Birthday Chocolate Cake

Some days after having tried out the Chocolate Buttermilk Sheet Cake, it was a friend of mine's birthday. The light is a bit odd on the picture, so that it looks like two halves. Sometime I will get used to taking pictures of my cakes :)

I used half of the Old-fashioned Chocolate Buttermilk Sheet Cake recipe and filled it into a 18 cm round baking tin.
When it was cooled down, I cut it lengthwise and filled it with apricot jam.

After having assembled the cake I melted some chocolate (about 150 g) and poured it over the cake. Of course I had to add some sugar sprinkles ;)

Old-fashioned Chocolate Buttermilk Sheet Cake

Here's another Harry-Potter-Cookbook recipe which I simply HAVE to recommend.

 http://www.amazon.de/Unofficial-Harry-Potter-Cookbook-Knickerbocker/dp/1440503257/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350235134&sr=8-1

It is sooo fluffy.

All you need is:

2 ounces chopped dark chocolate
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 1/4 cups boiling water
2 3/4 cups flour
2 3/4 cups sugar (although I think that 2 cups is sufficiant)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Place the chocolate and coffee in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Stir every once in a while until smooth.
Then, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking power and mix thoroughly. Add oil and buttermilk and mix again. Now, add the eggs one by one, mixing after each until well incorporated. Last, add the chocolate-coffee mixture and the vanilla extract. Mix slowly and carefully because the mixture will slosh around the bowl.

According to the original recipe you should use a 9"x13" baking pan, which is about 24 x 36 cm. I used a 30 x 40 cm one and in the end I was happy that the pan was larger :)

Grease and flour the pan, or line it with baking parchment. Fill in the batter and bake on 175°C for about 45 minutes.
Important: A toothpick should come out with a few moist crumbs! If there are no crumbs on the toothpick, the cake is over baked, so better check before the 45 minutes have run out. Just in case :)

Actually, I wanted to decorate it with vanilla cheese cream, but the cake itself was simply delicious, so I left it simple :)

Choir Cake Pops

Our choir had a concert last weekend and we were sold out and had lots of fun and I believe so did the audience :)

At least I hope they did ;)

As usual, for the after-show-party everybody made something to eat, so that we had a rather large buffet in the end. I, of course, could not do else than something sweet and since the cake pops were the first things to be munched up at my wedding, I chose to make them again.

Of course, I'm still not used to having a decent camera and thus only made photos during preparing time, but not of the finished cake pops... Nevertheless, I tried something new which I want to share with you :)

1. Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Pops

First, bake a Naughty Chocolate Fudge Cake.

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.

When it is cooled down, crumble it into a bowl as finely as possible. Add one package of chocolate cream cheese (e. g. Philadelphia), which is about 175 g. Then mix until a dough forms that does not stick to the bowl anymore. I had to add one tablespoon of cream cheese, but it really depends on how the cake comes out.

Form the dough into little balls (about 4cm in diameter) and leave them on a lined tray to set for about half an hour. Melt about 150 g of dark chocolate. I prefer chocolate glaze because it is runnier than chocolate and thus the cake pops do not fall off the poker that easily :)
Then, poke a little hole in them with a wooden skewer. Dip the skewers into the melted glaze or chocolate and put it back into the cake pops, about 2/3 of the cake pops' diameter deep. When the chocolate on the skewers is set, dip the cake pop into the chocolate until fully covered. Take out again, shake slightly to get rid of excess chocolate. Dip the top of the pop into sugar sprinkles (or chopped nuts, or chocolate sprinkles, or... just be creative :) ), put it into a glass and let the chocolate harden completely.


2. Chocolate Filled Sandwich Cookie Cake Pops

250 g chocolate filled sandwich cookies

like these:

picture from the Stuttgarter Wochenblatt

 175 g honey cream cheese (e. g. Brunch or Philadelphia)

Crumble the cookies into a bowl as finely as possible. A food processor does help a lot ;) Add the cream cheese and mix until a dough forms that does not stick to the bowl. You might need to add some extra cream cheese. Then proceed as with the Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Pops, but use milk chocolate instead of dark chokolate.


3. Almond Lady's Fingers Cake Pops

250 g lady's fingers
175 g cream cheese
1 tsp. almond extract

Put the lady's fingers into a food processor or crumble them into a bowl as finely as possible. Add the cream cheese and almond extract and mix until... yes, until the dough stops sticking to the bowl :)
It might seem a lot of almond extract for such little dough, but it really tastes like marzipan.

Proceed as with the Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake Pops, but use vanilla glaze or white chocolate instead.