Category Archives: Cake & Pastry

July 25th, 2013

Kalter Hund

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   6 Responses

Kalter Hund

I take birthday cake wishes very serious. Especially when the birthday child already mentioned month ago that he always got this one special birthday cake in his child hood. And that this cake is his most favourite cake ever. And so I knew directly which cake I would bake. Ok, “Baking” is maybe the wrong term here. The cake is called “Kalter Hund” which means literally cold dog. It consists of consist of Leibniz-Keks and mixture made of cacao, sugar, eggs and coconut oil. The cake was invented in 1920 as promotion for the Leibniz-Keks and was very popular in the 1950s and 60s.

I made the cake with some additional chocolate and with less sugar, which resulted in a very pleasing birthday cake!

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July 4th, 2013

Marzipan Braid

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   11 Responses

Marzipanzopf

There are two reasons for this braid. A colleague of mine cleaned up her pantry and found about 1 kilogramm Marzipan, a left over from the christmas baking. She had no Idea what to do with such an amount of Marzipan which was near its shelf life. And so she gave it to me. The second reason for the cake is the fact, that I promised to bring a cake when my experiment on which I worked for over a year would finally succeed.

Last week I did the third successful repetition (a experiment has to give the same result more then once) and so I baked the promised cake. And to bake a marzipan braid was an easy choice.

The dough I used is a little bit sweetened variation of the dough from the soft and fluffy swiss butter braid with a creamy sweet marzipan filling. It is a delicious cake and I liked it even more then my last Marzipan braid or the marzipan rolls.

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June 4th, 2013

Rhubarb Cake

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: ,   3 Responses

RhabarberkuchenAfter visiting my parents garden we came home carrying an arm full of tender rhurbarb. And because we can not always eat oven roasted rhubarb I decided to use one half for a cake – while I roasted the other half in the oven (I can not get enough of oven roasted rhubarb).

The cake is a variation of my grandmothers “Ribiselkuchen” (Ribisel is dialect for Johannisbeere (red currants)). It is made of a shortcrust pastry and a filling made of whipped egg white, sugar, almonds and rhubarb slices. It is a classical and good mixture, a balanced mixture of sweet and sour, soft and crisp, just the perfect, delicious cake for Sunday afternoons.

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May 12th, 2013

Streuselkuchen

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   36 Responses

Streuselkuchen

Streuselkuchen is a simple cake.

But it is although an art to bake the perfect Streuselkuchen. The yeast dough should be not dry, but rise fluffy and light. The streusel has to be crisp but not hart. A favourite cake of mine which awakes great expectations in me. And often disappoints them.

But finally I found my perfect comination of dough and streusel. The dough recipe is a slightly modified variation of the swiss butter braid which contains a little bit more sugar. And for the streusel I decided to add a pinch of baking powder. An experiment with a very good result.

When I cut the cake into slices I could already see that the dough has risen to a soft and tender crumb with thick crisp streusel as contrast. A thin band of apricot jam conect both layers in a fruity way.

That is my perfect Streuselkuchen!

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April 7th, 2013

White Chocolate Muffins with Vanilla and Cardamom

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   No Responses

Weiße Schokolade Muffins

When we need a cake which can easily transported in a box, I tend to bake Muffins. And so I suggest Muffins when I talk with my sister about her birthday, too. She like the idea of Muffins but had no clue what kind she would like to have and so she announced that whatever I bring would be delicious.

And so I opened my pantry and looked through my baking ingredients on search for inspiration. Finally I saw in my chocolate box half a bar of white chocolate, a leftover from the Christmas baking.

Immediately a recipe starts to form in my brain: muffins with molten white chocolate, a hint of vanilla and cardamom….

And that’s what I bake then: White Chocolate Muffins, flavoured with vanilla and freshly grounded cardamom. A easy and yet so delicious treat!

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March 23rd, 2013

Poppy Seed Gugelhupf

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   5 Responses

Mohngugelhupf

A dear friend and favourite colleague doesn’t like poppy seeds. She always tells me that. And then she brings me from her lunch break little pieces of poppy seed cakes to try, because she likes it so much. And tells me about this great recipe for poppy seed rolls, which she could not find in her recipe folder anymore and that she is upset about that. Having this facts in mind, I decided to take a risk when baking her birthday cake.

In the January/ February –Issue of the Magazine “Landlust” I found a recipe for a Poppy seed Gugelhupf and I was very sure that she would like it. The dough contains a lot of eggs and butter, which keeps the cake soft and moist, which is the perfect consistence for a gugelhupf. The cake contains mainly grounded poppy seeds, some almonds and nearly no flour. It is flavoured with grated lemon peel, vanilla and a little pinch of cinnamon. Some lemon juice adds a fresh taste.

