Black Forest Pancakes with Cinnamony Cherries, Chocolate and Cream

Are you too lazy to make a sumptuously layered black forest cake but in the mood for spongy chocolate, whipped cream, cherry compote and a shot of Kirsch schnaps? That's how I felt! I thought about muffins for a second but I had just made them with figs (delish!) last week so they were out of the question, but pancakes seemed like the right choice.

I felt inspired by a basket full of sweet cherries - the last of the season - and I desperately wanted to make use of them. Very ripe, very soft and dark, my fruits from Turkey were practically at the perfect point to become a juicy compote refined with cinnamon and Kirsch, the famous southern German cherry schnaps. A black forest cake needs a luscious layer of thick, whipped cream, beaten until it stands in firm peaks, just slightly sweetened to give enough space to the chocolate - the next and last addition to make this sweet classic complete. Unsweetened cocoa powder turned my pancake recipe into subtle bittersweetness, fluffy as usual but with chocolaty depth. They burn quicker than their fair relatives so you better watch them well while they are puffing up in the hot pan. When they were done, just before they turned dark, I stacked them on a plate and topped them voluptuously with the rich cream and syrupy fruits. You could also sandwich them like the traditional black forest cake if you prefer, but this makes the project a little more stressful. You'll have to work quick and let both the pancakes and cherries cool before you stack them. Or forget about the presentation and serve it all warm on plates, generously sprinkled with grated bittersweet chocolate. Sometimes, easy is the best.

Black Forest Pancakes

Makes about 15 pancakes

For the fruit compote

• sweet, dark cherries (fresh or preserved), pitted, 350g / 12 1/2 ounces (about 280g / 10 ounces without the kernels)

• granulated sugar 2 tablespoons

• ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon

• Kirsch (cherry schnaps) 1 tablespoon

• water 3 tablespoons

• cornstarch 1 teaspoon

For the pancakes

• plain flour 170g / 1 1/3 cups

• unsweetened cocoa powder, sieved, 30g / 6 tablespoons

• granulated sugar 6 tablespoons

• baking powder 2 leveled teaspoons

• organic eggs, separated, 4

• a pinch of salt

• milk 240ml / 1 cup

• butter, for cooking the pancakes

For the topping

• heavy cream, whipped and sweetened to taste, 180ml / 3/4 cup

• bittersweet chocolate, grated, 25g / 3-4 tablespoons

In a saucepan, bring the ingredients for the cherry compote to the boil, stir, close with a lid and cook on medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until the fruits start to soften. Take the pan off the heat, adjust to taste and pour the compote into a bowl. Let it cool a bit.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, sugar and baking powder. In a second bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until stiff and set aside. Whisk the egg yolks and milk into the dry mixture and mix until well combined. Gently fold in the stiff egg whites.

Heat about 1/2 teaspoon of butter in a heavy pan and pour in a ladle of the batter for each pancake. They need about 1-2 minutes on medium heat on each side. Flip them before they turn dark, they should be golden brown. Cook them in batches of 2-3, always add 1/2 teaspoon of butter before you start the next round. Stack the cooked pancakes on a plate, serve with whipped cream, cherry compote and grated chocolate, either sandwiched or separately arranged on plates.

Fig, Ricotta and Olive Oil Muffins

I've been dreaming of these muffins since I went to Malta almost 2 months ago. The idea of figs, soft, ripe and sweet as honey, crowning the top of a pale muffin got stuck in my head. Still in the Mediterranean, I must have bugged almost every farmer on the island (just a slight exaggeration) to find the fruits for my creation, but nature had other plans. It simply wasn't their season yet, I was too early. Luckily we're off to our island next week for a few days, so we can catch up on them and pick them straight from the trees.

At least this was my plan until the beautiful blog Design*Sponge asked me for a recipe for their In The Kitchen With series. While I was still chatting with lovely Kristina to get an idea of what they'd like me to come up with, I had a vision - a luscious baguette sandwich inspired by a picnic in the south of France. I could see whipped chèvre, dark grapes, bacon, honey, thyme - and figs. So here was the second recipe in urgent need of this fruit. I went on a hunt and finally spotted them at my trusted organic market, fresh from Israel, dark as the night, soft skinned and ripe! I bought a huge bunch, enough to lock myself in the kitchen for a whole day, to cook and bake with my delicious finds.

The sandwich came first and it turned out as messy and luscious as I had imagined, you can find the recipe and interview here. My muffins were my second project, equally satisfying - I had quite a successful day in the kitchen. To use my strawberry muffin recipe, with olive oil and ricotta, was part of the plan. I only added a little more sugar to the dough as the fruits lay on top, in the original recipe I stirred in the berries so they sweeten it with their natural juices. It's still not a very cakey muffin, it's more of a warm breakfast treat, to spread some butter on top and melt into the honey glazed figs. Somehow they almost taste like scones - or rather like a luxurious version of it.

Fig, Ricotta and Olive Oil Muffins 

Makes 12 muffins

• plain flour 320g / 2 1/2 cups

• granulated sugar 130g / 2/3 cups

• baking powder 3 leveled teaspoons

• baking soda 1/2 teaspoon

• salt 1/4 teaspoon

• organic eggs 2

• ricotta 250g / 9 ounces

• olive oil 100ml / 1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons

• freshly squeezed orange juice 30ml / 2 tablespoons

• ripe figs (soft skinned), rinsed (not peeled) and cut in half, 6

• liquid honey 3 tablespoons, for the topping

Set your oven to 190°C / 375°F (fan-assisted oven) and put paper baking cups into the 12 molds of the muffin tray.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a second bowl, mix the eggs, ricotta, olive oil and orange juice until light and fluffy and pour into the bowl with the dry mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until you have a lumpy dough (with a bit of flour left here and there). Keep in mind, the more you mix it the more it will lose its light texture.

Fill the muffin tray with the dough and push the figs lightly into the batter (I prefer them cut side up). Drizzle a little honey (about 1/4 teaspoon) over each fruit and bake for about 18 minutes or until golden. Sprinkle the muffins with a little more sugar or honey (optionally) and let them cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before you take them out of the tray. Serve warm with butter.

Lavender Lemon Shortbread

If I had to choose my favourite late summer shortbread for tea time in August I'd have to say it would be lavender lemon. My choice is deeply inspired by the fragrant fields of the Provence covered in mesmerizing purple flowers and the ripe yellow lemons in my Maltese mother's garden. Lavender and citrus fruit both grow lusciously under the Mediterranean's scorching sun, they soak it up and develop aromas of intense depth. I can't think of a more vibrant combination - Malta and the South of France combined in a Scottish treat.

Recently I read about petticoat tails, shortbread in the shape of a large circle cut into segments, the edge decorated in waves by pinching it with fingers or a knife. The name refers to the petticoats popular in the 16th century, the cut of the fabric used to make the skirts had the same shape as the shortbread. I also found out that the pinched edges symbolize the sun. Considering that today's recipe is my late summer variation on this Scottish classic, I decided to go for this shape. I only got a bit worried about the neatly shaped edge, I've never done this before nor seen anyone doing it, so I cheated a little. I used my little French tart pan and ended up with rather small, round rays.

The past few days have been quite excessive on the culinary side. Although we had just waved goodbye to each other when we left Malta, my Maltese sister Emma is here in Berlin to visit us for a few days, a great chance to use her as a guinea pig for some of my cookbooks recipes (she approved!) - and to have an excuse to bake and eat more cake than we should. It's time to celebrate our reunion after all. Our sweet treats of shortbread for tea and peach cake for dinner ended in a proper cake feast as we visited Laura from Tausensuend at Berlin's Bite Club. Salted Caramel Ricotta, spicy chili chocolate and the most amazing sticky sourdough cinnamon snails - life is good when you forget about restrictions!

Lavender Lemon Shortbread

Mind that you prepare the lavender sugar a few days (or even weeks) in advance, you use 10 parts sugar and 1 part organic lavender flowers (L. augustifolia, Hidcote). 

Makes a 23cm / 9" shortbread

• plain flour 260g / 2 cups

• lavender sugar, sieved (leave about 1/4-1/2 teaspoon flowers in the sugar), 80g / 3oz, plus more to sprinkle

• zest of 1 large lemon (about 3-4 teaspoons)

• a pinch of salt

• butter (cold) 160g / 5 1/2oz

Set the oven to 170°C / 340°F (fan-assisted).

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar (with a few flowers), zest and salt. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Transfer the crumbly mixture into a 23cm / 9" loose bottom tart pan or directly onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Push the dough down evenly into the pan or give it a round shape of the same size and pinch the edge with your thumb. Score the surface with a knife to divide it into 6 segments, cut about half way though the dough. Sprinkle with a little lavender sugar but no flowers, they would burn in the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes or until golden. Take the shortbread out of the oven, sprinkle with lavender flowers (and fresh lemon zest if you like) and let it cool for about 15 minutes before you take it out of the pan.

Cinnamon Peach Breakfast Cake with a Crunchy Sugar Crust

We left the island heat to be welcomed by tropical temperatures in the city. After four amazing weeks in Malta we're back in Berlin, and apart from the fact that there isn't the sea in sight, it doesn't actually feel so different. It's hot here, so much so that I decided to take it easy this weekend and leave my work aside and stay in my kitchen most of the time. My culinary life in the Mediterranean focused on seafood and countless wonderful nights in restaurants with friends and family, so now that I'm back, I feel like experimenting again. On the first night I felt too tired to lift a finger or a knife, but the next day I made my beloved fennel orange salad (just without the octopus) and a beetroot carpaccio that was so good that I definitely have to share it with you soon. Yesterday, I revisited my olive oil ice cream with sea salt, I had almost forgotten about it but thanks to Gillie from Yahoo Food, I remembered my luscious frozen treat. She asked me to join their Ice Cream Week on their Instagram next week which I really look forward to. I'm sure it will be full of great inspiration to help cooling off in the next few days!

