Sachertorte

This traditional chocolate cake was invented by the Austrian Franz Sachet, and is one Viennese specialty. It's a chocolate sponge cake with a filling of apricot jam and a chocolate icing. And appropriately, according to Wikipedia December 5 is National Sachertorte Day.

Ingredients:

A small stovetop pot

Springform (26 cm or 11 inches in diameter)

Some grease

Cake batter:

150 g semisweet chocolate of good quality

6 eggs

A pinch of salt

75 g powdered sugar

120 g butter or margarine

75 g sugar

Vanilla aroma

130 g flour

Filling:

200 g apricot jam

Decoration:

150 g semisweet chocolate of good quality

Preparation:

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

2. Add water to a stovetop pot and bring to a near boil. In the meantime cut the chocolate into smaller pieces and add to a bowl. Put the bowl with chocolate over the hot water, and slowly melt the chocolate in the hot waterbath.

3. Separate eggs. Using an electric hand mixer beat the egg whites with the pinch of salt until very stiff. Slowly add the powdered sugar and keep beating.

4. In a separate bowl add butter or margarine. Using an electric hand mixer beat until soft. Add in the vanilla aroma and sugar and mix until a smooth batter has formed. Stir in the melted chocolate, the the flour.

5. Carefully fold the stiff egg whites under the chocolate batter. Pour batter into springform and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 45 minutes. Check with a toothpick whether done (if the toothpick comes out clean the cake is done)

6. Remove cake from oven. Carefully remove outer ring of springform. Flip the cake upside down onto a plate or board, the remove springform bottom. Flip cake back onto a cooling rack and let fully cool down.

7. Cut cake horizontally in half. Spread apricot jam on the cut surface of the bottom half, then put back top half.

8. Melt the chocolate for the decoration as described above. Pour chocolate over cake middle and coat cake evenly using a knife while turning the cake.

Hazelnut-Nutella-Cake

Ingredients:

Springform (9 inch or 24 cm in diameter)

Parchment paper

Sponge Cake:

3 eggs

100 g sugar

30 g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100 g ground hazelnuts

Filling:

Nutella

500 ml milk

1 package vanilla pudding powder or 1 package JELL-O vanilla pie filling

200 g whipping cream

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line springform bottom with parchment paper.

2. Using an electric hand mixer beat eggs until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until eggs start to stiffen. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder, add flour mixture to eggs and mix. Lastly, mix in ground hazelnuts, then pour batter into springform.

3. Bake sponge cake batter for about 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake from oven, let briefly cool, then remove springform edge. Let cake cool down entirely.

4. In the meantime, prepare pie filling or vanilla pudding/custard according to the instructions. If using cook-and-serve variety, let filling cool down.

5. Whip whipping cream and powdered sugar until whipping cream is stiff (you should be able to put the bowl upside down without the cream running out).

6. For the creme filling: Carefully fold whipped cream under 1/2 of the pie filling or pudding.

7. Cut the sponge cake once horizontally. Spread a thin layer of Nutella on the cut edge of the bottom piece. Add 1/2 of the prepared filling on top of the layer of Nutella. Put the top half of the sponge cake with the cut edge facing down on top. Spread the remaining amount of the creme filling (optional: set aside some for the cake decoration) on top of the cake. Decorate and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight, so the sponge cake becomes a little soft.

Comments:

1. If you use potato starch instead of wheat flour the sponge cake will be gluten-free.

Apple-Wine-Cake (Apfelweinkuchen)

This is a fall favorite. No further comment needed.

Ingredients:

Baking sheet or one 9x11 inch (30x40 cm) Pyrex form

Some grease

Baking frame or aluminum foil when using a baking sheet

Pie crust:

300 g wheat flour

50 g potato starch

1 leveled teaspoon baking powder

150 g sugar

1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

1 pinch of salt

2 eggs (optional, can be exchanged for 60 ml or two tablespoons milk)

150 g (1 stick) butter or margarine

Topping:

2 kg or 4 lb apples

Juice from one lemon

4.6 oz package vanilla cook and serve JELL-O

(or alternatively: 3 packages Dr. Oetker vanilla pudding powder and 150 g of sugar)

2 packages vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

500 ml apple juice (2 cups)

375 ml white wine (1/2 bottle)

Glaze:

375 ml white wine (1/2 bottle)

300 ml apple juice

50 g sugar

50 g potato starch

3 tablespoons arrowroot starch

(or instead of the starches: 3 packages Tortenguss klar/cake glaze clear)

Preparation:

1. Grease baking sheet or Pyrex form. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

2. Prepare pie crust: Mix flour, starch and baking powder in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and use the knead hooks of an electric hand mixer to form a dough. Shape into a rod. Roll dough flat on baking sheet or Pyrex form. Pierce pie crust with a fork multiple times. If using a baking sheet put a baking frame of the size of the sheet around or use aluminum foil to build a frame.

3. Pre-bake pie crust for 15 min at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

4. Prepare apple topping: Peel and core apples, cut into small pieces, and cover with lemon juice to prevent the apples from turning brown.

5. In a stovetop pot, mix apple juice, wine and pudding powder. Bring mixture to a boil while constantly stirring. When liquid thickens, remove pot from stove, and stir in apples. Pour apple mix on top of pre-baked pie crust, level, then bake for another 40 min.

6. Remove cake from oven and let cool down.

7. Prepare glaze: In a stovetop pot, mix apple juice and wine. Remove three tablespoons of that liquid and stir in the starches. Bring wine-juice mixture to a boil while constantly stirring. Remove from heat and stir in the dissolved starches. When liquid thickens, pour over apple layer and level. Let glaze cool down the refrigerate cake.

8. Before serving, carefully remove baking frame from cake, cut into pieces and serve.

Comments:

1. Pie crust: I used milk instead of the eggs because the crust is less crumbly and doesn't need to be refrigerated before rolled out. However, I think that next time I would not pre-bake the crust, or if then only for 5 minutes, because it got very hard over the remaining baking time.

Well, a day later, the pie crust was nice and soft, so or wasn't bad at all, just needed an extra day.

2. Apple topping: Because the vanilla cook and serve JELL-O I used already contains sugar I left out the additional sugar asked for in the recipe. I used Gala apples because they are my favorite kind, but the original recipe calls for apples that are a little on the tart side (e.g. Elstar).

3. Glaze: Tortenguss mainly contains starch and sugar, so it can easily be made using potato starch and/or arrowroot starch. Cornstarch can be used, too, but the glaze will appear milky and not clear.

4. Garnish the cake with chopped almond pieces or some whipped cream.

5. To make an alcohol-free version of this cake, exchange the wine for apple juice, and leave out the additional sugar.