Strawberry Time - Strawberry, Mascarpone & Chocolate Cake

Some say it is best to eat foods that are in season. I especially enjoy this with regards to strawberries. They taste so much better, when they are fresh from the region compared to the ones you get at the supermarket and are imported from who knows where. Last year we didn't take full advantage of that, but this year will make up for it. Nearby is a large field of strawberries where you can pick them for yourselves at a very good price. Therefore whenever we feel like it we head over and get some fresh strawberries. Well, that is when we have finished off the last once we got. Usually the last remaining once end up in a smoothie or something like that.
There are many ways to enjoy the strawberries. You can eat them fresh, with yoghurt, with your muesli, with curd cheese, in smoothies, in cakes, in salads ... well, we just watched Forrest Gump the other day, but I think I really shouldn't go into this part in detail of what you can do with strawberries like they did in the movie with shrimps ... hm ... eh ... well ... eh ... and that's about all you can do with strawberries. Well, I haven't got that much time and I really can't imagine an end of that list.
Therefore I will rather limit my writings to what I did and what I announced in the title of this blog post: Strawberry, Mascarpone & Chocolate Cake.

I tried to think of another name for this cake, but I really couldn't come up with any and above that in these days there are certain words you rather shouldn't use in public. Anyway, let's focus on the more important things ...

Picking strawberries is really enjoyable for me, in the sun, it's relaxing after a full day at the office. I reckon we still have a few weeks, maybe about two and then it will already be over with this field. I guess, though, it is not our fault.

We usually get about two kilos or a wee bit more of strawberries. After all we can easily return and get some more another day.

After we have gotten one of the key ingredients for our Strawberry, Mascarpone & Chocolate Cake, I reckon it is about time to start with the preparation ...

Switzerland - Engadine Nut Pie V2.0

There is a calendar on the wall in the office. It has one large and several small pictures on it for every month. It's Switzerland. What do we see on the pictures? Mountains, trains and cows ... they come to my mind.
Now, what comes to your mind, when thinking about Switzerland. Chocolate? Oh, yes, that's a good one. Swiss bank account? Nah, I don't have sufficient funds to think about that. Neutrality? Well, that doesn't sound to bad. So I try to keep that in mind.
A lot of people, when they travel to Switzerland to the Graubünden area, take the Engadine Nut Pie back home as a 'souvenir'. So far I only have been to the other side of lake Constance, so I could at least have a look at Switzerland from across the lake ... kind of.
Nevertheless, I like to have a take on the Engadine Nut Pie and bring you my version, that is the Engadine Nut Pie V2.0. Not that this is essentially an improved version, but it has some modifications to fit my image of Switzerland in my mind.

I had a look at the basic recipe on the tourist website for Graubünden. Then I went on to modify ...
You know, it's quite easy when you have bits of walnuts from a bag ready for use, but when you have to work yourself through closed nuts and crack them all open to get 250 g of chopped nuts ... eh ... well I stopped 100 g short. I checked also some other recipes. One stated 400 g of walnuts and another one had also some plum jam in it. I looked further and looked, but I couldn't find a version with chocolate in it, but ... come on, Switzerland ... I wanted chocolate in it.
Accordingly, here we go ...

Ingredients:
300 g whole wheat flour (somehow most of the other flour was gone in my pantry)
150 g sugar
150 g butter
2 small eggs
1 pinch of salt

300 g sugar
A few tbsp. of water
150 g walnuts
50 ml cream
100 g plum jam
100 g chocolate, into pieces

Method:
Take the flour, the 150 g sugar, the butter, the eggs and a pinch of salt, throw them into a bowl and have some pastry from it. You work it out. Looks like shortcrust pastry anyway. Nicely bring all the ingredients together.
Have your cake tin ready and put a bit more than half of the dough on the bottom of your oiled cake tin, having the dough going slightly upwards at the side. Spread the plum jam onto the bottom.
Give the remaining 300 g of sugar with the water into a pan at full heat and have some caramel going. Make sure not to stir. When the sugar goes brown and the caramel is coming, toss in the nuts and add the cream. Now you are allowed to stir.
Pour the nut caramel over the plum jam. Afterwards throw the chocolate over it, too.
Finally you have to manage to put the remaining pastry over as a lid. I wasn't very good at it.

