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Have you announced a spontaneous visit for “afternoon coffee” again? While making coffee is not a big challenge, preparing a delicious cake is a bigger challenge. After all, the end result should not only taste good but also be visually convincing. Now use simple recipes to bake cakes quickly.

Bake a cake quickly

It can happen that spontaneous visitors announce themselves. Then you rarely have time for unusual and exotic recipes. In addition, you usually only have the basic ingredients for cakes in the household. But who doesn’t want to offer their guests more than a few biscuits? So that you and your visitors can eat delicious cake, we have put together simple and popular recipes and give tips on how to spice up your cake. Because grandma’s cakes are back in fashion. In addition, note our tips for an affordable fruit cake.

1) The classic: crumble cake from the tin

To bake a cake quickly, you can choose the classic crumble cake. Because this is quite easy to prepare and it tastes good to many. In addition, it can be easily produced in large quantities on sheet metal. To do this, proceed as follows (take the ingredients from the table):

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  • Knead the ingredients for the crust together and roll out the part on the baking sheet.
  • Then pierce the ground with a fork. Pay attention to regular intervals.
  • Then spread the bottom with jam.
  • Knead the ingredients for the crumble together and sprinkle over the jam.
  • Then bake the crumble cake for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven.

2) Quickly prepare a sponge cake

You can also prepare a classic sponge cake for spontaneous visitors. Because this is very uncomplicated and can be spiced up as you wish. So you can certainly impress your guests. All you need are the ingredients below.

And this is how it works: To bake a cake quickly, first, stir the butter with the sugar and eggs until fluffy, and then add the baking soda, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and rum. Then mix everything with flour and yogurt. Then chop the chocolate into pieces and mix them in as well. Finally, put the dough in a loaf pan and bake the sponge cake at 200 °C for about 35 minutes. A quick cherry cake from the tin also tastes good.

Ingredients for a sponge cake

  • 125 grams of butter
  • two eggs
  • 1.5 cups of sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • a little cinnamon
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tbsp cocoa (powder)
  • 1 cup of yogurt
  • ½ bar of chocolate (preferably whole milk)
  • depending on your taste maybe a little rum

3) Bake a vegan cake quickly

The tastes and food preferences of your visitors can vary greatly. If your visitor eats vegan, you should consider that. But don’t panic! Because you can quickly and easily make a moist vegan chocolate cake with just a few ingredients. Use the following ingredients for this. All you have to do is mix them together. Then put the dough in a greased form and let the whole thing bake for about 35 – 40 minutes at 180 top and bottom heat. Then you can decorate it with a chocolate glaze and fresh fruit. Or how about classic powdered sugar?

Ingredients for vegan chocolate cake

  • 200 grams of flour
  • 35 g baking cocoa
  • 180 grams of sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • half a pack of baking powder
  • 240ml water
  • 100 ml sunflower oil

Incidentally, the trend toward “healthy snacking” is unbroken. Accordingly, it can be worthwhile for many simple recipes to bake completely without eggs, sugar, or flour. Because the market now offers many replacement items. In addition, also note tips for grandma’s classic plum apple cake.

Simply chop finely diced onions

The best way to cut onions is with a sharp paring knife. A smaller knife is better for peeling and a larger vegetable knife for cutting. First, remove the thin peel of the onion, then cut the onion in half lengthwise, the root of the onion should not be removed.

Lay the onion cut-side down on a board and hold the narrow side – the base of the root – with your slightly bent fingertips. Cut the onion lengthwise into fine strips so that the root end remains whole and thus holds the onion layers together.

Cut the onion horizontally one to three times (depending on the size of the onion) until just before the root. The more often you cut here, the finer the cubes will be. Then cut thin slices vertically so that the onion falls into fine cubes by itself.

A slicer is best for slicing wafer-thin, whole onion rings, as you can never slice the rings so thinly and evenly with a knife.

Important: Onions should never be cut twice, which is why the chopping devices are not ideal for chopping onions. Cutting the onion several times can turn it gray and bitter.

Tip: If you have to cut a large number of onions, you can put a pot of water next to the work surface. The steam neutralizes the spiciness of the onion. A wet chopping board can also provide some relief from the pungent onion fumes.