It's been over a year since I turned a generous splash of olive oil into ice cream and I wanted to make sure that the recipe is still as good as I remembered it. There's no doubt about why I was so ecstatic about it, it tasted amazing and felt like velvet. After the cooling sweet a cake was next on my list, a simple breakfast cake with lots of juicy peaches and a crunchy cinnamon sugar crust. The fruits sunk deep into the spongy dough and spread their juices with the first bite. But the sweet crusty topping was the secret star, I sprinkled the cake so generously with cinnamony sugar before I put it in the oven that I was a little worried if I went overboard. But it was so, so good, so I felt no regrets!

This cake is a variation of my Apple Breakfast Cake.

Cinnamon Peach Cake with Sugar Crust

For a 20cm / 8″ loose bottom springform pan you need

• granulated sugar 100g / 3 1/2 ounces plus 2 tablespoons for the topping

• ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon, for the topping

• plain flour 130g / 4 1/2 ounces

• cornstarch 30g / 1 ounce

• baking powder 1 heaping teaspoon

• a pinch of salt

• butter (at room temperature) 160g / 5 1/2 ounces plus a little butter for the springform pan

• organic eggs 3

• large peaches, quartered, pitted and sliced, 2

Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan-assisted oven) and butter the springform pan.

Combine 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon for the topping in a small bowl and set aside.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue mixing for a few minutes until the mixture is thick and creamy. Mix in the dry mixture until well combined. Fill the dough into the buttered form and arrange the sliced quarters of the peaches in circles on top. Sprinkle generously with the cinnamon sugar and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the springform pan.

Mqaret - Traditional Maltese Date Pastries

Traditional sweet treats and old fashioned baking crafts give a great insight into an unknown culture. You just have to visit a bakery or confectionery when you get to a new country and you'll immediately have an idea of its mentality. The presentation, the ingredients used by the chef patisseur, the way it's decorated, all these details reveal a lot about a place and its people.

Malta has plenty of culinary culture and so many sweet secrets that I'm still learning about new delicacies every time I visit the islands. It's close to Italy, so you'll find Mediterranean classics like cannoli (Kannoli in Maltese), the frilly cassata siciliana and syrupy ricotta pies. Various rulers of the small archipelago left their traces in the kitchen, the British brought fruit pies and trifles and the Arabic influence is shown in the generous use of citrus fruits and the import of sticky sweet nougat, Qubbajt in Maltese. One of my personal favourites are the wonderfully simple Ottijiet, crunchy eight-shaped sesame cookies made with cloves, vanilla and aniseed. They are perfect for tea time, just as much as Edith's Essijiet with Vermouth. You can easily guess their shape from the name. Another highlight is Malta's aromatic bread pudding that Joanna Bonnici made for me when we met for our meet in your kitchen feature.

The list of these beautifully honest sweets is endless, it's my kind of baking, with lots of spices and citrus, the recipes are not too complicated and quite easy to prepare. Every time I exchange my Berlin kitchen for my Maltese mother Jenny's culinary space, I try to include at least one sweet Maltese dish in my baking activities that leads me to new grounds. Mqaret have been on my mind for quite a while. The little pastries look a bit like giant ravioli, they are diamond shaped, translated to maqrut (singular form) in Maltese. The sweets are generously filled with dates and infused with aniseed, they are a scrumptious remnant of the Arabic takeover starting in 870 AD. They taste so good that they stayed on the island even after the invaders had left. Today, you find them in every village sold at street markets, but unfortunately, often of rather weak quality. My favourite places to enjoy them are Scoglitti and Nenu's bakery in Valletta, or you bake your own at home.

Mqaret are either deep-fried (which I prefer) or baked in the oven, and although I'm not a big fan of cooking in hot oil, in this case, it creates a flakier texture. The traditional recipe uses a short crust pastry made with a little more water than I would normally use, if it's too crumbly you won't be able to fold the dough over the fruit filling. Mqaret are best when they are hot and generously filled, this is at least my humble opinion and it caused long discussions in the family. I used lemon zest but originally it's made with orange and tangerine instead, as the fruits are not in season at the moment I went for their yellow relative which added a flowery fruitiness to the dates. I must admit that I was a bit scared of this project but in the end it turned out to be much easier than expected!

Mqaret - Traditional Maltese Date Pastries

Deep frying in hot oil should never be attempted with children close by, be very careful while cooking the pastries in the oil!

Makes about 14 Mqaret

• vegetable oil, for frying, about 1l / 4 1/4 cups

• granulated sugar, to sprinkle the cooked mqaret

For the pastry

• plain flour 230g / 8oz / 1 3/4 cups

• a pinch of salt

• butter cold 60g / 2oz

• water cold 3-5 tablespoons

• freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 tablespoon

• anisette spirit 1 tablespoon

Combine the flour and salt. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Add 3 tablespoons of water, the juice and spirit and continue mixing with your hands until you have a crumbly mixture, you should be able to form a ball. If it's too dry, mix in 1-2 tablespoons of a water. Form a ball, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

For the filling

• dried dates, pitted and finely chopped, 250g / 9oz

• water, about 4 tablespoons

• lemon zest 1 teaspoon (organic fruit) (or 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest and 1 teaspoon of tangerine zest)

• a pinch of ground cloves

• a pinch of cinnamon

• granulated sugar 1 tablespoon

• anisette spirit 1 1/2 tablespoons

In a saucepan, bring the dates and water to the boil. Mash the dates with a spoon and leave on low heat for 1 minute. The mixture will be thick and sticky. Take off the heat, add the remaining ingredients and mix well with a spoon, set aside.

For the mqaret

In a large pot, heat the oil.

Divide the dough in 2 parts and roll out each of them between cling film into a 40 x 10cm (16 x 4") rectangle. Spread half the date filling on one half of 1 rectangle (along the longer side) and brush the rim (the long side) with water. Fold the dough over the filling (along the long side) and close the rim well, push it together with your fingers. The short ends stay open. Repeat with the second pastry rectangle, you should end up with 2 long pastry sandwiches filled with dates. Cut each of them with a sharp knife into 6-7 diamond shaped pastries, the cut sides stay open, leaving the date filling exposed.

Use the handle of a wooden spoon to check if the oil is hot enough, bubbles will rise when the temperature is right. Fry the mqaret in the hot oil until golden brown, mind that they don't get too dark. Take them out with a slotted ladle and transfer to kitchen paper to remove excess oil. Sprinkle with sugar and serve immediately. They go very well with vanilla ice cream!

Maltese Ricotta Pie with Lemon Syrup and Pistachios

My friend Essa baked a wonderful cake a few years ago that I never managed to get out of my head. It was a Maltese cheesecake made with ricotta and eggs on top of a thin short crust base topped with sticky lemon syrup and chopped pistachios. It was so good, I dreamt of it! We enjoyed it in her Mediterranean garden, the rustic limestone walls covered in fragrant blue plumbago and white stephanotis flowers - the tantalizing smell of the south and a sweet pie on my plate.

Years have past, Essa forgot about the recipe and I, sadly, couldn't find the copy that I had made - until a few days ago. I gave it a go in my Maltese mother's house, in Jenny's kitchen, the same day I made the happy discovery and it came out as amazing as I remembered it. The filling refined with lemon zest is creamy but fluffy, not as dense as a New York cheesecake. The sticky and sour syrup on top and the generous amount of crunchy nuts turn this cake into something so delicious that I soon regretted the size of the pie tin I chose. We ate it all within less than an hour!

Maltese Ricotta Cake with sticky Lemon Syrup and Pistachios

For a 20cm / 8" pie form you need

• short crust dough 250g / 9 ounces (you can use 1/3 of the pastry from my fruit tart recipe, click here)

• ricotta 380g / 13 1/2 ounces

• lemon zest 1 heaping teaspoon

• organic eggs 3

• granulated sugar 100g / 1/2 cup

• butter, melted, 40g / 2 heaping tablespoons

• semolina (fine) 1 heaping tablespoon

• pistachios (unsalted), chopped, 40g / 1 1/2 ounces, for the topping

For the lemon syrup

• freshly squeezed lemon juice 75ml / 1/3 cup

• granulated sugar 50g / 1/4 cup

• honey 1 heaping tablespoon

Prepare the dough, form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (top/ bottom heat).

Roll out the dough between cling film and line your pie form with the flat pastry. Prick with a fork and bake it in the hot oven for 12 minutes. Take it out when it's golden and set aside. Turn the oven down to 190°C / 375°F.

In a large bowl, whisk the ricotta, zest, eggs and sugar. Add the melted butter and semolina and whisk until well combined. Pour the cheese filling on top of the pre-baked pastry and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until just set (I use a gas oven in Malta so the baking time can be different in an electric oven).

For the syrup, bring the lemon juice, sugar and honey in a sauce pan to the boil and cook for about 4-5 minutes on high heat until thick and golden. Whisk once in a while and mind that it bubbles up while cooking, it shouldn't burn!

Drizzle the syrup over the ricotta cake and sprinkle generously with pistachios.

Cherry Chocolate Tart with whipped Cardamom Cream

There are a few combinations in the world of summer foods that are so perfect that I can only sit back and smile. Strawberries with Champagne is one of them or Mozzarella di Bufala with fruity tomatoes. Cherries with bittersweet chocolate is another one of my favourites, it's a heavenly pleasure to taste the sweet juices of this firm fruit merged with the dark depth of cocoa. Cherries are at the peak of their season at the moment and a sumptuous tarte au chocolate has been on the top of my baking list for months, so why not combine the two!

