Tuesday 4 February 2014

2nd Blogiversary and Cake

A long long time ago ...

... eh ...

... about two years ago I started blogging with Cooking Around the World. Who would have thought I would be still doing it today!? What has happened in those two years? Where have I gotten myself to and where will this be going?
Questions and still more questions. I think what we need right now is not answers, but cake ...



Without a cake we cannot celebrate properly. That is a Sachertorte, originating from a recipe that was created in Austria ... quite some time ago. It's named after Austrian Franz Sacher, who lived in the 1830s. Whatsoever, it's one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties. In other words, a worthy cake for my 2nd Blogiversary.
I reckon we just need some flowers then ...



Good, now we are ready. So, come along and have a piece of cake ...

Of course, you can imagine that making a Sachertorte is not what you would call a piece o cake, especially when you want to have it looking really stunning with a shiny chocolate cover.
Anyway, I can tell you how I did my version. I adapted the recipe from the book Schokolade (chocolate) from Garant.

Ingredients:
200 g butter
175 g sugar
One tsp. vanilla essence
200 g dark chocolate
200 g whole milk chocolate
2 cl rum
7 eggs
175 g flour
75 g ground almonds
40 g cocoa powder
3 tsp. baking powder
300 g apricot jam

Preparation:
Properly oil a round 24 cm cake tin and preheat the oven to 180 °C.

Cream the butter together with 75 g sugar, the vanilla essence, 75 g of melted dark chocolate, the rum and the 7 egg yolks from those eggs. The egg whites go into a different bowl.

Oh, you yet need a third bowl. Sift in the flour and the cocoa powder. Add the almonds and the baking powder. Mix it through and then fold it into the egg yolk cream.

Over to the egg whites. Whisk them until stiff. Add the remaining 100 g of sugar and whisk it it until it's not grainy anymore. Reminds me of making meringues. Fold the egg whites into the mixture in the first bowl.

Now the batter is ready. Put it into the tin and then bake for 40-50 minutes. You can check with a wooden skewer or a small knife. When it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Remove it from the oven and let it cool down.



Then comes a slightly challenging task, to cut the baked cake into three layers. Do it carefully, we don't want things to fall apart. You might want to use a baking knife or a bread knife. Mark the places where you want to cut that you have layers about the same size. No worries, if you don't. Carefully cut a bit, then insert the knife towards the middle of the cake with the point of the knife first. Without pressure cut around the cake turning the cake all the time, but carefully.

Once you have three pieces you can warm up the apricot jam and push it through a sieve.

Get your bottom layer ready on a cake plate.



Spread one third of the apricot jam on it.



Put the next layer on it. I don't have to mention to be careful, do I. Then apricot jam and then last layer and the remaining apricot jam.



It's time to melt the rest of the chocolate. There has to be a trick with the chocolate as well, but I didn't bother to research that as well this time. I thought it would work out anyway. Whatever the case. Spread the chocolate as evenly on top of the cake and make it stick to the sides, too.



I used some of the chocolate in heart-shaped ice cube moulds. I tossed the ice cube moulds into the freezer - kind of a habit and later on tried to 'glue' the hearts onto the cake.



Well, I wanted the cake to have some kind of decoration on top, but I didn't want to write 'Sacher' on it with chocolate.
With the heart decoration it fits perfectly for JibberJabberUK's first Love Cake challenge. The theme is BAKING WITH PASSION. I reckon, that will do.



I like to share this cake with Cake of the Week, too. The challenge is Baking with spirit. The rum I used was a white one.



Then I have to include this for Tea Time Treats, which is organised by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers. It can't get any more chocolatey than this.


Lavender and Lovage 

And while I'm in such a good mod now, I add this as well to Emily's Recipe of the Week on A Mummy Too.


Link up your recipe of the week

Now that we have settled with that, we can go on with the party. I can't get rid of the feeling that we will get by with one cake with all those visitors. At least I wouldn't mind sharing some cake with some of my favourite bloggers. It would really be fun to have them around for tea ... like Dom from Belleau Kitchen, who continues tio conspiry with all his Random Recips or ... the lovely Galina from Chez Maximka, who had invited me for a virtual tea time party before ... or Choclette from the Chocolate Log Blog, who continues to tease me with her wonderful chocolate creations - she wouldn't want to miss this one - or ... Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen - she could simply tell us some interesting stories or ... Karen from Lavender and Lovage - sorry no herbs in the cake here, but I make sure to include some later - or Fiona from London Unattached, who knows an awful lot of places.  Ah, if I had more space in my little flat I would invite all those on my Blogroll. In fact, I should also update it soon. So, more cake ...


... hm, that is rather a bit like mille feuille with a peanut butter and cream cheese filling. Cheesecake anyone? That is a very delicious one. It took about 24 hours so it was properly set after I had it for 25 minutes in the oven at 90 °C. With some berries it tastes great.


