bake – aus dem Herzen einer Mama

a trip around the sun – Luna Jolie is turning one! I can’t believe that my beautiful daughter already turns one in couple of days. and I also can’t believe in what a crazy world she’s growing up!

I thought about not mentioning the circumstances we live in right now but I think it would be foolish to not at least speak about it for a little while in this post. so… Corona hit us – not us as a familiy in particular – but the whole bloody world! as I write this post we are in week three of self isolation and home office – and not gonna lie I kind of wish we were over this already. being trapped inside as an adult is one thing but being trapped inside with an (almost) one year old is a whole other story ngl! we try our best to keep us entertained, stay positive, and get through this as a family ❤

anyway… Luna was born on the 14th April 2019 which means we’ll celebrate her birthday in lockdown. I know I’m definitely more upset than she is, because she doesn’t know anything about celebrations – but I do and that really upsets me! BUUUT I just thought – screw it! these days no day or any day is a day to celebrate – and you know I’m a „any-day-is-a-day-to-celebrate“ kind of girl. so I tried to make Luna a special birthday cake!

I’m lucky enough to work with Dr. Oetker on this post – I’ve been working with them a few times and it has always been a huge pleasure to do so. their staff is brilliant and they are absolutely smashing it with their products! I’d even say there are no better baking products in Switzerland than the Dr. Oetker ones.

Dr. Oetker has just launched their new decor fondants: they are now available in four different colours with a bigger amount of fondant (they already had coloured decor fondants but only in assorted package with smaller amounts of fondant). their fondants are vegan and free from palmoil > which is awesome! the fondant is super easy to work with and the colours are lovely.

they also have a new couverture – it’s crispy because of the little waffle pieces in it – absolutely delightful! I had a bit of a struggle to keep it nice and even but I think that’s just part of the crispyness…

as you guys know by now I’m a huge fan of the universe – I love to learn new things about the planets, the suns (is that really the plural of sun?), our moon or just anything really. so we decorated her room with little pictures of our solar system, rocket fairy lights and many more universe related things. and that’s why I thought it would be nice to have something similar for her first birthday. now I know a lot of you will say „but she’s a giiiiiirl“ why is the cake in blue tones? because we live in 2020 and I kinda liked the blue more with this topic – et voilà.

long story short – here’s my recipe for the most delicious chocolate cake you’ll ever eat (if I do say so myself…)

CHOCOLATE CAKE
200g butter
220g sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp Dr. Oetker Vanilla Paste
200g flour
2 tsps Dr. Oekter baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
100g ground almonds
200g dark chocolate
100g milk chocolate
180g greek yoghurt

beat together sugar and butter for about 3 minutes with a kitchen machine, then add one egg after the other plus the vanilla paste and beat for another 2 minutes.

melt the chocolate over a simmering pot of water (make sure the chocolate doesn’t touch the water), let it cool for a bit then add it to the butter/sugar/egg batter. whisk until well combined.

sift all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and almonds) together, whisk and add it – one spoon after the other – to the wet ingredients. make sure to not over whisk this – only until everything is just combined.

when everything is combined, stir in the greek yoghurt with a spatula and distribute the batter in your cake tins (I used 3 ø and 2 ø tins). bake the smaller tins for 20 minutes and the lager ones for 30 minutes in the preheated oven at 200°C.

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM
400g butter, room temperature
600g powdered sugar
1.5 tsp Dr. Oetker Vanilla Paste

mix the butter for about 4 minutes until light and fluffy. add the sugar and vanilla paste one spoon at a time and mix for another 4-6 minutes.

make sure your cake is completely chilled before you layer the cakes with your buttercream inbetween. to decorate the cake I used the Dr. Oetker fondant, some lovely Dr. Oetker sprinkles and the crispy couverture I already told you about.

how are you coping in times like these and what’s your favourite recipe? I’d love to hear from you ❤

stay safe & stay home!
Maruschka x

this post is kindly sponsored by Dr. Oetker Switzerland.

14. März 202014. März 2020

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Happy Pi Day

it’s march the 14th – 3.14 – HAPPY PI DAY EVERYBODY!
as you know I’m a big fan of celebrating everything and so I didn’t want to miss the occasion of baking some delicious pies for today. I made one sweet and one savoury one aaaand the savoury one isn’t like a super traditional pie with crust etc., it’s a Sheppards Pie with mash and mince – delightful when it’s dark and cold outside ❤

SHEPPARDS PIE

Mash
1kg potatoes, cubed
50g butter
1.5dl milk
1tsp „Kartoffel Allrounder“ from Just Spices
(or you can just use some salt, pepper, and nutmeg)

Boil the potatoes in salted water for about 20 minutes. Pour off the water, put the milk, butter, and spices in the pot. Add the potatoes when the butter has melted and mash everything.