The different flavours and textures in a sweet composition have to be as well balanced as in a savoury dish. In the case of my tart, I wanted the crumbly pastry to stand up strong next to the chocolate which can easily be too overpowering. So I went for a thin layer of the dark filling, roughly the same height as the short crust base. This ratio allows both of them to show off their qualities - buttery crunchy and velvety smooth. Although I'm not a big fan of creamy additions to cakes - be it whipped or ice cream - here, I chose to top the tart which a voluptuous dollop of sweet sour cream mixed with cardamom. The light sourness added a fresh contrast to the heavy darkness and made the rich composition complete. We ended up with the prettiest and most satisfying treat on our coffee table - I couldn't have asked for more.

Cherry Chocolate Tart with whipped Cardamom Cream

It's easiest to bake the tart in a loose-bottom tart pan.

For a 23cm / 9″ tart pan you need

• sweet cherries 12, for the topping

For the short crust base

• plain flour 170g / 6oz / 1 1/3 cups

• granulated sugar 50g / 1 3/4oz / 1/4 cup

• a pinch of salt

• butter, cold, 90g / 3 1/4oz

• organic egg yolk 1

• water, cold, 1 tablespoon

Combine the flour with the sugar and salt. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Add the egg yolk and water and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (top/ bottom heat).

Roll out the dough between cling film and line your tart pan with the flat pastry. Prick with a fork and bake in the oven for 11 minutes or until golden and crisp. Prepare the chocolate filling while the pastry is in the oven. 

For the chocolate filling

• heavy cream 80ml / 1/3 cup

• milk 40ml / 3 tablespoons

• best quality bittersweet chocolate, broken into chunks, 150g / 5oz, plus 1 tablespoon (grated) for the topping

• butter 15g / 1 tablespoon

• a pinch of salt

• granulated sugar 1 tablespoon

• organic egg, beaten, 1

Set the oven to 170°C / 340°F (top/ bottom heat) once the short crust base is baked.

In a sauce pan, bring the cream and milk to the boil. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the chocolate, butter, salt and sugar (leave the pan off the heat). Once it's melted, pour into a bowl and whisk in the egg, the mixture should be well combined. Pour the chocolate filling on top of the pre-baked pastry and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until set. Take the tart pan out of the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes before you sprinkle it with the grated chocolate. Decorate with the cherries and prepare the whipped sour cream. 

For the whipped cardamom sour cream

• sour cream (or crème fraîche) 150g / 5oz

• granulated sugar 1 teaspoon

• ground cardamom 1/2 teaspoon, to taste

Whisk the sour cream, sugar and cardamom and adjust to taste.

meet in your kitchen | Laura's Apricot, Caramel & Buffalo Ricotta Cake

Laura is a modern city hippie, with a big heart for people and sweets. The mother of four lives in the centre of Berlin with her family and created a peaceful oasis in this vibrant city. Her kitchen faces a little veranda and if you walk down a few steps you're right in her fruitful garden. Pots are lined up densely, filled with the most beautiful flowers and vegetables, rucola, peas, herbs and potatoes - it's a green paradise, as calming and gorgeous as the lady of the house.

When I visited Laura's kitchen to chat and bake together, it felt like a Bohemian farm house scene set in summery Provence. The light that falls through the small window in the thick wall is a bit dimmed and adds a Mediterranean flair to the family's home-made kitchen. It's a very personal room and you can feel that this is the creative space of a woman who completely falls for her passion to bake. Her oven and fridge impressed me with their huge dimensions, the walls and shelves are filled with baking tools, pans and ingredients. Laura doesn't need to show off with overly designed furniture, its her personality, her honest kindness and charming smile that makes you want to sit at her kitchen table all day, to watch her work on her amazing cake creations and listen to her family stories.

Growing up in Germany with her parents from Chile and Bolivia this woman is gifted with a rich multicultural background and a great sense for quality. Laura calls her mother and father two hippies, early pioneers of the organic, sustainable and self-sufficient food movement. They introduced her to this now rising trend. Growing your own vegetables in the middle of the city, using old pots, jars and bags to plant the seeds for your own produce became popular all over the world.In Laura's yard, it's a very unspectacular reality, if you want to know what you have on your plates it's best to farm it in your own ground.

This fascination for food in general, but for baking with the best ingredients in particular, led to a business which is one of Berlin's best kept sweet secrets. Laura started Tausensuend a few years ago to offer her individual and luscious cake creations which are honestly out of this world. She follows her interest in raw vegan cakes (her 'healthy cake line') but she also makes the most decadent layered cakes with creams, meringues, fruits and caramel, spectacularly topped with huge flowers. This is eye candy in its literal sense.

Apricots, Salted Caramel and Buffalo Ricotta Cake with Flambéed Meringue

Set the oven to 190°C / 375°F (top / bottom heat). Grease an 18cm / 7" cake pan (tall) and line it with baking paper. You will need a tall cake ring of the same size to assemble the cake and a candy thermometer and blowtorch for the flambéed meringue frosting.

For the sponge cake

• organic eggs, separated, 6

• a pinch of salt

• superfine sugar 240g / 8 1/2oz

• vanilla pods, scraped, 2

• plain flour (wheat or white spelt), sieved, 240g / 8 1/2oz

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt on high speed for about 5 minutes until very stiff. Add the sugar and continue mixing for 5 minutes until stiff and glossy. Quickly mix in the vanilla. Whisk the egg yolks with a fork and gently fold them into the stiff egg whites. Once it's combined, gently fold in the sieved flour. Scrape the dough into the lined cake pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check after 35 minutes, if the top of the cake turns too dark, cover it with baking paper. When it's done, take the cake out of the pan and let it cool completely.

For the salted caramel

• heavy cream 200g / 7oz

• superfine sugar 300g / 10 1/2oz

• butter (at room temperature), 240g / 8 1/2oz

• fine sea salt or rock salt 1 heaping teaspoon

In a sauce pan, warm the cream on low heat (don't bring it to the boil), set the pan aside.

In a large pan, melt the sugar on high heat, watch the pan as the sugar burns quickly. Whisk once in a while and try not to let the sugar forms large lumps. As soon as the colour changes to a light amber, reduce the heat, keep stirring until all the sugar has melted. Add the butter in batches and keep stirring. Carefully pour in the warm cream at the end, mind that it bubbles up and creates steam. Stir in the salt once the caramel is well combined, pour into a jar and set aside.

For the apricot purée

• very ripe apricots, pitted, 10-12

• a squeeze of lemon juice

• lemon zest 1 teaspoon

Purée the fruits, lemon juice and zest in a blender until smooth and set aside.

For the buffalo ricotta cream

• fresh buffalo (or sheep) ricotta 250g / 9oz

• heavy cream 75ml / 1/3 cup

• granulated sugar 75g / 2 1/2oz

• vanilla pod, scraped, 1

• a pinch of tonka bean (scraped)

Whisk the ingredients until creamy and set aside.

To assemble the cake

Cut the cake into 5 layers and lay 1 slice into the cake ring. Spread thinly with the apricot purée and sprinkle generously with salted caramel. Spread the bottom side of a new cake layer with the ricotta cream and lay on top of the cake in the ring. Continue layering the cake in the same order (cake-apricot-ricotta) until all the layers are used up, finish it off with a cake layer.

Put the assembled cake in the fridge and let it cool for at least 2 hours (overnight would be even better), the cake should soak up all the liquid of the filling.

For the meringue and decoration

For the flambeed meringue

• very fresh organic egg whites 6

• superfine sugar 300g / 10 1/2oz

• a pinch of salt

• vanilla pod, scraped, 1

For the decoration

• fresh winter or bladder cherries (Physalis) 8

• large edible flowers 3

Place a large metal bowl in a large pot with boiling water. Add the egg whites and sugar to the bowl and whisk lightly. Leave the egg whites on the heat until the mixture reaches 60°C / 140°F, check with a candy thermometer. There's no need to whisk while heating the eggs. Take the bowl off the heat once the right temperature is reached, add a generous pinch of salt and beat with an electric mixer until thick and glossy. When it forms stiff peaks, stir in the vanilla.

Carefully take the cake out of the ring and cover it generously with the stiff egg whites. Flambé with a blowtorch until golden and decorate with fresh winter cherries and flowers.

Tausendsuend is one of Berlin's best kept secrets for the most luscious cake creations, when did you start using your fantastic baking skills professionally? What was the impulse that got your business started?

Oh thanks a lot, Meike! Working and playing around and experimenting with food, textures, colours and flavours has always been one of my greatest passions, even when I was a child. But baking, I would say, is my greatest love, and also the thing I always had the strongest connection to, due to the baking skills of my fantastic grandmother. It’s probably the mix of the smelling and tasting of the fresh ingredients and this sculptural way of putting a cake together, making the colours match, arranging the flowers, all the decorating, that interests me. A friend of mine, an artist from Los Angeles, once said, she has a strong feeling that we have the same approach to our work, and that is probably true! I worked as a cook for a couple of years, and then got asked if I wanted to take care of the sweets department in that place because I was somehow famous for my cheesecakes at that time. So I did that and it was a crazy success! Really cool! That was the point, when I started to focus on baking. I started Tausendsuend when I moved to Berlin in 2008, but it was really a long process of defining my own style and making the right connections. Also, I gave birth to 2 children within that time I must admit.

You pay a lot of attention to the quality and origin of each ingredient you use, for your healthy raw cakes as much as for your more traditional layered cream and meringue cakes. Is there a different approach in the creative process for these two kinds of cakes, how do you develop the recipes – healthy and conventional?

