Marmorni kolač / Marble cake

Naj se še enkrat opravičim za svojo odsotnost! Bila sem polno zasedena. Vendar pa sem vseeno našla čas za peko dobrot.

Vendar pa se je v moji kuhinji zgodil manjši preobrat. Nekatere sestavine so se zamenjale za bolj zdrave ali pa bolj posebne (zaradi mojega trenutnega zdravstvenega stanja).

Torej navadni beli moki sem pomahala v slovo in se na novo zaljubila v pirino moko. Okus ni nič kaj bolj drugačen, pravzaprav mi je mnogo ljudi zatrdilo, da so jim moje slaščice sedaj še okusnejše.

Prva stvar, ki sem jo poskusila narediti je bil marmorni kolač. Recept sem našla na strani kulinarika.net, vendar sem sestavine nekoliko zamenjala. Uporabila sem torej pirino (fino mleto) moko, mleko brez laktoze in rjavi sladkor. In moram priznati, da boljšega marmornega kolača še nisem jedla.

Recepta vam ne bom pisala (napisala ga bom le v angleščini), saj si ga lahko ogledate na tej povezavi.

Lahko se držite prvotnega recepta, lahko pa zamenjate nekatere sestavine,kot sem to storila jaz. Če boste uporabljali fino mleto pirino moko vam količin ni potrebno spreminjati. V kolikor pa boste uporabljali kakršnokoli polnozrnato moko, pa je vredno razmisliti o drugačnih vrednostih.

Na sliki je razvidna marmoracija biskvita, ki je glavni čar tega okusnega peciva. Ko naredimo maso, le to ločimo na dva dela in manjši del obarvamo temneje, zgolj s kakavom raztopljenim v nekaj žlicah ruma. Nato pa v pomokan pekač izmenično vlivamo obe masi, ter na koncu še malo premešamo z vilicami, da se ustvari prava marmoracija. Pečemo približno eno uro in vola! Že lahko preizkusimo to sočno pecivo.

Slika tudi prikazuje manjši marmorni kolač, saj sem sestavine razpolovila. V kolikor se boste držali originalnega recepta, boste potrebovali pekač večje velikosti, kot prikazuje slika spodaj (40x22x6 cm).

First, let mi apologize again, for my long absence. I was really busy. But of course I found some time to bake some goodies.

But there was slight change in my kitchen. I change some of the usual ingredients with – let’s say more healthy ones and with some a little bit special (due to my health problems that I’m dealing lately). So for instance I’ve said goodbye to white flour and fall in love with millet flour.

But before you freak out, nothing tastes bad or even that different in that matter. A lot of people even confessed that my pastries taste better. So if you are willing to try I can guarantee you, that you won’t regret it. 

So, the first thing that I try baking was marble cake. There are a lot of different recipes but this one is the best marble cake I ever taste. I found the recipe on the site kulinarika.net, and because it is written in Slovene language I will translate it in English. Like a sad before, I slightly changed the ingredients – I used millet flour instead of white flour, and lactose free milk (but you can use regular milk).

On the picture above you can see the marble pattern which is the whole point of this cake, a said of amazing taste. The sponge is very moist and absolutely perfect.

I strongly suggest you that you try and make it, because it is really easy to make (even for the beginners).   

Marble cake recipe

Ingredients:

7 eggs (separated)

300 g of granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 portion of vanilla sugar (10g)

2 dcl milk

380g millet or all-purpose flour

1 portion baking powder (10g)

1,5 dcl oil

3 tablespoons rum

3-6 tablespoons cocoa

This is the recipe for a bigger model (I used only half of the ingredients for my 26 cm cake model that you can see on the picture above). But if you consider making the marble cake with full ingredients you’ll need bigger model, like I used on this picture  (40 cm long, 22 cm width and 6 cm high).

Lightly butter your pan or a cake model, and dust it with some flour.

Set your oven to 160°C (I use regular oven)

Part of your flour (80g) mix with your milk, so it becomes smooth and it doesn’t have any lumps. In a bowl mix together the rest of your flour (that would be 220g) and baking powder.

In a cup, mix together rum and cocoa. You need to get a paste, so adjust the amount of cocoa to your needs.

In another bowl, mix together egg yolks with half of granulated white sugar (that would be 150g) and a portion of vanilla sugar (use stand or hand mixer). It needs to be very well incorporated and mixed together (so you’ll need to mix it up to 5 minutes). Than you gradually add the mix of flour and milk, and in the and gradually add the oil.

In another bowl, put your egg whites, salt and the other half of the granulated white sugar. Mix it all together until you get the meringue that is hard but easily spreadable.

Then, put 1/3 of the meringue in to the bowl with yolks and sugar, just so you loosen up the batter. Don’t mix it with the mixer! You need to mix it by hand (use spatula or wooden spoon). Put the rest of the meringue onto the batter and then sift your flour with baking powder directly onto the meringue. Gently mix it all together with spatula or wooden spoon.

Put 1/3 of a batter into the bowl where we had meringue. Add the cocoa-rum paste andgently mix it with spatula. Now you have two different batters – one white and one brown.

Alternately put both batters into the model. In the end slightly mix it with the fork, so you create marble pattern.

