Kiksekage is an old classic non-bake cake very popular in the 70's and 80's in Denmark. But it's not a Danish cake. It's actually a German cake called "Kalte Hund" or cold dog, and the British has a similar cake, the chocolate fridge cake.

My chocolate loving husband, asked if I could try to make a kiksekage, and I was somewhat reluctant, chocolate is not my thing, but I promised to look into kiksekage. My only experience with Kiksekage, was the one my mom made, and to be honest, I didn't care for it. Weird - I loved everything sweet back then.

A traditional kiksekage is made with coconut oil (palmin), eggs and cocoa powder, but why not make the cake with premium ingredients. It's not like good chocolate is hard to find. During my research for the perfect kiksekage, I found Lone Kjærs recipe. This one was made with condensed milk instead of eggs and she used about ⅓ of the butter other recipes called for. So I decided to go with Lone's recipe.

Ingredients:

300 g dark chocolate (I used Valrhona 61%)
1 can condensed milk. 400 g
35 g butter
1 orange, the zest of
about 20 squared vanilla biscuits
sprinkle: chopped pistachios

Directions:

Line a loaf pan (9x5 inch or 22x12 cm) with parchment paper (Spray the inside of the pan with cooking spray, so the parchment sticks to the pan, don’t spray the inside of the parchment paper). You can also use plastic wrap to line the loaf pan. Chop the chocolate coarsely and put it in a small saucepan with condensed milk and butter. Let the mixture to melt over low heat. Be careful not to burn the mixture, stir occasionally until the mixture is homogeneously, then remove the pan from the heat and mix in orange zest. Pour a thin layer of chocolate in the bottom of the pan. Add then a layer of biscuits. Continue to layer chocolate and biscuits until you have 4 layers in total, ending with a chocolate layer. Sprinkle with the chopped nuts and cover the cake with a piece of parchment paper. Store the cake in refrigerator at least 4 hours before serving.

Serving:

Flip the cake out onto a pretty platter, remove any parchment paper. Do this about 10-15 minutes before serving. Slice the cake with a sharp knife. Tip: heat the knife in hot water, to ease the cutting.

Enjoy.

Chocolate Mousse - just two ingredients!

March 2, 2014Desserts, Sweets and CandyTove Balle-Pedersen6 Comments

Get a perfect creamy chocolate mousse using just water and chocolate. It sounds crazy. I've always been told that you never mix chocolate and water, because the chocolate gets grainy and ruined. But this recipe from the french chemist Hervé This make you rethink your chocolate truths. You can watch Heston Blumenthal explain and prepare the mousse here.

My husband is a chocolateholic, so chocolate mousse is one of his favorite desserts, but I rarely make it. Maybe, maybe I’ll make more often, when it's as easy as this. I definitely have to try making it again, with different chocolates and different flavor profiles. The mousse has a very intense chocolate taste, you might tone it down with some sugar or adding cream with the water.

I didn’t have a 70% chocolate, so I used the 61% Valrhona, I just got, instead, and it worked perfectly.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients

265 g (9⅓ oz) chocolate (70 %)
240 g (1 cup) water

Directions:

Place a mixing bowl on top of another slightly larger bowl filled with ice and cold water, (you can add a teaspoon of salt to get a cooler ice water). The bottom of the top bowl should touch the ice water, but the ice water shouldn't be able to get into the top bowl. Set aside.

Chop the chocolate finely, adding it to a small sauce pan with the water. Slowly melt the chocolate while whisking. When melted, pour the chocolate into the bowl sitting in the ice water, begin whisking. Whisk vigorously until mousse begins to thicken. In the beginning it looks like nothing will ever happen, but after 2-4 minutes it starts to thicken up. Be careful not to over whisk as the chocolate can become grainy. I used a hand mixer in the beginning and a hand whisk in the end. If you over whisk the mousse, you just have to remelt the chocolate mousse and start whisking all over again. You don't have to throw it all away.

When you have the desired texture, pour the mousse in to the serving dishes. You have to do it pretty fast, because the mousse thickens.

Serve the mousse immediately or let the mousse thicken up some more in the refrigerator.

The chocolate mousse will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. (But not in my house).

Sarah Bernhardt Cookies with Liquorice

February 11, 2014Cake, Liquorice, Sweets and CandyTove Balle-PedersenComment

Sarah Bernhardt cakes originates to 1911, where a Copenhagen pastry chef (Johannes Steen) created this cake as a tribute to the world-famous french actress, Sarah Bernhardt, when she came to Copenhagen to mark the publication of her memoirs in Danish.

