Plum Cake

The base for this cake is a variation of a fatless sponge cake with almond flour.

Ingredients
6 eggs
1 pinch of salt
150 g sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75 g all-purpose flour
200 g almond flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon corn starch
6 large plums, washed, cored and sliced into wedges
some roasted almond slices


one 10" springform
parchment paper, some butter or other fat for the pan

Preparation:

1. Line springform bottom with parchment paper, grease the edge of the pan.

2. Separate eggs. Whisk egg whites with salt into stiff peaks, set aside.

3. Whisk egg yolks, add sugar and vanilla sugar or aroma and whisk until creamy. Add flour, almond flour, starch and cinnamon.

4. Fold stiff egg whites into batter and add the batter into the springform.

5. Put plums on batter, working from the outside towards the inside.

6. Bake cake for about 45 min at 180 degrees Celsius (350F). or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. Let cake cool down.

8. Roast almon slices in a pan on the stove until slightly browned. Sprinkle almond slices on the cake and dust powdered sugar over the cake before serving.

Comment:
1. I prepared the cake fresh in the morning and the cake was still warm when I dusted it with powdered sugar, so the powdered sugar melted and disappeared.
2. When I was preparing the almond-flour batter, the batter became very thick, so I added a little bit of water to make it easier for my whisk.

Tres Leches Cake

Tres Leches Cake

This cake is one of my "American" favorites, except for that it is most often overly sweet, so I adjusted the recipe. People still go nuts over this cake, so I don't think the reduced sugar content is bad.

Ingredients
9x13 inch baking pan
some grease and flour

For the cake batter:
200 g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick (113 g) unsalted butter
75 g cup white sugar
5 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt

The tres leches mixture:
500 ml milk
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

For the topping:
400 g whipping cream
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
some cinnamon sugar

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (350 degrees F).
2. Grease and flour one 9x13 inch baking pan.
3. Cream butter or margarine and  sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract; beat well.
4. Sift flour and baking powder together and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Add two tablespoons at a time; mix until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake cake at 175 degrees C (350 degrees F) for 30 minutes.
6. Remove cake from oven and pierce cake several times with a fork.
7. Combine milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk together. Pour over the top of the cooled cake. Keep cake in fridge until all the milk has been absorbed.
8. Whip whipping cream, 1 tablespoon sugar, and the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla extract together until thick. Spread over the top of cake.
9. Sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top of the cake.

Comments:
1. Most recipes call for much more sugar. I cut the amount of sugar in the cake, and only use a tablespoon of sugar for the topping. The sweetened condensed milk adds so much sugar, it it not necessary to add much more.
2. I prefer to use light whipping cream for the topping.

Walnut-Marzipan Sticks

This is another quick recipe for Christmas cookies. Even people who don’t like marzipan might like these cookies.

Ingredients:
Baking sheet
Parchment paper

200 g marzipan
1 egg white
75 g sugar
1 pinch of salt
3 drops bitter almond extract
100 g ground walnuts
Dark chocolate

1. Line baking sheet with parchment paper .
2. Dice marzipan into small pieces. Add all ingredients into a bowl, then whisk with an electric hand mixer. Form mass into rolls of 1 cm (1/2 inch) diameter, cut 5 cm (2 inch) long pieces.
3. Put sticks on parchment paper and bake for 12 minutes. Let cookies cool down on a rack.
4. Melt dark chocolate with medium heat in microwave or in a waterbath on the stove. Dip ends of sticks into chocolate, let cool down.

Apple Cake with a Cinnamon Meringue Topping

I love meringue, one of my favorite cakes is the rhubarb meringue that I posted quite a while ago. So I was very excited when I came across this recipe for an apple cake with a cinnamon meringue topping.

Ingredients:
Baking sheet
some extra flour

Yeast dough:
200 ml milk
25 g butter or margarine
375 g wheat flour
1 package active dried yeast
50 g sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
3 egg yolks

Topping:
3 pounds of apples
1 package vanilla pudding and 2 tablespoons of sugar or Jell-O
400 ml milk

Meringue:
3 egg whites
100 g powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Optional: Sliced hazelnuts or chopped walnuts

Preparation:
1. Warm up milk, dissolve butter or margarine in warm milk. When milk is lukewarm, stir in sugar, salt, vanilla and yeast.
2. Sift flour into a bowl. Make a little dent into the middle of the flour, then pour in the milk-yeast mixture. Cover bowl and let yeast become active for about 10 minutes.
3. Add egg yolks and knead everything into one smooth dough. Cover dough and let rise until the dough has visibly increased in size.
4. Peel and core apples, cut into quarters, then cut into slices.
5. Knead dough on a floured surface, roll out on put on a baking sheet. While yeast is rising again, prepare vanilla custard of Jell-O. Spread custard or Jell-O onto yeast dough, then add apple slices.
6. Bake cake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 25 min. In the meantime, prepare meringue.
7. Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks, slowly add powdered sugar and cinnamon, and whisk until stiff. Fill meringue into a piping bag and decorate the cake. Sprinkle nuts on top of the cake and bake for another 15 min.

Comments:
1. The bottom was very crunchy when the cake was fresh, but the next day it had softened.

