Strawberry cake with white chocolate

IMG_4630Sooo, here comes the birthday cake number two. Because March is the month where I get to live out all my cake making dreams. This one is a delicious strawberry cake with a lot of white chocolate and whipped cream. Oh, and a vanilla bean. Because vanilla beans make everything better. I know that strawberries are not really in season right now but what am I supposed to do when my sister dearly wants strawberries for her birthday? But if you wait until summer to make this cake, you won´t regret it. It´s delicious!

IMG_4526The recipe is a mixture of combining two recipes and adding my own ideas. I´ve tried both recipes before and both were really good. But each felt like there was a small thing missing. So I decided to take the best from both recipes and create something new. The result was perfect! I used the dough from the German recipe because I love sponge cake (is that really the correct translation?). Anyway, here in Germany, cakes are usually made with a dough called “Biskuit” which is really soft and fluffy. I´ve tried other recipes that used a rather normal cake dough for the layering and they were good but just a bit to firm and stiff for me. Then I added a lot of strawberries, mascarpone, whipped cream and white chocolate. The best thing about the white chocolate decoration is that you don´t have to worry about messing up the frosting of the cake. Just add little pieces of white chocolate and everybody will think you´re a cake-decorating expert.

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Oreo cake

IMG_4220March is a good month. Mostly because three out of the six family members celebrate their birthday in March and you know what that means right? Cake! Lots of it. When I was younger, my mom would always make our traditional birthday cake with lots of chocolate and M&Ms on top. But when my baking addiction kicked in it was my responsibility to make something special for each birthday boy or girl. And since my brother loves Oreo cookies, it was obvious that I had to make something involving chocolate and Oreos.

IMG_4224I´ve tried different recipes for Oreo cakes before. If found this recipe in the new edition of Sweet Paul and I knew I just had to try it. It was similar to the recipes I´ve made before but just a little bit fancier. And as you can see, the result was stunning. Doesn´t it look beautiful? Well, I have to admit that the cake only lasted that way for 10 Minutes. Then, as I was trying to get a good picture, the background collapsed and smashed half of the cake. It was a bit cricked afterwards and since I didn´t have much frosting left, the end result looked a bit different from what I am presenting to you. Oh well, nobody´s perfect. It still tasted great!

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Bulgur salad

IMG_3833I think there are two very different persons living inside me. One is the inner fat kid that is constantly craving for cookies, cake and ice cream. The other one is a health-junkie, obsessed with fresh and healthy food. If I eat to much cake, bread and pizza, my body desperetaly longs for salad and vegetables. If I try to stick to an all-healthy diet, my body wants cake. The two balance each other out I guess. The health junkie in me makes sure I eat well and take care of myself. The inner fat kid helps me not to take everything to seriously and enjoy life and sugar every once in a while. Maybe it´s not the worst system after all.

IMG_3859So since I can´t be living off of cookies and cupcakes, my daily cooking consists of a lot of salad (technically speaking…is that even cooking?) Anyway, I love salad. I tried a bunch of different recipes and ingredients throughout the years and at the moment, my all time favourite ingredients for salad are avocado, tomatoes, green onion and feta cheese. These are the basics for almost all of my salads and from there I start adding things I like, like nuts, chickpeas, cucumber or corn.

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Semolina mousse with raspberries

IMG_3550There is an old German fairytale about the “Schlaraffenland” which, according to my dictionary, can be translated into the land of milk and honey. It´s a land where laziness and relaxation are the biggest virtues. Nobody works, the food falls from the sky or grows on trees and instead of water, the rivers carry milk and honey. When I was a kid I always wanted to got there. Not because I was so lazy or obsessed with food (well actually…I always loved food) but because, in order to get there you have to eat your way through a mountain of semolina pudding. A whole mountain! of semolina pudding!!!. I love semolina. Unfortunately, my family was more into rice pudding and I´ve never met someone who is as crazy about semolina as I am. To be honest, I don´t even know if the concept of semolina pudding is known outside of Germany. I know about Polenta in Italy but that is not the same. And of all the countries I have lived in, none had a huge tradition or even knew about semolina pudding. So I´d love to get some feedback…any other countries out there who experiment with different semolina recipes? In Germany it is well known and a typical dish from your childhood. I´ve always loved it more than rice pudding and when a couple of years ago someone introduced me to semolina mousse I was hooked! Since then it has been my all time favourite dessert!

IMG_3572Anybody who might be a bit skeptical about this recipe now…try it! It´s so fluffy and sweet and creamy and just…amazing. Trust me on this one.

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Churros with hot chocolate sauce

IMG_3491Do you know Churros? Of course you do, they are the best. They are fried, sugared deliciousness dipped in chocolate sauce. Kind of like the best idea ever!

I know that churros are not exclusively Mexican. I´ve had them in Spain (which I think is where they originally come from but correct me when I´m wrong) and I know that many countries in Latin America have them. But you can get them pretty much everywhere in Mexico so this recipe will mark the end of our little virtual trip.

I really don´t know anyone who doesn´t like churros. How could you not? They are fried (!) and dipped in sugar (!!) and hot chocolate (!!!)! Well you get the point! I´ve bought them in the streets of Mexico or in a little Spanish Café and they could instantly put me in a better mood. It is actually quite easy to make homemade churros. All you need is some flour, oil, water and chocolate and you are good to go. So let´s do this!

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Veggie Tacos

IMG_3362I am back! Sorry it took so long but you know…finals and stuff. But now I finally got time for some cooking and we are continuing with the Mexican theme. It´s time for Tacos! I love Tacos and they are even better if you make everything yourself. What I like so much about them is that it´s really fun to prepare them with friends or family. Just get your favourite people together, get everybody busy in the kitchen and in the end everybody is full and happy. And because you can prepare them however you like, there is enough freedom of choice for everyone. It´s a win-win-situation. (Especially when your visitors will help you clean up the mess later).

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