The cake is a Danish makron cookie topped with a ganache covered with dark chocolate and decorated with candied violets.

I use the traditional recipe from "Kager & konfekt fra Kransekagehuset" with a few modifications.

Makes about 12 cakes.

Ingredients:

Cakes:

12 Danish makroner
150 g dark chokolate min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
100 g milk chocolate (a good one, I use Valrhona)
1⅔ cup (4 dl) heavy whipping cream (use an organic with only milk as ingredient)
4 teaspoons sweet liquorice syrup
2 teaspoons salty liquorice syrup

Coating:

200 g min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
candied violets

Directions:

Ganache:

Chop the chocolate fine. Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan, remove the pan from the heat and let the cream cool down to 60℃. Add the chocolate while stirring, and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Stir in the liquorice sirups. You should now have a dark shiny chocolate sauce/ganache. Cool the ganache in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day whip the ganache with a stand mixer, be careful not to over mix the ganache, this will cause the ganache to curl and become grainy.

Put the ganache into a pastry bag (decoration bag) with a plain round tip. Pipe the ganache on the back side on the makron cookie as a peak. Transfer to freezer until very firm, about 1 hour. (This is where I made a mistake. My cookies were in the freezer overnight, and this made the filling to cold, and caused the condensation on the covered cookies).

Tempering dark chocolate:

Chop the chocolate finely, set just under ⅓ of the chocolate aside, and add the rest into a stainless steel bowl. Set the bowl on to a saucepan with very hot water. Let the chocolate melt while stirring. When the chocolate reaches 122℉ (50℃), take the bowl off the hot water. While stirring let the chocolate cool until it reaches 95℉ (35℃), add the rest of the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously until its all melted. When the chocolate reaches 82-84℉ (28-29℃) put the bowl over the hot water again, and heat the chocolate to 88℉ (31℃), and now its ready to use for coating.

Remove cookies from freezer. Working quickly so that the filling doesn't melt, use a fork to hold cookie above bowl of chocolate, and spoon melted chocolate over cookie. Place filling-side up on cooling rack placed over a baking sheet, sprinkle the candied violets on the tip of the cookie. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Sarah Bernhardt Cookies

February 11, 2014Cake, Sweets and CandyTove Balle-Pedersen2 Comments

Sarah Bernhardt cakes originates back to 1911, where a Copenhagen pastry chef (Johannes Steen) created this cake as a tribute to the world-famous french actress, Sarah Bernhardt, when she came to Copenhagen to mark the publication of her memoirs in Danish.

The cake is a Danish makron cookie topped with a ganache covered with dark chocolate and decorated with candied violets.

I use the traditional recipe from "Kager & konfekt fra Kransekagehuset" with a few modifications.

Makes about 12 cakes.

Ingredients:

Cakes:

12 Danish makroner
150 g dark chokolate min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
100 g milk chocolate (a good one, I use Valrhona)
1⅔ cup (4 dl) heavy whipping cream (use an organic with milk as only ingredient)

Coating:

200 g min. 60% cocoa, (a good one, I use Valrhona)
candied violets

Directions:

Ganache:

Chop the chocolate fine. Bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan, remove the pan from the heat and let the cream cool down to 60℃. Add the chocolate while stirring, and continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted. You should now have a shiny chocolate sauce/ganache. Cool the ganache in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day whip the ganache with a stand mixer, be careful not to over mix the ganache, this will cause the ganache to curl and become grainy.

Tempering dark chocolate:

Kransekage with Liquorice

December 29, 2013Cake, New Year's Eve, Holiday, Sweets and CandyTove Balle-Pedersen2 Comments

With all the liquorice I've been using, I had to try liquorice in the kransekage

Kransekage:

50 g almonds blanched
100 g sugar
1 egg white
250 g marzipan (I used Ren Rå, a 60% almond paste)
15-25 g marzipan with liquorice from Lakrids by Johan Bülow

Icing:

white chocolate
a sprinkle raw liquorice powder

Directions:

Put almonds and sugar into food processor with the steel blade in place and process until finely pulverized. Add the egg whites and process until smooth. Be careful not to heat the mass to more than 95 - 104°F, else the egg white will cook.

Shred the marzipan and add it and the almond/egg white mixture to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat it until it's completely smooth and free of lumps. Form the dough into a ball, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven for 375℉ (190℃).

Roll the dough into logs as thick as your finger, and cut into 3 inch long pieces. Cut about 1 inch of each the pieces. Roll the 2 inch piece thinner, and flatten the log, and form a little slit where you put some marzipan with liquorice. Top the piece of with the rest of the dough you cut of.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely before decorating.