Just minutes after this photo was taken, this piece of Raspberry Cheesecake Brownie ended up in my husband’s stomach :-)
I found this fantastic recipe at a Polish food forum which I read from time to time. The recipe was originally posted in the March 2003 edition of Delicious magazine. It seemed to be a success according to the forum writers so I decided to email the recipe to my mother. When she finally answered my email she included a photo of a freshly baked raspberry cheesecake brownie and the word “wonderful”. So of course I had to make it myself as well. Again we have the lovely combination with dark chocolate and raspberries which is just perfect. The recipe is easy to follow, but I decided to reduce the amount of sugar and almost doubled the amount of raspberries. And as always I substituted cream cheese with Kesella gourmet. Lovely lovely, but now I have to stop writing and get another piece…

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

200 gram dark chocolate
200 gram butter, softened
220 gram + 130 gram caster sugar
5 eggs
110 gram plain flour
400 gram cream cheese (I used Kesella 10% as I prefer quark, add 1.5 tbsp flour if you use Kesella)
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 gram fresh raspberries (frozen ones work as well)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Grease and line a 20 X 30cm lamington pan. Melt chocolate in bowl over simmering water. Set aside to cool slightly. Cream butter and 220g of the caster sugar until pale, then add 3 of the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the melted chocolate, then fold in the flour. Spread 3/4 of the mixture into the pan. In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese, 130g sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Spread over chocolate base. Dollop remaining chocolate mixture over cream cheese layer and swirl the chocolate. Poke raspberries into the top and bake 40-45 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

(phtoto: http://www.mannautstallningen.nu/)

How many insects does it take to make a hamburger?
How do you fit hundreds of litres of water into one bottle of beer?
What do researchers really say about the environmental benefits of organic farming?
Can we eat our way to sustainable development?
All of this – and much more – is taken up in Manna, a different exhibition about food, the environment and our hidden dependence on nature.

On my way to work this morning I saw an ad for “Manna – a different food exhibition”. The exhibition was first shown in Stockholm in 2004 and has been on tour around Sweden. But soon, from September 30th until October 29th, the exhibition is back in Stockholm and I will definately go there. You can find more information, both in Swedish and English, on Manna’s homepage.fruit 1910 company mp31996 mp3 firemans prayer ball charliemaster 2ba mp3baci mp3 24000cadillac mp3 1972mp3 louisiana 1927lady mp3 1at2fast mp3 2furious Map

Det Goda Köket (photo: Stockholmsmässan).

Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival at Factory Nacka Strand,
September 28-30th & October 5-7th
Beer and whisky, tastings and seminars. Entrance fee 160-180 kr depending on which day (including a beer tasting glass and a beer seminar).

Chocolate Festival at Nordiska Museet, October 13-15th
Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!! Taste, buy and watch! Entrance fee 100 kr.

Det goda köket at Stockholmsmässan, November 10-12th
Focus on home cooking and the domestic kitchen. Tastings, shopping, competions. Entrance fee 120 kr.

Last weekend we celebrated Fredrik’s birthday with this lovely and easy to make chocolate mousse cake. We also cooked a great japanese inspired dinner for just the two of us which I will blog about in the future. I asked Fredrik which cake he wanted and his only desire was chocolate so I decided to combine a couple of recipes which resulted in this super easy chocolate mousse cake with raspberries marinated in vanilla scented vodka. Chocolate and rasperries are a perfect match, especially when the raspberries have a hint of vanilla vodka :-) The cake turned out delicious and I’m thinking that I maybe should have spent my money on some new cook books instead of the cake class which I’m taking this weekend :-) Just kidding, I’m sure that it will be fun and that I will learn a lot of tips and tricks.

Chocolate Mousse Cake with Vanilla Vodka Marinated Raspberries

Cake:
200 gram almond paste (or marcipan, but almond paste is better as it contains less sugar and more almonds)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cocoa

Filling:
200 gram raspberries
50 ml Cariel T & C (or any other vanilla Vodka)

Chocolate mousse:
125 gram dark chocolate
2 eggs
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla scented sugar
300 ml double/whipping cream

Pour the rasperries in a bowl and cover with vanilla vodka.

Pre-heat the oven to 175°C. Grate the almond paste and combine with the eggs and the cocoa. Pour the mixture in a buttered spring form (about 24 cm wide). Bake the cake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes. Let the cake cool. Remove the rim from the spring form and wash it up. Then put the rim back on the spring form.

Whisk the eggs and the sugar in a bowl, using an electric mixer. Melt the chocolate (I was lazy and did it in the microwave) and then pour it slowly into the bowl while you continue to whisk. Continue to whisk until the mixture has cooled. Beat the double cream in a separate bowl until it’s stiff. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture, gently but thoroughly.

Place the raspberries on the cake bottom, just make sure that it’s cool first. When you’ve placed all the raspberries on the cake, a nice pink raspberry vodka mixture will appear on the bottom of the raspberry bowl. Just pour the liquid into a glass, add an ice cube and then drink it :-) After placing the raspberries on the cake bottom, cover everything with chocolate mousse. Chill the cake in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Autumn… The holidays are over, time to get back to school and work. The darkness and coldness will slowly approach so what about cheering yourself up with a cooking or baking class? Medborgarskolan have a lot of cooking and baking classes this autumn. Many of the courses are already booked, so make sure to sign up as soon as possible. I’m looking forward learning tips and tricks when baking cakes and I’m still thinking about signing up for a second course. You can find Medborgarskolan’s cooking classes in Stockholm here (and of course they also have classes in other parts of Sweden). I have not cooked in a group since my home economics classes when I was 12 years old so I hope that I won’t make a fool of myself :-)

(Photo: Medborgarskolan)

The evening before yesterday we came back to Sweden after our incredible honeymoon in Japan. I can’t describe in words how amazing the trip was; we have so many experiences and memories of our wonderful honeymoon including an average of 200 photos per day. Japan is a beautiful and amazing country, even though it’s almost suicide to go there in August when it’s incredibly hot :-) My arthritis got worse and my knees almost killed me, but we kept a slow pace and managed to see quite a lot. We have eaten the most fantastic meals, most of them delicous but some of them inedible as they were just too much for us Swedes :-) I will post a lot about Japan in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for Japanese food and restaurants.

And our wedding? The wedding, on August 12th in Gothenburg, was just perfect and beautiful even if I’m quite partial :-) We were both so happy and we smiled like maniacs all day. It was the final weekend of the European Championships in track and field, so we were quite stressed as the women’s marathon started at the same time as our wedding and they roped off all central Gothenburg from traffic. My dear mother-in-law did a fantastic job during the weeks before the wedding and managed to get us all necessary permits and also managed to arrange a police escort for us and our guests so we wouldn’t get stuck in any traffic jam. We had an unique and great wedding and I will write a separate post about it when I get all of the photos.