Lovely Birthday Present

I got this lovely Birthday Present from a very dear friend of mine today...it's going to be my new Motto:

Life Is What You Bake It ! 

Baumkuchen (Treecake) or Schichttorte (Layered Torte)

 

Baumkuchen (Treecake)

Baumkuchen is a kind of layered cake which is grilled instead of baked. It is a traditional dessert in many countries throughout Europe. The characteristic rings that appear when sliced resemble tree rings, and give the cake its German name,Baumkuchen, which literally translates to "tree cake".
Baumkuchenspitzen, German for "tree cake points", are miniature versions of Baumkuchen that are created from the cake when it is cut in slices and then into pieces that are referred to as "Spitzen". These pieces are typically coated in chocolate.
It is sometimes used as a base for Wedding Cakes and can be flavoured to your own liking.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 9 Eggs (medium)
• 375 g soft unsalted Butter
• 375 g Caster Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilia Sugar
• 3-4 tbsp Rum 
• 225 g Flour 
• 150 g Cornflour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder

To Cover cake:

• 200 g Orange Marmalade 
• 300 g Dark Chocolate
• 20 g unsalted Butter 

Method:

1. Separate 6 Eggs, add yolk into one bowl and egg whites into another. Whisk egg whites for 4-5 minutes until they peak.
2. In a separate bowl add butter and mix until smooth, then add the sugar mixing for another minute.
3. Add 3 full eggs one by one while you continue mixing, then add the 6 egg yolks.
4. Add 3-4 Tbsp Rum and Vanilla Sugar and mix for max of 1 1/2 minutes.
5. Sieve the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl and add to the mixture, mixing just so it is all combined.
6. Fold the peaked egg whites into the mixture.
7. Use a round 9'' baking tin and cover the base with baking paper.
8. Add 2-3 tbsp of mixture into the tin and spread evenly
9. Put the tin under the pre-heated grill and bake for 2-3 Minutes until golden brown.
10. Take the tin out and add another 2-3 tbsp of cake mix, spreading evenly.
11. Return tin under the grill, again for 2-3 min until golden brown. Make sure to keep your eye on it.
12. repeat until all cake mix is used.
13. Leave the cake to cool in the tin and then remove the ring of the tin.
14. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave until completely cooled.
15. In the meantime, gently heat the marmalade  and pass through a sieve to remove any lumps.
16. Cover the sides of the cake with the marmalade. If you like, you can cover the whole cake with it.
17. Leave to cool and dry for about 30 min.
18. Chop the Chocolate and with the Butter add into a bowl and melt in a bain-marie. Make sure no water gets into the chocolate!
19. Cover the cake with the melted chocolate and smooth over with a palette knife.
20. Leave to cool and set.

Enjoy! 

Stollen - German Christmas Cake

This is my all-time favourite recipe. I don't use yeast, which makes the Stollen lighter. The recipe is usually for one bigger Stollen, but I prefer to make two smaller ones. One for me and one as a present :)

And the great thing about this Christmas Cake is, that you can eat it as soon as it's cooled down!

Ingredients:

• 500g Raisins
• 100ml Rum
• 250g Cream Flour
• 250g Self-raising Flour
• 14 g  Baking powder
• 150g Sugar
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp Almond essence
• 1 tsp Mixed spice
• or a tip of a knife each of
• ground cloves
• ground cardamon
• ground ginger
• ground nutmeg
• ground cinnamon
• rind of 1/2 untreated orange
• 2 Eggs
• 175g soft Butter
• 250g Quark (Fromage Frais) 
• 200g ground Almonds
• 200g candied peel
• 200g Marzipan (or make your own almond paste)

For decoration:

• 100g melted butter
• 100g icing sugar (or more if needed)

Method:

