Kaiserschmarrn (shredded pancakes)

This is my version of the typical Austrian dessert - Kaiserschmarrn. Basically, it is a large pancake that is shredded/chopped and is then served warm with fruit, a sweet sauce or some icing sugar. I've seen this dish served as an evening main meal, especially to children and especially in cold weather. It is also really wonderful for lunch after a day on the ski slopes.

In my version, I used dried cranberries, fresh strawberries, maple syrup and some icing sugar, although the icing sugar was only for decoration.

Mini caramel tarts

What I love most about this recipe; it's just so pretty! What I love second best; it has dulce de leche in it! What I love third best; crunchy, biscuity base. It goes on and on.....

Cheesy bacon and egg pies

Quick idea for school lunch boxes, or perhaps an after school snack. Or you could just make a batch of these and keep on hand in the fridge for hungry people for breakfast. Or a picnic. Just about anywhere really!

Ricotta and banana pancakes

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, the first day of Lent for Christians around the world.

I remember as a child eating lots of pancakes at school on this day and wondering what it was all about. 'Why would Jesus eat pancakes,' I thought.

Now I'm celebrating Pancake Day with my own children, which is lovely, but makes me feel a little old too.

This recipe using ricotta and banana is excellent for fluffy and very tasty pancakes. I like to eat them hot out of the pan with some golden syrup drizzled over the top. Just delicious. Maybe these will be my sacrifice for Lent (or maybe not)!

Orange and carrot cake

I was asked to make this cake by someone I know. It was her boyfriend's birthday, and she wanted to surprise him with a cake. He doesn't like chocolate or cakes with creamy fillings, which limits the field somewhat. I was told that he likes cakes with fruit such as apples or carrots. So, here is the cake that I created. It is a light and zesty-flavoured cake, thanks to the two whole oranges, but the carrot and almond meal keeps it moist. I made the icing with orange juice and zest to give it a real orange flavour punch. 

The feedback was that it was 'excellent'. Just what I like to hear.

Apple caramel tart

Delish dinner party recipe - caramel and apple tart with a shortcrust pastry base. Oh my Lord, how absolutely wonderful! We had some friends over for dinner on the weekend and I served this up for dessert. Neither of our friends had ever eaten caramel or Dulce de Leche before, and the looks on their faces when they tasted this was priceless.

I picked up a very large jar of Dulce de Leche earlier in the day at a Mexican food store just up the street, so I had plenty of caramel to make this. If you have never tried Dulce de Leche, do yourself a favour and get some. It is so delicious and addictive. It is basically vanilla-flavoured caramel, just like the caramel you get from boiling condensed milk in the can for a few hours.

Super-easy, cheesy sausage rolls

Three ingredient snack food recipe coming up.

Gather ready-made puff pastry, sausages and some grated cheese from your nearest grocery store and turn it into these sausage rolls.

Five minutes preparation time, 15 minutes cooking time and you have a 'homemade', filling and tasty snack or lunch if served with salad or vegetables.

These sausage rolls are totally kid-friendly and could be served at a party or as 'in front of the TV' snacks during the football.

Flourless orange cake

I'm thinking of the best way to describe this cake. 'Moist' is probably the first adjective that comes to mind, 'citrussy' is another, and perhaps 'morish'. This is a really lovely cake to add to your repertoire. It is easy to make, is gluten-free, tastes so wonderful, and is superb to take along as a contribution to morning or afternoon tea.

It is a little extra time and effort to make the syrup that accompanies this cake, but it is worth it. It gives the cake that extra dimension and turns it into something really special.

Serve warm with some mascarpone and a drizzle of the syrup and a hot cup of coffee for a wonderful treat.

With thanks to our friends the Hofmanns for providing the beautiful lake setting for afternoon tea.

Banana, raspberry and coconut bread

Quick recipe for banana, raspberry and coconut bread.

Desserts and cakes using banana are rare here is Austria. Most probably because the banana is a tropical fruit and there weren't many around when the traditional cake recipes were devised.

I sometimes get an interesting reaction from people when I bring banana muffins or a banana cake to morning tea. As was the case when I handed over this banana, raspberry and coconut bread to my host for as my contribution to afternoon tea by the lake.

But it went down a treat with all the hungry swimmers and I had to leave the leftovers there so the host could eat it for breakfast the next day! 
So it must have been alright.
Great with a cup of tea or coffee, or have it for breakfast - you could even toast it! The bread had the tang of the raspberries and the moistness of the coconut and banana. I also added cinnamon and nutmeg for a subtle hint of spiciness. Add some cold butter for a nice treat.

Torta caprese al limone

Italian flourless lemon and white chocolate cake or Torta caprese al limone.

Heaven on a plate right here and the third course of our Valentine's Day dinner.

