Old: Bomb Cake

I’ve found an old cake picture today! This one’s from back in 2005, when we were younger and probably prettier and more idealistic and … making bomb cakes! :D

My ex-boyfriend* and I baked this cake for the birthday of our friend who’s in the habit of blowing things up. I’m not kidding. This guy is dangerous.

As for the cake, if I remember correctly it was a chocolate cake. It was dusted with cocoa powder and a bit of icing sugar, and the powder fuse was something covered in chocolate. Not very specific, I know. Come on, it’s been six years – I’m glad if I can roughly remember what happened 6 minutes ago.

 

* We still get along fine and we still have mutual friends. I just call him “husband” these days.

 

 

Vodka Red Bull Layer Cake for Karl

 

You want the truth? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH! WE LIVE IN A WORLD THAT HAS CAKES, AND THOSE CAKES HAVE TO BE BAKED BY GIRLS WITH BAKING TOOLS.

I am going to tell you anyway. For the truth is: I’m a pushover. And that’s the reason I baked a cake I don’t even like – yes, there are cakes I don’t like. Actually, there are drinks I don’t like. And I’ve found out that turning them into cakes does help, just not enough.

One of the guys from our sports club (Eeek! I have used the evil s-word. So sorry, guys. You said you wanted the truth!) is leaving town and last night was his last training session with us, and he’d been pestering me forever to bake a Vodka Red Bull cake for him. And this is where my pushover-ness comes in.

Voilà – Vodka Red Bull Layer Cake for Karl!

I didn’t use that much vodka as it was going to be eaten right after a rather intense cardio training, and for some obscure reason I didn’t want my cake to make anybody sick. All in all, the taste was not very intense anyway, which I like, but that may be because I don’t like Red Bull. (That’s also part of the reason why I’m not posting the recipe; the main reason, however, is that once again there was too much improvisation going on so I can’t make any binding statements. Sorry. If you want a rough recipe, feel free to contact me.)

In case you are wondering why I used sugar hearts to spell his name: that’s my little revenge for his pestering. I simply had to make his Manly Man Cake With Alcohol To Be Eaten After A Martial Arts Workout a bit girlish. He wasn’t annoyed though, which is a shame, but I guess that only goes to show how happy he was about the cake. Yay!

 

 

 

Beetroot Brownies

It’s Sunday, and if that’s not enough of an occasion, we are also having friends round. Brownies time! In this special case: Beetroot Brownies time! Yes, I know it sounds strange. And I tried out the recipe because it sounded strange in the first place. But what can I say, they are DELICIOUS*. Out of the two people in this household, one claims you can’t really taste the beetroot at all; you can tell there’s something but you’d never be able to pinpoint it. The other person says the brownies are really nice but too much beetroot for his taste and I should try making them with a bit less beetroot next time around.

We both agree that the texture is lovely. It’s so moist and chocolatey and … I must admit that while I am usually quite wary of “healthy” cake recipes I was quite astonished when I realised that in terms of brownies, this one’s an actual lower-calorie recipe. Yes, it still uses lots of chocolate and sugar. We’re talking cake. Give me a cake recipe without sugar or fat and I am giving you … dunno. An arrogant snort, most likely.

These brownies do not taste like they’re lower (not low! lower!) in calories, and that’s the most important thing. Food that tastes low in calories is bad enough, but there’s seriously nothing worse than cakes that taste of little calories. [/rant]

Finally, here’s the link to the recipe: Beetroot Brownies. I’ve changed it a little bit; me still not owning a food processor I simply bought soft-cooked beetroot and grated it, and I melted the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie.

When we’re having our grown-up Sunday afternoon coffee & cakes later, I won’t tell our friends what the secret ingredient is. Can’t wait to see whether they’ll be able to guess it!

* Yes, shout-worthy delicious. Do feel free, however, to read all-upper-case words in Pterry’s Death’s voice. IT’S FUN. HAH. HAH.

 

 

Update:

Our friends did guess the secret ingredient. I am not trying to say my husband was right because that would just be silly. But I must admit that this morning, when I opened the box in which the brownies have spent their night, the smell of beetroot was overwhelming and not entirely pleasant. I still love the taste, though. But I might actually use slightly less of the evil healthy stuff next time I bake them.

 

 

Zombie Brains Brownies Cookies

It’s time for some gore again! Today,  I was going to bake Zombie Brains chocolate squares which, sadly, turned out as Zombie Brains Brownie Cookies but hey, you can’t always win. (Darn, I just lost The Game!) At least I got the lovely man at my side to take some cool pictures!

Braaains!

As I said, the base is a sort of brownie cookie – interestingly enough, they weren’t even supposed to be brownies but regular not-too-exciting chocolate squares. Somehow the baking was a weird process today though. In the end, turning them into cookies was the best way in my humble opinion. And since I was all alone in the kitchen, it was only my opinion that counted. I am the sole ruler and tyrannt of my very own little empire!

Ahem.

Back to the baking.