1. Cover the raisins with the rum and leave for a couple of hours, preferably over night.
2. Pre-heat fan-oven at 200 degrees, bake at lower heat of 160 - 180 degrees.
3. Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla essence, salt, almond essence, spices, orange rind, eggs and butter together in a bowl.
4. Add the Quark (fromage frais)
5. Mix all ingredients together to a dough.
6. Pour ground almonds onto worktop.
7. Add the dough to the almonds and start kneading.
8. Add the raisins and candied peel, by kneading it into the dough.
9. Keep kneading until there's no more almonds on the worktop and the dough is nice and smooth. You might need to add extra flour to keep the dough from sticking.
10. Divide the dough into two half's.
11. Roll them out into a sausage and flatten them to an oval shape (I usually just flatten it with my hand) about 1 cm thick
12. Use half of the Marzipan and knead it to soften it. Then roll it into a sausage, nearly to the same length as the dough and flatten it with your hand.
13. Put the marzipan in the middle of the dough, length-ways.
14. Fold the dough from both long sides over the marzipan,towards the middle, so the dough overlaps on top.
15. Repeat for the second dough.
16. Cover baking tray with tinfoil and baking paper.
17. Put both doughs onto baking tray.
18. Bake in the middle of the pre-heated oven at 160 - 180 degrees for 50-60 Minutes.
19. Remove Stollen from oven and straight away pour over the melted butter and dust with icing sugar. 
20. Can be eaten once it's cooled.

Bretzel or Pretzl

Always a favourite with my Family :)

Halloween Barmbrack (or Tealoaf)

My Favourite, not just for Halloween

But ...Who will get the ring? :)

This is a very rich bread, it’s traditionally served sliced and buttered for Halloween.

If you want to add in some charms, like a ring or coins, just be sure to wrap them well in parchment paper first before adding them to the batter!

If I don't have all the dried fruit, I just use raisins and sultanas. For kids, I'll leave the Whiskey out and replace it with cold tea.

Ingredients

100g  raisins
100g  sultanas
100g  currants
50g glacé cherries, halved or quartered (or stoned, chopped dates) I used roughly chopped walnuts

50g candied peel or the zest of 1 lemon
250ml hot, strong black tea (2 teabags)
50ml whiskey or Cointreau
1 egg, lightly beaten
225g self-raising flour
200g light brown sugar
1 level teaspoon mixed spice

Method 1. Put the raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries and candied peel in a large bowl, one that’s big enough to accommodate all the ingredients later on. 2. Pour over the tea and whiskey or Cointreau and allow the fruit to soak for at least 30 minutes or even overnigh. 3. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).  4. Line a 450 g (1 lb) loaf tin with parchment paper or a loaf tin liner. 5. Add in the beaten egg, flour, sugar and mixed spice to the fruit and tea mixture.  6. Stir well until everything is just combined.  7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin.  8. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.  9. Leave to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Tip: This keeps very well in an airtight tin.

Checkerboard Spongecake

Checkerboard Spongecake with White Chocolate Mascarpone Icing
(under the roll-out icing)

My little girl is a big girl now - she requested a blue cake with white writing on it, and since I got a new baking tray last week, I thought I'll try the checkerboard cake. Here's the result :

 

Plum Tray-Bake

Plum Tray-Bake

I like this cake in autumn, when the plums are nice and ripe (and juicy). Unlike the more popular German versions made with a yeast base, I love this quicker one, with a shortcrust base and sponge mix. Very tasty and juicy.

Pavlova

with Fresh Cream & Strawberries or Fresh Cream & Raspberries

Pavlova

Pavlova

Ingredients:
3 large fresh Egg Whites
175g Caster Sugar

For Topping:
275ml Whipping Cream or Double Cream, whipped
350g Fresh Fruit, like Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries or Mango & Passionfruit, Banana & Ginger (try a few varieties to find your favourite - depending on season)
Icing Sugar, for dusting
Dark Chocolate, grated over fruit

Preheat oven to 150°C - BUT turn down to 140°C immediately, when you put Pavlova into the oven.