Yes, it looked like this after baking. So, put the cake tin into the cold oven and turn up the heat to maximum. After ten minutes reduce the heat to 180 °C and let the pie in the oven for another 35 minutes.
As you see on my photos, the Engadine Nut Pie, I made didn't look that lovely, but ... oh, did it taste delicious. You just have to imagine that touch of plum, the nut caramel and the chocolate. I loved it.

Fine, after the Engadine Nut Pie comes from the oven, you have somehow remove it from the tin and also allow time for cooling down. Then you can enjoy it, too.

What now? I reckon, you had sufficient time to think about what comes to your mind when thinking about Switzerland ...

Look out for more World Cup countries cooking ...

Will You Remember ... Forgotten, Not Forgiven

Do you still remember the last time I did a weird, strange, crazy, bonkers, whatever kind of post? Well, I could check, but that wouldn't mean I remember, rather the opposite.

I can still hear the voices in my head - no, not those voices - rather the singing kind of voices, music that is.

One such song is called 'Will You Remember?' from the album 'To the Faithful Departed' by The Cranberries. Well, I don't want to tell you right now what I think most of the time when that song is in my head, but you can be sure, I'm telling you in a minute, what I am thinking of right now.

However, there is another song, 'Forgiven, Not Forgotten' by The Corrs. Right away, I can tell you my thoughts are not tending towards the suicide part. I have a feeling I am stable at the moment. After all, there is no 'one eyed furry toy' on the bed ...

... right, it has two eyes and besides that, I have absolutely no idea of the 'bleeding heart torn apart, left on an icy grave'. As far as I know, stones don't bleed.

While we are at it, just a quick side fact, a concert of The Corrs was the only one I ever have been to in my life and I don't know, whether I will ever make it to another concert of someone else still.

Now, if you are not that woman from California, who is just called "AJ" in medical literature and who remembers every day of her life since age 11, you forget things and can't remember.

For sure I have some things in my life I don't want to remember, but on the other hand there are a lot more things I want to remember, like for example - and that's especially, if you are a food blogger - 'what was it I had been cooking there' or 'where did I got that idea from'. Yes, I will not forgive myself I have forgotten and ... I won't forgive myself a few other things.

Anyway, due to several reasons, there are some food photos piling up in my 'to blog' folder and I have no clue what to make of some. In order not to have them just for nothing, I present you now ...

THE FORGOTTEN

We can only call this 'Steamed Vegetables'. Right, some ingredients are obvious, but that's all ...

I'm sure it was tasty and filling, but, yes, really, indeed that's all.

Then I can offer you some pasta: 'Fussili Putanesca'. While the name should give us already some more hints on how to prepare this dish, I don't care t do some kind of research on what I might have done to it ...

Now you might say, why bother anyway, those dishes don't look too good either. Maybe I can improve things a tiny little bit with this board of tapas ...

Fine, just a tiny little bit ... maybe. When you look at it, the things on he board are no big deal to reproduce. It's cheese with thyme and honey, garlic prawns, a coleslaw with red bell peppers and chilli, just some simple black olives and a piece of baguette. Well, I can't remember, why I took this photo in the first place. For sure I was not planning to do any kind of post with it ... but I'm doing it now this way.

Like some dessert? Maybe some sort of brownies. Well, some sort of brownies you get ...

I don't have to remember how they tasted, for I am sure they where utterly yummy.

What else?

Burgers. Sure. Homemade chips. Sure. So what?

And yet, there is more pasta ...

This time it's orecchiette al forno. Of course, you can do it by mixing the almost cooked pasta with your favourite tomato sauce, toss over some mozzarella and basil, grate over some parmesan and make it al forno in your oven for about 30 minutes, I reckon.

