Category Archives: Food

Apr17

Ratz-Fatz-Streuselkuchen – Birthday Cake No. 3

Posted on April 17, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Ratz-Fatz-Streuselkuchen – Birthday Cake No. 3

Hello Everybody!

Finally you get to see the recipe for my 3rd birthday cake. It is kind of the signature cake of my godmother and I begged her for the recipe! 🙂 My other birthday cakes were Buttermilk Banana Bread and Cherry Chocolate Cake!

And now I am sharing it with you!! This cake really is a crowd pleaser! Everybody loves it – it is so simple and yet sooo delicious!!

You can get streusel cake at nearly every bakery in Germany and this one just looks like it. You will get asked if you are a professional baker a lot of times 😉

But here is the secret: The cake is not actually very difficult to make! You might even have all those ingredients in your pantry already. Just make it yourself!

Ratz-Fatz Streuselkuchen / Streusel Cake / Crumble Cake

cake base:

4 eggs

200g (a little less than 1 cup) sugar

200g (1 3/4 cup) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

streusel:

250g (1 1/8 cup) butter, softened

250g (1 1/8 cup) sugar

400g (3 1/3 cups) flour

1 package vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon extract

for the finish:

200g (7 oz) cream

powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180° C (350°F). Line one baking sheet with baking paper.

2. First prepar the cake base: Beat eggs and sugar with a hand mixer until foamy. Add flour and baking powder and mix until incorporated. Pour onto the baking sheet and smooth out with a pastry spatula.

3. Now prepare the streusel. You need dough hooks on your hand mixer now or you could use your hands! Put butter, sugar, flour and vanilla into a bowl and mix. This takes about 5 minutes until everything is evenly distributed. Put the mixer away and press the streusel to small lumps together and put on top of the cake base. Try to spread evenly.

4. Bake this cake for approx. 20-25 minutes! You can use a knife to lift up the cake at the corners to see if its done from the bottom. Take it out of the oven and immediately pour the cream evenly on top of the cake. Let the cake rest for at least half an hour. The cream will soak in!

5. Coat with powdered sugar with the help of a small sieve and a teaspoon. Dig in!! 🙂

~Kathrin

Apr15

Creamy Lemon Curd

Posted on April 15, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Creamy Lemon Curd

Hey people!

I am totally in a lemony, citrusy mode. I just HAD to buy those organic lemons in the store!! I didn’t really have a plan what to do with them, and I had a lot of ideas. I thought of a lemon loaf, lemon rosemary palmiers, meringue with lemon and raspberry, lemon pasta,… Well I guess I had a lot of ideas. When you should be learning and concentrating on stuff your mind is very happy to escape to things like that!

But in the end – you might have guessed it – Lemon Curd it was!!

I have never done lemon curd before, but I got a jar from a friend as a gift for my birthday once. I really liked the sour and sweet taste of it and it went quickly, just like that, on bread with cream cheese. But there are sooo many more thing you could do with lemon curd! I am thinking about trying those nice mini pavlova stacks from Donal Skehan and make a second version with lemon curd. But I am not sure yet – let’s see if there will be enough lemon curd left or if it will be gone as quickly as the one I got more than a year ago!!

This version of the curd is adapted from sweetapolitas Lemon Meringue Cake and it is very creamy and thick. It does not drop from your spoon, believe me, I have tested this 🙂 The pictures were taken when the curd still was a little warm. It is soo delicious, I can just eat it with a spoon and don’t need bread or cake or anything with it!!

After you gathered all your ingredients it is very easy and quick to make. Well, at least if your not taking about a thousand pictures during the procedure 😉

Creamy Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

4 organic lemons, you need zest and juice

2 whole eggs

4 egg yolks

200g (1 cup) sugar (I used powdered sugar, then it is 1 3/4 cup)

60g (4 tablespoons) butter

Directions:

1. Zest the lemons. You need 2 teaspoons of zest. You can dry the rest of the zest or use it in another recipe. Press juice out of the lemons. You need 160ml (2/3 cup) of juice!

