Salted chocolate and caramel tart

Here is my birthday cake from this year. I didn't plan any celebration this year, being a little tired still from our return flight from Australia. But my good friend subtly suggested that a celebration would be in order, which got me thinking, 'Why not?' A quick flick through my library of cooking books for some ideas, a bit of grocery shopping and we enjoyed a little mid-week dinner party on the balcony.

The 'birthday cake' is a salted chocolate and caramel tart; very 'on-trend' I know, but combining all my favourite things; chocolate, caramel and salt. There are a few steps to this tart, but you could make and bake the pastry case the day before if you like. And it looked very pretty holding my birthday candles.

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.....

Banana ice cream sundae

Very quick little recipe/idea for a dessert, or afternoon special treat.

This ice cream sundae was my little treat on a Sunday afternoon, after having a marvelous time at a friend's birthday party the evening before. I needed a little pick-me-up (as you do) and as the weather was hot and sticky, this cool treat hit the spot.

Berry, lemon curd and mascarpone sponge cake

One of the joys of living where I do is the availability of berries. Especially in late spring, summer and into autumn, they are cheap, plentiful and there are many varieties to choose from. But luckily too, berries are generally available all year round and are not too expensive, no matter the season.

Baked black forest cheesecake

Serious dessert time again. My man has a thing for black forest anything. For him, the combination of the sweet sour cherries, chocolate and cream takes him to his 'special happy place.' He likes black forest cakes, trifle, tarts, and now he likes black forest cheesecake slice. This was his birthday dessert this year.

I wanted to create something special, of course. I thought about making just a plain black forest cake, but that seems a bit boring. We all like cheesecake so I thought it might be interesting to incorporate the black forest flavours into a chocolate cheesecake. I made the cheesecake in a loaf tin as I thought it would look pretty.

And the words, 'best dessert ever!' may have been mentioned once or twice by my man. Mission accomplished I think.

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.

Donna Hay's dark chocolate and coconut cheesecakes

Donna Hay strikes again. Here are her dark chocolate and coconut cheesecakes from the April May 2013 magazine. Just slightly divine I must say. Visit Donna Hay's website for lots more beautiful recipes.

I made these cheesecakes in mini and medium size, using mini muffin and traditional muffin tins for the bases. The mini size were great for a quick bite, the medium-sized great as a special dessert for our family.

Lemon curd and raspberry brioche pudding

Ok, serious dessert business here people. An absolute delight to eat, and not too difficult to make. I whipped this up while I had guests sitting at the table. It took about 10 minutes to put together, then 30 minutes in the oven. I served the dish to the table and everyone helped themselves with a good splodge of mascarpone. There were seconds eaten....speaks for itself really!

Toasted waffles with custard berry cream pots

This is a complete cheat's dessert. Pick up a few ingredients from the shop and you can whip this up in about five minutes. The only 'cooking' required is the toasting of the waffles in the toaster. The rest is just 'placement' of the ingredients. But, it still looks very pretty and of course, tastes good.

You could easily make the custard berry cream pots a few hours before and store in the fridge until you are ready to serve. I think this would be a great dessert for a dinner party - it is visually stunning, but doesn't take too much effort. The perfect recipe for when you want to sit with your guests not be in the kitchen all evening.

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.

Chocolate caramel coconut slice

Behold this morsel of sweet goodness!

It contains some of my favourite ingredients - chocolate, caramel and coconut. Combined together, these ingredients make this divine little slice.

My lovely daughter requested a batch of this slice as a birthday treat. She also helped with the making and baking, which was fun, as we were able to lick our sweet, sticky fingers afterwards.

Word of warning - this slice is very sweet, so you only need a very small square to satisfy. A 2cm square is plenty, and will ensure that the slice stretches far.

No bake caramel tart

This picture is fairly self-explanatory. This is heaven on a plate - that is all!

Ok, maybe a bit more explanation is needed is you'd like to sample the above bit of heaven.

I had a hankering for something sweet last night. The above is what I came up with after looking through the panty and the fridge. There are three ingredients used here - oat biscuits, mascarpone and dulce de leche caramel. No baking or cooking, just a bit of spooning and layering! I think it turned out rather well.

As a bit of background, my Mum makes the most amazing caramel tart. She always uses boiled canned condensed milk as her caramel, which for me is almost the most delicious thing in the world. It's a bit of a fiddle to boil the condensed milk, so, a few weeks ago when I walked past a Mexican grocery shop and saw they had 'dulce de leche' caramel in the window, I got a little excited. So in I popped and grabbed a few jars.

