Sunday, September 29, 2013

Nutella Cake


Do you like Nutella? I LOVE it! Seriously, I could eat it every day till the rest of my life. I always buy a big jar of Nutella and I don't want to admit how many days it lasts. 
Nothing is better than a slice of whole grain bread with Nutella on top. If you like Nutella and love cakes, you should deffinitely try this Nutella cake. The recipe is an old classic, which a friend of mine found on the internet. Whenever a family member celebrates his birthday, they demand this cake. It is so so amazing and really easy to do.

You need:
For the batter:
6 eggs
120 grams sugar
180 grams flour
1 tea spoon baking powder
1 tea spoon vanilla
5 generous table spoons Nutella
Plus 
1/2 cup of water
5 table spoons sugar

For the filling:
2 cups heavy cream
4 generous table spoons Nutella

Prepare two medium sized mixing bowls and crack the eggs, putting the yolks in one bowl and whites in the other. Put half of the sugar to the egg yolks and mix until creamy. Put the other half of the sugar to the egg whites and mix until you get a stiff meringue. Set aside. 
Now mix the Nutella into the yolk sugar mixture and gradually add the meringue. Mix carefully, you don't want to overmix the batter. Now combine the flour and baking powder, sift and fold in the batter mixture. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake on 180°C for 25 minutes. When baked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely. 
Once cool, remove from the tin and cut twice through the sponge, so you get three equal sponges. Put the first sponge on a cake plate and moisten it with the mixture of water and sugar. For the filling, beat the heavy cream and add the Nutella. Be careful to not overmix it. The filling should be light and fluffy, not liquid or too hard. Smear a third of the filling on the sponge and put the next sponge on top. Do the same on this layer, finishing with the filling, which you smear all over the cake. Cool in the fridge for two hours, or overnight.




Monday, September 23, 2013

Mexican Lasagna



September is flying by so fast, I can't believe it is Fall already. Even though I hate those crisp, cold September days, I love to cook something really tasty when I come home. When I think of comfort food, I think of a spicy, Mexican dish. I love tortillas and everything spicy and hot actually, and this is my favourite tortilla dish. 
The recipe can be found here and it is from Eva Longoria's Eva's Kitchen which is a good cookbook, I think. I can't imagine her cooking all those dishes she has in the book, however. 
The recipe is pretty easy and you can prepare the lasagna a night before and just put it in the oven the following day. 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Pflaumenkuchen

I am back from my trip to Cologne. The past month has been the best in my life; I have learnt so much, experienced millions of things and most importantly - I have met the most amazing people. If anyone of you guys are reading this, please remember that you are all lovely people and I could talk to you for hours and hours straight. Ich kann es kaum erwarten euch wieder zu sehen! Bleibt so wie ihr seid!

So, back to my "normal" life. Our plum tree is so generous that I have problems eating all of the plums. My friends, family and my boss benefit from this since they all got a lot of plums recently. This Pflaumenkuchen reminds me of my days in Cologne, where I ate an amazing slice of Pflaumenkuchen and this is my recreation.



You need:

For the dough
300 grams flour
20 grams butter
1 egg
10 grams sugar

For the filling
900 grams plums, pits removed
2 tea spoons cinnamon

For the crumbly topping
320 grams flour
200 grams sugar
200 grams cold butter



Combine all of the ingredients above and mix with a wooden spoon. Now knead the dough for a couple of minutes, form into a ball and set aside. Leave to rest for 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare the filling; put the plums into a small bowl and dust with cinnammon. You can also add sugar to the plums, if you wish but I prefer them plain because they are naturally sweet. After the dough has rested, roll it out (cca. 2 centimeters thin) and put in a pie dish. Put the filling on top and set aside. Make the crumbling topping by putting all of the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and mix with an electric mixer on full speed for a couple of minutes, until crumbs start to form. Top the pie with it and bake for 45 minutes on 180°C.