Easter Egg Bundt

There are so many different kinds of wonderful Easter eggs to choose from. There is cream-filled ones, there are eggs with nuts or caramel or gianduja, with coffee or vanilla. There are dark chocolate, white and milk chocolate eggs. And there are boozy ones, last week, I even tried one with Barolo.

But the eggs that I have always been faithful to are the "Lindt Cresta" Easter eggs. These are milk chocolate eggs fiiled with nougat cream and caramel brittle. All wrapped up in shiny red foil. Not only delicious but also very pretty to look at!

This year I was looking for an excuse to enjoy these wonderful chocolate eggs in more ways than one...and decided to bake a simple vanilla Bundt cake that would be filled with chopped up "Lindt Cresta" Easter eggs.
As far as the recipe is concerned, which better source to turn to than "the Bundt Lady" herself (I sincerly hope that she doesn't mind that expression, it is meant as a big compliment).

In 2009 Mary "the foodlibrarian" started to organize the "I Love Big Bundts" event in order to celebrate National Bundt Day on November 15th and decided to bake a Bundt a day for the 30 days leading up to that day. Last year, I baked a Bundt for that event too and so did many others. The wonderful pictures of all the Bundts that the participants sent in can be found on Mary's blog.


Recipe for Easter Egg Bundt Cake
(adapted from the Halloween Candy Bundt from Mary at thefoodlibrarian)

Ingredients

1/2 cup (115 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200 g) superfine sugar
1 package pure vanilla sugar (can be substituted with 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
1 egg (large)
2 egg whites (from large eggs, all 3 eggs at room temperature)
2 cups (250'g) AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
3/4 whole milk, room temperature
2 bags Easter eggs chopped (I used Lindt "Cresta" chocolate eggs, each bag weighs 100 g/3.5 ounces)

Glaze (optional)

confectioner' s sugar
or
chocolate glaze


Preparation

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees  Celsius).

2. Butter and flour a  Bundt pan (10 or 12 cup capacity).

3. Using your electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla sugar (if using) in bowl until light and fluffy.

4. Add egg and egg whites, one at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Add vanilla extract (if using).

5. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Take 2 Tbsp of this mixture.

6. In another bowl, toss the chopped Easter eggs with the two Tbsp of the flour mixture (to avoid that the chopped Easter eggs will sink to the bottom of the cake while baking).

7. Add the flour mixture in two additions alternately with the milk in one addition, beating just until blended  after each addition.

8. Switch to a spatula and gently fold in the chopped chocolate.

9. Transfer the batter to the prepared Bundt pan and smooth the top.

10.  Place the Bundt pan on the rack in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes and/or until a tester inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack.

11. Cool in pan on rack for about 10 minutes, transfer to a rack to cool completely and dust with confectioner' s sugar.

European-Style Carrot Cake

There are countless recipes for carrot cakes.

There are the North-American carrot cake recipes, of course, often times layered cakes with a cream cheese frosting. Then there are Swedish, Austrian, British, Swiss and German carrot cakes, to name but a few.

Over the years, I have baked my way through numerous recipes and have developed an undeniable liking for the North-American carrot cake with a nice thick cream cheese frosting. A lot of my friends have followed my lead and one day I was asked to bake one for a dessert buffet. Well, I agreed and in the end it was a hit but it was also quite a task to transport the finished cake 500 kilometers across the country, warm weather an all and all those cold packs strapped to the cake carrier.

But today, I am writing about a, lets call it european-style carrot cake that I have known since my early childhood. No oil, no butter, no cream cheese in my recipe, simply delicious. The Swiss have a saying "A carrot cake only tastes really good three days after it was baked". I do not know about those three days but I do know that it does keep well for a few days and that flavors do improve with time.

Recipe for Eurpean-Style Carrot Cake
(this cake can be baked in a 9 inch (23 centimeter) springform pan or other round cake pan

Ingredients

300 g (2 1/2 cups) hazelnuts (almonds can be substituted)
4 large eggs, separated
1 pinch of fine sea salt
200 g (1 1/2 cups) confectioner's sugar, divided in two parts and sifted
2 tbsp Kirsch
25 g (3 tbsp) starch
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, from Ceylon if possible
1/8 tsp ground cloves
zest from an orange ( organic if possible)
 1 package pure vanilla sugar (2 tsp pure vanilla extract can be substituted)
8 medium carrots, finely grated  (about 2 cups when lightly packed)

Glaze (optional)

Some apricot jam, confectioner' s sugar, Kirsch and milk.

Decoration (optional)

Small marzipan carrots, ground unsalted pistachio, slivered almonds

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (355 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Butter and flour your baking pan. If you line the pan with parchment paper, butter and flour that as well or substitute finely ground bread crumbs for the flour.