Venison is considered a delicacy by many and is usually prepared and served on special occasions. Because of its low-fat content and its high protein content, the meat of venison, deer, and the like is also preferred by figure-conscious gourmets. You shouldn’t wait too long to enjoy it, because deep-frozen game meat should be used up quickly.

Prepare venison as soon as possible

If game meat is stored in the freezer, it should not be too long before it is eaten. The consumer information service aid advises processing deep-frozen game meat quickly. The best before date should be taken into account.

If the recommended storage time is exceeded, the fat in venison begins to taste rancid. If deer, stag, and co. are killed during the mating season, the meat may taste slightly like urine. In order to be able to enjoy the full taste, it helps to freeze the venison for several months.

That’s why venison is healthy!

Especially in the winter months, dishes with, for example, roe deer, partridge, fallow deer, wild boar, and rabbit are on the menu. All these game species have this very special taste that characterizes the meat. It is also high in protein and low in cholesterol and fat. Venison contains even less fat than lean pork or beef – the only exception being wild boar, which is relatively fatty.

The meat of wild animals mainly contains B vitamins as well as iron, selenium, and zinc. Before consumption, game meat should always be thoroughly roasted at a core temperature of 70 °C, otherwise, there is a risk of infection with animal disease. In addition, the heavy metal pollution and pesticide residues in game meat could sometimes be higher than in slaughtered animals.

Tuber vegetables have been making a big comeback for a while now! The Jerusalem artichoke is at the forefront. Whether raw in salads, as the basis of a warming soup, or as a puree: the vegetable can be used in many different ways. However, you should process the Jerusalem artichoke quickly, because its shelf life is short.

Process Jerusalem artichokes quickly

Jerusalem artichoke should not be stored long after purchase but processed quickly. Vegetables are highly perishable and only last a few days, even in the refrigerator. In addition, it quickly loses its taste and valuable ingredients there.

Shopping tip

When buying Jerusalem artichokes, you should make sure that the tubers have an intact, evenly smooth, and shiny shell.

Topinambur is so healthy

Jerusalem artichoke contains about 16 percent of the dietary fiber inulin. This hardly affects the blood sugar level, which is why the tuber is particularly popular with diabetics. In addition, inulin has a positive effect on the intestinal flora, thus strengthening the body’s defenses and satiating for a long time.

In addition, Jerusalem artichoke is rich in potassium, calcium, phosphorus, and iron as well as vitamins C and D. The tuber is low in calories, which makes it perfect for figure-conscious eaters.

Hair tints are done quickly and give you a temporary, individual look. Find tips on how to get unwanted color out of your hair here.

hair tints

Normal hair tints usually last eight hair washes; Intensive tones should conjure up your current desired color in your hair for up to eight weeks or 24 hair washes.

Intensive tints are neither a “simple” tint nor a coloring, which means they are not permanent like a color, but cannot be washed out as easily as a normal tint.

Tips on how to get unwanted color out of your hair

Sometimes the toned color in your own hair doesn’t look the way you envisioned it. If so, here are five tips on how to get the toned color out of your hair:

Tip 1: If your tint is less than 24 hours old, you can mix equal parts honey and water and apply to the hair, leave on for about 60 minutes and then rinse out.
Tip 2: Use a deep cleansing shampoo and leave it on for a few minutes before rinsing it out.
Tip 3: You can lighten the tint with chamomile tea. To do this, take five tea bags in a cup of water and pour it onto your hair when it has cooled down, so that it can act for about ten minutes; then you can rinse it off.
Tip 4: You can also lighten your hair with vitamin C. Dissolve five effervescent tablets in a bowl. Leave the mixture on for about 30 minutes and then rinse it out.
Tip 5: You can also use hair color remover (only works for intensive tones!).

Whether for school, work or just because: learning languages ​​is important for many people. But it’s not that simple – or maybe it is? Here are five tips on how you can easily improve your language skills.

#1 Podcasts, Series, YouTube and Co.

