A heavenly moist and fluffy cake that tastes like home:

For the cake
300 g butter (melted)
300 g confectioners’ sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
½ Tsp salt
Grated lemon zest from 1 lemon
5 eggs
300g all-purpose flour
2 Tsp baking powder

For the topping
3 apples (peeled and cut into thin slices)
1 Tsp cinnamon
½ cup oatmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar
½ Tsp baking powder
½ cup butter (melted)

Preheat oven to 160 °C. Line a baking pan with a baking sheet or butter and flour a baking pan of approximately the same size. Mix butter, sugars, salt and lemon zest until fluffy. Add eggs one by one stirring in-between. Mix with flour and baking powder until just combined. Pour into pan and spread evenly (about 2 cm high). Mix apple slices and cinnamon and arrange on patter in pan. Mix rest of the ingredients and evenly spread over the apples. Bake for 40 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and cut into squares.

It is red current time!! Try my delicious and ultra fast recipe for:

RED CURRENT PASTRY

1 ready to use short pastry (Mürbteig, Fanny) or make it from scratch

400 g red currents (Ribiesel) without stems

75 g sugar

6 egg whites

2 pitches salt

7 Tsp sugar

Preheat oven to 180 ° C. Roll out the pastry and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, mix currents and sugar in a bowl. Beat egg whites with salt and add sugar spoon by spoon while beating. The egg whites should form soft peaks for a perfect meringue. Take pastry out of the oven and spread currents over it. Top with whipped egg whites and bake in the oven until meringue forms brown peaks. Let cool. Try to remove any access liquid that has trickled out of the currents onto the sheet.

This is a cake made of pure luck as it seems. One bight of this chocolaty delight and the sun shines much brighter, the air is much milder and joy tingles in your stomach.  Not only is this cake the easiest possible to make cake, it is also low fat! (Well therefore the frosting is a sin!) This recipe is modified from brilliant Nigella Lawson.

MY HAPPY CHOCOLATE CAKE

for the cake

200 g all-purpose flour

200 g confectioners’ sugar

1 Tsp baking powder

(½ Tsp baking soda)

40 g best-quality cocoa powder

175 g sunflower oil

2 eggs

2 Tsp vanilla extract

150 ml sour cream

for the frosting

75 g butter

175 g best quality dark chocolate (broken into small pieces)

20 g best-quality cocoa powder

300 g confectioners’ sugar

1 Tsp honey

125 ml sour cream

1 Tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to gas mark 180°C and line and butter one 20cm sandwich tin with removable bases.

Now all you have to do is mix all the cake ingredients together with a wooden spoon until you have a combined and creamy mixture without lumps.

Fill batter into the prepared tins and bake until n inserted toothpick comes out clean, which should be about 45 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins onto a serving plate lined with four strips of baking parchment to form a square outline on it (this stops the frosting we will apply later from running on to the plate).

To make the frosting, melt the butter and chocolate in a good-sized bowl either in the microwave or suspended over a pan of simmering water. Go slowly either way: you don’t want any burning or seizing.

Add the golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla and then when all this is combined whisk in the sieved confectioners’ sugar and cocoa powder.

When you’ve done, you may need to add a little boiling water – say a teaspoon or so – or indeed some more cocoa powder sugar: it depends on whether you need the icing to be runnier or thicker; or indeed it may be right as it is. It should be liquid enough to coat easily, but thick enough not to drip off.

Cut the cooled cake in half lengthwise and flip the top layer on a second plate.

Spoon about a third of the frosting on to the center of the cake half and spread with a knife or spatula until you cover the top of it evenly. Sit the other cake on top, normal way up, pressing gently to sandwich the two together.

Spoon another third of the frosting on to the top of the cake and spread it in a swirly, textured way. Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining icing and leave a few minutes till set, then carefully pull away the paper strips.

The frosting will become a bit stiffer with time. If it is necessary to prepare the cake in advance (and you can withstand) you can store the cake under foil overnight in the refrigerator without losing too much of its quality.

This cake tastes like heaven.

PERFECT CHOCOLATE FROSTING

75 g butter
175 g good quality chocolate
300 g confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
40 g dark unsweetened cocoa
125 g sour cream

In a bowl hanging ( but mot touching) over boiling water melt butter and chocolate. When it has melted and cooled a bit mix in rest of the ingedients. The consistency should be that of a thick spread, not too runy (then add cocoa) and not too stiff (then add boiling water).
This is a wonderfull not too sweet chocolate frosting that makes the perfect finish on any kind of fluffy cake. I just can’t stop trying the frosting to make sure that I haven’t immagined it.