It barely ever happens, but this does coincide. This recipe is the same in Germany as well as Colombia. Today I am presenting a strawberry sponge roll from Germany or brazo de reina from Colombia. This sponge roll is super easy to make and is filled with heavy cream and cubed strawberries. If you are expecting guests, I highly recommend this roll as it is easy to prepare and fast to make. So far every single person has loved this recipe, Colombians and Germans alike.
Let’s celebrate! It has been five years ago that I had a horrible bike accident including brain bleeding. You can check the details here. As I didn’t have any permanent damage thankfully, I want to celebrate with chocolate and invite you guys, we will attempt original Sachertorte! In 2014 I was fortunate enough to eat real Sachertorte in the Café Sacher in Salzburg. The below picture is one of the first pictures I took with my Sony camera and I am still proud of the shot. I mean, considering that I knew very little of photography, I would say it is a great shot! Sachertorte is a chocolate sponge cake that contains butter. Traditionally you will glue together the two cake layers with apricot jam and cover everything with a chocolate glaze. The cake is served with unsweetened whipping cream on the side. Of course I already have a recipe for Sachertorte on the blog. However, recently I got inspired to try again and make a version as close as possible to the original. Once I watched the movie “Sachertorte” on Amazon (a nice little romantic comedy in my opinion), I was hooked. In said movie the main character eats Sachertorte every day in the Sacher Café in Vienna in the hopes of meeting his sweetheart that mentioned she would celebrate her birthday in the cafe at 4pm. So I did some research. Obviously the recipe from the Sacher hotel was a big help. But, and I quote, I have to say that even the hotel Sacher mentions that “This is only an approximation of the original recipe, which of course must remain a tightly-kept secret.”
Today I am finally going to introduce another bundt cake, it has been way too long. This is a traditional German cake, marble cake, with a little twist as it has chrries in it. Currently the cherry trees are blossoming in Munich. I simply had to take advantage of this beauty and take pictures of this marble cake with cherries with some cherry blossoms. It does not mean, however, that you can only serve this coffee cake in spring. Actually, this cake is delicious all year around as the cherries are from a jar. With a little imagination you may even see the cherry tree imitated in the marbled cake. I tried to create swirls that way, but I guess I didn’t succeed fully. Anyway, I promise you, it tastes great!
Today I am taking part in the German blogger event called kulinarische Weltreise (culinary travels troughout the world). Today’s stop: Chile. I knew immediately what I wanted to make. Brazo de reina! This literally translates as a “queen’s arm”. More commonly known as a Swiss roll or sponge roll. What distinguishes the Chilean roll from others is the filling. Manjar, or often known as dulce de leche, is a caramel made from sweetened milk. I do understand why you would think of a queen when you prepare this, this caramel definitely has some royal characteristics. So be pepared for a light and fluffy roll filled with sweet and delicious caramel spread.
Guys, finally I can introduce some cupcakes to you that taste even better on day 2 or even 3. Once the cupcakes had the chance to fully develop their flavor, you will taste the lime much more, the rum is going to still be present, but more so in the back. If you are waiting for spring to finally come, how about making these mojito cupcakes? I often find March to be a though month, I am tired of the snow, I want to have more green, some refreshing ingredients, I am longing for more ease, for the birds to chirp and simply for spring. These mojito cupcakes came to be because a) I finally wanted to make some cupcakes, it has been ages! and b) I felt like something refreshing was needed. So mojito cupcakes it is!
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This is the perfect cake for Valentine’s Day, a moist and decadent strawberry chocolate cake. Who would like to get a piece of this deliciousness? The cake is made of a devil’s food cake, the filling is made with real strawberries and since it is not the season yet, we will use frozen strawberries. The final touches are a chocolate drip and fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate. Who wants a piece?
Kennst du die Tradition zum ersten Babygeburtstag einen “Smash Cake” zuzubereiten? Da darf das Baby dann in eine Torte panschen und wird dabei fotografiert. Die Tradition kommt aus USA und findet mittlerweile auch hier mehr und mehr Anklang. Ich muss sagen, ich habe schon immer die Babys beneidet, die auch noch ermuntert werden Kuchen zu zermatschen, das mach ich auch als Erwachsene noch gerne. Ein Smash Cake ist normalerweise eher ein Törtchen, d.h. vom Durchmesser würde ich eher davon abraten eine 26er Springform herzunehmen, sondern lieber eine 18er oder gerne auch 15er. Schließlich soll die Torte nicht überdimensioniert im Verhältnis zum Baby sein. Damit die Torte schön vom Kind zermatscht werden kann, ist hier die Deko bzw. Außencreme besonders wichtig. Unten gibt es das Rezept für die abgebildete Torte, es ist eine schlichte Vanilletorte mit etwas Erdbeergeschmack. Natürlich ist auch die Schokovariante möglich (siehe Bilder unten). Da versteckt sich noch Zucchini im Teig, so bleibt die Torte saftig und wird noch etwas “gesünder”. Unten gibt es beide Rezeptvarianten zum Ausprobieren. Für eine blaue Torte gibt es unten ebenfalls Hinweise.
If hubby says after the first bite that this tastes exactly like in Colombia, you simply know that this is a winner. May I introduce Colombian mantecada aka pound cake (ponqué). The main difference between a regular pound cake and this one is that part of the flour is replaced with corn flour. This automatically makes the cake denser. However, nonetheless very delicious. In Colombia this cake is served for breakfast or as a snack. It is usually eaten plain without any glaze or other components, pure and simple.
And here it comes, a wintery cranberry cake with lemon sponge! Pshhhhht, this was the cake I baked for the 40th birthday of my husband and it was gone so quickly! This cake is tart and so perfect for a cold winter day. Yes, you can bake this cake also during another season in case you find fresh cranberries, however, I find it particularly refreshing in winter. So as stated, you will find airy lemon sponge cake combined with cranberry filling and a light mascarpone and cream frosting. So delicious!
The good thing when you get married to somebody from another country is that you can start your own traditions. I got married to a Colombian 12 years ago, but we have been living in Germany since the start. Christmas is traditionally something we have discussed extensively. I have explained the difference between Colombian and German Christmas in this blog post. Man, we have discussed so many things, should it be the traditional bird as is common in Germany or should we go for the many snacks Colombians like to serve for Christmas? Should we make tamales, which is corn, veggies and meat steamed in banana leaves and which require a lot of work? Should we focus on the gifts instead or spend hours on the food? One thing we have learned over the years is that what works best for us is to create new traditions. Traditions that are neither German nor Colombian, but just us. New traditions we like and enjoy.
