Cherry-Yoghurt Cake with an Eggnogg Topping

Fruits are much more limited during fall. Apples, pears, and oranges are abundant, but other fruits are more scarce. Thus, fall is a great time to use other ingredients like chocolate or my favorite, jarred sour cherries. In Germany these cherries are known as "Schattenmorellen". Trader Joe's imports them and sells them as Morello Cherries.

Ingredients:

9x13 inch (30x40 cm) Pyrex dish or deep baking dish

Some grease

Batter:

4 eggs

125 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

125 ml vegetable oil

150 ml sparkling water

250 g all-purpose flour

3 leveled teaspoons baking powder

1 jar sour cherries (Dark Morello Cherries from Trader Joe's or Schattenmorellen)

Yoghurt Topping:

400 g (1 pint) whipping cream

3 teaspoons powdered sugar

400 g Greek Yoghurt (Fage)

Eggnogg Topping:

250 ml (1 cup) Eggnogg (with alcohol)

1/2 package non-cook vanilla pudding (JELL-O)

Preparation:

1. Drain sour cherries very well. (You can drink the juice; it's really tasty as a spritzer with sparkling water). Grease Pyrex dish or baking dish. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

2. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla extract with an electric hand mixer for about 1 minute or until fluffy. Add oil and sparkling water and whisk briefly.

3. Mix flour and baking powder and sift into a separate bowl. Add flour mixture in two portions to the batter, whisk after addition of each portion. Pour batter into. Pyrex or deep baking dish, bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

4. Remove cake from oven and let cool down. Spread drained sour cherries on top of cake. Whip cream with powdered sugar until stiff. Briefly stir yoghurt until smooth. Carefully fold whipped cream under yoghurt. Spread yoghurt-cream topping on top of cherries. Chill for a while.

5. Whisk eggnogg and JELL-O for about 2 minutes. Pour eggnogg mixture on top of yoghurt topping and spread evenly. Chill cake for a couple of hours or overnight before serving.

Comments:

1. The eggnogg brand I remember from Germany, probably because of their memorable ads, is Verpoorten advocaat. That one is rather expensive in the USA, so I used Pennsylvania Dutch.

Apple Cake with a Marzipan Topping

Ingredients:

9x11 (30x40 cm) Pyrex or deep baking dish or 12 inch (28 cm) springform

Some grease

Pie Crust:

220 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

75 g sugar

110 g (1 stick) soft butter or margarine

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Filling:

750 g or 1.5 pounds apples

Topping:

100 g marzipan

4 tablespoons calvados

75 g soft butter or margarine

75 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar

150 g sour cream

100 g sliced almonds

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven so 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). Grease bottom of baking dish or springform.

2. Mix flour and baking powder, then sift into a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and using the knead hooks of an electric hand mixer until a dough has formed. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

3. Peel apples, cut into quarters and remove core. Cut apples into thick slices.

4. Use 2/3 of the pie crust batter and put on bottom of baking dish or springform. Form a long rod of the remaining batter and line the edge of the baking dish or springform about 2 cm or 3/4 inch high.

5. Put apples on top of bottom and bake for about 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

6. Topping: Whisk marzipan and calvados until smooth. Add butter or margarine, sugar, vanilla sugar and sour cream and keep whisking. Lastly, stir in almonds and spread on top of hot apples.

7. Bake cake for an additional 15 minutes of until toothpick comes out clean.

Comments:

1. The original recipe uses 1 egg in the batter for the pie crust. I prefer to leave it out; the batter is less crumbly without it.

2. I didn't have any calvados, so I used amaretto instead.