Homebaked. A different thing. J 

Here are the ingredients that you need—

500ml whipping cream

50g sugar

25g tapioca flour

vanilla extract

50g dark chocolate

for the filling

3 eggs

150g sugar

10g vanilla sugar

230g flour

4g baking powder

20g cocoa

120ml milk

70g butter

for the batter

+2 bananas

+butter and flour -> baking pan

First, make the filling.

Place the whipping cream, sugar, and tapioca flour (you can replace it with starch), mixed beforehand in a pan, on low heat. Stir from time to time, removing the pan from the heat after the cream has boiled. Then add the vanilla extract, then the chocolate pieces. Place the pan immediately in the fridge. This way, the chocolate will melt, but not completely, keeping its crunchiness.

Mix the eggs with the sugar well. Continue to incorporate, with the help of a wooden spoon, the vanilla sugar, flour, baking powder, cocoa, milk, and then the melted and cooled butter.

Pour the batter into a round mould that has been previously buttered and floured. Bake in the preheated oven at 180⁰C for 30 minutes.

Let the cake cool. Then, cut out a piece of the cake (leave approximately 2 cm from the edge). Scoop out pieces from the cut-out cake, crumble them and place them into a bowl.

Place the bananas cut into half on the bottom of the scooped-out cake.

Mix the cream and pour it on top of the bananas. Then, start making the molehill cake from the pieces scooped out from the cake. Let the cake sit in the fridge for at least one hour before cutting it and serving it.

500ml milk

100g sugar

1 cinnamon stick

50g butter 

100g semolina

3 eggs

+ cinnamon powder

6 years ago, when I shyly started to understand that I, too, could create desserts – on top of that, delicious ones! –, galatopita was one of the first cakes I made.

My fascination for Greek cuisine was the reason for trying this dessert out. It seemed easy and fast, with a spectacular result!

Pour the milk into a pan and place it on low heat, with the sugar and the cinnamon stick, until it starts boiling. At that point, remove the cinnamon stick by adding the butter and the semolina, mixing thoroughly. When bubbles form, remove the pan from the heat.

Add the whole eggs, one by one, mixing well.

When the final mix – a creamy one – is ready, pour it into a round mould. Mine is a silicone mould, so buttering and flouring it was not necessary.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes at 180⁰C. Then, open the oven door and let the cake cool for 10 minutes without removing it from the oven.

Cut triangular slices and serve them with cinnamon powder on top. That is if you like it. I am crazy about it!

Clafoutis... well, I only baked it once before, several years ago. I used kiwis and added some drops of marsala to the batter for some kick. Meanwhile, here’s a quicker version with sour cherries – I have a lot of things on my plate right now.

Ingredients—

250g pitted sour cherries

10g butter

2 tbsp semolina

3 (medium) eggs

210ml milk

a pinch of salt

3 tbsp sugar

175g flour (+extra flour -> baking pan)

a drop of vanilla extract

Marcel helped me pit the sour cherries using a metallic straw.

What next?

Melt the butter in the oven in a regular tart baking pan. Flour the pan, spread the cherries on it, and sprinkle the semolina on top of them.

Whisk the eggs, milk, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Add the flour and mix until you get a fine batter. Add the vanilla extract at the end.

Pour the mix over the sour cherries. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes at 180⁰C.

This dessert turned out so delicious that I ate a big slice and then had two more (ok, they were smaller!). I didn’t need whipped cream or powdered sugar, it was perfect as it was.

Baking pan: 34 x 24 cm | 12 slices

3-4 quinces

160ml water

100g sugar

20g butter

cinnamon

4 eggs

a pinch of salt

4 tbsp of sugar

4 teaspoons of walnut oil

6 tbsp of flour

5g baking powder

+60g whipping cream, 10g sugar -> 2 slices

There was a large crop of quinces this season. Extremely large. I still have quinces, go figure. :P

I am grateful for them, but they get spoiled too easily. Consequently, this cake was the solution!

Wash and clean the quinces; then, cut them into small pieces (Marcel helped me a lot to this end).

Add the pieces into a pan, together with the water and sugar. Let the mix boil on low heat. After 10 minutes, add the butter. 10 minutes later, add the cinnamon, and only remove the pan from the heat 5 minutes later.

Then, place the quinces in the baking pan lined with baking paper. This way, they will cool faster.

Separately, beat the egg whites and the salt until stiff. Add the sugar and the yolks – one by one – and continue mixing. In the end, add the walnut oil, the flour, and the baking powder.

Pour this mixture carefully over the quinces, to cover all the quince pieces.

Bake in the preheated oven, at 180⁰C, for 20 minutes.

Only a few minutes after taking the cake out of the oven, turn it upside-down.

You can serve the cake as such or with whipped cream – be careful, as it is truly addictive!

250g flour

a pinch of salt

25g butter (room temperature)

130ml water

1 tbsp of vinegar

+16 tbsp of butter (room temperature)

Filling:

4 apples

ground cinnamon

ground nutmeg

3 teaspoons of sugar

One evening over this past week, out of a sudden, Marcel said—

’Let’s bake an apple strudel!’

