Making of: Künst. A book.

I have to admit: I know too many people who are born in February :) So, here is another birthday cake. This one is for Thomas. Remember? The photo guy. Yes, you can find his blog in my links. Right. It's his birthday and he loves books and he entiteled the last year 'Künst' ('art', trying to pronounce it fake-french-like? Correct me, if I'm wrong...). That is why the cake looks what it looks like.

Photo by Thomas Michalski

I thought a lot about how to make the edge of the cake-book like pages. Thus, I had my first try on Baumkuchen.

For the Baumkuchen you need

250 g butter
250 g sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
grated zest of a lemon
a pinch of salt
6 eggs
3 tbsp. limoncello
150 g flour
100 g starch

	Pre-heat the oven to 250°C (top heat only). Divide the eggs. Mix butter, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla sugar until light and fluffy. First, add the egg yolks, then limoncello, flour and starch. Mix well after each item.
	At last, beat the egg whites with the salt until stiff peaks occur.
	Fold the whites carefully under the dough.
	Line and grease a small rectangular baking tray. Pour ca. 2 tbsp. of the dough into the form and spread it evenly. I recommend a silicone baking brush, here. Put your baking tray in the oven for about 2 minutes. It may be a bit more, or a bit less, depending on your oven. Just take it out, when you see that it is done. Pour another two tbsp. of dough onto it. Spread it evenly. Same procedure as the time before. Go on, until there is no more dough left.
	Usually, you cover the cake in chocolate, or you cut it into pieces and then cover it in chocolate.
	I covered it in lemon butter cream (125 g butter, 125 g confectioner's sugar and grated zest of one lemon) and brown fondant and left three edges open, to make it look like a book. I used 250 g of brown fondant. This amound was enough to make the book cover and all the 'metal' stuff (brown fondant and a tiny amount of edible gold lustre).
	The handwriting was done with a food colour pen. Photo by Thomas Michalski

Actually, quite easy, but I hope it will have the desired effect :)

Photo by Thomas Michalski

Making of: Lemon Strawberry Cream Cheesecake

And another birthday cake... :D

This time I was told to bake a kitschy cake, but not pink-girly-kitschy. Nevertheless, it should say 'Happy Birthday' on top. Oh, and no nuts or apples because the person the cake is for is allergic to those. I was not sure whether chocolate would be a a good idea because it often contains small amounts of hazelnut. Well, I decided to go for another cheesecake :)

And here we go:

For the sponge you need

2 eggs
50 g sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
100 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
grated zest of half a lemon

Separate the eggs. Beat the whites until stiff and slowly mix in the sugar and vanilla sugar. Then add the yolks one by one. Mix the flour with the baking powder and add it to your egg-and-sugar-mixture.
Pour it into a 26cm round baking pan. Preheat the oven to 175°C and put the cake in for about 15 minutes.

Soak the sponge with some teaspoons full of limoncello. Puree 100 g strawberries and pour roughly a third of it onto the sponge.


For the cheesecream you need

3 eggs
100 g sugar
750 g curd
1 sachet custard powder cream flavour
grated zest of half a lemon


Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add curd, lemon zest and custard powder and mix until well combined.

Pour half the mixture over the sponge.

Dip 6 lady's fingers into the remaining strawberry puree an arrange them on the cake.

Pour the remaining cheese cream onto the cake.

Preheat the oven to 175°C and put the cake in for 40 minutes.

For the lemon mascarpone cream you need

250 g mascarpone
1 egg yolk
50 g sugar (or more)
grated zest and juice of one lemon
Mix the yolk with the sugar and lemon zest and juice until well combined. Then add the mascarpone. Mix well, then top your cake with the cream.

Mix the remaining strawberry puree with a bit of powdered gelatine (handle according to the recipe on the sachet) and write 'Happy Birthday' on the cake, using a piping bag.