Pop Goes My Heart: A Chocolate, Nuts and Baileys Cake Pop

Leave a comment

It’s true what they say: sometimes the smallest things can win your heart the fastest. I am talking about cake pops. I mean, everything about the entire concept is completely amazing – a tiny cake on a lollipop stick! Needless to say, I can’t get enough. Weirdly though, and to my great personal dismay, they haven’t quite caught on in Germany yet. Which is a shame. Hopefully this might change. In the meantime, I took this as an opportunity to create my own by adding all my favorite ingredients: chocolate, hazelnuts and Baileys – plus a marzipan cover. It is a real crowd-pleaser at parties, a picnic with friends or just because the world needs more sweetness. This recipe makes 48 cake pops and is made using a cake pop maker.

Ingredients

  • ¾ cups (150 grams) of sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2/3 (150 grams) of soft butter
  • 1 1/5 (150 grams) of all-purpose-flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 100 ml of Bailey’s
  • 3-4 generous tablespoons of cacao powder
  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla flavor
  • 1 cup (100 grams) of ground hazelnuts
  • 200 grams of (green) marzipan
  • 100 grams of chocolate melts
  • Optional: golden glitter

Whisk the sugar, eggs and butter for approximately 3 minutes until creamy. Afterwards, mix in the flour and baking powder. Up until this point, the added ingredients are my general base recipe for any cake pops I bake with my cake pop maker. Continue by whisking the Bailey’s, cacao powder, vanilla flavor and hazelnuts into the cake batter.

Now everything is ready for the next step. Set up your cake pop maker and, once it has reached its baking temperature, fill the batter in the cake pop holes to the top. You will need approximately 1 tablespoon of batter per reservoir. Make sure not to overfill the molds, as otherwise you could end up with a Saturn ring-style corona around your cake pops. However, also don’t be too stingy with the dough or you could make weirdly–shaped, deflated balls. The baking should take approximately 5 minutes until the balls are done. To get them out of the holes, it can be helpful to use a teaspoon to scoop them out with. After all your cake pops are done, wait till they have cooled down enough to start with the next step: the chocolate coating.

Melt the chocolate and then dip about half of the cake pop into the melt. Let it rest to dry. While the chocolate is drying, roll out the marzipan and cut out 1.5 inch (ca. 3.5 centimeters) circles. Wrap the marzipan circles around half of your cake pop and – if you happen to have some at home – sprinkle a little bit of golden glitter on top.

Enjoy!

 

Advertisements

Completely nuts! No-flour chocolate & nuts cookies

2 Comments

Tis the season… One of the best things about the most magical time of the year are Christmas cookies. Nothing beats a cozy afternoon when the snow is falling outside your window and you enjoy wonderful moments with your loved ones nibbling on cookies and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. What makes me most happy is that my cookies are stored in a big acorn cookie jar which we got on our most recent trip to the US. So not only is it home to some tasty treats, it also makes me think about to the great memories we made.

This cookie recipe consists of two types of nuts and chocolate, but no flour. You will get a batch of 25 cookies.

Ingredients img_20171204_114320_008-607965785.jpg

  • 2 egg whites
  • 2/3 cup (150 grams) of sugar
  • 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg
  • ¼ cup (50 grams) of chocolate shavings
  • ½ cup (100 grams) of ground hazelnuts
  • ½ cup (100 grams) of ground almonds
  • ¼ cup (50 grams) of melted chocolate for dipping

Start by beating the egg white until it is stiff. Then add sugar and vanilla sugar and blend it in, while continuing to stir it with an electric mixer. Afterwards let the chocolate shavings join the mix and slowly add the ground hazelnuts and almonds. Now your dough is basically done. Use your hands to form a roll about 5 centimeters or 1,5 inches wide. Wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge or a couple of hours. Thereby you allow the dough to harden, to it is easier to cut off your cookies slices. Each cookie should ideally be 5-7 millimeters thick. Place them on a backing tray laid out with backing paper and back bake them for about 12 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius/ 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the cookies are out of the oven, melt the chocolate. Meanwhile the cookies have time to cool down a bit. Dip them halfway in the chocolate and let them dry.

Enjoy.

Scones, scones, scones

Leave a comment

Scones are a wonderful treat. Whether you serve them as an afternoon snack or have them for lunch, they are simply amazingly tasty. And so diverse, as you can have them as a sweet or savory option and no matter which one you choose, you will always be happy. Each of the two options here makes 8 scones.

Ingredients for traditional sconesIMG_20170809_201832_132

  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup (55 grams) of cold butter
  • 5 teaspoons of backing powder
  • 2/3 cup (150 ml) of milk
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • Mix of 1 egg yolk with 1-2 tablespoons of milk to spread on scones before baking

Ingredients for cheese scones

  • 1 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons (40 grams) of cold butter
  • 5 teaspoons of baking powder
  • ½ cup (100 ml) of milk
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon of mustard
  • ¼ cup (60 grams) of sharp cheddar
  • Mix of 1 egg yolk with 1-2 tablespoons of milk to spread on scones before baking

Pre-heat the oven to 180° C/350° F. Mix all the ingredients until your dough is well-blended – for the cheese scones make sure you first add everything except the cheese, and only knead it in last. Then roll out your dough until it is about 2 cm (0.8”) thick. Since I don’t own a pastry cutter, I use a normal water glass to cut out my scones so they get the typical round form. If you are less concerned with a picture-perfect look, simply cutting the dough with a knife into squares or triangles is absolutely fine as well. Place your scones on baking paper and spread your yolk-milk mix on top. Let them bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Now your scones should have a golden brown color and be nicely puffed.

Serve them with whipped or clotted cream and strawberry jam (for a recipe for a homemade version, click here). The cheese version is super tasty combined with a chutney or simply with a bit of butter.

Smoothielicious Greens

Leave a comment

A famous Elvis song includes the line „Oh It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home“. While that might not always be possible, we can compensate by comforting ourselves with some soul food. Though I admit that green smoothies are normally not the epitome of soul food, this one is tasty enough that I feel it should be. I always prefer smoothies that are not too sugary, but tickle your sweet tooth a bit nonetheless. So this one ticks all the boxes for me in terms of sweetness and being healthy.

Ingredientsimg_20170111_091559_035

  • 1 banana
  • ½ avacado
  • 1 cup of spinach (frozen)
  • 1 cup of kale (frozen)
  • 3 cups of oat milk (make sure to use a low-sugar one)
  • 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of spirulina powder
  • 1 teaspoon of wheatgrass powder

Blend all ingredients. Enjoy! This recipe serves 2.