Do you love oreos? Well, pretty much everyone does. And so does my cousin. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he only said this word: oreo.
It was not difficult to figure out what would make him happy, so I did some research in my archive and looked for recipes with the yummy cookies. As I am quite indecesive, I could not help but combine my favourites in one cake. One cake full of oreos. An oreo excess cake.
I loved the way it turned out and so did the kids/teenagers – it is tricky to find the right word for this age. The fluffy cupcake dough with oreo pieces, the oreo truffle mass and the vanilla cream on top… Do I have to convince you any more? Stop dreaming, get inside your kitchen and bake it yourself.
Oreo Excess Cake:
cake layers
10 oreo cookies
300 g (2 ½ cups) flour
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
200 g (1 cup – 2 tbsp.) sugar
100 g (3 ½ oz) butter at room temperature
2 pck. vanilla sugar or 2 tsp. Vanilla extract
3 eggs, room temperature
160 ml (2/3 cup) milk
100 ml (1/2 cup) milk, for soaking
truffle layer:
16 oreo cookies
150 g (5 oz.) cream cheese
cream layer:
250 ml (1 cup) heavy cream
250 ml (1 cup) vanilla heavy cream (e.g. Rama)
Put the oreos in a freezer bag and crumble them with a rolling pin. Set aside until needed. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside. In a bigger bowl, combine the butter, sugar and vanilla. Cream until the muxture becomes lighter and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and stir until it is fully incorporated. Now add the milk and the dry ingredients by turns while stirring in between so the dough stays smooth. Finally add the shredded oreos. Stir just to combine.
Oil a round pan (26 cm/10´´ diameter) and pour the mass inside. Bake until a toothpicker comes out clean when stuck inside the center of the cake, for about 20 minutes. Let the cake cool.
Crumble the oreos in a freezer bag. Combine them with the cream cheese until the mass is smooth.
Cut the cake into two layers and soak the bottom with 50 ml (1/4 cup) of milk. Place the truffle mass on it. Now place the second layer on top with the muffintop down and the soft side up – do you know what I mean? Now soak this with the rest of the milk.
Combine both kinds of cream and beat the liquid until stiff. Cover the sides of the cake with a thin layer and then place a thick layer on top of the cake.
Decorate. Let the cake sit for a few hours in the fridge to set, then serve cool.
Usually there are two kinds of people in the world: the heart attack kind – a meat-lover, eating tons of butgers, fries, pizza and doener, and the diabetes kind – a sweet-lover, feeding him- or herself chocolate, pastry and candy.
BUT
In our world of progress, you can be both. Increase the risk of a heart attack AND diabetes at the same time, have a CRONUT.
Cronuts are a hit in the USA. Something so simple yet new is kind of booming on blogs, reports and in magazines. The hype made me curious and I was very interested in trying the new sensation.
I did some research on the topic and it turned out that a “cronut” is basically just fried croissant dough which you can buy in a can at your local department store.
So I just bought two cans and tried to make them. They turned out quite cute and the taste was… well, you know the taste of a croissant. After the frying, I put some vanilla sugar glaze on top which gave them a little sweeter flavour.
Actually, I was not that impressed as I had expected a burst of flavour. But I am not in New York and have only tried my amateur version.
On my trip to Frankfurt a. M., I accidently found a bakery offering cronuts. I had one together with a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks and, well, the taste was pretty close to my own ones. At home, I had left out the filling. And the rolling in sugar. Too much diabetes. But it tasted fine. So if you are still interested in the taste of cronuts – make a bunch at home! I will give you the instructions. You decide whether you like them or not.
Cronuts:
2 cans of croissant dough
sugar icing
fat (for frying), I used sunflower oil
Release the dough from the can and roll it out. squeeze the triangular perforation with your fingers so the wholes disappear. Divide the rectangular layers. Put on one layer a thin waterfilm by using a brush. Place another on top and go on like this until you finish one can. Roll the dought thinner with a rolling pin. Brush half of the surface with water, then fold and roll again, until the layers stick together. Now cut out circles with holes using cookie cutters of different size or a donut cutter. I used a small cookie cutter with a diameter of 5 cm (2´´) and a cupcake cutter.
Heat oil in a deep dish. You know it is hot enough, if there are little air bubbles coming up when you put in a wooden skewer.
Gently put in the cut out cronuts and fry. You might have to turn them around if you don’t have a deep fryer. They need to be amber brown outsie.
Place them on paper towels to cool. I had my bf brushing a little milk with butter on top. Decorate your sweeties with icing and sprinkles.
Everyone is crazy about pumpkin-flavoured stuff right now and I decided I would not make it that much worse, if I joined the movement. This strudel is my grandmother’s work, we made it in Bulgaria.
Bulgarian pumpkin strudel is originally called ‘Tikvenik’, because ‘tikva’ means ‘pumpkin’. To keep at least a bit of the tradition when I prepare it here in Germany, I use bulgarian phyllo dough, which I take with me when I visit my granny.
I do not have exact measurements for this recipe but I hope you can get along with the pictures showing the process step by step. Let’s just start.
You’ll need:
about 100 g (3 1/2 oz.) ground walnuts or pecans
white sugar (have about 150 g/5 oz. prepared)
1 small butternut, grated
125 g (4 oz.) butter, melted
400 g (14 oz.) phyllo dough
cinammon, powdered
Prepare your ingredients, place nuts, butter and sugar in bowls so you have them on hand.
Divide the grated pumpkin into 6 portions, about this size. Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°C) and line a rectangular pan with a sheet of baking paper.
Roll out two pieces of dough. Butter one of them with a silicon brush, place the other on top and butter it as well, using very little fat.
Spread one portion of pumpkin across the buttered sheet.
Now spread nuts, sugar and cinammon on top. I use about 2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp cinammon and 2 tbsp nuts, and the result is really not very sweet, but that’s how I like it. Use more sugar if you like.
Now roll the phyllo sheet carefully and place it in the pan. Repeat with the rest of the sheets.
If you have some butter left, you can pour it on top. Now bake for about 20 minutes or until the cake is slightly browned. Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy warm or cold.