Melon and yogurt chilled cake

This summer I've spent some weeks in the middle of nowhere beautiful Saxony. There is one nice German tradition that is followed almost religiously in the State of Saxony: the Kaffee und Kuchen time, which is nothing less than time for coffee and cake, always cake, and takes place at around 4 pm.

So if they like cake, I'm gonna give them cake! Whatever it takes to improve cultural understanding between people. It also helped that I found this juicy and fresh cake on Lecker Bakery, the summer special edition of the cooking magazine. Just perfect for the hottest summer days!

Ingredients

For the cake

100 g sugar

80 g wheat flour

3 eggs

For the filling

300 g natural yogurt

150 g cream

1 small Galia melon

70 g sugar

8 gelatin sheets

juice and zest of one lemon

For decoration

1 piece of water melon, 2 kiwis

Directions

For the cake: Preheat oven to 175 °C. Beat eggs with sugar at least five minutes until light and fluffy. Sift flour over the mixture and mix carefully. Butter a spring form pan (22 cm), pour the mixture and bake for 30 minutes. Remove and let cool on a wire rack.

For the filling: Put gelatin sheets in cold water and let them soften for 5-8 minutes. Cut the Galia melon in half and use a melon baller to make as many melon balls as possible, reserve for later. Take the rest of melon fruit and grind it with sugar, zest and lemon juice to obtain a puree. Take out the gelatin sheets from the water, press well draining them and put in a saucepan over medium heat to melt. Do not boil! Add two tablespoons of the previous melon puree and stir well. Add now to the rest of the melon mixture and finally whisk in the yogurt. Put in the fridge to cool for half an hour, until the mixture begins to set. Meanwhile whip the cream and add to the yogurt mixture.

Cut now the cake in half, horizontally, and place the base in a cake ring (or a spring form without the removable base if you do not have a special cake ring). Put half of the melon balls we had reserved. Cover with half the yogurt cream. Put other half of the cake on top, press slightly and cover with the remaining cream smoothing the surface. Cover the ring or pan with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for about two hours. An hour before serving the cake, transfer to freezer and chill.

Before serving, make more balls with the remaining fruits (watermelon, kiwi) and decorate the cake.

CSI: Case #3 - The Perpetrated Recipe

Third case solved!
This time the case was quite clear, the perpetrated recipe was a pesto! However a wild one made with wild garlic and walnuts instead of pine nuts.

Victims

100 g wild garlic (or any edible plant like)

40 g peeled walnuts

2 cloves of garlic

150-175 ml olive oil

100 g grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

Modus operandi

The wild garlic leaves were tortured by immersing them in plenty of water. After thoroughly drying them again, the leaves were quartered together with the cloves of garlic. All victims, except the oil and the cheese, were put in the mincer and crushed. Oil was added slowly and finally the grated Parmesan cheese.

CSI: Culinary Scene Investigation - Case #3

I just hope that my excellent CSI team of investigators hasn't go on vacation yet, as I need their precious help again! Criminality doesn't stop at the good weather, so now, in our third case, a recipe was again perpetrated.

This is how I found the crime scene. The first evidence points in one clear direction. However, remember that the crime scene is set in some place in Central Europe, so it may be difficult to identify some or one of the victims... specially after such a slaughter.

As usual, we'll have the discussion with your theories in the comment fields. Wish you a profitable investigation!