Baumkuchen
(Tree cake)
“Baum” is a
German word for Tree and “kuchen” represents cake in English. As the name
suggests the cake when baked to perfection and cut, should depict the bark of the tree with
“rings” or “layers” to it.
Ingredients:
For the cake:
Refined
flour – ½ cup
Sugar – ½
cup
Melted and
slightly browned butter – ½ cup
Eggs – 2 no.
Baking
powder – ¼ tsp
Rum essence
– ¼ tsp
Vanilla
essence – 1/2 tsp
Milk – 2-3 tbsps.
For
chocolate topping:
Cooking 70% dark Chocolate – 200 gms
Heavy cream
– ½ cup
Gelatin – 1 tbsp.
Vanilla
essence – ½ tsp
Rum essence
– ¼ tsp
Hot Water –
3 tbsps.
Sugar – 1 tbsp.
Recipe:
Cake:
1.
Sieve the refined flour and baking powder
together.
2.
In a bowl add 2 eggs, sugar, vanilla and rum
essence.
3.
Thoroughly beat this mixture with an egg whisk.
4.
Heat some water in a container. Place the egg
mixture bowl on top of it (double boiler).The water in the bowl which is
heating below should not touch the bowl which is placed over it and which
contains the egg mixture. As this will result in scrambled egg, which we do not
need.
5.
Beat this egg mixture on double boiler for 3
minutes then remove it from the double boiler.
6.
Add melted, slightly browned butter to this
mixture. Make sure the butter is at room temperature, as hot butter, it will
cook the eggs and we do not want that to happen!
7.
Once everything is mixed well, add refined flour
and baking powder together to it. Mix it with hand mixer.
8.
The consistency of this batter should be like
that of a pancake batter. If the batter is too think add 2-3 tbsps.’ of milk to
it.
9.
Preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius for 10
minutes. Take a thick bottom cake pan. Grease it well with butter and some
refined flour.
10.
Pour a 1 to 2 cup of batter in this cake pan.
Spread it well. It should be evenly layered in this pan.
11.
Put this pan in the oven and let it cook for 5
minutes.
12.
After 5 mins, the cake should be slightly
browned from top. Remove the pan and again pour half cup of batter on top of
it. Spread it evenly over the baked cake. Gently tap the baking pan to remove
air bubbles. Put it back into the oven for 5 minute of baking at the same
temperature. Remove it and again pour 1 to 2 cup of batter over the second
baked layer.
13.
Repeat the same process till you finish your all
batter.
14.
Once the final layer of batter is baked for 5
mins, remove the cake and let it cool down on cooling rack for an hour.
15.
Meanwhile we can prepare the chocolate topping
for this cake.
Chocolate topping:
1. Heat ½ cup of cream in a sauce pan. Add chopped chocolate in it. Add sugar, vanilla and rum
essence in it.
2. Take ½ cup of water and mix gelatin in it. Make
sure all the gelatin is properly dissolved in
water.
3. Pour this gelatin water in to the chocolate
mixture and mix well.
4. Once the cake is cooled down, pour this chocolate
mixture on top of it. A thick layer of chocolate mixture should evenly spread
all over the cake.
5. Refrigerate this cake for 2to 3 hours or until
the chocolate is set over the cake.
6.Once the cake is set, remove it from the refrigerator.
7.”Baumkuchen” is ready to serve.
