2014/07/15

Nutty Cherry Chocolate Cake


Someone riddle me this: everybody says they love cake, but everybody also says that they don't like sweet stuff. Alright. That's just not working for me. How can you like cake and not like sweet things? I get it, there can be too much sugar in a cake, but come on! Talk like that just makes my job harder, because every time I bake a birthday cake I sit at home, wrecking my brain on how to make a cake that's still an actual cake without eliciting moans of "It's good, but....". I think with this one, I succeeded. Everybody told me they loved how it was chocolatey, but not overly sweet. Thank god they all didn't know the list of ingredients, because while there's not a lot of sugar in it, there's definitely a lot of fat. But hey, you can't have everything, people. The taste needs to come from somewhere....



Nutty Cherry Chocolate Cake

For the cake:
250g butter, softened
5 eggs
250g white sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
200ml milk
400g hazelnut meal
(a couple of tablespoons of breadcrumbs for the pan)

For the filling:
1 glass (about 700ml including the juice) morello cherries
250g Mascarpone
400g sour cream
25g vanilla sugar (yes, 25g. That's all the sugar it needs.)
300g Nutella (...and that is why 25g of sugar is all this cake needs)
200g whipped cream

For decoration:
about a dozen fresh cherries
50g melted milk chocolate
250g chopped almonds

1. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until well combined. Separate the eggs and add the egg yolks one at a time and beat about a minute after each addition.

2. Mix the flour and the baking powder and add to the butter mixture. Beat until well combined.

3. Lower your mixer setting to a medium speed and slowly add the milk, then the hazelnut meal.

4. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold unter the batter.

5. Line the bottom of a 9-inch spring pan with baking paper and generously grease the sides, then sprinkle breadcrumbs over the sides.

6. Bake at 200°C for about 45 to 50 minutes.

7. With an electric mixer, beat the mascarpone, sour cream, vanilla sugar and nutella until well combined.

8. Whip the cream and fold into the mascarpone mix.

9. Once the cake is completely cooled, cut into two layers.

10. Add a thin layer of the mascarpone mix onto the bottom layer.

11. Thoroughly drain the morello cherries (maybe even put them on some paper towels for a bit, so the excess juice gets absorbed) and add a layer on top of the mascarpone.

12. Add more of the mascarpone mix on top, then put the second layer on top.

13. Add a thin layer of mascarpone to the top layer of the cake and put into the fridge to set a little (about an hour or 2).

14. Pan-roast the chopped almonds until they turn golden. Let them cool down completely.

15. Once the cake has set a little, frost the outside of the cake with more of the mascarpone. Gently press the chopped almonds to the outside (leave about 50g of the almonds for the cherries).

16. Melt the milk chocolate, dip the fresh cherries into it and let them set for a minute. Once the chocolate has slightly set, dip the cherries into the leftover chopped almonds and put into the fridge to set.

17. Decorate the top of the cake with the fresh cherries.



Enjoy!
♥ Nicole

2014/07/11

Snickers Cheesecake


Yes, I'm alive. And I don't even have any good reasons for not blogging aside from being too damn lazy to. It's like...I've wanted this blog for years and the moment I started it I started losing interest in it. Might also be because I've gotten about 5 comments in the past year and it's not like I'm being overrun by visitors and it all just kinda feels a bit like I'm doing it for myself and no one else. Considering the quality on here and that I'm not really active in the food blogging community that's probably not surprising, but it's still a little disheartening.

Anyway. End of self-pity-driven rant. On to today's recipe.

I've wanted to make a Snickers Cheesecake since the moment I saw the recipe for one online for the first time, but considering most of the people I know don't have as much of a sweet tooth as I do, I never made one for fear that people would find it too sweet and heavy and not like it. Well, I feared for nothing. Cake was gone before you could blink twice. I'd call that a success.



Snickers Cheesecake

For the crust:
500g Caramel Cookies (I used Lotus Biscoff Cookies - which are sold as Caramel Cookies over here)
125g melted butter

For the cheesecake:
800g cream cheese
4 eggs
2-3 tbsp flour
100g white sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
400g Snickers (I used 5 normal-sized ones and 13 minis - okay, maybe 8 minis and I ate the rest...)

For the decoration:
200g Marshmallow Fluff
100g whipped cream
2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk (I used "Milchmädchen")
a handful of salted peanuts
Caramel Sauce (for drizzling, if you have some at hand)
Some of the leftover snickers from above


1. In a food processor, crush the cookies to a fine crumb. Melt the butter and mix it with the crumbs until well incorporated.

2. Line the bottom of a 9-inch spring pan with baking paper. Spread the crumbs evenly on the bottom and up the sides of the pan.

3. Put the pan in the fridge for at least 15 to 30 minutes.

4. With an electric mixer, mix the cream cheese, vanilla and sugar. Add the eggs and a few tablespoons of flour.

5. Cut the snickers into small pieces (you'll want about 1 or 2 of the big ones for decoration, so think about how you're going to cut them up. I cut slices for the cake, and small triangles for the decoration).

6. Take the spring pan out of the fridge and place a layer of snickers slices on top of the crumb (only on the bottom).

7. Pour the cream cheese mix on top.

8. Bake for about 45 minutes on 175°C. Turn off the oven, but leave the cheesecake in for another 20 minutes.

9. Whip the cream and fold it under the marshmallow fluff. Add the sweetened condensed milk.

10. Once the cake is completed cooled, pipe the marshmallow cream on top and decorate with leftover snickers, peanuts and caramel sauce.


Enjoy!
♥ Nicole