Cake w/ Raspbeeries

Another 'cup'-cake, it seems I can't stop baking at the moment ;o). This time it's a cake with buttermilk and raspberries.

3 Eggs, 1.5 cups Sugar (1 cup white, 1/2 cup brown), Vanilla Sugar, 4 cups Flour, 2 cups Buttermilk, 400 g Raspberries (I justed frozen ones - warmed up at room temperature), 1 tbsp Baking Soda, 100 g Butter Flakes, 1 cup Almond Flakes

Beat the eggs with sugar until it's creamy. Add the flour, mix slowly into the egg-mix and pour in the buttermilk. Mix well together, at the baking soda for the last view moments.

Fill the cake in a deep baking tray (greased) and bake for 20 min at around 180 °C (depending on your oven). Get the cake out and sprinkle with the butter and almond flakes. Bake for another 20-30 min at 180° C (if it gets to dark use some kitchen foil - the silver one - to cover the cake).

Quarkkuchen m. Kirschen

And another cake. After getting this brilliant new baking tray, I decided to try a new cake. It's with Quark (or Fromage Frais) and cherries.

6 Eggs, 150 Sugar (I always mix white and brown sugar), 300 g Butter (liquid), 400 g Flour, 1 tsp Baking Powder, White Chocolate Flakes, 2 handful of Cherries (or other fruit), Juice from 1 Lemon, 500 g Quark (Fromage Frais), 150 g Sour Cream, Rasperry Jam.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until creamy. Add the butter carefully and afterwards put in the flour, lemon juice and baking powder.

Divide the mixture in 2 portions and pour one half into a baking tray (greased). Sprinkle with cherries and chocolate flakes.

Add quark and sour cream to the second portion and mix well. Pour onto the cherries mix.

Dig some small holes into the mixture and fill with rasperry jam. Use the back of the spoon to make some nice design with the rasperry.

"Cup"-Cake with Hazelnuts

Originally, I was hoping for a real German cheesecake baked by my better half (as he is making the best one), but getting Quark (or even Fromage Frais) in Ireland is not an easy feat, and mostly can't be done without a proper shopping strategy. So, no cheesecake this weekend.

But after having a wonderful Tassenkuchen at my aunt's while visiting Germany two weeks ago, I decided to try my luck as well.

Tassenkuchen (literally translated to cup-cakes) is just a way to describe a cake baked using cups as measurments instead of putting it into grams or mililiter as I think most European countries do. However, this easy (American?) way to bake cake has become quite popular in Germany and therefore we have Tassenkuchen and although it literally translate to cup-cake it's not a cupcake ;o).

As I didn't ask my aunt for her recipe, I just browsed the internet to get some ideas. And here is what I did:

Beat 4 eggs with 1/2 cup of sugar (1/3 cup of it white sugar and the rest brown sugar - I like the flavor).

Add 1 cup of oil, 2 cups of ground hazelnuts (about 200 grams - in Germany you get them ready prepared to buy), 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sparkling water, 1 cup of chocolate bits (I love the Dutch hagelslag from De Ruijter), 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 tablespoon of Rum and 1 almond essence and mix together.

Bake at 180 °C for about an hour or so.

Not sure, if I am happy with this one. Although it tastes lovely, I think it didn't rise enough...

I'll try again. Just checked some other recipes (German only) and they use 2 cups of flour, might try this next time.

Banana Bread

I am so excited - my first banana loaf is in the oven. I had my first banana bread when I was in Vancouver, Canada and LouAnn told me about her childhood, when her Mom used to make it. For years I haven't thought of it, but a couple of weeks back I had a slice at my local coffee shop and found a recipe in my latest 'Cook yourself thin - quick and easy'* book. So, I gave it a try - I am really curious how it turns out, as I adapted the recipe and used only half amount of sugar added some spices and was unfortunate enough to not have enough very ripe bananas, so I needed to add some semi-riped ones, so I expect some banana chunks in it.

Let's see....

Love it! It's so fluffy, nutty and yummie....

So here is what I did:

Beat 2 eggs with around 100 g (or 1/3 cup) of light brown sugar a food processor (it needs to get creamy and fluffy), add 50 g very soft butter, (keep beating the mixture), add 200 g flour (or 2 cups), 1 tsp. baking powder, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp. of German Christmas spices (Lebkuchengewürz)**, 1 good handful of slightly crushed walnuts, and 2 very ripe and 2 not so ripe mashed bananas. Put it in the oven at 180 °C for an hour (maybe a couple of minutes more).

A word of advise, as I don't like my cake too sweet so I nearly cut the amount of sugar in half, the original amount is 175 g brown sugar.

And now I will eat it. Ok, I will ask my better half to make some cappuccino first ;o).

And here the version for my lovely family in German:

2 Eier mit 100 g braunem Zucker schaumig schlagen, 50 g weiche (oder geschmolzene) Butter unterrühren, 200 g Mehl hinzufügen, 1 Tl Backpuler, 1/2 Tl Zimt oder Lebkuchengewürz und eine gute handvoll grob gehackte Walnüsse einrühren, 2 sehr reife und 2 weniger reife Bananen zermatschen und das ganze gut verrühren. Bei ca. 180 °C eine gute Stunde backen.

Footnotes:

*Cook yourself thin was an entertaining series from Channel4 in the UK that lastet only 1 round. However, I got both books (yeah - interesting how this always works ;o)...) and already adapted and tried some of the recipes from them and found them very tasty.

**Lebkuchengewürz: is a mixture of different spices. I found this recipe on the German Wikipedia: 35 g Cinnamon, 9 g cloves, 2 g Piment, 2 g Koriander, 2 g Ginger, 1 g Kardamon, 1 g nutmeg (or macis). Grind everything to powder and mix it. I also have a white mousse a chocolate recipe for Christmas that includes a bit of this mixture - I might do it around Christmas again ;o).

Teneriffe, Spain

Oh my, I haven't posted in ages...

Our latest holidays have been to Tenerife, Spain and we brought some very nice new culinary delights home.
My biggest love is Pescado estilo Canario, the better half can't get enough of Torrijas and if I just wouldn't have changed my diet I still would like to eat Quesillo ever day ;o).

Pescado estilo Canarias
For this recipe, the whole fish is cooked in seafood or fish broth. Put the fish on a plate and rub the plate with chili, pour olive oil over plate and fish, afterward pour a bit of aceito balsamico into the olive oil on the plate (not the fish). Drizzle with a bit of the broth and eat with papas arugadas or bread. Lovely.

Torrijas
The idea is similar to "bread and butter pudding" or "Arme Ritter" in Germany, however it is deep fried in olive oil. In Spain it is eaten around Easter, and we love to have it at breakfast, but it is evenly delicious cold in the afternoon. But let's start from the beginning.

Get a white bread that is not to fluffy, wait until it is a good day old. Slice the bread ~2 cm thick. Heat 1/2 l of milk and soak the slices into it. But on a plate for some time to rest. Beat up 2 eggs and pour in a deep plate. In an other plate, prepare a cinnamon and sugar mix. Heat a deep pan with a very good amount of olive oil and roll the first batch of milk-soaked bread in the eggs. Ensure that the olive oil is really hot before putting the slices in. Fry until golden from both sides and drain on a paper kitchen towel before turning it into the sugar mix. Enjoy!

Quesillo
It's a flan - very similar to flan caramel - and I haven't found a recipe yet to try.