Black and White Raspberry Cake

I created this cake for the birthday of a friend. But then I got sick and couldn't make it. I was pretty sorry about it. But since I already planed it out I thought it would be a pity not to bake it anyway. As it happens my dads birthday was the following weekend. So I got my chance.

I think of all the cakes I made in the last few years this is my favorite. At least considering the taste. I mean the combination of dark chocolate and raspberrys is always delicious.
The Frosting is absolutely mouth-watering. The taste of chocolate is quite rich and intense. Even the texture is perfect for coating a cake. YAY!

I wanted the flower to be a certain turquoise shade. It's not that easy to accomplish. To get closer to that shade, I had to use a lot of gel colour. As a result the gum paste became to sticky. To counteract that I had to use more cornstarch while I rolled it out. Thats why the flower has this light white coating. It's a pity.
I planned for the flower to be a little more fluffy. But the fondant was too damp and it softened the gum paste petals. They all just deflated. I was pretty disappointed.

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Black and White Raspberry Cake

Shortcrust

85 g butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 g vanilla sugar
1/8 tsp salt

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
2. Beat the butter, the vanilla sugar and the sugar with a hand mixer until it's pale and creamy.
3. Add the flour, the vanilla extract and the salt. Mix it in with a dough hook.
4. Take a baking pan but leave out the bottom.
5. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet. Place the ring of the baking pan on top. Crush the edges of the parchment around the ring.
6. Spread the dough evenly in the prepared baking pan.
7. Bake it for 15 minutes.
8. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack and let it cool down to room temperature.

Biscuit

150 g flour
38 g cornstarch
188 g sugar
315 g eggs (with shell)
1 pinch citric acid powder

1. Weigh the eggs with the shell. Try to come as close to the intended weight as you can. That works best with a mix of medium and large sized eggs.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
3. Put the egg whites in a tupperware container, close it. Put the container in the freezer. Leave it there until the egg whites are a little bit frozen on the edges. This can take from 15-50 minutes. You should check every 5-10 minutes.
4. Beat the egg yolks with a hand mixer until they turn pale. Put a piece of saran wrap directly on the beaten yolk. Put the bowl in the fridge for later.
5. Mix the flour with the cornstarch. Sieve the mixture at least twice. Leave the flour in the sieve for later.
6. Put the sugar into a small bowl and leave it for later.
7. Take the baking pan with the baked shortcrust and put a cake-strip around it. Put it back on the baking sheet.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 155°C/310°F.
9. Prepare the flour, the sugar, the yolk and a timer for easy access.
12. Put the citric acid powder in a big bowl.
13. Add the egg whites.
14. Whip the egg whites manually. Preferably use a spiral whisk or a normal whisk, if you don't have one. It's important that you don't turn the bowl while you whip the eggs and you always have to beat in the same direction. Basically you have to repeat one hand movement the whole time.
15. After 10 minutes start gradually adding the sugar. Overall the egg whites should be whipped for 25 minutes.
16. Afterwards add the egg yolk.
17. Sieve half of the flour to the whipped egg whites. Fold them in carefully but quickly. Sieve in the remaining flour and fold it in too. Like with the egg whites you should not turn the bowl and fold in the same direction. Try to work quickly but always be careful.
18. Put the batter over the shortcrust. Smooth out the top as good as you can.
19. Bake for 50-60 minutes. When you press the top carefully with a finger and it jumps back, the biscuit is finished.
20. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack and leave it to cool down completely.
21. Remove the parchment. Afterwards use a thin knife to carefully cut the biscuit out of the pan.

