Apple Streusel Cake

Apple Streusel Cake | schabakery.comFood is like people, some are born to be models and some are just unphotogenic. I belong to the latter group, it’s hard to get a good picture of me and the same applies to anything with streusels (or crumbles as the Americans say). But Streusels are ubiquitous in German baking, if you ever entered a bakery in Germany you can tell and I want to share a recipe with you. It is not like we Germans put streusel on everything, but on almost everything. There is an overwhelming variety of sweet pastries available in German bakeries, often eaten for breakfast, second breakfast or around coffee time. And I’d guess that at least half of these sweet “Stückchen” (pieces of pastry) come with streusels and different fillings like custard, curd, fruit or you-name-it.

Streusels are Grandma-style and down-to-earth, I guess that’s why everybody loves them. Even when the dough is too dry or compact, the crumbly cover makes up for it. When I was a kid I loved eating raw streusels and I often sneaked back into the kitchen just when the cake came out of the oven to burn my fingers & tongue while ‘stealing’ some steaming hot streusels from the sides of the cake.

My favorite streusel cake comes with a poppy seed filling, but during winter time I prefer apple streusel. Make sure you use apples that are not too juicy so your dough base does not get soaked. If you only have juicy apples at hand, sprinkle some bread crumbs on the dough before placing the apples. Continue reading »

German-style Apple Cider Cake

German-style Apple Cider CakeThose of you who follow my instagram know already that I paid my annual visit to the Apfelweinfestival (aka Cider Festival) in Frankfurt some weeks ago. I love applewine and thus the festival. It takes place in the center of Frankfurt city and always comes with the most hilarious stage acts that you can imagine and lots of different cider makers from around Frankfurt. We went during the day but that did not keep us from trying out various variations of cider and enjoying the stage highlights. On my way home, I was craving my Mum’s Applewine Cake so much that I had to make some. When I fiddled out the recipe lightning struck me. Funny how a hyphen can shatter your entire world. I always thought it was applewine (as in cider) and not apple-wine (just apples and real wine) cake for all my life. No I know better and transformed it into Apple Cider Cake.

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Apple-get-what-you-want-cake

Sometimes a simple misunderstanding can cause a whole lot of problems. Honestly if people would only take 10 minutes to sit together and talk instead of writing  e-mails, life could be so much easier. We had some troubles with a business partner and contractor and they were discussing heavily about some invoices and couldn’t agree on the sum to be payed. Everyone made a suggestion and not a single word was heard any more. My partner didn’t trust the silence and asked one of the party about the outcome of their discussion and the answer was not satisfying. After calling the other party and hearing that this person was very upset about the situation and willing to bring a legal adviser into the game, he almost freaked out. So he took over the role of a counselor and decided to bring  the two parties to one table in order to find a solution. In order to calm them down he asked me to make a cake. I decided to make my favorite apple cake with grandma’s recipe, which was very much appreciated by the receiver and -tadaa- they finally agreed after a face-2-face meeting. So let there be love, peace and cake! 

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