Baking in Berlin: Attempt #1

I usually do a lot of baking and cooking over the summer but didn't really have much time with our move to Berlin. So after not baking for over two months, it was time. We were going to a friend's place for dinner which gave me the perfect excuse.  I wanted to bake something I knew well and something easy as we were pretty busy that day.  So I went to an old standby that I know from memory:  Chocolate Cherry One-Pan Cake.  However, I couldn't find almost any of the items I needed, so I had to make do with some substitutions.  It didn't come out at all like what I normally make, but was still pretty good.  I've listed the recipes here.

Original Version (I don't recall where I go the recipe from originally, and I have made some alterations to it.)

Berlin Version

1 can cherry pie filling 1 can strawberry pie filling 1/4 cup sugar 1 bag chocolate chips 1 dark choc. cake mix butter Grease bottom of 9x13 pan. Pour in pie filling.  Sprinkle sugar over top.  Pour chocolate chips over sugar.  Pour dry cake mix over the chips.  Slice butter into thin pats and put across the top.  Bake at 350° F.  After ten minutes check and make sure butter covers the top.  Add more if needed.  Bake for another 20-30 minutes until it looks set and is bubbly on the sides.

1 jar of pitted cherries 1 jar of Rote Grutze (berry compote) 1/4 cup sugar 1 box of French chocolate torte mix (because it was the only one that didn't need to have milk added so it was the most like what I've used before) butter Grease bottom of larger, thinner pan.  Pour in Rote Grutze and cherries (without the juice).  Sprinkle sugar over the top.  Pour dry cake mix over the sugar next.  Slice butter into thin pats and put across the top.  Bake at 180°C.  After ten minutes check and make sure butter covers the top.  Add more if needed.  Bake for another 20-30 minutes until it looks set and is bubbly on the sides.

Berlin Version- cross section so you can see the lack of layers

This cake was much thinner than I am used to, even taking into account the larger pan size.  Apparently the chocolate chips (I didn't see any and only later thought about getting chocolate and chopping it myself) keep the layers separated a bit.  This cake became one thin chocolate cherry mush instead of a layer cake. Final verdict: good, but not the same.

Small Town Berlin

The Spree

Berlin has about 3.5 million people.  When it takes 45 minutes to get halfway across the city, I count that as big.  A bit bigger than where we moved from (maybe more than a bit).  However, I find that Berlin sometimes feels like a smaller place. 

For one, things close here on Sunday. It is hard to find a grocery store or any shopping that is open on Sunday.  I thought that it was rough in the South, but Berlin wins.  However, they aren't opposed to voting on Sundays apparently.  It's not so much a day to go to church as a family day.

What I have found more striking is that I run into people I know.  I have twice run into a man from T's work on the U-Bahn.  Of course we all work near the same stop, but I don't leave work on any schedule.  The other day on the way to work I passed a colleague who was biking to work (I was walking to the U-Bahn).  I didn't even know she lived near me.  And later that same morning I sat on the U-Bahn right across from a different colleague.  That puts my count of running into people commuting to work at 6.  Again, we are all going to the same place, but for the most part we are coming from different directions and at different times.  The craziest instance of how small Berlin feels is when I came to our courtyard and heard someone yell "Hello."  No one else was near me, so I looked although I didn't know who they may be talking to.  It was a woman who works at a cafe near where I was taking German classes before work started.  I had been in several times.  It is a 30 minute train ride away.  Apparently we're neighbors.

I imagine big cities like Berlin to feel big.  Like you won't know anyone unless you are going to a specific place or meeting someone.  I sort of like that it can feel small here sometimes.  We are working on spending time at our favorite cafes to be regulars and this will make Berlin feel like a small town as well.  But that is all in our little section of the city and not as we travel across it.

Or maybe it's that the people we know in Berlin are just so similar to us.  I mean, we did run into friends of ours from Berlin in a restaurant in Baltimore, a city none of us should really have even been in!

Not Just Ice Cream

This was one slice (ein stück) that I cut into 2. 

I feel that I am letting those cake-over-ice-cream-eaters down if I don't mention some about the cakes here.  Afternoon is not only ice cream time.  It can also be cake and coffee time.  Can't really go wrong with either choice in my book.

The cakes here can be huge.  I am not one to share a piece of cake.  In the US, it may happen because I made the mistake of eating too much at dinner.  Here it is because sometimes there is just no way.

I haven't seen anything like what we call German Chocolate Cake.  Which is a little sad, because chocolate and coconut are so good together.  I was happy to find Schwarzwald Kuche though (Black Forest Cake).  As you can see in the picture it was a good size portion, but it was so much lighter than what I'm used to that I was able to eat it.  Notice how thin the cake layers are and that it's cream not icing in between.  Also note the raspberry cream cake in the back. 


I feel that there is a lot of cake exploring to do.  So many types to try.  So many things to learn for baking purposes.  Yes, of course, it is just for research to tell you and for expanding my baking repertoire that I will do this!

Be a Berliner, have some cake and coffee today!