26*52 White Chocolate-Lime Cake

We had guests for dinner last night and I made a very yummy and refreshing lemon cream dessert. I thought that serving just the cream dessert would be a bit boring so I wanted to bake something to go with it. 

Why not with limes and maybe chocolate? So I stumbled upon this week's recipe.

Oh, and I originally wanted to cut the cake into rounds and serve them like that but when I took out my circle cutters in 3 different sizes, I was inspired to make mini 3 tiered cakes. 

And they looked very cute. Definitely something I should do more often.

White Chocolate-Lime Cake

Adapted from About.com

190 g (1 1/2 cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

160 g (3/4 cup) sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons lime juice

175 ml (2/3 cup) buttermilk

5 tablespoons white chocolate cocoa powder

Glaze

130 g (1 cup) powdered sugar

lime juice

• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
• In another bowl, whisk together oil and sugar, add eggs, lime juice, and buttermilk.
• Fold in dry ingredients until just combined. Pour into prepared cake pan.
• Bake at 175°C (350°F) for about 20-25 minutes.
• Let cool completely and glaze.

My modifications:

I used oil instead of (the same amount of) butter. Cut down the flour and the sugar by 1/4 cup. Omitted the lime zest but doubled the juice. Replaced 1 cup of white chocolate chips with the white chocolate cocoa powder.

The taste:

Very citrussy. Not very chocolatey. Nothing out of the ordinary but yummy nonetheless.

What do you usually serve guests for dessert?

25*52 Double Chocolate Mud Cake

Chocoholics. Are most of them women?

Maybe. But my husband is definitely one as well.

Whenever I let him decide what I should bake, he says "chocolate cake".

So, let's try another recipe for chocolate cake, shall we?

A friend of mine has made this a while ago and told me how awesome it was. Let's see if we agree.

Double Chocolate Mud Cake

Adapted from Basic Baking

Cake

300 g (1 1/3 cups) butter

300 g (0.67 lb) dark chocolate

5 eggs

5 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

150 g (1 cup + 2 tablespoons) flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Filling and glaze

400 g (0.9 lb) heavy cream

400 g (0.9 lb) dark couverture chocolate

30 g (1/8 cup) butter

• Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Prepare springform pan but use cocoa powder instead of flour.
• Melt butter and dark chocolate for the cake dough. Whip eggs, sugar, and salt until foamy. Add flour and baking powder. Then add melted butter and chocolate. Pour into pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. Let cool completely (best over night).
• For the filling and glazing, melt cream and couverture chocolate. Divide into half and add butter to one half. Stir until melted. Let cool in the fridge over night.
• Cut cake in half lengthwise. Take top half off and set aside. Whip the chocolate cream half without the butter, then distribute evenly on the cake bottom half. Put top half on top, press slightly. Dress the outside of the cake with the cream-chocolate-butter glaze. Let cool for another 2 hours before serving.

My modifications:

None. I just wasn't really able to whip the cream-chocolate mix. So it wasn't very whipped but still pretty solid from all the chocolate.

The taste:

Expectations were pretty high. Maybe a bit too high?

Even though there is so much chocolate and butter in the cake, it tastes bland and dry, and has a very strange consistency. I really don't know if anything happened or if it's supposed to be like that, but I didn't really like it.

The filling and glaze taste alright but are not awesome either. 

This cakes just leaves me wondering. Wondering about how something so full of chocolate can actually be a big disappointment.

Maybe it turns out better when y'all make it? Who knows. Give it a try and let me know, okay?  
Has there been a recipe that disappointed you in the result? 

24*52 Apricot-Chocolate-Coconut-Crumble Pie

Fresh apricots. Yum. A big bowl of them were waiting to be eaten here.

But of course I rather turned them into some baked goodness.

I know I've been crumbling a lot on this blog but hey - you can never have enough crumbles in your life (at least not when they're the sweet, edible kind). Right?

