Actually, I wanted to wait with a new post until the new ballhead for my tripod has arrived from USA. My old one got broken some time ago, and the new one is stuck at the German customs office.

But yesterday I baked this heavenly Rueblitorte and it was so delicious that I didn´t want to withhold it from you. Believe me, you have to try it! This recipe is a stunner!

The cake is moist but not in the least soggy, it´s succulent and simultaneously airy (I hope my enthusiasm did not cause me to completely mix up the adjectives).

Besides, the photo´s lack of appeal is more due to our greed than the missing tripod. We tried, but weren´t able to resist the torte, and I cut the cake before the fudge got perfectly firm. In my defence I have to say that initially the cake wasn´t meant for the blog.

This recipe is genuinely Swiss, I brought it back with me from my visit to Zurich last year. In a small cafe I ordered Rueblitorte and expected a kind of carrot cake. To my surprise it turned out to be rather different from the usual carrot cake. I asked for the recipe and had to combine quite a lot of charm, compliments and persistence until I could get hold of it – it combines almonds, carrots, eggs and only a few grams of flour.

The original Rueblitorte came with a thick sugar icing and marzipan carrots, but yesterday I had a craving for chocolate and tried a vanilla chocolate fudge icing (which would also be delicious on its own!).

Ingredients:

Torte:

250 g (8,8 oz) tender carrots, finely shredded

250 g (8,8 oz) almonds

50 g (1,75 oz) wheat flour

zest of 1 lemon

0,5 tsp. ground cinnamon

0,5 tsp. ground ginger

pinch of nutmeg

6 cardamom pods, grounded

5 eggs

160 g (5, 65 oz) sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp butter

Chocolate Vanilla Fudge:

80 g (2,8 oz) dark chocolate (I used 80%)

80 g (2,8 oz) unsweetened condense milk

1 package of bourbon vanilla sugar

Method:

Torte:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (355° Fahrenheit). Dry-roast almonds in a large pan over medium heat until they are golden brown. Pour into a bowl and let cool down, then grind them finely in a food processor.

2. Grease a spring form (or any other cake molds) with 1 tsp butter.

3. Mix almonds, flour, baking powder, spices. In another bowl mix carrots and lemon zest.

4. In a large bowl beat the egg whites until very stiff, during the process add gradually the sugar, then carefully fold in the egg yolks.

5. Heap flour mixture and carrots onto the egg mixture and fold in until just incorporated.

6. Fill the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven (middle level) for 40 minutes. The torte is done when an inserted wooden skewer comes out clean. Take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before releasing it from the pan.

7. When the cake is completely cool prepare the the chocolate fudge and cover the cake.

Chocolate Vanilla Fudge:

1. Break the chocolate into smaller pieces, put it in a saucepan or a melting pot with the condensed milk.

2. Stir over low heat just until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla sugar. Remove from heat.

3. Spread onto the cake, cover the sides with a pastry brush.

4. Put the torte in the fridge for at least 5 hours. The Rueblitorte is best on the second day.

I´m a summer person. I don´t mind 35°C, have no problems with tropical humidity, but I cannot stand cold and darkness. So I´m definitely not happy about the final arrival of fall. Since two days now it´s been freezing cold and raining in Dortmund. Even at noon you have to switch on the lights and, worse, I know it´s only the beginning of a long bleak and freezing time.

Luckily even this season has its bright spots – if only a few – and I am determined to enjoy them: Today I have got apples and plums from my parents´ garden, a few early grapes from friends and finally, after months of suffering car-less in Dortmund´s outskirts, I have got my new car. This gorgeous tiny thing brings me to the shops again, and at long last I can restock my cupboards.

Since it´s so warm and cozy in my kitchen and I had all the apples, today I made an apple sheet cake. It may look unimpressive but it bursts with flavour. I combined rather common components like apples, spices and yeast dough in a way I did not try before. It turned out to be delicious, even extraordinary, the dough soft and airy, topped with juicy apples, a little crunch from the coarse sugar, greatly matched by the spices.

The cake was simple and easy. The yeast dough took just a bit of time for rising. Especially when it´s cold outside I love the warmth of spices, and when the cake cooked in the oven, the whole house smelled snugly of cardamom and cinnamon.

