Meringue frosting on a Swirly Sacher Torte

I really didn’t bother with making any pie this time, and since we still had a package of add-water-and-done!-cake I decided to make this Sacher Torte out of a package. The cake turned out just as planned and it tasted really nice. I love the smell of Sacher Torte! But, I wouldn’t be posting without a recipe and to make this Torte a bit more of a challenge I made a new type of frosting: Meringue frosting. I thought it couldn’t go wrong in any way, and it didn’t. Like most frostings this is a really easy one that anyone can make!





Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1 cup of icing cugar (110 gram)
2/3 cup of butter (150 gr)

1. Let’s start off with seperate thing egg yolk from the whites! In a small bowl, whisk the whites till they form soft peaks when you lift your electric mixer and it doesnt fall back immediately.
2. Sif the icing sugar (if needed, I tend to skip it sometimes) and add it bit by bit to the whisked eggwhites. Make sure to start off with just a little bit, and not add too much at a time, you dont want the bubbles to get splatted and fall back!
3. Whisk the butter in a seperate bowl until light and fluffy. Then add the egg-sugar mixture in a few additions and mix well inbetween.
And voilà, a very easy meringue frosting that tastes very nice with almost everything! You can even add some colouring or essence if you like! They come dead last if you were wondering.



On the picture you can see the top cut off, as well as the cake being slices in half. The texture looks good doesn't it? You can use the left-over cake for bonbons like in the Valentine's bonbons I posted earlier.

The cake looked kinda cute, and I tried a new technique I’ve wanted to try for a while. Make a swirl and then ‘web’ it by stroking a toothpick through. That didn’t work out unfortunately! I used plain chocolate, which hardened almost immeditaely which made it impossible to give it the webbed effect. Half of the cake looks good at least! And the taste made up for it!
Defenitely something that’s good for parties. Perhaps next time I should try a real sacher torte and not ready-from-package-type!



The Swirl Sacher Torte cake! Don't you just wanna take a bite?
- and another one? and another one? and just eat the whole thing altogether!!??

Classic brownies with coconut icing

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but that doesnt mean I haven’t been baking! I’ve done and made quite a lot in the meanwhile, even some nice stuff for easter! Anyway, this was even before that! I really have been slacking, but I’ll try to catch up again.
Some time ago I was ordered to make some treats for the guests my parent’s would have that night. I didn’t have anything planned, so why not? Everyones loves chocolate, everyone loves brownies and time to try out a cream I thought would be nice. Perfect timing for another creation!



Ingredients (classic brownies):
100 gram (dark) chocolate
125 gram unsalted butter, softened
275 gram sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 large eggs
85 gram flour
2 tablespoons cacao powder
75 gram chocolate chips

1. Double-boil the chocolate in a small pan and when all is melted, leave it to cool.
2. In a seperate bowl, mix the butter until soft and fluffy. This doesn’t take long (we’re thinking less than a minute).
3. Add the sugar to the butter and mix again. I always like to do this in a few additions, but it’s not needed. Add the vanilla essence as well and mix again.
4. Beat the eggs lightly in a small bowl and add it to the buttermixture in a few additions, mixing well between each addition. Then add the chocolate mixture in a few additions and mix this, again!
5. Sift the flour with the cacao powder and add it to the butter-chocolate mixture. This is also the time to add your chocolate chips or nuts, cranberries or anything else you want to add.
6. Poor the batter in a greased or greaseproof paper-lined brownietin and leave it in a pre-heated over of 180 degrees Celcius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-25 minutes.
7. Voila! You’ve just made yourself some brownies that’ll be delicious to eat warm as well as cold and will fit about any occasion!!

Personally, I’ve had better brownies. These still have a soft inside, that I think is just too soft. Then again, I got a lot of compliments about it, so I guess it was a succes anyway! Of course I can’t leave out the icing I put on top! So here’s the recipe for that!