One of the easiest and most popular methods, especially among the younger generation, is to watch series or films in the original language. In particular, because puns and inside jokes are not lost. It has the positive side effect that you learn new words and phrases in a playful way without realizing it. If the original language is not the target language, you can of course switch films and series to the desired language. This is very easy to do with streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney+.

But even if you don’t want to spend money on the television services, you can easily immerse yourself in the language with the help of YouTube videos or podcasts. There are YouTubers from almost every country in the world who film and upload videos in their native language. Whether vlogs, cooking videos or specific language learning videos. The “genre” doesn’t matter in learning as long as you’re actively listening. This can lead to great difficulties in understanding, especially in the beginning. This can be remedied by subtitles, which can be generated automatically for many videos.

Podcasts also offer audios on a wide variety of topics in different languages. For example, you can easily improve your language skills on the way to work or when going shopping. Special podcasts that specialize in language learning can be particularly interesting here. The Coffee Break Podcasts, for example, upload short audio files on various topics that you can use to learn the language bit by bit. There are also a growing number of news podcasts designed to speak extra slowly and clearly to make it easier to understand.

#2 Read, read, read

If television and podcasts are not for you, you can easily read in your desired target language. Nowadays, the internet makes it very easy to find books, newspapers, etc. in all languages. If you don’t mind reading on your phone, tablet or computer, there are some apps that also offer many books in different languages. Amazon’s Kindle, iBooks or eLibrary from your local library offer a variety of e-books that you can even read on the go. A particular advantage of reading online is that you can quickly and easily look up words that you do not yet know in your target language in the dictionary on your mobile device.

Of course, conventional books have the same effect as e-books and can also help to better memorize vocabulary and proverbs due to their special reading experience.

Above all, reading promotes your vocabulary, but grammar is also learned particularly well here. Because by repeatedly reading a wide variety of phrases, tenses and sentence constructions, they can be internalized particularly well.

#3 Exchange and language trip

Exchanges and language trips are also very popular when learning a new language. Some students have the opportunity to take part in a year abroad or an exchange while they are still at school. After graduating from school, it makes sense to do a gap year while going abroad or to do a semester abroad during your studies. But not only young people should take advantage of these opportunities. There are numerous agencies that offer language trips for people of all ages.

Living with a host family during this time helps immensely to develop language skills. You also learn a lot about the culture and lifestyle of the residents in the host country, which can also have a positive effect on learning behavior.

#4 language tandem

If an exchange or a language trip is too expensive or doesn’t work for other reasons, you don’t have to do without direct personal exchange with people from the target country. Language tandems are a cost-effective and interactive alternative. Such tandems are often offered by schools, adult education centers or universities. But you can also quickly find people with whom you can work together on social networks such as Facebook or Instagram.

In such a cooperation, two people who want to learn each other’s mother tongue come together and exchange ideas. It is usually arranged in such a way that people meet about once a week for an hour and then speak the respective language for half an hour. However, everyone could also speak the respective target language and correct the partner if a mistake is made. There are no limits to the execution of the exchange, it is best for you to find out for yourself how you can get the greatest benefit from it.

#5 Language Learning Apps

As with almost everything, there are numerous apps for language learning that can help you. In addition to the book apps mentioned above, there are also special language learning apps that teach you the language in a playful way. Duolingo and Babbel, which offer their services for countless languages, are particularly well-known and popular here.

With step-by-step learning and goal setting, the apps provide a good learning atmosphere with reminders and rewards. All areas that are important for languages ​​are also learned here: listening, reading and speaking are specifically tested in the individual exercises so that you get fit in all areas.

Learning languages: It’s all in the mix!

Speaking, reading and listening are essential in language learning, so a mix of all is best to learn your target language the fastest. However, one should not overdo it either. At the end of the day, having fun is the most important thing, because without having fun, the whole thing is only half as effective!

Chips are as much a part of a TV night as amen is to church.

Chips: Human physical condition is important

Particularly piquant: The fatter the test person who had to taste the chips – in the scientific sense – was, the more the reward center in the brain was activated when eating the potato chips. The comparison of food and drugs in terms of how they work in the brain also shows parallels. The messenger substance “dopamine” plays a central role here. This means: It can happen that you need more and more of something to get the same happiness as the first time – This becomes addictive.