The only problem is the tendency of the cake to stick to the pan, even to my non sticking one. So take care to not only grease it very well but although sprinkle the greased pan with some grounded almonds or flour so the cake will come out more easily.  But beside this it is a lovely cake which I baked already twice.

And did my friend like the cake? A big “yes” and she is now thinking that she maybe like even poppy seeds 😉

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March 13th, 2013

Goldknödel

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   24 Responses

GoldknödelSometimes I wonder how it could happen that I forget for more than four years to blog about a favourite cake recipe, like it happen for the “Goldknödel” recipe. And it is not only my favourite recipe, it is a family favourite.  A cake, that someone in my extended family will bring for each party. And everyone wants to have his/her share of this cake. A simple but well loved cake.

It is originated in the Transylvanian branch of the family, like the Greta-Gabor-Schnitten. To my suprise I found the recipe although in cookbook Kaffeehaus, which shows me once again how strong the influence of the Hungarian, Romanian and Austrian kitchen was on the kitchen of my ancestors.

When I talked to my parents about what cake I should bring to our sunday “Kaffeetrinken” (the german kind of tea time), my dad suggest something simple. And my mum then had the idea: “What’s about Goldknödel?”

And so I baked the family recipe. It is a slightly sweet yeast dough, which is divided into small pieces and each of this pieces is then turned into molten butter and afterwars in a mixture of grounded nuts and sugar. I followed the recipe nearly completly, I only reduced the amount of yeast. And the cake turned out to be as perfect as it should be. A fluffy crumb, with the taste of caramel and nuts – just as it should be. A simple cake but never boring!

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February 25th, 2013

Chocolate Pear Tarte

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   3 Responses

Birnen-Schoko-Tarte

When I saw the pears in our fruit basket I had the Idea of baking a pear tart. In my recipe folder in Zotero I found the Birnentarte mit Mascarpone from Chaosqueen.  The tarte sounds very delicious but Mascarpone is nothing you will find normally in our fridge. Chocolate  on the other hand you can find nearly always in my baking cupboard. And so I checked the internet for a recipe. On Confessions of a tart I found a delicious looking recipe, a Chocolate Pear Tart.

I was to lazy to convert cup to gramm and so I decided to use one of my short crust recipe, and when I cooked the pears I followed my own directions, too. But for the chocolate filling I read the recipe attentively.

While the Tarte was baking the whole kitchen was filled with a seductive smell, and the still warm Tarte for our “Kaffeetrinken” was very delicious!

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January 26th, 2013

Marzipan Snails

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , ,   10 Responses

Marzipanschnecken During Christmastime I always have a wide variety of baking ingredients in my storage cupboard. And so every January I have to face the fact that I have a lot of leftovers which have to be used in the next time. A good example is the Marzipan I had left from baking Stollen.  And what would be a better treat for a chilly weekend in January then lukewarm Marzipan Snails with a cup of hot coffee?

The dough was quickly made in the morning – a big batch of preferment was already waiting in fridge. The handling of the dough is easy, it is a soft but not sticky dough. When cutting the Snails they kept their form very well.

For the filling I kneaded Marzipan with butter – a very greasy work – before I added sugar and egg and creamed it with a handheld mixer. If anyone has a better idea to mix the ingredients to a smooth filling, please tell me!

The Marzipan Snails taste delicious with their soft and fluffy crumb and the delicious taste of marzipan.

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October 28th, 2012

Ammerländer Apfelkuchen

Category Cake & Pastry  Tags: , , , , ,   9 Responses

Ammerländer-ApfelkuchenDuring autumn, one of the most used fruits in our kitchen is apple. And when I wake this morning very early around due to the change from daylight saving time to winter time, I decided to knead the shortcrust for apple cake Elfriede. And while the dough is resting in the fridge I have time to blog about the apple cake I bake last weekend. I found the “Ammerländer Apfelkuchen” on Chili & Ciabatta and fell in love with the mixture of apple compote and custard which is used for the filling. Because I always cook custards without the help of convenient products I used Petras Recipe as inspiration, but with my own dough (with a preferment and less yeast) and a  homecook custard. This apple cake is now the new favourite of me. It has a soft apple filling, topped with rich custard, butter, sugar and almond slices.  The compote filling reminds me a little bit of the Rheinischen Riemchenkuchen. And due to this filling, it stays fresh for some days! Continue reading →