Greek inspired dinner and sugar cake which never fails

It was a very hot day yesterday and I was graving something fresh and light for dinner. Salad is always a good alternative for hot days, but sometimes just a salad is not enough and so I decided to do chicken wraps Greek style. Greek salad is one of the most freshers salads I know, it is light, delicious, reach on vitamins and then there is feta cheese, which makes the whole salad experience quite special. Zaziki is another Greek dish we adore, which is just perfect for hot days. It´s done within couple of minutes and is always a hit on the table.

Today Greek inspired dinner, done under 30 minutes, fresh, light and delicious. And sugar cake recipe you will adore. I was reading one of my baking magazine the other day and found a nice article about sugar cake from a baking chef promising that from now on you will always be able to bake a sugar cake, without having a recipe at your hand, there is just a certain "trick" you have to follow and you will end up with a gorgeous and delicious cake. This trick caugth my attention and I needed to try it out. I do confirm the trick is working and I was amazed by the outcome...

Greek salad

• salad leaves 
• black olives
• feta cheese
• cucumber
• small red onion
• tomatoes
• olive oil, salt and pepper

Cut the onion in half rings, put them in a bowl and pour cold water over it. Put the bowl aside, this will take the bitterness out of the onions and give them a mild onion taste. Wash and cut the cucumber and tomatoes. Cut feta cheese in cubes and drain the onion rings. Take a big salad bowl, put the salad leaves in, top it with tomatoes and cucumber slices, onions rings, olives and feta cheese cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Finally have a good splash of olive oil.

Zaziki

• cucumber
• garlic glove
• fresh mint leaves
• feta cheese
• natural Greek yogurt
• salt, pepper

Wash the cucumber and cut out the seeds (they contain lots of water, which will make your zazaki watery). Grate the cucumber, add the garlic pressed through the garlic press and crumbled feta cheese. Mix everything together. Add the yogurt and chopped mint leaves. Season with salt and pepper.

Sesame chicken sticks

• chicken breast
• salt, pepper
• flour
• sesame seeds
• olive oil

Cut the chicken in stripes. Dry them with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. Dust bit of a flour over and fry them in some of the olive oil till golden brown. Sprinkle some of the sesame seeds over it and put them into the oven (preheat to 120C) for couple of minutes.

Serve the chicken sticks with Greek salad, zaziki and tortilla flat bread, so everybody can create their own wrap.

Friday is usually the day where I would pick up Pablo bit earlier from the kindergarten so we can have a bit more quality time together. And this is usually also the day of the week where we would bake together. He loves helping me in the kitchen and I do enjoy our time together. It is so cool to see him having the same passion for food as we do. He tries different ingredients and makes his comments or those funny "yummy" noises to everything he tries. Cookies are his favourite thing to bake, mainly because he can play with the dough, cut out the cookies himself and because they are baked within 10-15 minutes and he does not have to wait for them for so long. This Friday we did both vanilla sugar cookies and a sugar cake, based on the trick I read in the baking magazine. 

The trick is simple: you shall always use the same amount of grams for eggs, flour, butter and flour and you shall end up with a perfect coffee cake.

Start always with eggs, which will give you the amount of grams to be used for sugar, butter and flour. You can flavour the cake with vanilla, lemon, orange or lime zest and use berries, fruits, dried fruits or chocolate chips.

Chocolate sprinkles sugar cake

(for a mini bundtcake form)

• 2 small eggs (about 85 gr)
• 85 gr sugar
• 85 gr butter melted
• 85 gr flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• chocolate sprinkles

In a big bowl whisk together eggs and sugar. Add melted butter and vanilla, give it another whisk and sift the flour and baking powder in. Mix till all well combined. Finally add the chocolate sprinkles. Pour the batter into the greased bundtcake form and bake for 30-35 minutes. Let the cake cool of on a cooling rack, before taking it out of the form.

Enjoy!