Category Archives: Cake & Pastry

October 2nd, 2012

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

Apfel-Zimt-Schnecken

In the morning the mist is already lingering in the valley I am living in, the air is getting colder and some windy and rainy days made it clear: Autumn is finally here. And so the first windfall from my parents garden is waiting in my kitchen to be used in some delicious recipes.

But what should I do with them? Appel strudel, Apple cake or Apfelküchle are all good recipes, but I was longing for something else. Something with yeast. Something like Cinnamon-rolls?

And so I started a yeast dough and bake some Apple-Cinnamon-Rolls. They are filled with a cream made of egg, butter, almonds and cookie crumbles, which I topped with finely chopped apples. Cinnamon is the main flavour in the seasoning, but a touch of allspice and cardamom add a little bit of deepness it.

A gorgeous treat, perfect for the early autumn!

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September 23rd, 2012

Marzipan-Braid

Marzipanzopf

When I bake cake to celebrate with my colleagues (e.g. at my birthday) it is some kind of tradition to include a nut filled braid. But sometimes I need to break out of the routine and so I decided to bring a marzipan braid this year, too.

I make a dough with sourdough, which kept the braid fresh for 2 days (well, the small left over of it at least). But if anyone don’t like sourdough in a sweet pastry, the 1.5 amount of dough from the nut filled braid would go nicely with the filling, too.

The filling contains beside marzipan grounded almonds, some bread crumbs and egg white. The mixture is lovely, the taste of marzipan is dominant without overpowering the aroma from the dough.

It is a recipe for Marzipan lovers – and you can find a lot of some among my colleagues. And so everyone was very happy with this new recipe!

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September 9th, 2012

Greta-Garbo-Schnitten

greta gabor schnitte

There are recipe which even I do not dare to change. The recipe for Greta-Garbo-Schnitten is one of this examples. It is a traditional sweet from the side of my family which stemmed from Siebenbürgen /Transylvania. I firmly believe that this recipe is rooted in the cake Gerbeaud-Schnitten of the Cafe Gerbeaud, but I stay with the Name in which it is filled in the handwritten cookbook of my grandmother. That is traditional, it will keep its Name Greta-Garbo-Schnitte.

The only change I dared to make is that I let the dough rest a little bit before I roll it into sheets. That makes rolling it thinly much easier.

The little slices are a great treat with a cup of coffee. And if you have a little bit patient and self-control, you can let them rest some days before eating them and they will reward you with a perfect mellow texture and a taste infused by walnuts, currants and chocolate.

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September 8th, 2012

Monkey Cake

DSC_0091

I have still a lot of recipe waiting to be posted. And so here is another birthday cake recipe. This time it was not for me but for a very cute little girl. She loves monkeys and B-A-N-A-N-A-S. And when her Mom asked me to bring a Cake for her birthday, I decided to bake a Monkey Cake for her.

The Idea for this cake is from smitten kitchen, who baked this cake as a birthday cake for her son.

I changed the recipe a little bit, reduing the sugar amount to the half and exchanging the butter cream to a ganache.

The cake was delicious and looked very cute. Perfect for first birthdays!

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September 6th, 2012

Banoffee Pie

Banoffee Pie

To a birthday belongs a birthday cake. The traditional birthday cake in my family has to have a heart shape and will not be baked by the birthday child. And so my Mum will bake my birthday heart for me when we meet this weekend.

But anyway I like to have a piece of cake on my birthday, too.

And so I baked a small cake. Better to say, I bake three small cakes, one for each decade :-).

I met the tempting combination of banana, caramel and cream as a cake at a birthday of a colleague and fell directly in love with it. I just modified the recipe a little bit, using my “Confiture de lait” recipe for the caramel, and cut down the amount of sugar in the cream and short crust. Even then, it is a really sweet cake, I can only eat a little piece at a time, but it tastes so good!

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August 26th, 2012

Kanelfläta

Kanelfläta

Yeastspotting always inspires me always to bake something. And sometimes the recipes urge me to bake them directly. The Kanelfläta from My Italian Smörgåsbord was such a recipe.