I personally love the raw cakes. It’s just great to develop something that satisfies this craving for sweetness and is so good and healthy and nourishing for your body and soul at the same time. I have 4 children and it is the greatest bliss to feed them a raw avocado and lime cake in the morning and make them really happy with it! This is also something that I suggest to parents of children who don’t eat any fruits or vegetables. I’m really lucky not to be one of them, I’m blessed with children who eat almost everything, from seaweed to artichokes to raw avocado lime cake.The 'traditional' cakes are in fact more of a piece of art to me. Of course, I have the same high standards in everything I create, I want all my ingredients to be top quality and I’m pretty sure that these high standards are crucial to the final product. I want my cakes not only to look perfect, but most importantly to taste perfect. And of course, my children get their 5 layered, buttercream covered birthday cakes thickly coated in tons of sprinkles as well. I really don’t think there is something particularly bad about eating sugar, how could I … (laughing)

You were born in Hamburg and grew up in Germany but your father is originally from Chile and your mother from Bolivia. How do your South American and German roots influence your cooking and baking? What did you learn from these different cultures?

My grandmother, originally from Hamburg, lived in Bolivia for over 30 years. I loved her stories about shopping at the farmers markets in La Paz, the enthusiasm you could hear in the way she described the Indian women in their traditional garb. She told me a lot about the Bolivian habits, how the Indians made the Chicha, a traditional schnaps (spirit) that is made by chewing white sweetcorn and spitting it into a bucket to let it ferment. Or the kilo bags of dried Bolivian chili peppers of which she used to make the extremely spicy traditional Aji Sauce. And the Yerbamate of course, a herbal tea that you drink out of hollowed dried pumpkins with a pewter straw. This you do in Chile as well.My father has always been the one who cooked most of the time for us as a family. He made a million empanadas for every occasion, school treats, dinners with friends and so on, one of the national dishes in Chile and Argentina, traditionally filled with beef, onions, raisins, black olives and boiled eggs, that everybody loved, and still does. My children go crazy about them. I think my favourite dish as a child was Pastel de Choclo, a casserole dish made of minced beef and mashed sweetcorn with a sugar crust, so good!! My father is an incredible cook, definitely the person I feel the strongest similarities with in the way I create food. A freestyler and always super curious about discovering new flavours and combinations. I’m very lucky that I have always been surrounded by people who had a very strong interest in food.

Your parents were early pioneers in the organic, sustainable and self-sufficient food movement that is so popular today. How did this affect your relationship with food and your definition of quality of life in general?

My mother was always the one who had the more ecological, political attitude towards how to consume and produce food. She went to shop in small organic grocery shops that were really rare at that time and she had a strong focus on whole foods. She used a lot of millet, quinoa and amaranth in her cooking, things that, at that time, were totally unknown to most people. This curiosity and trying out new and unknown things is something that influenced me extremely. In general my parents were very political and taught us to call things into question. That had a strong influence on all fields of activity in my living and working.

Who is your biggest inspiration in the kitchen?

I find a lot of people inspiring, for very different things. My father is still one of my biggest inspirations, because he is such an artist in juggling with flavours, but there are also a couple of books that I bought in the last years that I find very inspiring, Tartine Bakery for example makes great classic stuff! And the Canadian raw food cookbook author Emily von Euw is so great as well, what an artist!

Which are your favourite Chilean, Peruvian and German dishes?

Oh, that is so difficult to say as I love eating so much and it’s really hard for me to say what dish I like more than the other. As I'm from Hamburg, I have a strong connection to seafood and I still enjoy to go to the Fischmarkt (fish market in Hamburg) on a Sunday morning so much, to grab a sandwich overloaded with the freshest shrimps and rémoulade or some matjes (herring) with tons of fresh onion! I would say I prefer the simple, yet flavourful over the super sophisticated kitchen. My sister, who moved back to Chile after finishing school which is now almost 20 years ago, makes the most incredible ceviche which totally became my favourite Chilean dish. The Bolivians make small super spicy pasties filled with chicken called salteñas that are pretty amazing! But to be honest, there are really only very, very few things that I do not eat.

Where do you find inspiration for new creations?

Absolutely in nature. Strolling through organic farmers markets, smelling fresh fruits. I just visited a friend who moved from Berlin to the Uckermark (an area in the countryside), being in nature, in the countryside fills me with energy and inspires me a lot.

Why do you like to decorate your cakes with giant flowers which became your signature style?

I have a strong love for flowers which I most probably got from my grandmother. She used to live in the suburbs of Hamburg which almost felt like being in the countryside. There was a small farm within walking distance from where she lived and she taught me all the names of the flowers, wild berries and herbs, of all the small insects and butterflies. She also had edible flowers on her terrace and told me how to use them. My first job as a teenager was at a flower shop. If I had not focused on working with food I’d most probably be a florist today.

Do your kids join you in the kitchen? How do you introduce the younger ones to the world of food, how do you spark their interest?

Absolutely. I let my kids join me in the kitchen whenever they want. We do the shopping together, I let them select the vegetables, I let them help me with the cleaning and cutting and they always get a bit of dough when I bake. The older ones (my kids are 4, 6, 10 and 11) even start to cook on their own now with our help. To let the kids take part in the process of buying and creating food and to let them develop their own likes and dislikes and their own taste is the greatest and most successful way to raise their interest in food and eating.

What was the first dish you cooked on your own, what is your first cooking memory?

My very first steps in cooking were with my grandmother. She always took me to the farm, which was close to where she lived. The old farmers couple loved me and let me slip into every little corner. I was allowed to pick berries, to take the eggs out of the henhouse, they even allowed me to be present when the little yeanlings were born. My grandmother made little crocheted shopping bags for my sister and me where we put in all the treasures that we got at the farm. I must have been around 3 when my grandmother first suggested to make scrambled eggs out of my freshly collected eggs. I remember it being a mix of heartache and excitement to break the little eggs into this cute little pan that my grandmother bought for us. I still have that pan.

What are your favourite places to buy and enjoy food in Berlin

I still like the small organic farmers market at Kollwitzplatz on Thursdays right around the corner from where I live. Some say, this market became too touristy within the last years, but still, it provides a great variety of organic locally produced goods. There, I also buy the edible flowers for my cakes from two lovely old ladies who have their own flower garden in Marzahn. Only a few hundred steps from my house I have a fantastic small delicacy store (Le Flâneur) that sells the best cheese I’ve ever tried and a small assortment of really good Champagne (yes, I love Champagne!).Every couple months I ride my bike to the Dong Xuan Center in Lichtenberg, an Asian food market, where you can buy every single Asian ingredient you could ever dream of. I travelled through Asia for a while and this place really reminds me so much of it. It’s a bit like plunging into another small world. You also get an incredibly good pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) there. Frischeparadies is a safe address for fresh, high quality and rather rare products. Even if they don’t have an ingredient in stock, you can always ask, their staff is very helpful and friendly, and they will do their best to try and get what you’ve been searching for. I recently searched for the very rare and hard to get fresh Scandinavian cloudberry, Lindenberg was the only place that could help me to get the fresh berries. And then there is this fantastic organic butcher in Berlin Wilmersdorf (Bachhuber). That place…wow!

You shared your Apricot Salted Butter Caramel Meringue Cake on eat in my kitchen, what do you like about this combination?

Well, it was freestyle mostly. When I did the shopping the day before we met I just could not resist the floral smell of the fresh apricots. Apricots are also just such a winner with salted caramel, don’t you think? And the flambéed meringue is always my ace in the hole, when I really want to impress somebody!

If you could choose one person to cook a meal for you, who and what would it be?

I would love to meet the biodynamic Champagne producer David Léclapart and his daughter Sylvie Gerard Maizieres. She runs a small boutique museum dedicated to Champagne where she organizes Jazz concerts and cooking courses as well, called Pré-en-bulles.

You're going to have ten friends over for a spontaneous dinner, what will be on the table?

I would definitely ask my dear friend Malin from The Bread Exchange for bread. Since we know each other, I bake her cakes for special occasions and she bakes her outstanding sourdough bread for my dinners in return. I would get a variety of good cheeses and butter, fresh artichokes with a light vinaigrette, make a cold or hot soup (I love soup) and a big bowl of fresh salad. And yes, of course, there would be a cake. That’s what everybody expects when being invited to my house.

What was your childhood's culinary favourite and what is it now?

My grandmother's caramelized apple pancakes were a total hit, unbeatable! Right now I would say everything that is produced freshly and with a whole lotta love. At the Bite Club(Berlin street food event) I recently had a pancake made of cabbage, okonomiyaki, wow! That was so good! I love spicy food, I love Asian food, I love fresh veggies, I love a good organic sausage, I love seafood ... the list goes on and on! Oh and I could live off ice-cream for a very long time, my favourite parlour is Rosa Canina.

Do you prefer to cook on your own or together with others?

I love to have people around me, but to be honest, I tend to be a bit bossy in the kitchen, so it’s more the question if others want to cook together with me.

Which meals do you prefer, improvised or planned?

Improvised, definitely!

Which meal would you never cook again?

I can not think of any, actually. Well, I’m not fighting to make empanadas, that is a shit load of work, the dough is made of boiling saltwater, screaming hot fat and flour which you have to stir together with a wooden spoon and then knead it while it’s still really hot. My father is a lot better at it anyways …

Thank you Laura!

German Waffles with Whipped Raspberry Vanilla Cream

There are countless waffle recipes in the culinary world, with different tastes, textures and ingredients. Many countries and cultures have their traditional formulas, one of the most famous is certainly the thick Belgian waffle baked in squares. The addition of coarse sugar grains creates a caramelized crust which makes it a very sweet and crunchy pleasure to enjoy. Nonetheless, I think I ate the best outside Belgium, in Malta, baked by the private chef of the Belgian ambassador. I nibbled on it on the ancient stairs of a side road in Valletta and it was pure bliss, the waffle and the atmosphere of the warm summer night. We watched a Jazz concert at a tiny bar close to the harbour, George's wonderful Bridge Bar, and the first bite into this fantastic sweet pulled all my attention off the musicians, I could only see the waffle in my hands and forgot everything around me.

