I am back! I was virtually absent for three months, interning in beautiful Berlin in real life. It was an amazing, exciting, exhausting, scary and fun time. I got to know another city, work-life and also learned a thing or two about me and my goals in life. Now I am back in my little apartment, ready to take on the next step, namely writing my master thesis and finishing grad school. But before that I took some time off which I spend eating great food with friends and family, drinking lots of wine and relaxing in the backyard. And finally, finally I was able to get back in the kitchen and behind the camera
again.

It is hardly surprising to me or anyone who knows me that I thoroughly enjoy spending time in the kitchen and taking pictures of my creative results. It did surprise me however how much I missed getting creative. Yes, I did cook some fancy food while in Berlin and I managed to bake at least one set of muffins. But overall the city, the internship and also the narrow kitchen in the apartment didn´t really leave me with too much opportunities to actually spend some time developing recipes. That´s not to say that I didn’t enjoy my time in Berlin. Quite the contrary, I actually realized that taking a (not so voluntary) break helped get a new clear focus and inspiration for this little webspace. Berlin is basically food heaven and when I strolled around the markets on Saturday mornings, biked around the citiy or enjoyed a cup of coffee in the sun, observing the pedestrians passing by, I found myself being inspired by so many things. So know I am back home, full of inspiration and ideas, longing for them to become reality. It´s going to be a delicious summer guys!

Today´s recipe is not completely new but more a variation of my grandma´s apple cake recipe. I decided to substitute apples for rhubarb, use spelt instead of regular wheat flour and bake the whole thing in a slightly smaller spring pan. The result is what my family calls “Klitschekuchen” – a cake that is still soft and sticky in the middle. I have loved cakes like these ever since I was little, however, if you prefer your cake to be thoroughly baked you can also use a regular spring pan, that way the cake is not as high and bakes more easily.

For the batter (20 or 26 cm spring pan):

250 g sugar

250 g butter (at room temperature)

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

4 eggs

125 g all-purpose flour

125 g corn starch

2 tbsp. baking powder

For the filling:

3 – 4 small rubarb stalks

2 tbsp. sugar

1) Beat the butter while gradually adding sugar and vanilla extract until soft and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs. In a separate bowl, mix flour, corn starch and baking powder and sift into the butter-sugar-mixture. Fill the batter into a buttered spring pan.

2) Wash rhubarb and cut into small pieces. Place on top of the batter until the batter is completely covered and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in the preheated oven at 175°C for about an hour. After about 30 minutes the cake is already pretty brown on top but still rather soft inside. Place some aluminium foil on top of the cake for the remaining time to prevent the top from burning. If you want your cake to be on the softer, stickier side I would recommend baking it for about 45 – 50 minutes, if you prefer a drier texture bake for at least an hour.

3) Once the cake has cooled completely, dust with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with whipped cream.