Mixed Berry and Hazelnut Dacquoise for my 4th Blog Anniversary!

This post marks the fourth anniversary of Berry Lovely. As with every anniversary I always make a berry cake. This time it is a hazelnut dacquoise filled with a mascarpone berry cream and topped with some beautiful fresh berries from our garden.

Make sure to give enough time for cooling, since it will make it easier to cut. You can also make this cake with a single berry of your choice, like just strawberries would probably taste great.

Rote Grütze (Red Fruit Pudding) and a trip to the island of Sylt

Today I have a traditional German dessert for you, and it's the Rote Grütze. It is basically a fruit pudding thickened with tapioca pearls, and sometimes corn starch. You can use your favorite fruits and berries for this. The most popular choice is a mix of cherries, currants, strawberries and raspberries.

Rote Grütze is probably the most popular dessert on the island of Sylt, situated in the German North Sea. It is often served with heavy cream or crème anglais, but you can also serve it as a topping for waffles, cheesecakes, rice pudding or ice-cream.

Sylt is one of the popular spots for Germans to spend their holidays. A over 40 km long, unbroken chain of sandy beaches and mud flat makes up the island's coastline. There are many protected nature habitats for fishes and birds to feed and rest. Majority of the houses are decked with traditional north German thatch roofs which gives a very rustic characters to the island. There are also many, many fine restaurants. It also has some of Germany's most expensive real estate, and is also known as a place for the rich and famous. Therefor you can probably say that it has a similar feel to the Hamptons.

I am in love with this beautiful place. The landscape is unbelievable. Everyday we were greeted with a clear blue sky and refreshing ocean breeze. I felt connected with this island, even though I have not been there for a long time, probably because I am born in north Germany, not too far from Sylt.

Since the land is mostly flat, one of the most popular tourist activities is cycling. There are plenty of shops where you can rent bicycles. You can probably travel around the island that way within half a day or so. Where bikes are not accessible, it is still very comfortable to reach these destinations at walking pace. There are hiking trails for those who wish to experience nature.

Another regional icon for Sylt, and perhaps north Germany, is something called Strandkorb. It literally means "beach basket", but are basically the Cadillac of beach benches. Traditionally built with woven wickers, the Strandkorb comes with accessories such as sun shield, collapsible mini-tables, and pull-out foot rests. You can see these little boxes peppered over the island, and they are a very comfortable place for spending a day on the beach.

Berry Charlotte for my 3rd Blog Anniversary!

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my blog, and to celebrate this occasion I have made another berry-themed cake for you. Since “berry lovely” is the name of this blog, I wanted to create something with berries, like what I did for each blog anniversary.

It is a Berry Charlotte, and it is made of ladyfingers with a ladyfinger base and filled with a berry mousse. I also used a generous portion of fresh, mixed berries to accentuate its berry-loveliness.

I wanted to make a mousse which is similar to a Bavarian Cream, but I also wanted to include mascarpone in it, like in a TiramiSu. So I tried to combine the two, and it worked out perfectly. I even got the amount for the gelatin right at the first try.

Now, there was a bit of an obstacle. Since this summer has been very cold and rainy, the berry season has been particular short. While there usually is an ample supply of berries in our garden, the season is already over for us this year. So I made a compromise, and bought some fresh berries from the local farmer’s market. They were still very beautiful, a bit expensive, but I would say the end justifies the means, and hubby agrees.

Happy birthday, Berry Lovely.

I love berries; they’re lovely. I still love that blog name.

Strawberry-Raspberry Charlotte

Unfortunately the strawberry season is slowly coming to an end, at least for the local strawberries, and they are of course the sweetest. The you-pick farms around here are already closed some weeks ago, so I was pleasantly surprised to see some really nice local strawberries at the supermarket. This summer hasn't been very nice in Germany and this means fall is approaching very fast

So, there had to be one last strawberry cake for the summer. I made a Charlotte. A Charlotte is made of rolled up sponge cake slices filled with a creamy mousse or custard. It can be made into a cupola like this one, or in a regular round cake shape, in which case it is often done with ladyfinger.

The filling I used here is a strawberry mousse with some added strawberry pieces and raspberries. Strawberry jam was also used in the sponge rolls. Don't let the end of the strawberry season stop you from making this cake. You can also make it with other berries or fruit. Try blackberries and blueberries or peach and mango, and I think they should also be very tasty.

Chocolate Berry Tart for my second Blog Anniversary

Exactly two years today I started my blog, Berry Lovely. I have made a lot of cakes, tried many different doughs, learned new techniques, and gained a lot of pounds. I started my blog to take more food photographs, but it gave me a lot more.

During this time I have discovered a thriving community of food bloggers and food photography enthusiasts. I learned a lot from these people and their presence, on-line or off-line, have been some the most enjoyable aspects of this blog. I thank you all for your support, and I hope to get more interesting and exciting recipes and photos for you in the time to come.

To celebrate my second Berry Lovely anniversary I made a berry tart, of course. It is a chocolate tart with a ganache filling topped with all my favorite berries. The recipe is from one of my favorite German pâtissiers Bernd Siefert. I didn't have the chance to visit his cafe yet, but I have tried many of his recipes. They are all really special and very good.

A Berry Lovely Cake for my first Blog Anniversary

Today my little blog is turning one year old. I can't believe how fast the last year passed. It's been very rewarding to share my photographs and baking with all of you. It is always encouraging to read all the nice comments and I really appreciate them.

I made a few updates to the site, I hope you all like it. For the future I hope to post more frequently with more pictures. Now, being back with my family in Germany I have a lot more people to bake for. They are already complaining about their expanding waistlines.

For this special anniversary I made, of course, a berry cake. It has a sponge base, a creamy white chocolate and mascarpone cream and is topped with lots of fresh mixed berries. The prefect summer cake.

Berry Pavlovas

This is my first official blog entry. I have a few postings before, but I needed some time to practice and see how everything works. Well, there is still a lot to learn, but I get a lot of inspiration from all those wonderful food blogs out there. So, welcome to my blog and thanks for stopping by.

Since I call this blog berry lovely, I definitely want to start off with a berry recipe. Since I had some leftover egg whites, pavlovas came to mind. They are a great way to use up your egg whites and can be topped with any fruit combination you might desire. Berry season is slowly coming to an end, but I still managed to pick some wild blackberries. Together with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, they made great toppings for my little pavlovas.

Instead of normal cake-sized pavlovas, I prefer to make them small. So they can be served in single portions, because I just have no idea how you would cut a big one into nice looking pieces. We always make a huge mess on our plates eating them.