Cakes | Anyone 4 Curry & Other Things

Hallo – hallo! I am once more back again!

Some of you might remember telling you that my late mother never taught me to bake any of her beautiful cakes. Was that the reason why I never even attempted baking for my family and friends? I don’t know really; and to be frank with you I also was always a bit “scared” in case I made quite a fool of myself.

Luckily neither Jo nor I have a so called ‘sweet tooth’ – so we never missed that divine piece of ‘sweet temptation’ on our extensive travels around the world, with the exception of one of the various times when we visited the world famous Hotel Sacher in Vienna. How can anyone decline a piece of their Sacher Torte (with 2 spoons, please) and a glass of delicious champagne?!

But the other day we suddenly both felt like having a piece of cake with our tea but could not be bothered to call a UBER to take us to a bakery. Then I remembered a cake recipe my friend Heidi in Berlin used when cake was needed at very short notice. So a quick call to her, recipe written down, needed ingredients checked, cake baked and 20 minutes later enjoyed with a nice cup of Darjeeling tea whilst listening to the heavy unseasonably rain outside.

So here now I share with you Heidi’s recipe and hopefully you too will bake this cake.

I am quite proud of myself for having done this after decades shying away from this but, as the saying goes “…one is never too old to learn” – so watch out for maybe another cake experience soon.

Take care and Namaskaram
Carina

Ingredients for 6 Cupcakes
100 g Butter, softened
250 g Flour
200 g Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Baking powder
Pinch of Salt
Ingredients for top
100 g Almonds (skinned and cut into little sticks)
100 g Sugar
Any good jam (solid, not liquid)

Method
Heat your oven to 200 C.
In a bowl mix Butter, Sugar and Vanilla Sugar very well until creamy.
Slowly add eggs, one after another, and mix well
Mix flour, baking powder and salt and add to the above mixture.
Now butter your baking sheet or cupcake pan, sprinkle flour over this and shake off any excess flour.
Cover your baking sheet with the batter, smooth out top.

With a small spoon make a dell in the batter and add a good generous dollop of your favourite jam into this.
Mix the almonds and the sugar and sprinkle over the batter with tiny butter flakes on top.
Bake in the hot oven for app. 20 minutes.

That’s it – enjoy Heidi’s recipe with a nice cup of tea or coffee.

or, Fond Memories of Summer’s Past …….

Even living here in the Tropics I am fully aware that the “…hazy days of summer…” are over for most of you. And during my now 2 weeks absence from the Computer desk I had intended to cook and photograph some delicious body-and-soul warming soups from my home country in general and from my late Mutti’s kitchen in particular. But, as it so often happens in life, I got a bit side tracked with visitors and our girls coming home as well, and somehow I ended up trying – with some modest success I like to say so myself – to bake some cakes for future postings!!!!

Even though I thought not to post any of them since they are not 100% perfect, but …..why not, I asked myself. After all I am so proud that I even managed those (since I really really cannot bake) – what do you think? I leave you for now with a famous quote by W.C. Fields “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it”. Please do let me know.

So now for today I like to show you one of my long-time favourite (warm) fruit puddings – inspired of course by living for 3 years in “Rum-and-Steelband Country” – beautiful Trinidad & Tobago/W.I. There is only one little snag concerning my recipe – I was not able to find a single mango anywhere – season is over now, but I lived under the illusion of at least finding one in the big Hypermarket, but ……….no such luck, I used an apple instead!

For 2 happy people:
½ x pineapple, peeled and sliced and cut into cubes
1 x ripe juicy mango, peeled, stoned and cut into cubes
(or use an apple instead, which makes it ‘semi tropical’)
½ x papaya, peeled, sliced, seeded and cut into cubes
1 x large banana, peeled and thickly sliced
1 x generous Tbsp of clear honey
1 x tsp of ground cinnamon
3 x Tbsp dark rum
1 x plus Tbsp of unsalted butter, room temperature

Serve with either vanilla-, yoghurt- or lemon-ice cream or a generous dollop of thick yoghurt.

This should be served if possible right at the end of the meal. So, assemble all your prepared fruit since it will only take a few minutes from start to finish.

Use a heavy based frying pan, melt butter, add pineapple and cook on medium to low heat for a couple of minutes. Keep turning the fruit and when it starts to change colour slightly add all of the remaining previously prepared fruit to the pan and cook for a further 1-2 minutes (not more!!), turning occasionally.

Now stir in honey, cinnamon and rum, cook for a further 2 minutes until sauce thickens. Serve immediately if possible.

PS: I often play around adding this and that – including some golden raisins and other sweet dried berries. But on the whole the above recipe works just fine – my guests always asked me for the recipe, since it is so delicious, fruity and quick to make.