3. Grind the hazelnuts in a food processor until finely ground.

4. In the bowl of your mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks form. Then add half the sifted confectioner's sugar and continue to beat for a few seconds.

5. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the other half of the confectioner's sugar, the orange zest and the  Kirsch until the mixture is thick and pale yellow ( if you are using vanilla extract, add it now).

6. To the ground hazelnuts add the starch, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla sugar.

7. Switch to a spatula and add the nut mixture, alternating with the grated carrots, to the egg mixture.

8. Fold in the egg white mixture.

9. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.

10. Bake in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes.

11. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.


For the glaze
(optional, you can serve the cake also with a dusting of confectioner's sugar)

1. In a small bowl, heat a few tablespoons of apricot jam, put it through a strainer and glaze the cake. Let the apricot glaze set for a few minutes.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk some confectioner's sugar with one teaspoon of Kirsch and a bit of milk.

3. Pour the glaze over the cake. Let the second glaze set for a few minutes and decorate with little marzipan carrots, ground unsalted pistachios, or slivered almonds.

Easter Bunny Marble Cake

Yesterday we dyed our first Easter eggs, today I baked  Easter Bunny Marble Cakes using a straightforward Marble Cake recipe.

I was given this recipe in 1989 and have been using it ever since. It is a very versatile recipe, it can be used to bake Marble Cakes in a variety of different baking pans.

Recipe for Marble Cake
(this recipe can be baked in a 10 cup Bundt pan, springform or loaf pan)

Ingredients

200 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
170 g (3/4 cup) superfine sugar
1 package pure vanilla sugar (or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)
4 eggs, use organic or free range whenever possible finely grated zest of a lemon, use organic if possible
200 g (1 1/2 cups) AP flour, sifted
1/8 tsp fine salt (I use fine sea salt)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

For the chocolate dough add:
2 tbsp dutch process cocoa powder
2 tbsp superfine sugar
3 tbsp milk, room temperature


Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).

2. Butter and flour your baking pan.

3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy.

4. Add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5. Beat in the vanilla sugar or extract.

6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

7. Beat in the lemon zest.

8. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, the salt and the baking powder.

9. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix only until combined.

10. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. To the other half add the cocoa powder, sugar and milk and mix only until combined. Do not overmix.

11. Add the chocolate batter to the vanilla batter in the pan and carefully draw swirls through the batter to marbleize it.

12. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes.

13. Place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes before removing the cake from the pan to cool completely.

14. Decorate as desired.

Dying the First Easter Eggs

" So the little brown hen made her way sadly home again. It was then she heard a tiny cheeping sound. There in the long grass she saw an egg. It was just the right size, the right shape and the right colour. TAP! TAP! the egg cracked! And inside was her own fluffy, yellow chick."
(Excerpt from "Is that my Egg?", Keith Faulkner, 1999, Brainwaives Ltd.)



Today, we dyed our first Easter eggs of the season.

Around this time of year, there are many different types of Easter egg dyes in German stores.

Of course, you can make your own natural Easter egg dyes by using onion skins, different kinds of tea leaves, coffee grinds, spinach, red cabbage etc. but this year, we decided to go for the ready made dyes.

There is a whole range of wonderful colors available.

There is the "cold egg dye", the "warm egg dye", the "pastel dye", the "marble/glitter dye", etc. For today, we chose bold colors and when the eggs where done, we even had a visit from a curious little bunny called "Kasimir".

For the "warm egg dye", you simply dissolve a color tablet in hot water and vinegar, add the still warm, hard-boiled eggs to the dye, leave the eggs in the dye for a few minutes and let them dry by placing them in egg cartons.

If you want to add some shine to the eggs, simply rub them with a bit of regular salad oil or, as my Grandmother used to do it, with a bit of pork rind...well, in addition to the shine, it certainely added a nice smell to the eggs.

French Fridays with Dorie - Crab and Grapefruit Salad

This was my first go at a recipe chosen by the FFwD group.

Well, I joined the group a little late. But while preparing the Crab and Grapefruit Salad today, I was glad that I did. Not only was it a lot of fun preparing a dish on the same day as many others of you did/do but the final result was a very nice and fresh tasting salad.

Even my kids enjoyed it quite a bit...after an all around taste test, there was no salad left. I liked the combination of shellfish with grapefruit, very refreshing and a nice colorful presentation.

Would certainely be a nice addition to my Easter brunch next week.

I must add that the salad had quite an "international flair". Although the shopping list was rather short, I did find myself scurrying around town to get shellfish from the North Sea, grapefruit from Israel, a cucumber and red pepper from Spain, scallions from Germany and mâche (lambs lettuce) from Belgium. The lettuce served as the final touch on top of the salad. And I bought the baguette that I served alongside the salad at my favorite French bakery.

