Honestly, if you’re given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don’t say „what kind of tea?“

 

My dear friend Su has come up with the fabulous idea to host a virtual tea party each month, indulging us with her wonderful photos of delicious food, beautiful china and great tea.

 

 

Honestly, if you’re given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don’t say „what kind of tea?“

– Neil Gaiman

 

Italian hazelnut cake (May 2020)

 

Which is why I’m serving you coffee today to go with my Italian hazelnut cake! 😉

Another no-flour recipe, even though I was able to buy a couple of pounds of flour in the weeks since our last virtual the party.

(Yay! Baking addiction saved! Although still no rye flour which drives me crazy since I need it for my sourdough starter that’s dying a silent death in my fridge.)

 

Italian hazelnut cake (May 2020)

 

But I figured some people might still have trouble getting flour, or even if not then it’s always nice to have an alternative at the ready (in case you run out of flour and don’t want to ask your neighbor out of fear he or she might infect you).

I got this recipe from my late grandma and hers always tasted so much better than mine ever will. But it’s still nice and always reminds me of her, so I keep baking it.

 

Detail Italian hazelnut cake (May 2020)

 

The recipe is fairly simple and straightforward, all you need are:

• 300 gr ground hazelnuts
• 7-8 eggs
• 200 gr sugar
• icing sugar and lemon juice for the icing

To make the cake fluffy and spongy you have to separate the egg yolks from the whites, and whip the latter until stiff.

Mix the hazelnuts, egg yolks and sugar, and then gently add the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake for about an hour at 175 degrees Celsius.

Let cool before icing.

Et voilà – you have baked a delicious cake that will hold in the fridge for about a week (if it will take you as long to eat it, which I doubt 😉 ).

 

A slice of Italian hazelnut cake and fresh coffee (May 2020)

 

Apart from baking in the past weeks, I tried to develop new habits, like reading my Spanish newspaper subscription that appears once a month and that kept piling up on my desks without me reading it in the last – sigh – years. I do this now for half an hour after breakfast each day, and even though the news might be old, it’s still good for practicing my rusty Spanish.

 

A slice of heaven – eh, hazelnut cake 😉 (May 2020)

 

By now the wearing, washing and disinfecting of my cotton face masks has become second-nature to me, but every time I go out to do the grocery shopping I still detect quite a lot of people not wearing them, even though it now has become mandatory to wear them at least in the shops and in public transports in Germany.

What’s also worrying is, that we have more an more demonstrations against the public restrictions, which I think it utter rubbish since Germany has lifted quite a lot of them recently and keeps lifting more with each week.

Still, people are sick of it – if not of the virus then of being told what to do – and reacting quite antiauthoritarian which is a normal, though dangerous, reflex.

By ignoring the 3 golden rules – keeping your distance, wearing a mask and washing your hands – these people risk to set a second wave of infections in motion, which would also result in stronger restrictions again.

 

 

But enough of me! How’s things with you?

Are you developing new habits? Healthy or unhealthy ones? 😉

Let me know about it in your comments!