Monthly Archives: March 2013

Bunny Cake

30 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Playful food and photos

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A fun last minute idea for Easter. And for people who like bunnies. Or Alice in Wonderland. Or both (me, me, me! ).

Bunny Cake

Actually, it’s really rather a very simple idea. I used my to-go Chocolate Cake recipe with this, cause it never fails and it’s been tested at so many birthday parties… But you could use your favorite recipe just as well.

I’m really in love with this idea. However, I’m not sure whether we’ll ever be able to cut this cake… it’s just too cute!

bunnies

 

Look, the bunny already made friends at our house…

The “fur” is made from shredded coconut. I used a simple royal icing to make it stick. I guess a cream icing would look better cause it really covers the chocolate cake and you’d have a white base for the coconut, so no brown cake shines through. However… the way I did it, it tasted better. We just don’t like to much heavy and sugary icing on our cake… so this is a good compromise! I just used a thin layer of icing for the bow.

Bunny Cake 

Fail-proof easy chocolate cake (two ø 20cm / 8 inch pans or one bigger pan)

  • 200g (1 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
  • 200g (1 2/3 cups) whole wheat flour
  • 1 package baking powder (about 4 tsp)
  • 45g (4 tbsp) cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  • 250g (1 cup) sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 200ml (3/4 cup) canola oil
  • 300ml (1 1/4 cup) water

Decoration

  • 125g (1 cup) icing sugar
  • 1 tsp corn starch
  • 3-4 tsp water
  • shredded coconut
  • pink food colors (I used Wilton)
  • blue icing (or any other color, could use this recipe made with blue food color)
  • black icing (again, you can use the recipe liked above or use your favorite one)
  • little pink sugar hearts for the nose (or pink icing)

For the cake: Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix. Add water and oil and stir until combined. Pour into two greased, round baking pans and bake for about 30 min (180 C / 360 F)

Let the cake cool down before you cut it like this:

cut it

 

Decoration: Mix shredded coconut (just one or two hands!) with pink food colors. If you’re using Wilton gel colors, like I did, add a tiny little bit of water for even coloring). Mix icing sugar, corn starch and water until smooth. Apply this icing to the “face” and “ears”. Decorate the middle of the ears with pink shredded coconut, the face and the rest of the ears with white shredded coconut.

Cover the bow with colored icing of your choice. I used a chocolate button for the middle of the bow.
Use sugar hearts or pink icing as a nose and draw the face with black icing.

That’s it!

Note: You could also use 400g whole wheat or 400 all purpose flour. I tried both, it still works and tastes good! However, the recipe tastes best when you use some whole wheat flour (even if you’re not concerned about it’s health benefits and so on). Cocoa and whole wheat flour yields a really nice and rich flavor!

bunny

 

Bunny, grinning like a Cheshire Cat ;)

I love it when simple things actually look good. And if you’re a little more skilled and patient than I am (and it’s really nor hard to be more patient then me!) it could look even better!

chicken

 

But for now: Happy Easter!

Cute Easter Lamb

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Playful food and photos

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s the first day of spring! Yay!

However, it’s cold and it’s raining  here… well, that’s just one more reason to do some baking! There’s no sweeter way to heat up the house!

Easter Lamb

My little, chubby Easter lamb.
Baking an Easter lamb used to be a tradition at our house when I was little. We used to have a special pan for the Easter Lamb.
Now I wanted to revive that tradition the vegan way. Without a special pan. If you have very limited shelf space in your kitchen, you think twice before buying another tool, especially those that are used just once a year! No, there had to be another way of baking an Easter Lamb.

Easter

And Easter Eggs. Easter Eggs are so much better when they are made of dough or chocolate!

I used a very traditional combination: Yeast dough, streusel topping and A LOT of sugar icing! I also formed some easter eggs and a little Easter cookie, as I had some dough left. (You could also form one big Easter Lamb… but I usually like to have more and smaller pieces!)

Easter Lamb 

For the lamb:

  • 350g (3 cups) all purpose flour 
  • 50g (1/4 cup) sugar
  • 1 package vanilla sugar OR 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 250 ml (1 cup) room temperatured almond milk (or any other kind of plant based milk)
  • 3 tbsp Oil
  • 1 package active dry yeast
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • soy creamer (for coating)

For the streusel:

  • 75g (2/3 cup) all purpose flour
  • 40g (1/4 cup) sugar
  • 40g (3 tbsp) margarine
  • pinch of salt

Decoration:

  • icing sugar
  • water
  • melted chocolate

For the yeast dough, mix all the dry ingredients. Add milk and oil and either knead with your hands (that’s the way I do it) or with a kitchen machine. Add more milk or flour if needed to create a smooth, non-sticking dough. Shape dough into a bowl, place in a large bowl, cover with a towel and set aside for about 40 min.

