Coffee and Cake?

Just as the British have their great tradition of afternoon tea with scones , sponge cake, shortbread etc, the Germans also have a lovely tradition in the afternoons…

…Fancy a piece of cake and a cup of coffee?

From my observations “coffee and cake” takes place at 3pm at the latest (otherwise you won’t sleep after all that coffee!), and especially on a Sunday when relatives or friends are likely to pay a visit.

Last weekend, like a good German Hausfrau, I baked this…

Pumpkin Cake with White Chocolate Chips

It went down very well, and since it’s my own recipe I thought I’d share it with you:

Ingredients

100g butter

100g brown sugar

100g granulated sugar

1 packet vanilla sugar (8g)

2 eggs

200g pumpkin puree

100ml milk

100g self-raising flour

100g wholemeal flour

1tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp mixed spice

100g white chocolate, chopped into very small pieces

Method

Cream the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy, then slowly add the eggs until well mixed. Add the pumpkin and milk.

Sift in all the other ingredients and fold in carefully. Finally add the chocolate “chips” and fold in.

Grease and flour a square cake tin. Pour the mixture in and bake for about 25 mins at 200°Celsius, or until it is set in the middle. Let cool on a rack. It tastes good still warm, but also stays wonderfully moist for a couple of days.

I cheated and decorated mine with some Lindt white chocolate cream… I don’t know if it’s available everywhere, but buttercream or even cream cheese frosting would be great too, since the cake itself is not overly sweet.

Enjoy your piece of cake!