Strawberry-Mascarpone Cake

The always favorite pair of strawberry and chocolate come together again in this cake. A chocolate cake is topped with a fruity strawberry mascarpone cream, topped with beautiful fresh strawberries and a strawberry sauce, which oozes down the cake. Mmmmm .... a real summer delight.

Strawberry Yoghurt Cake with Matcha Sponge

I was surprised to see that local strawberries are still available. I had this cake on my to-do list for some time, and even it is more a summer cake I went ahead and made it.

The sponge cake is flavored with matcha tea, which works well with the strawberries. I would probably use more matcha the next time, since the taste didn't come through very much. The yoghurt mousse is nice and refreshing and not too sweet. So, a really nice cake, for the last days of summer.

Strawberry-Almond Tartlets with Sour-Cream and Chocolate Topping

I hope you are having a great summer weekend. I have the perfect treat for a lazy sunny afternoon for you today. Strawberries, chocolate and cream - all combined in some wonderful tartlets. The tartlet shells contain both ground almonds and chopped almonds, and can be prepared in advance. The topping uses both heavy cream and sour cream, which gives it a nice tang. Enjoy!

Rhubarb-Strawberry Streuseltaler

Germany is famous for its "Streuselkuchen". We also love to put streusel, a sweet crumble topping, on fruit pies, cheesecakes and tarts. One item you can find in almost every bakery is the "Streuseltaler". Basically a free form tart from yeast dough topped with a huge amount of streusel, sometimes filled with custard and often with a sugar glaze. It's a great snack to take away.

Often these "Taler", which is another word for coin and resembles their shape, are also topped with fruit. They are my favorite kind. Mostly you will see peaches, but since rhubarb and strawberry are in season, I wanted to try this combo. They turned out great and will be best he day you baked them, when they are nice and crunchy.

Strawberry Balsamic Ice-Cream

The Bi-Rite Creamery was on top of my to-do list when I returned to San Francisco for a visit last year. We went there one afternoon, and to our surprise, the line up was relatively short. I had their renowned salted caramel and coffee toffee. After spending a year in Italy, I know a thing or two about ice creams. And I think the combination of all ingredients in my two scoops was simply fantastic.

So when I heard that Bi-Rite has published a cookbook this year, revealing their innovative ice cream flavors, I got very excited. I chose balsamic strawberry as my first recipe to try out. Since strawberries were in season, and I could pick them fresh from the field. I was also curious of what the balsamic vinegar would do to the flavor. The vinegar enhanced the strawberry flavor. The balsamic vinegar I used was even infused with strawberry, which intensified the aroma.

Often home-made ice-cream gets rock hard in the freezer and develops to many ice-crystals. This one was still creamy even after I had frozen it for a while. I think that has something to do with the high fat content that this recipe asks for. In addition, the strawberry pieces were also cooked before added to the ice-cream mixture, further reducing the water content. Once taken out of the freezer, the ice-cream only need be thawed for a few minutes before you can enjoy the balsamic inspired strawberry flavor.

Strawberry Amaretto Mini-Cakes

Sometimes a little bite is just enough. Not too long ago I bought a silicone sunflower mini-cake form, and I have been waiting to use it. With strawberries in season this recipe was an easy choice to try it out. Those little guys are bursting in flavor, no wonder since they also have a good amount of booze in it.

While silicone is very easy to use, it doesn't conduct heat as well as the metal forms. So you need to make sure the dough is cooked through before taking it out of the oven, or you will end up with a bunch of bite-sized half-baked doughs.

Make sure you make enough of them, freshly baked they just jumped in everybody's mouth and were gone in no time.

Daring Bakers: Strawberry Pâte de Fruit & Milk Chocolate-Passion Fruit Truffles

It's Daring Bakers time again, and this month's challenge were candies and confections. There was a choice of a wide variety of recipes. One option was the Pâte de Fruit, which is fruit gelée, something I wanted to make for a long time. You can use any fruit, which would be suitable for making jam. The process is also very similar to jam making. You puree the fruit, add sugar and pectin, then boil it until it sets. I thought the recipe given by the organizers was a little too meticulous on temperature measurement. I found another recipe which is a lot easier and doesn't need a thermometer. If you made jam before, it's a really easy treat to make. And they taste fantastic!