Method:

1. Place the egg whites in a large clean bowl and & have the sugar measured and ready. 
2. Now whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down without them sliding out (do not over-whisk the egg whites, otherwise they will start to collapse).
3. When they're ready, start to whisk in the sugar, one tbsp at a time, whisking after each addition until all the sugar is in. 
4. Now take a metal tablespoon and spoon the meringue mixture on to the prepared baking sheet, forming a circle about 20cm in diameter. 
5. Then spoon round blobs next to each other so that they join up to form a circle all around the edge.
6. Make little swirls in the meringue all round the edge, using the tip of a skewer, lifting the skewer up sharply each time to leave tiny peaks.
7. Place the baking sheet in the oven, then immediately turn down the heat to 140°C and leave it to cook for 1 hour.
8. Turn the heat right off, but leave the Pavlova inside the oven until it's completely cold.
9. If you make a Pavlova in the evening, you can leave it in the turned-off oven overnight to dry out. 
10. The secret of successful meringues of any sort is to let them dry out completely.
11. To serve the Pavlova, lift it from the baking sheet, peel off the paper and place it on a serving dish. 
12. Then just before serving, spread the whipped cream on top, arrange the fruit on top of the cream and dust with a little sifted icing sugar or/and grated Chocolate.

Sivi's Blackforrest Gateau

Sivi's Blackforrest Gateau

Blackforrest Gateau

Shortcrust Base:

• Pre-heated Top and Bottom Heat only @ 200degree
• Not pre-heated Fan-Oven @ 170degrees
• Pre-heated Gas Oven @ 3-4

Ingredients:

125g Plain Flour

10g Cocoa Powder

1 knife tip of Baking Powder

50g Caster Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Sugar

100g soft unsalted Avonmore Butter

1. Add the Butter, Sugar and Vanillin Sugar into a bowl and mix until creamy, using a hand mixer.
2. Add the Flour, Cocoa Powder and Baking Powder in a bowl and sift onto the butter/sugar mix.
3. Mix with a dough hook, first on low speed for a short time, then on highest speed until well mixed.
4. Take the dough out of the bowl onto your worksurface and knead the dough until smooth. If the dough is too sticky, leave in fridge for 30min.
5. Grease a 25cm (10in) round sandwich tin and cover base with baking paper.
6. Roll the dough and add it to the sandwich tin, making sure the the base is all covered.
7. Prick with a fork several times and bake for about 15min.
8. Remove the Shortcrust base from tin and leave to cool.

Sponge Cake:

• Pre-heated Oven @ 170degrees
• Pre-heated Gas Oven @ 3-4

Ingredients:

4 Eggs

2 tbsp hot Water

100g Caster Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Sugar

75g Plain Flour

30g Corn Flour

10g Cocoa Powder

1 knife tip Ground Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1. Add Eggs and Water to a bowl and whisk on highest speed for 1 Minute until frothy.
2. Slowly add Sugar and Vanilla Sugar while whisking for 1 more Minute, then whisk for another 2 Minutes.
3. Add the Flour, Corn Flour, Cocoa Powder, Cinnamon and Baking Powder in a bowl and sift half of it onto the Egg mixture.
4. Whisk briefly on slowest speed.
5. Sift the other half of the Flour mixture onto the Egg mixture and whisk gently on slowest speed until well combined.
6. Pour Sponge mixture into the sandwich tin and bake for about 25-30 minutes
7. Grease a 25cm (10in) round sandwich tin and cover base with baking paker.
8. Once baked, take out of the sandwich tin to cool

Filling:

Ingredients:

abt 700g pitted Sour Cherries in juice

250ml of Cherry Juice

30g Cornflour

abt 25g Caster Sugar

abt 3tbsp Kirschwasser (42% vol.) (or to taste – if kids are eating the cake as well, I ony add half the amout of Kirsch or use just Cherry Juice instead)

