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.

Quick Plum Cake

This plum cake recipe is one of many. The most traditional plum cake is a yeast dough with plum topping, but this one with the cake batter is very juicy and moist. It goes well with plums that contain not too much juice.

Ingredients:

One deep baking sheet

Some grease

Cake batter:

150 g butter or margarine (1 stick)

150 g sugar (113 g)

1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

1 pinch of salt

3 eggs

300 g flour (225 g)

2 leveled teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Filling:

1.5 kg (3 pounds) plums

Topping:

100 g butter (1stick)

100 g sugar (113 g)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

150 g flour (175 g)

Preparation:

1. Wash plums, remove pit and cut into quarters or eights. Grease baking sheet. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F).

2. Using an electric hand mixer beat butter and sugar until foamy. Add vanilla sugar or vanilla aroma and salt. Add one egg at a time mixing each egg into 30s per egg. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder. Add flour mixture to cake batter alternating with milk.

3. Spread cake batter evenly on greased baking sheet. Put plums on top.

4. For the topping, beat all ingredients until crumbles have formed. Spread crumbles on tp of cake.

5. Bake cake at 180 degrees Celsius (350F) for about 50 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

6. Remove cake from oven, let cool, then serve.

Egg sunny-side up Cake (Spiegeleierkuchen)

This cake is another children's favorite. It usually uses canned apricots halves, but I am trying out fresh apricots on one half of the cake because they are currently in season. This cake has four layers: a regular cake batter on the bottom, a cheesecake-like layer with vanilla custard or pudding, sour cream and yoghurt, apricot halves and a clear glaze. Because of its appearance as an egg sunny-side up this cake is known as Spiegeleierkuchen (fried egg cake).

Ingredients:

Baking sheet (deep) or two 9x13" Pyrex dishes

Some grease

Cake batter:

150 g butter or margarine (1 stick)

150 g sugar (113 g)

3 eggs

1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

1 pinch of salt

300 g flour (225 g)

2 leveled teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Cheesecake topping:

2 packages 'cook and serve' JELL-O vanilla flavor (or 2 packages Dr. Oetker Vanilla Pudding powder) - (enough for 1 quart or 1 liter milk)

750 ml milk (3 cups)

80 g sugar (when using Dr. Oetker Vanilla Pudding powder, JELL-O is sweetened already)

2 cans apricot halves (or one can and about 15 fresh apricots)

250 g Crème fraîche or sour cream

250 g fat free Greek Yoghurt (Fage or Chobani brand)

For the glaze:

250 ml (2 cups) liquid (liquid from canned apricots filled up with water)

50 g sugar (optional, when using water, not syrup or juice)

1 package Dr. Oetker clear cake glaze (see comments how to make it)

1. For the cheesecake topping cook vanilla pudding according to the instructions using 80 g of sugar when pudding mix is unsweetened and only 750 ml milk (instead of 1 liter or 4 cups) to make it a little thicker. Let pudding cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a milk skin to form.

2. Grease baking sheet and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

3. Drain canned apricots and collect juice. If using fresh fruit, wash apricots, cut them in half and remove pit.

4. Fold Crème fraîche or sour cream and yoghurt under pudding. Don't stir the mixture too much or it'll become too liquid.

5. Using an electric hand mixer beat butter or margarine until fluffy. Mix in sugar, vanilla sugar or aroma and salt. Add 1 egg at a time and mix on for about 1/2 minute per egg.

6. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder. Add flour mixture in two portions to batter alternating with milk.

7. Spread batter on baking sheet. Add cheesecake topping and spread evenly. Put apricot halves with the round side facing up on top leaving some space between the apricots.

8. Bake cake for about 35 min or until toothpick comes out clean at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

9. Remove cake from oven and let cool.

10. For the glaze, heat up 500 ml liquid (juice from canned apricots filled up to 500 ml with water) until boiling. Stir in clear cake glaze mix and coat cooled cake. Let glazed cake cool until glaze has solidified, then cut a d serve cake.

Comments:

1. To prevent a milk skin on the pudding/custard place some plastic wrap directly on top of the surface.

2. I used light sour cream instead of Crème fraîche and fat-free Greek Yoghurt. The original recipe uses 500 g Crème fraîche. Exchanging some of the Crème fraîche for fat-free yoghurt makes this cake a lot lighter, less greasy. Sour cream is also less fatty compared to Crème fraîche, but bears a risk of curdling when baking.

