Strawberry jam

Finally, I managed to cook my own jam! Last summer I bought some beautiful jars but never found time. Until the last weekend. Our local grocery shop was offering big packages of strawberries and I bought two of them. One part I used for the strawberry sponge cake (recipe here) and the second part ended up in this wonderful, chemistry-free jam! Another plus is - its really not rocket science :) After tasting this jam, you will never ever buy it in a shop!! :) I guarantee that :) 

Strawberry sponge cake

There were first good-looking and -smelling strawberries in the shop so I though it might be the right time for the traditional sponge cake of my mum. I swear that there is not simpler cake to bake than this one! And there are no limits in terms of fruit, choose another type or mix everything possible together. 

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups of flour 
• 1.25 cup of milk
• 1 cup of sugar
• 0.5 cup of oil
• 1 package of baking powder 
• 1 package of vanilla sugar 
• 300 - 500g strawberries (or other fruit)

Directions

Mix all the ingredients together (flour, sugar, milk, oil, baking powder and vanilla sugar) and keep mixing till everything is well combined. Pour the mixture into a round baking pan (can be also squared) and throw on the top the fruits cut into small pieces (try to push them also inside). Bake at 180°C for around 45-60 min, doublecheck with a toothpick whether the cake is dry.

Carrot Cake

Its been long time since my last recipe, hope you didnt miss me too much :) Here I am again, with the most delicious, healthy and not-too-dry carrot cake recipe. If you try this one, you will never want to eat anything else in your life :) 

Ingredients

• 6 middle-size carrots
• 1,5 cups of spelt flour (you can use normal flour as well)
• 0.5 cup of brown sugar
• 2 handfuls of chopped hazelnuts and pistachios
• 4 eggs
• 1 bag of baking powder
• 3 teasppoons of cinnamon
• 0.5 cup of almond milk (can be normal milk)

• 200g of creamcheese/curd cheese/mascarpone (something solid)
• 1 bag of vanilla sugar
• 2 spoons of brown sugar

Directions

Mix in a bowl the eggs with sugar. Add the dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, cinnamon and mix well. Add the carrots and nut, and in the end also milk. Mix well. Preheat your oven at 180°C, and put your mixture into the cake round form. Bake for at least 1 hour, check the cake with a tooth-pick, if its dry enough. Wait until it cools down. Prepare the white cream in the meantime by mixing the creamcheese with sugar and vanilla sugar. Cut the cake horizontally into two halves and spread the white cream in lower part, cover it with the other half and spread the cream on the top as well. Keep it in the fridge for a while. 

Croquant aux amandes

I spent last weekend in France visiting my new family in law and we ate and drank a lot!! As always :) But, I did not forget about my blog and I have for you two new recipes, directly from sunny Provence! Today, I am going to show you how to prepare so called "Croquant aux amandes" (english vocabulary says it should be "crunchy with almonds". Very simple and an excellent extra touch to serve with coffee or tea. 

Coconut Treat

OK, for this one, you need to love coconut, because there is almost nothing else :-) But on the other hand, there are many ways of serving, you can just keep it in your fridge and eat it, if you feel like having a sweet treat and the best part, there is no sugar, no butter, no flour, so kind of healthy :)

And here is our version for breakfast - with strawberry marmelade and kiwis!

Coconut Cupcakes

I went to my first baby shower on Saturday and for this occasion I prepared these cute coconut cupcakes. It is going to be a baby girl, so it had to be pinky! I used my pink polka dot baking cups and I found these cute pink feet which made of rice paper and they are edible! (only bit complicated to cut out) Cupcakes are delicious also because they have extra secret filling which makes them moist. 

Zopf (Vianočka)

This weekend was again quite successful in terms of baking and I tried to prepare the traditional "Zopf". Sorry for the German word, but I seriously have no idea, what would be the english word and since it is typical in German speaking countries, I decided to leave it this way. Here in Switzerland, it is typically salty but in Slovakia, is more in the sweet direction. Tastes great just with butter (and jam) and is typical breakfast food. 

Apple & Cinnamon Cheesecake

I really like seasonal cooking/baking and always try to buy fruits and vegetables which are typical for every season. Anyway, tomatoes that you buy in winter do not taste at all... And since this is the season of apples, I was looking for a nice cheesecake recipe. I found my inspiration on my favourite foodblog - dulce de leche and here is my version: 

Healthy crêpes

The last weekend was full of new recipes and meals. As you probably noticed, the spelt flour is recently very 'in' and everyone says it's supposed to be healthier than normal flour. So I bought one 1kg and here is my version of healthy crêpes: 

Healthy chocolate pudding

This is a perfect dessert in case you are trying to loose some extra weight (my personal opinion - dont be silly, even Bruno Mars is singing "Cause you are amazing just the way you are.." :) ). But back to business, this is seriously very healthy and sweet at the same time :) I did not believe firstly, it could be good, but give it a try, I loved it and I will prepare it more often! :)

Raspberry cake

I just love to bake (much more than cooking) so I am bringing to you today again something sweet :) This is super simple summer dessert, very refreshing, and you can use of course different type of fruits, or even mix fruits, really do as you like :)

Summer fruit salad

You know that I am a big fan of simple recipes and last week I had at home some fruits that I needed to finish before leaving for the weekend so I came up with this quick recipe for refreshing summer fruit salad. This amount will be enough for 4 people or even more. It combines very nicely with a chocolate cake :)

Homemade Panna Cotta with Nectarine Compote

I just love simple, fast and yet delicious desserts and this panna cotta is one of them. I would never think that it is actually that easy. It is perfect for summer, not too sweet and perfectly refreshing. I used the little jars I got here in Switzerland for serving and transporting. If you decorate them little bit, you can even give your panna cotta to someone as a gift! :)

Chocolate brownie

Credit for this recipe goes to my husband, because he is the Brownie-master in our household :) It is unfortunately true, that I do more cooking/baking that him, but this brownie is his masterpiece and it is delicious (and simple) :) You definitely have to try it, although I dont recommend it if you want to loose some weight... :) But come on, we live just once! 

Summer cake

This time, it is going to be something sweet again :) I love baking much more than cooking and during the last weekend I created this wonderful summer cake. Use any kind of berries you have currently at home. I needed to have something quick, so I used the ready-made shortpastry. Otherwise, I do it myself and you can find the recipe here: 

http://fait-a-la-maison.blogspot.ch/2014/04/lemon-tart.html

Lemon Tart

Today, I am going to introduce you, my dear readers, one of the most favourite tarts in our household. It is refreshing, easy and not too sweet. It is an ideal summer dessert. You will need a tart pan of 24 or 27 cm diameter. I am using one made of glass, so you can directly serve the tart in it. It is not really quick recipe, count at least 1.5 hours. 

Heavenly chocolate cupcakes

My sister was visiting me and her boyfriend was supposed to join us as well. I haven’t met him before and my sister was telling me how much he likes to eat. We were thinking that we should probably prepare something special. So my hunt for the best chocolate cupcake started. I found couple of recipes and here is what I mixed together. The result were these amazing cupcakes, really sweet but FANTASTIC! If you love chocolate, you will love these cupcakes! Trust me! This recipes will make you around 32-35 pieces!

Strawberries marinated in red wine

This is a recipe from French grandma of my fiancee, it is very very simple and very tasty. It's perfect in case you bought strawberries which are not exactly sweet and it's more original than serving just cut strawberries. It will take you around 10 minutes and count on 2-3 hours for marinating in the fridge. This serves easily 4 people. I recommend to serve it with vanilla ice-cream!