On the other hand, you could always have some vegetables together with chorizo ...

... I guess I did it already before. So why this picture. Yes, 'why' always seems to be the hardest question.

Apart from this, forgetting can also pop up with a different face. I was reading 'a certain blog' with a post about making chocolate buttons. Well, a lovely idea. So I made some with dates and pistachios. No big deal. Melt chocolate, give it in round shapes onto baking parchment and drop a few pieces of dates and pistachios onto them ...

Those are a real treat ... oh, oh ... memories seem to come back. I think, I added a bit of vanilla extract to the melted chocolate, too. Once they have cooled down, you can wrap them up nicely and give them away as a foodie gift ...

... oopsy ... I must have forgotten. Some time later they were still standing in that shelf and I had no choice but to  eat them for myself. What a shame! 

I don't like to give myself credit for those date and pistachio chocolate buttons, but I simply forgot the blog I got the idea from. So, if you notice, give me a shout and we rectify this.

At this point I'd say we better stop. After all, we can't go on like this forever and ever. I even think, some of these photos could have given me an advantage in this month's Bloggers Around the World. Spontaneously, quickly and without much further hassle I could have produced an Italian or Spanish posts to link up on days Italy or Spain would be playing in the World Cup.

Fine, one more ...

I made some utterly scrumptious courgette fritters. Already on their own they where a hit, but I had something bigger in mind for them ... and I will still do it ... if I manage to get them like this again. Then I make sure not to forget, but to go for it.

In the meantime ...

I won't remember the food that I ate. 

I won't remember champagne (because I didn't have any). 

I won't remember the things that I cooked. 

I will just shoot it in vain. 

Will you remember? 

Will you recall? 

Will you remember?

Beware of the Dark Side ... Raspberry Chocolate Tart

"Is the dark side stronger?" "No! No ... no. Quicker. Easier. More seductive."

A long long time ago in a kitchen far far away ...

In fact, it wasn't so long ago and not far far away. Well, the kitchen might be just around the corner, but still ... you have to beware of the dark side, for it is very seductive ... eh ... this raspberry chocolate cake is very seductive and if you don't beware and have more pieces of it than you reasonably should, you can imagine what can happen.

Well, I show you anyway ...

This Raspberry chocolate tart is based on a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

150 g butter

100 g sugar

A pinch of salt

250 g flour

1 egg

30 g cocoa powder

For the filling:

100 ml full fat milk

400 ml cream

250 g dark chocolate

2 eggs

... and raspberries

Method:

First of all, we go for the pastry, naturally, for it has to rest in the fridge for at least an hour. So, cream together the butter and the sugar. Then add the pinch of salt, flour, egg and cocoa powder. Carefully bring all the ingredients together to form the dough.

After the hour, get the pastry into a greased loose-bottomed tart tin (you knew that would be coming one day again). Blind bake the pastry for 12 minutes at 180 ºC.

Now you can already prepare the filling. Add the milk, cream and sugar to a suitable sized pot and carefully bring to the boil. Stir once in a while. Then take the pot from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir it until the chocolate has melted away and you have a smooth mixture. Then whisk in the eggs one by one.

Pour the filling onto the blind baked pastry case and get it back into the oven at 170 ºC for 15 minutes. After that leave the raspberry chocolate tart some time to cool. Wait? Why raspberry chocolate tart? Fine, after a while, place the raspberries on top of the tart, pushing them into the chocolate filling. Use as many raspberries as you wish. Are you satisfied now?

When you go for it, you can even add a dollop of whipped cream, crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream., but ... beware of the dark side ... and May the 4th be with you ...

Now I have added this post also to Bake of the Week at Casa Costello.

While we still have time for thing, it's good as well to add this to May's Calendar Cakes, which is being hosted by Rachel at Dolly Bakes.