Bake it for about 50-60 minutes or until the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

After taking it out of the oven let it cool in the model for about 10 min and then transfer it to the racks to cool completely.

After that enjoy it!

Božična torta / Christmas cake

Praznični pozdrav!            Holiday greetings!

Na predbožični večer sem spekla torto. Prejšnjič sem omenila, da bom torto okrasila z božičnimi listi, vendar pa vsak, ki ve kako božični list izgleda, lahko opazi, da jih na torti ni. Namesto božičnega lista so na torti navadni listi. In zakaj je do tega prišlo?! Preprosto zato, ker sem imela doma na razpolago izsekovalec navadnih listov, v vsej tej božični mrzlici pa izsekovalcev božičnega lista ni bilo nikjer več mogoče kupiti. Vem, da bi jih lahko naredila ročno, vendar pa sem želela, da so si listi med seboj podobni, prav tako pa mi ročna izdelava ni šla najbolje od rok. Vendar pa mislim, da torta kljub temu izgleda fantastično.

***

So I made a Christmas cake two days ago. I said I would be making Christmas leafs, but if you know how Christmas leaf looks like, you will soon realize that the cake on this picture does not have any Christmas leafs on it. How come?! Well, it is hard to make 38 individual leafs by hand, especially if you want to make them beautiful and more or less the same. So I used leaf cutter that I had at home. But still I think it looks pretty awesome the way it is.

Tokrat sem uporabljala modelirno čokolado oziroma čokoladno glino. Tako kot vedno, sem tudi to maso naredila sama in moram priznati, da sem se zaljubila. Modelirna čokolada je odličnega okusa (ker ima okus po čokoladi) – mnogo boljšega okusa od tično mase in zelo priročna za izdelovanje okraskov. 

***

I used modeling chocolate or modeling clay (as some call it), for this decorations. I made it myself, for the first time and I must say that I fall in love with it. I mean I am basically a chocoholic and what is more fun than a chocolate you can play with. And most of all it tastes great – it is way better than fondant, because it tastes like chocolate.

Pri torti pa sem želela tudi tisti wau efekt. Vem, da že sama okrasitev torte izgleda fantastično, vendar pa se mi zdi, da ljudje prehitro pozabijo kako je torta izgledala, ko predse dobijo kos torte. Zato sem se odločila, da preizkusim na novo pridobljen trik in izdelam torto v obliki šahovnice, tako kot lahko vidite na sliki.

In čeprav je izdelava take torte precej preprosta, pri ljudeh izzove občudovanje in navdušenje.

***

I also went for a wow effect with this cake. Ok, it is looking beautiful but, when you start cutting the pieces for everyone to taste it, they soon forgot how it looked like. So a assembled a cake sponge to look like a chessboard, as you can see it in the picture. And as easy as it is to make it, people are really impressed with the results. And most of them can’t even imagine how you made it.

Skrivnost izdelave take torte pa je: spečemo dve (ali več) plasti biskvita različnih barv. In ko se biskvit ohladi iz njega izrežemo različno velike kolobarje. Na koncu pa je potrebno le še zamenjati kolobarje, tako, da se barve menjajo (kot je razvidno iz slike).

***

So the secret is: You bake two (or more) different color sponges. And when they are cooled enough, you can start cutting different sizes circles out of it. And then the only thing left to do is assemble the sponge, so that you have different color rings (like you can see in the picture). 

Se opravičujem za slabo ločljivost slik.                                                                       I apologize for bad picture resolution.

Poker torta / Poker cake

A few weeks ago I made poker cake for my brothers’ birthday. It was a simple pineapple cake, with vanilla-butter cream frosting (that I made for the first time). And I covered it with some homemade marshmallow fondant in green color (That was also my first attempt at covering a whole cake with fondant). For decorations on top of the cake I made poker chips and a set of Aces. 

Nekaj tednov nazaj sem za bratov rojstni dan naredila poker torto. Naredila sem preprosto ananasovo torto; po vrhu sem jo namazala z masleno vanilijevo kremo (ki sem jo naredila prvič). Nato sem jo oblekla z marshmallow tično maso zelene barve. to je bil moj prvi poiskus, da sem celotno torto odela v tično. Za okraske na vrhu torte pa sem naredila preproste poker žetončke in set asov.

Chocolate cake with marzipan / Čokoladna torta z marcipanom

This is kind of a Mozart cake, which means it’s a chocolate cake with marzipan. It is my version of this cake and it’s based on the ingredients I had at home. It is also my first time that I made chocolate frosting and it came out great.  Tray on the picture is still dirty from the excess of frosting (because I didn’t use grid underneath.)

Na sliki je prirejena Mozart torta, kar pomeni, da gre v osnovi za čokoladno torto, ki vsebuje marcipan. Gre za mojo priredbo torte, ki je nastala na osnovi sestavin, ki sem jih imela doma. Prav tako pa je to tudi moj prvi poiskus čokoladne glazure, ki je izpadla super, kljub vsem strahovom in dvomom, ki sem jih čutila v sebi. Na sliki je pladenj pod torto še vedno umazan od odvečne glazure, ki je stekla s torte (to pa zato, ker nisem uporabila rešetke ko sem oblivala torto).