Chocolate-Marshmallow Cake

These chocolate-covered marshmallows (aka chocolate kisses) are very versatile. You can eat them straight out of the box or heat them briefly in the microwave and pour eggnog on top. Or you can use them for a cake...

Ingredients:

9x11 inch (30x40 cm) Pyrex form or deep baking sheet

Some grease

18 chocolate-covered marshmallows (see picture, 450 g) or some wafers and 200 g marshmallow fluff

Cake batter:

200 g all-purpose flour

3 leveled teaspoons baking powder

75 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla powder

1 pinch salt

3 eggs

75 ml lemon soda (Sprite)

100 g soft butter or margarine (1 stick)

1 jar cranberry sauce (or Preiselbeermarmelade)

For the topping:

250 g mascarpone

250 g Greek yoghurt (Fage or Chobani brand)

1 tablespoon corn starch

Preparation:

1. Remove wafers from chocolate-covered marshmallows, set wafers and marshmallows aside.

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

3. Mix flour and baking powder and sift into a bowl. Add sugar, vanilla, salt, eggs, lemon soda and butter and whisk using an electric hand mixer until a smooth batter has formed.

4. Pour batter into Pyrex form or baking sheet. Put wafers on top of batter, the put 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cranberry sauce on top of each wafer.

5. Bake cake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 20-25 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean). Remove cake from oven and let cool down. Cut cake into pieces (1 wafer = 1 piece).

6. Blend mascarpone, Greek yoghurt, and corn starch, then fold marshmallow fluff into creme. Transfer creme into a ziplock bag; close the bag, and cut off a small corner of the bag. Squeeze creme out of bag on top of each wafer, decorate with more cranberry sauce.

7. Chill cake until ready to serve.

Lime Rum Cake

Well, maybe not the typical German cake in that combination, but I just couldn't resist this cake. It fits the soccer championship in Brazil so well...

Ingredients:

9x11 inch (30x40 cm) Pyrex form or deep baking sheet

Some grease

Batter:

250 g all-purpose flour

2 leveled teaspoon baking powder

1 package Cook and Serve Vanilla JELL-O (2 packages vanilla pudding)

200 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla aroma or 2 packages vanilla sugar

3 tablespoons rum

Zest of one lemon

4 eggs

250 g butter or margarine

For the topping:

Zest and juice from three organic lemons

125 g powdered sugar

2 tablespoons rum

Preparation:

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

2. Mix flour, baking powder and JELL-O/pudding and sift into a bowl. Add remaining ingredients, and using an electric hand mixer whisk all ingredients until blended (about 2 minutes).

3. Pour batter into baking form/dish, level, and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

4. Remove cake from oven and let cool down.

5. Wash limes well and towel dry. Zest limes, then squeeze and collect the juice. Mix lime juice, lime zest, rum and powdered sugar until a thick liquid has formed. Brush topping over cake, and serve when the topping has hardened.

Chocolate-Mint Cake

Yet another summer cake, although it was quite a challenge to whip butter in my apartment that had a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius at night!

Ingredients:

9x11 inch Pyrex dish or deep baking sheet (30x40 cm)

Some grease

For the batter:

100 g peppermint chocolate (I used some without a soft center)

175 g (1.5 sticks) butter or margarine

150 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar

1 pinch salt

3 eggs

200 g all-purpose flour

15 g cocoa powder

1.5 leveled teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon milk

For the topping:

200 g (1/2 pint) whipping cream

30 g powdered sugar

200 g plain Greek yoghurt (Fage or Chobani brand)

For decoration:

Some fresh mint leaves

Peppermint chocolate (soft center filled) like After Eight or Thin Mints

Preparation:

1. Cut peppermint chocolate into small pieces. Put aside about 25 g. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F). Grease Pyrex form or baking sheet.

2. Whisk butter or margarine until soft. Add sugar, vanilla and salt and whisk until sugar stops being crunchy. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix for 1/2 minute per egg.

3. Mix flour, cocoa and baking powder and sift. In two portions add flour to batter alternating with the milk. Lastly, stir in chocolate pieces.

4. Pour batter into Pyrex dish and spread evenly in pan. Bake cake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool.

5. Gently stir remaining chocolate pieces into the Greek yoghurt. Whip cream with powdered sugar until stiff peaks are visible (you should be able to hold the bowl upside down without the cream sliding out). Gently fold the whipped cream into the yoghurt (do not stir!).

6. Spread cream on top of cake. Using a spoon make some wave lines into the cream layer and chill cake for at least 1 h before serving. Decorate cake with mint leaves and chocolate pieces.

Comments:

1. A little helper to whip cream stiff is starch (potato starch). In the US powdered sugar already contains starch, so I do not use Sahnesteif (Whip It), which essentially contains starch and a little sugar. If you have access to Sahnesteif you can use two packages to prepare the whipped cream, just add it to the liquid cream before starting to whip it.

2. The original recipe uses only whipping cream. I find the cake quite heavy, and like the sour yoghurt taste, so it used equal amount of yoghurt and cream.

