Baumkuchen (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

I got very excited when I saw January's Daring Bakers' Challenge. So excited, in fact, that I promptly dropped the rest of my plans for the weekend, marched to the grocery store to buy almonds, and began baking. This month's challenge was baumkuchen - a traditional cake throughout Europe that has also become very popular in Japan. The name translates to "tree cake" in German. Usually, the cake is ring-shaped, so the layers look like tree rings. Unfortunately, getting this ring-shaped layering requires some specialized equipment, so my baumkuchen has horizontal layers.

The January 2014 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Francijn of "Koken in de Brouwerij". She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).

Green Tea & Strawberry Prinsesstårta (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

Once again, the Daring Bakers' Challenge has introduced me to an awesome cake that I had no idea even existed. This cake is known as Prinsesstårta (Princess Cake) and its back-story is just as adorable as the cake itself. It was originally called Grön tårta (Green Cake), but the name was changed because it was a particular favorite of the daughters of  Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland. Traditionally, the cake is covered in green marzipan and topped with a pink marzipan rose.

Korena of Korena in the Kitchen was our May Daring Bakers’ host and she delighted us with this beautiful Swedish Prinsesstårta!