Peach Cake

Happy Sunday and happy Labour Day Weekend!

I am looking forward to be back blogging after a bit of a longer-than-I-thought-I-would-take summer/blogging break. I’ve also went to Switzerland visiting my family which was really really beautiful.

 

View from the “Schynige Platte”.

“Brienzer Rothorn”

“Lauernsee”

When I came back it was finally Peach Season! Fresh peaches from the Niagara Region in Ontario.

My daughter came back from a trip to the St. Jacobs Farmers Market with a box full of smaller, but so delicious local peaches. Of course I had to use some to make a cake;)

 

Peach Cake 

• 125 g butter, soft
• 125 g coconut sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200 g white spelt flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 organic lemon, zest only
• 3-4 (small) peaches, sliced

-Line the bottom of a 24 cm round baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

-Whisk the butter with the sugar, salt, lemon zest and eggs until foamy. Add the flour and baking powder, mix until well combined.

-Fill into prepared baking pan. Top with the peach slices.

-Bake in preheated oven for 45 min. or until tester comes out clean.

 

Enjoy!

Ursula

 

You can follow me on Instagram: littleswisslittlecanadian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sweet Almond Buns

Hi there, happy Wednesday!

I was planning on making my Almond Croissants, using up some almonds I have left from Christmas baking, and I like to try out some new recipes or just play with ingredients a little. For this recipe I used only white Spelt flour and used coconut oil instead of butter. The yeast dough turned out pretty nice, maybe a little to soft to work with. After rolling it out and spreading with the nut filling, it was a little tricky to roll it up and did not stay nicely in shape, thaaats when I had to improvise a little and just turned them into little knots/buns, lol:)

Anyways…they are delicious. The dairy-free yeast dough is really nice and soft.

 

Sweet Almond Buns

Sweet yeast dough and almond filling:

Please refer to the following link for recipe and instructions.

Almond Croissants

• Using: 300 g white Spelt flour, instead of all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted, instead of butter

(I should mention again that I write down milk in my recipes but I usually use cashew, almond or coconut milk.)

-Once you rolled them into croissants, form them into little knots/buns.

These are dairy-free and refined sugar-free.

 

 

Enjoy!

Ursula

 

 

You can find me on Instagram: littleswisslittlecanadian

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little throwback to our vacation in Switzerland and Italy, Summer 2016

As I was looking through my photos of last years vacation, I though it would be fun to show some of the things we ate while in Switzerland and Italy. Yes I do make pictures of our food, if it looks nice I’ll snap a pic;) And I am not the only one…

We went to Switzerland last summer to visit my family. It was a very special and important time for all of us. My father had to undergo a very dangerous heart operation in June, where they only gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. Feeling so blessed and still emotional that he survived, I can’t explain how it felt to see my dad end of July.

Usually we only eat out a few times, it is pretty expensive in Switzerland and we are able to cook and eat at “home”, that’s why I have only a few pictures to show.

This was one of my kids plate. They (we) love Cordon-Bleu.

My “Fitness” Plate , as they call it, this was salad with deep fried fish, okay the deep fried part is probably not so fitness related;), but I love how they make salads.

Now this is a iconic meal you need to eat if you are ever going to Switzerland: “Rahmschnitzel”. So delicious!

My kids and I love the “Kalbsbratwurst” (veal sausage), another traditional dish usually served with “Roesti” (Hashbrowns).

 

We also went on a little trip to Venice, Italy. We went by train, 6 hours. Venice is a very interesting and beautiful City.

Bridge of Sighs

Very cute side passages

It was my kids first time in Italy so they really had their minds on trying an Italian pizza:) and gelato (ice cream), for what I was to late to take a picture from, lol.

This was for one person-they had no sizes to choose from! Way to much, but delizioso!

 

I had to have Gnocchi al pesto-this is one of my favorite dishes-so good!

Cappucchino

(Pizza)Bread Faces- so cool!

 

Back in Switzerland:

Beatus Caves.

Following pictures are from the french speaking part of Switzerland. We stayed with my two brothers and families in a Chalet. That was lots of fun!

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my little throwback!

Ursula

 

 

Peach-Crumble-Cake/ Pfirsich-Streuselkuchen

Here is another Streusel cake I’ve made. You can find my Apple-Crumb-Cake here: Apple-Crumb-Cake/ Apfelstreuselkuchen. With all the amazing summer fruits and berries in season now, we just had to have another Streuselkuchen:) This time I used peaches and it was so good. It is not quit the same recipe as the Apple-Crumb-Cake, I think it was even better:)

My kids are having their long summer vacation now, that means we have more time to do things together like baking! These are some of the things my daughter and I’ve created so far;)

Maple-Almond-Buns

Giant Cinnamon Bun Cake

Strawberry-Banana-Pops

 

 

My Peach-Crumble-Cake/Pfirsich-Streuselkuchen

 

Peach-Crumble-Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 120 g honey
• 2 pk vanilla sugar or 2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 100 g butter, soft
• 250 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• about 600 g peach slices

Streusel:

• 250 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 120 g honey
• 150 g butter, soft
• 1 pk vanilla sugar or 1 tbsp vanilla extract

-Line a 9×13-inch (23x32cm) baking dish with parchment paper.

