It’s been a year since Good Natured Food was born. It seems I am fond of Aquarius in my life. I remember that I walked for about 5 km in that sunny winter day until I came up with the name. The kind of person I am, Mihaela’a kitchen or Misha cooks was not an option. I wanted it to have a community kind of feeling (the .org domain is not unintentional), a place where we celebrate food, a place for enjoyment, feast and simplicity.

This place is more me than any other thing that I ever created. There were a lot of culinary breakthroughs this year, along with massively epic fails, wild experiments (sometimes even way too wild), relish, discoveries, knowledge, beauty, colour.

My inspiration led to designing and publishing 2 cookbooks, approaching various cuisines and culinary experiences which kept me alive and loaded with so much energy for the Spring. Hence, one of the most memorable and significant moments are all those words of love and joy that you left here. Your making and recreating my recipes is the greatest present and recognition I have received. Thank you for your confiding in me and for keeping this blog alive and full of joy.

And of course because it’s my birthday cake, it didn’t come out as I imagined it. But I decided to post it just as it is with all its imperfections and flaws because I am only 1 :-) As my beloved said – „That’s why you need to keep going.“

It’s not that high a cake but it is one of my fave flavour combos. Sour cream + rose jam = endless love. This reminds me that it is a great idea to bring some change into this years St. Valentine’s day. Roses are great for eating, too!

Finally – thank you all for coming by every once and a while!

Ingredients:
2 cups whole grain flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegan milk (nutmilk or coconut, rice, etc.)
50 gr cocoa powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso powder
4 tbsp cherry wine (or any other dessert one) + 1 tsp powdered brown sugar

for the cream:
1 cup strained yoghurt
1 cup sour cream
100 gr rose jam
100 gr aronia jam (you can sub with any kind or berry jam)
3 tsp powdered brown sugar
20 gr chocolate for decoration

Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, coffee and vanilla in a bowl.
Heat the milk with the sugar until melted. Pour it into the flour mixture.
Stir in the oil and mix everything until a thick dough.
Pour in into a cake springform (24cm) and bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven.
Take out and let cool completely. Cut in half and syrup with themixed wine and sugar.

I used the drained yoghurt for the cream between the layers. I mixed it with half of the jams and sugar and spread it evenly on the bottom layer. For the upper cream I mixed the sour cream with the rest of the jams. You can make the whole cake with either strained yoghurt or sour cream, I just didn’t guess the needed quantity very well. The taste is almost the same.
Decorate with grated chocolate and mini rose leaves.