Mascarpone All' Amaretto and Bloggers Around the World May

What is your favourite course of a meal? Starter? Mains? Dessert?
What if the starter and the mains is already so good you hardly can restrain yourself, would you still eat the dessert? Some say (including my very self), sweets, puddings and cakes go to a separate stomach, so it is totally unaffected by what you ate before. Having a second stomach, though, is complete nonsense unless you are a cow, of course. Nevertheless, dessert always goes.
Right now, I am having one of those ...

... Mascarpone All' Amaretto, simple, yet very delicious. I found the recipe in the cookbook Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy. You simply whip together 250 g of mascarpone with a tbsp. of milk, 50 g sugar and 25 ml amaretto. Then crumble over some amaretti biscuits and stick in a chocolate stick. That's it! Is it the booze? Is it the mascarpone? I reckon, it's the combination that makes it so delicious.

You definitely should have a go. Something else you should have a go at is the Bloggers Around the World challenge for May. You might have concluded, we are going to Italy again. Right, but things are not that simple for this time, we are just concentrating on desserts. That's why I have presented you the Mascarpone All' Amaretto.

Well then, off we go for another month of Bloggers Around the World ...

... with the delicious theme ...

ITALIAN SWEETS, PUDDINGS AND CAKES

Along that line, you could present us a dessert like I just did or ... having so much to choose from ... you could do gelato, semifreddo, polenta cake, tiramisu, zabaione, panna cotta and much much more. If it has any connection with Italy, it's fine.

Besides that, the usual rules / guidelines apply ...

1. Link to Cooking Around the World and this very challenge in your post.
2. Use the "Bloggers Around the World" badge (you should be able to find it).
3. Use either an old post or write up something completely new.
4. You can enter as many posts as you manage (we can never have enough sweets).
5. Enjoy ...

Here some more impressions from Italy. After that you get the chance to link up your post  ...

Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart

Finally I managed to buy a loose bottom tart tin. I was looking for it every ... I went to and thought they might have one. Now I managed. Therefore I can go for it and bake madly as ... eh ... I want to.
The first thing on my list of things I wanted to bake was a frangipane tart. This almond filling taste so gorgeous, at least in my mind. Here we go then. Over enthusiastically as I am at times I had stocked myself with lemons that I didn't actually have a plan for. Apart from that there was some basil growing on the windowsill, which wasn't too sure about whether to die or still live on happy ever after ... or rather until dying a natural basil's death of being used up in cooking.
To cut a long story short, before I go overboard here, the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart was about to rise from the ashes of the basil ... no, the basil wasn't that bad, in fact it wasn't looking bad at all, but that could have changed any day now, kind of unstable that herb is.
Anyway, top talking, start baking ... Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
150 g butter
100 g sugar
Pinch of salt
250 g flour
Zest of 1 lemon
Handful of chopped up basil leaves (use more, if you need more basil in your life)
1 egg
For the frangipane filling:
1 egg
100 g ground almonds
100 g butter
90 g sugar
Juice of one lemon (how would that lemon have looked otherwise)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
100 g icing sugar
Apart from that:
100 g raspberry jam
Icing sugar
Melted chocolate

Method:
We like to start with the pastry for the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart. First of all we cream the butter and the sugar so that you don't see any loose sugar grains anymore, but instead everything should have been assimilated by the butter. While you are at it sneak the salt in, too.
Next goes in the flour. Sometimes I like to massage it in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. At other days I simply go for it and add the remaining ingredients as well. In this case, the lemon zest, basil and the egg.
Carefully bring all the ingredients together into a fine lump of dough. Wrap it into clingfilm and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
After that it's time to get your loose bottom tart tin (I love it now) ready. Rub some butter all over the tin and push the dough into the tin. Well, you could roll out the dough first and then go for it. The good thing with this kind of pastry is, you can still push it everywhere you want, even if the rolled out dough tears.
Whatever, that same pastry now needs some serious blind baking for about 15 minutes at 180 ºC.
Meanwhile, we can make the frangipane filling. Honestly, I don't want to make any fuss about it. Get a sufficiently sized bowl and mix all the ingredients for the frangipane filling thoroughly.
The 15 minutes of the blind baking should be over at one point ... about 15 minutes after they started, I reckon, unless you prove me wrong here.
Here a little picture, I tried to put together, showing the different steps of the tart until the product is finished.