However, my absolute favourite must be German waffles. Heart shaped, slightly crisp on the outside but soft inside. And they become even softer when you stack them, and that's what I do and what I've always loved to do. I still use my grandmother's recipe with a few slight adjustments by my mother and myself. Together with my sister, we'd often take out the waffle maker on Sundays to bake piles of waffles that we'd stack on a large plate. We'd listen to playful classical music (preferably Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf or Ravel’s Bolero) and shuffle one sweet heart after the other topped with fluffy whipped cream into our hungry mouths. I notice that I only have great memories with this dish which speaks for itself.

If a recipe is so satisfying in its purest form, it doesn't really need any alternations. But it's July, the ripest and brightest red raspberries sparkle in their boxes, so I decided to purée them and mix them with vanilla whipped cream for a fruity and creamy topping - it was a good choice!

German Waffles with Whipped Raspberry Vanilla Cream

For 7-8 waffles you need (for 2-3 people)

For the waffles

• plain flour 100g / 3 1/2oz / 3/4 cup

• baking powder 1/2 teaspoon

• butter 50g / 2 ounces

• milk 120ml / 1/2 cup

• organic eggs, separated, 3

• a pinch of salt

• granulated sugar 2 tablespoon, plus more for the topping

• a pinch of vanilla, scraped from the pod

For the raspberry cream

• raspberries, puréed in a blender, 120g / 4 1/2oz, plus a handful of pretty raspberries for the topping

• whipping cream 200ml / 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons

• granulated sugar 2 tablespoons

• a pinch of vanilla, scraped from the pod

For the whipped cream, whisk the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff. Stir in the raspberry purée but don't over mix.

Warm up your waffle maker.

Combine the flour and baking powder. In a sauce pan, melt the butter, mix with the milk and set aside. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, add the milk-butter mixture and the flour and mix well. Fold the stiff egg whites gently with a large spoon into the dough.

Pour a ladle of the dough onto the warm waffle maker and bake until golden brown. Take out the waffle and sprinkle with sugar while it's still warm. Continue with the remaining dough and serve with the whipped raspberry cream and fresh raspberries.

Cakey Red Currant and Oat Cookies

To eat fruits right from a bush or tree is one of the most satisfying culinary experiences I know. A couple years ago, I went for a walk through Buskett Garden nearby Dingli in Malta with my boyfriend and his mother. We strolled along a little stream lined with mulberry bushes, fig and pomegranate trees. At one point we couldn't stop ourselves picking a few of the giant berries and ripe figs bursting in the hot afternoon sun. The honey sweet juices dripped of our fingers and we could only smile, overwhelmed by such peace, it felt like the Garden of Eden.

My granny Lisa's garden used to put me in the same mood, set in the north of Europe it offered a completely different scene. Lined with dark fir trees on one side and the most beautiful cherry tree on the other, where I used to sit on a swing after I picked its sweet fruits right from the branches. One of her neighbors used to grow red currants on little bushes, every year they were gifted with luscious produce. The branches were so packed with berries that the bushes looked bright red at one point in early summer, sprinkled with a few green dots from the leaves. Luckily, the owner planted the bushes so close to my granny's garden that they grew through the fence. He also didn't mind me sitting there in the grass, stuffing my mouth with one handful of these red berries after the other.

In the city, I miss out on this experience which is a pity. I have to buy the fruits by the boxes but the results that come out of my kitchen after I used them for my sweet treats are as satisfying and ease my sorrows. Today's wonderfully cakey red currant and oat cookies did a great job. They feel like little cakes, not crunchy at all, but rather juicy. Their soft texture combined with the nutty oats, mashed banana and sweet and sour fruits made me forget about hand-picked harvests and anything else!

You can also use blueberries for this recipes if you can't find red currants.

Cakey Red Currant and Oat Cookies

For about 26 cookies you need

• plain flour 200g / 7oz / 1 1/2 cups

• rolled oats 150g / 1 2/3 cups

• salt 1 teaspoon

• baking soda 1/2 teaspoon

• baking powder 3/4 teaspoon

• butter (soft) 170g / 6oz

• granulated sugar 200g / 7oz / 1 cup

• ripe banana, mashed, 1 (about 100g / 3 1/2oz)

• organic egg 1

• pinch of vanilla (scraped from the pod)

• red currants (or blueberries), ripe but not soft, 200g / 7oz

Set the oven to 180°C / 360°F (fan-assisted oven) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and baking powder. In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar until fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the banana, egg and vanilla and continue mixing until well combined. Stir in the dry mixture with a spoon until you have a lumpy dough (with a bit of flour left here and there). Gently fold in the red currants (leave out a small handful of berries), use 2 tablespoons and don't mix more than 4-5 times. Try not to damage the berries too much, you want their juices to stay inside their skin. For each cookie, drop a tablespoon full of dough on the lined baking sheet, leave enough space in between them as they will expand in the oven. Flatten them softly with a fork (just a little) and gently push the remaining red currants into the dough. Bake in the oven for about 13 minutes or until golden, they will be quite soft. Take them out and let them cool on the tray for a few minutes before you transfer them onto a wire rack. The texture is nicest on the first day as they soften in a cookie box, but the taste was just as good the next day.

Apricot Cinnamon Crumble Tart - my best cake ever!

According to a friend, this is the best cake I have ever made. However, although I feel flattered by this compliment, his statement should be handled with care. Overwhelmed by a homemade sweet treat, he tends towards such passionate judgements, it wasn't the first time. But I have to agree, it was an extremely good cake!

Let's start with the base, the buttery short crust was crisp and slightly flaky, exactly how I love it. I also used this pastry for my Raspberry and Blueberry Tart with Bavarian Cream, it's a classic for summer tarts. Fruit was next, apricots cut in half sprinkled with a little sugar to help them release their juices without taking away their natural fresh and sour sweetness. They were still in pieces when I took the tart our of the oven, soft but not mushy like a compote. For the cinnamon crumbles, I used the recipe from my old kitchen friend, my beloved rhubarb (or plum or apple!) crumble cake. The flavour of the spice is strong enough to stand up to the apricots, the crumbles stay beautifully in shape and you can taste that they are made with plenty of butter, they are pure crunchy bliss. Luckily, I made two cakes from the start, I had a strong feeling that this was going to be a luscious feast, but I didn't expect that we would empty the pans so quick, it was insane. Slice after slice we just continued telling each other how delicious this tart is and all of a sudden it was all gone!

Apricot Cinnamon Crumble Tart

One of my tart pans has a loose bottom which helps to cut out slices, it also worked in the other pan, just a few crumbs fell off but it still looked pretty.

For 2 tarts in 23cm / 9″ tart pans you need

• apricots, cut in half and pitted, 1kg / 2 1/4 pounds / about 20 fruits

• granulated sugar 2 tablespoons

For the short crust base

• plain flour 390g / 14oz / 3 cups

• granulated sugar 100g / 3 1/2oz / 1/2 cup

• salt 1/4 teaspoon

• butter, cold, 200g / 7oz

• organic egg yolks 3

• water 2 tablespoons

Combine the flour with the sugar and salt. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter into the flour until combined. Add the egg yolks and water and continue mixing with the hooks of your mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form 2 thick discs, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (top/ bottom heat).

Roll out the dough between cling film and line your tart pans with the flat pastry. Prick with a fork and blind-bake in the hot oven for 12 minutes. Melt the butter for the crumbles while the tarts are in the oven (see recipe below).

Take the pans out of the oven, arrange the apricots (cut side up) in circles on top of the pastry, sprinkle each tart with 1 tablespoon of sugar and prepare the crumbles immediately.

For the crumbles / The tart

• plain flour 200g / 7oz / 1 1/2 cups (you might need more if the crumbles are too sticky)

• granulated sugar 130g / 4 1/2oz / 2/3 cup

• vanilla, scraped, 1/4 pod

• ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons

• butter, melted, 125g / 4 1/2oz (you might need more if the crumbles are too fine)

Have some extra flour and butter to melt close at hand so that you can add some immediately if necessary.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour the melted butter on top and mix quickly with the hooks of your mixer, stop as soon as it crumbles. If the crumbles are too moist and sticky add a little more flour (1-2 tablespoons). If they are too fine and don’t form bigger crumbles add more melted butter.

Spread quickly on top of the apricots, if you have bigger lumps of crumbles you may have to separate them with your fingers. Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes or until the pastry base and crumbles are golden brown. The fruits should start to release their juices, they will soften while the tart cools. You can serve the cakes with ice cream or whipped cream for tea time in the garden (or on your balcony) but we didn't even have that - which allowed us to eat more of the tart!

Blackberry Garden Cake with Lemon Mascarpone

My mother's garden is set in the soft green hills of the countryside, it's surrounded by high bushes and trees, spruce, birch and pine. The lush lawn winds around a curved patch of rhododendron that leads to a little pond covered with the most majestic blossoms of water lilies gently laying on top of waxy leaves. This was once the home to a school of glowing goldfish which, sadly, was discovered by a grey heron one summer. It had all started with two fish which I gave my mother as a birthday present many years ago, they must have really liked each other as it wasn't long before their population grew rapidly. We enjoyed them a lot, it was such a perfect picturesque garden scene. I used to sit next to the roses growing at the stone steps at the water looking at the bright red fish swimming through their kingdom. But nature had a different plan.

