My week of baking

This week, besides my business trip to Milan, has been aaaaall about baking. I can't remember ever baking so much in one single week. The reason? Well, at work we have a birthday baking list you can sign up for. This is optional, but once you are signed up, somebody bakes a cake for your birthday and then it's your turn to bake for the person whose birthday comes after yours. A great and fun idea!! 
Well, only one little "problem".......you see, I am signed up for two of these baking lists, one of my own department and one with the marketing department and guess what? The people I was baking for both had their birthday's in the same week ;)) On top of this, we had guests this weekend, so I wanted to make them and our landlords some cupcakes. All fun, but quite exhausting! Especially the cakes as they were baked in the evening and decorated only in the morning. Now I think I will have a baking-free few weeks to recover my baking energy =))

All though experimental, they all turned out pretty great, both in looks (all though not perfect ;)) and in taste, so I will share my recipes with you!


The 3-layered Chocolate Shock Birthday Cake
Ingredients, Cake
200g butter
3 cups of fine, brown sugar
2 tablespoons of vanilla essence
4 eggs
3 cups of milk
5 cups of flour
1.5 dl cocoa powder of good quality
3 teaspoons of baking powder
A pinch of salt
1 teaspoons of vanilla powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
200 g's of Dark Chocolate
Bread crumbs


Directions: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat butter and sugar and vanilla essence until creamy. Separate the eggs and stir in the yolks with the butter cream. Combine flour, cocoa powder,  baking powder,  vanilla powder,  ginger and salt. Gently fold the milk and flour mixture into the egg mixture. Melt the chocolate in a water bath or in the microwave and fold it gently into the batter. Beat the whites to a froth and fold them into the batter. Spread the batter evenly over three buttered and breaded cake molds with removable bottoms (I used a 24cm in diameter mold). Bake each one in middle of oven for about 15 minutes. Put them on a cooling rack.


Ingredients, Chocolate Mousse Filling
200g of good quality,  dark chocolate 
4 egg yolks 
5 dl's of cream
Directions: Stir in the egg yolks one by one. Stir carefully between each one. Melt the chocolate carefully in the microwave and let it cool down to NOT HOTTER THAN 65 degrees Celsius (otherwise the egg may coagulate). Let the batter cool down., Whip the cream. Not too hard. When done,  carefully stir everything together and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Once the cake foundation has cooled down, put the chocolate mousse in between each layer. Be careful as the cake itself is quite heavy so use moderate amounts and you might have to smooth the edges before putting on the exterior frosting ;))


Ingredients, Chocolate Frosting
200 g softened butter
5 dl's powder sugar
2 dl's of good quality cocoa powder
Directions: Mix all the ingredients together with an electrical mixer until smooth and properly blended. Put on and around the cake as desired.
When done, keep the cake refrideratored until it's time to serve! 
Voilaaaaaaa!



Sticky White Chocolate Cake
Ingredients, cake
400g of white chocolate
200g butter
2 cups of flour
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups of white sugar
2 tablespoons of dark rum


Directions: Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. Melt the butter in a pan. Remove from heat and add the chocolate while stirring until it melts. Beat the eggs and the sugar until fluffy. Stir in chocolate,  rum and flour. Pour the batter into a greased and breaded or "coconutted", 24cm in diameter mold with a removable bottom (I use grained coconut instead of bread crumbs to get a nicer flavor, but both woth fine ;)). Bake in the bottom of the oven for roughly 30 minutes. Please note that the cake should still be sticky inside! Allow the cake to cool on a cooling rack. 

Ingredients, Glazing

200g white chocolate

1/2 cups of cream

2 dl's powder sugar

Topping of your choice (I'm using fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and lime and a little bit of powder sugar).

Directions, Glazing: Chop the chocolate. Boil the cream. Remove the cream from the heat and add the chocolate while stirring until it melts. Let the glazing solidify about 5-10 minutes in the refrigerator. Spread the glazing over cake and let it harden in the fridge. 

Apple and Cinnamon Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Topping
Ingredients, 12 Cupcakes
Roughly 250g's of flour (I didn't really measure)
2 dl's of white sugar
1 table spoon of real Vanilla powder
1 egg
1 apple
0.5 teaspoons of bicarbonate
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon of Cinnamon
0.5 dl's of of Sunflower oil
2 dl's of Milk


Directions: Pre-heat the oven to about 175 degrees. Chop the apple into small pieces. Blend all of the ingredients together with an electrical mixer until properly blended. Spoon the batter into 12 cupcake liners.
Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.
Ingredients,  Vanilla topping (cheat version ;))
Swedish version: Marsankräm
English version: Instant Vanilla Pudding mix
Blend according to pack.
Looks very nice decorate with chopped nuts or cinnamon.


Enjoy and if you try them, let me know what you think!!
xox