Isa Mack from the “University Hospital Tübingen” doesn’t see it that dramatically. One thing is clear to them: nutrition and the reward system belong together. “For anything that is important for self-preservation and self-reproduction, the reward system has to kick in,” she told the world. The special preference for “sweet and greasy” is evolutionary. It is also known that the reward system of overweight people reacts differently to food. “But that doesn’t mean that it was always like this or that it can’t be changed,” says Mack.

It also provides a way to enjoy chips without a guilty conscience. “You have to trick yourself.” One possibility, for example, is not to take the whole bag with you, but just a small bowl in front of the television. If you want to work off the chips again, nutrition experts recommend sport.

It takes so much exercise to get rid of the chips

But chips can also be really healthy if you prepare them yourself. If you cut and prepare the potato slices yourself, season them and put them in the oven, then the snack is significantly lower in calories than the industrially produced fattening foods. There are now numerous alternatives to the classic snack. Chips are now made from carrots, zucchini and beetroot. Sweet potatoes are also good for making homemade chips.

A test by Sport1 shows how long you have to do sports if you should succumb to the temptation of 100 grams of potato chips: According to this, you either have to jog for 45 minutes, walk for 90 minutes, do 60 minutes of strength training, ride a bike for 75 minutes, 60 minutes of breaststroke or 35 minutes of squash.

Fresh from the fridge, the butter is hardly spreadable. There are little tricks to get them spreadable.

This is how butter is made

As soon as the milk arrives at the dairy, it is separated into cream and skimmed milk. The cream is then heated.
After the cream has been heated (pasteurization), it is sent to a tank called the cream ripener. There it rests together with cultures for a maximum of 20 hours until the cream has a slightly sour taste.
The cream is then processed in a butter-making machine with many kneading processes. This should create a solid but still spreadable butter.
Now the finished butter is portioned and packaged.

Why does butter solidify in the fridge?

Butter reacts very differently to cold compared to margarine. This is due to the different fat composition of the two dairy products, but there are more differences between the two items. Butter contains more saturated fat, which hardens when cold. Whipping the butter also plays an important role, because the consistency changes with the size of the fat globules. The composition of the animal feed also influences the spreadability and the ingredients. For example, if cows get a lot of green fodder, the butter contains more omega-3 fatty acids. On the other hand, corn and a lot of concentrated feed lower this ingredient again.

Soften the butter with water

Spreading the butter quickly at room temperature does not work. You don’t always want to or can’t put the fat spread in the microwave and so every day people put one or more holes in their bread slices, which are now filled with a whole piece of firm butter. But with the following simple trick, the problem is now over.

Here’s how it works

Get a glass jar that’s slightly larger than the butter. Now pour hot water into this and let it stand for a few minutes. Meanwhile, the glass absorbs the heat of the water and you can pour off the water. Now put the warm glass over your butter and wait a few minutes. After just a short time, your butter will be wonderfully spreadable and can be spread on bread or processed in a dough without any problems.

Make butter spreadable with lunch box

If you still want to have your butter ready to spread without any effort, you can achieve this with a water-cooled ceramic butter dish. With this storage, the butter always stays fresh and soft. The butter dish doesn’t even need to be placed in the fridge. Only the lower part of the container is filled with cold tap water. The idea of ​​the ceramic jar came about at a time when there was neither electricity nor a refrigerator, which is why it has a long tradition.

You can’t go wrong with the offshoots of the ivy plant. Ivy is robust and very vigorous. It belongs to the Araliaceae family and there are six different species distributed around the world, hence ivy’s toughness and frugality.

Ivy is hardy and requires little soil nutrients. No particular location would be required and any climate and sun situation will do. Ivy grows in places where other plants die.

Make ivy cuttings

To make offshoots of the plant, cut off several smaller tendrils. Since it does not harm the plant, you can cut it in many places without a guilty conscience. Non-lignified tendrils that still have few adhesive roots, i.e. without fruits or flowers, are ideal. Since ivy varieties are poisonous, people with sensitive skin should wear gloves when working, as allergic reactions could occur.

