Chocolate Cake

This cake uses semisweet chocolate and a little instant coffee giving it a nice balanced, not to sweet chocolate taste.

Ingredients:

Springform (26 or 28 cm in diameter, 10 or 11 inches)

Some grease

For the batter:

300 g semisweet chocolate 

4 egg whites 

1 pinch of salt 

250 g (2 sticks) very soft butter

100 g sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar 

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon instant coffee powder 

125 g all-purpose flour

Preparation:

1. Melt chocolate in a bowl over hot water. Grease springform. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius (340 F).

2. Separate eggs. Using an electric hand mixer who's egg whites and salt until very stiff peaks appear.

3. Whisk butter until smooth, add the sugar and keep whisking until you can no longer hear the crunch from the sugar. Add vanilla extract or vanilla sugar. Mix in egg yolks, one at a time.add coffee powder and melted chocolate, and whisk until batter is smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. Soft flour into batter and mix. Lastly, carefully fold in egg whites.

4. Pour batter into greased springform, then bake cake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean at 170 degrees Celsius (340 F).

5. Remove cake from oven, let cool down before serving.

Comments:

1. This cake is terrific when lukewarm and served with freshly whipped cream.

2. You can also serve this cake with warm cherries and freshly whipped cream.

Eggnogg Cake

This cake doesn't have to made around Christmas time, it's great all year round. For this cake I buy alcoholic eggnogg like Verpoorten, a famous Dutch eggnogg, but a cheaper one such as Pennsylvania Dutch will work, too. I've never made this cake with alcohol-free eggnog, but I don't think it will make a difference.

Ingredients:

Gugelhupfform 

Grease

Some flour 

For the batter:

125 g all-purpose flour

125 g starch

4 leveled teaspoon baking powder

200 g powdered sugar 

2 packages vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250 ml vegetable oil 

250 ml eggnogg 

5 eggs 

1. Grease and flour Gugelhupfform. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F).

2. Mix flour and starch in a large bowl. Add all remaining ingredients and mix everything using an electric hand mixer for at least 1 minute. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl during mixing the batter.

3. Pour batter into Gugelhupfform and bake cake for about 1 h at 180 degrees Celsius (350F) or until toothpick comes out clean.

4. Remove cake from oven, let cake cool down in Gugelhupfform for about 10 minutes. Flip form upside down, the cake should readily slide out. Dust cake with powdered sugar before serving.

Comments:

1. If you don't own a Gugelhupfform you can use a 9x13 inch Pyrex dish or 28 cm Springform. ( I haven't tried that, so you may have to test whether those sizes wor or if the cake rises too high and the amount used for the recipe needs to be scaled down or split into two baking forms).

2. If you don't want to use alcoholic eggnogg you can use alcohol-free eggnogg, again something I haven't tried yet, but I don't see why it shouldn't work.

Apricot-Cashew Cake

Ingredients:

For the batter:

250 g (2 sticks) of butter

150 g sugar 

5 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 package vanilla sugar 

1 pinch of salt 

350 g all-purpose flour

2 leveled teaspoons baking powder 

100 g cashew nuts 

500 g (1 pound) fresh apricots or 1 can apricots

For the topping:

100 ml apricot liquor 

200 ml whipping cream

1 Greek yogurt vanilla 

50 ml apricot liquor 

Preparation:

1. Prepare apricots: Cut fresh apricots in half, remove pit, the dice apricot halves. For canned apricots, drain the juice, the dice apricot halves.

2. Remove 24 cashews, then chop the remaining cashews. Grease baking form and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

3. Using an electric hand mixer whisk butter until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla extract or sugar and salt. Whisk until sugar does no longer crunch. Add eggs, one at a time, and whisk for at least 1/2 minute per egg.

4. Mix all-purpose flour and baking powder. Sift mixture into a new bowl, then add flour in two portions into batter.

5. Spread batter evenly in baking dish. Sprinkle apricot and cashew pieces over the batter. Bake cake for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

6. Remove cake from oven. Brush the hot cake with apricot liquor, then let cake cool down and cut into pieces.

7. Whip cream until fully stiff. Mix yoghurt and apricot liquor. Fold whipped cream into yoghurt. Fill piping bag with yoghurt mixture and decorate each piece of the cake with some cream, then add a cashew on top.

Comments:

1. I didn't have any apricot liquor, so I mixed a little apricot jam with vodka. Since vodka is very neutral it takes on the taste of the apricots. Alternatively, if you use canned apricots you can use the apricot juice.

2. Make sure to use a very dry Greek yogurt. Any additional liquid will turn the whipped cream liquid. Also, avoid overmixing the yoghurt when adding the liquor or when folding in the whipped cream.

Orange-Almond Cake

Ingredients:

Springform (8 inch in diameter) or 8x8 inches Pyrex dish

Some grease

Stovetop pot

For the batter:

75 g (1/2 cup or 125 ml) plain breadcrumbs

110 g (1 cup or 250 ml) powdered sugar

110 g (1 cup or 250 ml) almond flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

190 ml (3/4 cup) vegetable oil 

4 eggs

1 orange (organic and unwaxed)

1 lemon (organic and unwaxed)

For the citrus syrup:

Juice of 1 orange

Juice of 1 lemon

30 g (1/3 cup or 80 ml) powdered sugar 

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2 cardamom pods 

Preparation:

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

2. Zest the lemon and the orange.

3. In a bowl combine breadcrumbs, powdered sugar, almond flour and baking powder, then mix.

4. In a separate bowl combine eggs and oil and whisk.

5. Pour the egg-oil mixture into the bowl containing the dry ingredients. Add orange and lemon zest and briefly mix everything together with a wooden spoon. Pour batter into the springform or Pyrex dish and bake for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F).

6. In the meantime, combine the juice from the orange and lemon, the powdered sugar, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom pods in a stovetop pot. Briefly bring to a boil, then let simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the spices from the syrup.

7. Remove cake from oven when done (toothpick comes out clean). Spoon the hot syrup over the hot cake, repeat until the cake has absorbed all of the syrup.

8. Let cake fully cool down, remove from springform. Serve cake with a spoon of Greek yogurt.