Vegan Chocolate Brownies

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

veganism seems to be the new black. When you look around, everything and everybody is vegan. Your friend is a vegan, your cousin is a vegan, the coffeeshop you love sells vegan bagels and muffins... But you are asking yourself, is it all worth the hype? Or is it just another way to express how cool and hipster everybody is and in a few months its all gone? Regardless, if people are going vegan because of health benefits or to safe the planet, I was asking myself if it is possible to bake not only delicious but also easy cakes and pastries without the need of buying overly pricey ingredients that I have never ever heard of before.

There are pictures of vegan cheesecakes, vegan ice-cream sandwiches, vegan cookies and vegan chocolate truffles floating around all over instagram and pinterest. It always looks amazing and pretty appetizing and I've been dying to try and make something vegan myself.
My first thought was, baking without butter - ok - but baking without eggs? That could be difficult. But let me tell you, it is actually super easy! I browsed through the internet, reading several blogs and cookbooks at home trying to find ideas on how to develop an easy and delicious recipe. I wanted to make brownies because I think brownies are the essential of every baker. Every kid starts baking with making brownies, they're very easy to make and everybody loves them.

Then, a few days ago I finally got to make my first ever vegan brownies. My husband was really skeptical and so was I. But when I cut the cake in pieces, I already knew that it would be delicious and my first bite confirmed it. These brownies were actually super delicious, the consistency was super dense, almost creamy, moist and very rich in texture.
Regarding that these brownies are completely guilt-free, filled with energy and vitamins, there's only one word - marvellous!

I honestly didn't expect them to be this good, neither did I think that it would be so easy to make vegan baking a success but the cake was gone in one day. If you top it off with fresh berries and walnuts, maybe a scoop of vegan ice-cream...it'll blow your mind. And let me tell you, eat the cake when it is still a little bit warm, that's when it tastes best!

Ingredients: 

150g spelt whole wheat flour

1 large sweet potato 

1 ripe banana (very ripe)

4 tbs dark cocoa powder (unsweetened)

80 ml agave nectar (about 8 tbs, depending on how sweet you like it)

1 tbs brown almond butter

1 tbs virgin coconut oil

a pinch of salt and cinnamon

To garnish: 

a handful of crushed walnuts and fresh berries 

Preparation:

Start by cutting the sweet potato in chunks and steam them on the stove until they are really soft.
Put the sweet potato chunks in a mixing bowl, add the coconut oil and the agave nectar and mix it with a hand mixer until smooth. Then, add the banana and mix again until it is incorporated.
Now, continue by all the other ingredients and stir them in with a wooden spoon.

After that, you are now ready to pour the batter into a greased baking dish and bake in the preheated oven for about 20-30 minutes. Let it then cool for about 10-15 minutes before you can take it out of the baking dish and slice it.

"Violence begins with the fork." - Mahatma Gandhi - 

Brown Butter Coffee Cake with Peaches and Apricots

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

isn't it nice outside? Today I sat on my little balcony, enjoyed the view, smelled fresh flowers and a light breeze touched my hair and made me feel all comfortable.
Little moments like these, are the kind of moments I live for. Nowadays, it is a privilege to be able to live in peace, to enjoy little moments of silence and joy. I feel like sometimes, in the rush of our daily life, we need to stop for a second and remind ourselves to cherish the little things in life and to be thankful for what we have.
Many things are taken for granted and no one really sees a beautiful sunset, a nice flower or a delicious tasting fruit as a blessing any more. In fact, there are some days where we feel like everything is just going wrong and everything is out of control.

 The last few weeks, I tried to sensitize myself for the little things in my everyday life and be more thankful for them. Now guess what, it worked!
Concentrating on the little things, makes you realize that there are so many wonderful things happening every day, you just forgot to see them.

Now, this is my message to all of you: Don't forget to see the little things that happen every day, don't take them for granted and start being thankful for them. There are people out there that can't have any of the things that we have, some of them aren't even able to live in peace.
Start now and count your daily blessings. You'll see, it'll make you so much happier.