Mince
300g minced meat (I always use beef)
2 small onions
3 carrots
1 small can corn
2tsp „Hackfleisch Gewürz“ from Just Spices
(or any other meat spices you like)
1.5dl white wine
gravy paste (I used this one)
150g peas

Fry the meat, onions, carrots, and corn in some butter. Add the spices and let everything fry for a few minutes. Deglaze it with white wine and add the gravy paste. When everything is almost ready, add the peas and transfer it to an ovenproof dish.

Add the mash and spread it evenly on the mince – you can decorate the mash if you like, I just draw some fork lines. Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes – et voilà, Sheppards Pie à la Maruschka done!

I have to admit that I was a liiiittle lazy for my sweet pie – I bought the crust dough. but when life is a little busy (and we all know it is for most of the time) it’s nice if one can fall back on things like that. I bought the „Dinkelkuchenteig“ from Migros and I have to say it’s absolutely delightful!

CHERRY PIE

2 Dinkelkuchenteig from Migros (or any other pie crust)
100g sugar
60g butter
2 eggs
50g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
450g cherries, frozen

Mix sugar and butter with your whisk attachment until smooth, add in one egg at a time, then add the cream cheese. Add in your cherries with a spatula. Put your first crust in the tin (with parchment paper) then pour the mixture in and spread out evenly. you can decorate your second crust however you like – I just cut out a candy with my cookie cutter – but as I said, I was a little lazy this day…
bake at 200°C for about 40 minutes – et voilà Cherry Pie à la Maruschka done!

let me know what’s your favourite pie – I’d love to hear from you ❤

Maruschka x

6. Oktober 20196. Oktober 2019

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TARTE-TATIN: 3 ways

as by now, you all will know that I flippin love autumn. and one of my favourite things to do in autumn is to bake ❤ I love the smell of cinnamon in our house and obviously I’m always in for a piece of cake ooooor, what lately has become a slight obsession: a TARTE-TATIN!

so I tried out a bunch of different types of Tarte-Tatin and created three recipes that I liked the most for you guys. we have one savoury and two sweet ones. two of them are made with pre-made dough from the supermarket and one is homemade.

BANANA TARTE-TATIN
so let’s get started with the first sweet one. this one is made with puff pastry – I didn’t do it from scratch (because you know, I’m too busy and a little too lazy for that). this recipe is so easy, you can totally make it when you have unexpected guests arriving in a few minutes. so here’s what you need:

30g sugar
30g butter
4 bananas
2 tbsp liqueur (I used whisky liqueur from a local brewery called Rugenbräu)
1 round puff pastry

preheat your oven to 220°C and line a tart tin with baking paper on the bottom and butter on the sides. dispense your sugar and the butter cubes evenly in the tin an put it in the oven for about 10-12 minutes (until fully dissolved). take it out, add the liqueur and then dispense your bananas evenly. place the dough on top, then put it in the oven for another 15 minutes or until golden brown – flip it, et voilà here’s your Banana Tarte-Tatin done. Serve it when still warm – I like it the most with vanilla ice cream.

TOMATO & ONION TARTE-TATIN

my second recipe is a savoury one and perfect as a starter served with a little salad. here’s what you need:

30g sugar
30g butter
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
500g cherry tomatoes
4 onions
1 round whole-grain pastry

preheat your oven to 220°C and line a tart tin with baking paper on the bottom and butter on the sides. dispense your sugar and the butter cubes evenly in the tin an put it in the oven for about 10-12 minutes (until fully dissolved). take it out, add the balsamic vinegar and then dispense your onions and tomatoes evenly. place the dough on top, then put it in the oven for another 15 minutes or until golden brown – flip it, et voilà here’s your Tomato & Onion Tarte-Tatin done.

PLUM TARTE-TATIN

for my last recipe, I made the dough from scratch and it’s actually a bit more on the cakey side than a traditional tart. but I still think it’s delicious and counts as Tarte-Tatin because it’s baked the other way round. so here’s what you need:

40g sugar
30g butter
500g plums, halved (I used frozen ones)
FOR THE BATTER:
125g butter
90g sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla paste from Dr. Oetker
2 eggs
juice and zest of one lemon
1dl milk
200g flour
1 tsp. baking powder

preheat your oven to 220°C and line a tart tin with baking paper. dispense your sugar and the butter cubes evenly in the tin an put it in the oven for about 10-12 minutes (until fully dissolved).

in the meantime mix your butter with sugar for about 2 minutes, then add salt, vanilla paste, and one egg after the other and mix until combined. add all the other wet ingredients (lemon and milk) and whisk all together. don’t worry if your batter looks a little shite at this state – once you add the flour and baking powder it will be fine.