Chocolate Batter

85 g butter, room temperature
1/6 cup cacao
1/8 cup water, boiling
1/2 cup sugar
8 g vanilla sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk

1. Sift the cocoa powder and whisk in the boiling water.
2. Beat the egg lightly.
3. Combine the flour, the cornstarch, the baking soda and salt. Sift it all together.
4. Cream the butter with a hand mixer until it's light and fluffy.
5. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla sugar. Beat it for about 3-4 minutes, scrap the batter twice from the sides of the bowl.
6. Gradually add the egg and mix it well.
7. Add the milk to the cocoa and mix it.
8. Add the flour and cocoa mixture alternately to the batter. Start and finish with the flour.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
10. Grease the baking pan and dust it with cocoa powder. If you want to use a Cake strip, put it on the baking pan.
11. Bake the cake for ca. 30-35 minutes.
12. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Afterwards take the cake out of the pan and leave it to cool on a cooling rack.

Chocolate Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cacao
190 g cream cheese
180 g butter, room temperature
280 g bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup crème fraîche
2 pinches salt

1. Combine the sugar, the cacao and the salt in a bowl. Sift them together.
2. Use a hand mixer to beat the butter until it's creamy.
3. Add the cream chesse to the butter. Mix them together.
4. Set the mixer on slow and add the sugar-cacao mix.
5. Melt the chocolate. Let it cool down a little.
6. Add the chocolate and mix it in. Still on a slow setting.
7. Add the crème fraîche. Mix it in.

To Assemble

1-2 cups raspberrys
Raspberry jam

1. At the top of the biscuit cut of about one third.
2. Take it of and place it on a cutting board. Cut out a circle. Leave a 2cm rim. The cut out middle is superfluous and can be eaten as a snack.
3. Spread some jam on the cut surface of the bigger biscuit.
4. Place the cut ring back on the biscuit.
5. Wash the raspberrys. Carefully dab them dry.
6. Fill the cut out middle with the raspberrys.
7. Spread some of the chocolate frosting onto the biscuit. At this point it's better if the frosting is rather soft, so don't put it in the fridge beforehand.
8. Place the chocolate base on top.
9. Cover the whole cake with chocolate frosting. If the frosting is too soft. Put it in the fridge, check about every 5 minutes, until it reaches the desired consistency.
10. Covering the cake with fondont is optional.

Bon appétit!!

Raspberry-Lemon Biskuit Cake

I made this cake for my grandmas birthday. I had this idea about combining lemon and raspberry in a cake. If you look at most of my cakes I think it becomes obvious that I absolutely love my aunt's biscuit. So I used it as the base. And for the raspberry part I chose the raspberry dough from this recipe. And to round it out I would make a lemon frosting.
It didn't work out as I planed. I hate buttercream frosting, so I chose a cream cheese frosting. It was the first time I made that recipe. It was horrible. For one it was too sweet, but I could have lived with that. But the real problem was that it was too runny and it didn't get better when I put it in the fridge for some time. It just run down the cake. I would have made some other cream, but there was no cream cheese leftover. And it was already too late to go and by more. I was really pissed.
So I think it's no surprise that I'm replacing the frosting with one I made before and that actually worked and tasted good.

But it was not all bad. This is the first time that the fondant I made worked out perfectly.
I stumbled over this blog. There I found not only a recipe for fondant that uses only german ingredients. But also one for gum paste. I actually had to make a half an hour long bus trip to a bigger grocery store to get some of the ingredients. But it was worth it, 'couse it was still cheaper than to buy it online.
And like I said the fondant was great, just the right texture. The cake would have been beautiful. Smooth and even. The cream totally ruind it. I was kinda sad.

There are a few drawbacks to this recipe.
For one the syrup used for it is too dark. It results in an off-white fondant. For another it's a little too soft. So I don't think it's suitable for shaping.
If you make the gum paste, the problem with the shaping disappears. But if you don't plan to color it you get another problem. Because the gum paste is a pure white. The differene between the fondant and the gum paste will be obvious. 

It was the first time I worked with gum paste. I'm pretty happy with the result.
The flowers look really beautiful. They weren't perfect but for a first try still pretty good. But the work is rather elaborate. The gum paste dries fast. So I could only work on one or two petals at a time. And everytime you have to take the gum paste out of the plastic wrap, cut of a piece, put the rest back, roll out the cut of piece, stamp out the petals, put the spare gum paste back, work on the pestals and then do it all over again. I think I worked over one hour on the rose alone.
But the result was worth it.