If you've never had dulce de leche, you need to try it. It is divine - a thick, sweet, vanilla-flavoured, proper caramel. I give a warning here - it is edible from the spoon. And I think it is nothing like that awful product sold in supermarkets that claims to be caramel - yuk. 

So, this little dessert was made up in 5 minutes and devoured by me soon after that. I loved the crunch of the biscuits, the sweetness of the caramel and the luscious cream. For me, it was the perfect combination and it really sorted out my sweet craving.

You can't make this in advance, it is assemble and eat immediately. Enjoy in moderation!

Baked Cherry Ripe chocolate cheesecake

As the saying goes, you don't miss something (or someone) until it's gone. In my case, what I miss is Cadbury's Cherry Ripe chocolate bars, which are not sold in Austria. Cherry Ripes are my favourite ever chocolate bars. The combination of dark chocolate, cherries and coconut is so, so good. 

I have been relying on family and friends to 'import' these chocolate bars in their suitcases for my husband and I or to send them via post, which is ridiculously expensive.  

My father-in-law arrived a few weeks ago for a holiday and he bought a WHOLE box of Cherry Ripes - 40 or so bars of choc-cherry heaven! In honour of this event, I decided to splash out and make something featuring Cherry Ripes. And so the baked Cherry Ripe chocolate cheesecake was born.

This cheesecake is rather amazing, if I do say so myself. My desire was to have a cake with a strong Cherry Ripe flavour and texture, so I didn't melt the bars, I just chopped them roughly. When eating this cake, you really get to taste the delicious chocolate bars. 

Naturally, this is a very rich cake; you only need a very small slice, so it will go a very long way if you make it for a crowd. I'd estimate that you could slice this into 16 pieces.

Enough waffling on from me, here's the recipe. Make it, it's wonderful.

Nigella's Easter Egg Nest Cake

Nigella's Easter Egg Nest Cake. One word - awesome! 

I made this cake as our dessert to have on Easter Sunday with friends. It was easy to make, fun to decorate and I think you'll agree, it looks wonderful.

The cake has three parts, the bottom layer of cake, the chocolate cream filling, and the 'nest' decorations. In her recipe, Nigella says that it's OK if the cake 'falls apart' on the sides, as it's meant to look like a nest, so not perfect. My kind of cake definitely. My cake stayed together quite well, but the sides were crunchy and crumbly, which I think is how it was supposed to be.

This is a flourless cake too, so great for all those eating gluten free. It was very moist, and kept well for three days afterwards (God know's know?) in an airtight container.

Serve with some double cream and a hot cup of espresso. Happy Easter.

Here is Nigella's recipe and method.

Hot Cross Buns

Easter goodies - I'm a bit late I know.

Hot Cross Buns aren't sold in Austria, so if I want to eat them, I've got to make my own. No bother there. They are not too difficult, just a little time consuming with all the rising time. But you can do other things while you wait for the dough to rise.

And, I think there is nothing like the smell of freshly-baked anything in the house.

Most recipes for hot cross buns call for mixed spice to be used. Mixed spice is not sold here either. So I made my own, using cinnamon, chilli powder and black pepper. Sounds weird I know, but it tasted really great and smelled wonderful. There was just a tiny bit of spice and my children ate them without a problem.

If you've never baked hot cross buns, give it a go. But I'd say definitely eat them the day of baking, as they are fresh and soft. If you leave them for a few days, they do become a bit heavy. You can reheat them but there is nothing like fresh baked.

Slather on some butter and eat hot from the oven - bliss!

Donna Hay's baked chocolate custard

These baked chocolate raspberry custards were luscious and a nice end to a lovely dinner.

The recipe is from Donna Hay. You'll find it here or in her book 'simple dinners.' I think I overcooked my custards a little; the texture was a little more 'cake' than 'custard', but they still tasted wonderful, especially with the tangy raspberries.

Give this recipe a try for dinner parties or for a family dinner. You can make them beforehand, then store in the fridge until needed. You could serve them warm from the oven, or have them cold from the fridge as I did.

Grilled pineapple and icecream

Easy dessert time. This is a wonderful way to use a big, juicy pineapple.

Skin and chop the pineapple, a little heating in the pan, make a sauce, scoop on your favourite icecream, and it's done.

Quick and so, so tasty.

You could also add some fresh, grated ginger or even a sprinkle of fresh chilli for a little more Asian-flavoured.

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.