When I went food-shopping the other day, I saw some gloriously ripe apricots and peaches at the farmers market. Their colors were so vibrant and the smell was incredible. I didn't know if I would eat them raw or if I should bake something with them, but I bought them anyways. This morning, while I was thinking about what kind of cake I would bake today, I knew that these wonderfully ripe fruits had to be a part of whatever I would decide to make.

Then, I came to the conclusion. I made a Brown Butter Coffee Cake, topped it with sliced peaches and apricots and after baking I drizzled it with freshly squeezed orange juice.
This cake is a true flavor explosion. The batter is dense and rich, the fruits are juicy and a bit sour and the orange juice adds the perfect amount of moistness.
This cake is especially perfect to use it as a breakfast cake. You can take it with you on your way to work and start the day with a smile in your face.

If you are looking for something to calm you down and cheer you up, definitely bake this cake!

Ingredients:

280g spelt flour 

200g brown sugar

150g butter

4 eggs

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

Juice and peel of 1/2 Orange

4 Apricots

3 Peaches

Juice of 1/2 Orange + 1 Tbs confectioners sugar to drizzle on top 

Preparation:

First of all, preheat your oven to 170°. Then, put the butter in a saucepan and stir it over maximum heat until it is nicely browned. Pour the sugar in there, add peel and juice of the orange and set it aside until it has lightly cooled.
Now, beat the eggs and the cinnamon with a hand mixer until they are fluffy. Then add the butter-sugar mix as well as the flour and baking powder. Mix it all well and pour it in a buttered baking tin.
Cut the fruits in half and place them all over the cake. Now, put it in the oven for about 40 minutes and make sure that a wooden stick inserted to the middle comes out clean. Otherwise, bake for another 10 minutes.
When the cake comes out of the oven, all the fruits will be sunken down to the bottom. While it is still hot, mix the orange juice and the sugar together and drizzle it on top of the cake and let it soak in. Now, it is important to let the cake cool completely. (After a night in the fridge it is particularly delicious.)

Rhubarb and sourcream Upside-Down Cake

G'day folks!

I'm in such a good mood right now and a good mood calls for a good cake. No, not only a good cake, it should be gloriously delicious.
The weather is perfect, the sun is shining, it is warm outside, spring break is here and everybody is in party mood.
This time, I really wanted to make something exciting. I think rhubarb is pretty exciting and I noticed that I haven't eaten it in a very long time.




What a shame guys! I mean, rhubarb is such an amazing fruit...? Is it even a fruit?! I don't even know.
But what I know, is that rhubarb is very multifunctional, you can make cakes with it, you can cook a nice compote and pour it over vanilla bean ice-cream or you can even put it in a refreshing champagne punch.

But let's save the champagne punch ideas for the evenings...today we want to concentrate on baking a glorious cake for sunday afternoon.
I have to admit that I have never made an upside-down cake in my whole life. I always wanted to make one, but somehow it never really happened.
Then, this saturday there was little me, standing at the farmers market, looking at this beautiful, red rhubarb and I knew that this was going to end in an upside down cake.

I didn't want a boring pound cake on top of that, I wanted something interesting and unique. I added some sour cream and freshly grated lemon zest to the batter, which add a nicely juiciness and a tingly citrusy flavor to the cake.
This cake symbolizes the incorrigible union of a lemon drizzle cake and juicy rhubarb compote, it is the perfection in itself.
If you enjoy the sun and the weather as much as I do, you will love this cake. It is like eating sunshine mixed with a splash of ripe lemons and a drizzle of fun.