-Preheat oven to 350F/180C.

-Cream together eggs, honey, vanilla sugar and butter. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to wet ingredients, mix well.

-For the Streusel: mix flour, honey, butter and vanilla sugar until crumbly.

-Fill batter into prepared baking dish. Top with peach slices and then cover with the Streusel.

-Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Tip: I’ve used frozen peaches from last summer, just left them to thaw a bit.

 

Enjoy!

Ursula

 

 

You can find me on Instagram: @littleswisslittlecanadian

 

Semi-frozen Strawberry Tarts

I hope you all have or had a lovely Sunday!! We are going through the first hot weather this year, today it is 32C, and humid in southern Ontario! It would be so nice to jump into a pool right now…

We finally went to a Strawberry Farm at the beginning of the week and bought a lot of strawberries:) And we are picking the first few from our garden. After that amazing Strawberry-Coconut-Cake for my birthday I am back at making also a little bit more healthier treats again. I totally love strawberry tarts, I had two;) when I was in Switzerland (forgot to make a picture). So instead of making a pastry crust, I made an unbaked, raw nut base, filled it with my coconut custard from Coconut Custard mini tarts with mixed berries and put it in the freezer, then decorated it with strawberries-that easy, so refreshingly delicious!

 

Semi-frozen Strawberry Tarts

 

-Makes 10 tarts

 

Coconut-Custard:

-get recipe here: Coconut Custard mini tarts with mixed berries

-Prepare ahead of time. It needs a few hours to cool and set in the fridge.

 

No bake nut base:

• 3/4 cup pistachios
• 1 cup blanched almonds
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

-Blend nuts together until coarse crumbs, add rest of ingredients, pulse a few more time until holds together. Press into cupcake tins. I used silicon forms, slightly greased.

 

Decoration:

• Strawberries

 

-Once the custard is set, you can fill the cupcake tins. Let freeze for a few hours. It will be easier to take out of the form. Decorate with Strawberries and keep in the refrigerator for semi-frozen or put it (without the berries) back in the freezer. My husband and I liked it more semi-frozen, my kids liked it really cold;) LOL

 

 

 

How do you beat the heat?

 

 

Enjoy!

Ursula

 

You can find me on Instagram: @littleswisslittlecanadian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bee Sting Cake/Bienenstich

Hi there, I am finally back! I’ve had a wonderful trip to Switzerland-visiting my family, I really really enjoyed it:)

I thought you might like to see some photos I took:

 

Lake Thun

Eiger, Moench, Jungfraujoch

Beatenbucht, Lake Thun

Schloss/Castle Schoenau

Spitzbub Cookie

Nussgipfel

Bienenstich/Bee Sting Cake

Seeing all the yummy stuff over there, I thought of making Bienenstich, Bee Sting Cake. A famous German Cake.

 

Bienenstich

Yeast Dough

• 250 g all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar or honey
• 50 g soft butter
• 1 tbsp quick instant yeast
• 200 ml milk, warm
• 1 egg

For the topping:

• 50 g butter
• 2-3 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp milk
• 100 g almond shavings

Vanilla Pastry Cream:

• 3 tbsp corn starch
• 400 ml milk
• 3 tbsp sugar or honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 vanilla pod

For the dough: In a bowl mix together flour, salt, sugar, add butter and mix well. Add Yeast, milk and egg. Knead dough well until smooth dough forms. Cover bowl with a plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size.

For the Almond topping: In a small saucepan over medium heat, mix together butter, honey, milk and almonds until warm, remove from heat.

For the pastry cream: In a medium saucepan mix together, and bring the milk, corn starch, sugar, egg and vanilla pod to a boil, while whisking. Remove from heat, pour into a bowl, cover with a plastic wrap touching the cream to prevent a “skin” forming on top. Let cool down a bit then put in the fridge until set.

-Preheat oven to 350F/180C. You can use a round cake pan or a square pan.  Line with parchment paper.

-Roll out dough to fit the pan, let rise again. Cover with almond topping and bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool completely.

-Cut cake in half. Spread pastry cream on bottom then cover with top. Cut in desired slices. Store in Refrigerator.

 

 

Enjoy!

Ursula

 

 

Follow me on Instagram: #littleswisslittlecanadian

Lemon Easter “Egg” Cookies

Happy weekend everyone!

After an other taste of spring weather craziness, we are hopefully done with snow until next winter! I am really looking forward to warmer temperatures and some more spring flowers blooming in our garden, for now only crocuses are blooming.

I found these fun “egg” cookies on the chefkoch.de website and just had to give it a try!!

These are so cute:) I really like the lemon curd filling that I found on texanerin.com, it is so refreshing! You could also fill these with apricot jelly.

My kids are maybe a little to old now for Easter egg hunt and such, but we are never to old for some little treats;)

 

Makes about 5 big and 10 small cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

 

Lemon Easter Egg Cookies 

• 150 g butter, soft
• 1 tsp organic lemon zest
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 75 g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp milk
• 150 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 75 g cornstarch

-Whisk together butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest. Add flour, cornstarch, milk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

 

Lemon Curd (Paleo) 

• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• zest of 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup refined coconut oil or unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup+1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

-Mix together eggs, honey and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium-low heat stirring constantly until it thickens, about 5-10 minutes.