’Let’s!’ I replied. [I had never baked one, but I told myself that I’ll combine the Dobrujan pie sheets and the apple pie filling. It can’t go wrong!]

How to make the dough for the sheets? Mix the flour, salt, butter at room temperature, water, and vinegar. Knead and split the dough into 6 equal parts. Roll them as thinly as you can (20x10cm). Brush 1 tbsp of butter onto each sheet before placing another sheet on top (I used 3 sheets for each strudel).

Wash and cut the apples into 4 (I didn’t remove their peel) and then crush them in a blender or cut them into small pieces. Mix in the cinnamon and the nutmeg (as much as you like) and add the sugar.  

Spread the apple filling at the base of the last sheet and then roll. Close the ends (I twist them like candy paper) and stick the sheets where they overlap. Brush 2 tbsp of butter and slit the top every 3 cm. Repeat for the second strudel. Place the two strudels in a wide baking pan, on baking parchment.  

Bake at 200°C, in the preheated oven, for 25 minutes. Take the baking pan out of the oven and brush 3 extra tbsp of butter onto each strudel. Then, leave the strudels in the oven for 5 more minutes.  

You know the saying that involves an apple and a doctor, right? J

For the filling:

300g ricotta (or urdă)

120g sugar

For the cake layers:

3 eggs

100g sugar

200g blackberries + blackberries to put on top

40g butter (at room temperature)

1 sachet vanilla sugar

280g flour

½ sachet baking powder

At first, mix the ricotta (or urda) with the sugar and let it rest in the fridge while preparing the cake batter.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until they become fluffy. Add the blended blackberries, the butter, the vanilla sugar, the flour, and the baking powder. 

Stir with a wooden spoon and pour into a round baking pan (diametre: 20cm) with a dettachable bottom. Butter and flour the upper part, pin some parchment paper to the base.

Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, at 190°C, and let the actual cake cool. Marcel helped me cut it in half. I used two-thirds of the filling to sandwich the two cake layers and one third to cover the cake... and placed the extra blackberries on top.

...and I got such a nice colour... and the cake is truly blackberry-flavoured! J

Tart mould, 29 cm

235g flour (+flour for the mould)

1/2 sachet baking powder

150g sugar

a pinch of salt

450g ricotta (or urdă)

zest from half a lemon

a drop of vanilla extract

3 eggs

85g butter (at room temperature or melted)

30g sour cream

250g strawberries

4 rhubarb stalks (+3 tbsp brown sugar)

I’ve rediscovered ricotta this year and I use it in my bakes as much as I can. Because it’s still rhubarb and strawberry season, this cake is fresh and it’s wonderful on a summer’s night. And it’s so easy to make! J

First, clean the rhubarb (I cut the stalks into pieces and placed them in a bowl, sprinkling brown sugar on top of them and I let them sit for half an hour) and the strawberries (I suggest you cut them into 4).

Mix the dry ingredients – the flour, the baking powder, the sugar, and the salt – and the wet ones – the ricotta, the lemon zest, the vanilla extract, and the whole eggs –separately. Then, pour the wet mix into the dry mix. When the batter is homogenous, add the butter and the sour cream. Finally, mix in two-thirds of the strawberry and rhubarb pieces.

In the end, place the strawberry and rhubarb pieces left on top of the cake.

Bake the cake in the preheated oven (I chose a tart mould, which I buttered and floured) for 40 minutes, at 180°C.

Enjoy summer! ☼

P.S. Store the pieces that are left in the refrigerator (they keep well for 2-3 days).

Makes 10

Crust

150g flour

80g (ground) walnut

50g sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar

a dash of cinnamon

a dash of nutmeg

a dash of orange zest

70g (room temperature) butter

1 (small) egg

Filling

1 (medium ~ 150g) parsnip

100g sour cream, 25% fat content

1 egg

vanilla extract

60g sugar

1 tbsp flour

+flour & butter -> moulds

+cinnamon to decorate

About two years ago, when I really started baking, I was telling myself ‘if I nail this parsnip tart, I’ll open a sweet shop’. I nailed it then (I love parsnip – both in sweet dishes and savoury ones and I believe it’s underrated), I nailed the parsnip tartlets earlier today (although I did change the recipe a bit). Do you want to try them out?  

Start with the parsnip; clean it and cut it into 4 and start boiling it (it will take 30-40’). [You may meanwhile go through all the other steps. J]

Mix the flour, walnut, sugar, vanilla sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and the orange zest. Rub in the butter; knead well. Add the egg and knead some more. Shape into a ball, wrap it in plastic film and let it sit in the fridge for 15 minutes. 

When the parsnip is tender, blend it and let it cool. Mix the sour cream with the egg; add the vanilla extract, the sugar, the flour, and the blended parsnip.

 

Butter and flour the moulds and then split the dough and shape it onto the moulds (I used 6 x 8 cm moulds and 4 x 10 cm moulds). Add the filling.

Bake the tartlets in the preheated oven, at 150°C, for 20 minutes. When they have cooled, remove them from the moulds.

I sprinkle cinnamon on top of the tartlets and I savour them. The taste reminds me of how I usually eat pastéis de Belém.