Ingredients for the rhubarb-filling:

800g rhubarb (washed and cut into little pieces)

150g sugar

1 tbs cornstarch

a pinch of cinnamon and salt

Ingredients for the batter:

270g flour

220g sugar

200g sour cream

150g butter

5 eggs

2 tsp baking powered

zest of one lemon 

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180°. Now, mix the washed and chopped rhubarb with sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt and set it aside.
Then, continue by mixing the eggs, sour cream, butter and sugar with a hand mixer until it is smooth and fluffy. After that, add all the other ingredients and mix well.
Furthermore, grease your baking tin with butter and pour the sugar-rhubarb mixture in there to then pour the batter on top.
Put it all in the oven for about 50 minutes or until a wooden stick inserted to the middle comes out clean. It doesn't matter if the cake becomes a little bit dark on the outside, as it will be flipped around after baking.
After around 5 minutes after getting the cake out of the oven, you are now ready to run a knife around the cake and then put it upside down on a plate.
Let the cake cool a little bit and enjoy it warm with a nice scoop of vanilla ice-cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

Coconut Wedding Cake

Hello my sweet ladies and gentlemen,

I love weddings. Everybody is in such a good  mood, bride and groom are the two happiest people in the world and the food...oh my gosh, the food is always so good. As you my already know me, I think that the wedding cake is always the best part of a wedding. it kind of represents the couple itself, either light, fruity and creamy or rich and chocolatey. Each wedding cake tells its own little story.












The wedding cake I am sharing with you today, tells the story of a really lovely couple. They are young, happy and they love life. They are always surrounded by a lot of friends and make everyone smile. In their company, you can forget the normal course of life and just enjoy the moment and have a good laugh. Just as them, the wedding cake I made for them is also very lovely.
It is a high, creamy and fluffy coconut cake with multiple layers of fluffy coconut sponge cake, white-chocolate-coconut cream filling and raspberry jam, which is then covered with light vanilla whipped cream and covered in shredded coconut. It is a white cloud of creamy fluff and it makes you happy just looking at this heavenly goodness.

The cake is perfect for spring and summer and it would suit any kind of seaside Bahamas wedding or a natural countryside wedding, you can also use it for all kinds of festivities in your family and neighborhood. If you think that it is a little bit too big for an ordinary sunday coffee, then you can just use half of the recipe and make a smaller cake.
If you prefer a more tropical taste, you may also use passionfruit or mango jam instead of raspberry jam. If you want it to taste like a bounty bar, add some cocoa powder to the dough. You see, there are no limits for you to make that perfect wedding cake of your dreamy.

I really prefer the all white, plain coconut cake because it is light, fresh and just so delightful. Also, it is not too sweet and the cream filling is not too rich. It is that kind of cake, where you juts want to grab a fork and dig in and eat it all by yourself.
But remember what your mum always told you: "Be nice and share with your friends". This cake is too good to eat it on your own.

Ingredients for the sponge cakes:

8 eggs

300g flour

300g sugar

100g shredded coconut 

3-4 drops natural coconut extract 

pinch of salt

Ingredients for the filling:

400g heavy cream

500g white chocolate

500g fresh mascarpone 

3 tbs shredded coconut

1 jar of seedless raspberry jam 

Ingredients for the whipped cream:

400g heavy cream 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

150g shredded coconut to cover

Preparation:

First of all, we want to start by making the white-chocolate ganache. Thereto, heat up 400g of heavy cream in a saucepan. Chop the white chocolate into little pieces and put them in a large bowl. Then, pour the hot cream over that and let it sit for a few minutes, to then stir with a whisk until it is all combined and there are no chunks on there. Let it cool and then, cover it with some kitchen wrap and put it in the fridge overnight to set.
The next day, you want to start by preheating your oven to 180°. Then, continue by preparing the dough: Separate the egg yolks and the egg whites into two large bowls. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat them until really stiff and fluffy. (You must be able to flip the bowl, without the egg wihte-mixture coming out)
After that, mix the sugar and the egg yolks and beat them with a hand mixer until the mixture is almost white. Now, start adding alternating a few tablespoons of flour and then, a few tablespoons of egg whites and then mix well between those steps. (Be careful and hold the bowl angular to whisk in more air) Then, grease two baking tins with butter and fill the dough in equal parts in it and bake them for about 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown on the outside.