The beauty of this garden, its peace and vastness, makes it one of my favourite places in the world. To see my mother working in her vegetable garden which is spread out on a higher level, to watch her picking weeds and choosing our dinner, is such a beautiful picture that I will always carry with me. We discuss the meal and she often teaches me the plants' names which I, unfortunately, tend to forget most of the time. And there's one thing that makes a day out there complete to perfection, a simple, scrumptious garden cake! Nothing too extravagant, a pound cake is always best, with some fresh fruits (preferably from my mother's garden) and a luscious frosting, like my blackberry cake with lemon mascarpone. It's simple enough to eat it with your fingers while enjoying your garden on a sunny afternoon, but then there's the creamy icing which gives it a Sunday tea time touch. It combines everything a good cake needs in my eyes, the recipe is based on my apple cinnamon breakfast cake but the dark fresh berries turn it into a proper summer cake.

Blackberry Cake with Lemon Mascarpone

For a 24cm x 10,5cm / 9.5″ x 4″  loaf tin you need

• plain flour 130g / 1 cup / 4 1/2oz

• cornstarch 30g / 1/4 cup /1oz

• baking powder 1 heaping teaspoon

• a pinch of salt

• butter (at room temperature) 160g / 2/3 cups / 5 1/2oz

• granulated sugar 100g / 1/2 cup / 3 1/2oz

• organic eggs 3

• blackberries 250g / 9oz

For the lemon frosting

• mascarpone 230g / 1 cup / 8oz

• icing sugar 55g / 1/2 cup / 2oz

• heavy cream 90ml / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon

• lemon zest 3 teaspoons plus 1/2 teaspoon for the topping

• lemon juice 3 teaspoons

Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (fan assisted oven) and butter the loaf tin.

Whisk the ingredients for the frosting and adjust to taste and desired texture. Fill in a bowl and keep in the fridge. This is enough frosting to cover the cake on its top and sides.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue mixing for a few minutes until the mixture is thick and creamy. Mix in the dry mixture until well combined. Pour half the dough into the buttered form and arrange a layer of 7-10 blackberries cut in half on top, if the berries are small you'll need 14-20. Set the remaining berries aside. Pour the remaining dough on top of the berries, spread it out evenly and bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden on top. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. Let the cake cool for a few minutes before you take it out of the tin and lay it on a wire rack. When it's completely cool, spread the frosting voluptuously over the top (and sides if you like), garnish with a few berries and lemon zest and serve with the remaining fresh blackberries.

French Breakfast: Crêpes Caramel au Beurre Salé

An unexpected change of plans led to the most delicious French breakfast: thin crêpes with salted butter caramel! And the only reason why we could enjoy this treat was because I failed miserably at another recipe, a complete kitchen failure.

I tried to remake the popular galettes caramel au beurre salé from the Mont Staint Michel region in Normandy which I indulge in with the greatest pleasure whenever I can get hold of them. It's a simple shortcrust cookie with a buttery hint of salted caramel. I didn't expect it to be such a big deal, I had a clear idea of the texture, I did some research of course and then I got started. My kitchen activities began with the preparation of the crème caramel au beurre salé, a thick and luscious salted caramel cream which turned out really nice. At that point, I was still absolutely happy with the result and I continued mixing the dough for the cookies with great confidence but it went downhill from there! When I took the galettes out of the oven I had to face the disappointing truth, my adaptation of the delicate French caramel cookie was too thick and not crunchy and crisp at all. Although the butter caramel was only supposed to be mixed into the dough, I tried to save my creation by topping the baked cookies with a generous dollop of my tasty crème caramel butit was hopeless. I gave up, which doesn't happen very often.

To overcome my culinary disappointment, I took the caramel filled jar out of the fridge and enjoyed a spoonful of it to make amends for the complete disaster. It helped right away, my inspiration came back and reminded me of another French classic, thin breakfast crêpes would be perfect with my delicious caramel. It was so good that I almost forgot about my unpleasant incident, we savoured and emptied the plates down to the last crêpe.

I haven't completely given up on my French caramel cookies but I think I could do with some help: if you are experienced in the cuisine de la Normandie and familiar with galettes caramel au beurre salé and if you know about a satisfying recipe, I'd be more than thankful if you got in touch to bring this kitchen story to a successful ending!

And some more news at the end: I was interviewed by Yahoo Food, they asked me to take over their Instagram this weekend to share a little forecast of the delicious food I'll be eating in Malta next month. For the interview, click here, and here you can follow me on Yahoo Food's Instagram.

Crêpes Caramel au Beurre Salé

You won't need all the caramel for the crêpes, you can keep the leftovers in a jar in the fridge and use it for ice cream and cakes.

For about 20 crêpes (for 4-6 people) you need

For the salted butter caramel - crème caramel au beurre salé

• heavy cream 200ml / 3/4 cups and 3 tablespoons

• icing sugar, sieved, 175g / 1 3/4cups

• butter (unsalted) 90g / 3 1/4oz /1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon (if you use salted butter you can leave out the fleur de sel)

• fleur de sel 1/3 teaspoon, to taste

In a saucepan, warm up the cream, take it off the heat before it starts boiling.

In a medium sized pot, melt the sugar on medium heat until golden brown and liquid, it will take a few minutes. Mind that it doesn't burn. Slowly pour the warm cream into the caramel, be careful as it will bubble up and rise. Keep the heat on medium, add the butter and salt and and whisk gently until the caramel and butter melt and the mixture is even, it will take a few minutes again. Take the pan off the heat, season with salt to taste and set aside. 

For the crêpes

• plain flour, sieved, 260g / 9 1/4oz / 2 cups

• granulated sugar 50g / 1 3/4oz / 1/4 cup

• a pinch of salt

• organic eggs 4

• milk 0.5 l / 2 cups and 1 tablespoon

• butter, to cook the crêpes

Mix the ingredients for the crêpes to a smooth dough (with an electric mixer) and let the batter sit for 10 minutes.

In a heavy (or non-stick) pan, heat half a teaspoon of butter. Pour in a ladle of the dough, holding the pan in your hand and turning it so that the dough spreads evenly and very thinly. The temperature should be on medium-high, the crêpes won’t need more than 1 minute on each side once the heat is set right. When the crêpe is slightly golden on both sides, take the pan off the heat (or spread the crêpe on a large plate) and sprinkle with a little of the caramel. The taste is quite strong, so start with 1/2 teaspoon and add more to taste. Fold it twice and continue with the next batch. You should always melt 1/2 -1 teaspoon of butter in the pan before you fry the next crêpe. Enjoy warm and sprinkle with more caramel and a pinch of fleur de sel on the plates. Strawberries go very well with it!

Rosewater Panna Cotta with Ricotta and Pistachios

Although I'm much more into cakes, pies and cookies than classic desserts, I can enjoy a good panna cotta once in a while with great satisfaction. It only needs a strong addition, chocolate doesn't work for me here but fruits or fragrant flavours. Rosewater, orange blossom water, lavender, rosemary or spices like aniseed, cinnamon or cardamom. Anything which gives the pure milky taste of this basic cream a bit of a punch, a more defined direction is not only welcoming but also necessary to get me hooked on this dish.

Today's recipe definitely manages to get my full attention, the flowery hint of delicate rosewater is more than tempting. It's important that you adjust the amount of the fragrant infusion to your taste though, every product tastes different and varies in intensity. My rosewater is organic, it has no artificial or overpowering nuances, so I could whisk 5 teaspoons into the cream without feeling knocked down by its aroma. Especially in combination with the soft nuttiness of the topping, unsalted pistachios, it reveals a warm, summery feeling. I also stirred in some fresh ricotta which makes it a bit lighter and fits the season.

There's no reason for my preference of baked desserts, the list of recipes on eat in my kitchen can't hide that I totally fall for anything baked. Every few days, I feel the need to eat something sweet that includes pastries, cake doughs and batters. I adore the smell in my kitchen when there's a cake rising in the oven. The whole process of baking food, the warm air around the oven, it feels quite archaic, I like that. But then there are those days which call for different treats, especially in summer, and even more so when we go to Malta, living above 30°C / 86°F constantly day and night, that's the right time for creamy desserts: flans like the Spanish crème caramel, French creme brûlée, Bavarian cream or the wonderful Italian panna cotta. They tend to be lighter and less filling after an extensive dinner. And the preparation takes less time, which makes it a convenient crowd pleaser. You just have to time it well and keep in mind that it has to set in the fridge for a few hours which is another reason to give it a go at your summer dinner parties. You just open the door of your fridge, pull out the ramekins and sprinkle them pretty - done!

Rosewater Panna Cotta with Ricotta and Pistachios 

For a small dessert for 4 or for a hungry couple (like us) you need

• gelatine sheets (size 7 1/2 x 11 1/2cm / 3 x 4 1/2") 2 1/2 sheets

• heavy cream 240ml / 1 cup

• milk 110ml / 1/2 cup

• a pinch of salt

• granulated sugar 40g / 3 generous tablespoons

• vanilla pod, scraped, 1

• quality rosewater (preferably organic) 5 tablespoons, to taste

• fresh ricotta 50g / scant 1/4 cup

• unsalted pistachios, chopped, 1 1/2 tablespoons, for the topping

• rose pedals, for the topping (optionally)

Break the gelatin sheets in half and soak in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes.

In a sauce pan, bring the cream, milk, salt, sugar and vanilla to the boil. Take the pan off the heat once it's bubbling and squeeze in the gelatin, add the whole crumbled sheets and whisk until dissolved. Add 2 teaspoons of rosewater and the ricotta and whisk until combined. Add more rosewater to taste (I stopped at 5 teaspoons) and let the mixture cool in the pan (whisk it a few times while cooling). Once the cream is cool (it will still be liquid) pour it into 4 small ramekins, cover with cling film and refrigerate for about 4 hours (or overnight) or until the panna cotta is set. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios and rose pedals, you can also serve it with fruits, strawberries are great!