I'm not really sure where the inspiration came from for this cake. I've never cooked anything like it before, but I am so glad I did. Usually, if I bake a cake or make a dessert, it involves chocolate. But I am learning and branching out and trying different flavours.

This cake was so moist and lemony and sweet and crunchy and lots of other great adjectives. Man of the house said it was 'something I could make again', mumbled around mouthfuls of cake, and the little people will eat anything that looks vaguely like a cake - not the most objective observers - but they liked it too. The house smelled wonderful while this was baking - lots of lemon and almond smells wafting from the oven. I liken it a bit to eating a lemon tart, but as a cake. That's what the flavour's reminded me of.

You could serve this as a dessert with a dollop of cream or natural yoghurt or make it for a morning tea with friends. It is a rich and dense cake, so you don't need a huge slice, but it is well worth the effort.

See our Valentine's entree and main course.

Buon San Valentino!

What you'll need

Made one large cake, approximately 12 to 14 pieces.

200g butter, chopped into cubes
200g white chocolate, broken into bits
5 eggs, separated
200g caster sugar
Zest of three whole lemons
60ml lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla essence or seeds from one vanilla bean
360g almond meal

Extra butter to grease the cake tin
Icing sugar to dust
Thickened cream or yoghurt to serve

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Prepare your cake tin. I used a 22cm spring-form non-stick cake tin. Grease the tin with butter, then line the bottom and sides with baking paper.

Melt and chocolate and butter together, either over very low heat in a saucepan or in the microwave. Once melted and combined, then set aside to cool slightly.

In a bowl, cream the sugar and egg yolks together with electric beaters until the mixture is pale and fluffy. 

Add the lemon zest, juice and vanilla. Mix well to combine. Add the almond meal and chocolate mixture and stir with a spoon to combine.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold half the egg whites back into the chocolate mixture, mixing very gently. Now fold the remaining egg whites and fold until just combined. 

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. 

Place in the oven and bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 150 degrees and bake for another 75 minutes.  Check if it is cooked using a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake. 

This cake is very dense due to the nuts so it will need all its cooking time, if not a little extra.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and let stand in the pan for 15 minutes. Then remove from the pan and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

To serve, sprinkle the cake with icing sugar and cut slices. Serve by itself or with a dollop of cream or natural yoghurt.

The outside and top of this cake crisped nicely, and the middle was luscious, moist and dense. The lemon flavour was strong, but I really like that. As I said, heaven on a plate!

Tip

The top of this cake will brown very quickly, so after 10 minutes baking you may want to place a piece of foil or baking paper on the top of the cake to prevent it from going too brown. 

Hazelnut, raspberry and dark chocolate muffins

Quick muffin recipe today, inspired by a bag of frozen raspberries in the freezer. 

I used some hazelnut meal in the mix, just for something different. I kept the sugar quite low in the recipe, as I wanted to squidge in some dark chocolate pieces after they were cooked for something a bit different. 

These muffins were lovely and tart from the raspberries, had  a great texture from the hazelnut meal and the melted dark chocolate was just a bit decadent. 

I also made these muffins using ripe banana, instead of the raspberries.  Just substitute the raspberries for one cup of mashed, ripe banana. You could also use blueberries to make another variety of this recipe.

What you'll need

Made 10 medium-sized muffins

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour (or use white flour if that is what you have)

1 cup hazelnut meal

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 cup of frozen or fresh raspberries

10 squares of dark chocolate

Butter for greasing the muffin tins.

What to do

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 

Place the flour, meal, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Mix together well. Make a well in the middle.

Add the milk and eggs. Mix together until just combined. The mix should be wet and 'thickly drip' off the back of your mixing spoon. If not, add either more flour or more milk. 

Finally, add the raspberries and mix through.

Grease the muffin tin well with butter.

Spoon with muffin mixture evenly into each tin - you should end up with about 10 muffins.

Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes. 

Check with a wooden skewer placed into the middle of some muffins if they are cooked. If the skewer comes out clean, the muffins are cooked. If the skewer comes out with muffin mixture on it, cook for another 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Now, using a small knife, made a little cut in the top of each muffin. Then slide the chocolate piece into the muffin, leaving a little hanging out. The chocolate will melt inside the muffin. 

Serve the muffins while still warm. Yum!

Banana cake with coconut and lime icing

'Can you bake a cake for an open day at the school?' I was asked. 'No problem,' I said. 'One slab of banana cake with coconut and lime icing, coming up!'


What you'll need

For the cake
2 large, overripe bananas, mashed
125g butter at room temperature (or slightly melted)
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (or seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod)
100ml milk
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

For the icing
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Juice and zest of one lime
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Butter to grease the cake tin

What to do

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the cake tin and line it with non-stick baking paper. I used a 20 x 20cm cake tin.