When the cake has cooled, you are now ready to cut each one in half so that you'll have 4 equal parts.
Then, take your white chocolate ganache from the other day and mix it with the mascarpone and the coconut flakes and mix it with a hand mixer until it becomes a fluffy cream.
Now, spread the raspberry jam on top of three of the cake layers and continue with the cream filling. Then, put it all together. The top layer should be plain and without any topping (both the jam and the filling should be only on the inside of the cake)
Then, whip up the heavy cream with the vanilla extract and coat the whole cake with it. It doesn't need to be all to perfect because you will now cover it all with as much shredded coconut as possible.

Now, your cake is all done and you can decorate however your heart desires. Have fun!

Raspberry and Peach Cheesecake

Hello sweet ladies and gentlemen,

spring is finally here! On friday it was the first official day of spring and I enjoyed the warm weather so much. It is quite refreshing to breathe in some clean, fresh spring air, to feel the sun on the skin and to see all the different spring flowers in the most beautiful colors, yellow, pink and blue. It is a feeling like the whole environment comes back to life and everybody is celebrating by taking long walks and bike rides outside.
Every day is so much more beautiful, when you wake up to bright sunshine and singing birds.
So this weekend, I thought that I should bake something fresh and fruity to celebrate the warm weather. Raspberries and peaches are my favorite fruits to combine with a cheesecake so I chose them as a colorful topping.

This cheesecake has no crust, which makes it super light and creamy. Peaches and raspberries are the perfect combination of sweet and sourly flavors and a perfect touch of color. The whole cake is the very sweet, creamy, fresh and fruity. The raspberries add the perfect amount of tingling flavor to the creamy vanilla cream filling.
This creamy deliciousness is surprisingly easy to make, quite fancy to look at and it will definitely impress all your guests and family.











Ingredients:

750g fresh ricotta cheese
150g cream cheese
220g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs
3 tbs cornstarch

some fresh raspberries and one can of peaches

butter and grated almonds for the baking tin

Preparation:

First of all, preheat your oven to 160°. Then, grease your baking tin with butter and sprinkle a handful of grated almonds on top of it to achieve a thin layer of almonds all over the tin.
Now, you can start mixing the cheesecake mixture. For that, put all the wet ingredients in a large bowl and mix it with a whisk until it is all well combined. Make sure you don't over mix because you want the cheesecake to be very thick and creamy in consistency. Then, add the sugar and starch and mix again until it is all incorporated.
After that, you can now fill it in the prepared baking tin and decorate it with fresh raspberries and slices of the canned peaches. Then, put it in the oven for about 50-60 minutes until the edges are golden brown and it is all cooked in the middle.

After the cake has completely cooled you are now ready to enjoy! Notice: After one day in the fridge it is even more creamy and delicious.

Decadent Double Chocolate Cookies

Hello my sweet ladies and gentlemen,

do you know that feeling when all of a sudden guests are coming and you, as a good host, want to serve something nice like a piece of cake or some cookies... Well, normally it wouldn't be such a big deal to come up with something nice but then you realize it is sunday, all the supermarkets are closed and even worse, you have hardly anything in the house to bake a reasonably cake with.

What now? The guests will be arriving any minute and you have nothing to offer besides a glass of water and a cup of coffee. Something has to happen immediately and it has to be quick, easy and delicious.

If you are in a comparable situation, you may now calm down because I have the perfect solution for you.These Chocolate cookies are no ordinary chocolate cookies, they are very rich, not to sweet and they have the perfect cookie texture...a bit of a crunch on the outside and heavenly moist and chewy on the inside. Everybody loves cookies, it's the perfect little treat to go with a cup of coffee or tea.

It only takes you 5 minutes to prepare the batter and then, 10 minutes to bake and that's it. These chocolate cookies are not only surprisingly easy to make, but also unimaginably delicious. Your guests are going to eat them all within seconds.

