Orange Cake

As usual, dessert is my part when it comes to our family Christmas dinner. I was really looking forward to sharing these pictures with you! I'm really proud of this cake! Isn't it an eye-catcher?! Good news: It's not that difficult to make. And it's delicious! After baking, the cake is soaked in orange syrup. It's wonderfully dense and moist. It's rather sweet, but not all that heavy. I - as you might guess - love it served with a dollop of whipped cream ;-)

Recipe
(from one of my favourite books: I love Cake by Trish Deseine)

4 eggs
220g sugar
150g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g butter, melted
120g ground almonds
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

for the syrup:
225g sugar
125ml water
2 or 3 oranges, washed and cut into thin slices

Line a 20cm diameter springform pan with parchment paper and grease well with butter (also line the rim with parchment paper!). Preheat the oven to 160°C.

For the syrup, pour the sugar and the water into a large pan and heat it up while constantly stirring. When the sugar has dissolved, add the orange slices and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the oranges are soft but still keep their shape. Take the pot away from the heat and drain the orange slices. Keep the syrup for later.

Put the eggs and the sugar into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer for about 8-10 minutes until you have a creamy and thick batter about three times the volume of before.

Sift in flour and baking powder and fold in gently (I did it with a rubber spatula). Then, add the melted butter, the almonds and the lemon zest. Fold in until all is well combined.

Now line the rim and the bottom of your springform pan with the orange slices. Fill in the batter and bake for about 50 minutes. Check with a wooden skewer whether your cake is done. There shoul be no dough on the skewer. I left my cake in the oven for about 60 minutes.

Take the cake out of the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes or so. Then, release from the springform pan and turn it over.

Pour over some of the remaining orange syrup. Let cool completely before serving. If you have any leftover syrup, you can serve it together with the cake.

This is my last post this year. My 2012 was great - exciting and fast-paced, sometimes demanding, with an unexpectedly quiet end that gave me time to slow down. It made me realize that it can't hurt to take a break every now and then. I had wonderful moments with my friends and family this year. I got to know new people that grew dear to my heart and I'm looking forward to seeing them again in 2013. I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that it's going to be a good year. I wish you all a good start next week!

Merry Christmas

This is just to wish you all a merry merry Christmas.

And to say thank you to all my friends who have been there

for me - especially in the past 4 weeks. 

I am so lucky to have you.

Lots of love

Katrin

Spice Cookies

I have been looking for old fashioned cookie molds this winter and I didn't find any. I was all the more happy when I found out that my grandma still has these kind of molds. She lent them to me and yesterday, I finally turned on the oven again after almost a month. Feels good :-) I'm really fond of these cookies. They taste delicious and don't they look cute?! Stay tuned next week for some more pictures and of course, for the cake I made this morning for our family christmas dinner tomorrow evening.

Spekulatius
(from: Betty Bossi - Backen in der Weihnachtszeit)

120g butter, soft
120g brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
60g ground almonds
grated zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch of ground cardamom
1 pinch of ground cloves
250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar, salt and the egg and beat until the batter is pale and smooth. Add almonds, lemon zest, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and mix well. Add the flour and the baking powder and bring together to a dough. Form a large ball and flatten it a little with your hand. Wrap in clingfilm and cool for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Roll out portions of the dough on a floured surface or between two layers of cling film (about 7cm thick). If you have molds, press them into the dough and cut it around the edges with a knife or, if they are round, with a glass or a round cookie cutter a bit larger than the mold. If you don't have these old fashioned molds, just use the usual cookie cutters. Put the cookies on a tray lined with parchment paper. Cool for another 10 minutes.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes in the middle of the oven. Take them out of the oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

They keep, in an airtight container, for about 2 weeks.

Cinnamon Marble Cake

I know, I have not posted a single cookie recipe this December and to be honest, I am not even sure whether there is going to be a cookie session at all. But guys, sometimes, less is more and there were other things that needed to be taken care of this month. I'm sure there will be plenty of time for baking next year and who knows... I might turn on the oven this weekend. For now, I have a really simple and wonderful cake recipe for you that I tried out in the first week of December. By using cinnamon instead of cocoa powder and adding handful of raisins, you can turn a marble cake into the perfect Christmas treat.

Recipe
(from: Süsse Sünden - Tarek Malouf)

190g soft butter, plus a little to grease the cake tin
190g sugar
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
3 eggs
190g flour, plus a little more for the cake tin
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
25g sour cream
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
70g raisins

Preheat the oven to 170°C (convection oven: 150°C). Grease a 20cm cake tin with butter and dust with flour.

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs one by one. Scrape down the bowl from time to time with a ladle.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into another bowl. In two additions, add the flour mixture to the fluffy mixture and mix well. Then, add the sour cream.

Put about 200g of the dough into another bowl, add the cinnamon and mix well. Add the raisins to the other remaining dough. Fill the dough with the raisins into your prepared cake tin first. Then, add the cinnamon dough. Run through it with a fork and swirl it around a bit to create the marble effect.

Bake the cake in the middle of the oven for about 50-60 minutes. Test whether it's done with a wooden skewer. If there is no dough on the skewer, your cake is done.

Sweet Potato Soup with Dried Apricots

It's way too cold outside... and the weather forecast said something about heavy snowfall today. Therefore, I decided to post another warming soup recipe before I'm going to start with this year's Christmas baking session. I like sweet potatoes very much, and I was intrigued by the idea of adding dried apricots to a soup. It totally worked for me, the dried apricots add an extra something to the flavor.

Recipe
(Original in German: here)

Ingredients for 2-3 servings:
1 tablspoon butter
1 red pepper
1-2 big sweet potatoes
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
50g dried apricots, diced
5dl vegetable stock
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons greek yoghurt or sour cream

Peel the sweet potatoes. Cut the sweet potatoes and the pepper into dices. In a saucepan, heat the butter and add the curry powder. Add the pepper and the sweet potato and sauté at medium heat for about ten minutes. Add the diced apricot, mix well and sauté for another 10 minutes. Add the vegetable stock and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Then, purée and add the yoghurt. Season with salt and pepper. Add some thyme leaves if you like and serve.