Bastelesel

31 Jan 2015

For Christmas we had wooden stars holding a Christmas rose. I love this kind of presenting a single flower and want to do it at any time of the year. A substitute for the stars had to be found.

A sufficient quantity of wood was still lying in the basement and the saw waiting for further challenges. So some flowers were drawn and sawn as described in November. I chose the colors according to the rooms my flowers are supposed to stand in. For my individual purposes I needed a shape that fits with really every occasion. A triangle with rounded tips seemed to be the best. Important again their color because the mocca tint in a shabby look fits well with furtniture of our living room.

If you’re in the mood just make some more of these flower stands to place them individually or in groups. Let your imaginations run wild regarding color and form.

29 Jan 2015

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by Elke

Cake box

Those who do a lot of baking will perfectly understand my dilemma. There it is, my lovely cake and being invited by a very good friend I’d like to take it with me for teatime. But not the whole one! To be honest, I planned to have another piece of it the next day too. With my fancy cake box however my friend will even enjoy the single piece of cake. Find a free template here.

Choose single-colored yellow or brown card stock for the bottom of your box because it’s based on a light or chocolate colored pastry of a real cake. The top may match the cake color, the occasion or the person receiving it. Cut out bottom and top and fold along the dashed lines. Put some glue on the small side straps and fix them on the opposite side. Leave the box drying and line both parts with wrapping film. In the top fix the wrapping film with a small piece of double sided adhesive tape. Alterantively a piece of parchment paper can be placed inside the box. Then place your piece of cake inside the bottom and close the box. Decorate it with a name tag or any other accessories.

23 Jan 2015

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by Elke

Roast apple jam

Here we are with the recipe for the roast apple jam anounced in my last post. Except as a filling for my chocolate cake I really love to eat it with the famous german Pumpernickel. Delicious, the sweet cover on a solid underground. The jam is made with applesauce which you can make yourself or just buy.

Ingredients:

1kg/2.2lb applesauce
1 kg/2.2lb jam sugar
1 cinnamon stick
2-3 star-anis
2 cloves
50gr/1.7oz raisin
50gr/1.7oz chopped almonds

Home made applesauce: cut off apple cores of 1,5kg/3.3lb apples, cut apples into small pieces and cook them with some water. Give spices into a teabag and hang it into the applesauce overnight.

Remove spices before cooking your jam. Add 1kg/2.2lb jam sugar, raisin and almonds. Cook according to instructions on jam sugar packaging. If you don’t like fruit bits in jam I propose to purée it. Pour into twist top glasses, close and place them upside down for about ten minutes.

20 Jan 2015

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by Elke

Chocolate cake filled with roast apple jam

Resembling the Sacher cake but with a wintery taste of roast apple this chocolate cake’s the very best for cold days. I added some chocolate crumbs to the original recipe. Refined chocolate chips were meant to reach us as Christmas greetings from our friends in France. Unfortunately either the french or the german postmen didn’t handle the parcel carefully. It was rather scrunched and the chips arrived as hundreds of crumbs. Too difficult and sticky to eat them with your fingers. That’s why we immediately refined our Christmas dessert with a part of them and the remainders will now improve the chocolate cake. The sponge mixture is quickly done and durable for several days in an air-tight container.

Ingredients:
170g (6oz) plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
150g (5.3oz) butter
175g ( 6.1oz) sugar
3 eggs, whisked
3 tbsp chocolate crumbs
2 tbsp milk
3-4 tbsp roast apple jam
100g (3.5oz) powdered sugar
some orange juice

Preheat the oven at 180°C/360°F, grease the springform pan (24cm/9.5″) and cover bottom with parchment paper.

Sieve flour, baking powder and cocoa in a large bowl. Add sugar, butter and the whisked eggs. Blend well and work in milk and chocolate crumbs. Pour in springform pan and smoothe surface.

Bake in the lower third of your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, remove and cool on a wire rack. Cut two layers of cake. This is quite easy with a stainless steel wire cake slicer available for about 8 -10 $. Spread 3-4 tbsp of roast apple jam on first layer and put second layer on top.

Mix powedered sugar with orange juice (alt. mango or passion fruit) until viscous and disperse on cake. Serve with some whipped cream.
It’s difficult to find roast apple jam so I bribed my friend Angela with a chocolate cake to go. Now I’m allowed to share her recipe in my blog. I’ll do that, together with the instruction for the cake box, within the next days.

18 Jan 2015

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by Elke