3. The fresh apricots worked great. I was concerned they might become too tart during baking, but not at all!

4. To make your own glaze use the following recipe:

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon potato starch
2 tablespoons sugar
250 ml water, fruit juice or water mixed with some fruit syrup
Preparation:
Mix 1 tablespoon potato starch with 2 tablespoons sugar and a few tablespoons water until no clumps remain and sugar is dissolved. Boil remaining water or juice. While stirring slowly add starch mixture. Let boil for another 1/2 minute while stirring. Immediately pour glaze over cake. Let cool until glaze has solidified.
The glaze becomes clear when potato starch is used, with corn starch the glaze isn't clear. Using fruit juice or the syrup canned or jarred fruits are stored in will add some color and taste to the glaze. 

Giraffe Cake

This cake makes a great and healthier birthday cake for a child. Because it uses buttermilk in the batter and the filling it is also a refreshing summer cake. The original recipe uses buttermilk with lemon flavor, which is a German thing, so I modified that recipe using regular buttermilk and lemon juice in the cake batter and JELL-O instant pudding and pie filling with lemon flavor and regular buttermilk for the filling.

Ingredients:

Springform (26 cm or 10 inches in diameter)

Parchment paper

Grease

Cake batter:

4 eggs

150 g sugar

125 ml (1/2 cup) buttermilk (lemon flavor if available)

1 package vanilla sugar or some vanilla aroma

150 ml (3/5 cup) vegetable oil (sunflower or canola)

Juice from one lemon

250 g flour

3 leveled teaspoons baking powder

1 leveled teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 drop food coloring yellow (optional)

Filling:

375 ml (1.5 cups) buttermilk (lemon flavor if available)

75 g sugar (JELL-O mix contains sugar, so I left it out)

200 g (1/2 pint) cold whipping cream

1 package (3.5 oz) JELL-O instant pudding and pie filling lemon flavor (alternativ: Paradiescreme Zitrone or 1/2 package gelatin and juice of a lemon, see comments below)

Preparation:

1. Grease springform bottom and put down parchment paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F).

2. Whisk eggs until foamy, add sugar and beat until sugar is dissolved. Add buttermilk, vanilla sugar or aroma, vegetable oil and beat batter for additional 2 minutes. If using regular buttermilk and lemon juice, add the lemon juice last, so the buttermilk won't curdle.

3. In a medium bowl mix flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add to flour mixture to batter and mix well.

4. Divide batter in half (I divided it into 2/3 and 1/3). Add a drop of yellow food coloring to one half (2/3) and the sifted cocoa powder to the other half (1/3).

5. Pour yellow cake batter into springform, and level. With a spoon put down brown batter in large splotches.

6. Bake cake at 180 degrees Celsius (350F) for 35 min or until toothpick come out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool for 10 min on a rack. Remove springform edge, and flip cake upside down onto another piece of parchment paper. Remove springform bottom, flip cake back on rack and let fully cool.

7. Cut cake once horizontally in half. Transfer top half onto a plate. Flip bottom half and remove parchment paper from bottom. Flip bottom half again and put onto springform bottom. Assemble springform edge.

8. Prepare the filling: Whip whipping cream until stiff (you should be able to hold the bowl upside down without the cream sliding out). Whisk buttermilk and JELL-O instant pudding and pie filling lemon flavor  for about 2 min. Fold whipped cream under lemon filling, and pour filling on top of cake bottom half, level filling, then add the top cake half. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

Comments:

1. Instead of using buttermilk with lemon flavor I used plain buttermilk and the juice of one lemon. Make sure to add the lemon juice after the vegetable oil, so the buttermilk won't curdle.

2. Because my stomach revolts when I see artificial colors I left out the yellow food coloring. I don't think it is necessary to get the image across although for a kid's birthday it might be a good idea to add the coloring to make the cake more giraffe-like in resemblance.

3. The original recipe uses 4 leveled teaspoons baking powder. From muffin baking I've learned that acidic ingredients like lemon juice and buttermilk require baking soda to properly rise. Hence, I used 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda.

4. The original filling uses lemon buttermilk and gelatin. I used the instant pudding and pie filling with lemon flavor instead. This contains starch instead of gelatin and is suitable for vegetarians. Paradiescreme Zitrone can be used as an alternative for this mix. If neither is available and use of gelatin is not a problem I'd do the following: Add 1/2 package of gelatin, one tablespoon of water and juice of one lemon to stove-top pot. Let sit for 5 min. Slowly heat gelatin and stir until fully dissolved. Mix two tablespoons of buttermilk with gelatin, then pour gelatin mixture into buttermilk and whisk for about 2 min until stiffening. Fold in whipped cream.

5. This cake can easily be varied: If you use plain buttermilk and no lemon you could easily fill the cake with a chocolate or vanilla cream, or really any flavor you and your kid like.