Posted on by Bembum Kitchen

Peppermint Hot Chocolate Drink Fruit Cake

Hey Guys, happy early holiday season to you all!
As the end of the year mean a lot of parties and food; and one of my favorite Christmas dessert is traditional fruit cake with loads of dark rum.
A festive, flavorful, and moist fruit cake to enjoy all holiday season. 

Bland and Boring Style Fruit Cake 🙁

Sometimes I have no time left to marinated the dried fruit and I felt the appearance of the fruit cake can get a little bland and boring, anyway… I still want to eat fruit cake.

So I was thinking why not we try something that’s a little different? It’s gonna be a “Quick Fruit Rum Cake”, decorate as a Peppermint Hot Chocolate Drink! How cool is that?

No Cooked Homemade Egg-Free Marzipan

And to decorate the cake, of course marzipan is the best and traditionally has been used to cover fruit cakes with it.

You could use ready made marzipan, I personally love to make my own “No Cooked Homemade Egg-free Marzipan” which is very simple and easy. It only takes 10 mins and needs no special skills or equipment to make it.

Sifted Almond Flour and Icing Sugar

So… you will need to sift the almond flour and icing sugar.
It will be easier if you have food processor on hand, you can just pulse them until smooth, coz how smooth you grind the almond will determine the texture of your marzipan.

I don’t have one, so… I just do it manually by hand, try not to do it all at once, sift it gradually.
It will be a bit time consuming, just keep smiling and be patient.

My Sweet Little Gingerbread Man

And the most fun part, by using marzipan you can create customize decorations for your Hot Choco Mug.
I really fall in love with this cute little Gingerbread man cake topper, it’s perfect for my Christmas Cakes.

Look how cute he is!

The liquor will make the fruitcake more moist, and will help it last longer.
Well, traditionally one of the most important function of fruitcake is for storage. It could be stored for weeks, sometimes half year, if stored properly.
But in this recipe, it tastes the best when it’s fresh in my opinion.

Beautiful Golden Colour, Loads of Rum and Moist Cake

Unlike the other brownish fruitcake, this one has a beautiful golden color. The Marzipan is so soft not too sweet. A thin slice of this cake is a wonderful treatment with a cup of black coffee or tea.

I hope you Guys give this recipe a try and have a wonderful Christmas & Happy New Year!
Love you all…

PEPPERMINT HOT CHOCOLATE DRINK FRUIT CAKE
Yield: Five Pieces (Upper diameter: 6.8 cm, Bottom diameter: 6 cm, Height: 5 cm) cupcakes liners
Active time:  2 hour
Total time: 3 hour

INGREDIENTS
Marzipan:

  • 300 grams Almond Flour
  • 775 grams Icing Sugar
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons Corn Syrup
  • 1 teaspoon Almond/ Rose/ Vanilla Extract (or any favourite extract)
  • 2-5 tablespoons Water


Fruit Rum Cake:

  • 100-120 grams Dried Fruit (cut into small pieces)
  • 80 grams Dark Rum
  • 40 grams Orange Marmalade
  • 130 grams Cake Flour
  • 2/3 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 100 grams Salted Butter
  • 50 grams Brown Sugar
  • 50 grams Granulated Sugar
  • 2 Eggs

Soaking:
30 grams Dark Rum, 1 tablespoon Orange Marmalade

Decorating:
Candy Canes, Mini Marshmallow, Food Colouring (red, black, green, pink)


INSTRUCTIONS

Marzipan

  1. In a large bowl, sift together the almond flour and the icing sugar.
    If you have food processor on hand, you can just pulse them until smooth, coz how smooth you grind the almond will determine the texture of your marzipan.
  2. Pour in the corn syrup and mix.
    Add in the water and almond extract, mix well (the mixture started grainy).
  3. Using hand, bring it all together into a ball (you can add one or two teaspoons of water if necessary if you feel the dough too dry). Lightly knead on a work surface until you have a smooth ball.
    Please note, try not to ever kneading, coz it will cause the almonds to give out oil and that can make the marzipan too oily.
  4. Place it in a plastic wrap and store them in the fridge for at least 1 hour before using. Colour as needed.

Soaking
Mix marmalade with dark rum, strained the mixture.

