Two tiers peach-champagne cake

Pssst... My colleague doesn't now that she will get this cake tomorrow :-) I hope she will enjoy it (and I also hope she will be there tomorrow *panic*).

Even if not perfect, this is my first two tiers cake. Not exactly what I imagined but baking rarely brings the desired outcome.

If you would like to rebake it: I took two times a 6 inch (16cm) springform pan and two times a 4 inch (10cm) springform pan. Afterwards I cut the cakes into 1/2 - 1 inch (1-2cm) thick slices, covered them with peach-champagne-jelly and vanilla cream, and stacked them. This was the first cake where I used a fondant as frosting, as this hopefully won't melt away in this summer's heat.

For the biscuit/sponge base (2x):

2 cups flour (230g)
1/2 cup sugar (100g)
1 sachet vanilla sugar
paring of half a lemon
1 sachet baking powder
3 tablespoons sunflower oil (40ml)
8 fl. oz. sparkling water (not sugared) (240ml)

Mix the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, baking powder and the paring of the lemon. Add slowly the oil and mineral water and agitate everything too a smooth dough. Then give the dough into a greased pan and bake it at 325°F (160°C) for about 30-45 minutes (the 4 inch pan doesn't need that long).
Leave the cakes on a cooling rack to cool down, and cut them afterwards into the already mentioned 4-6 slices. It needs some practise to cut the sponge absolutely horizontally, if you are afraid of ruining your cake just take less tiers.

For the vanilla cream:

13 fl. oz. soya milk (400ml)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 sachet custard/blancmange/pudding powder
1 sachet vanilla sugar
about 1/2 cup vegan butter (100g)

Stir 3 tablespoons of soya milk with sugar, vanilla sugar and blancmange powder until smooth. Boil up the milk and follow the instructions of the blancmange powder. Let the pudding cool down while still stiring it.
In the meantime you could whip the butter until it becomes foamy, then stir in the cold pudding. Leave the bulk cool down for about half an hour before spreading it onto the sponge.


For the peach-champagne-jelly:

4 tablespoons of peach-jelly
7 fl. oz. champagne (200ml)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 sachet vegan gelatin

Puree the jelly with the champagne and sugar. That followed add the gelatin, boil up everything for about 2 minutes and let cool it down.
Spread first the jelly onto the sponge base, then the vanilla cream. Please keep in mind that the lower bases have to carry more weight and therefore shouldn't be filled too opulent.
It's probaby best if the cake has a night to draw; it will be covered with some more peach-jelly and the fondant at the next day. As I prefer a quite thin and not too sweet fondant, I recommend appr. 1 3/4 cups fondant (400g) for the decoration and cover. If you would like to, you could use way more of course.

I wish you a lot of fun at rebaking and feasting!

Tofu-hazelnut-balls

Between my studies my appetite drove me crazy, so that I had to turn on the cooker again. As I love to eat hazelnut, but have less time for baking right now (way too less in my opinion!!!), I applied them at my lunch today by forming little tofu-hazelnut balls.

As side dish I chose Capellini (thin spaghettis) with pesto and some fresh Italian salad with a yoghurt-mustard-dressing.

For about 12 balls:

1 cup tofu (200g)
1/3 cup ground hazelnuts (70g)
1 onion
Salt, pepper, oregano, fresh nutmeg
1/2 bound parsley
some lemon balm
3 tablespoons yoghurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons breadcrumb

Mash the tofu with a fork and roast it gently in some oil at normal heat. Add the onion and continue sweating it until the onion becomes translucent, then add the hazelnuts and spice everything.

Cut the parsley and lemon balm as small as possible and mix it with yoghurt and lemon juice. Add the tofu-nut-mix and agitate it to a smooth dough. Add little by little some breadcrumbs. Don't let the dough become too firm, as it becomes even firmer after a few minutes of steeping.Then form small balls out of it and roast them from all sides; serve them hot.

