Carrot Cake or Bunnies Favourite

Bunnies love carrot cake

I remember the first time I went to Dublin as if it was yesterday. I loved the city, the people and the special spirit there. But most of all, I liked the Queen of Tarts and their carrot cake. Back then you couldn’t find it in a tourist guide, it was a secret shared with my by a colleague and we stumbed into the new place that they just opened in Cows Lane. The carrot cake was juicy and fresh, full of flavours and melt-in-the-mouth. Since that time I’ve been looking for a good recipe that meets the taste of my menory. The flavour may have faded away over time but I find the recipe is totally awesome. Continue reading »

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Irish Car Bomb CupcakesI found this wonderful recipe on one of my favourite blogs last year just before St Patricks Day: The Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes! And I made them for my friends housewarming party that was around Paddys day and everyone loved them. I wasn’t completely confident with the recipe because the cupcakes were too sweet, too chocolatey and could have tasted more like Guinness in my opinion. So I decided to give them another try this year and give them a schabakery twist if you know what I mean 🙂

I have adjusted the borwneyed bakers recipe a little to my gusto. And it is a mix of metric US measures so keep your scale and your cup measurements at hand. Continue reading »

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 »

Pear Walnut Brownies

To follow my New Year’s resolution to try out a new recipe every month I had this recipe randomly chosen from my To-Bake-List. I’ve tried a lot of Brownie recipes and most turned out hard or too crispy for me (except for the Raspberry-Cheesecake-Brownies). So I decided that maybe Brownie recipes and I are just not made for each other. But those Pear-Walnut-Brownies made me change my mind and wanting to roll myself in them… But to make them as fluffy and good you either need a lot of patience or a stand mixer.

I have slightly changed the original recipe that I found in the Lecker Magazine due to bigger eggs and pears and they turned out totally awesome and as fluffy, light and soft as Brownies have to be in my opinion. With its consistency these Brownies also are a very good Dessert for a larger crowd. Continue reading »

Black Forest Cupcakes

This is one of the cake recipes I have from my Grandma that I adapted for Cupcakes. Makes 6 delicous Cupcakes:

For the Cupcakes:

  • 2 Egg Whites
  • 1 package of Vanilla Sugar (or 10g of homemade vanilla sugar)
  • 2 Egg Yolks
  • 2 Tbsp Hot Water
  • 50 g Sugar
  • 25 g Flour
  • 25 g Corn or Potato Starch
  • 10 g Dark Cocoa Powder

Beat egg whites and vanilla sugar until stiff. It must be so stiff that you can flip the bowl over your head without the egg white rain onto your head 😉 In another bowl beat egg yolks, hot water and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift in the flour, starch and cocoa onto the egg yolks and mix thoroughly. If it is too dry to mix add a little of the egg white. Then fold in the egg white. Transfer the mixture to a muffin tin. I have one mold that makes the cupcakes look like a birds nest or a upside down muffin with a scooped out center. It is important not to line the pan with paper cups, so grease the pan if needed. Spread the batter evenly and bake for 20 Minutes at 175°C until a inserted scewer comes out clean. Let the cakes rest in the hot pan for 5 minutes before removing from the pan and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

If you are using a normal Muffin tin, place the muffin upside down and core the cupcake to make room for the cherry filling. Use a cupcake corer or a teaspoon.

For the filling:

  • ca. 100 g Canned Cherries (not too sweet ones!)
  • 1 Tbsp Starch
  • 2 Tbsp Kirschwasser (a spirit made from cherries)

Mix Starch and Kirschwasser thoroughly so there are no chunks. Place the cherries in a pot and add the starch-kirschwasser-mixture. Cook with medium heat until the liquid starts to stiffen. Let it cool a little and fill it into the cupcakes that you cored. You can also substitute the filling with Cherry Jam with Cherry pieces and add some Kirschwasser.

For the topping:

  • 200 g Cream (chilled)
  • 1 pack cream stiffener
  • 2 Tbsp Kirschwasser
  • Shaved dark Chocolate for decoration
  • 6 glaced Cherries for decoration

Beat the cream with the stiffener until stiff (not too long, we don’t want butter and yes that happened to me more than once…). Then add the Kirschwasser and stir it in. You will see that the alcohol affects the consistency of the cream, so make sure it the cream is really stiff before adding the alcohol. If you add too much of the alcohol the topping will run off later. If you want to add more booze to the cupcakes soak the baked dough or add more to the filling AFTER cooling 😉

Spread the topping around the cupcake sleek and pipe with a star nozzle onto the top. Then scatter shaved chocolate over the cupckae (don’t forget the sides) and place the glaced cherry on top. They taste best when they had some time to infuse.

Chocolate Pudding

Okay, this isn’t baking and it’s dietary but it can be easily adopted for non-dieters! Have you ever made your own pudding? Some of you may ask yourself, why make any effort, just open the bag and stir it in some boiling milk. But I say: you can make your own bag, only very little effort and no odd additives. You can also prepare the mixed powder and keep it in an airtight box or make your own bags, give them to others as a present….

Chocolate Pudding Powder

4 g carob gum (or 15 g starch)

15 g dark cacoa powder

15-20 g erythritol (0 calories sugar equivalent) or 15 g sugar

This amount is enough for 400 ml Milk and makes a creamy and very tasty pudding. And it is also suitable for the Dukan diet 🙂

I fill the pudding in 150 ml pudding dishes and serve it with 2 tablespoons of low fat joghurt mixed with 1 tablespoon of quark cheese and 1 tablespoon of erythritol. Makes a perfect combination of sour quark-joghurt and chocolatey sweet pudding! This totally made my day!