. 

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