Persimmon Cake

I had two medium size persimmons in the fridge that were getting over-ripe, so I decided to make them into a cake. This summer we went full throttle into the cream cake territory and I made almost two dozen cream cakes with berries we picked on our hikes, or bought at the market.

The recipe I chose is more a sort of an algorithm I follow for cream cakes, covered with cake glaze. The cake is made of three layers - a hard layer, which might be made of biscuits and butter or baked cake, a cream layer, often custard, cheese cream, sour cream or a combination thereof and a fruit layer, made of berries or slices of fruit, covered with cake glaze.

Ingredients: 

Biscuit layer:

• 200 g cracker biscuits
• 100 g melted butter 

Cream layer:

• 50 g powdered sugar
• 200 g sour cream
• 1 blended persimmon 

Fruit layer:

• 1 thinly sliced persimmon
• 1 pack red tortenguss 
• 30 g sugar
• 220 g water 

Preparation:

The cake involves no baking, and almost no cooking but for the cake glaze. In order to prepare the biscuit layer, first grind the biscuits. I used the remaining content of a pack of wholegrain crackers and brought the quantity up to 200 g with some of my home-baked lemon biscuits. Then mix the biscuits with the soft butter, spread the buttery crumbs on the bottom of a cake dish and press. Leave in the fridge for at least half an hour to cool and harden a little.

Meanwhile blend one persimmon, add the fruit to 200 g of thick 20% sour cream and fold in 50 g of powdered sugar. Spread the creamy layer over the biscuit layer.

Finally cut the second persimmon into thin slices and arrange them on top. Even better if you have more than one, then you could tile the slices on top of the cream. Cook the tortenguss (cake glaze) according to instructions and spread the hot glaze over the fruit slices. 

Place in the fridge and leave overnight. Serve with coffee and enjoy!

Blueberry Cream Cake

The idea for this cake was inspired by the traditional German Kirsch-Schmand-Blechkuchen - layer cake with a cream filling, made with pudding and sour cream. I don't think I had ever met such a combination and I was very curious to try it. In the original recipe the fruit is cherries, usually from cans, but I used the blueberries that i picked on Mechit specifically with this cake in mind.

Instead of a butter cake layer, I chose to make a biscuit cheesecake base out of cracker biscuits and butter. My cream layer is custard, mixed with sour cream and the last layer is blueberries (no idea how much, all that I had managed to collect) and one packet of tortenguss - German fruit glaze, which I ordered from amazon.de.

Ingredients: 

Biscuit layer:

• 200 g cracker biscuits
• 100 g melted butter 

Cream layer:

• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 50 g flour
• 400 g milk
• 150 g sour cream  

Berry layer:

• blueberries
• 1 pack red tortenguss 
• 50 g sugar
• 220 g water 

Preparation:

This cake is made without baking, but you still have to cook the custard and the tortenguss. First prepare the biscuit layer - grind the biscuits, mix them with the butter, spread the buttery crumbs on the bottom of a cake form and press. Leave in the fridge for at least half an hour to cool and harden a little.

Meanwhile cook the custard - beat the eggs with the sugar, add the flour, stir, add the milk gradually, while stirring with a whisk. Bring to boil on a hot plate, while stirring constantly, until the custard is cooked. Leave to cool completely, covering the top with a stretch foil to avoid the formation of a crust.

Once the custard has cooled to room temperature, stir in the sour cream until smooth and homogeneous.

Spread the cream on top of the biscuit layer and leave in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Place the berries on top of the cream layer. Cook the red glaze according to the instructions. Cover the berries with the glaze and leave the cake in the fridge overnight.

The resulting cake is very light, creamy, with a fresh fruity taste, ideal with the morning coffee.