Place the butter, sugar, mashed banana, eggs and vanilla in a bowl and mix well. You can do this by hand or with electric beaters. Add the milk and mix to combine.

Add the flour and bicarb soda. Mix until combined. Pour the batter into a prepared tin and use a wooden spoon to smooth the batter and move it into all the corners of the pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then remove the cake to a wire rack to completely cool it.

Once cool, make the icing.  Pour the icing sugar into a bowl, squeeze the lime juice into the icing sugar, mixing as you go with a spoon. The consistency is right when the icing is the consistency of softened butter. It should not drip off the spoon, otherwise it will run off the cake. Add more icing sugar if the icing is too wet. If the icing is too dry, add warm water, a few drops at a time until you have the right consistency.

Spread icing over the cake, using a knife that has been heated under running, hot water. Once spread all over the cake (to the edges and down the sides if you want to), sprinkle over the coconut and the lime zest. Let the icing set for 10 minutes, then slice with a sharp knife. It will be easier to cut cleanly if you heat the knife under hot, running water before each slice.

This cake will store in an airtight container for three or four days. Alternatively you could slice the cake and then freeze to use in lunchboxes etc. Layering the individual cake slices between pieces of baking paper will make it easy to remove from the freezer, ensuring it won't stick to the other cake slices.

Upside-down banana cake

Serious yummy cake alert!

This was a 'spur of the moment' cake baking, as I had four over-ripe bananas in the fruit bowl that needed to be used.

We had a play in the park planned with school friends so I thought a cake might be something nice to take along to share.

Banana cakes are not as common here in Austria as they are in Australia, but I made one anyway.

This cake has a slight twist, in that the banana isn't actually in the cake, but is on top. But the flavour permeates all the way through in this recipe, and in my opinion, any cake with banana in it is a winner.

I will freely admit that I am not a cake baker. I am not a precise cook; I prefer to add a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And cakes don't take too kindly to adding a bit of this and that. Generally cakes may refuse to rise or be rather dry and inedible, which I don't take too kindly too!

The other thing about baking cakes is that when you make a cake, it has to be eaten. I don't like to give the little people too many cakes and sweet things, even if it is homemade, and the man of the house doesn't eat much cake, so that leaves me, and my waist-line doesn't take too kindly to that. Maybe I need a few more kids in the house, then problem solved.

Back to the banana cake though. I found a recipe for upside down banana muffins, but I didn't want to make muffins, so I adjusted the recipe to make this cake. It was very much enjoyed at the park, and enjoyed at home and in the kindy lunchbox. I cooked this cake one afternoon, and ate it the next day, and it is still lovely and moist two days later.

You could serve this warm as a dessert-type cake with icecream or cream, or as a 'normal' cake cut into slices. This would also work well baked in a loaf tin, although you would half the quantity of the mixture.

In a first for me, I used vanilla seeds straight from the pod. I'm not sure this added anything special to the taste of the cake, but it was what I had - no vanilla essence to be found in the local supermarkets. The smell of the pods was wonderful and very different to usual bottle of vanilla I have in the cupboard.

What you'll need

* Serves 20 - 24 medium pieces of cake.

4 small ripe bananas - thinly sliced
170g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup cater sugar
2 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence (or seeds scraped from half a vanilla pod)

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Melt half the butter and the brown sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Once combined and melted, remove from the heat. Line a 30cm x 20cm cake tin (approx size) with baking paper. Pour the sugar and butter mixture into the bottom of the cake tin, then layer the sliced banana on top. Set aside.

Make the cake batter.

Cream the remainder of the butter and caster sugar together with an electric mixer until pale and thick. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after adding each.

Sift in the flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Then stir in the milk and vanilla. Mix until just combined.

Spoon very carefully over the banana and smooth out the top.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes away clean.

You can leave this to cool for 10 minutes then turn out and serve immediately while still warm. It would be lovely with vanilla icecream or cream.

Alternatively, turn it out onto a platter after 10 minutes let cool for half and hour, then store in an air-proof container until the next day.

* I was not very careful when I poured the batter into the cake tin over the bananas; dumping it all into the middle of the pan. As a result, all the banana shifted to the outside of the cake. This made the outside bits of cake deliciously gooey, but I thought the inside bits needed something extra, so I whipped up some lime and coconut icing for these bits of cake.

Banana Tart Tatin

We are on holidays at a relative's house. It is rainy, cold (finally), and the family is needing nourishment for afternoon tea. What could be better than banana tart tatin, one of my all-time favourites. Soft gooey fruit, crisp pastry, hot, caramel sauce and ice-cream. This ticks all the boxes for me. 

This is an unusual afternoon tea for us, but it is school holidays and we needed a bit of a pick-me-up after watching a movie.