Cinnamony Rhubarb Meringue Pie

This has been my rhubarb week. I bought too many of the flavor-packed stalks for my rhubarb and leek gratin on Monday - their colorful beauty was just too tempting and I ended up grabbing (and buying) as much as I could fit in my hands. So the green and red pile of rhubarb on my marble counter top called for a compote, or even better, a pie!

I felt inspired by lemon meringue pie: an elegant pie made of a crumbly short crust, yet instead of lemon, topped with the fruitiest, cinnamony rhubarb curd you can imagine and finished off with a cloud of sweet meringue. I love lemon pie but learned that rhubarb lifts it onto another level, at least for my taste. It's such a fruity, sour, and slightly sweet and buttery composition.

A short note: The curd in the cool pie will be a bit more set than you see in the pictures, I cut it too early - tempted by my impatient appetite!

You can also find this recipe in my book 365: recipe no. 98!

Rhubarb Meringue Pie

For a 23cm / 9" pie (in a shallow pie dish) you need

For the pastry

• plain flour 160g / 1 1/4 cups / 5 1/2oz

• granulated sugar 1 tablespoon

• salt 1/4 teaspoon

• butter 90g / 3/4 stick / 3 1/4oz

• water (cold) 3 tablespoons

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut the butter with a knife into the flour until there are just little pieces of butter left. Continue with your fingers and rub the butter quickly into the flour until combined. Add the water and continue mixing with the hooks of an electric mixer until you have a crumbly mixture. Form a thick disc, wrap in cling film and put in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Set the oven to 200°C / 400°F (top/ bottom heat).

Roll out the dough between cling film and line your pie dish with the flat pastry. Prick it with a fork and blind-bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes or until golden. Let it cool completely. 

For the rhubarb curd

First you make a rhubarb compote which you then turn into a curd.

• rhubarb, cut into 0.5 cm / 1/4" slices, 680g / 1 1/2 pounds

• granulated sugar 150g / 3/4 cup / 5 1/4oz for the compote, plus 2 tablespoons for the curd

• ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon

• water 75ml / 1/3 cup for the curd, plus 1 tablespoon for the compote

• butter 1 tablespoon

• cornstarch 60g / 1/2 cup

• pinch of salt

• organic egg yolks, beaten, 3

For the compote, heat the rhubarb, 150g (3/4 cups) of sugar, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of water in a large pot on medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat to medium-high and cook for 10 minutes (open, without a lid). Take off the heat and stir in the butter.

For the curd, whisk 75ml (1/3 cup) water, the cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of sugar and salt and add to the hot rhubarb. Bring to the boil and cook for 3 minutes on medium-high heat, stir once in a while. Take 1 tablespoon of this mixture and whisk into the beaten egg yolks, pour the egg-compote mixture back into the pot with the rhubarb. Bring to the boil, stir constantly and cook for half a minute. Take the pot off the heat, pour the curd into a bowl and let it cool completely. You could place the bowl on cooling pads to speed up the process. 

For the meringue

• egg whites 3

• granulated sugar 80g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon

• a pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites with the salt, adding the sugar gradually while beating, until the white is stiff. 

The pie

Set the oven to  200°C / 400°F (top/ bottom heat).

Pour the cool rhubarb curd on top of the pastry and finish it off with the stiff egg whites, you can form little peaks with a knife to create an uneven surface. Bake for 7 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crisp. Let it sit for about 30 minutes before cutting for the curd to set. The pie still tastes great the next day (after keeping it in the fridge) but it won't look as pretty.

Blueberry Lemon Swiss Roll

My mother doesn't have a sweet tooth at all, we are complete opposites when it comes to cakes and dessert. I have no problem scarfing down a quarter of a cake on my own, and she's happy with a slice so thin that I wouldn't even bother cutting it. We look very much alike, we share the same birthday month and we both love to make a daily feast out of our lives, but our sweet preferences couldn't be further apart.

So when she visited us last week, there weren't many sweet treats on our culinary schedule but when I put my blueberry lemon swiss roll on the table, she impressed me. I was prepared to cut impossibly thin slices for her but, to my surprise, she got hooked on the roll. Usually, I'm the one who takes the last piece of a cake, my reputation is well known in my family when it comes to sweets, my appetite is insatiable. You can offer me the most extensive meal but even if I have to struggle towards the end, there's always space for a well sized dessert. But this time, the last piece wasn't for me, my mother asked for it and I don't think I'll ever forget this moment.

I must admit that my swiss roll was tempting on many levels, the spongy cake is absolutely heavenly, light, fluffy but structured, refined with lots of lemon zest. The blueberries added a juicy crunchiness but the cream filling was the actual star that made the whole composition complete. I whipped the cream with a little sugar and cardamom which creates an addictive deliciousness in combination with the lemony roll. The three of us loved it so much that this huge roll didn't even last 24 hours!

Here's the link to my strawberry swiss roll!

Blueberry Lemon Swiss Roll

For a 30cm / 12" roll you need

• organic eggs 4

• granulated sugar 70g / 1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons for the whipped cream and 2-4 tablespoons for sprinkling

• a pinch of salt

• lemon zest 1 teaspoon

• plain flour 70g / 1/2 cup

• cornstarch 30g / 1/4 cup

• blueberries 250g / 1/2 pound (keep 6 berries as decoration)

• whipping cream 220g / 1 cup

• ground cardamom 1/2 teaspoon

• icing sugar to dust the roll

Set the oven to 220°C / 425°F (top / bottom heat) and line a baking sheet (minimum 30 x 30cm / 12 x 12″) with parchment paper.

Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt for a few seconds before you add half the sugar, continue beating until stiff.

Mix the egg yolks, lemon zest and the remaining sugar with an electric mixer until thick and creamy. Fold the egg white into the egg yolks with a wooden spoon. Sieve and combine the flour and cornstarch and fold gently into the egg mixture. Spread the dough on the lined baking sheet (30 x 30cm / 12 x 12″) and bake in the middle of the oven for 6 minutes or until golden and spongy.

Sprinkle a kitchen towel with 2-4 tablespoons of sugar and flip the warm sponge onto the towel. Peel off the parchment paper and carefully roll the sponge with the towel. Leave it rolled up until cool. You can see the picture in my strawberry roll post (link above).

Whip the cream, cardamom and 2 tablespoons of sugar until thick and creamy and adjust sugar and spice to taste.

Unwind the sponge roll carefully and lay it onto a working surface. Spread the whipped cream on the cake, leave a rim of 2cm / 3/4". Cover with blueberries and roll it up again, slowly and gently, mind not to squeeze the cream out from the sides. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with the berries and a little lemon zest. Serve immediately or keep in the fridge before serving.

Rhubarb Cardamom Clafoutis

In the past few weeks, my kitchen (and sometimes even the living room and balcony) has looked like a farmer's market. I use every corner, kitchen counter, shelf and cupboard to store piles of fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes, squash and beans sit next to colourful cabbages, lettuce, the whole range of citrus fruits and more pots of herbs than I've ever had in my kitchen before. Plums, strawberries, pears and apples share space with all sorts of roots and greens. Since I started working on my first cookbook, my kitchen became a beautiful mess, completely stuffed and almost bursting. My fridge is always so full that I have problems fitting in the butter tin and milk after breakfast.

If there are no book recipes on my schedule, I only need to look around me and I can pick all the fruit and veg I could possibly ask for. There's everything at hand, whatever my taste desires. Be it spring, summer, autumn or winter, the four seasons are present in my kitchen through all the produce, which also means that there is always something that needs to be used as I don't want to waste anything. I ended up with too many eggs, too much milk and too much rhubarb, this called for a clafoutis! I refined the golden French pan dish with cardamom, you could also add cinnamon but cardamom is my favourite baking spice at the moment. The result was very fluffy, I was impressed how much it rose this time! You never really know what this dessert is going to do when you take it out of the oven. The pleasure didn't last very long, a clafoutis can gracefully rise like a soufflé and then deflate within seconds. But it tasted fantastic, warm and fragrant, slightly sweet and sour, just right for a late Sunday breakfast with your mama - Happy Mother's Day to all the great mamas in the world!

You can find the recipe for my apricot clafoutis here!

Rhubarb Cardamom Clafoutis

For a 23cm /9″ heavy, ovenproof pan or baking dish you need

• rhubarb, cut into 3cm / 1 1/4" pieces, 300g / 10 1/2oz

• ground cardamom

• plain flour 80g / 3 ounces

• granulated sugar 4 tablespoons plus 2 tablespoons for the rhubarb

• a pinch of salt

• butter, melted, 30g / 1 ounce plus 2 tablespoons for the rhubarb

• large eggs 4

• milk 200ml / 7 ounces

• freshly squeezed orange juice 3 tablespoons

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom in a heavy pan, add the rhubarb and cook for about 3 minutes or until it softens but still holds its shape, stir once in a while. Set the pan aside.

Set the oven to 180°C / 355°F (top / bottom heat) and generously butter a 23cm /9″ heavy, ovenproof pan or baking dish.

Combine the flour, 4 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. Whisk 1 teaspoon of cardamom into the warm melted butter and mix with the eggs, milk and orange juice then pour into the dry mixture and mix with an electric mixer until well combined.

Spread the rhubarb in the buttered pan and pour the batter on top. Bake for about 50 minutes or until the clafoutis is golden and set. Sprinkle the warm clafoutis with sugar and ground cardamom to taste and enjoy immediately.

