Ivi's Pumpkin Cake

My better half loves this pumpkin pie the most. Last time I made it was autumn 2012 - sorry for keeping you waiting, my dear! ♡

For a 20 cm cake tin

Ingredients

• 120 ml vegetable oil + extra for greasing
• 445 grams of grated pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 130 grams sugar
• 10 grams vanilla sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 90 grams walnuts + 1 tbsp icing sugar
• 295 grams flour
• 10 grams baking powder
• icing sugar for dusting

Method

Wash the pumpkin, cut into quarters and deseed it with a spoon. Grate the pumpkin quarters with the skin on.

Separate egg yolks and egg whites.

With an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, cinnamon and the oil together. Stir in the grated pumpkin. Set aside to sit for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, grease a deep 20 cm cake tin with vegetable oil. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees.

Finely ground the walnuts with 1 tbsp icing sugar in a food processor. Mix the ground walnuts with the flour and baking powder and gradually add it to the pumpkin-batter.

Beat the egg whites to a firm peak stage, then fold them in 3 steps into the batter.

Transfer the batter to the cake tin and spread it evenly. Bake in the oven for approx. 1 hour, but prick it to check if it’s really done before you remove it from the oven. 

Leave to cook in the tin for 10 minutes, then remove it from the tin and leave to cool completely.

Finally dust the cake with icing sugar. Cut and enjoy!

Fruit Cake with Lemon and Almonds

This is a cake recipe I use very often because I just love the cake’s moist (and slightly sandy) texture, lemony smell and sizzling flavour. You can use any fruit you like for the top; I tried it until now with blueberries, raspberries, apricots, cherries – and the last time with blackberries.

If you ask me, the cake needs some fruit that’s slightly sour, but go ahead, try the recipe with any fruit of your choice and form your own opinion.

Here comes the recipe for a 20 x 25 cm square tin:

Ingredients

• 75 grams of blanched almonds 
• 75 grams of icing sugar 
• 125 grams flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 150 grams of butter 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• zest and juice of 1 (small) lemon 
• 2 eggs 
• plenty of fruits of your choice 

Method

First, melt the butter on a low heat and leave to cool slightly.

Finely ground the almonds and icing sugar in a food processor until very fine (pulse for approx. 1 minute). The sugar prevents the almonds from turning into mousse.

Mix the ground almonds with flour and baking powder.

Add vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest to the melted butter and mix well. Now pour the butter-mixture into the flour-mixture and stir until it comes together. Add the eggs, one at a time, and stir until everything is well combined.

Preheat your oven to 180°C (hot air oven / convection oven works best!).

Line your tin with parchment paper and pour the cake mixture into it. Spread it evenly by shaking the tin back and forth.

Now sprinkle LOTS of your favourite fruits all over the cake mixture.

Bake the cake for 30 minutes, until slightly golden on top. Don’t bake too long or else it will become dry.

Remove from the oven and let it sit for some time. Cut it into squares and serve with some icing sugar dusted on top.

Recipe is inspired by Caroline Bretherton's Allotment Cookbook through the year.

Death by Chocolate

I spent the weekend watching Lord of the Rings. After I had watched the second Hobbit-movie “The Desolation of Smaug”, I really wanted to know the whole story of LOTR. I became a big fan of Legolas, although I do not like Orlando Bloom. Aragorn is pretty cool. But if I had to be one character, it would be Gimli due to height and character.
 

The story of “middle earth” is pretty complex, like the cake that we made this weekend. Recipe is inspired by by French pastry chef Pierre Hermé. We call the cake “death by chocolate” – a must for you if you’re a chocoholic, in a depressive or sad mood or just feel hoggish. :D
 

I prepared some of the “layers” one day ahead to save time, which I recommend.

Recipe is for a 13 cm cake tin
 

Prepare one day ahead
 

brittle

• 30 grams butter at room temperature
• 25 grams sugar
• 15 grams flour
• ¼ egg white

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Sieve the flour into the mixture and add a pinch of salt. Stir well until smooth. Finally add the egg white and mix well. Spread it on parchment paper as thin as possible and bake in the oven at 200°C for about 5 minutes. Cool completely, then break it to crumbs.

chocolate disk

• 20 grams couverture with 40% cocoa solids + 5 grams couverture with 60% cocoa solids

Melt the couverture over a bain-marie. Line your cake tin with cling film and pour in the melted chocolate evenly. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until you need it. 

chocolate cream

• 140 ml cream
• 80 grams couverture with 40% cocoa solids + 15 grams couverture with 60% cocoa solids

Heat the cream until it starts to steam (do not bring to boil!) and pour gradually into the couverture. Mix well until the couverture melts completely. Cool at room temperature and refrigerate overnight.

