Moin, or hello my dear friends! Today I brought along a special treat from the city I live in: Franzbrötchen! That’s Hamburg’s version of a cinnamon roll. If you follow me on Facebook, you will have seen questions about this treat because I tried several recipes before I was happy. Franzbrötchen is the signature dish from Hamburg. I can guarantee you, wherever you go in Hamburg, you will smell cinnamon as soon as you come close to a bakery. They are sold everywhere and I would say the smell of cinnamon represents Hamburg very much. Franzbrötchen are a mix of croissants and cinnamon rolls. They have lots of cinnamon and brown sugar, which may caramelize a little in the baking process, yum!
I love meringue, that’s why I have lots of recipes with meringue on my blog, even though my blog is not that old yet. Just to name a few: French macaron, meringue nests, rhubarb pie with meringue topping, and meringue on top of berries. For that reason I was very excited when I learned that Lisha from the blog MainBacken (in German) was going to share a meringue recipe for my blog event. In case you don’t know, I am currently hosting a blog event in which I ask you to make something from scratch and to share it with a coffee invite. For further details check here. The event will be over on March 15, 2018, so you still have time.
But let’s give the floor to Lisha:
I am happy to announce the first guest post today. Marileen from glücks.happen (in German) brought along some delicious marble bundt cake for the coffee invite event. In case you don’t know, I am currently organizing a blog event in which I ask you to make something from scratch and invite somebody for a coffee to share. Check here to read what this event is about.
Marileen’s recipe sounds so delicious, but let’s give the floor to her:
First of all Happy Birthday to your first blog anniversary, Jenny! I love your blog event! Just like you I love to invite friends for a coffee in my apartment. But not just for coffee with something sweet, also for breakfast or dinner. One of my favorite activities is to just chat with my friends. By the way, my name is Marileen and I have been blogging on HOLZ & HEFE (in German, not available anymore) about crafting, baking, travelling and recently also sustainability, which is a new important topic of mine.
Valentine is around the corner and this is a super simple recipe you can make, it has few ingredients you mostly likely have at home. They contain all-purpose flour, sugar, butter, almonds, one egg, vanilla extract, and cherry jam. Happen to have those at home? If so, let’s have a look at this hand pie, which I specifically made for Valentine! These hand pies are perfect to take along as they fit into any plastic box (no hassle dragging a three-tier cake along), they can be prepared in advance, and they are so small that you can share with more than only your Valentine. On top, they simply are cute to look at and they can be frozen easily. These cherry hand pies are the best!
OK, maybe I am cheesy, but this year I decided to make something for Valentine’s. I still think if you want to express your love for somebody, you don’t need a special day to do so. But hey, let’s just ignore that and instead be happy that we get to make French macarons again. Heart-shaped French macarons that is to say. With chocolate ganache. Do I need to say more?
In case you didn’t know, I am a cookie monster. And I promised to post more cookies on this blog. So here goes: Monster Cookies!
Are you a cheesecake fan? Even if you aren’t, you will love this one, I promise. I promise, because I am not a big cheesecake fan myself (yeah, I know), but I devoured this one. Actually, we had this beauty for Christmas because it was THAT good. And if I make a cheesecake for Christmas even though I am not a big fan of cheesecakes, it does tell you something about this cake. Seriously, it is awesome! I bake a lot, but I have never had so many people react to a cake that strongly in a long time.
Bread is a huge thing in Germany, in case you didn’t know. The one thing Germans miss the most when living abroad is bread. We do love bread. My grandpa always says bread is very precious to him. When I spent a year in Canda after highschool, I started to bake my own bread after a while. I hated the squishy Canadian bread. I wanted something with whole wheat and rye, something which filled me up and kept me going for a long time.
I had the opportunity to travel to the home country of my husband: Colombia and I feel in love with arepa boyacense. Let me tell you, this country has so much more to offer than only jungle. The mountain range the Andes come to mind, but it also has savannahs, a dessert, the Caribbean and the famous coffee region. The diversity of species is something to admire. Colombia has more than 100 (!) humming birds only. Even in the capital Bogotá with more than 10 million inhabitants you will encounter humming birds amazing you with their acrobatic movements. The variety of fruits is also astonishing. I ate fruits I had never seen or even heard of. For a penny you will get the juiciest and and sweetest fruits. The pictures I took barely capture the beauty of this country.
Colombia is a very colorful country. Maybe the huge variety of species and a general carefree attitude towards life are reasons why food is extremely important. One of the first questions I was asked during our holiday was how I liked the food. Yes, we had to explain what our travel plans were, but soon after that the conversation turned to food, inevitably. I usually replied with arepa! Arepas are as important to Colombians as bread is to Germans. Arepas are a simple corn bread and usually either fried, grilled or baked in the oven. They are served for breakfast, but you will also encounter them for lunch and dinner. Arepas come in all sizes, they are gluten free as they are made of corn flour and each region has its own variety.
Chocolate and beetroot? I had read before that beetroot is supposed to make a chocolate cake great. I haven’t tried that yet, but thought I would give it a shot. I mean, it does sound weird, I give you that, but if it really is as moist and delicious as people have claimed, I wanted to give it a go. So I finally got around to making a very chocolaty bundt cake and this time I wanted to see whether beetroot really could work its magic on it.




