Ingrdients (coconut butter icing):
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon coconut essence (or any other)
2 teaspoons milk

1. Start of with mixing the butter untill it is soft and fluffy. Then sift the icing sugar and add it in a few additions.
2. Then add the essence and the milk and mix again. Ready!
Now it's time to spread it over the brownies, and sprinkle some coconut pieces on it, or anything else you want of course! Cooking is all about being creative!



I didnt bother with levelling the brownies first, before putting the icing on. That’s something I should do next time. I don’t think I even realised I could do that, and it would look a whole lot better that way. So, here’s a tip for you:
With a skewed knife, cut off all the parts sticking up from the top so the top has an equal surface. Then turn the brownies around, and use the bottom as your top to spread the icing over.
I tried it with a different cake today, and it worked really well! I’ll post that recipe up soon as well! It’s a Sacher Torte with Meringue Frosting and a chocolate swirl! Sounds good huh?

Theme: Valentine

Just to put things on a row, and at the same time trying not to make it look messy, here's a list of the Valentine themed treats I've made! Enjoy!

Valentine themed cupcakes
Cupcakes always go down well, why not try these for valentines?



Valentine's bonbons
Little treats for with tea? A very nice idea to hand out in little bags or boxes!



Valentine's cream-filled cake
A real cake it is! A very nice idea for a party, or just to randomly treat the family with Valentines!



I hope you enjoy! Click on the titles for the links to the recipe.

Strawberry Swiss roll

This recipe turned out real easy and very cute! I loved it! Too bad it was a bit small. It was gone in no time! I bought a new book recently. It’s about cake decorating and has a lot of recipes for cakes. I really want to learn more about cake-decorating. I’m starting to see that for some things like working with fondant, I’ll probably need more tools. A course would probably a better and faster day of learning the techniques for it.
You can easily substitue the jam with any other jam or cream, nutella, peanutbutter etc.. Anything spreadable! And sweet, wouldn’t suggest marmite (the horror!).



Ingredients:
3 medium to large eggs
1/2 cup (115 gram) white caster sugar
1/4 cup (75 gram) plain flour
1 tablespoon (15 ml) boiling water
Strawberry jam

1. Start off greasing a swiss rol- or brownietin or lining it with greaseproof paper. The tin should be about 30 by 20 cm.
2. Slightly beat the eggs in a large bowl. You can do this with an electric mixer for just a few seconds, to break the egg yolks. Add the sugar and mix again. This part can take a while; I think about 10 minutes. Beat the eggs until the mixture is thick and pale, and it leaves a trace in the batter when you lift the mixer. If it falls back almost immediately, you’ll have to mix a bit longer!
3. Sift the flour over the batter and fold it in, followed by the boiling water.
4. Pour the batter into the tin and leave it in a preheated oven of 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 8 to 12 minutes or when a fork comes out dry.
5. While the cake is cooling, prepare a bit of workspace. Use greaseproofpaper as underground, or just a clean underground. Sprinkle it with a bit of caster sugar.
6. Drop the cake out on the caster sugar and trim off the edges. Spread the cake with jam (not too thick, or it’ll drip out of the cake later) and roll it up. Hold the cake in position for a few moment and test if it stays. Leave it to cool further.
7. I added a bit more caster sugar over it, for decoration, but dripped icings work well too. After decorating, it’s ready to serve and eat!



What do you think, have my photoskills improved a bit?
Too bad the cake got some cracks when I rolled it up. Perhaps this was because my cake had actually cooled a lot before I rolled it up. Stayed in place immediately though! This was actually also the reason I didn't use a cream with little peachbits in it. I had planned on doing that, but let the cake cool, then read I should roll it up warm, so hastedly but strawberry jam on it. Absolutely not a mistake though! If I were to use cream next time, I'll have to do it beforehand. I usually take a bit longer with these things, and the 10 minutes bakingtime the cake has is not going to be enough, I think.
How do you like my easter themed napkins? Cute huh??
I'm thinking of trying this roll out with cream, maybe a few of these in different colours? The recipe for the cake itsself is very basic and can also be used for simple layered cakes. Decorate it with fondant or icing and done!