Tomorrow my cake journey is one year old. 🙂 Besides, my favorite niece has a birthday – she is coming of age. 🙂 I am glad that a European country fell for these 2 in 1 birthdays so that I can do something appropriate. In one year I made 53 cakes and learned something about 53 countries. I added some of them to my ToDo travel list. Some stories inspired me, others saddened me. But all the time it was interesting, fun and very unloading. I found an app for my hobby that makes me happy every week. I managed to smile and make my relatives and friends happy. That’s enough to make me happy. Thanks to all of you who read the blog. I would be happy for you to share more impressions than what I wrote. I would be happy to inspire you to make at least one cake, and if there are two it will be even better. 😀
Today we are guests of a country that, for better or worse, from Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire, Otto von Bismarck, the German Reich and Nazism, the construction and fall of the Berlin Wall has affected our continent like no other. We are talking about Germany. Today it is the most densely populated country in Europe, and at the same time one of the richest in the world. Not surprisingly, thousands of immigrants are flocking there. In Germany, a person can live on social benefits – true modestly, but he will live.
If castles make you dream of princes and princesses, then Germany is your place. There are about 25,000 castles in it. There is no other place in the world with so many antiquities. Nuremberg Castle, Neuschwanstein, Burghausen, Linderhof, Hohenzollern are just a few of them. They are the most attractive for tourists. I have a plan in time to travel by car in Germany, precisely because of the castles and the amazing nature there. As I said traveling by car, just to mention one fact – 65% of highways in Germany have no speed limit. As expected, the most popular car there is a Mercedes. Both taxis and police cars are mainly of this brand.
Germany is the country with the most zoos – over 400. The largest in the world is located in Berlin. You may associate Germany with great Christmas bazaars and a festive atmosphere, but few know that the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree starts from there. And I understood it now. 😉
In Germany, 5,000 brands of beer and 500 brands of mineral water are known. According to the Reinheitsgebot (Law on the Purity of Beer, introduced in 1516), only four ingredients can be used to produce beer: water, hops, malt and brewer’s yeast. There are over 1500 types of sausage. More than 300 types of bread and over 1200 types of biscuits and pastries. The hamburger, which we all think is American food, was actually created in the German city of Hamburg. The leading crops grown in Germany and used in German cuisine in different regions are hops, sugar beets, barley, wheat, oats, rye and oats. Potatoes, cabbage (pickled, boiled or fried), carrots and beans are the most used vegetables, and apples, pears, grapes, strawberries and raspberries are the most used fruits in German cuisine. The main dishes are usually heavy and high in calories, due to the widespread use of pork and bacon. An average German consumes about 40 kg of pork a year. Beef, chicken, duck, goose, lamb, goat, rabbit, fish… are also often consumed. You must have heard of the German frankfurters, known all over the world. The typical daily menu in German cuisine can include from 2 to 7 dishes. It usually contains an appetizer (Vorspeise), soup (Suppe), main course (Hauptspeise) and dessert (Nachspeise). The Germans are big fans of beer, wine and “Sekt” (a type of sparkling wine). Young people like to drink “Radler” – a light beer with lemonade or apple juice.
German cuisine is different in different regions. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Baden-Württemberg, German cuisine is influenced by agriculture around the Black Forest and the Rhine and wine traditions formed by proximity to Belgium, France and Switzerland. This region is known for its dishes such as ‘Badener Schneckensuepple’ (snail and herb soup), ‘Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte’ (Black Forest cake), and ‘Rheinischer Sauerbraten’ (roast beef stewed with wine). Bayern / Bavaria and Hesse are known for their abundance of beer, meat and dairy products, as well as specialties such as Spannferkel (roast baby pigs), Handkaes (fragrant cream cheese) and Schwaebische Kasespaetzle (dumplings with cheese and butter). The most popular dishes in Thuringia, Bremen and Saxony are Dresdner Stollen, Blechkuchen (seasonal fruit cake) and Welfenspeise (vanilla dessert with wine). In Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg and Berlin, due to their access to the North and Baltic Seas, the available spices and the exchange of culinary traditions with the Scandinavian countries and Eastern Europe are the most popular: “Rote Gruetze” (fruit soup), Sauerfleisch (jelly meat), Bulletten (meatballs), Helgolander Krabbensalat (shrimp salad), and Soeier (marinated eggs).
Since you are already making a cake for Bangladesh, which is very similar to the “Black Forest”, I will now make a cake called “German chocolate cake”. Here are the necessary products:
For the cakes:
1 1/2 tea cups sugar
1 1/2 tea cups flour
1 tea cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
210 grams of butter
4 eggs
1 tea cup yogurt
vanilla
For the cream:
1 tea cup cream
1 tea cup brown sugar
105 grams of butter
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 tea cup coconut
1 cup ground pecans
vanilla
For the glaze:
105 grams of butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 tea cup of cocoa
2 tea cups powdered sugar
vanilla
Steps of preparation:
Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Prepare three trays with a diameter of 23 cm, which you cover with baking paper. Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the diced butter. Beat for about 30 seconds. Add the eggs one by one, mixed after each addition until the mixture is absorbed. Finally add the yogurt and vanilla and beat for a minute. Spread the mixture in the three trays. Bake for about 30-40 minutes. Remove the prepared trays from the oven and leave them to cool completely.
It’s time to prepare the cream. Put the cream, brown sugar and butter in a saucepan on the hob. Stir until the butter melts and add the yolks. Stir well and bring to a boil over low heat. Then add the coconut and ground pecans. Allow to cool.
All we have to do is make the final layer of the glaze. Beat the butter until fluffy. Mix powdered sugar, cocoa, salt and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the butter at the three times, mixing after each addition until completely mixed.
We will assemble the cake at the end. Divide the cream in two parts.
Put it between the first and second cake bases and between the second and third.
Finish the top with the glaze, which is quite thick. I have some spatulas and now I had the feeling that I was making putty. 🙂
I decorated with a dachshund and a little coconut, because (as I mentioned at the beginning) this cake is for my niece’s birthday, and she has a great pet – the dachshund Reggie. Extremely kind and loving creature. 🙂 That’s why I decided to make the decoration like that. Now her figure does not satisfy me completely, because I am a maximalist and I want everything to be perfect, but on the other hand I am not a sculptor and obviously these are my abilities. 🙂 I hope you like the cake and make everyone who tries it an idea happier. I put all my love into making it and I’m sure it matters.
Next destination – Gibraltar.
