BANANA AND STRAWBERRY CAKE

I have been told off for sprinkling dried strawberries on top of the cake, which I thought looked really pretty. According to one of my sons I have 'ruined it with THAT pink'. By the end of the day they had eaten the whole cake, so so much for anti-pink prejudice...

You need:
- 2 eggs
- 3 ripe bananas
- 175 plain flour
- 150 ml sun flour oil
- 150 gr sugar
- 10 gr of freeze dried strawberries
- 1 and a half table tespoon baking powder
- half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees.
Mix the sugar, eggs and oil and beat well. Mash the bananas (with a fork) and add them, as well as the strawberries, to the sugar and egg mixture. Combine the flour, baking powered and bicarbonate and add it to the mixture, beating it by hand. Put it all in a greased and lined  tin (we used a rectangular one) and bake for one hour.

The sweetness of the banana and the acidity of the dried strawberries works particularly well. If you do not mind the pink (or the price) you can always add more strawberries.

GAZPACHO

Though they may look similar, gazpacho has nothing to do with salmorejo (see separate recipe) As they say in Spain, the 'king' of the gazpacho' is the cucumber while the 'king of the salmorejo' is the tomato.

You need:
- 1 cucumber (without the skin)
- 10 ripe tomatoes (leave the skin on)
- half an onion
- half a green pepper
- 1 clove of garlic
- a third of a glass of (good) olive oil.
- 2 to 3 table spoons of vinegar (to taste)
- salt (again to taste, but remember that tomatoes take a lot of salt)
- half a glass of water

Cut the vegetables in big chunks, put all vegetables and the water in a beaker and blend (we use a hand held mixer but a blender is good too) until they are liquidised. Add the oil, vinegar and salt and blend again until the oil emulsifies. Get is all through a strainer and put it in the fridge for at least one hour. If it is too tick for you just add more water. You can serve this with cubes of cucumber, red pepper, boiled egg whites or fried or toasted bread. If the weather is very hot add some ice cubes before serving it too.

My children love this but not as much a salmorejo. It is the easiest manner to them to eat lots of raw vegetables.