Grandma's Classics: rhubarb cake

Grandma's recipe is by far the quickest and easiest way to turn these tart beauties into something truly enjoyable.
All it takes are a few rhubarb stems, eggs, flour, butter, sugar and 30 minutes bake...

Grandma's rhubarb cake

15-20 rhubarb stems

250g butter
200g sugar
4 eggs
400g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F).

All ingredients should have room temperature to combine well.

Butter the bottom of your baking mold and dust it with flour; remove any excess of flour.
Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla on highest speed until creamy, 4 to 5 minutes, in a bowl with the paddle attachment of the mixer.

Turn the mixer to medium-low speed and add one egg after another, beating for about a minute after each egg.

Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add the flour together with the baking powder.  Don't overbeat, to prevent the batter getting chewy.

Transfer the batter to the baking mold, smooth with a spatula and arrange the rhubarb stems on top. Until this point it's the exact "Grandma" version. No extravaganzas as you already know, Grandma kept it honest and simple.

I experimented with precooking the rhubarb stems in a mixture of butter, sugar and lemon juice (one tablespoon each) for a few minutes. Don't let the rhubarb turn soft, just let it adopt the caramel flavour.  Heaven!

Bake at 180°C (360°F) for about 30 minutes or until the rims turn golden brown.

Before serving sprinkle with icing sugar.

Enjoy it with a good cup of coffee!

Grandma in her twenties

strawberry fever

clafoutis aux mirabelles

Yesterday we picked the first sun-kissed mirabelles from the tree. Although the season has not yet started I love to enjoy the first bright yellow, but still firm and slightly acidic mirabelles in a clafoutis, sooo good!

Clafoutis aux mirabelles

1 tablespoon butter, softened

5 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups milk

2 tablespoons mirabelle brandy (kirsch or rum are fine)

5 eggs

3/4 cups flour

a pinch of sea salt

3 cups mirabelles, pitted

Distribute the mirabelles evenly in a buttered baking dish.

Combine butter, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, brandy and vanilla in a blender. Blend for a few seconds, add the flour and blend again until smooth. Pour the mixture over the mirabelles.

Bake at 180°C for 35 minutes, until golden brown.  It's fine if the clafoutis is still moist inside. 

Sprinkle with dusting powder. Enjoy!

fruity

I'm looking forward to my super fruity breakfast tomorrow morning: pink grapefruit, pears, banana, apple, flaxseed oil, almonds, goji berries( still to be soaked) and chia seeds. All mixed in a blender and poured over a bowl of white rice. A cup of light green tea would match perfectly, what do you think?

fruit and juices

   1.   The more colourful the more energizing!

    2.    Since in winter there is little choice of seasonal vegetable and greens, salads often turn out
           boring and without enough variation due to the lack of fresh ingredients. Adding some cooked
           vegetable to your salad is a great way to make it a bit richer, but I want to suggest you another  
           delicious alternative: add fruit to your salad!

          Our favourite pairings added to our usual salads:
          pear + rucola
          date + tomato
          pomegranate + lettuce
          orange + fennel
          apple + cabbage

    3.   During the night soak dry goji berries in water. In the morning drink the goji water and spread
          the berries over your muesli.
   

       
    4.   Combine fruit and leafy greens in your smoothies.  Here is my sunshine smoothie for you!

    5.   A three day raw juice and water fast is a great way to detox. It gives your body a fresh start
          without depriving yourself of essential nutrients.
          

October, 16th

Julie's clafouti

A clafouti is a great summer cake. It has no crumbly, greasy "floor", but is juicy and moist and fruity and still doesn't fall apart. Julie, originally from France, to be precise la Bretagne, makes the best clafouti I have ever tried. Of course I had to get the recipe and her permission to pass it on to my dear readers!

Julie's clafouti


150g flour
4 eggs
80-100g sugar
80g melted butter
1/2l lukewarm milk

300g fruit (cherries, plums, blueberries....)

Butter your baking dish.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Blend eggs and sugar.
Add melted butter, flour, milk in that order.
Spread out fruit on the baking dish.
Pour the batter over the fruit.
Bake for approx. 35mins.
Dust with powdered sugar.

Serve cold or warm.

Have a wonderful weekend!

the easiest Tarte Tatin (sort of) ever

Are you already bored with my apple recipes?  No?

This short little recipe is a must if you love the combination of caramel and fruit and if you've not too much time to spend on baking. It's inspired by  the genuine Tarte Tatin, by a recipe I stumbled upon in La Cazuela Vegana and by David Lebovitz's Upside Down Cake.

You simply need:

3 tbs butter
100g sugar
4-6 apples
juice of 1/2 lemon

frozen puff pastry

1.layer
Melt the butter in a cake pan, add the sugar and cook while stirring until the sugar is melted and begins to bubble. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. layer
Peel and slice the apples, sprinkle with lemon juice and arrange them spiralwise on the 1. layer.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

3.layer:
Top the apples with a layer of puff pastry (rolled out in the shape of the cake form).
Before you put it into the oven, poke a few holes into the pastry as an outlet for the steam.

Bake it for about 20 minutes until the puff pastry turns golden. Remove from oven, let cool for 10 minutes, then place a cake plate on top and flip the cake out on to the plate.

As David Lebovitz suggests, have also a try with plums, abricots, pears, or nectarines. Or  replace the puff pastry by the original pate brisée or by cake batter. Bon appétit!

#10 Red and Green Makes You Clean

Today I complained about being uninspired. My daughter just saw one way out of this creative drought.

Ever since I had a sip of this spontaneously created raspberry cocktail, things started moving. My creativity galloping away ( - me clinging on), pulled me into new terrain. The topic of discussion for the night has become profane : "is the primitive contrast of red and green enough to stimulate the demanding readership of my blog?"

Here the very liberal instructions to this miracle cocktail:

Undefined amount of Bacardi Rum
A handful of fresh raspberries
an ounce (or more to taste) of grenadine sirup
Put all of this in the blender and add crushed ice
Add fresh lime and Mint leaves

Happy summer weekend!