-Strain and let cool completely. Store in airtight container (I used a mason jar) in the fridge for up to 1 week.

 

-Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

-Roll out the dough 2-3 mm thick, they will rise a bit. Cut out a even amount of egg shape cookies. I had one left over which I baked just like that and then was gobbled up by my daughter for “testing” of course:) Half of the cookies need a small hole, you can do that by taking a small circle cookie cutter or the round part of a piping tip.

-Bake in a 200C/390F preheated oven for about 11 minutes or light brown. Let cool completely.

-Spread lemon curd on half of the cookies. Dust the cookies with the hole with icing sugar or a cookie icing (lemon juice and icing sugar mixed together). Place two cookies together. Store in fridge.

 

–I used 1/4 cup honey for the dough instead the icing sugar–

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Thank you so much for 200 followers!!! It was amazing to get to know so many amazing bloggers and looking forward to many more:)

 

You can find me on Instagram #littleswisslittlecanadian

 

Ursula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maple Coconut Tarts

Happy weekend everyone!! My kids had a week off from school for Spring (March) Break. Unfortunately the weather did not turn out to be so great…in other words, winter returned! For most of the week it was snowing and cold.

Anyway I found another way of using Maple Syrup in a recipe…I promise I will stop soon, but it is still the season right!;) These Coconut Tarts were soooooo good! I will definitely make these again soon.

Use with your favorite pastry. Makes enough filling for 7 tarts. I will add the pastry I used.

 

Maple Coconut Tarts

• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• pinch sea salt
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup coconut, shredded, unsweetened

 

-Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Grease 7 muffin tins and line with your favorite pastry.

-In a small bowl, mix all ingredients together well. Fill in prepared tart shells only 3/4 full. Bake at 400F/200C for 15 minutes.

 

 

Following recipe is adapted from my 1985 Betty Bossi book “Dessert Traeume”.

Pastry

• 125 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 pinch sea salt
• 3 tbsp honey or sugar
• 50 g butter, cold, cut in small pieces
• 50 g coconut, shredded, unsweetened
• 1 egg

-Mix flour, salt and honey or sugar. Add butter pieces and using your hands rub everything together until it resembles fine crumbs. Mix in coconuts then add the egg and mix everything well. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

-On a floured surface roll out dough and cut out circles to fit 7 muffin moulds.

 

Coconut Dream!!

 

Enjoy!

 

You can find me on Instagram: #littleswisslittlecanadian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brownie Heart Cupcakes

 

Can’t decide if you want to make Brownies or Cupcakes? How about a Brownie Cupcake?!

This is a cute Valentines treat for all those chocolate lovers out there!!

 

 

 

(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)

 

Brownie Heart Cupcakes

Makes 24

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 1 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 1/2 cup unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs, room temp.
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

 

-Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Line a 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.

-Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Place butter and chocolate in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water, stirring until chocolate melts.

-Attach bowl to mixer, add sugar and whisk on medium-high speed until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture.

-Divide batter among muffing cups, filling each 2/3 full. Spread remaining batter in square pan. Bake until set but still soft, about 20 minutes. Let cool in tins and pan on wire racks.

-Frost cupcakes with buttercream. Cut out 24 hearts from brownie in pan. Top each cupcake with a heart.

 

Basic Buttercream

• 12 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp.
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk, room temp.
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

 

-In a medium bowl sift together confectioners sugar and cocoa powder. Add butter, milk and vanilla. Stir until smooth and free of lumps.

–Buttercream can be stored in refrigerator up to two weeks–

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Lovely Blog Award

 

 

This has been a week full of surprises! I was nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by Bernadine from Bern Bakes!!!

Thank you very much, I truly appreciate it:) Make sure you check out her amazing blog!!! You’ll find delicious sweets and treats:)

https://bernbakes.wordpress.com

 

Rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you and leave a link to their blog.
• Post about the award.
• Share 7 facts about yourself.
• Nominate at most 15 people.
• Tell your nominees the good news!

 

7 Facts About Me:

1. I love trying out new recipes from around the world.
2. Nothing better than the smell of fresh baked bread or other baked goodies:)
3. I love cook/baking books and magazines (or blogs). I can look through those for hours;)
4. I make cold process soap that look like cakes and cupcakes.
5. Another hobby of mine is calligraphy writing and drawing.
6. I prefer warm over cold temperatures.
7. I like to make my own natural face masks, salves, etc.

 

My Nominees:

• The Cooking Spoon
• Snapshotsincursive
• Eartha Cooks
• ruffles&macarons
• coniferes&feuillus
• lili’s cakes
• Baking with Soul
• the dutch baker
• ice and lettuce
• Frugal Hausfrau
• drizzledsite
• Teasty Eats Ronit Penso
• L.E.E. Bakers
• Real Food, Simple Life
• The Misfit Baker

 

Thanks again! And congratulations to the nominees!