Usually I don't put up so many picutres. But well I am rather proud of my accomplishment and wanted to show it from all sides. It would have been too hard to chose only two or even three pictures.

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Raspberry-Lemon Biskuit Cake

Biskuit

150 g flour
38 g cornstarch
188 g sugar
315 g eggs (with shell)
1 pinch citric acid powder

1. Weigh the eggs with the shell. Try to come as close to the intended weight as you can. That works best with a mix of medium and large sized eggs.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
3. Put the egg whites in a tupperware container, close it. Put the container in the freezer. Leave it there until the egg whites are a little bit frozen on the edges. This can take from 15-50 minutes. You should check every 5-10 minutes.
4. Beat the egg yolks with a hand mixer until they turn pale. Put a piece of saran wrap directly on the beaten yolk. Put the bowl in the fridge for later.
5. Mix the flour with the cornstarch. Sieve the mixture at least twice. Leave the flour in the sieve for later.
6. Put the sugar into a small bowl and leave it for later.
7. Take a baking pan but leave out the bottom. Put a cake-strip around the pan.
8. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet. Place the ring of the baking pan on top. Crush the edges of the parchment around the ring.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 155°C/310°F.
10. Prepare the flour, the sugar, the yolk and a timer for easy access.
11. Put the citric acid powder in a big bowl.
12. Add the egg whites.
13. Whip the egg whites manually. Preferably use a spiral whisk or a normal whisk, if you don't have one. It's important that you don't turn the bowl while you whip the eggs and you always have to beat in the same direction. Basically you have to repeat one hand movement the whole time.
14. After 10 minutes start gradually adding the sugar. Overall the egg whites should be whipped for 25 minutes.

15. Afterwards add the egg yolk.

16. Sieve half of the flour to the whipped egg whites. Fold them in carefully but quickly. Sieve in the remaining flour and fold it in too. Like with the egg whites you should not turn the bowl and fold in the same direction. Try to work quickly but always be careful.

17. Put the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top as good as you can.

18. Bake for 50-60 minutes. When you press the top carefully with a finger and it jumps back, the biscuit is finished.

19. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack and leave it to cool down completely.

20. Remove the parchment. Afterwards use a thin knife to carefully cut the biscuit out of the pan.

 

Raspberry Batter

1 2/3 cups raspberrys, frozen
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 tbsp lemon zest
2 egg whites
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/8 tsp salt

1. Let the raspberrys thaw.
2. Press them through a sieve.
3. Grate the zest of the lemon.
4. Squeeze out the juice.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
6. Place baking parchement into the cake pan. Press it firmly to the edges. Try to make it as smooth as possible.
7. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together.
8. Pour the batter into the cake pan.
9. Bake it for 30-35 minutes.
10. Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool down on a cooling rack.
11. When the dough is completely cold, take it out of the pan. Don't yet detach the parchment.
12. Place it in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours.

Lemon Sauce

1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3 eggs
1 pinch salt

1. Grate the zest of the lemon.
2. Squeeze out the juice.
3. In a sauce pan combine the juice, the sugar, the egg yolk, the eggs and the salt.
4. On a waterbath bring the mixture to a boil. Stir constantly with a whisk. Cook it for 12-14 minutes.
5. Press the mixture through a fine sieve.
6. Add the lemon zest and mix it in.

Frosting 

250 g cream cheese
60 g butter, soft
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract

1. Whip the butter with a hand mixer until it's smooth.
2. Add the cream cheese and 1/4 of the icing sugar to the butter. Blend everything together with the hand mixer on medium speed.
3. While the hand mixer is still running add the remaining sugar and the extract.
4. Blend the frosting for another 4 minutes.

To Assemble

1. Cut the biscuit in half. Put the top half to the side for later.
2. Spread a little more than half of the lemon sauce on the biscuit.
3. Take the raspberry batter out of the fridge. Carefully detach the baking parchment from it.
4. Place it on the biscuit.
5. Spread about half of the remaining lemon sauce on it.
6. Place the cut of biscuit on top.
7. Spread the remainig lemon sauce on top.
8. Cover the whole cake with the frosting.
9. Decorating the cake with fondant is optional.