Frances Bissell's Lavender & White Chocolate Caramel Cake

This is advanced lavender baking! When I shared my Lavender Gâteau Breton recipe with you a couple weeks ago, I mentioned Frances Bissell's fantastic baking book, The Floral Baker. The renowned British cookbook author inspired me to give the aromatic blue flowers a try in my kitchen and to add them to my own baking. I started off with the preparation of a jar full of lavender sugar about a month ago, the floral sweetness needs some time to develop its exhilarating qualities. For my buttery French cake, the Gâteau Breton, I sieved the sugar and used the florets just for the topping. I wanted to take it easy at first, to get used to this new flavour and to avoid straining my taste buds without even getting started properly.

So now I felt ready to take the next step, the advanced level of floral baking. I got in touch with Stephen from Serif Books to see if I could share one of the floral master's recipes on eat in my kitchen. We got along very well and I found out that Frances lives in England and Gozo and also includes traditional Maltese recipes in her cooking. I really hope to meet her there one day for a meet in your kitchen feature on the blog!

After reading her book I felt quite torn between a few recipes but in the end I went for Frances' Lavender and White Chocolate Caramel Cake. It sounded so decadent and rich that I had to give it a try. The creation is based on her mother's recipe for toffee cake and it has been in her family since the early 1960s. It's like Millionaire's shortbread, just with white chocolate. It starts off with a thin shortcrust base infused with the beautiful aroma of lavender, topped with toffee cream and a final layer of crunchy white chocolate. The creation looks a bit old fashioned which I love, it's the right treat for high tea with the ladies, when you bring out the nice porcelain and get dressed up. I didn't use my bone China at my table but another gem I found recently, the beautiful plates and bowls (and my beloved new measuring spoons!) by Ferm Living in Denmark. It's a clean, grey stoneware collection inspired by Bauhaus classics. My friend Anne, the photographer I mentioned last Sunday, told me about their stunning designs, she knows that I'm always on the lookout for nice tableware. Luckily, we have a similar taste, which is quite minimal, and we're both picky, so I found the perfect design scout for me!

Lavender & White Chocolate Caramel Cake

Recipe by Frances Bissell

Mind that you prepare the lavender sugar a few days (or even weeks) in advance, 10 parts sugar and 1 part organic lavender flowers (L. augustifolia, Hidcote).

For a 20cm / 8" cake tin, about 4cm / 1 1/2" deep, you need

For the shortbread

• plain flour 115g / 4oz

• lavender sugar 25g / 1oz (I used mainly the sugar and 1 teaspoon of the flowers)

• butter, cold, 50g / 2oz

For the topping

• Golden Syrup 2 tablespoons

• condensed milk 395g / 14oz

• quality white chocolate 200g / 7oz

• a drop of culinary lavender essence (I left this out and sprinkled the cake with lavender flowers instead)

Set the oven to 190°C / 375°F (fan assisted oven) and lightly butter the cake tin (or line the tin with parchment paper).

For the shortbread, mix the flour, lavender sugar and butter with the hooks of your mixer. Press the dough into the tin and bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove the tin from the oven and leave the shortbread in it.

For the toffee, pour the Golden Syrup and the condensed milk into a saucepan, stir together over moderate heat until well-mixed, then boil precisely 7 minutes, stirring all the time.

Spread the mixture over the shortbread and allow it to cool. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water, mix in the essence if you would like to use it and spread over the cooled toffee, marking into small triangles, squares or fingers, as appropriate, before the chocolate has set. Sprinkle with lavender flowers. Cut when cold.

Strawberry Ricotta Muffins

The past 10 days have been packed with excitement - too much for me at times. It started off with an urgent change to a new camera and laptop and I wasn't too happy about this at first. I'm not a very technical person, I prefer sticking to a set up once it's up and running rather than getting used to all sorts of technical novelties every couple years. I'm a bit lazy in that respect, but my forthcoming cookbook pushed me out of my comfort zone and called for new equipment. After 2 days of confusion and desperation, a long talk with my wonderful and patient photographer friend Anne Deppe, I felt ready for a new technical era in my life!

So once all these issues were solved, I could finally get started with the first recipes for my book. It felt a bit intimidating in the beginning when I took the pictures. I thought "wow, this will be printed one day, I'll be able to hold these photos in my hands next year". No more digital flexibility, this is the unchangeable analog world, I'll have to make final decisions together with my editor Holly which will be irreversible at one point and printed onto paper! I stopped for a few minutes, put the camera aside and took my time to process everything that happened in the past month. I looked at the camera and the sandwich on the table right in front of me and made a decision: this is going to be fun, exactly like my blog!

Eat in my kitchen has always been about my love for food and my enjoyment in the kitchen, I've enjoyed every second of this journey and I'll keep it this way. So when this mental hurdle was overcome, the recipe craziness began: I cooked and baked 17 new dishes in the past 5 days, luckily I had family in the house, visiting me in Berlin. Everyone was more than happy to test the recipes and I was glad to hear their feedback. It was a very satisfying experience for both sides and there are hopefully many more to come in the next few weeks and months while I'm cooking and baking for the book.

When I met my friend Anna to talk about my technical issues, I decided to make a bunch of muffins with relaxing and caressing qualities. I needed some soul food for my stressed mind. I threw in my first strawberries of the year and their subtle sweetness matched wonderfully to the smooth dough which I refined with ricotta, olive oil and orange juice. They came out as being perfect spring breakfast muffins, light and fruity - and they relaxed me!

Strawberry Ricotta Muffins

For a muffin tray with 12 molds you need

• plain flour 320g / 11 1/4oz

• granulated sugar 100g / 3 1/2oz plus 1-2 teaspoons for the topping

• baking powder 3 leveled teaspoons

• baking soda 1/2 teaspoon

• salt 1/4 teaspoon

• organic eggs 2

• ricotta 250g / 9oz

• olive oil 100ml / 3 1/2fl oz

• freshly squeezed orange juice 30ml / 1fl oz

• strawberries, cut into chunks, 200g / 7 ounces

Set your oven to 190°C / 375°F (fan-assisted oven) and put paper baking cups into the 12 molds of the muffin tray.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Take out 1 heaped tablespoon of the flour-sugar mixture and mix quickly with the strawberries. In a second bowl, mix the eggs, ricotta, olive oil and orange juice until light and fluffy and pour into the bowl with the dry mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon until you have a lumpy dough (with a bit of flour left here and there) and gently fold in the chopped strawberries. Keep in mind, the more you mix it the more it will lose its light texture.

Fill the muffin tray with the dough and bake for about 18 minutes or until golden. Take 1 muffin out of the tray and check with your finger if the bottom is baked through (the strawberries will make it very juicy). Sprinkle the muffins with a little sugar and let them cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before you put them on your breakfast table.

Lavender Gâteau Breton

This little Gâteau Breton looks so simple and innocent but there's a rich and buttery depth behind its golden crust that can easily compete with any lavish layer cake. I admire the sweet French cuisine for mastering the art of getting the most out of a piece of butter, a few eggs and some sugar and flour. This is minimalism brought to perfection in baking.

I chose this Brittany butter cake as it seemed the right recipe to try out my new homemade lavender sugar. A spongy shortbread, that's how I would describe it, sprinkled with the most fragrant purple sugar, it sounded so good and it tasted even better. Frances Bissell, the woman behind the wonderful baking book The Floral Baker, is a genius mind responsible for many wonderful sweet and savoury creations refined with lavender, jasmine, rose petals, orange flower water, wild garlic or saffron. Her recipe collection is a journey through nature's opulence, I felt so inspired by the way she introduces new flavours and offers fresh combinations that I had never heard of or thought about. I already decided that her Saffron and Rosewater Biscuits, Lavender and Tomato Tart and the Lavender White Chocolate Caramel Cake will soon make an appearance on my kitchen table!

My first practical approach to her book was the preparation of lavender sugar. Frances suggests 10 parts sugar and 1 part lavender flowers (L. augustifolia, Hidcote), I trust this experienced baker so I decided to fill a huge jar up to the brim. My new pantry project satisfied me instantly, every couple days, I took it off the shelf to shake my flowery treasure and imagined all the recipes it would refine in future. Pure relaxation in a jar!

After a few weeks the time had come to give it a go and I think I couldn't have had a better start to my flower project. I didn't mix the sugar in in the dough, I just sprinkled the purple flowers and sugar on top of my warm Gâteau Breton and it instantly spread its beautiful aroma. It looked stunning, it took a French baking classic to another level and my boyfriend, who isn't usually too fond of lavender, couldn't get enough of it (like me)!

I'm with Diana Henry on The Floral Baker: 'So thrilled with this by the wonderful Frances Bissell'! Thrilled and inspired, that's the best a cookbook can do!

Lavender Gateau Breton

Mind that you prepare the lavender sugar a few days (or even weeks) in advance, 10 parts sugar and 1 part organic lavender flowers (L. augustifolia, Hidcote), you'll only need a couple teaspoons for this cake.

For a 25cm / 10" tart pan you need

• plain flour 200g / 7oz

• baking powder 3/4 teaspoon

• a pinch of salt

• butter, soft, 150g / 5 1/4oz

• organic egg yolks 3 plus 1 egg

• granulated sugar 125g / 4 1/2oz

For the glaze

• organic egg yolk 1

• water 1 tablespoon

For the topping

• lavender sugar 1-2 teaspoons, to taste

Set the oven to 170°C / 340°F (fan-assisted oven) and butter the tart pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, the egg and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the butter and mix with the hooks of your mixer, add the flour and continue mixing until combined. Scrape the dough into the tart pan (it will be sticky) and even out the surface a little. Whisk the egg yolk and water for the glaze and brush the top of the dough. Scratch a diamond pattern into the surface (as you can see in the pictures), mind that you scratch deep enough, otherwise the pattern will melt away while baking. Sprinkle with a teaspoon of lavender sugar (without the flowers) and bake for 25-28 minutes or until golden. Sprinkle the warm cake with a little more lavender sugar (this time with the flowers as well).