Tag: dessert

07Feb

Gâteau au Chocolat

I think chocolate lovers like me are always in the search for the perfect chocolate cake. I know a lot of people try numerous recipes with often the same result: too sweet, too dry or not chocolatey enough. Sometimes you get all these disappointments in one cake! How many times has a chocolate cake enticed you because it looked so amazing, and then after the first bite you were filled with disappointment? I think my husband and I suffer even more compared to your average chocolate lover as we are both lactose intolerant so a lot of recipes are no good for us, and the substitution of cow’s milk with soy or almond milk loften leaves the cake dry as the substitutes do not have as much fat. So after a lot of trying and testing I am sharing with you a chocolate cake recipe that has become one of my true favourites. It is not your average children’s birthday cake, it’s a french recipe so by nature I feel it’s a little more refined. And it fits the saying “less is more”, and believe me reader I have this recipe ready on by Iphone’s copy and paste clipboard because
3 mins read
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06Nov

Mini apple and cinnamon cakes

Cinnamonn is a flavour I look forward to when Autumn arrives. Boy, do I love to sprinkle it everywhere: biscuits, cakes, puddings. So when October comes I start looking for recipes where I can sprinkle some cinnamon. Generously. Over here I am trying to catch up with a lot of things, since the baby’s arrival I have little time to be in the kitchen and that makes me a little sad. We would cook e-v-e-r-y day pre-baby but now the priorities have changed. I am still getting into the new routine (or lack of) and also trying to get used to making much simpler recipes that can be done in a short amount of time. The thing with babies is that they are unpredictable. When you think you’re putting them down for their usual 2hr nap and they only sleep for 20 minutes you kinda need a plan b. So I tried my luck with these cakes which are very simple and delicious. And if you don’t have a baby but have unexpected guests these are a good choice. Mini apple and cinnamon cakes (makes 12 mini cakes) 4 cooking apples 3 tbs lemon juice 150g cream cheese 1 egg 6
2 mins read
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14Oct

Blackberry mille-feuille

My other half and I love going for long walks comes rain or shine. Mid summer I spotted loads of bramble heaped with blackberries. That in essence was not surprising to me, bramble bushes are 10 a penny around here, you even find them by the roundabout near my parents’ house, but I have always found that the “city” berries did not taste as good as the ones you buy in the supermarket, which is what I often resort to, reluctanlty paying £2 per 150g. But as our walks go deep in the New Forest and with all the sun that we had this year they were here early. So after a walk armed with an empty sandwich tub I started to pick them and in 5 minutes I had about 100g.  I was never going back to the supermarket. How can they charge so much for something that is widely found for free in the British Isles? We got greedy, we soon realized that the really juicy ones were right at the back of the bushes. And that was when I realized why they charge so much for them: thorns. And not just one type of thorn. Big ones and then little needle pin thin ones barely
4 mins read
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15Sep

White chocolate mousse tart

I look forward to the weekend when you get the door-stopper version of the paper and my favourite bit are the supplement magazines. They are a great source of food inspiration for me. On the other hand some of their food articles can also cause me great annoyance. Thing is I am quite naive when it comes to health, I will believe in what the professionals say and the papers and magazines have all sorts of professionals giving a whole lot of conflicting information. It’s all too much for my fickle mind. This revolt started when I read about the owner of the hottest new green juice bar in London in one magazine and then in the next there were big, fat quotes by Tracy Anderson saying that juicing vegetables get rid of all the nutrients and fibre. Last week carbs were bad, this week sugar is the devil and I am reading about this lady with a complete sugar-free diet. Completely free. I don’t know what I admire the most, her motivation or her ability to find the strangest spreads for her rice cakes. I know they are not telling you to do anything but I feel that we’ve become a little too obsessed with
4 mins read
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25Aug

Lime and lemon tart

Exactly a year ago my friends got married and some of the guests brought to the reception a cake or tart to have a traditional Kaffee und Kuchen as it is known here in Germany. Coffee and cake often happens at around 3pm when families and friends meet up to eat something sweet. So a few days before the wedding I gave this a lot of thought and in the end decided on a lime and lemon tart, my husband’s favourite. At the reception there were several lovely cakes, but most of them with very simple decorations. And in less tan 5 minutes my tart was all gone and the few that had tried it were so impressed by it that they left the guests who hadn’t tried any feeling a tad frustrated. Do I need to say that I loved to hear all the compliments?!? My husband and I have been trying for months to have a get together, a garden party for friends as we have something very important to celebrate: I am pregnant and in four weeks we’ll finally meet this little boy who has been kicking my ribs for months. But my hormones made me cancel
3 mins read
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27Jul

Linzer Torte

This week my aim was to find a recipe that would help me to use up at least a little bit of the redcurrant and vanilla jam I made a few weeks ago. The jam turned out pretty well and redcurrant is one of my favourites, but I was looking for something to highlight the taste of these little guys even more. I don’t think I have ever shared this bit of information on the blog but my husband and I have an allotment, or Schrebergarten in German. I am a city girl, born and raised in a city with over a million inhabitants and at the other end of the scale is my husband, who grew up in a small village with a population of 800. He grew up surrounded by nature and now that we both live in a city apartment he grows frustrated not to have a green space, especially during the summer. He wanted to be relaxing closer to nature and not having to drive miles to get there.  So about four years ago he came up with this allotment idea, a piece of land that gives people in the city the opportunity to have some
4 mins read
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