To follow those steps, spread the raspberry jam on the blind baked pastry and after that try to top it with the frangipane filling. At least that was the idea originally. During that process the jam and the frangipane filling rather might mix a bit. No worries, though, it's part of the package.
Having now an empty bowl, where the frangipane filling used to be and a filled pastry case, I'd say it's a rather good time to put the tart into the oven, which is now at 190 ºC.
Further 18 minutes will bake things right.
Sadly, as some might see it, you have to cool down the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.
At this point it doesn't look too gorgeous as would everyone agree on, I suppose.
Have some icing sugar on it. Oh, that's better, but ... we can do even better. We need something that'll always do: CHOCOLATE. No, not that much, just sprinkle a few fine lines on top of the tart ... blob. Great, no fine lines! We can attempt a few fine lines and put here and there some occasional blobs to make it appear to the beholder it was on purpose. Said and done ...

... I am rather pleased with the outcome. While being at it, I just simulated the case I would have a guest for tea time enjoying this delicious tart together with me. I even put on a candle. At other times it might give the impression of being romantic, but ...
I simply wanted a yummy frangipane tart. 
Now have a closer look at the tart in the next picture and have a guess of what it reminded my malfunctioning brain! 

Anyway, the taste of the frangipane tart was so temptingly dangerously good I even could here the tart calling from the kitchen: "Come and get me, get another slice ...!" Great!
Then it wasn't even a shame that it didn't taste that much of basil. You get more taste from the raspberry jam and the frangipane filling. However, there is a slight hint of basil. Therefore, if you have the feeling, there hasn't been enough basil in your life, feel free to increase the amount until the dough has the colour of your lawn, reminds you of Ireland or until you are well pleased with it.

Things were fine with me. Right, apart from the fact of what I had to do with the tart in the course of days that followed ... it wasn't my fault, was it? Yes,I could have, but I didn't.
However, have an even closer look and tell me ... right to my face ... how you could possibly resist a piece of that tart. 

So, once more, totally heart-broken and shattered I have to admit, it was all my fault entirely, for who has created this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart ...

While still being in grief ...over various things, I can't change now anymore anyway, I like to move on and submit this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart to a cleverly devised selection of blog challenges, due to various reasons ...

Let's do it in alphabetical order then. I might not have used mint in this tart, although I could have, based on the behaviour of the mint on my windowsill, but I didn't want to have an ill-behaved Mint and Lemon Frangipane Tart. Karen from Lavender and Lovage said, it would be alright, if I use any kind of herb to join the Cooking with Herbs challenge, which I from the bottom of my heart want to do.

That brings us already to the letter 'M' and Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays. Just to make sure you can use homemade quick raspberry jam with raspberries and sugar, but since I couldn't get that many raspberries I had to go with the nearly as good as homemade raspberry jam to have a from scratch recipe for the Made with Love Mondays.

Then I like to talk again about the lemon and the basil. I didn't want any of those two go to waste, that is let them die before I get the chance to use them. Therefore, I like to add this to the No Waste Food Challenge, which is brought to us by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. However, this month, the challenge is hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK.

So, if you want to count in, that I ate the whole cake as well to the not wasting food, then ... oops. Now it's out!

Quickly, on with the fourth and final challenge. We go back to Karen, although it is a joined challenge by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers. However, this month it's Karen's turn and the chosen theme is: Jams, Curds and Preserves. Hopefully, at this point you don't have to guess for too long which of the three I used in my recipe.

Having reached this point of the post, I wish to say thank you to all those, who have continued reading this far into the post. You are wonderful people, thank you for being out there!!! Really, I mean it, it's not just a phrase. I hope to see you again. You can bring friends, too.