I had an elaborate recipe for a special chocolate icing because I thought regular melted chocolate was too mundane. That’s another thing that went wrong today. So the icing has now been turned into lovely chocolate truffles, and there’s regular melted chocolate on my weird brownie cookies. The zombie brains are walnuts with several layers of greenish sugar icing. They were supposed to be grey but NOTHING EVER GOES RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! Grrrr. At least the blood looks cool.

I am kind of happy with the result now. Nobody has to know that nothing went the way it was planned, do they? It’s not like that many people are reading this blog. ;)

I am also rather happy with the presentation, if I may say so. This is the perfect occasion for my Fold-Your-Own-Zombie calendar which I got from a very dear friend. (I know you’re reading this. I would still have called you a very dear friend if you didn’t, you know. ;) You can see it in the background of the photos, and thanks to the calendar we even have our very own zombie waiter for tonight’s feast:

Today's special: braaaaaiiins!!

Our friends are arriving any minute now. We’re going to watch Dead Set tonight. Yay! Braaaaaiins!

 

Update: I was inspired to do the zombie brains when I saw this blog; forgot to mention that before. Also: Dead Set. Watch it if you like zombie films or TV series. I really enjoyed it.

 

And so the pumpkin fest beginneth: Almond and Pumpkin Cake

The kitchen is mine again; the men have been banished, and I am free to use my lunch break for some baking, wahay!

My mate has supplied me with large quantities of pumpkins; he more or less grew them by accident and doesn’t know what to do with the lot. On top of this tragic story he’s quite convinced that pumpkin soup is the only thing worth making out of pumpkins. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAHAH! The fool!

It’s my mission to show him the light. Or was it the dark side? (Mmmmmh, pumpkin cookies…. Must make note.) Anyway, today’s cake is the kick-off to my little pumpkin fest. There won’t just be cakes, but I can’t give away everything just yet.

So this is part one: almond and pumpkin cake.

I have used this recipe* and only changed it a bit to accommodate to my personal taste and the great big maxim of what-I-have-in-my-kitchen-cupboard-at-the-moment. The icing is a store-bought almond icing (yes, I am lazy) and some melted chocolate.

Recipe: Almond and Pumpkin Cake
(makes two small cakes or one regular-sized one)

Ingredients
500 g pumpkin, pureed, grated or finely chopped
3 eggs
150 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
150 g ground almonds
160 g sugar
3 tbsp amaretto
grated peel of 1 lemon
2 tbsp cream
a pinch of salt
icing to taste or icing sugar

Method
Separate eggs, beat eggs white very stiff. Combine yolks with almonds, sugar, amaretto, lemon peel, cream, salt and pumpkin. Sift flour and baking powder and fold into the batter. Finally, gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake at 180°C for 50 minutes.
Let cool, then ice with an icing of your choice or sprinkle it with icing sugar.

I chopped the pumpkin because grating was too much work and I didn’t want to use puréed pumpkin as I am currently on a second pumpkin-related mission. I have a friend who, unlike my pumpkin supplier mate, is aware that there are other uses for pumpkin than soup but says she does not really like pumpkin in any other state because of its texture. AND I WILL find a non-soup pumpkin recipe that will change her mind, and if it’s the penultimate thing I do! [insert heroic gesture and determined look on face here]

* Why Italian? Because I can! :D – I often look for recipes in different languages because if you stay within the limits of your own cultural cooking/baking background you’re narrowing your horizon.**

** Did I just sound arrogant? What I wanted to say is that if you have spent all that time and effort learning foreign languages, you might as well use them for baking. Surely there is no better use for education than cake!

 

Semi-hostile takeover! Gasp!

 

Today my kitchen is being invaded by evil creatures with y chromosomes. Hiss!

Nah, it’s not that awful. Actually, I think it’s rather nice: my husband and his workmate are baking two cakes for their friend’s birthday. And at least I got to help make the decision which cakes to bake. It won’t be too easy not to hover in the background giving them useful tips and advice (and stepping in when they are too close to screwing up…). Can you tell I trust them completely? :)

So, anyway, no Sunday baking stories from me this time.

 

 

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I will have to bake a cake tomorrow!

 

Wasabi and Sesame Towers

 

The other day, I found wasabi paste in a shop, which made me think of … HOT WASABI MINI MUFFINS! And as you can see from the picture and the title of this blog entry, that’s EXACTLY what I made.

I cannot give you a recipe but here’s a really useful plan:

Step 1: Make up recipe for Hot Wasabi Mini Muffins. Prepare your mini muffin tin.

Step 2: Bake a batch of Hot Wasabi Mini Muffins. Be disappointed with the result. Revoke the capitalisation and set your hot wasabi mini muffins aside.

Step 3: Add sesame to the remaining batter, spoon the mixture into a baking tray and bake it.

Step 4: Combine the leftover wasabi paste with cream cheese, a few drops of green food colouring for good measure and a few spices to make a nice and spicy topping for your Wasabi and Sesame Squares. Cut the tray bake into said squares. Try one. Be disappointed with the result. Set aside your wasabi and sesame squares, but not as far aside as the muffins.

Step 5: Ponder.

Step 6: Combine squares to make little towers, sprinkle with sesame. Be slightly less disappointed.

