Tag Archives: cake filling

Mandarine Yogurt Cake – Hell yeah it’s summer!

12 Friday Jul 2013

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Wow – it’s been a while since the last post! I promise to improve! ;)

But, well, summer has finally arrived in Germany! And guess what – with summer being here right now, my exam period is starting… what a great timing. Sitting inside and studying while the weather is absolutely awesome is hard for me.

However, this is not about my exams, this is about food! Yummy, delicious, vegan food! And so… there’s nothing better in summer than a no-bake cake. A refreshing, delicious, cool, no bake cake. So, that’s exactly what I made. I remembered the Vanilla-Mandarine-Pudding cake that my grandma used to make when I was still very little. Inspired by that awesome food combination, I thought of a light, cool and vegan summer version of this cake. Here it is.

Mandarinenkuchen_1

Trust me, it is delicious! An unexpected discovery with this cake was the crust, which I just whipped up pretty spontaneously, not knowing that it would taste SO great! I had some left-over dough from the crust and I just formed it into little balls and snacked on them – so yummy!

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Yogurt-Mandarine Vanilla Cake
Ø about 18cm / 7 inches

For the crust 

  • one cup muesli (just regular muesli, nothing fancy and NO granola)
  • 2 tbsp almond butter
  • 2-4 tbsp agave syrup
  • 2 tbsp flax seed
  • pinch of salt (optional)

For the filling

  • 1 can mandarines (ca. 300g / 10.5 ounces)
  • 650g vanilla soy yogurt
  • 2 packages agartine (german product) OR two tsp agar agar powder

For the crust: Put the muesli, almond butter flax and agave in your blender or food processor. Mix until it sticks together, adding more agave if it’s too dry and more muesli if it’s too sticky. Press the mixture into a round pan lined with baking paper.

For the filling: Pour the can (fruit + juice!) in a pot and stir in agar agar. Bring it to a boil  for about 2 minutes. Pour the vanilla yogurt into a bowl and mix in the mandarine mixture, using a whisk. You want some of the little mandarine segments to separate, that’s what makes the cake great in my opinion. Pour the mixture into the spring pan, let it cool down completely. Store into your refrigerator.

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“Hey… you forgot to say something!!!”
– Oh, yeah, sure… well, you don’t have to use store bought vanilla yogurt. Actually, it’s quite easy to make your own! Just scratch out the inside of one vanilla bean and add sweetener to taste. You can create a yellow color by either using curcuma or saffron.

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Thanks for reminding me! ;)

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RAW Mango Cheesecake

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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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!

Mini Pumpkin Pies – no bake

28 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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Make it small. I like small sized food. Small cookies = more cookies. Small cupcakes = more cupcakes.

Small pies = more pies!!!

And you have a whole pie to yourself… I think that’s great. Plus it’s no bake, so these pies are not only really cute, but also fast and easy to make. Could you ask for anything more?
Oh, and by the way… I think pumpkins are the only reason why fall has a right to exist at all. (You have to know that I don’t really like any season but summer. And yes, I know, I live in a very bad spot concerning my weather preference…).

Come on, they are cute!

The filling is rather a pumpkin pudding, or a pumpkin cream. But it’s one of the most delicious thing I had lately. If you add some corn starch, you could even use this cream as a filling for baked pumpkin pie.

For the crust: It’s raw crust, made from dried fruit, nuts and oats. You could actually use any kind of nut and dried fruits like dates, figs, apricots… I just used what I happened to have in the house. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand!

Mini Pumpkin Pies

  • 100g (1/2 cup) raisins
  • 80g (1/2 cup) almonds
  • 50g (1/2 cup) rolled oats
  • cinnamon
  • 200g (one can) pumpkin puree
  • 3-4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
  • 175g (6 oz or half a package) silken firm tofu
  • additional sweetener to taste
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ginger and cardamon
  • dash of salt, nutmeg and cloves

For the crust, combine the raisins, almonds rolled outs and a dash of cinnamon in your food processor (or vita-mix like blender). Press the dough into silicon muffin pans are into tartlet  pans. It should look like this:

For the filling, mix pumpkin puree, tofu, maple syrup and spices in your food processor or blender (I used homemade pumpkin puree, but it won’t make a big difference). Taste test and add more sweetener, if you like.
Fill the pumpkin cream into the crust and you’re ready to enjoy miniature pumpkin pies!

Spider, pink flower, bat. Nothing wrong here!

Trick or treat…

Great, “This is Halloween” is stuck in my head right now! I guess I will have to watch the movie some time soon… eating mini pumpkin pies and thinking of other Halloween food.

Happy Halloween!

Do you go to a Halloween Party and will you dress up?

Black Forest Punk Rock

20 Thursday Sep 2012

Posted by in Playful food and photos

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Punk Rock!!!

Black Forest Punk? Why not?
I like to combine what seemingly doesn’t fit together!

Black Forest Cake is a very traditional cake from Germany. A real classic. Something that definitely has to be “veganized”! Yes, many people think that German food and Veganism go as much together as… punk rock and the Black Forest area.
Let me tell you something: They definitelly go together! People didn’t even notice that my cake was vegan. 1 : 0 for vegan cake!

The Germans even have a special word for cream cakes like this: “Torte”. Yes, they love cream cakes. They hardly ever use icing, cream is much more common.

I usually don’t like the combination of fruit and chocolate… with just a few exceptions! This cake is one of them. Oh, it was my Mom’s birthday cake, by the way…

Ring of fire cherries!

Don’t be afraid:
Yes, you do need more then one day to make this cake. But it’s a cake you won’t make every week, so that’s fine! Don’t worry, it’s really easier then you might think!