Now I have some work to do. Whatever that may be ...

Life, Darkness, Randomness, Chocolate ... Apple Shortcake with Chocolate Chip Cream

I made it to the weekend again. Pah ... what's the use of it, nothing is ever going to happen. Fine, yes, fine, you are right ... then you have to make it happen yourself ... and so I did. The evening had already advanced a bit and so I took my bike for a right around town ... village ... hamlet ... whatever. You can imagine that would be quite some fun ... darkness ... winter ... bicycle-tour ... idiot me! First I went down the way past the office and after that unknown territory when it comes to the bicycle. Luckily I had my cap and gloves along. On the minus side I didn't bother to take my glasses along. Not seeing where you are going with the bike can give you some kicks of adrenaline from time to time. Anyway, the route went up and down, the little dog wasn't hit by a bicycle and the fact that I am writing things here right now proves that things didn't go that bad after all.
I reckon, even stupid exercise at night would entitle me for a sweet treat today ...
Ah, I need something anyway ... 

Besides all that I already had planned to join two lovely blog challenges this month ... Random Recipes and We Should Cocoa. In fact they have morphed into one challenge kind of for this very month of February. You will see ...

2nd Blogiversary and Cake

A long long time ago ...

... eh ...

... about two years ago I started blogging with Cooking Around the World. Who would have thought I would be still doing it today!? What has happened in those two years? Where have I gotten myself to and where will this be going?
Questions and still more questions. I think what we need right now is not answers, but cake ...

Without a cake we cannot celebrate properly. That is a Sachertorte, originating from a recipe that was created in Austria ... quite some time ago. It's named after Austrian Franz Sacher, who lived in the 1830s. Whatsoever, it's one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. In other words, a worthy cake for my 2nd Blogiversary.
I reckon we just need some flowers then ...

Good, now we are ready. So, come along and have a piece of cake ...

Gone with the Wind ...

Right this very moment Gone with the Wind is running on television ... not that I am watching ...
As looking at the year 2013, it is almost gone ... gone as the wind and no matter how hard you try, you don't get it back. Even while moments where there you couldn't catch them and keep them ... as with the wind. You never really can catch it.
Before we go on rambling any further into the realm of Philosophy and the like I rather like to focus on Cooking Around the World. Was the almost past year a good one? You never know. What do you think? Did you enjoy it? And if so, what was it in particular you liked?
As you wish you might tell me ...
From the actual process of carrying out something I guess I have to say I liked my Hawaiian luau most.

It was really fun, digging in the garden and cooking under the ground.
What then seemed to be most popular on the blog in 2013 apart from guest posts and round-ups?
By the way, the Bloggers Around the World: India was quite successful. However, in the months after the participation declined ... a lot. Still, I will continue with Bloggers Around the World in 2014 even if I'm just participating alone, which in fact could already happen this very month still. Ah, no worries!
Let's head into the top five of 2013 ...

No Piece of Cake ... Blackforest Gateaux Pudding

Wonderful, it says NOW we have winter on the calendar. I'm glad we are having not, but ... I don't mind a bit f snow on those days I'm not travelling on the road. Is that too much to ask for? I reckon it is indeed.
Is it also too much to ask for to want a Blackforest Gateaux without the extensive work it takes to create one? No, it isn't. We simply skip this cake part and have it is as pudding. Hm ... somewhat like this ...

It simply came to my mind as someone mentioned Blackforest Gateaux. Now I had to do it ...

Indy's Mysterious Daim Chocolate Apple Cake

It's about time again I get out my hat. Indeed, that might be useful in this kind f weather we have at this time of the year. However, it's not just the hat, I'm getting out and it's for a totally different reason ...

... it's for baking! There are still so many baking adventures out there, I better get going for it and get in the right frame of mind for it. So, I take my bullwhip and whip up some kind of mysterious cake ... with Daim chocolate and apples ...

Are you ready for the adventure?