750g Avonmore Double Cream

50g Icing Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Sugar

30g Dark Chocolate, grated

1. Drain the Cherries and measure 250ml of the Cherry Juice, pour into a sauce pan. (Keep about 15-18 Cherries if you want to use them for decoration)
2. Take 4tbsp of the Cherry Juice and mix with the Cornflour.
3. Bring the rest of the Cherry Juice to the boil.
4. Take of the heat and add the Cornflour with Cherry Juice and stir constantly until thick and leave to cool.
5. Mix the sugar and Kirschwasser in a small bowl and add to the Cherries.
6. Whisk the Cream for 1/2 minute, then sift Icing Sugar and Vanilla Sugar onto the Cream and whisk until Cream is forming a peak.
7. Spread half of the Cherry Mix evenly onto the Shortcrust Base, then add 1/3 of the Cream Mixture.
8. Cut the Sponge base lengthways through the middle, to create 2 layers.
9. Put one half of the Sponge base onto the Shortbread/Cherry/Cream layer.
10. Repeat and add the other half Cherry Mix and 1/3 of Cream onto the Sponge Base, then put the second Sponge Base on top.
11. Cover the cake (top and sides) with the leftover cream.
12. Spread the grated Chocolate evenly all over the cake (top and sides) and decorate with the Cherries on the top of the cake, forming a ring on the edge of the cake.
13. Leave in the fridge to cool. You can eat it the sacme day, but I think it's even nicer the following day. Enjoy!

Rhubarb Crumble

This is one of my favourites, because it's quick and easy to make. Lovely for summer, with fresh cream or ice cream.

Ingredients for Cake: 400g (14 oz) rhubarb 100g (4 oz) strawberries 4 tbsp caster sugar 3 tbsp ground almonds Ingredients for Crumble Topping: 150g (5 oz) plain flour 75g (3 oz) demerera sugar a generous pinch of salt 100g (4 oz) cold butter, cut into pieces 50g (2 oz) ground almonds

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C / 400F. 
2. To make the topping, mix the flour together with the sugar and salt in a bowl and add the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3.  Mix in the ground almonds.
4. Cut the rhubarb into small pieces not larger than half an inch and halve the strawberries. 
5. Sprinkle the ground almonds over the base of a suitable ovenproof dish ( a round pyrex dish with a 17cm/7in diameter is good). 
6. Mix the rhubarb and strawberries together with the sugar and spoon into the dish.
7. Cover the fruit with the crumble topping.
8. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Emma's 6. Birthday Minion Pinata Cake

Victoria Sponge Cake with Butter Icing inside the cake and coloured roll-out icing for decoration. Cake is filled with jelly beans.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Victoria Sponge with Maple Creme Filling

I have tried a few recipes for a Victoria Sponge, but I must say, this is my favourite one.

Ingredients 4 large eggs 225g/8oz caster sugar 225g/8oz self-raising flour 2 tsp baking powder 225g/8oz soft butter or margarine at room temperature, icing sugar for dusting plus a little extra butter to grease the tins Method Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line 2 x 20cm/8in sandwich tins: use a piece of baking or silicone paper to rub a little baking spread or butter around the inside of the tins until the sides and base are lightly coated. Line the bottom of the tins with a circle of baking or silicone paper (to do this, draw around the base of the tin onto the paper and cut out). Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugar, flour, baking powder and baking spread. Mix everything together until well combined. The easiest way to do this is with an electric hand mixer, but you can use a wooden spoon. Put a damp cloth under your bowl when you’re mixing to stop it moving around. Be careful not to over-mix – as soon as everything is blended you should stop. The finished mixture should be of a soft ‘dropping’ consistency – it should fall off a spoon easily. Divide the mixture evenly between the tins: this doesn’t need to be exact, but you can weigh the filled tins if you want to check. Use a spatula to remove all of the mixture from the bowl and gently smooth the surface of the cakes. Place the tins on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Don't be tempted to open the door while they're cooking, but after 20 minutes do look through the door to check them. The cakes are done when they’re golden-brown and coming away from the edge of the tins. Press them gently to check – they should be springy to the touch. Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool in their tins for five minutes. Then run a palette or rounded butter knife around the inside edge of the tin and carefully turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack. To take your cakes out of the tins without leaving a wire rack mark on the top, put the clean tea towel over the tin, put your hand onto the tea towel and turn the tin upside-down. The cake should come out onto your hand and the tea towel – then you can turn it from your hand onto the wire rack. Set aside to cool completely. To assemble the cake, place one cake upside down onto a plate and spread it with plenty of jam. If you want to, you can spread over whipped cream too. Top with the second cake, top-side up. Sprinkle over the icing sugar. To serve strawberry or raspberry jam whipped double cream (optional) or any flavoured butter cream icing

Banana Whoopie Pie with Creamy Maple Syrup Filling

Mothersday Cupcakes

Ingredients:
Makes 12 
Baking time: about 20-30 minutes

• 175g softened unsalted butter 
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 175g sifted self-raising flour;
• 75g sifted plain flour
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• some milk

Method:

1. cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. 
2. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in. 
3. Add the Vanilla Extract
4. If the mixture looks as though it’s going to curdle, mix in 1tbsp flour. 
5. Fold in the remaining flour 
6. add a little Milk if needed to loosen the mix
7. Bake at 170°C (150°C fan oven) mark 3 for 20-30min
8. Ice with buttercream or any icing prefered.