The whole experience was a lot of fun and I am very much looking forward to next Friday.

To see what the other Doristas are up to, please click here.

It's a Janosch Theme Birthday Party!

Another Birthday, another cake! 

Well, it's time to bake another birthday cake. For this birthday, I decided to go with the "Janosch" theme again. Janosch (his real name is Horst Eckert) was born in 1931 and is one of the best-known living children"s book authors and artists. 

He has created numerous characters for his illustrated books, such as the "Little Tiger" ("der kleine Tiger"), the "Little Bear" ("der kleine Bär"), the "Frog" ("Günter Kastenfrosch"), and the famous "Tiger Duck" ("Tigerente"), to name but a few. His books include "The Trip to Panama" ("Oh, wie schön ist Panama"), "A Letter for Tiger" ("Post für den Tiger"), "Little Tiger, get well soon" ("Ich mach dich gesund, sagte der Bär") and "The Bremen Town Musicians" ("Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten").

Janosch has published too many books to list them all (some of them can be found in English on www.amazon.com and in German on www.amazon.de).

You can even find some Janosch Apps in your "iTunes App Store". One of the Apps, for example, allows the user to practise his or her English or German alphabet while enjoying all the cute Janosch illustrations.

Especially the design of the "Tiger Duck", a black and yellow striped, wooden pull-along duck, is reproduced on countless items such as clothing, shoes, china and cutlery.

Then there are CDs, DVDs, and many many other things that make my childrens' hearts leap for joy (www.janosch.de).

I bought a baking pan in the shape of the "Tiger Duck" (www.birkmann.de).

Then I decided to bake a chocolate and vanilla marble cake. Actually, since the baking pan is rather small, I always  bake a few  "Tiger Ducks" to feed the crowd.

And then there was a bit of store-bought Janosch chocolate decoration.

Janosch is always a big hit with kids great and small...

Baked Mini Apple Spice Doughnuts

Well, since I first posted the two recipes for baked mini doughnuts, I was looking for an excuse to bake some more. The Mini Doughnut Pan is just too wonderful to resist. There are so many delicious doughnut recipes out there. 

Choices, choices.


I finally decided to give a recipe for Apple Spice Doughnuts a try.
The recipe includes fresh homemade apple sauce, apple cider and some warm spices like allspice and cinnamon.





The final touch is a glaze composed of confectioner's sugar, more allspice and cider and then the glazed doughnuts get a coating of cinnamon sugar. The doughnuts are best eaten while still a bit warm!

LEGO Cupcakes

The kids'  newest find at the Lego Store in Cologne was this cute "Lego Minifigure Ice Cube Tray" (available at Lego.com or at amazon.com). 

I used it as a chocolate mold and made some white chocolate Lego figures. 

While the figures cooled, I baked some dark chocolate muffins using some colorful muffin liners, (just use your favorite chocolate muffin recipe), added some white chocolate chunks to the dough, and glazed the muffins with a dark chocolate glaze, then, for the final touch, decorated the muffins with the black and the white chocolate Lego figures. 

They were a big hit.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't like Chocolate Chip Cookies - especially the soft and chewy kind - so following is my favorite recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. It is an easy and delicious recipe. The Cookies are always gone before the end of the day, everybody in our house loves these Cookies. So, here is the recipe.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(as adapted from Martha Stewart, Holiday Cookies 2005, Special Issue)

2 1/4 cups (280 g) AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks/226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar, I used superfine
1 cup (200 g) light-brown sugar, packed
1 tsp salt (I used fine sea salt)
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used pure vanilla sugar)
2 eggs, large (use free range or organic whenever possible)
2 cups (12 ounces/240 g) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips (I did not use chocolate chips but rather cut 2 1/2 bars of Lindt Excellence 70 % into medium-sized chunks)

Preparation: preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius)
1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (I always use unbleached parchment paper).
2. Whisk together flour and baking soda.
3. In the bowl of your mixer combine butter with both sugars and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. With the mixer on low, add salt, vanilla and eggs. Beat until well mixed.
5. Add flour, mix until just combined.
6. Add chocolate chips.
7. Drop nine heaping tablespoons of dough on each baking sheet. Use an ice cream scoop to get even-sized cookies and leave sufficient space between each cookie because the dough will spread during baking.
8. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, not longer, as the name, implies, you want the Cookies to be still soft in the center.
9. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheets for a few minutes then transfer the Cookies still on the parchment paper onto a wire rack. Let them cool completely on the racks.

Enjoy with a tall glass of cold milk, a nice tea, or cappuccino...