Kanelfläta is a swedish cinnamon braid, which –as I learned from Barbara- is eaten together with the colleagues for fika (afternoon coffe break). My colleagues and me meet every morning for a “Frühstückspause” at 9 o’clock with a cup of coffee in our coffee room. And something sweet for the break is always loved. And so I decided to bake the Kanelfläta for them.

I reduced the amount of yeast in recipe and added a Lievito madre and some Cardamom to the dough. The combination of cardamom in the dough and cinnamon in the filling is a “must have” for me. I love this combination. I reduced the size of the braids a little bit and came up with four nice braids which had the perfect size for our “Frühstückspause” .

And what should I say? It’s as well a perfect treat for a morning break as for a afternoon break! A aromatic dough, the taste of cinnamon and cardamom – is there a better way to start a day?

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July 15th, 2012

Cinnamon waffles

Zimtwaffeln(2)Nearly three years ago I baked gaufres de ligé. Since then I baked them regularly and Chaosqueen and Steph from Kleinen Kuriositätenladen baked them, too.  And then Paule baked her Schuedi recipe in a new form: Cinnamon waffle schuedi. This are gaufres de ligé de luxe! Paule got the idea from another blog, where they baked  cinnamon rolls in a waffle maker. This Cinnamon waffles are the deluxe version of the the gaufres de ligé.

In my first try I followed her recipe but was a little bit disappointed of them, the dough was a little bit to firm and a high amount of butter leaking from the filling during baking. And so I tried them a second time,changing the recipe by reducing the yeast amount, adding a water roux and some more butter to the dough but reducing the butter amount in the filling.

And now I think they are perfect, caramel and cinnamon in perfect harmony, a sweet dream!

Who can not get belgian pearl sugar (Sucre grain perlé) can use sugar cubes, which are coarsely crushed. Or you should think about a trip to Belgic (Chocolate, good beer, pearl sugar). Zwinkerndes Smiley

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July 5th, 2012

Apricot Almond Tart

Aprikosen-Mandel-Tarte I thought already last year about baking a tarte with apricots and almonds. But somehow I never made it. When I tasted the first apricots of the year, they where aromatic but sour, and I thought that they would be perfect for a tart!

And so I did not hesitate and bought some of them and baked small apricot almond tarts last weekend. Since I got this nice little tart forms with a diameter of 12 cm I tend to use them all the time, whenever I bake quiche or tart. The small tarts and quiches are perfect for lunch at work or as little present for friends.

For the apricot almond tart I used as custard some frangipane, a custard mixed with almond creme. I wanted to use the recipe from Michael Suas “Advance Bread and Pastry” but then decided to use less sugar but more egg and almonds.

I like the mixture of sweet almonds custard and tart apricots very much. A new favourite cake!

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May 29th, 2012

Fraisier–eine Erdbeer-Vanille-Torte

Fraisier

I tend to bake a torte for my dads birthdays. This year I asked him if he like to have a torte with vanilla and strawberries, he liked the idea and so I decided to bake Fraisier. The Fraisier looks pretty cool because the strawberries at the rim are split, so that you can the them nicely.

Sadly I can not tell you how the cake tasted because I am allergic against strawberries. But nearly the whole cake vanished, so I think the guests liked it :-).

We spent a great day in my parents garden. It was niece weather and niece people, so we could just relax.

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May 19th, 2012

Rhubarb Napoleons

Rharbabercremeschnitte

I like rhubarb very much, as I told you before. And when my mum gave me a generous amount of rhubarb fresh from my parents garden I made a second batch of oven roasted rhubarb. Some of the rhubarb I eat with my muesli during the week, and on the weekend I started to think what to do with the leftover jar.

A little bit sweet to our afternoon coffee sounds like a good idea and so I decided to make Rhubarb Napoleons. When you make them with store bought puff pastry, its an easy and fast treat, but made with homemade puff pastry its even more delicious.

The filling is rather easy, but luscious – whipped cream and oven roasted rhubarb.

Perfect for sunday afternoons.

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