place your plums on the dissolved sugar-butter mixture, then add your batter and put it in the oven for another 30 minutes. when I tested the recipe I took it out a little too early but I only noticed it when the cake was out of the tin > doesn’t matter; just put it on a normal baking tray and bake a little longer. and that’s your PLUM TARTE-TATIN done!

so these are my favourite Tarte-Tatin recipes but I’m sure there is a lot more to try out and love. if you bake one of my recipes don’t forget to tag me in your photos.

what’s your favourite thing to do in autumn? I’d love to hear from you ❤

Maruschka x

26. Mai 201926. Mai 2019

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chocolate chunk muffins ¦ Dr. Oetker

the weather in Switzerland was – I really tried to say it in a nice way, but let’s just be honest – it was crap! it’s already the end of May and we didn’t really have a proper sunny and warm day for the last couple of weeks. and what do you do when it pours outside? you bake!

if you follow me for a while you will know that I really like chocolate! therefore I’m always up for a new recipe that includes my fave baking ingredient. and a while ago Dr. Oetker kindly sent me a goodie bag with some of their newest treats – including some yummie white chocolate chunks.

as a new mom my spare time is quite limited – hence I wanted to bake something quick but no less delicious. so I did some recipe testing and finally found the perfect mixture of a soft, chewy and chocolaty muffin – and who doesn’t love a chocolate chunk muffin?

what you need:
250g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
150g butter
170g sugar
2 eggs
300g dark chocolate
180g sour cream
100g white chocolate chunks

what to do:
prepare a muffin tin with 12 paper cups. mix together flour, baking powder and salt and set side. whisk soft butter with sugar for about two minutes until soft and fluffy. add in the eggs one at a time. melt your dark chocolate (I always just pour hot water over it, leave it for 3-4 minutes and then drain the water), let it cool for a bit and add it to your butter/sugar mixture. add in the flour mixture – I did it in three smaller portions. when you’ve got a nice and smooth batter, add in the sour cream with a spatula followed by the chocolate chunks. distribute the batter in the prepared baking tin and bake them for about 22 minutes at 190°C.

I hope you’ll enjoy baking and most of all eating these muffins – I definitely did. if you bake them, don’t forget to tag me in your photos.

what is your favourite baking ingredient? I’d love to hear from you ❤

Maruschka x

18. März 20185. Februar 2019

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why I can’t wait for Easter ¦ Dr. Oetker

Easter is my favourite holiday straight after Christmas! I actually have no clue how Swiss people celebrate Easter normally, much less do I know about other countries.

but Easter in our family is always special – there are several reasons why:

it’s the first time in the year when our whole family (and that means grandparents, parents, siblings, aunties, uncles, cousins etc.) comes together
there is A LOT of super yummie food
easter prezzies from our grandma
everyone plays Baseball in the field
and more food

this year I’m even more excited because my little sister will finally be back from London where she stayed the last couple of months. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

I guess at this point everyone still wonders why the heck we play Baseball on Easter. and honestly – I don’t know either. a couple of years ago my dad and uncle bought themselves a baseball bat and they wanted to try it in spring. so I think Easter was pretty much the first day without snow covering the field, so they tried to punch the ball a few times. it didn’t take long until the whole family ran across the field and played something like baseball (we have our own rules – such as „it’s totally fine to stop someone who almost makes a homerun by pushing him“). ever since we played it the first time, we play it on Easter – I LOVE IT!

let’s talk about food! right… every family member (that is fairly talented in cooking or baking) brings a dish or something to drink – this is mostly because we don’t want our grandma to be bothered with EVERYTHING. therefore we’ve got, as I already mentioned, A LOT of food! the buffet is absolutely smashing and I love the fact that everyone has their special dish or surprises with a new creation.

a couple of days ago Dr. Oetker provided me with some lovely new products for my baking section and I instantly thought about my Easter baking plans:

this year I wanted to make something traditional flavoured, like vanilla or chocolate, but I was a bit worried about the „excitement“. hence why I decided to make the decoration a little different than just a normal loaf cake and I am SUPER HAPPY with the result ❤ btw this is just the experiment cake – I’m definitely gonna make a fresh one on Easter.

the Dr. Oetker vanilla paste is extremly easy to dose and the flavour is just heavenly > an absolute winner! the recipe is quite simple aswell:

Chocolate bunnies

200g dark chocolate
125g butter
150g sugar
1/2tsp salt
4 eggs
200g grated almonds
4 EL Epifin from Dr. Oetker (corn starch)

Pour the chocolate in a large bowl with water, leave to stand for about 5 minutes. Drain off water carefully, stir chocolate until smooth. Add butter, sugar, salt and eggs and stirr for approx. 5 min – until fluffy. Mix in almonds and corn starch and give it into the prepared baking tray. Bake for about 55 minutes in the preheated oven at 180°C. Take the cake out and let it cool down completely. Cut the cake in „normal“ pieces, then take the cookie cutter and cut out the chocolate bunnies.