Step 7: Take pictures, write your blog entry, serve them to your mates as squares nevertheless (because there aren’t enough to make a nice number of towers), and never bake them again.

Enjoy!

 

PS: They weren’t that bad. Just not as exciting as I had hoped. My mates still liked them, and the mini muffins are edible, too. Again, just not that exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Austrian Baking Heritage — and something new

I’ve been away for two weeks – but I have not been inactive! :) I went to Austria to see my grandmother, who gave me a one-day Austrian Baking Heritage class. It was GREAT. We baked strudels all day long. In the picture above you can see our poppyseed strudel. This one’s been made with a yeast dough; but I also learned how to make proper strudel dough. The stretched kind. The kind that requires more hands and arms than anybody’s got and that always ends up with at least little holes in it. They say that proper strudel dough has to be stretched so thin that you if you put it on top of the page of a newspaper, you should still be able to read it.

Two rather unfortunate things though: I can’t give you any recipes because the quantities are a tad imprecise.  – “Add as much XY as the dough needs, then bake at a good temperature until the colour is right.” I guess that’s the way grandmothers all over the world hand down their recipes. It’s a sort of rite of passage for the baking kind. As soon as your grandmother’s recipes make sense, you’re there. You’re it. :) I’m not quite it yet – I still struggle with some recipes – but I’m getting there! Er, sorry, there.

The other unfortunate thing is that the other pictures I took are rubbish, so you cannot see for yourselves that yes, my stretched strudel dough was thin enough to read a newspaper through it, and it was almost flawlessly hole-less too! From this dough we made an apple strudel and one apple-grape-almond strudel. Delicious!

… and something new

My nana is always up for trying out something new. I must get my adventurous-experimental baking spirit from her. So anyway, inspired by my friend, who in turn was inspired by all of these, we made cinnamon pull-apart bread.  It tasted nice but I wasn’t really satisfied with the result. You couldn’t really pull away the slices; we ended up tearing off junks of it. Maybe we used too little butter? If I ever make one again, I might use a recipe.

Don’t Stop Me Now Chocolate & Chilli Fairy Cakes

It’s Freddie Mercury’s birthday today. Congratulations, man. We miss you.

I made a little something for Freddie’s birthday. I call them Don’t Stop Me Now Fairy Cakes because I said I was going on a two-week baking hiatus… yet it seems I don’t want to be stopped!

I want it all - sweet & hot

The other reason I made them is that I am going away tomorrow morning without my husband, which means that he will be without cake for at least 12 days. I am afraid of what the detox is going to do to him!

For the topping of these cakes I used home-made dark chocolate spread. Another bit of life support for hubby for the next days… :) Which reminds me, the other day one of my mates was eating a piece of cake and said, “In a way, I really envy your husband.” Love that he had to add “in a way”. Made me feel really special! :-P

Anyway, happy birthday Freddie.

Savoury birthday cake

My third baking project this weekend was my most daring one. It was my friend’s birthday yesterday, and because she’s a really talented and passionate bakesteress ;) she made the cakes herself and had asked me to bring something savoury for the party. At first, I was  bit unhappy because I wanted to make a proper birthday cake. But then I realised that this was an awesome challenge: a savoury birthday cake. I love challenges.

Ta-dah!

The base is a rather mild courgette*, ham & nut cake, which basically tastes like a nutty bread of sorts. For the topping I used one of my favourite foods, an Austrian bread spread called Liptauer. It’s very paprika-y and rather spicy (at least in my version), which goes perfectly with the savoury courgette cake. As muffins, this would make for awesome picnic food. And as mini muffins… I’m getting carried away!

This is the recipe; the Liptauer recipe is a traditional one while the cake recipe was made up by yours truly. Note the detailed instructions!

Cake:
125 ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
220 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
200 g grated courgettes
100 g ground hazelnuts
75 g sunflower seeds, chopped
75 g ham, diced
1 tsp chives
1 dash sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together until as well combined as it gets. Spoon into a baking tin and bake at 180°C for 50 minutes.

Cream:
50 g butter
250 g fromage frais
1/2 onion
50 g gherkins
1 1/2 green chillies
1 1/2 tbsp paprika (hot)
1 tsp hot mustard
1 tsp tomate puree
1 tsp chives
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper powder
1/2 tsp ground garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the onion, the gherkins and the chillies. You want to get really tiny pieces for the cake cream so it looks nicer.
Beat the soft butter and the fromage frais until well combined. Then add all the other ingredients. The mixture should have a nice orange colour. (The photo above doesn’t do it justice!)

Once the cake has cooled completely, spread the Liptauer cream all over the cake. You can use an icing bag to decorate the cake with the cream; please note that you’ll need a very big nozzle for the icing bag unless you’ve spent too much time chopping the veg. Or have used a food processor, in which case you’re cheating because I don’t own one so nobody should be allowed to use them.
I’ve sprinkled my cake with chives; alternatively you could use grated cheese, roasted onions or ham bits for example.
If you have too much Liptauer, eat it on bread. It’s lovely. And Austrian! :)

* Has anybody noticed that I really love courgettes yet? If not: I do. I truly do.