 Apricot-Chocolate-Coconut-Crumble Pie

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Crust

1 pie crust (with 1 teaspoon sugar added)

Filling

35 (about 800 g or 1 3/4 lb) apricots

105 g (1/2 cup) sugar

55 g (1/2 cup) brown sugar

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch

60 g (1/3 cup) small chocolate chips

1/4 teaspoon salt

Crumbles

175 g (3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons) flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

115 g (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) shredded coconut

114 g (1 stick) butter, at room temperature and in pieces

80 g (1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons) brown sugar

• Prepare pie crust. Leave refrigerated for at least one hour.
• Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
• Cut apricot into halves, remove stone and cut 3 wedges from each half. Combine with the remaining filling ingredients (works best if you use your hands). Pour into pie crust.
• Knead together all ingredients for the crumbles. Crumble over apricots. (It is a lot of crumble dough and the apricots were doming up so for me it worked best to press the crumbles onto the apricots to prevent everything from crumbling down.)
• Bake for about 1 hour on a lower oven rack. Place foil over top after 25-30 minutes to prevent the crumbles from getting burnt.
• Cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

 My modifications:

I used my recipe for the crust. It's not very different from Martha Stewart's though.

I also added the chocolate chips to the filling because chocolate can't hurt.

I only baked it for 1 hour instead of 1 1/2 and that was totally enough.

The taste:

So very good! I like the chocolate in it but if you're sceptical you can also leave it out.

I expected to taste more of the coconut so maybe replacing a bit of the flour with more coconut would be an option but that's just an idea, so try at your own risk.

What's your favorite fruity pie?

23*52 Banana-Peanut Butter-Bacon Bread (or: A tribute to Elvis)

Brace yourselves. This post will reveal how my mind works sometimes.

From overripe bananas to Elvis.

I hope you can handle it.

"Could turn those overripe bananas into a banana bread. Haven't made one in a while.

Ooh, and add some of those yummy peanut butter chips.

Wait - bananas and peanut butter. Elvis. Let's add bacon.

Let's google banana peanut butter bacon bread."

And this is what I found:

Banana-Peanut Butter-Bacon Bread

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

10 slices bacon, chopped

360 g (2 1/2 cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg

120 g (2/3 cup) loosely packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

113 g (1/2 cup) butter, melted

85 g (1/3 cup) peanut butter

4 tablespoons bacon 'oil' from cooking the bacon

4 ripe bananas, mashed

80 ml (1/3 cup) milk

45 g (1/4 cup) peanut butter chips

• Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• Cook bacon in a skillet. When crispy, remove from skillet and let drain on paper towel. Leave the bacon 'oil' in the skillet for later.
• In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
• Whisk together egg and sugar until smooth. Add vanilla extract, butter, peanut butter, and bacon 'oil'. Then add banana mash and milk and mix until combined. Add dry ingredients. Fold in bacon and peanut butter chips.
• Pour batter into a prepared loaf pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting.

My modifications:

I added the peanut butter chips. And I had to use regular bacon (not thick cut) because you just don't get thick cut in Switzerland or Germany. And I used peanut puree which is just peanuts with no sugar or anything else added.

The taste:

You can't taste the bacon as much as I hoped you would. Maybe I would use a bit more next time (but not too much more). And I think I would try using just 2 cups of flour to make it bit more moist. It's not really dry but could still use a little less flour, I think. But it sure is very yummy!

Have you ever baked or cooked anything that is associated with a celebrity?

22*52 Lentil Pie

It was time for some savory baking again. Something special. Unusual.

And yes, I'm a bit brief today. Not your fault though...

Lentil Pie

Adapted from Die besten Quiches und Tartes

1  puff pastry dough (or alternatively 1 pie crust)

2 shallots or 4 small spring onions

2 tablespoons olive oil

100 g (3.5 oz) red or beluga lentils

200 ml (0.85 cup) vegetable broth

salt, pepper, ground cumin

2 eggs, beaten

cilantro (fresh or dried)

• Put the puff pastry dough in a quiche or springform pan and pull it up 2 cm (0.8 in) around the rim. Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F).
• Heat up olive oil and fry the finely chopped shallots or spring onions. Add lentils and broth, bring to a boil and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Let cool a bit.
• Mix the lentils with the eggs and coriander and pour onto puff pastry.
• Bake on a lower oven rack for about 30-40 minutes.

My modifications:

The original recipe calls for red lentils. It definitely looks nicer but I only had the black beluga lentils at home and they tasted very good as well. It just looks different.

The original recipe also calls for a frozen Mexican herb mix which I didn't get at my supermarket but adding ground cumin and cilantro will do the trick.

The biggest change I made is that the original recipe is topped with 4 smoked trout filets which I just omitted.

The taste:

Very good! Will definitely make it again, maybe next time in a muffin pan to make it a bit prettier and to get the filling to be a bit less flat. But nothing bad to say about the taste. Serve it with a mixed salad, a steak, or pan-fried mushrooms. Still good cold the next day so don't be afraid of left-overs...

Any unusual baking recipe you would like to share? Please do!