What a fantastic wake up call! Well, apart from the fact that my alarm said "5am" and barely any hand-eye coordination was in place, I thought I heard a chirping sound…Wait a minute, I haven’t heard them in the early morning for quite some time now…really not since the end of last fall!

We had a real winter - that’s for sure. I haven’t seen such masses of snow in Munich ever before. In the past years everyone was moaning about way too less white stuff, this year almost everybody complained about too much! Talking about real happiness. Anway, I’m not the winter kind of person, so the snow kept bothering me for over 2 months now without any interruption. Flight delays, chaotic traffic jams in the city and foremost wet boots… uuugh! (Don't get me wrong, I don't complain about snow in the countryside...)

So the only conclusion to the singing of the birds can be… SPRING IS BACK! At least we are getting closer each day. Can’t wait to spot the first blossoms this year ;)

In lack of a smart connecting passage, here is the recipe of my all-time favorite chocolate cake I made yesterday:

Grease the sides of a spring mould (mine has a size of 26 cm) with butter and line the bottom with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to a 190 degrees Celsius.

Break the dark chocolate in smaller pieces (I used 70 % dark chocolate from Lindt this time, but if you have the chance try it with Valrhona…) and heat it slowly with the butter in a bain-marie. When everything has melted, add the sugar, stir and let it cool down for about 5 minutes.

Now add four eggs, one by one and stir well with a wooden spoon or a whisk after each. Finally add two tablespoons of flour and blend well.

Pour the mixture in the spring mould and put it in the oven for about 25 minutes. The original recipe in my book has a literal mistake in it, the first part of the text demands 22 minutes baking time, in the detailed description it says 35 minutes. That’s quite a difference! I prefer chocolate cakes, that are smooth, moist and fudgy - just melt in your mouth, so I went with the shorter baking time. Since I made this cake at least four times now, I adapted the perfect baking time for my spring mould and oven, which is 25 minutes.

Take the cake out of the oven and out of the spring mould. The original recipe tells you, that the cake tastes best on its second day - this is where I disagree. Still slightly warm, this cake just melts in your mouth when you eat it - heavenly. Add some whipped cream, vanilla sauce or vanilla ice cream, everything will melt over the cake… simply irresistible :) Reminds me of my favorite dessert at our favorite French restaurant - mi-cuit au chocolat - more details on both, restaurant and mi-cuit are soon to come…