Schabake-aton

My boyfriend asked me, if I can cater his farewell party with sweet and salty baked goods – the perks of a hobby baker as girlfriend 😉

So I took a day off and so did my best friend who deserves a million Thank Yous for being such a great friend, investing her freetime and being such a good help in the kitchen. To bake for over 40 people is very challenging in many ways. Not only the number of guests should guide your thoughts but also day and time play an important role. You never know if the people like more sweet or more salty stuff, whatever you do it’s going to be wrong any way… So don’t panic and make wise choices. Everyone has all-time favourites and standard recipes, stick to those and don’t experiment on such days.

We deciced to go for this:

  • Donauwelle (Donau waves, a German cake classic with cherries, cream and chocoalte)
  • Muffins (with chocolate splits and double chocolate)
  • Amerikaner (Americans, a German coffee time classic)
  • Brownie Bites
  • Mini Quiches
  • and we improvised some Cheese-Amaranth-sticks

We baked  more than half a day in order to finish up everything but it was totally worth it and we had a blast. In the end, the Quiches were gone in almost no time, the Donau waves were a fast seller and half of the brownies and muffins were left over.  Luckily I have some colleagues that had to work late anyway and were very happy about the left overs.

Donauwelle

Donau waves cake | schabakery.comDonau waves are a German cake classic and my Mum’s recipe earns a lot of compliments every time, because it is simply the best! The base is a vanilla cream cake, topped with chocolate cake, poked with cherries. On top comes a whipped vanilla buttercream and a dark chocolate glace with a wave-like pattern. The buttercream gives this classic tray bake a decadent touch, but a cake table without Donau-waves is simply unthinkable.

 

For the dough:

  • 200 g butter (at room temperature)
  • 200 g sugar
  • 15 g vanilla sugar
  • 5 eggs (size M)
  • 2 pinches salt
  • 300 g flour
  • 1/2 pack baking powder
  • 350 g cherries (drained)
  • 2 tbsp cocoa
  • eventually 1 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 160° C (with fan). Drain the cherries and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Soften the butter, then add the sugar and vanilla sugar and mix until creamy. Mix flour, salt and baking powder and sift it in. Stir it by hand and don’t overmix. Spread half of the dough onto the baking tray. Sift the cocoa powder into the rest of the dough and mix it, add the tbsp milk if neccessary. Spread the dark dough over the blond dough evenly. Scatter the cherries over and press them in lightly. Transfer to the hot oven and bake for 35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Let it cool completely.

For the buttercream: (this is the easy Version of buttercream with a packet mix, you can also use my secret recipe)

  • 1 pack Vanilla cake cream (Dr Oetker Tortencreme Vanille)
  • 300 ml milk
  • 200g butter at room temperature

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix due to instructions on the packaging. Edit: Don’t follow stupid Dr. Oetker, I did last night and it ended bad – small butter pieces in my butter cream that wouldn’t go away! And then I realized that I always do it like that: Soften the butter, then add the milk slowly while mixing and the cake cream powder afterwards. When everything is blended, mix on high speed for 2 minutes. Then spread over the cooled cake.

For the icing:

  • 200 g dark chocolate
  • 50 g coconut fat (Palmin)

Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil and mix unitl smooth. Let it cool until lukewarm and spread over the butter cream. Some take a fork and make a wavelike pattern on top.

When cutting the cake use a hot knive, otherwise the top will crackle and fall into pieces.

Peanutbutter Fudge – Valentine Hearts

I’ve been inspired for this Valentines Treat by Man of Aran Fugde who recently posted heart shaped fudge on their facebook page. I’ve been dying to make some Fudge on my own but been put off by all the hassle with tempering the sugar, complicated recipes and the confectioner in a TV show who talked about the million things that can go wrong. Once again The Bakery Edition of Lecker Magazine had the answer. I found this very easy recipe from a blogger that was featured in the magazine: Peanutbutter Fudge by Zucker Zimt und Liebe.

The recipe is in German this time and super easy to make. After the Fudge was set, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter et voilĂĄ…Peanutbutter Fudge Hearts

Quick Apple Roll – or how to welcome friends for coffee

quick apple roll I’ve been fighting this cold for almost 2 weeks now and I am terribly bored. Being home all day and not being capable of doing anything else than watching tv due to the lack of power is so annoying for me. But luckily my friend offered to come over for a cup of coffee and entertain me for some time on short notice. I wanted to pick up some bread anyway so I made my way to my favourite bakery to buy bread and some quick bite for coffee. Too bad it was Faschingsdienstag and the bakery was closed already and so was the second one I walked up. My bad, should have gone earlier but it was only half an hour to go til my coffee guests arrival. So I figured out it would be a great idea to serve some easy and fast dish perfect for coffee time. All you need are some simple ingredients you can pickup in any supermarket and love.

  • Fresh puff pastry (chilled not frozen)
  • 2 apples (preferrably Boskopp or Breaburn)
  • some raisins
  • some chopped almonds
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • some cinnamon

Unwrap the pastry dough, roll it out, line a baking tray with baking paper and preheat the oven to 200°C (with fan). Peel and Dice the apples in small sqaures, mix with raisins, almonds, sugar and cinnamon. Cut the pastry into rectangles and fill with the apple mixture. Roll up the pastry and press the ends on both sides together with fingers or a fork. Transfer to the baking tray and put into the oven for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm with whip cream and love <3

Filled Scone Rolls – or let’s get dirty!

This is the february contribution to my new years resolution and definitely one of my new favourites. Special Thanks to my boyfriend for picking this recipe to try it!

I love scones. Everyone who has been to England or Ireland sure tried some for afternoon tea. But making perfect scones with the right consistency and taste is an art itself. I’ve learned some things about scones the hard way of trial and error. It is crucial to not overknead the dough and you should do that by hand in order to keep small butter pockets in it that make the scones soft and fluffy. I’ll pick up that point later in the description. AndYou need patience, space and your finger tips to make a good scone. So let’s get dirrrty! Continue reading »

Cupcake Class by Das Cupcake

Last weekend I took my first Cupcake Class at Genussakademie in Frankfurt. It was held by Ewa Feix who is a professional Cupcake Konditor and sells gorgeous Cupcakes in Frankfurt.

My friend sent me the link to the booking some weeks ago and asked me if I want to go. Hell yeah, why not?  Especially when it comes to Cupcakes I think I can still learn a lot! Decorating Cupcakes is an art itself and you know all these little bits and pieces of professional advice enhance your skills over time. So I booked the class and went there with my friend who discovered her love to baking just recently (I hope it was my good influence *hehe*).

After a glass of champagne and checking out the other participants, Ewa Feix welcomed us very warmly and shared some of her secrets with us. I must say I was a little dissapointed that we only made one type of cupcakes. But they were as delicious as they were pretty. Never ever made so good looking ones! Continue reading »