Vanilla cake

200g butter
200g sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste from Dr. Oetker
250g flour
1,5 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk

Mix the warm butter with the sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Add the eggs (one at a time) and mix well. Sieve in the flour and baking powder, add the milk and mix it until the batter is smooth. Give half of the batter in the prepared baking tray, then add the chocolate bunnies in a row and cover them up with the rest of the vanilla batter. Bake for about 40 minutes in the preheated oven at 180°C.

For the decoration I went for a simple easternest with shredded wheat and sugar eggs. So basically you just want to mix the shredded wheat with chocolate. To make the nests a bit more even and cupped I formed them with an egg cup and this was super easy aswell.

what are your traditions to do on Easter? do you have a favourite recipe? I’d love to hear from you!

Maruschka x

20. November 20175. Februar 2019

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new york cheesecake

in early 2017 my soon-to-be-husband and me travelled to the big apple. I’ve never been to a city this big and it had my heart from the moment we left the taxi in the middle of Manhatten. it was stunning – loud, dazzling, crowded but somehow a beautiful place to be.

we planned loads of things to do, see and eat in New York – but most of all I wanted to try a REAL New York cheesecake! luckily the Manhatten „Restaurant Week“ just began when we arrived. so I booked a table in a -very- chic restaurant in central Manhatten to try some upper-class food for 50% off (isn’t it amazing???).

the starter and the main course were delicious – but the cheesecake I had for dessert was just delightful! never have I tasted something better than this!

so -obvioulsy- when we were back home I tried to find the perfect recipe and a loooooong journey began. there are SO many recipes in the internet but a lot of them were no-bake-recipes or were just not as good as the one I had in New York.

so I baked loads of them until I finally found the PERFECT one! I found it on the website www.stilpalast.ch and made some little changes in the recipe.

base:

230g shortbread
110g butter, melted
filling:

900g Philadelphia (or any cream cheese you like)
250g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
70g flour
1 lemon, juice
600g crème fraiche
8 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract

preheat oven to 175°C and grease the bottom of a 26cm cake tin with butter and a little flour.

crumble the shortbread and mix it with the butter. press it on the bottom of the cake thin and bake it for about 15 minutes. after that, increase the oven to 220°C.

mix together the cream cheese, sugar, flour and lemon until smooth. add crème fraiche, eggs and vanilla extract and mix until everything is evenly stirred.

grease the frame of the cake tin and then spread the batter in it. let it bake for about 14 minutes at 220°C then lower the temperature to 90° and bake for another 60 minutes. to avoid the cheesecake to fall down let it sit in the closed oven for about 2 hours (make sure the oven is turned off). then take it out and let it cool for another 4 hours in the fridge.

9. Oktober 20175. Februar 2019

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apple blondies

finally you’re here again – autumn we all missed you so bad!

autumn is my absolute favorite season of the year (except christmas, but that’s – unfortunately – not really a season)! i love all about it; cosy early evenings with candles and a little fire in the chimney burning, warm jumpers, colourful trees everywhere and mostly i love the infinite choice of autumn baking recipes!

i’m always quite early in celebrating autumn and it’s baking… so one lazy sunday in early september my sister and me decided to have a little bake off.

my friends and family say my chocolate fudge brownies are some of the best they’ve ever had – so i wanted to give blondies a try. and as autumn is all about apples i decided to upgrade my recipe with them!

the recipe is so so easy and the result so so good – everyone loved it!

Ingredients

120g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 tbsp lemon juice
100g caster sugar
100g brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
175g plain flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line an 20x20cm square pan.
2. Place chopped apple into a bowl and pour over lemon juice.
3. Place sugars, egg and vanilla extract into a large bowl and whisk until well combined and smooth.
4. Gradually pour in the melted butter, whisking while you add it in, until the mixture is smooth and pale.
5. Add in the baking powder, salt, cinnamon and flour, then take 2tbsp of flour out and place in the bowl with the apples. Leave to one side, whilst you whisk together the flour with your wet blondie mix.
6. Once thick and well combined, tip in the coated apples and fold in with a spoon until all the apples are coated in blondie mix.
7. Tip into your prepared pan and smooth over with a spoon.
8. Place in the oven for 24-27 minutes until the edges are lightly brown and the centre is a golden colour.
9. Leave to cool in the pan for 1 hour before transferring to a chopping board to cool completely.
10. Once cool, slice into 9-12 pieces and keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for three to four days.

Schlagwort: bake

Luna is turning one ¦ Dr. Oetker

Happy Pi Day

TARTE-TATIN: 3 ways

chocolate chunk muffins ¦ Dr. Oetker

why I can’t wait for Easter ¦ Dr. Oetker

new york cheesecake

apple blondies

Ingredients