When the dough has doubled it’s volume, form little balls (Ø about 3 cm / 1 inch) from about 3/4 of the dough. Brush the balls with soy creamer and form the body by placing them in the desired shape on a baking sheet. From the rest of the dough, form legs and head. Brush with soy creamer and add to the body.

Brush legs and head with soy creamer.

For the streusel: Combine all ingredients with you hands or a kitchen machine. Top the lambs body with a “streusel fur”.

Bake for about 30 – 40 min (360 F / 180 C).

Decorate the cooled lamb with sugar icing and chocolate.

Easter Bunny

Easter lamb and bunny! I do like bunnies. I should bake a bunny, too…

easter bunny

More sweet stuff!

lamb or bunny

This was supposed to be a lamb’s head. Looking at it now… it could also be a bunny, right? Oh well, it’s the inner values (the taste!) that counts, right?

cute lamb

Yummy. It’s just as good as “Streuseltaler” from any German bakery. And it’s cute.

Are there any special easter traditions at your house?
As this was an early Easter Lamb, I guess I’ll have to do another one for Easter…

RAW Mango Cheesecake

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Playful food and photos

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Deutsche Version / German version

Okay, I am kind of proud of this one. I just recently got into raw “baking”. I’m not a raw foodist, as you can see on this blog, but I love play around with raw food preparation! For me, it’s a really creative approach that offers so many new possibilities and new flavors! Some of them are worth sharing…

Like this one.

mango cheesecake

RAW Mango Cheesecake. It does not only look delicious, it really is! Don’t compare raw cakes to baked treats. They are not an imitation – they are different, a whole new thing. See them as an alternative or as a very tasty addition to your diet!
Raw cakes are usually quite rich – you might want to cut smaller pieces than you’d do with a regular cake.

RAW Mango Cheesecake

RAW Mango Cheesecake

 Ø about 20cm / 8 inch

For the crust:

  • 3/4 cup (about 100g) pitted dates
  • about 1/2 -3/4 cup nuts or seeds (I used sesame seeds and almonds)
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt

For the filling:

  • 3/4 cup (100g) cashews 
  • 4-5 pieces dried mango (my pieces more rather big, use more if your pieces are rather small)
  • 4 tbsp coconut butter
  • 1/2 cup (about 50g) xylit (or sweetener to taste)
  • 1/4 tsp powdered vanilla
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 – 3/4 (about 125ml)  cup water

Crust: Either grease your pan with coconut oil or like it with baking paper. Put nuts / seeds in a food processor and mix until coarsely ground. Add the other ingredients and mix until combined. (Add more dates of the dough is to dry and add more nuts if it’s too moist. It’s hard to give exact amounts here cause it all depends on the moisture of your dates!) Put the dough in a baking pan (Ø about 20cm / 8 inch), form the crust.

Filling: Put all the ingredients in a blender and mix! You might want to soak the cashews before blending of your blender is not that strong. Add more water if needed. Pour the cream into the prepared crust. Lick off the spatulas and spoons you used. (This step is essential. DON’T skip ;) ) Put in the refrigerator over night or until the cream firms up.

raw mango cheesecake

Yummy! When a friend taste-tested the cake, he was like “Wow… this is really… cheesy. It’s like cheesecake…”
Even though I’d definitelly not say that this is a one to one cheesecake alternative,… the cashews definitelly yield a cheese flavor. And the mango coconut combo fits the cake really well. Even though I almost had the whole cake for myself, it did not last long until it was gone… hey, I am writing exams. I need brain food! And it seems like the little guy in the pic (no, he was not the test-taster) feels the same about this cake.

raw mango cheesecake

You can freeze the leftovers, too. You might also find the frozen cake easier to cut (even though I had no problems cutting the cake when I left it in the refrigerator over night). Freezing the cake is especial great, when you are making a raw cake for just one or two people. You can eat the frozen cake straight from the fridge… I promise, it’s the best ice-cream cake I ever had!