Brno

You may have noticed (or not) a few less blog posts the past couple of months. I am once again back in Brno, just as I was in October.

For those of you wondering where on earth I actually am, Brno is a city in the south east of the Czech Republic. Although there is a small kitchen, there is only two hobs and a microwave so not much baking can happen for TWO whole weeks. This also means I suspect that less cake will be eaten. This is very sad.

Saying that I have had some cakes and bakes. I was presented with freshly baked apple strudel from my host when I arrived. It was fantastic and just what I needed after a 4.30am start and 9 hours travelling.

I have had a very English feeling piece of homemade carrot cake in a cafe here too. Carrot cake is not so common here, indeed there was some strong suspicion from some people at the idea of a cake with carrots in.

Also not common is salted sweet bakes. There was another cake on offer, chocolate with sea salt, and this caused even more suspicion than the carrot cake. It was not actually so salted and was nice. But chatting with people I found out that salted caramel was unheard of and declared 'weird' and salted chocolate was very uncommon but starting to appear.

If I am back again I will have to introduce them all to the joys of salted caramel!

One of the things I love about Hungary or the Czech Republic is the presence of Trdelnik, at least that is what it is called in Czech.

It is bread dough, that is allowed one rise. It is then rolled into a thin sausage and wrapped around a cast iron rod. This is then turned over heat to produce a spiral of bread, crispy on the outside but still with some softness on the inside.

They are flavoured by coating the outside of the bread in nuts, sugar, or my current favourite, cinnamon.

Bigger cities have them all year round but I have managed to track them down at the Christmas markets in Brno and will be having plenty more before I leave!