Fruit Rum Cake

  1. Mix dried fruit and dark rum, let it soak for at least 1 hour. Add in marmalade and fold to combine.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder, set aside.
  3. In another large bowl, combine the butter and both kinds of sugar, beat until fluffy. Pour in the eggs and mix until well combined.
    Add half of the flour mixture and mix. Pour the soaked dried fruit rum mixture that has been mixed with marmalade and fold to combine. Pour the rest of the flour mixture to the bowl and mix until well combined.
  4. Pour the batter into the prepared cupcake liners about ¾ full and bake them in the preheated 180°C for about 30-35 minutes of until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  5. Once they come out from the oven, brush the with generous amount of soaking mixture and let them cool completely on the cooling rack.


Decorating

  1. Trim the top of the cupcake so it have an even flat top.
    Sprinkle some icing sugar so the marzipan won’t stick to the work surface. Roll some red marzipan about 3 mm thick for the base of the mug cake, using some marmalade jam as a glue.
  2. For the sides; prepare a piece of greaseproof paper as a marzipan templates so we know how long and how much marzipan should we roll for the sides of the mug cake.
    Roll the marzipan about 5 mm thick according to the template, stick onto the cake with some marmalade jam. Cut off the excess.
  3. Using fondant smoother, press the marzipan onto the sides of the mug cake to make sure that it stick well to the cake surface
  4. Using knife tool, tuck the marzipan under a cake so it completely seal.
  5. For the decorations; add some ribbon and tiny hearts around the cake. Stick all mug details and handle with some marmalade. 
  6. Insert a stick of candy cane to the mug, add some mini marshmallow and tiny gingerbread man 


NOTES

  1. You can use your favorite dried fruits such as raisins, figs, prunes,cherries, apricots, or maybe peaches.
  2. If you don’t like dark rum, feel free to use other liquor.
  3. To colour the marzipan, you can use any food colouring, water based, gel, powder. 
  4. I highly recommend to use concentrated food colouring, specially for a deep colour (so you can add less and still get a deep colour).
    Food coloring can throw off the consistency of your marzipan, especially if you have to add a ton to achive the color you’re after.
  5. To store marzipan; wrapped well in an airtight container or it can dry out easily. I suggest to store your Marzipan in the fridge (1 month) or freezer (up to 6 months), when you are ready to use take it out from the fridge or freezer then lightly knead to make it pliable again.
  6. To store fruit cake; In an airtight container for about 3 days at room temperature, 1 month in the fridge and 3 month in the freezer.
Posted on by Bembum Kitchen

Black Forest Cake

Hi Guys, there’s something about Christmas that makes everything a bit more magical, even the dessert. I grew up making treats to share with the entire family and I love baking so much.

And for this special day, I’m gonna share with you my signature “Christmas Blackforest Cake”. The perfect dessert for Christmas dinner that my whole family will love.

This is the first cake that I’ve learned to made when I was 13 years old. I was so happy and proud of myself at that time because everyone (specially my Mom) said that the cake was delicious.
Sometimes I think they gave me compliment just to make me feel good, they don’t want me to be disappointed.

But as I got older, I just realized that what they said was true.

Dark Sweet Cherry Filling

This Blackforest Cake combines a very soft chocolately chocolate sponge cake, layered with a rich dark cherry fillings, covered with fluffy frostings and sprinkle with a generous amount of dark chocolate shavings.

What make it special from other Blackforest Cake is the rich dark sweet cherry filling, which people usually use only whipped ceam.

And because it has always been very difficult to get Kirsch in my country (Kirsch is a traditional cherry liquor for Blackforest Cake), I always substitute it with my favourite Dark Rum for the wonderful aroma.

You can use Vodka, wine or Brandy if you want or just leave this out if you’d like to keep it kid-friendly.

Look how soft and chocolately this chocolate sponge cake!

The cake so soft, melts in your mouth, full of that rum flavour cherries filling, and the fluffy light frosting and dark chocolate shaves, really create a decadent, rich!

Light, fluffy, not too sweet frosting

Black Forest Cake was a staple when I was growing up. It’s a light and perfectly sweet German dessert that is easy to make and a chocolate-lover’s dream!

I created this special frosting recipe, coz I don’t like to use whipped cream for covering the cake which is melts easily.

And of course it’s not complete without some fresh cherries, sift some icing sugar for the snow effect, and I would like to add silver sugar pearls for a sweet touch.
Feel free to add other decoration as desire.

The frosting won’t melt , so you we don’t need to worry too much 🙂

Isn’t this cake look tempting? It’s ready to serve or you can pop it into the fridge to hang out for a while.

Look at the inside, that delicious chocolately sponge cake!
And the thick rich dark sweet cherry filling in between

I’m so ready for a Christmas celebration, they are also perfect with your favorite tea or coffee.