Bon appétit!!

Blueberry Biscuit Cake

In Wiesbaden you can find the gorgeous Café Maldaner. I absolutely love it. Not only the delicious cakes but also the atmosphere. It's more than worth a visit.

One of my favorite cakes is the Blueberry Biscuit Cake. I liked it so much that I wanted to make one myself. I already had a tasty biscuit recipe from my aunt. So I only needed the blueberry topping. It wasn't so easy to find one. Somewhere along the way I stumbled over these recipe. It came pretty close to what I was looking for.

The recipe works with fresh or frozen berrys. The first time I tried it out it was summer so I made it with fresh blueberrys. It was for my aunts birthday. Everything worked how I planed it. The taste is of course not exactly like the one from Café Maldaner. But it's still delicious.
I changed the recipe a little bit after the first try. For one I made more of the topping. That way there is a better balance between the biscuit and the blueberrys. For another I left out the shortcrust. It was too sweet for my taste.

On the second try I made it with frozen blueberrys. At first I used the same, already changed, recipe. But while cooking the topping I realized that it was too runny and wouldn't firm up. I had to add more cornstarch and cook it again. But it was worth it. It held perfectly when I took of the cake ring the next day.

The fresh and frozen berrys aren't interchangeable. The result is pretty different. In taste and appearance.
And I got to say the frozen blueberrys were pricier than the fresh. But you only get fresh berrys in the summer while you can buy frozen blueberrys all year round.

All in all I liked both variations.
Maybe next time I try it with raspberrys or a berry-mix.

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Blueberry Biscuit Cake

Biscuit

150 g flour
38 g cornstarch
188 g sugar
315 g eggs (with shell)
1 pinch citric acid powder

1. Weigh the eggs with the shell. Try to come as close to the intended weight as you can. That works best with a mix of medium and large sized eggs.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
3. Put the egg whites in a tupperware container, close it. Put the container in the freezer. Leave it there until the egg whites are a little bit frozen on the edges. This can take from 15-50 minutes. You should check every 5-10 minutes.
4. Beat the egg yolks with a hand mixer until they turn pale. Put a piece of saran wrap directly on the beaten yolk. Put the bowl in the fridge for later.
5. Mix the flour with the cornstarch. Sieve the mixture at least twice. Leave the flour in the sieve for later.
6. Put the sugar into a small bowl and leave it for later.
7. Take a baking pan but leave out the bottom. Put a cake-strip around the pan.
8. Put baking parchment on a baking sheet. Place the ring of the baking pan on top. Crush the edges of the parchment around the ring.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 155°C/310°F.
10. Prepare the flour, the sugar, the yolk and a timer for easy access.
11. Put the citric acid powder in a big bowl.
12. Add the egg whites.
13. Whip the egg whites manually. Preferably use a spiral whisk or a normal whisk, if you don't have one. It's important that you don't turn the bowl while you whip the eggs and you always have to beat in the same direction. Basically you have to repeat one hand movement the whole time.
14. After 10 minutes start gradually adding the sugar. Overall the egg whites should be whipped for 25 minutes.

15. Afterwards add the egg yolk.

16. Sieve half of the flour to the whipped egg whites. Fold them in carefully but quickly. Sieve in the remaining flour and fold it in too. Like with the egg whites you should not turn the bowl and fold in the same direction. Try to work quickly but always be careful.

17. Put the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth out the top as good as you can.

18. Bake for 50-60 minutes. When you press the top carefully with a finger and it jumps back, the biscuit is finished.

19. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack and leave it to cool down completely.

