Apple and Caramel Cake

I brought this cake along to the English Seminar for some friends of mine. Cyril, who usually is also already there in the early morning, always gets a piece of cake for breakfast :-) The others had it as a dessert after lunch. I liked the idea of putting caramel candy into a cake. The recipe is easy and the cake stays moist for up to 3 days. A winner if you ask me.

Recipe:
(Original version in German here)

150g soft butter
200g sugar
1 pinch of salt
4 eggs
250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 red apples, cut into slices
150g soft caramel candy, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C:

Beat butter, sugar and salt until foamy. Add one egg after the other and beat for about 5 more minutes until you have a pale batter. Mix flour and baking powder and add to the batter, mix well. Fold in apples and caramels and mix well. Fill the dough into a prepared 28cm cake tin. Bake for about 70 minutes (in my oven, it took about an hour).

Fig and Apple Tart

This tart is perfect for autumn. It's got a really thick pastry base with a nutty taste that goes well with the fruit. Plus I liked the addition of the honey to the filling. This is delicious while it is still a bit warm - and with some extra cream of course ;-)

Recipe
(Original recipe in German: www.wildeisen.ch)

for the dough:
125g soft butter
125g sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
80g ground hazelnuts
175g flour
1 teaspoon baing powder

for the filling:
4 big figs
3 apples
150g crème fraiche
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon runny honey
2 egg yolks

For the dough beat the butter until it is smooth. Add sugar and salt. Add one egg after the other and beat until you have a smooth and pale batter. Mix hazelnuts, flour and baking powder. Add to the batter. Smoothen out the dough on a 24cm diameter tart tin. Put in the refridgerator.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Wash the figs and the apples. Cut the figs into sixths and the apples into slices. Arrange the fruits on your dough. Combine crème fraiche, brown sugar, honey and egg yolks and pour onto the fruit.

Bake the tart for about 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

This post is for my good friend Sarah who had her last exam today. I made this cake especially for her. Congratulations Sarah! We did it, can you believe it?!

Recipe:
(Original recipe in German: www.saison.ch)

4 eggs
200g brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
0.5 lemon
100g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon
125g ground almonds
100g spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
300g pumpkin

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 22cm (I took a 24cm) diameter springform pan with parchment paper.

Beat eggs, sugar and salt for about 5 minutes until you got a pale batter. Grate lemon zest and add lemon juice. Mix cinnamon, almonds, flour, baking powder and add. Combine well. Add the chocolate and mix well. Grate pumpkin and fold into the batter. Fill your batter into the prepared springform pan and bake in the middle of the oven for about 50 minutes. Let cool, sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

Lic. phil. and baking again...

The exams are over! It's time to celebrate... with cake of course ;-) Today, my kitchen smelled of chocolate and vanilla... How I missed that! There's a pile of recipes lying around that I would like to try... A huge THANK YOU goes out to all my friends for their support. You're the best... I'm going to bake a lot of cakes for you guys! This one is for my mum, though.

 

Pear Cake with Chocolate Crumbles:

(Original recipe in German: www.wildeisen.ch )

For the crumble:

20g flour

40g cocoa powder

50g icing sugar

50g butter

For the cake:

1 vanilla pod

150g butter

2 eggs

80g sugar

100g flour

50g corn flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

6 ripe pears or 12 canned pear halves (I used less)

Mix all the ingredients for the crumble and knead with your fingers until you got a smooth dough. Wrap in cling film and put into the refrigerator.

Line a 26cm diameter springform pan with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 170°C.

Scrape out the vanilla pod and put the seeds and the pod into a pan together with the butter. Melt the butter and then set aside for about 15 minutes.

Beat eggs and sugar with the hand mixer for about 10 minutes until you got a smooth, thick and pale batter. Mix flour, corn flour and baking powder. Combine flour and egg-batter (don't just add all the flour at once, add spoonfuls and combine well). Remove the vanilla pod from the melted butter and mix butter with the dough. Pour the dough into your prepared springform pan. Arrange the pear halves on the dough with the round side up.

Rub the prepared chocolate dough in your fingers and the spread the crumbles on the cake.

Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool in the springform pan.