I now you can’t resist it!

No one thought we would be celebrating Christmas in the midst of a pandemic, yet here we are. But we are still grateful for everything we have and always hope for the best.
May your Christmas be a merry one! Stay safe!! Love you All…


BLACKFOREST CAKE
Yield: One 8-inch Round Pan
Active time: 1 hour
Total time: 3 hour

INGREDIENTS
Chocolate Sponge Cake:

  • 100 grams Cake Flour
  • 25 grams Cocoa Powder
  • 65 grams Granulated Sugar
  • 50 grams Vegetable Oil
  • 65 grams Milk
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • A Pinch of Salt
  • 85 grams Egg Yolks
  • 165 grams Egg Whites
  • 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice/ Vinegar
  • 65 grams Granulated Sugar

Cherry Filling:

  • 1 can (16 Ounces) Dark Sweet Cherries
  • 80 grams Granulated Sugar
  • 30 grams Corn Flour
  • 3 tablespoons Dark Rum/ Kirsch

Frosting:

  • 225 grams Shortening
  • 40 grams Unsalted Butter
  • 190 grams Icing Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons Dark Rum/ Kirsch
  • A Pinch of Salt
  • 60 grams Whipped Cream


INSTRUCTIONS
Prepare the panFor the water bath; Line the inside bottom part of 8-inch round pan with parchment paper and wrap the outside bottom part of the pan with aluminium foil.
Place the wrapped pan on bigger baking pan, set aside.


Chocolate Sponge Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
  2. In a large bowl, sift the flour and cocoa powder, set aside.
    In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, vegetable oil, milk, vanilla, salt and egg yolks, mix well. Pour the egg yolks mixture into the flour mixture and mix until no lumps remain.
  3. In another large bowl, whip egg whites and lemon juice until a bit foamy. Add the sugar gradually, continue mixing until reach a stiff peak.
  4. Very gently fold the egg whites into the egg yolks batter in three batches (don’t mix it together all at once, to prevent the egg foam deflate).
    Using spatula, mix gently just until all incorporated, make sure there’s no egg yolks batter left on the bottom of the bowl.
  5. Pour the mixture into the baking pan, tap the pan a few times to get rid off air bubbles.
    And for the water bath; pour about ½-inch hot water onto the bigger pan.
    Place both pans on the bottom rack of the oven and bake it for about 85 minutes.
  6. Once it come out from the oven, take it out immediately from the water bath. Tap the pan a few times so it won’t shrink too much, remove the cake from the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack.


Cherry Filling

  1. Strain the cherries and place the syrup to a medium sauce pan.
  2. Soak the cherries with generous amount of dark rum for about 1 hour (you can leave this out if you’d like to keep it kid-friendly).
  3. To make the cherry filling; Combine the reserve cherry syrup with sugar and corn flour (strain to make sure there’s no any lumps) pour it back to the pan.
    Cook over medium low heat, keep stirring until it boil becomes transparant and thickened. Remove it from the heat, add in rum, mix well
  4. Drain the soaked cherries and combine with the cherry filling.


Frosting

  1. In a large bowl combine the shortening and unsalted butter mix until soft and well combined.
  2. Add in the icing sugar, rum and salt, continue mixing until becomes light and fluffy.
  3. Pour in the whipped cream and mix until just combined.


Assembly

  1. Using a large serrated knife, divide the cake into 3 equal layers.
  2. Place the first cake layer on a cake plate, brush it with rum. Pipe a rim of frosting around the cake layer before adding the filling (this creates a nice barrier so the filling stays in place), spread half of the cherry filling within the frosting barrier.
    Place the second layer on top, repeat the step. Place your final cake layer bottom side up on top of the cake.
  3. Crumb coat your cake with a light coat of frosting (freezer for about 10 or 30 minutes in the fridge to set the crumb coat). Continue frost the cake with remaining frosting.
  4. Press generous amount of the chocolate shaves onto the cake, sprinkle some for the top
    (Tip: grate the chocolate 1 hour in advance and store them in the fridge so it’s easier to handle).
  5. Pipe frosting to make it pretty, place some fresh cherries. Sift some icing sugar on top of the cake. Add another decoration if desire.


NOTES

  1. Best serve on the day it’s made.
  2. Cover in an airtight container and store leftover cake in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
  3. I suggest to use 16 Oz S&W Dark Sweet Cherries brand for the best result coz it serve fresh cherries inside and better taste than any other brand.