20. Remove the parchment. Afterwards use a thin knife to carefully cut the biscuit out of the pan.

Blueberry Topping

Fresh Blueberrys

1,1 kg blueberrys, fresh
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sugar
4 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
21 g butter

1. Wash the blueberrys.
2. Put 1 1/2 cups of the blueberrys, the sugar, the cornstarch and the water into a medium sized sauce pan. Carefully, so you don't squish the blueberrys, mix everything together.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Boil it for about 2 minutes while constantly stirring. It will become thicker.
5. Add the butter and the lemon juice and stir them in.
6. Take the pan of the stove. Leave it to cool down a little until it's just warm. It takes about 30-40 minutes.
7. Add the remaining blueberrys and cautiously stir them in.

Frozen Blueberrys

1 kg blueberrys, frozen
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
5 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
21 g butter

1. Put the blueberrys in a colander and let them thaw. It works best if the berrys thaw in the fridge over night.
2. Put 1 1/2 cups of the blueberrys, the sugar, the cornstarch and the water into a medium sized sauce pan. Carefully, so you don't squish the blueberrys, mix everything together.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Boil it for about 2 minutes while constantly stirring. It will become thicker.
5. Add the butter and the lemon juice and stir them in.
6. Take the pan of the stove. Leave it to cool down a little until it's just warm. It takes about 30-40 minutes.
7. Add the remaining blueberrys and cautiously stir them in.

To Assemble

1. Cut of a bit of the biscuit to level the top.
2. Put the biscuit on a serving plate.
3. Put a cake ring around the biscuit. Make sure it's as tight as it goes.
4. Pour the blueberry topping on it. Smooth out the top.
5. Leave the cake in the fridge until the topping becomes solid. Best would be over night.
6. Carefully release the cake ring.

Bon appétit!!

Mamas Birthday Cake

Creating this cake was a collection of disasters. But I got to say the end result was better this way.

It started already with the shopping. Instead of buying frozen currants I grabed cranberries. But ok. In combination with the Mixed Berries it still tasted good.
The cream I made stayed fluid for to long because of the chocolate bars I used. But that was ok too. I worked on other things in the mean time. So in the end it was solid enough to work with it.
With the recipe I used there was a lot of chocolate dough. I had to bake a few layers. And there is were the next disaster comes in. After taking one layer out of the pan I wanted to turn it on its head to detach the bottom of the pan. It still was rather warm so I used towels. I think you can guess what happend. During the turn it slide out of my hand. And there went one of the layers. But that was ok. Thanks to the recipe I still had enough that where whole.
I planed to cover the cake completely with fondant. It was my second time using fondant. After the first try worked out quite good I was optimistic. It was a catastroph. It turnd out to dry and ripped during the covering. I couldn't repair it and when I took it of some of the cream came of too. I had to throw it away. What a waste. But even that was ok. There was still some left over chocolate cake layer. I or rather my mother broke that into fine crumbs and coated the cake with it. When we ate the cake the crumbs really added to the flavor.

So like I said a collection of disasters. But still a tasty cake.
You should take this as an incentive to keep on going even when something doesn't work out at first or at all. If you hang on you might get a reward at the end.

But on the plus side the orchids worked out on the first try. I made the stencils for them myself. I cut them out of some sturdy plastic sheets. It takes a little longer to always cut out the individual leaves with a knife. But it's way cheaper and I can make them in any size I want.

I really liked this one. It tasted great. But it should be eaten at room temperature. If it's cold the flavor of the cream is too intense and smothers the rest.

The flower bouquet on the picture was a gift from my father to my mother. It was so gorgeous especially the rose. If I had known he would buy flowers in bright green and orange I would have color coordinated my orchids with them. Bet it would have looked pretty good in green instead of blue too. But whatever!

Oh, I almost forgot! I tried out something new. Cake strips. I don't know where I read about them but I remembered how they work. And they do really work. The chocolate cake layers stay perfectly flat. I used a homemade version made out of a cut up terry cloth towel and a saftey pin. 
Totally worth the extra work. I will use it more often from now on.

I like to make the photos for this blogg when I'm visiting my parents. The light is better. There are more places to arrange the food. And my mom got so many nice and different dishes. I'm jeaulous. I would like to buy some more too. But my apartment is already bursting at the seams.