2. Prepare a pot and a metal or ceramic bowl that fits on top. The Bowl should not be too small! Pour hot water into the pot but only as high so that the bowl does not touch the water. Take the bowl of and prepare the mixture

3. Beat eggs and sugar in the metall bowl with a hand mixer until very foamy. Add juice. Stir slowly as it will be very liquid now!

4. Now put the bowl back onto the pot and on low-medium heat and add the butter. Don’t go away, you have to whisk more or less constantly!

5.When the mixture changes consistency and gets thicker take the bowl of the heat and put the mixture through a fine sieve. Now add the zest and stir well. You can put the lemon curd into one bowl and cover with cling film so that it touches or you could do it like me and pour it into several small glass jars, clean the rim and close them immediately. The curd should stay fresh for one or even two weeks in the refrigerator, but I have not tried it myself. So no garantees 😉 Enjoy!

~ Kathrin

Apr12

Cherry Chocolate Cake – Birthday Cake No. 2

Posted on April 12, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Cherry Chocolate Cake – Birthday Cake No. 2

Hey there!

The week is finally over!! BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!!! It was such a long and hard week, having 4 exams to study for and not being even sure if I passed. But it’s over now!!!

I am feeling so much better already even if I still have another coloquial one next week.

So I thought it is finally the time to share another one of my scrumptious birthday cakes! My birthday was already 1,5 months ago but I still hadn’t the time to share this recipe with you. The Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes had to come first 😉

Here I have the Cherry Chocolate Cake recipe for you!! The cake was loved very much too, it was the one who had the fewest pieces left! 😉

Read more about my birthday and the other cakes here: Buttermilk Banana Bread

Cherry Chocolate Cake

recipe adapted from this book

Ingredients:

1 glas sour cherries (about 370g)

100g dark chocolate finely grated with a big knife ( just try to slice very thin slices of the chocolate, it will break into ‘grated’ pieces)

200g butter, softened (a little less then 1 cup)

175g (3/4 cup) sugar

1 package vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon extract)

1 pinch of salt

4 eggs

125g (1 cup) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g grounded almonds (a little less then 1 cup)

Directions:

1. Put the cherries into a colander and drain well. If you want you can keep the sirup but it will not be used in the recipe. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

Butter a springform pan well.

2. Beat butter and sugars with salt until foamy with a hand mixer. This may take a few minutes. Add eggs one by one, mix well in between.

3. Now add flour and baking powder. Stir the dry ingredients on top of the wet ones a little with a spoon to mix up. Then use your hand mixer to incorporate.

4. Finally add chocolate and almonds and mix.

5. Add a little bit of your batter into the springform pan and flatten with the back of a spoon. Put the cherries on top and take care that no one of the cherries touches the rim of the pan. Now add the rest of the batter on top (not all in one place – put big dollops all over the cake) and then spread it out and cover the cherries.

6. Bake the cake for 45 minutes. When wooden skewer comes out clean the cake is ready. Let it cool for 20 minutes and then remove the springform pan.

7. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cake with the help of a small colander. Let cool completely and Enjoy!! 🙂

~ Kathrin

Apr6

Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes

Posted on April 6, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes

Hey people out there!!

Today I have something very special for you: CARAMEL MAPLE BACON CUPCAKES!!!

Yeah, they HAVE to be written in capital letters, they are just soooooo good!!!

When I first stumbled upon the recipe I thought immediatly of my brother. He is a very big fan of maple sirup – and all things meat of course! He enjoys preparing different meats on the grill and in the oven like low temperature grilled pulled beef or lamb or turkey… That is kind of his greatest hobby!

So last week was his birthday and I took the chance and made those delicious Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes for him. At first I was quite shocked that the recipe made 24 instead of 12 cupcakes – but it was too late by then. So I made all those 24 cupcakes and thought I would just see what happens.

Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes by gingerlemonandspice

Snapshot of my little cousin and my brother’s girlfriend making friendship bracelets at the party

And it was unbelievable!! At first everybody was a bit skeptic by the combination of flavors, but then they all liked it very much! The next day I was told by one of the sleepover guests, a friend of my brothers, that he even ate 3 at the party and asked me for one more for breakfast 🙂 Best compliment ever!! 😀

Most of them were gone by the next day, I think there were like 5 or 6 left, but not for long. I am sorry for all the exclamation marks I use but I just feel sooo enthusiastic about those cupcakes!!

Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes (makes 24)

Ingredientes:

Muffin:

225g (1 cup) butter, softened

225g (1 cup) sugar

4 large eggs

360g (3 cups) all-purpose wheat flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

1 package vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

Caramel Maple Frosting (makes a lot – I even used the rest for the dessert we ate at our family easter lunch):

225g (1 cup) butter

340g (1 1/2 cups) brown sugar

1/2 cup evaporated milk (Kondensmilch)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

400g cream

6 packages whipped cream stabilizer (Sahnesteif)

1/2 cup maple sirup

300g bacon slices

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 170° C (350° F). Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until creamy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating after each one until incorporated.

2. Add flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and mix the dry mixture on top a bit with a spoon. Add the milk and vanilla to the bowl and begin to mix slowly with your electric mixer. If the slowest speed of the mixer is too high start mixing by making circles with the mixer without turning it on.

3. Put paper baking cups into 2 (12-cup) muffin tins, or do only 12 at first if you only have one tin like I did. After the first ones are baked, remove the muffins and bake the second ones. Spoon the batter into the cups until about two-thirds full. Bake for about 15 minutes or until wooden pick comes out clean. Put the Muffins on wire racks to cool completely

4. For the frosting melt the butter over medium heat in a pot on the stove. Choose one that is a bit bigger because the batter will rise about double the size. Add brown sugar and stir constantly. Bring to a boil and cook for two minutes. Don’t forget stiring!! Then add the evaporated milk. When everything is incorporated add the baking soda, stir and cook for 1 minute. The batter will double in size! Then remove the pot from the heat, put a lid on top and let cool completely.

I did everything until this step on the day before my brother’s birthday so the frosting had time to cool overnight.

5. Transfer the caramel mixture to a big bowl. In another bowl beat the cream with the whipped cream stabilizer until very stiff but it’s not butter yet. Now take your electric mixer, add maple sirup to the caramel and beat the mixture for 5-10 minutes until the color changes and it looks whipped up. You don’t need to clean the stirrers when you change from the cream to the caramel. Then add the whipped cream and mix until just incorporated. The frosting should be thick enough now to hold together! If you have problems you could still add more whipped cream stabilizer.

6. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate with the bacon bits. The taste-testers later told me either they didn’t need the bacon at all or they would have wanted to have more bacon. So choose whatever you want 😉 In my opinion it could have had more bacon!

7. Enjoy! and if you want – share with some special friends!

Recipe adapted from MyRecipes.com

and just one last one more 🙂

~Kathrin

Apr1

Rouladen und Knödel – A Traditional German Holiday Dish

Posted on April 1, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Rouladen und Knödel – A Traditional German Holiday Dish

Happy Easter to all of you!!

I hope you are having a great time with your families?

Today I want to show you what we ate at our traditional family lunch on easter sunday. My two cousins and me helped my grandmother prepare the food the day before and on sunday morning. It was a lot of food to prepare but we really were a great team and were done quickly! And we had a lot of fun too, which in my book is even better 😉

We started with preparing the Rouladen. We had large beef cuts that were filled with mustard, onions, speck, pepper and salt by my cousins and I rolled them up and secured them with steel needles.

Here you can see the finished Rouladen:

During the time we made the Rouladen we cooked some potatoes which we peeled and pressed through a poatoe ricer next.

