My mom loves flan, which can be best described as a dense custard dish with a caramel topping. Originally it is from Spain and became very popular in all of Latin America. There are two good reasons to make flan. A) it comes together in a jiffy, it seriously can be done in ten minutes, the rest is taken care of by the oven and fridge and b) you will need to make it in advance. It has to chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight, so this is perfect for any celebration. For that reason I thought that this flan, as unusual as it may seem, will be perfect for Mother’s Day. Barely any work, very diffiult to screw up, yet so delicious, maybe you can make it for your mom as well?
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.
Finally some cookies on the blog again. I haven’t posted a recipe for 9 (!) months, can you believe that? This is extra crazy because of course there were cookies in our house during those nine months, believe me. I find it sad that Germans tend to bake cookies only for the season, there even is a special word for these cookies, instead of Kekse you will say Plätzchen. But I ignore that, for me cookies can be eaten all year long. We had brownie cookies, my favorite chocolate chip cookies and Nutella chocolate chip cookies, recently we have had vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting.
I was not aware that the British Queen actually celebrated her 70th anniversary as a Monarch on February 2, 2022. Having reigned for 70 years, that is rare, as far as I understand she has broken all records. Obviously the Brits are celebrating, new stamps are being issued, there is going to be a tree in front of Buckingham Palace created out of 350 local British trees; yes, we all need to dress up for this special occasion and be on our best behavior. The Brits also announced a baking competition open to all people residing in the UK 8 years or older. The Platin Pudding was asked to be created. Apparently more than 5,000 people submitted a recipe. The winner is Jemma Melvin with a Lemon Swiss roll trifle with Amaretti. It is very time-consuming as all five different components are made from scratch. You can check her recipe here.
Chocotorta is a cake from Argentina that is typically served on birthdays. Usually it does not require for you to turn on the oven as it basically contains store-bought cookies (called “chocolinas” in Argentina), the caramel cream dulce de leche, and cream cheese. If you have these ingredients at hand, you can already prepare a simple chocotorta. I included a chocolate ganache on top of this, but that is optional. However, my recipe below also includes making the cookies from scratch and for that reason we are going to turn on the oven after all.
Warning, you will only be able to eat a small piece of this decadent toffee cake with dates. I find the combination of sweet dates with sticky toffee sauce so endearing. This is rich, this is soulfood. The cake layers are sweetened with dates, the buttercream contains toffee sauce and of course the whole cake needs to be soaked in toffee sauce. I decided to sprinkle this cake with a little bit of coarse salt to cut the sweetness a bit. This is a prefect cake for a gloomy November day or any day that needs some comfort food.
Does this pumpkin mousse caramel cake count as cream cheese cake? I don’t believe so as it definitely tastes more like mousse than anything and you may even serve it as an icebox cake. But be it as it may, I find this cake delicious, if you like pumpkin and caramel, this cake is for you. We will use a Biscoff cookie crust and these already give a nice crunchy and caramel flavor. The filling contains a lot of pumkin and then we are going to top if all off with additional caramel.
Guys, are you always happy to bake, regardless the reason? You finally told your boss that you need a salary raise? Let’s celebrate that with some cake. You passed the Statistics exam after the third try? Cake it is. It is just a regular Sunday, nothing special? Well, of course we want to have the German “Kaffee und Kuchen” (coffee and cake), so I need to bake a cake. In my opinion there is always a reason to celebrate, a reason to bake some cake. Today’s reason is pretty big, I am celebrating my third anniversay of the bike accident with no permanent damage.
Today I am going to introduce the best Belgian waffles, thick and yummy! These are overnight waffles, the batter is prepared the night before and you basically need to heat your waffle iron the next morning to make this deliciousness. Perfect for any brunch plans, for a weekend breakfast or for anything fancy you wish to make for beloved family and/or friends. I love the crisp outside (you will get lots of tips for that below) of these waffles, yet their interior is nice and soft. Whisk together the ingredients the night before and let the yeast make its magic overnight. So simple, yet so yummy.
Today I am introducing you to a German treat with a Latin American twist: tree cake with the caramel dulce de leche. You may wonder why it is called tree cake. All the layers are supposed to represent the rings you see when you cut through the stem of a tree. If you buy this cake at a fair, the layers are not shown horizontally, but vertically. This makes it look even more like the real tree rings and hence the name. However, since you need a special construction with the cake roating on it to bake layer after layer, I decided to go for a simple version you can prepare with your oven at home.