I'm so sad.

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Mamas Birthday Cake 

Mixed Berry Curd

300 g mixed berries, frozen

300 g cranberries, frozen

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp cornstarch

6 eggs

4 tbsp butter

lemon juice, freshly squeezed

1. Let the berries thaw.

2. Combine the berries, the sugar, the cornstarch and the sugar in a sauce pan. And bring everything to a boil. Mash the berries during the cooking with a wooden spoon.

3. Add the eggs and stir everything. Boil the mixture for 1 minute.

4. Add the butter and let it boil until the butter has melted completely.

5. Take the pan of the stove. 

6. Press the mixture through a fine sieve. Let the curd cool down.

7. Squeeze out one or two lemons. Add the juice to the curd, depending on how sour you want it.

8. Cover the curd with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours. In the fridge the curd can be stored for a few days.

Chocolate Frosting

400 g Strawberry-Yoghurt Chocolate Bar

250 ml whipping cream

70 g butter

1. Chop the Chocolate Bar into rough pieces.

2. Bring the whipping cream in a sauce pan to a light boil and pour it over the chocolate. Make sure that it is cover completely in the cream.

3. Leave it for about 5 minutes and stir everything afterwards.

4. Let the ganache cool down. When the consistency is thick and almost doesn't flow anymore, you can go on.

5. Beat the butter with a hand mixer until it's light and fluffy.

6. Add the butter to the ganache and mix it well.

Chocolate Batter

170 g butter, soft

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup boiling water

1 1/8 cups sugar

7 g vanilla sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1. Sift the cocoa powder and whisk in the boiling water.

2. Beat the eggs lightly.

3. Combine the flour, the cornstarch, the baking soda and salt. Sift it all together.

4. Cream the butter with a hand mixer until it's light and fluffy.

5. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla sugar. Beat it for about 3-4 minutes, scrap the batter twice from the sides of the bowl.

6. Gradually add the eggs and mix it well.

7. Add the milk to the cocoa and mix it.

8. Add the flour and cocoa mixture alternately to the batter. Start and finish with the flour.

9. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.

10. Grease the baking pan (20cm) and dust it with cocoa powder. If you want to use a Cake strip, put it on the baking pan.

11. Divide the batter in three portions. Twice 2/5 and one time 1/5. Pour one of the 2/5 portions into the pan.

12. Bake the cake for ca. 35-40 minutes.

13. Put the baking pan on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Afterwards take the cake out of the pan and leave it to cool on a cooling rack.

14. Repeat the process twice with the remaining batter.

15. Break the 1/5 cake into rough pieces. Leave them out to dry.

Biscuit

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

5 eggs

1 pinch citric acid powder

1. Sift the flour twice. Leave the flour in a sieve, ready for use.

2. Carefully separate the egg white from the yolk.

3. Beat the egg yolks until they are pale. Cover the eggs with a plastic wrap, it should rest directly on the eggs. Put them in the fridge.

4. Put the egg whites in a small container and cover it with a lid or with plastic wrap. Put the container in a freezer and leave it there for at least 45 minutes. The egg whites can stay in the freezer until they congeal a little bit on the sides. 

5. Pre-heat the oven to 195°C/385°F.

6. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

7. Whip the egg whites and the citric acid powder manually. Preferably use a spiral whisk or a normal whisk, if you don't have one. It's important that you don't turn the bowl while you whip the eggs and you always have to beat in the same direction. Basically you have to repeat one hand movement the whole time.

8. After 10 minutes start gradually adding the sugar. Overall the egg whites should be whipped for 25 minutes.

9. Carefully add the egg yolks and briefly fold them in.

10. Add half of the flour to the whipped egg whites. Carefully but quickly fold in. Add the remaining flour and fold it in too. Like with the egg whites you should not turn the bowl and fold in the same direction. Work rather quickly but always be careful.

11. Spread the batter quickly on the baking parchment. Try to make it as even as possible. Don't make it much thicker than 1 cm. It's better if you leave some of the batter over than make it to thick.

