Mole Cake (Maulwurfkuchen)

This cake is loved by many, but I've never made it before. The name I think is based on the appearance of it, it looks like one of those hills moles make in the soil when they dig upwards. However, the hidden filling of the cake may also refer to the role a mole plays in espionage, hiding its true identity. So you take your pick how you want to explain the cake's name!

Ingredients:

Springform (26 cm or 10 inches in diameter)

Some grease

Cake batter:

4 eggs, separated

125 g butter or margarine

125 g sugar

1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

50 g flour

10 g cocoa powder

4 leveled teaspoons baking powder

75 g ground nuts

100 g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped or grated

Filling:

2 bananas, sliced in half

1 jar of canned sour cherries

2 tablespoons lemon juice

300 g heavy whipping cream

15 g powdered sugar

Preparation:

1. Grease bottom of springform, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

2. Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until stiff (a cut with a knife should stay visible or you should be able to tilt the bowl with the egg whites not running out).

3. Using a hand mixer beat butter or margarine until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla sugar or vanilla aroma and beat until mixed well, then add in egg yolks one at a time mixing for about 30 seconds per egg.

4. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder. Add ground nuts and grated chocolate to flour mixture, then add the dry ingredients in two portions to batter and mix. Lastly, fold in beaten egg whites.

5. Pour batter into springform and level evenly. Bake for about 30 min at 180 degrees Celsius, or until toothpick comes out clean.

6. Remove cake from oven and let cool in springform for about 10 min. Carefully remove edge of springform and let cake cool down fully.

7. With a knife cut an inner circle about 1 cm or 1/2 inch from the edge and about 1 cm or 1/2 inch deep. Using a spoon remove the inner part of the cake and set aside.

8. For the filling, drain cherries. Peel bananas and slice lengthwise in half. Drizzle bananas with lemon juice, then put bananas next to each other with the flat side into the middle of the cake. Add cherries on top filling the holes between the bananas.

9. Whip heavy cream and powdered sugar until cream is stiff. Put whipped cream on top of cake, with more cream towards the middle of the cake creating a dome. Take the cake interior set aside earlier and crumble into small pieces. Drizzle the cake crumbles over whipped cream dome and slightly press into the cream. Chill cake for at least 1 h before serving.

Comments:

1. The recipe uses hazelnuts, but I exchanged them for walnuts.

2. The original recipe uses 600 g of heavy whipping cream, but I thought this was too much, so I only whipped about 350 g. In the end I only used about 300 g, so half of what is used in the original recipe. If you really want a lot of cream on top of your cake you can certainly put more on top.

3. After only using 300 g of the whipped cream, I had both whipped cream and some more of the inner part of the cake left over. So what do bakeries do with any left overs? Here's one idea: Mix the whipped cream and cake crumbles until a paste has formed. Chill paste, then form little balls. Melt some chocolate and coat balls with chocolate. Chill and serve chilled. Another possibility is to take the cream-crumble paste and spread it in a dome shape onto a Nilla waver cookie, then dip in chocolate. These little treats are known as "shell splinters" in Germany, and according to the image I call the chocolate-covered balls "little cannonballs".

4. For a variation use two cans of mandarin oranges. Drain the liquid and use instead of the cherries.