Among other things there is some ricotta, cream cheese, vanilla and lemon in the cheese part. I really had an extensive photo session with that cheesecake. You can check out my Facebook page for more photos from that cake.
Are you enjoying yourself? Should I go on with some facts and stats about the blog? Well, we had one already - two years of blogging. In the last year the number of visitors haven't changed too much, but I don't want to bore you with too much of statistics. You shouldn't trust any statistics, you haven't forged yourself, anyway. Apart from that I already told you in December that I had much fun with cooking underground at my Hawaiian Luau.
Recently I have gotten myself into trying some more sophisticated recipes, like the Floating Islands. I want to keep that up.
Along that line I have made an Egg Yolk and Ricotta Raviolo with Sage and Burned Butter Sauce - Karen, here are the herbs, finally.


You get some lemon zest together with ricotta, salt and pepper in the filling additionally to the egg yolk. In the burned butter sauce you get some lemon juice and obviously sage leaves. Do you know what happens, when you cut into the raviolo? Of course ...


Naturally I  expect to have quite some more delicious food in the months to come. There are still too many things to try around the world. You can see that every month at the Bloggers Around the World challenge, which is taking us to Russia this month. Thank you for coming to my 2nd Blogiversary party. I appreciate all the visitors and all the lovely and encouraging comments. I hope I will continue to see you around here. Now I concentrate on my piece of cake ...


... and ... well then, I'd say I have no other choice but to continue Cooking Around the World ...

28 comments:

  1. conblogulations!... a wonderful achievement, well done... and a glorious and very naughty chocolate cake x

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    1. Thank you Dom! Now it is really a pity that no one is coming to visit for real to help me with that cake.

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  2. I love this sachertorte!!!!!
    Happy blog-anniversary!!!

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    1. Thank you very much, Manu! I'm glad you came to the party.

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  3. Happy blogiversary! I've always wanted to try Sachertorte, and yours looks delicious. I didn't realise quite how fiddly it was, though, so thanks for the photo tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to enter Baking With Spirit!

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    1. Thank you, Janine! It's a pleasure. I think it was about time I try to do a Sachertorte myself. Now the only thing left is to eat it up.

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  4. Gorgeous sachertorte and happy blogiversary

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    1. Thank you, Alison! I am glad, you enjoy the Sachertorte, too.

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  5. Thank you for being the very first entry in my Love Cake challenge! A very worthy cake and I'm glad you went with the idea to make the chocolate hearts.

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    1. Thank you! Probably I wouldn't have had the idea with the chocolate heart where it not because of the Love Cake challenge. They are quite solid and massive, though.

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  6. A BIG happy Blogiversary Chris and THANKS for baking that cake for us at Tea Time Treats too! LOVE it! Karen xxxx

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    1. Thank you, Karen! You are very welcome. I'm glad you love it. Some of my friends and acquaintances nearby will hopefully be happy, too, when they get a piece of the cake. I think 'The Food Blog Diary' is very good in keeping track of what challenges to join.

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  7. Happy 2 years! Loving the look of your cake, and the raviolo, and the cheesecake and.... :-) x

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    1. Thank you, Ruth! The raviolo would be something good for starting a meal with and then you could have something else before you work yourself through the sweet treats. However, I doubt it would be possible to try everything in one sitting. Maybe if you take small slices.
      Anyway, I am always happy when I can make others happy!

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  8. Happy blogiversary, Chris! Did you know Sachertorte is my most favourite cake ever?! Thank you for inviting me to your party, I'll just grab my coat and will be over. :)

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    1. Thank you, Galina! I'd say then you are quite lucky that there is still sufficient Sachertorte left to make you happy. See you!

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  9. Congratulations! Happy Blogiversary. I would love to try some of that cake. Ive never attempted a sachertorte before but I have enjoyed eating one or two.

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    1. Thank you, Corina! As you have seen, it is not too difficult to do your own, but if you are fast enough you can still manage to get one piece of that cake here ...

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  10. Happy Blogiversary!

    That cake looks very delicious! (But I think the raviolo looks even more inviting!) :)

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    1. Thank you, Sarah! You are right, at the moment I would rather have a raviolo than a piece of cake.

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  11. Too right Chris, I wouldn't want to miss this one. Thank you for inviting me. I'm enjoying the virtual tea-party, but I'd much rather be enjoying it in reality. The cake sounds wonderful - I still haven't made Sachertorte. The millefeuille look rather fab too and as for the ravioli - I WANT SOME. Many congratulations on your second blogiversary - it feels such an achievement.

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    1. Thank you very much, Choclette. I was the one who really wanted that tea-party to be a real one. Later on you will see a reason for that, too. Already a short time after I made the mille feuille I got some tips on how to make the puff pastry not puff too much. I will try that next time. About the raviolo I can understand absolutely - I WANT MORE, too. Thinking about what you said, makes me feel good. I really need to keep that in mind, when things get wrong. Now I hope I can still go on blogging for a while and have some more fun and who knows what else ...

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    2. Yay, we all hope so too :)

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    3. Ah, maybe I should organise some kind of themed cooking events ...

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  12. The cake looks wonderfully rich :) Happy blogiversary!

    Thanks for sharing and thank you for linking up to #recipeoftheweek. It’s always appreciated :) I’ve Pinned and Tweeted this post and there’s a new linky just gone live – would love you to join in x

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  13. love this sachertote dear.. happy 2nd blog anniversary dear
    Found you through "my taste".. you have really a nice blog.. I think I should learn from you :) Just followed your site, glad if you follow me back :) try to stay in touch dear

    Monu
    Recipes Passion

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