Archive for August, 2010

Chocolate Cookie Cake

For this cake you need a special vegetable fat called “Palmin”. It is firm coconut oil and the other ingredient is a special chocolate frosting. Both ingredients you won’t  find in an American supermarket. I already checked it out.  But the good news is, you can get it at the German deli store online.
Other names for this cake are “Zebra Cake” or “Cookie Cake” or  “Kalter Hund”, which means in English ”Cold Dog Snout”. The cake will be kept in the fridge for hours before served, so it is very cold, like the dogs snout! Happy Baking!

Ingredients
300 g Coconut fat (Palmin); available at http://www.germandeli.com/
300 g powdered sugar
120 g cocoa (un-sugared and de-oiled)
2 eggs
4 tbsp orange juice
8 tbsp hot water
40 g almonds
225 g butter cookies preferably from Bahlsen Leibniz
200 g chocolate cake frosting

Baking Instructions
- Put coconut fat in a skillet and melt it on medium heat
- Let if cool off a bit (off the stove)
- Sieve the powdered sugar into a bowl and add the cocoa, mix it.
- Beat eggs in a separate bowl until foamy
- Mix in slowly the sugar-cocoa mix; add orange juice and stir it until it is smooth
- While stirring add the slightly cooled off Palmin fat in thin streams into the mix
- Add hot water and stir it until smooth
- Put almonds into a bowl; blanch them by adding hot water; have them 5 minutes in the water, then sieve them; remove the brown skin between your thum and index finger (this is optional, you don’t have to have the almonds)
- Line a loaf pan with parchment paper
- Put almonds on the bottom of the pan
- Fill in 5 tablespoons of the chocolate mass and make it smooth
- Fill a layer of cookies on top of it
- Repeat layers of chocolate and cookies until pan is full BUT only add 2 tablespoons of chococlate mass on the cookies
- Have the cake for at least 2-3 hours in the fridge until it is really cool
- Before you serve turn out the cake and remove parchment paper.
- Make cake frosting per instructions and pour it over the cake.
- Keep the cake cool until served.

Tips
Fix the parchment paper with tape on the outside of the pan.
You can keep this cake in the fridge or in a cold basement up to 1 week; wrap it in aluminum foil.
You can make this cake days before, just keep it cool.

Chocolate-Cream Cake

It’s chocolate cake time! Ladies and gents, this is a special gateau but it is not that difficult to make. They recommend using “Mondamin” which is a popular extra corn starch for baking cakes and sweet dishes in Germany. I have never seen it in US supermarkets, neither on Amazon, but I found it at an Ebay store called “A taste of Germany”. Happy Baking!
Ingredients
For the Biscuit Cake
4 eggs
4 tbsp water
200 g sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
100 g flour
100 g mondamin – extra fine corn starch for cakes, I found it on Ebay, see here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mondamin-Speisestaerke-Corn-Starch-German-Imported-CAKE-/270497814429
2 tsp baking powder
salt
Filling:
200 g butter
200 g sugar
30 g Mondamin, 3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp coffee powder (instant)
1/4 l milk
Baking Instructions
- Whisk 4 egg white with water until firm and add slowly sugar and vanilla sugar
- Carefully mix in the egg yolks, flour, Mondamin and a hint of salt
- Grease a spring form with butter (26cm) and fill in the dough
- Bake it for 30-35 minutes on 175 degrees C (350 F)
- when done take it out of form and let it cool off
- cut the cake in half

For the Filling:
- Mix Mondamin and cocoa powder, boil it with the milk until thick, and let it cool off
- Whisk Butter, sugar and instant coffee until foamy
- Mix in the cocoa-cream spoon after spoon
- With a wide spoon fill the cream onto the biscuit cake (see picture, wrap the whole cake in cream), and with a spoon decorate the top

Well, that’s a cake which will make you popular!