I had already cut some dowdy buns into squares which were roasted in a pan with butter. Those were ingredients we needed for the potatoe dumplings (Knödel) which we prepared in the morning of the next day.

You can see my grandmother cracking some eggs into the mixture and then mixing it with an amount of flour that I don’t know – she just adds it until it ‘feels right’ 🙂

There was seasoning involved, too: Salt and nutmeg. Usually she adds parsley too, but not this time!

After the dough had the right consistency we formed perfectly round balls to make the dumplings. I just loooove how they looked like!! The next picture is my favorite one 🙂

At that moment the Rouladen were already cooking in the oven for hours! My grandma roasted them just after her breakfast which is usually quite early in the morning. Then she made the sauce with roasted vegetables and stale german bread. I don’t have any pictures of this as I was still sleeping 😉 But by the time the Knödel were findished and we tasted the sauce they looked like this:

My mothers family lives very close together, actually in houses next to each other. So after preparing the food at my grandma’s house I brought everything I could to my aunt’s house where we ate together.

The napkins were just sooo cute 🙂

We also had cauliflower salad, green salad and red cabbage.

The food was soooo delicious!! We have this everytime on christmas and on easter, but I was still amazed how scrumptious it was!!

And then it was all gone and we needed a little break before we could go on with the dessert.

The dessert was some layered goodness I spontanously created the day before with crushed cantuccini, some roasted coconut, a layer of caramel maple cream, raspberries and strawberries and a creme of banana and ‘Quark’ which my translater says is called curd cheese in english. It is something german I have never found in any of the countries I have been before!

I thought the dessert was really delicious, and as all of the glasses were emptied in silence I guess the rest of the family will agree 😉

So this was our traditional family meal. What did you have to eat?

I hope you liked the little show of pictures!

~ Kathrin

Mar30

Last Minute Easter Ideas

Posted on March 30, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Last Minute Easter Ideas

Happy Good Friday to all of you!!

I hope you have a great easter-weekend with lots of love from your families! 🙂

Is your easter menue set already? Did you have the right idea for the decoration yet? Maybe you need some more inspiration on what you could do and make?

Then you should read on!!

I am going to share some easter food ideas and easter decorations with you, that I found on the internet while I was having a look for myself. I thought I have to show them to you too, because they are worth to be seen!

Have a look at all the pretty pictures 🙂

I hope you like my little collection!!

Happy Easter to all of you!!

~ Kathrin

Mar22

Peanut Butter Cups

Posted on March 22, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Peanut Butter Cups

Hey there!

How are you? My ‘vacation’ time that I spent at my parents house is over and I am back in working mode. There will be more exams soon!! I am not looking forward to that – but at least those will be the last ones I have to write for my Masters Degree.

Let’s talk about more pleasant topics. Reese’s peanut butter cups! I have heard so much about them but never actually tried one of my own until January, when a friend of mine returned from a trip to New York. She took several packages with her because she liked them so much!! I have read a lot about them on all the american food blogs I read – you clearly can’t read those blogs without stumbling on them 😉 In Germany it is very difficult to get Reese’s at all. I could imagine that they are sold on the internet, but it never felt important enough for me to try. But still: sweet peanut butter and chocolate together sounded fantastic!!

So when I tried my first Peanut Butter cups I just thought: Luckily I don’t have a whole package, they are addictive!

Last week my friend celebrated her birthday and I wanted to give her something made by myself. I knew she already ate up all her peanut butter cups and I have read that it was not so difficult to make those on my own, so I just tried! I think they went really well!! All the taste testers said they liked them very much! I used dark chocolate which seems to be a little less sugary then the one used in the original one and also the chocolate was hard after the 1,5 hours the cups sat on the balcony to set. I guess you could whisk a little bit of cream into the chocolate to make it a little softer if you want the cups to be more like the originals, but I liked them the way they were!!

Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cups like Reese’s

Ingredients:

100g peanut butter smooth

50g butter, softened

30g powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

400g Kouvertüre Zartbitter (dark chocolate)

about 25 small paper cups (mini muffins cups)

Directions:

1. Melt chocolate in a double boiler with 25g butter.

2. Prepare your piping bag or like I used a frosting plastic bag. I just used a big glas and secoured the bag with with a rubber band.

3. Prepare filling: Whisk peanut butter and the other 25g of butter until well combined. Add the sugars. Mix very well.

4. Pour chocolate into plastic bag and twist the end of the bag so that no chocolate can come out. You can see this on the pictures!

5. Cut one tiny edge of the plastic bag and pipe a little bit of chocolate (just as much as you need to cover the bottom) into the paper cups.

6. Place some peanut butter mixture into the middle of the paper cup. Pour more chocolate on top.

7. Let it sit for at least 45 min. It sets quicker when you put the peanut butter cups somewhere cold like on the balcony in winter. I had some chocolate left which I just piped onto some aluminium foil and let it harden. Next time I need chocolate I just melt it again.

8. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Lidl Germany

~Kathrin

Mar17

Irish Brown Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on March 17, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Irish Brown Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day

Happy St. Paddy’s Day to all of you!!

I am Irish by heart.

That is what I am saying to those people that ask me if I’m Irish because of my naturally red hair, my name, or the west cork accent I get when I spend more then 2 days in Ireland.

I am Irish by heart.

I have stopped counting on how many times I have been on the green isle yet. It must be around 15… My very first time was in 2000 with the band of the music club of my hometown. It was kind of part of an official visit with our town being twinned to a town in south Ireland. We were a big group and we were so very welcomed by the people living in our twincity. We ate together, we drank together and we did a lot of celebration. I was only 11 years old when I went to Ireland for the very first time, but I left a piece of my heart there which made me come back again and again…

I am Irish by heart.

I love flying. I really do! But when the plane breaks through the foggy clouds and I spot the green rectangle gras fields with the borders of stone walls, it takes my breath away. And when the luck is with me I can see thick sunrays breaking through the clouds highlighting spots on the ground so that it looks like the leprechauns want to show me where they hide their pots of gold… I get emotional, I have butterflies in my tummy and it just feels sooo right…

IT FEELS LIKE COMING HOME…

I am Irish by heart!

I have ‘my Irish family’ over there who take me in and take such good care for me all the times I need a place to stay or even if I don’t – they will pick me up from the hostel and invite me to their home. I am so very glad to have met them!! We have spent so many hours having a pint in the pub, talking about our lives, having good homemade food and of course having a cup of tea at all kinds of times, even late at nights when we just got home from being out in town. Thank you so much for being there, opening up your hearts and home and make me part of you family!

Also the two girls and two boys that spent time at our house in Germany, they are my irish brothers and sisters. I am wondering how they are and what they are doing and it is always nice to see each other again!

All the friends I found in Ireland… I am so happy to have met all of you!! And I am soo glad to be back and meet you all again in august!!

I am Irish by heart.

I am struggeling to verbalize my feelings for this country that is so much more for me. I hope you get an impression of what I mean when I truelly say from the heart: I AM IRISH, at least by heart 😉

So I am bringing you one of my all time favourite irish foods for you: Brown Soda Bread. Every Irish mum knows how to make it, and so does mine too. I am also always buying some to take home! But since it isn’t a very difficult recipe at all I also make it at home from time to time. Because it is mostly whole grain wheat flour you use it is also healthy too! Try it yourself!!

Irish Brown Soda Bread

Ingredients:

3 cups coarse whole grain wheat flour

1 cup normal white wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 3/4 cups buttermilk

50g soft butter or margarine (about 2 tablespoons)

1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180° C. Line one tray with baking parchment.

2. Put all the ingredients in your bowl. Mix gently (I used a handheld electric mixer with dough hook) but don’t overmix! The dough will be very soft.

3. Put the dough in the middle of your tray with the help of a rubber spatula. Make the spatula wet and form your dough into a round or oval. Dust with flour or oats. For the traditional look use a wet knife to cut a cross about 1 cm deep into the dough.

