Is it really already July?

Summer is in full swing (although here in Cologne, Germany, we have only got the pleasure of a little taste yet, but we will get there – … hopefully). The flowers are blooming, the nights are shorter, the days sunnier and longer. These beautiful days, all I can think about is to be outside: from meeting up with friends in beer gardens and parks to shifting my workouts outside so that I can enjoy the birds’ twitter, the wind blowing in my hair and the sun kissing my skin.

On a sunny Sunday like this, nothing comes close to the deliberating effect of singing and dancing to Miranda Lambert while baking a fruity berry summer cake. I got inspired by the Swedish Midsummer berry cake recipe by Nourish Atelier – a wonderful food blog with lots of healthy and delicious recipes. It looked so tasty that I had to give it a shot and the result is: it is a fruity citrus dream of a cake! Perfect to indulge in on a coffee-and-cake kind of Sunday in the garden. In my version, I did some minor changes, here is how I did it:

Ingredients

Cake:

• 125g coconut oil
• 125g honey
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• zest of 1 orange
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1 banana, mashed
• 2tbsp vanilla extract
• 250g spelt flour
• 1tbsp baking powder
• 75g cacao powder
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cardamom

Berry mascarpone icing:

• 200g mascarpone
• raspberries, one handful, halved
• 1 cup strawberries, quartered
• 2tbsp honey
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp cinnamon
• 1tsp honey
• 1/4 cup almonds, halved

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.
2. Grease a 25cm spring form with coconut oil.
3. Melt the coconut oil slowly in a pan.
4. In a bowl, mix together the mashed banana, almond milk, vanilla extract, orange and lemon zest and honey. When the oil is melted, all to the bowl and mix well.
5. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cacao powder, salt and cardamom.
6. Whisk in the wet ingredients to blend.
7. Bake until a fork inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes..
8. In the meantime, mix all the ingredients – except for the 1tsp honey and the almonds – for the icing and put in the refrigerator to cool.
9. Put the almonds on a plate and sprinkle honey over them. Put in the oven for 10  minutes.
10. When the cake is ready, let it rest to cool.
11. When the cake is cooled down, add the icing on top and spinkle the caramelised almonds over the cake.
12. Et voilà, enjoy with a cup of coffee and lots of sunshine in the garden. 🙂

Tell me, if you try the cake and let me know, how it turns out! Would love to see your pictures of your cakes on Pinterest or via e-mail!

Have a lovely Sunday,

-your tiny woman in a giant world