Ingredients:

1 kg apples (2lb)

3.5 g instant yeast (o.11 oz)

300 g unbleached all-purpose flour (10.5 oz)

30 g caster sugar (1 oz)

100 ml tepid milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

50 g butter, melted and cooled (1.75)

pinch of salt

3 tbsp coarse brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 tsp of ground cardamom

100 g sliced almonds (3.5 oz)

Method:

In a mixing bow combine yeast, milk, butter, white sugar. Stir and set aside for 5 or 6 minutes, until mixture bubbles and foams.

Add the egg, salt and the flour, a cup at a time, mixing with your hands or a wooden spoon until the dough comes together and forms a manageable ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Let the dough rise for 1 – 1,5 hours, until about doubled

In the meantime peel the apples, slice them about 0,5 cm thick.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Deflate the dough softly by pushing with your fingertips, roll out on a floured work surface until it is about 30 x 40 cm and 0,5 cm thick, at the utmost. Transfer to the baking sheet and pull into shape.

Arrange the apples on the dough generously. They should imbricate.

Mix the sugar with cinnamon and cardamom, sprinkle over the apples, top with the sliced almonds.

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until almonds and dough turn golden brown.

From Ottolenghi, The Cookbook

I am so proud of myself! For my daughter´s 19th birthday I baked my first rather complicated cake and it tasted unbelievably delicious.

There is a bit of potential visual improvement left. Unfortunately I ran out of icing sugar. Generous dusting would have made a BIG difference, but I am living quite in the outskirts of Dortmund. Public transport here is close to non-existing, no shop is nearby, and for the last threee months I have coped without a car. So shopping has become a big issue. (Tomorrow I will get my new car!! I can´t believe it!)

Whatever, my daughter was blown away at the sight of my cake, and even more later, when we actually ate it. I brooded quite a while over the choice of the perfect cake and at last I opted for the caramel and macadamia cheesecake from the Ottolenghi cookbook. (I love this book. Every recipe I have tried so far was outstanding).

The cheesecake recipe was a bit intimidating, with two kinds of caramel, macadamia brittle and caramel sauce for the topping, but it turned out to be surprisingly easy.

Ingredients:

Batter

600 g cream cheese at room temperature

120 g caster sugar (I used 100 g)

1/2 vanilla pod

4 eggs, lightly beaten

icing sugar for dusting

Base

160 g bisquits

40 butter, melted

Nut brittle

150 g macadamia nuts

90 g caster sugar

Caramel sauce

65 g butter

160 g caster sugar

100 ml whipping cream

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C (285°F), grease a 20 cm loose base cake tin

2. Whiz the bisquits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin or whatever heavy thing you have at hand). Add the melted butter and mix to a wet, sandy consistency. Put the mixture in the tin and flatten with a spoon.

3. Put sugar and cream cheese in a big bowl and whisk (by hand or with an electric mixer). Split the vanilla pod, scrape the seeds out and add to the sugar-cream cheese mixture. Add the eggs one by one, mix until smooth and creamy. Pour the batter over the bisquit base and place in the oven for about 60-70 minutes (my cake needed 80 min. until the wooden skewer came out clean) Chill for a couple of hours on the baking tin base. You can remove the cake more easily when it is completely cool and set.

4. For the nut brittle scatter the macadamias over a baking sheet and put them to the cake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. Place the sugar in a large saucepan. The layer of sugar must not be more than 3 mm high in the pan. Heat gently until the sugar melts. It took me about 15 minutes before anything happened in the pan. Do not stir!! Watch careful until the sugar browns. It should be golden brown but not too dark. Add the nut and carefully mix with a wooden spoon until most of the nuts are coated with the liwuid sugar. Pour them onto the baking tray and leave until the brittle hardened. Chop very roughly.

5. To make the sauce, put butter and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon until it becomes a dark brown caramel. Be careful not to burn. Add the cream and stir vigorously. Leave to cool.

6. To finish the cake, dust it generously with icing sugar. Spoon the sauce in the middle of the cake, allow it to spill over. Scatter the nut brittle on top.

The cake will keep in the fridge for 3 days.

(Don´t be concerned. Your pans may look like a battlefield but they aren´t actually ruined. Just fill them with water and boil until the caramel has melted.)

I´m sending this post to Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen who is hosting High Tea Treats, the theme of Meeta’s Monthly Mingle