Photo to be added later

Apple Bread

I really love this recipe, even though it still needs some tweaking. It is a real bread, and is wonderful for breakfast with butter and/or jam.

Ingredients:

1 9x5 inch bread loaf pan

some grease

some breadcrumbs or flour

750 g apples (coarsely grated)

150 g brown sugar

600 g flour (see comments)

3 leveled teaspoons of baking powder

100 g raisins

100 g hazelnuts 

Preparation:

1. Grease a cake pan, sprinkle with breadcrumbs or flour.

2. Mix flour, baking powder and brown sugar, then stir in the apples.

2. Add raisins and hazelnuts.

3. Bake at 375F for about 75 min or until the toothpick comes out clean.

Comments:

1. The recipe calls for peeled apples, I used both peeled and unpeeled apples, and it not any different to me.

2. I am still tweaking the amount of flour, which I think depends on the moisture in the apples. The original recipe calls for 500 g; that was clearly not enough, the cake was too moist. So I've increased the amount of flour last time, which worked better. I didn't measure the amount, though. I’d say one needs so much flour in it that it takes some stirring to coat the flour with the moist apples.

3. You can certainly increase the amount of raisins and hazelnuts; last time  I didn’t even measure, I just poured them in. You can also exchange the dried fruits and nuts for others (e.g. cranberries and walnuts).

4. The dough is very heavy. If you don't have a loaf pan you can probably just bake it as a loaf on a baking sheet.

5. I also tried the recipe with Trader Joe's gluten-free flour, which worked surprisingly well!

Photo to follow later

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

some grease for the baking pan (I used a bundt cake pan for this)
some flour or breadcrumbs for the baking pan

Batter:
300 g carrots
300 g wheat flour
1 pinch of salt
2 leveled teaspoons baking powder
1 leveled teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
175 g brown sugar
200 g oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
150 g chopped walnuts
100 g raisins

Frosting:
200 g powdered sugar
30 g sour cream

Preparation:
1. Peel and grate carrots.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C (350 F). Grease baking pan, then cover baking pan with flour or breadcrumbs to make it easier to remove cake after baking
3. Mix flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl, then add eggs, vanilla, spices, brown sugar and oil and mix into a smooth batter. Add grated carrots, chopped walnuts and raisins. Pour batter into the greased pan and bake at 180°C (350 F) for 60 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.
4. Remove cake from oven, let cool down for 10 minutes, then remove cake from pan and let cool down fully.
5. Prepare frosting: mix powdered sugar and sour cream until frosting is very stiff. Glaze cake with the frosting.

Comments:
1. I used pumpkin spice mix instead, which worked great.
2. You don't have to use a fancy mixer for this cake, just stir it with a wooden spoon, the batter is rather liquid.

 

 

Margarita Cake

Summertime is cocktail time, don't you agree? Why always drink the cocktail if you can also eat it (on top of drinking it)?

Ingredients:
1 9x13 inch (30x40cm) Pyrex dish or deep baking dish
Some grease
Bowl with lid

For the batter:
250 g all-purpose wheat flour
3 leveled teaspoons baking powder
150 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest from one (organic) lemon or 1/2 teaspoon dried lemon zest
4 eggs
125 ml vegetable oil
125 ml sparkling lemonade

For the topping:
500 g Greek Yoghurt (I prefer the Fage brand)
250 g Greek Yoghurt lemon
125 ml (1/2 cup) Tequila
100 g powdered sugar
300 g whipping cream
1 package gelatin

For decorating the cake:
200 g whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar (or powdered sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract)
1-2 tablespoons Cointreau (optional)
1 can mandarin oranges
Some leaves of lemon mint (optional)

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F). Grease Pyrex dish or deep baking dish.
2. Mix flour and baking powder and sift into a bowl. Add sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix, then add eggs, oil and lemonade. Close the bowl with the lid, and shake the bowl for about 30 seconds, so all ingredients are mixed. Using a wooden cooking spoon or a whisk mix the batter again, making sure that dry ingredients collected around the edges of the bowl are mixed in, too.
3. Spread batter evenly in baking dish, and bake cake for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350F). Remove cake from oven and let cool down.
4.  Add gelatin with a tablespoon of whipping cream to a stovetop pot. Let sit for 10 min, then gently heat up and stir until gelatin has dissolved.
5. Stir Greek yoghurt, lemon yoghurt, tequila and sugar in a bowl, add gelatin and stir into yoghurt mixture. Chill yoghurt mixture.
6. When the yoghurt mixture starts to form a gel, whip cream until stiff, and carefully fold cream into the yoghurt mixture. Spread topping over the cooled cake and chill for at least 2 hours.
7. Decorate the cake: Drain mandarin oranges. Whip cream with sugar, vanilla stiff. Briefly mix in Cointreau. Fill piping bag with cream and decorate cake with it. Add a slice of mandarin orange and a mint leave to each piece.

Comments:
1. I didn't have Cointreau, so I left it out. I also didn't have any lemon mint leaves, but I am sure they will add a nice color to the cake.
2. I thought this cake was great, especially the cream on top! While the tequila taste was quite strong in the freshly prepared cream and became more subtle when served the day after.