Baked Mini Doughnuts

The idea of baking Mini Doughnuts was very appealing to me. Not only do they look very cute but they seem to make great snacks.


So off I went looking for a special baking pan, not an easy task around here. Finally, I found one made by  "Norpro" (www.norpro.com) called "Nonstick Petite Donut Pan" available also at www.amazon.com.



The pan comes with two recipes. For today I chose the Chocolate Cake Doughnuts recipe.

Recipe for Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

(as adapted from Norpro)

1 1/2 cups AP flour, sifted

1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt ( I used fine sea salt)

1 tbsp instant espresso powder

2 large eggs (use organic or free range whenever possible)

2/3 cup sugar (I used superfine)

1 tsp vanilla (I used real vanilla sugar)

1/2 cup milk, room temperature

2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Decoration: chocolate icing and sprinkles

Preparation: preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius)

1. Spray pan with cooking oil.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and espresso powder.

3. In another bowl whisk eggs, sugar, and vanilla until thick and yellow.

4. In a small bowl stir together milk and butter.

5. Alternately combine egg mixture and milk mixture with flour mixture and mix until smooth with no lumps.

6. Fill the dough into a resealable bag and snip off a corner.

7. Squeeze a bit of the dough into each mould until 2/3 full. 

8. Bake for about 6 to 8 minutes, cool slightly and remove from pan onto a cooling rack.

9. Let cool completely on the rack.

10. Ice and decorate as desired (I used white chocolate icing and white and dark chocolate sprinkles).

The recipe yields about three dozen Mini Doughnuts.

Recipe for Vanilla Cake Doughnuts

(as adapted from Norpro)

1 1/2 cups AP flour, sifted

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup sugar (I used superfine)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt ( I used fine sea salt)

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg or mace

1 large egg (use organic or free range whenever possible)

1/2 cup milk, room temperature

1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 tsp vanilla (I used real vanilla sugar)

1/2 tsp freshly ground cinnamon (I always use cinnamon from Ceylon)

Preparation: preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius)

1. Spray pan with cooking oil.

2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

3. In another bowl whisk egg, milk, 1/4 cup melted butter and vanilla.

4. Combine flour mixture and egg mixture just until combined.

5. Fill the dough into a resealable bag and snip off a corner.

6. Squeeze a bit of the dough into each mould until 2/3 full. 

7. Bake for about 6 to 8 minutes, cool slightly and remove from pan onto a cooling rack.

8. Mix together 1/3 cup sugar with 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

9. Brush doughnut tops with 3 tbsp melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

The recipe yields about three dozen Mini Cake Doughnuts.

Gâteau Breton - Brittany Butter Cake - Bretonischer Kuchen

I came across this recipe for Gâteau Breton (Brittany Butter Cake or Bretonischer Kuchen)  from Nigella Lawson' s "How To Be A Domestic Goodess" Cookbook and immediately knew that I had to give it a try. It looked elegant and easy enough to put together even on a rather late afternoon.

Besides, having farm fresh eggs and butter on hand helped my decision along quite a bit, to bake this cake. The result is a buttery cross between shortbread/cookies and cake. The taste only gets better, the higher the quality of the butter and eggs you use.

Since there are not too many ingredients in this cake, the difference in the quality of ingredients used, is quite noticable in the end result.



Recipe for Gâteau Breton
(as adapted from Nigella Lawson "How To Be A Domestic Goddess", published by Chatto & Windus 2000, available through www.amazon.com)

For the Cake

225 g (8 ounces) plain flour, preferably Italian 00
250 g (9 ounces) caster sugar (I used superfine)
250 g (9 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
6 large egg yolks

25 cm Springform tin, buttered well (I used a 10 inch Fluted French Tart Pan with removeable bottom - gives the finished cake a nice look and is available at www.gobel.fr or at www.amazon.com)

For the Glaze

1 tsp of egg yolk, from your 6
1 tbsp of water

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit). Mix the glaze, and put aside while you get on with your gateau.

2. Put the flour into a bowl (I never bother to sieve 00 flour because it's so finely milled, but if you're using regular plain flour then do so), stir in the sugar and add the butter and egg yolks.

3. With the dough-hook attachment of a mixer, slowly whirr till you've got a smooth, golden dough. Scoop this dough into the tin, and smooth the top with a floured hand: expect it to be very sticky; indeed, it should be.

4. Brush the gateau with the glaze, and mark a lattice design on top with the prongs of a fork.












5. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) and give it another 25 minutes or so until it's golden on top and firm to the touch.

6. Let it cool completely in the tin before unmoulding it.

7. For serving: either cut it in traditional cake-like wedges or criss-cross, making irregularly sized diamonds.