Length of the offshoots

The ivy offshoots can be about 10-15 centimeters long. Simply remove all the leaves except for a few at the top. Then place the ivy cuttings in a glass of water and after 1-2 weeks the new roots will form. When the roots are about 3 centimeters long, simply plant the young fresh cuttings. Either somewhere in the garden or in nature or in a flower pot in the apartment or on the balcony.

Site selection for new ivy offshoots

When choosing a location, you should note that ivy should not be placed in children’s rooms because of its toxicity. In addition, please do not feed pets or livestock.

Ivy grows fast and vigorously. The more space the ivy has, the higher and further it climbs, up to 20 meters in height. This forms adhesive roots, which bother some homeowners because the ivy digs into the plaster and concrete. Tree owners don’t like ivy either, because the climbing plant forms woody trunks over the years. This allows the ivy tendrils to literally “strangle” a tree. So make sure you choose a suitable place when planting ivy.

Protection for the young plants

Ivy as a natural sunscreen works particularly well if you let it completely overgrow a scaffolding or ledge. It is also well suited as a privacy screen on fences between properties. Songbirds like the dense ivy groves as nesting sites.

Useful background knowledge on making ivy offshoots

In Germanic mythology, ivy protects against witches and black magic. Therefore, ivy is used by angels, healers, and herbalists to protect themselves from evil. Many old houses, therefore, have an almost complete ivy facade, because they also wanted to protect themselves against evil.

Extinguish the fat fire properly. If the hot oil or fat gets onto the stovetop or the ceramic hob while cooking, it can ignite. Or it suddenly starts to burn in the pot. Then you should keep calm and follow these tips to extinguish the burning fat.

Oil and fat fires can quickly break out in kitchens. And these are not harmless. That’s why you shouldn’t act rashly. You take your eyes off the hot stove for a moment and it’s happened. But how do I put out the fat fire properly? Consequently, we will tell you what you should pay attention to in such a situation.

How does an oil and fat fire develop?

Such a fat fire occurs when the oil or fat is heated too much. Because at over 280 degrees, the fat can catch fire and, in the worst case, spread. Since most stovetops can get above this number of degrees, fires often break out in the kitchen. This should be avoided by turning the stovetop temperature down a little after the pan has heated up initially.

Why you shouldn’t extinguish burning oil with water

You should never put out burning oil with water. Because if you pour water on the burning oil, there will be a deflagration. This causes the flames to leap higher and the hot oil squirts through the kitchen like a mini-explosion. Consequently, this can lead to severe burns on the skin.

How to extinguish burning fat?

How do I behave correctly if there is burning fat in the kitchen? There are several ways to get the fire and flames under control. Of course, it is important to weigh up how dangerous the situation is. If the fire is already too big, don’t hesitate to call the fire brigade. Such a fire can be very dangerous. But if it’s a small flame, you can put it out yourself.

1) Extinguish with a lid and a damp kitchen towel

If your stovetop is on fire, turn off the stove and douse the flames by throwing a damp kitchen towel over the flames. This deprives the fire of oxygen and suffocates it. If the only fire is in the pot or pan, put a lid on it. So the fire goes out quickly. Read the following article on how to remove burnt-in marks from the stovetop.

2) Fire blanket only suitable to a limited extent

A fire blanket made of flame retardant material can extinguish a fire. But if used incorrectly, there is also a risk of burns and unextinguished fat fires. If you don’t have a fire blanket at hand at home, you should definitely not use other blankets. Because these can burst into flames in high heat and additionally accelerate the fire. Also, read how to effectively remove the burnt smell.

3) Fight grease fire with extinguishing spray

So-called extinguishing sprays are a good means of extinguishing small fires. Although they don’t stand a chance with larger flames, these are easy to use and can be found in every kitchen. In addition, they are inexpensive. If your pan, the Advent wreath, or the hob starts to burn, you can use it quickly and easily.

4) Call the fire brigade in the event of a grease fire

Since a grease fire can be very dangerous, you should not hesitate to call the fire brigade. Especially if the fire has already grown large and threatens to spread. Because the most important thing is to get yourself and others to safety so that nobody gets hurt. You can see how dangerous such a fire can be in the following video. Also, note our tips on liability insurance for the family.