Guinness & Walnut Bread

Ingredients

• 350g white self raising flour, plus extra to dust
• 150g wholemeal flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 2tsp salt
• 1tbsp caster sugar
• 2 handfuls raisins and/or sultanas
• 1 handful walnuts, roughly chopped
• 500ml beer or lager
• butter to grease

Method:
Preheat an oven to 180C

1. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl and add the salt and sugar. 
2. Stir in the raisins/sultanas and the walnuts until well combined.
3. Open the beer and pour into the bowl, mixing as you pour until all the beer has mixed into the flour.
4. Grease the sides and base of a 2lb (900g) loaf tin. 
5. Dust in flour and shake out any excess.
6. Pour the batter into the loaf tin (the batter will be alarmingly loose, this is correct!) and transfer to the preheated oven.
7. Bake for 1 and a half hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
8. Once cooked remove from the tin and transfer to a wire rack for cooling. 

Foccachia

Foccachia

This is one of my favourite bread recipes. I prefer using a bread machine to make the dough, saves me time and turns out just as nice. If you don't have a bread machine, you can, of course make the bread dough manually, you might have to check the proofing times separately.

Preparation: 10 minutes, plus kneading and rising

Cooking Time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tsp dried-yeast
• 475g strong white bread flour, plus extra to dust
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to grease

To Finish:

• fresh rosemary sprigs
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• sea salt flakes

Method

1. Put all the dough ingredients into the bread maker bucket with 300ml water, following the order and method specified in the manual.
2. Fit the bucket into the bread maker and set to the dough programme. Press start. Grease a 28ch metal flan ring and place on a greased baking sheet.
3. Once the dough is ready, turn it out on to a floured surface and punch it down to deflate. Roll out to a 25.5cm round and place inside the flan ring, pushing the dough to the edges (Don't worry if it shrinks back, the doughwill expand to fill the ring as it proves). Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
4. Using fingertips dipped in flour, make deep dimples all over the dough. Scatter with small rosemary sprigs, drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle generously with sea salt flakes. Re-cover with oiled clingfilm and leave for further 10min, as the dough might have shrunk back when dimpled.Preheat oven to 200degrees C (fan oven 180 degrees C), gas mark 6.
5. Drizzle the dough with water. (This is not essential but helps the crust to stay soft during baking.) Bake for 20-25 minutes until just firm and pale golden. 
6. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Notes: The flan ring helps the bread to rise and bake in a perfect round, but don't worry if you haven't got one, just lay the dough, pizza-style, on the baking sheet.

Other toppings include finely chopped garlic, thinly sliced onions, roughly chopped olives and ground black pepper.

My favourite recipe of the month :

 

Baumkuchen (Treecake)

Ingredients

• 9 Medium Eggs
• 375g soft Butter
• 375g Sugar
• 1tsp Vanillin Sugar
• 3-4 Tbsp Rum
•  225g Flour
• 150g Cornstarch or Potatoflour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 200g Orange Marmalade
• 300g dark Chocolate (70-80%)

Method 

1. seperate egg white from yolk of 6 Eggs
2. whisk egg whites in a bowl until stiff. 
3. in a seperate bowl, add butter and whisk for about 1 minute until smooth.
4. add the sugar and whisk until smooth
5. add 3 full eggs one by one, whisking for anbout 1 minute
6. then add the 6 yolks, 3-4 tbsp rum and vanillin sugar.
7. mix all together, but no longer than 1 1/2 min, 
8. mix the flour, starch & baking powder. 
9.