On the next day

Recommendation: Roast 135 grams of hazelnuts in a pan and rub off the skin with a towel. That’s the whole amount of hazelnuts that you will need for the following steps. So you save time.

 
2 hazelnut bases

• 75 grams icing sugar, sieved
• 70 grams ground hazelnuts
• 75 grams egg white
• 15 grams whole hazelnuts

Roast 40 grams of hazelnuts in a pan and rub off the skin with a towel. Blend them in a food processor with a pinch of salt until finely ground (pulse 2 to 3 times, that’s enough I think).
Preheat the oven to 170° degrees. On parchment paper, draw two circles with the same diameter like your cake tin has.
Mix icing sugar and ground hazelnuts. Beat the egg white up (not too stiff!) and fold it gradually into the sugar-hazelnuts-mixture. Fill a piping bag with the batter and pipe a spiral of batter onto your drawn circle, following the circle and pipe spiraling inward to fill the circle.
Ground the 15g of hazelnuts and sprinkle them over the batter. Bake in the oven with the oven door slightly opened for about 25 minutes. Let them cool completely!
 

ganache

• 25 grams cream
• 20 grams couverture 40% + 10 grams couverture 60%

Heat the cream and gradually mix into the couverture, until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

nougat filling

• 8 grams butter
• 20 grams couverture 40%
• 30 grams hazelnut nougat (for example, Nutella)
• 40 grams hazelnut paste*
• 40 grams brittle (keep the rest for decoration!)
• 10 grams roasted hazelnuts, grounded

*hazelnut paste:
Roast 40grams of hazelnuts in a pan and rub off the skin. Put them in the food processor and ground it with 1 tsp vanilla sugar until you get a fine paste.
 

Melt butter, couverture and hazelnut nougat over a bain-marie. Add the hazelnut paste, the brittle and the roasted hazelnuts and let it cool to room temperature.
 

cake’s composition
Use your cake tin (or alternatively a cake ring) and line it with parchment paper. Assemble the single layers of the cake in this order:

1. put one hazelnut-layer in the form
2. on the hazelnut-layer, spread the nougat filling evenly
3. take your chocolate disk and brush it with the chocolate ganache on both sides, then put the disk into the tin
4. beat the chocolate cream and pour half of it over the chocolate disk, spread it evenly
5. put the second hazelnut-layer over it (with the top looking down)
6. spread the second half fo the chocolate cream over it evenly

Refrigerate the assembled cake for 5 hours, before glazing and decorating it sideways with the rest of the brittle.

For my glaze, I just melted couverture (60 % cocoa solids) and butter over a bain-marie, let it cool and then spread it over the cake. You can also use a bought cake glaze, like one from Dr. Oetker. 

You’ll find the recipe on the blog of cook-poet Eva. My version is a bit different.

Cranberry Bakewell

This cake tastes heavenly! It smells and tastes like Christmas.

When cooking the cake’s single layers you get into this christmassy mood, no matter if you are a Christmas-freak (like I am) or not. It’s not that sort of feeling that appears to be imposed on you when walking through the supermarkets around THE time of the year, no. It’s a different one, one that is more honest.

The cake is a little time-consuming. But I promise, you’ll forget all the work after the first bite!

The cake has 3 layers:

1. sweet shortcrust
2. cranberry jam (best if made one day in advance!)
3. frangipane

I found the recipe in a Jamie Oliver magazine and did some changes.

cranberry-jam

• 280 grams fresh cranberries
• 5 heaped tbsp sugar
• z est and juice of one orange
• ½ star anise
• ¼ tsp cinnamon

Put all the ingredients above in a pot and bring them to boil (if you put a lid on it, it needs less time until boiling and you save energy!). When the mixture boils, reduce the heat. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon. When it starts to thicken, reduce the heat again and let it simmer, until it reaches the right consistence. Refrigerate for one day or at least overnight. Remove the star anise.