My second choice was chocolate truffles. They were dark chocolate filled with a milk chocolate and passion fruit ganache. It was really too hot to make anything with chocolate (how do you maintain the mixture at 27 C when the room temperature is already 30 C?), but I gave it a try anyways. I have made different types of filled chocolates before, but I still find the process of tempering the chocolate intimidating. One reason is that I usually do it by feel, since my thermometer is not very precise. So I usually estimate the temperature with my lips. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. This time it didn't go so well, and I got some white streaks on the chocolate. They still tasted very good, though.

I will definitely keep both choices of confections on my list for gift ideas later this year. I hope by then I will have a better candy thermometer.

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies!

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.

Daring Bakers: Fraisier - Strawberry Bavarian Cake

I have to say this has to be the most delicious Daring Bakers Challenge so far. What's not to love about the the combination of strawberries, cream and a soft spongy cake. But all the components of this recipe were exceptionally delicious. No wonder it comes from one of my favorite baking books, Tartine. The cake is not only tasty it is also a showstopper and would impress your guests at any party.

I changed the instructions for the pastry cream a little bit since I found it had a few unnecessary steps. I also used strawberry preserves instead of the syrup. The chiffon cake by itself was already very good, and could be used as a base for many different fillings. I was lucky to be able to pick my own strawberries for the cake, for the last time this year since the season is now over. I am planning to make the cake with other fruits soon, maybe with blackberries, but I think it would be good with all kinds of fruits.

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

Happy Mother's Day

To all mothers: I wish you a very happy Mother's Day. Enjoy lots of treats from your loved ones. You deserve it. And a special big hug to my Mutti, she is simply the best. Thank you for being there! I made this Strawberry-Champagne Cake for her. It was really delicious. You can find the recipe here (sorry, it's only in German).

Daring Bakers: Swiss Swirl Ice-Cream Cake

Perfect for the hot summer weather the Daring Bakers' theme this month was an ice-cream cake. Lucky for me, I was just reunited with my ice-cream maker in Germany and couldn't wait to bring it to use, after a long time in storage.

The outside of the cake contains of a biscuit roll, which in the past I always had problems rolling. This recipe was great and it was easy to manage. I was very busy picking fresh strawberries this season, so I filled the roll with homemade strawberry-vanilla jam and vanilla whipped cream.

The ice-creams I made were also strawberry and dark chocolate. I never thought I would make an ice-cream cake before, but I really liked it, and will definitely make it again. There are so many endless flavor combination that this is really a cake for all seasons. Check out some of my fellow Daring Bakers and there awesome flavor ideas.

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

Pavlovas was this month Daring Bakers' challenge, more specific Chocolate pavlovas filled with a chocolate mousse. This dessert is named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova and probably originated in New Zealand. The base is a meringue which is crisp on the outside, but still chewy on the inside. It is usually topped with whipped cream and various fruits. I made a version with berries last year.

The chocolate mousse is very rich and pairs very good with strawberries. I was lucky that just this weekend the fields for picking your own berries opened. Those self picked berries are always the best and half always go to my tummy right away. It was a very nice dessert, but I think for next time I would probably just make one of the chocolate components, as they were really rich.

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

Poppy Seed Cheesecake with Rhubarb Topping

First of all I have to apologize for the long absence from my blog. I was moving back to Germany, which took a lot of time and organizing. So not so much time for baking, photographing and blogging.

I was happy to see that there was a lot of rhubarb ready to be picked in the garden. Rhubarb is one of my favourite ingredient for fruity desserts. I added some strawberries to the topping, as those two are always a great combo.

The cheesecake filling is made made from a mix of quark (which is a German type of fresh cheese, usually used in German cheesecakes) and cream cheese. You can easily make quark yourself, when not available where you are. Meeta posted a great recipe a while back, and I used it many times when I lived in Canada.

Rhubarb-Strawberry Crumble

Rhubarb and strawberry is a classic and always yummy combination. At home in Germany, we have a lot of rhubarb plants in our garden. When I was over there this spring I couldn't wait for them to be ready. I have just rediscovered my taste for rhubarb in recent years. I wasn't a big fan of it when I was younger, probably because of the tartness and also that your teeth feel funny after eating it. But nevertheless I love it even more now. In Germany the rhubarb season traditionally ends on June 24th, which is the same day as the white asparagus's. The reason is that the plants should be able to recuperate better until the next year.

The rhubarb season in Canada is longer and I made this crumble with some self-picked strawberries. The hazelnuts on top give a nice touch. I served it with some fresh whipped cream, but it will also be great with some vanilla ice-cream.