Rhubarb Hazelnut-Meringue Cake

It's already the end of June and I haven't posted any rhubarb recipes yet. That doesn't mean I didn't bake any rhubarb cakes this year. Far from it! Rhubarb is always one of my favorite ingredients in baking and luckily our garden is full of it. So, I have already done some old favorites and tried some new ones this year. This one will definitely be repeated in the future, since it was really easy to make and tasted really good.

The base is a simple pound cake, which is topped half baked with a big meringue full of nuts and rhubarb. Instead of the hazelnuts I used you can also try almonds, or any other nuts. Since the topping is sweet it goes well with the tart rhubarb.

The recipe comes from a fairly new German magazine called "Sweet Dreams". If you have access to German magazines you should really check it out. Each issue concentrates on a few fruits in season and has really beautiful pictures. In the current issue a picture from my blog is published. They chose my Red Currant Meringue Cupcakes from last August.

Chinese egg tarts and a trip to Shanghai

Today I am bringing you a souvenir-dish from my recent trip to Shanghai. My first encounter with Chinese egg tarts was at a Dim Sum restaurant. I fell in love with them ever since, but I have never made them myself, since they were so easily available in Canada. I also didn't think they are so easy to make. Often the pastry dough is made with lard, but I just used regular butter puff pastry. Egg tarts are most popular in Hong Kong, but I was also happy to see them for sale in Shanghai.

It was my first trip to China, and I was totally overwhelmed by this city. The city was very impressive and there were many things to see. On one hand it is very modern, with new ultra-chic skyscrapers being built constantly and endless shopping possibilities, but on the other hand there is still a very traditional side, with old temples and people doing Tai Chi in the park each morning. I took almost 2000 pictures, and it took me some time to go through them all. I have included a small selection here to share my experiences with you.

My favorite past time was to stroll around the city in the morning. You can see people practicing Tai Chi on the streets, play cards, ballroom dancing in the park or just meet for a chat. Everybody seemed very relaxed and very friendly and curious to me. It was really exciting to see how energetic these people are and how much fun they have even at such early hours.

The food in Shanghai was also amazing. I love Chinese food and I also know many authentic dishes from my husband and his side of the family. But the choices, variety and quality of the food in Shanghai were simply endless. Whether it is street food or gourmet restaurant dishes everything tasted incredible, and the prices were still very reasonable.

Opposite to all the hustle and bustle you can still find peace and quiet, for example in one of the many temples. It is nice change in scenery and I enjoyed visiting them very much. If you happen to be at the Longhua Temple around lunch time be sure to try their vegetarian noodle soup. It is extremely delicious.

I didn't really know what to expect before we went, but I was pleasantly surprised. I hope to return to Shanghai soon for another exciting visit.

But this was not the whole trip; I will tell you about our next destination in another post.

My first fondant covered birthday cake

My cute little niece just turned 6 years old, and when I was asking her what birthday cake she would like she replied with a "wedding cake". What she meant was a 2 or 3 tier fondant covered and decorated cake. I have never worked with fondant before, but this was the chance to finally try it out.

I ordered ready to roll out fondant in the requested colors pink and purple plus some extra white one. I needed more than I thought, so I was glad I had the extra white fondant. I was a little afraid that it would be hard to roll out and very sticky, but it was really easy. I just used my regular wooden roll and a plastic mat. No need for special tools. You just need to make sure to dust the fondant with some powdered sugar. It is also important to kneed the fondant very well before rolling it out.

The covering of the cake was a little more difficult. I have done that with marzipan before, but the fondant is really delicate and rips easily. It has to be rolled out big enough, but not too large or you will end up with too many folds, which have to be smoothed.

For the cake flavors I choose a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream for the top tier from "The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook". For the lower tier I made a vanilla cake layered with strawberry buttercream and fresh strawberries. If you make a fondant covered cake it is important to know that it is best to make a buttercream cake. If you make a cake filled with whipped cream, you have to make sure the filling doesn't touch the fondant, since it will made it melt. A buttercream cake is also a lot more stable and easier to tier up. To stable it I put 4 lollypop sticks in the middle of the cake before putting the second layer on.

For decoration I cut out some fondant flowers and hearts, which I attached with some royal icing. On top I put some Marshmallow Fairy sticks, which I saw on Yummy Mummy. They are a really cute idea, for all fairy and princess loving girls. I made some extra, so each child had one. For the marshmallows I used the recipe from David Lebovitz though. It was also the first time I made marshmallows, it is a little messy, but otherwise pretty easy. And they taste so much better than store bought ones.

It really requires some practice to make a cake like this, but it was a good exercise and the cake was well received. So, again Happy Birthday little girl, you grow up so fast!

Lemon Loaf Cake [TWD]

I didn't participate in the last two "Tuesdays with Dorie" recipes, because the Irish Soda bread just didn't appeal to me and the Pizza Rustica sounded good, but it's a savory dish and I want to keep this blog sweet. I am sure I will bake it some day. So, I was more than happy when I saw this weeks recipe, as I really like to bake with lemon.

The Lemon Loaf Cake was really good, had a great lemon taste and was moist for several days. I also added some lemon juice to the recipe, since the recipe only asked for the zest. I read later that the lemon juice would prevent the cake from rising, but I had no problems.

You can find the recipe on the websites of our weekly hosts, which are Truc of Treatsand Michelle of The Beauty of Life.

On a side-note Jen of "The Caffeinated Kitchen" rewarded me with the "Liebster Blog Award". I am very happy for that and am sending a big thank you to Jen. She also bakes along with "Tuesdays with Dorie", and you should check out her beautiful lemon cake.

The conditions for the acceptance of this award are as follows:

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you and thank them.
2. Post the award to your blog.
3. Give the award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers that you appreciate and value. (It's a great way to get the word out there about other blogs!)
4. Leave a comment on the 5 blogs to let them know that they have received this award.

I am gonna pass the award on to five fellow TWD bakers, which all made beautiful lemon loafs today:

1. Peggy the Baker
2. Cher Rockwell
3. Soup Addict
4. Oven Chaos
5. My Culinary Mission

Please have a look at their blogs and give them some nice comments for their good work.

Enjoy and Guten Appetit!

White Chocolate Coconut Cheesecakes with Passionfruit Glaze

We had beautiful Easter weather today and a lovely day spend with my family. My niece was hunting for Easter eggs outside as we had a beautiful brunch with quiche, my brioche bunnies, colored eggs, carrot muffins and much more. This was followed by a long walk in the blooming forest and a lovely advocaat-chocolate cake from my aunt in the afternoon. As this wouldn't already have been enough we then had an amazing dinner with beef tenderloin, fresh spring carrots and potato gratin. So, we are very happily stuffed right now.

I still wanted to show you these mini-cheesecakes I made two days ago. They are flavored with coconut and have a beautiful passion fruit glaze. When I look at them they just scream sunshine.

If you cannot find quark you should really try to make some yourself. It's really easy and also tastes very good. You can put it on top of baked potatoes or even spread it on your sandwich, and of course make all kinds of German cheesecakes with it. Meeta has a great and simple recipe on her blog which I used often, when I was still living in Canada.

I wish you all a very Happy Easter and hope you found lots of chocolate eggs!