Whether as finger-food or hearty side-dish, with spicy sauces or potatoes, these little ones taste always delicious;-)

Marble-cupcake with cranberries

The big advantage of marble-cupcakes is that you don't have to decide between chocolate and lemon! I just wanted to bring some little pleasantry to my fellows at work tomorrow and so I decided for these little sweet ones. Besides there is the rumor that my favorite soya-cream will be taken off the market, and therefore I had to test some alternative. As my sweetheart officially approved it, I count myself lucky ;-)


Please see subsequent the recipe for about 12 pieces:

Marble-dough:
2 cups flour (240g)
3/4 cup sugar (180g)
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5 tablespoon oil (80ml)
1/3 cup apple puree (60g)
5-7 fl. oz. (160-200ml) sparkling water
paring of half a lemon
4 tablespoons minced dried cranberries
2 tablespoons cocoa

Mix the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in the oil and apple puree and add 5 fl. oz. of sparkling water (160ml) and agitate everything to a smooth dough. If the dough seems to be too dry add some additional water. Divide the bulk. Add the paring of a lemon and the cranberries to the one part, and stir in cocoa and some more sparkling water into the other. Divide it onto 12 cupcake-molds and bake it at 325°F for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime you may prepare the topping-cream:
This special topping is made on pudding-base, therefor it doesn't liquefy in summer...

12 fl. oz. soya-milk (400ml)
1 sachet of vanilla-pudding powder
3-4 tablespoons sugar
1 cup whte vegan chocolate (120g)
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (25g)
1 1/2 tablespoons of vegan butter (25g)

Cook some pudding out of soya-milk, pudding powder and sugar and let it cool down afterwards. Dice the shortening and butter and melt it together with the white chocolate. Stir it into the pudding while it's liquid and anneal it for about 3 hours. That followed fill it into a icing bag and garnish the cupcake with it. Done:-)

Pearly lemon-raspberry cookies

As I discover my patient side these days, please marvel ;-) at my weekends work: lemon-raspberry cookies.

For 60 pieces:

3 1/3 cup flour (400g)
1 cup margarine (200g)
1/2 cup sugar (100g)
2 tablespoon raspberry-paste (not mandatory)
paring of half a lemon
if required: some lemon juice

Knead the flour with margarine, sugar, the raspberry-paste and the grated lemon paring to a smooth dough. Form a bowl out of it and put it for about 2 hours into the refrigerator. Afterwards cut out the cookies and bake them at 360°F for about 10-15 minutes (depending a little bit of the size of your cookies)

Now purfle the chilled sugar cookies with a dilution of powdered sugar, lemon juice and a food coloring of your choice. The result will sweeten your and your's darling tea time...

Fancy nougat cake with mango jelly

My desire to bake awakes by the first ray of sun in the morning. So I went up this morning and hurled into the kitchen to let my ideas run wild and this cake was the result. It is made of a chocolatey sponge, nougat-cream and tasty mango jelly.

For the sponge:

2 cups flour (240g)
1/2 cup sugar (100g)
1 pkg. baking powder/soda
2 tablespoons starch
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 knife point powdered vanilla
1/3 cup apple purée(50g)
1 cup soya milk (220ml)
1 tablespoon vinegar of raspberry (or any other fruit vinegar)
2 tablespoons margarine

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, starch, cocoa and vanilla. Stir in the apple purée, soya milk and vinegar and knead everything to a smooth dough.
Cut a baking paper to the size of the baking sheet and elapse the dough on it. Bake it at 360°F for about 10-15 minutes. Just as far until it doesn't stick to a toothpick anymore.
Disperse the two tablespoons of soya milk onto the dough and besprinkle it with sugar. Let it cool down a bit afterwards. Stamp your prefered shapes out of the baked dough ( in this case butterflies) and crush the remaining pieces. Mix them with the margarine. Then press the crumbs in a cake setting ring of 10 inch (24cm) and let it get a dry touch.

For the mango jelly:
1 big mango
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pinch chilli
1 pinch curcuma
2 tablespoons jam sugar (2:1)

Dice the mango into small pieces and boil it up together with the lemon juicy and jam sugar. Add some chilli and curcuma, then purée everything.
It has to cool down a bit, before you are able to continue to use it. Give 3/4 of the tepid bulk on top of the chocolate base and let cool down the remaining 1/4. For the blossom-deco the jelly has to be extruded at a nearly completely cooled state.

For the cocoa-nougat-cream:
1 1/3 cup soya cream (300g)
2 tablespoons cream stiffener
1 cup nougat (100g)
2/3 cup cooking chocolate (65g)
1 pkg. vanilla sugar
1 pinch salt

Melt the cooking chocolate and nougat in a double boiler. Whip the cream together with cream stiffener, sugar and salt. Stir in the chocolate bulk and disperse it on top of the layer of mango jelly. As soon as the remaining mango jelly reaches the right temperature, ornament the tart with it and put the butterflies on top. If you like to, you also may sprinkle some fruit crispies on top...