Break is over

Hi all, finally my non-posting-time is over. Why didn't I post anything within the last month? Well, first, both cameras broke (in one or the other way) and I did not have the time to search for an appropriate one and then there was a wedding. My wedding. :D
But now we do own a brand-new camera and I have already started taking pictures of cakes. Within the next days there will be a Pumpkin Pie and a Chocolate Cheese Cake and if I can find nice pictures of our wedding's cake buffet, I will post them as well.

Making of: Manesse Cake

Another Larp-event that called for a cake... The Grenzbrueck Reychstag. I wanted to try something new, so I thought about 'painting' a cake. The cake is a basic chocolate cake topped with orange-chocolate ganache and coated with fondant.
The cake is painted with royal icing and food colour pens.

For the chocolate sponge you need

150 g chopped dark chocolate
200 ml milk
400 g sugar
150 g butter at room temperature
4 eggs
300 g flour
3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Put the chocolate, milk and 200 g sugar into a pot and cook until the chocolate is melted. Then, mix butter and remaining sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, then add flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda. Mix carefully. Slowly pour in your cooked chocolate mixture and mix again, slowly.
Line a baking tray and fill in the dough and bake for about 30 minutes. Check whether it is done with a toothpick.

While the cake cools down, use the time to prepare the ganache.

250 g dark chocolate (at least 55%)
250 g single cream
grated zest of 1 orange

Chop the chocolate and put it into a bowl together with the orange zest while heating the single cream. When the cream is hot, pour it over the chopped chocolate and stir occasionally until all the chocolate is melted. Let the ganache cool down and set a little. When it is firm enough to be spread upon the cake, position the cake onto a tray and cover the cake with the ganache (top and sides). 


Let the cake rest in the fridge until set (until the cream becomes firm to touch). 

Then, cover the cake with marzipan and fondant.

You need:

800 g marzipan 
250 g  confectioner's sugar (sifted)
800 g fondant
confectioner's sugar for dusting


Knead the confectioner's sugar into the marzipan to make it less sticky to your hands, and the rolling pin, and the table, and... Then, roll it out into a large rectangular shape, hang it carefully over the rolling pin and pull it over the cake.


Now, draw the outlines of your desired motif with food colour pens.

Last thing you do is:


Mix one egg white with about 400 g confectioner's sugar (sifted) and divide into several parts (each about one tablespoon) and stir in some food colour and, if not liquid enough, some drops of milk. 


Now, you can literally paint the cake :)


Have fun!

Making of: Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake

Valentine's Day. Another reason for me to bake a cake :)
This time the recipe is only for a 18cm baking tin, so if you want to use it for a 26cm tin, double the recipe.

For the chocolate fudge cake you need

90 g flour
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
80 g sugar
1 egg
75 ml sunflower oil
75 ml milk
1 tbsp. golden syrup


Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and line a 18cm baking tin.
Mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Then add the egg, oil, milk and syrup and beat until smooth. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C and bake for ca. 35 minutes.

Actually, half the mixture would be enough for what I wanted to make, but it is quite hard to half an egg ;) So, I baked the whole cake, cut it into two layers and used the upper layer for another batch of cake pops. They are basically the same that I had made before (Chocolate cake pops), so no recipe and pictures here...


For the chocolate cheese cream you need

1 egg
1 sachet vanilla sugar
265 g chocolate cream cheese (Philadelphia; one family pack)
2 tbsp. curd
1 sachet custard powder chocolate flavour

Mix the egg and sugar until light and fluffy. Then, add cheese, curd and powder and beat until smooth. Pre-heat the oven to 175°C (top heat only) and bake the cake for about 45 minutes.


For the mascarpone cream you need

125 g mascarpone
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. sugar

Mix everything until well combined and then spread it on top of your cake.


For the ganache you need

100 g dark chocolate
100 g single cream

Cook the cream and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Stir with a spoon until all the chocolate is melted. Then, cover the whole cake with it.

Cake Pops: Chocolate Creamcheese

Today was cake pops time again.

For the Coconut-Chocolate Cake Pops (see post below), I bought two loaf cakes of which I used one for the cake pops. The other cake was nearly half eaten by my boyfriend. So I ended up with 250 g loaf cake which was open already and thus had to be used.

250 g cake (crumbs)
100 g chocolate cream cheese (Philadelphia)
ca. 150 g milk chocolate
ca. 30 g sugar sprinkles

Mix the crumbs with the cream cheese until you get a mixture that you can form into shapes.
Shape the mixture into ca. 15 balls and leave them in the fridge for several hours.

Then, put them on lolly sticks and dip them into the melted chocolate until completely covered. Shake it slightly, so that excess chocolate can drip off. Then, dip the top of each ball into a small bowl filled with the sprinkles.

Leave to dry.
Ready.
Yummie!

Cake Pops: Coconut and Chocolate

This time I did not have any cake leftovers, so I bought two loaf cakes. I wanted to buy a simple vanilla cake, but they did not have any, so I chose vanilla chocolate chip.

For ca. 24 coconut cake pops you need

1 loaf cake (400g)
120 g coconut milk
3 tbl. spoons coconut flakes
3 tbl. spoons sugar
300 g chocolate
coconut flakes to dip the pops into

Crumble the cake into the bowl of your stand mixer. Add coconut milk, sugar and coconut flakes and mix it until you get a smooth mixture.

Form this mixture into little balls and put them into the fridge over night.

The next day, poke a lolly stick into each ball and dip it into the melted chocolate. Shake it a little, so that the excess chocolate drips back into the cup and then dip the cake pop into a cup filled with coconut flakes.

Yummie :)

Cake Pops: Chocolate Flowers

Lately, I read so much about cake pops that I wanted to have a try making them. But hell week AND a four-tier-cake in one week is simply too much... I thought... There were the tops of two tiers left because two of the four cakes were bulky so I had to cut off the tops. But what to do with them? Hmm... There was some cheese-buttercream left as well.

So, I crumbled the cake leftovers into the blender and added small amounts of the filling at a time. The mixture should not be crumbly anymore, so that you can form it, but be careful not to add too much cream.

Then, choose a cookie cutter to your liking and squish the mixture into the cutter, paying attention to fill in all the gaps.

Here they go.

When they are ready leave them in a cool place for several hours, so that they get a bit more firm. Then, poke a lolly stick, or a kind of long toothpick (just look at the next picture and you will know what I mean) into one end of the cake and dip it into melted chocolate of your choice.

In the end, what you get is this:

Actually, you stick the cake pops into a block of styrofoam to set. Lacking one, I simply put them on a tray, lined with baking paper, to allow them to set. 

Yummie they are and I am sure there will be more within this year :)