There are a few memories which pop up when I think of my childhood. One of them is for sure this cake. My mother used to make it very often and it was on of the reasons why my sisters and I often visited the room where this little treasure was stored. In its simplicity, it is the perfect cake to accompany your afternoon coffee or tea.

 

 

 Ingredients

For the sponge cake:

•  3 eggs
• 125 ml oil
• 280 g all-purpose flour
• 120 g sugar
• 1 package of baking powder
• 1 package of vanilla sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 dl milk

For the dipping sauce

•  150 g butter
• 250 ml heavy cream (unwhipped)
• 200 g dark chocolate
• 100 g sugar
• baking powder
• 2 dl milk
• 30 ml rum

Additionally:

• 350 g coconut flakes

 

Recipe

Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Add baking powder to the flour and sieve everything. Beat egg whites and gradually add sugar until very stiff and shiny. Scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean and add it to the beaten egg whites. Add oil, half amount of flour with baking powder, egg yolks (one at the time), milk and at the end the remaining flour-baking powder mixture.

Pour the dough into a baking tray lined with baking paper (dimensions 25 x 35 cm) and bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for approximately 15-20 minutes until golden (try with a toothpick – stick it into the dough. If it comes out clean and dry, the cake is done!). Let the biscuit cool down.

In the meantime, combine heavy cream, butter and sugar in a medium-size pan. Warm it up over medium heat until the sugar melts (just before it boils). Take it away from the stove and add chocolate. Stir until chocolate melts. At the end, pour the milk and rum and stir everything until it becomes homogenous. Let it cool down, so that you can touch the liquid with your fingers.

Cut the biscuit to cubes of the size you prefer. I like rather smaller cubes. Dip each cube completely into the chocolate sauce, let the sauce drip for a second and toss the cake cube in the coconut flakes until covered from all sides. Store in an airtight container.

 

Merium

 

Recipe adapted from this great blog.