For a 18cm tarte tin:

• 1 pack of shortcrust pastry

Line your tarte tin with the pastry and let it chill in the fridge for one hour.

Frangipane

• 225 grams ground almonds
• 187g butter at room-temperature
• 1 ½ heaped tbsp flour, sieved
• 3 tbsp sugar (you can use more or less)
• 1 ½ egg (or a large egg), at room-temperature
• Seeds of one vanilla pod
• drops of orange extract (or a lug of Cointreau)
• a small hand full cranberries & 1-2 tbsp flaked almonds for decoration

Mix the butter and sugar until creamy, add gradually vanilla seeds, orange extract and egg. Finally fold in the ground almonds and the flour. Wrap it in clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
 

Remove the shortcrust pastry from the fridge, prick it with a fork, cover with parchment paper, fill with baking beans and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Take it out, remove baking beans and parchment paper and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
 

After the base has cooled completely, spread the jam evenly on it.
 

Take your frangipane out of the fridge. It should be pretty firm now, so you can proceed this way: Cut the pastry in evenly thick slices and spread them over your marmalade close to each other. Fill the gaps between the slices with the rest of the frangipane (it should be softened now – if not, rub it between your fingers).
 

In the end, flatten a regular surface with the palm of your hand. This step is exhausting, but worth it!

Spread a small handfull of cranberries over your cake and slightly push them into the surface. Spread the flaked almonds afterwards and make sure that all your flakes touch the frangipane-surface, so that they can stick to it.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for approx. 40 minutes. Remove and set to cool.

glaze (optional)

• zest and juice of half an orange
• 80g icing sugar

Mix zest, juice and sugar until well combined. Add some more sugar if necessary. Drizzle it over the cake.

So delicious!

Pudding Cake プリンケーキ

I love Pudding! Especially japanese pudding, the so called custard cream pudding. I spent the week making various sorts of puddings, because Mari from Kazuo presented some recipes of the pudding-chapter of her book entitled はじめての手作りお菓子　Home made sweets . After making Maris カスタードプリン (custard pudding) and なめらかプリン (smooth pudding), I started to crave pudding cake. Sounds strange, right? Indeed, the method is a little strange, but the cake itself is delicious! I ate pudding cake the first time when I was in Japan at a friend’s house, so I asked for the recipe, that I got in a mail. When I read the method for the first time, I thought that it would never succeed, but it did!

It’s a not too sweet, not too heavy dessert – with a short lifespan… D: Our cake survived only a few hours, but hey: it was tiny!!

ingredientsts (for a 13cm cake tin)
 

caramel sauce

• 4 tbsp Sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1-2 tbsp hot boiling water

pudding

• 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
• 1-2 tbsp sugar (optional)
• 250 ml milk
• a few drops vanilla essence or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

pudding base

• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 heaped tbsp flour (approx. 20 grams)

 

method
 

Line your cake tin with parchment paper – you can also skip this step. I did it to protect the tin and because it makes it easier to remove the cake afterwards.
 

Fill half of a pot with water, bring to boil and reduce the heat to simmer. Add a steaming basket to your pot, which is wider than your cake tin.
 

For the caramel sauce mix sugar and water in a pan and let it caramelize on a low heat until it reaches the caramel-grade you want it to have (some people like their caramel more intensive, some like it lighter, so choose yours!). Put the pan away from heat and add 1-2 tbsp of hot boiling water to the pan (don’t burn yourself!) and fill it immediately into the cake tin. Leave to cool.
 

Mix eggs and egg yolk, add the sugar and beat until creamy. Gradually add the milk and mix well to combine. Finally add the vanilla essence. Pour the mixture into your cake tin.
 

For the base, beat egg and sugar together, then add the oil and beat until well combined. Sieve the flour into the mixture and fold it in, until it’s free from lumps. Now comes the challenge: Pour the base-mixture into the pudding – don’t be afraid to do that, the base will come to the surface!
 

Put your cake tin into the steaming basket, cover it with a lid and let it steam at low heat for about 20 minutes (don’t over-steam or the pudding will loose it’s silky texture). 

Let the cake cool to room temperature, then put in in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight).

Put a plate on top of the cake tin, then turn it out quickly. Let it sit for a few minutes, then remove cake tin and parchment paper.

Cut, serve and enjoy! :D