12. Bake the biskuit for ca. 18 minutes. When you press it lightly and it springs back than the biskuit is finished.

13. Take the baking sheet out of the oven. Turn the biskuit around, detach the baking parchment and turn it with the parchment back.

To Assemble

1. Put one of the chocolate cakes on a plate.

2. With a spoon carefully pour some of the curd on it. 

3. Spread some of the chocolate cream on top.

4. Cut the edges of the biskuit of, so that you will get an even rectangle. Divide the short side in three even pieces and cut it lengthways.

5. Coat the biskuit generously with the curd.

6. Take one of the biskuit strips and roll it up from the short side. Add another strip to the end of the roll and roll it up too. Repeat the process with the third strip.

7. Put the roll upright on the prepared chocolate cake.

8. Spread some chocolate cream on top of the roll. 

9. With a spoon carefully pour some of the curd on the cream.

10. Put the second chocolate cake on top.

11. Cover the cake with the remaining chocolate cream. Coat it evenly.

12. Finely crumble the roughly broken chocolate cake.

13. Coat the cake with the crumbles from all sides.

14. If you wish, dekorate the cake with fondant.

15. Store the cake in the fridge. Serve at room temperature.

For this recipe you have to use a small baking pan, 20 cm or smaller. Otherwise when you put it on the chocolate cake the biskuit roll would not be big enough to reach the edges.

Bon appétit!!

Raspberry Lemon Petit Fours

I cut the whole Raspberry-Lemon-Sheet into squares. And now I'm calling them Petit fours.
It's the best size. Four bites and you're through.

The raspberry dough has a beautiful color and just the right tartness. But what I liked best, is the shortcrust pastry. It's unexpectedly airy and wonderfully crispy.

I'm planig to take the recipe apart and to use the separate parts for some cakes I have in mind.

I doubled the original recipe. Mainly because the only rectangular backing sheet I have is roughly twice as big as the one stated. Of course I could have used a normal baking pan, but then I would have to many clippings.
I just put about half of the Petit fours in the freezer. For the next time, when there is a goodies-emergency. And those come again and again.

I also made a lemon-poppy curd. But it didn't really go with the Petit fours. So I excluded that recipe.
I did't like the taste the butter gave the curd. On the plus side, now I have the perfect means to moisten a cake. I just leave out the butter. And the poppyseed, cause it ruins the beautiful bright yellow color. But that's for another time.

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Raspberry Lemon Petit fours

Shortcrust Pastry

250 g butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla aroma
16 g vanilla sugar
1/4 tsp salt

1. Line the baking sheet with baking parchment.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
3. Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl and mix it with a hand mixer until it's light and creamy.
4. Add vanilla aroma, the vanilla sugar and the salt and sift in the flour. Use a dough hook to mix everything together. Be careful not to over mix.
5. Put the dough into the prepared baking sheet and press it out evenly.
6. Bake it for 20-25 minutes. It should have a golden brown color.
7. Take the sheet out and let it cool down for a while.

Raspberry Dough

5 cups raspberrys, frozen
2 cups sugar
1 1/3 cups lemon juice,freshly squeezed
6 tbsp lemon zest
6 egg whites
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

1. Let the raspberrys thaw.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/360°F.
3. Grate the lemon and gather the zest. Squeeze out the lemon juice and put it aside for later.
4. Press the raspberry through a fine sieve. Try to get out as much raspberry mash as you can.
5. Add the sugar, the lemon juice, the zest, the egg whites, the eggs, the flour and the salt to the mash. Mix it with a whisk.
6. Pour the mixture over the shortcrust pastry.
7. Bake it for 30-35 minutes.
8. Let the raspberry-lemon-sheet cool down to room temperature. Take the raspberry sheet out of the baking pan.
9. Store it for at least 3-4 hours in the fridge before you serve it.
10. Cut the sheet into small squares.

I used a 35 x 26 cm big baking sheet.

Bon appétit!!