4. Put the tray into the oven. The bread is ready after 50 min.

5. If you want the shell soft like you get the bread in Ireland you just put the hot bread into a wet hand towel until it is cool or better overnight.

6. Enjoy!! The bread tastes best toasted with butter or whipped cream and jam. But also try it with Irish cheese or smoked salmon!

Note: Irish brown soda bread usually has a nutty taste that comes from the coarse whole grain flour. In Germany you can’t get the right kind (usually all whole grain flours are milled very finely) so you have to ask to get your flour milled more coarsly. Toasting brings out the nuttyness even more!

~Kathrin

Mar13

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

Posted on March 13, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

Hello everybody!!

I hope you are great, all of you? Well, I took some time off to have my second birthday party with my family and friends at home. Then I did a whole lot of nothing, resting my brain from all the work 😉 But now I am back again!! Ready to show you some more food and stories and finally being creative again! 🙂 Last night I had a great time with my godchild. She always wanted to do a sweet yeast bread with poppy seeds on her own, so we just made a date and did it!! It was very much fun and the two braided buns turned out beautifully, too!! Of course everyone had to make their own. I would love to show you a picture, but I was so very clever to bring only my camera and not my charger to my parents house and we already took too many pictures at the wild animal park we went as a family last sunday. Well, things happen 😉

With a little luck my godchild remembered to take a picture of hers when she got back to her house!! But I can’t promise. At least I can say it wasn’t very difficult at all, so maybe I will make it again soon with proper pictures! To round up the evening we had a lot of fun eating pasta with pesto, watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in English and laughing about the silliest scens and of course – trying the first pieces of our sweet bread!! It tasted as good as it looked!

Today I have a recipe of a couscous salad for you. Well, it is not any couscous salad!! As I already told you, I live in a flat with two other girls – and this is what we eat a lot. And I really mean A LOT!!! We eat it on mondays or tuesdays, for lunch or for dinner, together or seperately – just all the time!! It is soooo very quick and definitly way too delicious to not been eaten at least twice a week!! I also take it to university if I don’t have time to eat at home which works perfectly too.

I don’t want to keep you in the loop any longer!! Here you go:

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups couscous (the easy cooking type)

4 cups boiling water

2 tea-bags (about 6-8g, or as much as you want) of mint tea – fresh might be better, but that’s all we have on hand in winter

2 teaspoons of granulated vegetable broth

1/2 cucumber (Salatgurke in German)

3-4 big tomatoes (or the equivalent in small ones)

200g feta cheese (in Germany that is one package)

about 8 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

6 tablespoons olive oil

Salt, Pepper

optional: 1 bell pepper

directions:

1. Put couscous, mint, vegetable broth and hot water into your salad bowl. Stir a little bit with a fork, then let sit for 10 minutes.

2. Cut cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese and bell pepper into squares.

3. If the water is soaked up by the couscous already, loosen up with a fork. If not, just wait a little bit more and then go on. Put the vegetables and feta into your bowl and continue loosing up the mixture.

4. Season with salt and pepper, be careful with the salt as the feta already is salty. Pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad and mix well. Have a taste! We never measure olive oil or vinegar, we just go on taste. So if you feel you need more of anything, just add it. I like a little tingling from the vinegar on my tounge 😉

5. Enjoy lukewarm or cold!! We usually eat this as a whole meal, but it would be great as a side dish or at a barbecue too!!

~Kathrin

Mar1

Buttermilk Banana Bread – Birthday Cake No.1

Posted on March 1, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Buttermilk Banana Bread – Birthday Cake No.1

Hello everybody!

So last wednesday was my birthday! I am 26 years old now.

Some of you may think: Oh my, this is very old, and some might think: I hope I was that young again 😉 For me age is not important at all! I just don’t care! I am living with the lines of: You’re always as old as you feel!! I have good friends that are a lot younger or older than me, and I also had bad friends who were the same age. In my opinion age does not tell you i you are on the same wavelength, so it doesn’t count!

