Some month ago the sister of my dearest and me agreed to bake a wedding cake for some friends of her. And so we spent a lot of time on pinterest, collecting ideas and inspiration.

Slowly a plan for the decoration emerged and finally we had a plan for the cakes as well: Punch torte, Nussnougat-Quark-Cake and Sacher Torte would be the perfect cakes. We baked some tiny test cakes for the bride and the groom, they tried them and liked them, too. Especially the punch torte was a favourite. And as we changed this recipe quite a lot it deserved its own recipe.

After the decoration and the recipes were set, we created a timeschedule:

• 2 weeks before “the day”: baking sponge cake and short crust for the punch torte. Freeze them after cooling. Prepare the cake topper with flower paste.
• 10 days before: bake Sacher torte
• 3 Days before: Infuse cream with coffee beans for Mocca Ganache
• 2 Days before: prepare white Ganache and Mocca Ganache , make Fondant (double amount!), bake Nussnougat-Quark cake, fill Punch torte, cover all cakes with gananche
• 1 Day before: cover all cakes with fondant and decorate

Two days before the wedding I packed everything needed, including two kitchen machines and everything I own for making torte. It feels a bit as if I planned to move in when we unpack the car at my in laws house. After a family breakfast the sister and me retreated into the kitchen and stayed there for nearly two days.

Our timeschedule worked out perfectly, much better then I expected. Even when we decided in the middle of decorating, that we did not like our original plan and had to remove the fondant from the middle tier, covering it with fresh ganache and fondant did not mess our plans. Friday evening everything was decorated and we were very tiered, but happy. And the result was worth the trouble!

This time, we learned again some things:

• A empty dishwasher and more then one kitchen machines are always good to have
• sometimes a decoration looks beautiful for other people cakes, but you have to realize that it is not your style. So follow your own intuition and it will be beautiful.
• There is never to much ganache or fondant
• Never underestimate the power of a satin band as cake band
• Baking weddings cake with a friend so much more fun! 🙂

Sacher torte Oma Buchholtz

for one Torte of 14 cm Diameter

yields 2 cakes

Dough

• 75g soft Butter
• 75g powdered sugar
• 150g semi sweet chocolate
• 6 Eggs Size M
• 150g flour Type 405
• 10g cacao
• 1 Pinch Salt
• 2g Baking Powder

Filling

• 40g Grand Marnier
• 250g Aprikot jam

Preheat the oven to 160!C

Melt the chocolate. In the meantime cream butter with sugar, then stir in the egg yolks. Then add the melted chocolate.

Beat egg whites with salt to soft peaks. Sieved flour, cacao and baking powder on the egg-butter-chocolate mixture and fold in. Last fold in the egg white.

Fill to baking rings of 14 cm diameter and bake for 45 min at 160°C.

Let cool over night. The next day straigten the tops, cover one cake with the filling, place the other cake on top. Wrap in cling film and let the cake rest for 10 days in the fridge.

The day before covering the cake with fondant it is covered with white chocolate ganache. The surface should be as even as possible.

Nuss-Nougat-Quark-Cake

28 cm Diameter

yields two cake bases

• 240g Butter
• 270g sugar
• 1 Pinch Salt
• 8 Eggs size M
• 400g Quark
• 320g Praline
• 480g  Hazel nuts
• 320g  flour type 405
• 24g Baking powder

Whip eggs with sugar until the sugar dissolved and the mixture is frothy white. In the meantime melt praline and butter on low heat. Stir the molten mixture with the eggs and add the quark, too.  Now add the grounded nuts, flour, baking powder and salt.

Fill in a well greased springform and bake ant 160°C for 85 min (use a cake tester to be sure it is done). Let cool, then spread the cake with ganache and cover it with fondant. Decorate like desired.

White  Ganache

• 600g white Chocolate
• 300g cream

Chop chocolate in small pieces. Bring cream to boil, remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Let the chocolate sit in the cream for 5 min then stir until the chocolate is completely dissolved. Cool in the fridge until the mixture has a temperature of 15°C. Cream with a mixer to soft peaks.

