Ginger-Lemon Summer Fruit Cake with Fruit Compote

Fruit cakes are high up on my favorite cakes list, and with summer fruits in abundance, it is only natural to bake them even more often.
This time, I used a combination of black plums, apricots and peaches, which I paired with freshly grated ginger, lemon juice, lemon zest and hard apple cider – to enhance the fruits’ flavors and aroma.

Lime and Lavender Cake with Peaches

Lime and lavender is one of my favorite flavor combinations: their fresh and floral fragrance enhances one another beautifully. So, when I decided to bake a light summer cake, I wanted to use this favorite combination again, and came up with the quick and easy to assemble cake you see here.

Apricot and Cardamom Muffins

Apricot season is very short, and on top of it, they tend to soften quickly after buying. So when I ended up with some that started to soften, I decided to bake some quick muffins with them.

Cherries and Almonds Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a simple French dessert, in which fruits are baked in a light custard. The dish is traditionally made with cherries, although there are plenty of versions with other fruits as well. As cherries season is at its peak right now, I decided to prepare it using them.

Upside-down Cake with Cherries, Blueberries and Lavender

If you follow this blog for a while, you probably noticed by now that I’m very fond of upside-down cakes. The combination of buttery, caramelized fruit layer, with a light tasty cake on top,  is one I can have again and again, and I enjoy creating new combinations for the basic cake.

Upside Down Cake with Nectarines, Plums and Cherries

If you follow this blog for a while now, you’ve probably noticed my fondness for upside-down cakes. The combination of buttery, caramelized fruit layer, with the tasty cake on top, makes me want to bake it again and again.

Marbled Vanilla and Quark Cheese Cake

Cheese cakes are on top of my favorite cakes, but as they take a while to bake and set, and as they are quite heavy and sweet, I end up rarely making them.
Yet, the crave for the wonderful tangy flavor of baked fresh cheese is always there, so I came up with a fairly quick “fix”, in the form of the following cake.

Peach, Cherries, Coconut and Cacao Nibs Muffins

With plenty of juicy summer fruits available, I usually end up buying more than can keep fresh. One of the solutions for this “problem” is to incorporate such fruits in quick and easy to make breakfast muffins, like the ones you see here.

These light, moist and tasty muffins can also make a great snack for lunch, or any time you feel like having a not too sweet fruity snack. Try them and enjoy.

Upside-down Rhubarb Cake

Well… it seems I was too optimistic to think I can post a new post this week. So, once again, I’m re-blogging an older post from 2 years ago.
I use this recipe year-round, with different types of fruits, but this version with rhubarb is still my favorite. As rhubarb season is right now, I’m sure the recipe will come handy.
See you next week (hopefully) with a new recipe.

Tasty Eats

Upside-down cakes got a bad reputation it the States, and it is no wonder why, when most of the recipes for it call for “a box of yellow cake mix, canned pineapples in heavy syrup and artificiality red colored maraschino cherries”…
Yet, upside-down cakes are wonderful when made properly; the sugar and butter at the bottom caramelize lightly, blending nicely with the fruit and with the cake batter on top. Add to this the fact that the cake is very easy to make, and you can’t help but wonder why on earth anyone would consider ruining this nice cake with all those horrid ingredients. So, here’s a chance to redeem the cakes’ bad reputation.

As I found beautiful rhubarb at the store, I’ve decided to use it for the fruit layer – and it turned out to be a great match. The color pops up and the tangy flavor is…

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Quince Squares Sweets

As promised, here is another quince recipe.This time it is in the form of sweet and fragrant small bites, made of cooked and slightly dried quince paste.

Pineapple-Cherry Cake

We refer to the pineapple as one “fruit”, but it is interesting to know that it is actually a “multiple fruit”. This means the “fruit” consists of many smaller fruits, that are formed from a cluster of flowers. Each flower produces a “fruit”, but as they all grow together, they create what looks like one single fruit. Other familiar “multiple fruits” are figs, mulberries and strawberries.
Maybe the fact that they are produced from many flowers is the reason these fruits usually have an incredible aroma?