Last wednesday I had a little birthday party. I like having birthday parties, because I like to cater for friends and family!! This year I had to stay in the city where I’m studying, so I could not celebrate with my family. I will do this the next time I am at my parents house! I invited friends from university and the choir I’m singing in. 10 friends came, celebrated and had cake with me! Everybody liked the cakes a lot, and we had lots of fun!!

Those were the cakes:

So after we ate and drank our cups of coffee and tea we went to the choir room and to the practice.

When I planed this little celebration I thought about baking two cakes and a batch of cookies. In the morning on my birthday I was very spontaneos and just baked one more, while the second one was in the oven. What I did was this Buttermilk Banana Bread! And I have to say – I liked all the cakes very much, but the banana bread just was the best!! I didn’t expect it to be at all, but I really really liked it. It was very moist and sooooo flavorful!! I didn’t think it would taste so much like banana 🙂 I even think about making it again for the big party with the family!!

I asked you on facebook, which of the three cakes you wanted to see on the blog today and you decided for my favorite one!! Great decision 🙂

But all the cakes were liked very much, everybody had their own favorite. Before the party I thought I baked way too much, but when I wanted to take the rest to the choir practice I was very surprised that there wasn’t much left! There is now better way of showing approval i guess 😉

So here comes the recipe for

Buttermilk Banana Bread

adapted from Two Peas And Their Pod

Ingredientes:

115g (1/2 cup) butter, softened

190g (1 cup) sugar (I used selfmade vanilla sugar – but you could add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract instead)

2 eggs

1 cup mashed banana (it is best if they already have brown sprinkles on their skin)

6 tablespoons buttermilk

200g (1 3/4 cups) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

optional for glaze:

1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoons milk

Directions:

1. Grease and maybe flour a big loaf pan, set aside. Preheat oven on 160°C (350° F).

2. First cream the butter in a bowl with a hand mixer for a bit, then add the sugar and whisk until well incorporated and creamy. Mix eggs in. Add mashed bananas, if used vanilla extract and buttermilk and mix the batter well

3. Now add flour, baking powder, salt and soda and mix on very slow speed. When all the white stuff is gone you can move on to a higher speed for a minute.

4. Put the batter into the loaf pan and then into the oven. Bake for approx. 60 minutes. When a toothpick comes out clean, it is ready.

5. Get the loaf pan out of the ofen and let it cool for 20 minutes. Then run a knife along the edges and loosen the bread. Put it out of the pan and onto a rack to cool completely. If you want you can decorate the cake with a little bit of glaze like I did. Just mix powdered sugar and the milk bit by bit until you have the consistency you like!

6. Enjoy – preferably with a lot of friends!! I can’t say how long it stays this beautifully moist because it was gone in a day!!

Hello Everybody!

Ratz-Fatz Streuselkuchen / Streusel Cake / Crumble Cake

~Kathrin

Hey people!

Creamy Lemon Curd

~ Kathrin

Hey there!

Cherry Chocolate Cake

recipe adapted from this book

~ Kathrin

Hey people out there!!

Caramel Maple Bacon Cupcakes (makes 24)

Recipe adapted from MyRecipes.com

~Kathrin

Happy Easter to all of you!!

~ Kathrin

Happy Good Friday to all of you!!

1) Breakfast Ideas

2) Desserts and Sweets

3) Cakes and Cupcakes

4) Decoration

Happy Easter to all of you!!

~ Kathrin

Hey there!

Peanut Butter Cups like Reese’s

Recipe adapted from Lidl Germany

~Kathrin

Happy St. Paddy’s Day to all of you!!

Irish Brown Soda Bread

~Kathrin

Hello everybody!!

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

~Kathrin

Hello everybody!

Buttermilk Banana Bread

adapted from Two Peas And Their Pod

~Kathrin