Delicious, little strawberry tartlettes with vanilla custard - Sarah Wiener

Different reasons have led to this post:

1. I had a punnet of strawberries that needed to be eaten
2. I haven't baked in over a week! 
3. A friend from France, who used to sit in the same office as us, is visiting our office and she doesn't get to try my baking too often but I know she likes my cakes
5. Since I'm moving to Australia in October I've made the decision to only take those cook books, that I actually use. 

Now that I've listed my very plausible reasons for this cake I have to admit that I only bought this book about two weeks ago but again I had a reason for buying this. Sarah Wiener, a chef from Vienna, now based in Berlin, used to be our neighbour and I think therefore she is a bit of a must-be-idol for me. And when I flicked through the book the food looked very yummy! So this one is definitely moving down under with me! Unfortunately, I think the book is only available in German so far.

Strawberry Meringue Cake - perfect for a hot summer day

The temperatures in Hamburg reached almost Australian levels today, I'm loving the heat! Finally a little bit of summer! This strawberry meringue cake is perfect for a hot summer's day. The combination of strawberry and cream is nothing new, but this cake always tastes really, really good!

My mother makes this cake for my sister's birthday every year, for some reason my sister usually manages to visit my parents shortly after her birthday to get her cake! I need to remember to do that for my next birthday too...

Green, green, green - Vanilla Cupcakes with green topping

This weekend I was invited to some friends' party which was themed "A hint of green". Thankfully Saint Peter was in a good mood and the weather was fairly good, as the party was supposed to happen in my friends' backyard and they were expecting over 100 guests! I offered my help to my friend H. who said cupcakes would be great as they always look so cute and are easy enough to eat.

Elbe Flood Cake Part 2: Cherry Cup-Cake

Since I did a post about the Elbe Flood Cake Part 1, there obvisouly had to be a part 2. And not only that, but the helpers also needed feeding on the second day, Sunday. 

This time there was also an extra little challenge, a power box located in our front yard was starting to get flooded too and a guy from the electricity company was on his way to my parents place to check it out. Usually they turn the power off pretty quickly in a situation like this, so we needed to act quick! 

This time I made a cup-cake, a recipe my mother used to make quite a lot when I was growing up. It's quick, easy and yummy. We changed it a little bit this time, added cherries and crumble instead of a layer of almonds and honey. 

Elbe Flood Cake Part 1: Apricot Crumble Cake

Some of you international people might have heard that parts of Europe, including 
Germany have been suffering under severe floods. I'm based in Hamburg but my parents live on a farm directly next to the Elbe river. 



The water level was rising for several days, until it reached its peak on Friday. All week we had all kept an eye on the levels and my parents seemed to be doing ok, given that they had the help of lots of people, firemen, army, SES, etc. However on Friday my parents said every helping hand would be good as it started to look critical. I arrived at my parents and it looked, well, wet. The backyard was flooded, there was a huge "lake" behind our house and the fields were flooded as well. On Saturday the groundwater had reached our basement which meant regular shoveling of water. 

Donna Hay's Rhubarb Dumplings

If you're looking for a quick and easy weeknight dessert then this will be perfect! This recipe combines two great things: A Donna Hay recipe and rhubarb. Rhubarb season is coming to an end in Germany but I still had a bunch of it lying in my fridge and I wanted to try something new. Last night I was looking through "Seasons" by Donna Hay and I came across this recipe.

It's part of Donna's winter section, as Australians seem to prefer to eat rhubarb in winter, anyway, I thought this can also be eaten in summer. Maybe not on a thirty degree hot day, but certainly on a German summer day. The vanilla dumpling tastes devine in combination with the rhubarb compote, you could probably also add some cream or ice cream but it tastes awesome just by itself!

Chocolate Caramel Tartlettes with Salt Flakes

My birthday was over a month ago and as I've told you before I made a big birthday spread at the office. One of my colleagues wasn' there and when she looked through my photos she suggested I should make the chocolate caramel tartlettes again.

Since I hadn't baked anything this weekend, I thought it was a great idea, plus this particular colleague deserves a treat! Another reason for making these is that I did promise to post recipes of the things I made for my birthday.