Apricot-Crumble Cake

It's apricot season in CA, so this is a perfect cake. However, if apricot season is over or you cannot get fresh apricots you can use canned apricots, too. I like the fresh apricots a lot because they give this cake a refreshing tartness. However, you can make this cake with other fruits, too (see comment below).

Ingredients:

9x11 Pyrex form or deep baking sheet (30x40 cm)

Some grease

For the batter:

100 g (1 stick) butter or margarine

100 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar

1 pinch salt

2 large or 3 medium eggs

200 g all-purpose flour

1 leveled teaspoon baking powder

1 can apricots, drained (480 g) or 1 pound fresh apricots (washed, pitted, cut into halves)

For the crumble topping:

175 g all-purpose flour

25 g ground almonds

100 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

100 g soft butter or margarine

Preparation:

1. Drain canned apricots or wash fresh apricots, cut into halves and remove the pit.

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

3. Whisk butter or margarine until softened. Add sugar, vanilla extract or vanilla sugar, and salt, and whisk until sugar doesn't crunch anymore.

4. Add eggs, one at a time, and whisk for 1/2 minute/egg. In a separate bowl mix flour and baking powder and sift. In two portions add the flour mixture to the batter and mix well. Add batter to Pyrex dish or baking sheet and spread evenly.

5. Lay apricot halves with the outside facing up on top of the batter.

6. To prepare the topping mix flour, almonds, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Add butter or margarine and whisk until crumbly. Spread crumbles on top of the apricot halves until covered.

7. Bake cake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake from oven, let cool, then cut into pieces and serve.

Comments:

1. For people with nut allergies: This cake can be made without almonds. Just leave out the almonds and add 25 g of flour.

2. Plums are a great substitute, but you can also use canned peaches, fresh peaches with their skin removed, or apple sauce!

3. Margarine is cheaper, but this cake tastes a whole lot better if you use butter to prepare the crumbles.

Lemon yoghurt cake

This cake is a really nice summer cake. The tartness from the lemons makes it very refreshing. It takes a little more practice, but with a little decorating you can make it look really fancy!

Ingredients:

11x9 inch Pyrex dish (30x40 cm) deep baking dish

Some grease

For the cake batter:

100 g (1 stick) butter or margarine

100 g sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

Zest of one lemon or 1/3 teaspoon powdered lemon peel (I use Penzey's)

3 eggs

200 g all-purpose flour

2 leveled teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

200 g (1 container) Greek lemon yoghurt (I use Chobani or Open Nature)

For the topping:

400 g (2 containers) Greek lemon yoghurt (I use Chobani or Open Nature)

50 g powdered sugar

200 g (1/2 pint) whipping cream

1 teaspoon agar-agar or a package gelatin

For the decoration:

1 lemon

50 g semi-sweet chocolate

Optional: 1 package JELL-O pudding and pie filling lemon

Preparation:

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

2. Whisk butter or margarine until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla or vanilla sugar, and lemon zest or peel, and whisk until sugar has dissolved (no crunch). Whisk in eggs, one egg at a time for 1/2 minute per egg.

3. Mix flour, baking powder and baking soda in a separate bowl. Add flour mixture to batter and whisk until smooth. Lastly, briefly stir in lemon yoghurt.

4. Pour batter in greased Pyrex dish and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for about 20 minutes.

5. Remove cake from oven and let cool in baking dish.

6. For agar-agar: dissolve 1 teaspoon in about 100 ml boiling water. Put the bowl with dissolved agar-agar in a bowl containing boiling water. Boil for about 5 minutes.

    For gelatin: Put gelatin in a small stovetop pot. Add 2-3 tablespoons water and let sit for about 5 mintes. Slowly heat gelatin and stir until dissolved.

7. Stir 2 tablespoons of yoghurt into dissolved agar-agar or gelatin, then add the remaining yoghurt and mix. Put yoghurt in refrigerator.

8. In the meantime, beat whipping cream with powdered sugar until stiff peaks are visible (you should be able to put the bowl upside-down, and the cream should stay in the bowl.

9. Gently fold the whipped cream into the yoghurt, the spread mixture evenly on cooled cake. Refrigerate for at least 1 h or better overnight.

10. Peel the lemon and remove all of the white layer. Cut the lemon into thin slices, and put the slices on the cake.

11. Prepare the JELL-O lemon pudding according to the instructions, then pour some of it into a small plastic bag. Cut one edge off, and decorate the cake.

12. Melt some chocolate in the microwave or over boiling water in a heat-resistant bowl. Pour chocolate into a plastic bag, cut one corner off, and sprinkle chocolate over the cake.

Comments:

1. You can use the lemon zest for the batter and the lemon slices for the decoration. Just be gentle when zest ing the lemon to avois squeezing it too much.

2. Each Greek Yoghurt container is 170 g, so I used a little less than the German recipe calls for, but it worked out fine.

3. The baking soda was not in the original recipe. I added it because the batter contains a rather acidic yoghurt. With the extra acidity the baking soda should help the rising better.

4. After previous disasters with yoghurt cakes (I tried to make these cakes without gelatin to make them suitable for vegetarians) I experimented with agar-agar. I think it worked well, but I am not quite sure how much to use. This was a first trial, let me know if you have any experience with agar-agar as a gelatin substitute.