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Marbled Guglhupf

Guglhupf is one of the most popular Austrian desserts, and a classic for afternoon teas and Sunday breakfasts. When I was a kid, I loved to bake cakes with my mom. I have a lot of fond memories with her baking different desserts. Guglhupf is actually the first cake that we made together when I was six. The cake is really easy to make, which was probably the reason why mom allowed me to help her. I regularly bake the dessert, because it’s not one of those creamy calorie bombs and fits perfectly with afternoon coffee and tea.

What you need:

250 gr flour
250 gr  icing sugar
250 gr  butter
5 eggs
1 pack vanilla sugar
1 pack baking powder
7 table spoons of milk
2 to 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
20 ml rum

How it’s done:

• Separate egg yolks from egg whites and whisk the egg whites until stiff.
• Whisk the butter, the icing sugar, the vanilla sugar and the five egg yolks until frothy.
• Add the flour, baking powder, milk and rum and mix well.
• Carefully stir in the beaten egg white.
• Coat the Guglhupf form with butter and flour.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
• Fill half of the dough into the baking form.
• Mix the cocoa powder into the remaining dough and add the dough to the form.
• Bake the cake for approximately 40 to 60 minutes. (After 35 minutes, pierce the dough with a fork to check whether it is done. If the dough sticks to the fork, the cake needs to bake a little more.
• Allow some time to let the cake cool out in the form before turning it out.
• sprinkle it with icing sugar, using a small sieve or tea strainer.

Variations of the classic recipe

There are about as many variations of the classic Guglhupf recipe as the year has days. Essentially, they include a few extra table spoons of either chopped nuts; nougat creme; blueberries and yoghurt; ground almonds and bitter orange oil; or cold mulled wine, to name just a few. You can also pour chocolate sauce or a thin layer of icing on top, instead of the icing sugar.

An easy chocolate cake recipe with a twist

Students are interesting creatures. Even though each and every one of us adores the cakes and cookies our mom makes at home, once we say goodbye and start living the college life we tend to live off of cup ramen and McDonalds. And when we decide to do some home cooking, we stick to the simplest of recipes.

So, what do we get when we combine a chocolate craving, a student on a budget and general laziness? The best chocolate recipe ever! The catch? You only need two ingredients.

First things first. You will need a kitchen. Got it? Great. Now, go put on your apron and find that cooking hat because we are going for a ride.

Ingredients:

      -  5.8 oz. Unsweetened chocolate

     - 3 Eggs

That’s all you need.

  1. Break the chocolate bars into little pieces, then melt the chunks over hot water (you can also use the microwave for that, but using water look more fancy (plus, you can make tea out of it).

2.  

  2. While the chocolate is melting, crack and separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Get your electric hand whisk and beat the egg whites until fluffy. You can test the fluffiness of the egg whites by turning the bowl upside down. Just be careful, and make sure to keep extra eggs at hand in case you mess up.

3. Preheat the oven to 350° F

4. By now the chocolate should be nice and creamy so let it cool down for a minute or two before adding the yolks. Mix them together and you’re almost done.

5. Start adding the beaten eggs whites into the mixture while stirring. Do not use an electric whisk, because the batter won’t stay fluffy and the cake won’t rise.

 

 6. Pop it into the oven for 30-40 minutes. If you are not sure you can always check if the cake is ready by piercing it with a toothpick.

And voila, your very own cake is ready to be enjoyed. Just let it cool down and sprinkle some powdered sugar over it.

It's Eastertime - cake time

Every year at Easter my mum, my sister and I bake an Easter cake. Yesterday was the day of our great annual action. As it's a long family tradition the recipe goes back to my  grandmother. My granny herself was famous for her baking skills in the whole village she lived in, besides she wrote down her  personal recipes in a notebook. This handwritten notebook enables us now, even after her death, to bake like in the old times. In those days there were not many kitchen machines, most of the work was done using a simple wooden spoon and a mixer, the weighing scale was not electric and digital but manual and anlaog. So the method of baking has changed over the years, surely it has become more comfortable nowadays, but the result can never be that of my granny's hands. In this nostalgic sense I would like to share the joy for this delicious walnut cake with you.

Batter

For the batter you need the following ingredients:

5 eggs

200 grams sugar

150 grams ground walnuts

120 grams plain flour

30 grams cornstarch

50 grams unsalted butter

½  teaspoon cinnamon

a packet of vanilla sugar

a pinch of salt

apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Separate yolk from the egg white. Place the yolk, half of the sugar and salt in a big bowl and beat them until fluffy.

Combine egg white and the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric mixer until it becomes stiff.

Then fold the beaten egg white in the previous mixture of yolk, sugar and salt.

After that add cornstarch, flour, vanilla sugar, cinnamon and ground walnuts and stir until it is mingled. 

Finally melt the unsalted butter and stir in the batter.

Pour batter into a greased and floured cake-pan and put it into the preheated oven.

After 50 minutes remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down.

Creme

In the meantime prepare the crème. You will need:

¼  litre milk

½ of a package of custard powder

120 grams ground walnuts

100 grams powdered sugar

200 grams unsalted butter

Make the vanilla flummery as it says on the packing. Put ground walnuts into the still hot liquid vanilla flummery and stir it in. 

Cover the pot with a foil to avoid mild skin and let it cool. 

Bring the unsalted butter to room temperature and beat it with powdered sugar until fluffy. Then add the walnut vanilla flummery gradually while stirring.

Coat the plain cake first with apricot jam and then with the cream, swirling it out towards the edges. 

Finally you can add any decoration you like.

I personally like to top the cake with colorful jellybeans. The combination of walnuts and jellybeans is surprisingly yummy.

There is a difference between the European and the American or English indication of quantity. The Americans use cup while the Europeans use gram. I found a list which explains it very well.

flour / powdered sugar	butter/ suger
1/8 cup …… 15 Gramm	1/8 cup …… 30 Gramm
1/4 cup …… 30 Gramm	1/4 cup …… 55 Gramm
1/3 cup …… 40 Gramm	1/3 cup …… 75 Gramm
3/8 cup …… 45 Gramm	3/8 cup …… 85 Gramm
1/2 cup …… 60 Gramm	1/2 cup …… 115 Gramm
2/3 cup …… 75 Gramm	2/3 cup …… 150 Gramm
3/4 cup …… 85 Gramm	3/4 cup …… 170 Gramm
1 cup …… 120 Gramm	1 cup …… 225 Gramm