Black Forest Cake 

Chocolate Cake layers

  • 2 1/2 cups (300g) whole wheat pastry flour (Gemany: Weizenmehl Typ 1050)
  • 6 1/2 tbsp (50g) cocoa powder
  • 1 cup (200g) sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract OR 2 packages vanilla sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • dash of salt
  • 1/2 cup (120 ml)
  • 1,5 cups (350 ml) water

Short crust

  • 1,5 cups (200g)  whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup (100g) margarine (Earth balance or Alsan…)
  • 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
  • about 3 tbsp water (as needed)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

Filling

  • 1 glas canned cherries (25 fl oz / 750 ml)
  • just over 2 tsp agar agar
  • 1 tbsp corn starch
  • 2-3 packages soyatoo
  • sweetener to taste

Day 1: Prepare the cake layers and the short crust
Mix all the ingredients for the cake layers in a big bowl. Don’t overmix!
Put the batter in an oiled pan (about 24 cm or 9,5 inches) and bake for about 40 minutes (350 F / 180 C)

Short crust: Mix all the ingredients for the short crust. Press the dough into the buttom of an oiled pan (24 cm or 9,5 inches). Bake for about 25 min (350 F / 180 C)

Day 2: Filling and decoration
Whip the soyatoo and add sweetener to taste. Put the cream in the refrigerator.
Boil the cherries (juice and fruit) with the agar  agar and corn starch for about two minutes (don’t use a microwave!). Let the filling cool down for a little while (it should not be firm yet).
Now you need a cake ring or the ring of a springform pan.
Place the cake ring on a big plate or baking tray. Put the short crust into the ring. This is the button layer. The cake ring should stand loosely around the short crust.
Put some cherry juice on top of the crust and let it cool down. Work slowly and wait until the juice get firm. This layer can be really thin (2-3 mm / 0,1 inch).
Now you can add your first layer of cream (about 1 centimeter / 0,4 inch).
Cut the chocolate cake you made the day before into two halves, using a big and sharp knive, so you have two round cake layers. Put the first cake layer on top of the cream layer.
Now you add the cherries. Place them on top of the chocolate cake layer. You can also add some of the juice if you want. Now there’s another cream layer. Fill in the space within the cherries with the cream. Add the second cake layer. Now your almost done! Cote the cake with the rest of the cream. Decorate the cake with chocolate flakes and 12-14 cherries.
Important: The cake tastes much better if you let it sit in the refrigerator for one night!

In the process: Decorating the cake!

Note: The traditional recipe calls for cherry brandy (“Kirschwasser”) – I just left it out cause I don’t like it… Feel free to sprinkle some cherry brandy on the cake layers if you want to.

This was a birthday cake – I definitelly won’t make cakes like this every day… Also, it was the first big cream layer cake I made – it’s easier than I thought it would be! And so yummy!

A (bad cell phone) picture of the different layers. There was not much time to take pictures of our food at the party and I didn’t want to cut the cake before serving…

Level up!

17 Tuesday Jul 2012

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Busy days! I’ve been making a birthday cake, pink cupcakes (tomorrow’s post) and my first homemade seitan sausages…! The later ones are not pictured (yet) cause they taste way better than they look…

Oh, talking about looks! I’ve actually never decorated a cake the fancy way. Until now, cake decoration was arranging fruit, cream, nuts or chocolate on a cake. I’ve never used fondant! Actually, living in Germany, I think that’s the “American way of cake decoration”, even though people start using it here more and more, too. Those copycats.

However, you can’t just walk into a store and buy fondant here! You’ll have to be creative and do it yourself. Okay, I was a little lazy. I used almond paste (marzipan) instead. That again is not so readily available in the US. I know you can find in big grocery stores though, sold in tubes or cans.
Almond  paste might be the German fondant. It’s tastes more like almonds, of course and it’s less sweet.

So, that’s what I did. Using natural  food colors and almond paste!

Yes, it is nerdish. It’s supposed to be. Look at the sweet little dragon! And please take into account that almond paste is much harder to form and more sticky than fondant and natural food colors aren’t as bright.  Plus it’s my first cake of that kind… I like it. Fluffy cake layers filled with a chocolate butter cream. I ate way too much cream while making and filling the cake! It’s worth it.

One more. Because I like it.

Level up! Kill the monster, steal the treasure, stab your friends. Something like that. Not those friends who can make cake though.
I guess I’m lucky…

Here’s the recipe!

Fluffy cake layers

  • 300g (2 1/3 cups) all purpose flour
  • 50g (1/3 cup) corn starch
  • 150g (3/4 cup) sugar
  • ca. 450ml (2 cups) almond milk
  • Vanilla extrakt or vanilla sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder

Mix everything together using a hand mixer or food processor! Line a backing pan (I used a 20 cm / 8 inch ) with baking paper. You can grease the bottom but you should line the side of the pan cause the fat can prevent the cake from rising or pull the cake down again when melting.
Bake for about 25 min at 350F (200C).
Check the oven in between, every oven is different!

Let it cool down completely until you cut it into two halves.

Filling

  • 1 cup / 200g margarine or vegan butter
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder, unsweetened
  • confectioners sugar

Mix the butter and the cocoa with your hand mixer. Add confectioners sugar. I didn’t measure the confectioners sugar. Actually, there is no perfect amount. Just add enough to make the cream a little thicker and as sweet as you like!

Let the cream it in the fridge for one night.

Fill your cake and decorate it, using either almond paste, fondant, natural food colors, vegan whip… or just leave it plain!

Guard the cake from hungry monsters (do you remember those old lego dragons?).

This is how my cake looked from the inside. It’s just a cell phone pic, but there was no other opportunity to make a better picture at the party, cause the cake didn’t last for too long! (Oh, and please don’t worry about birthday cakes not being overly healthy. It’s just once a year! And all the fun while making and eating it will totally make up for that!)

Yummy.