Mocca Ganache

• 600g Semi Sweet Chocolate
• 80g Espresso beans
• 480g cream

Infuse the esspressp beans in the cream for 24 hours in the fridge. The next morning: Chop chocolate in small pieces. Strain the cream and bring to boil, remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Let the chocolate sit in the cream for 5 min then stir until the chocolate is completely dissolved. Cool in the fridge until the mixture has a temperature of 15°C. Cream with a mixer to soft peaks.

October means that its time again for World Bread Day. And as I baked bread in the wood fired community oven of our local history museum,  I have a real “Backes Bread”. The Word “Backes” means community bread baking house in our dialect. And baking bread in such a “Backes” means sharing a great feeling of society. There are not so many other things that creates a sense of community then some loaves of bread made and shared with one another.

And so this bread is a bread meant for sharing. It is baked by placing two small loaves in one proofing basket. The ingredients of the bread is a bit inspired by leftovers: mashed potatoes, some quark and a bit of whole emmer flour. The Quark and Potatoes make the crumb moist while the emmer adds a deep nutty flavour.

The breads left the oven with a real dark crust – something that can happen by this more archaic way of baking. And it fits somehow very well with the bread, it adds a slight smoky flavour – and that goes extremely well with a bread from a wood fired oven.

Backes Brot

yields 2 Twin Breads 

Sweet Starter

• 150g sweet Starter
• 150g flour Type 550
• 75g Water

Dough

• sweet Starter
• 350g mashed potatoes
• 200g whole emmer flour
• 500g flour Type 550
• 120g Quark
• 220g Water
• 30g Butter
• 15g fresh yeast
• 20g inactive malt
• 24g Salt

Mix water, flour and sweet starterferment it 2-4 hours at 30°C.

Now mix all ingredients for the dough, and knead it 5 min on slow speed and 8 min on high speed.

Let the dough rise to overnight in the fridge.

Shape the dough into four round loaves and place always two loaves in one proofing basket, seamside down.

Preheat the baking stone to 300°C. Place the loaves in the oven and bake with steam for 5 min, then turn the temperature down to 250°C. Bake for 10 min at 250°C then reduce the temperature to 200°C and bake another 40 min. For a extra crisp crust turn on convection mode during the last 10 min.

Some time ago I showed this braids already while they cooled down on sunday morning. I promised to post the recipe, if they turned out nicely – and they did! So here it is. It is mainly a “use leftovers” recipe as it contains a bit of left over quark and some sweet starter after refreshing. The Quark adds a nice moistness to the dough and enhances shelf live. But the special turn in this recipe is the tiny bit of rye flour I added. As I learned last year from the Onjeschwedde is a small dose of rye good to enhance the crumb structure to extra soft and pillowy.

Another point I love at weekends too is the fact that the recipe is great for proofing overníght in the fridge. So the next morning the only thing I had to do is placing the baking tray in the oven. Perfect for relaxed sundays!

Quark-Braid

yied three braids

Sweet Starter

• 100g Sweet Starter
• 100g flour Type 550
• 50g Water

Dough

• Sweet Starter
• 740g flour Type 550
• 100g Rye flour Type 1150
• 350g Milk
• 200g Quark
• 100g Egg (2 eggs size M)
• 20g fresh yeast
• 10g Salt
• 125g sugar
• 80g Butter

Decoration

• 1 egg (beaten)
• sliced almonds

Mix the ingredients of the sweet starter and let it rise for 4 hours at 30°C.

Knead all ingredients except sugar and butter for 5 min at slow speed. Then knead 7 min at fast speed. Now add the sugar in small increments and knead until the sugar is incooperated before adding the next sugar. At last add the butter all at once. Knead to full gluten development.

Let rise overnight in the fridge or  for 90 min at room temperature

Divide the dough and roll it into 6 strands (each about 30 cm). Take always two and braid them like this.

Place on a baking tray and cover well.

Proof overnight in the fridge (alternativly 90 min at room temperature).

The next morning preheat the oven to 180°C. Brush the braids with egg and sprinkle with almond slices.

Bake at 180°C for about 40 min with steam.

Tip: If you want to use a biga instead of a sweet starter, mix 165 g flour Type 550, 80g water and 1g of fresh yeast. Let the biga ferment in the fridge for at least 16 hours.