-An Old-Fashioned Welcome-

There's nothing cheers a fellow up just like a hearty greeting,

A handclasp and an honest smile that flash the joy of meeting;

And when at friendly doors you ring, somehow it seems to free you

From all life's doubts to hear them say: "Come in! We're glad to see you!"

by Edgar A. 

Ingredients:

100g dark chocolate

270g all purpose flour

4-5 tbs cacao powder

200g brown sugar (I used coconut sugar)

180g butter (or 5 tbs coconut oil)

a pinch of sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the cacao powder and stir it in really well until it is all incorporated. Then, take the saucepan off the heat and add all the other ingredients besides the chocolate and again mix it all well together with a hand mixer or your hands.

Now, break the chocolate into little cubes and gently stir it in the mixture. Then, with a spoon place 9-12 equal portions on a lined baking tray. While the oven preheats to 200°, place the baking tray in the fridge.Then, put it in the oven for 10 minutes and let them cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Walnut-Marzipan Rolls

Hello my sweet ladys and gentlemen,

it is january now, which means we are in the middle of winter. The holidays are over and we are looking forward to ski trips in the mountains, warm fireplaces in a cozy lodge and sledding with friends and family. And what is better after a long day in the cold winter wonderland of glistening snow and crisp mountain air, then some of the most delicious, sweet and still warm Walnut-Marzipan rolls? Accompanied by a cup of hot tea, mulled wine or eggnog these decadent Nut rolls are the perfect afternoon treat when you are having friends and family over or even for you alone to enjoy with a good book and a purring cat by your side.

In the winter time, nuts (especially walnuts) and marzipan are the most popular things to work with when it comes to baking. Walnuts have such a nice flavor...No matter if it is a roast venison with cranberries or a sweet dessert, they go with everything. 

"A long time ago, almonds and sugar were very luxury goods and

 it was first made in persia to please the desires of wealthy people."

These rolls are not only fluffy and moist, but they also have a rich and nutty flavor to them, that works perfectly together with the drizzle of sweet frosting on top. If you take one bite, the flavors combine in your mouth, the nuts and the marzipan playing a duet of harmony and perfection...and at this point you are already addicted. These are not only for marzipan lovers. So even if you are not a huge marzipan fan, still give them a try and you'll see: Everybody loves them!! 

Ingredients for the dough:

600g all purpose flour

1 large egg

100g sugar

100ml warm milk

50g butter

42g fresh yeast

Ingredients for the filling:

100g grated walnuts

50g grated almonds

100g marzipan

150g butter

1 large egg

100g sugar

1tsp cinnamon

Ingredients for the frosting:

100g icing sugar

1-2 tbs cold water

Preparation: 

Grab yourself a large mixing bowl and whisk your butter, milk and sugar together. Then, in a small bowl mix a little bit of  warm water with one teaspoon of sugar and crumble your fresh yeast in it and let that sit for two minutes. Now, stir it a litte bit and then pour it in your butter-milk mixture. After that, add all the flour and give it agood stir until it is a smooth batter. If the dough is too sticky, sprinkle some more flour on top and work it in with your hands until it is how you want it. Then, take another large bowl, grease it with some vegetable oil and put your dough in it. Cover it with a kitchen towel and put it somewhere warm. (Tip: I either place mine near the heater or under the bedcovers.) Now, leave it there for a good two hours to rise. During that time you can start making the filling. In a medium sized bowl, put all the ingredients together and mix them with a fork or as I do, use your hands and set it aside until the dough is ready. 

After your dogh is really doubled in volume, you can roll it out until it is about 1 - 1,5 cm thick. Spread the filling evenly on top and carefully roll it. Now, use a sharp knife to cut  10-12 equal pieces. Take a large baking tray or a muffin form and place the rolls on it and make sure there is enough space between them because they will rise again for one hour. And now they are ready to go into the preheated oven at 170° for about 45 minutes. The time really depends on your type of oven, so check them every now and then to make sure they won't burn on the top. After they are out of the oven, give them some time to cool and then stir the icing sugar and the water together and drizzle it on top of the rolls.