Hungarian Cake - Gerbeaud (Zserbo)

It was recently my Dad's birthday and so I wanted to make him a special cake, not like the ones I'd done in the past here. Being Hungarian, my number one thought was to make him  one of his favourite Hungarian cakes. It wasn't hard to find a good recipe online, thanks to The Eccentric Cook. So my Saturday mission was to make this cake as close to the original my Grandma used to make for us years ago. The funniest part of the day was when we asked my 4 year old nephew if he liked the cake and he said "yes". When we asked him if he would like the cake without the chocolate top he said "no". Gotta love the kids and their chocolate!!

What you will need for the cake: 

24x40cm pan 

850g Plain Flour

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

600g Butter

125g Sugar + 1 teaspoon

3 Eggs

1 pack of active dry yeast (7g)

200ml Milk + 2 tablespoons

What you will need for the filling:

400g Ground Walnut

300g Sugar

500g Apricot Jam or Preserve - the denser the better

What you will need for the chocolate coat: 

220g Dark Chocolate

4 tablespoons Sunflower Oil

What you need to do: 

Dissolve the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar in the 2 tablespoons of milk.

Let it sit covered until it's foamy (you can't see it's foamy in the photo below unfortunately).

Combine the flour with the baking powder. 

Cut the butter in the flour (see here for instructions). 

Mix the sugar with the eggs. 

Add the sugary egg mixture and yeast to the flour and mix it together. 

Add in the milk gradually, never add the whole thing, and work it together. 

It becomes quite a wet dough at this point. 

Knead the dough until it won't stick to your fingers. This will happen after kneading for awhile. I added extra flour to my work surface and the dough as I went. 

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts. 

Starting with one part of dough, roll it to the size of your pan and place it in the pan. If the dough breaks it's OK, you can knead it back together with your fingers. 

Put the dough into the pan. 

Spread the dough with the apricot preserve lightly. 

Mix the sugar and ground walnut together.

Sprinkle it generously on the preserve.

Repeat the process with the other 3 parts of the dough. Roll one out, try to make it on top of the filling and spread another layer of filling on it. Repeat and again repeat finishing the cake with the last layer of dough.

Last layer

Let it sit for an hour and then bake it on 180C for 30 minutes. I actually baked mine at about 130C because my oven can get quite hot and I didn't want it to burn. I then left it in the hot oven (switched off) to cool down a bit after 30 minutes. 

When the cake is ready, let it chill before spreading the chocolate on top. 

Melt the chocolate with the oil once the cake is cooled. 

When the chocolate sauce is runny, just pour it on the cake and make it even on the top. 

Let the cake rest overnight in the fridge for the best flavour.  

A few things I learnt that I would do differently next time: 

• use more Apricot jam 
• use less ground walnuts (about 250g)
• not use olive oil with chocolate (olive oil is too strong of a flavour) - found out from the source that using Sunflower oil is the best and will give a great flavour and texture to the chocolate
• make the chocolate layer much MUCH thinner

For more photos and updates visit my Facebook page here 

Rocky Road - simple work treat

 I've never made rocky road, crazy I know, so for Christmas I wanted to try it and bring some to work. It was a success, luckily, but I'm not overly fussed on the recipe I chose from Cadbury's . I think I need to keep hunting out the perfect Rocky Road recipe. It's well worth trying though because this one is very easy and took barely any time at all. I did chaneg the ingredients slightly to suit what was available.


What you will need:  
1½ cups Marshmallows, halved
1 cup peanuts, chopped (I selfishly left these out because I hate nuts)
¾ cup red glacé cherries, halved (instead I used mini red frogs)
200g Cadbury Dark Baking Chocolate, chopped*
200g Cadbury Milk Baking Chocolate, chopped*
150g shortbread finger biscuits, broken (I forgot about these so didn't include them) 

*to make life simple I bought the chocolate bits so there was no chopping

Ingredients

What to do:  

Combine ⅓ each of the marshmallows, peanuts and cherries and set aside.
 
Melt together the milk and dark chocolate in a glass bowl over simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water (I just melted the chocolate in a saucepan but you have to be careful because if it gets too hot the chocolate will seize and be ruined. I half melted the chocolate, turned off the heat and continued to stir the rest of the chocolate until melted).

Half metled, turn off the heat here

Melted chocolate

Stir the biscuits and remaining marshmallows, peanuts and cherries into the melted chocolate.

Mix ingredients together

Spoon mixture into a lined 18cm × 30cm slice pan.

Gently press the reserved marshmallow mix into the top of the slice.

Squish in some extra filling

Chill until firm and then slice into squares to serve.

Chock full of marshmallow & red frogs

My Version - Rocky Road

Close up

The rocky road went down a treat at work (and Christmas day for my family - they insisted). But I still need to find the perfect recipe that satisifies all my taste buds.Do you have a tried, tested and loved rocky road recipe?

For more photos and updates visit my Facebook page here

Foodie Friends Friday

You always know how quickly a week has passed because Foodie Friends Friday comes up. Over the seasonal break I have been very quiet and honestly, barely did any cooking (take away and restuarants were my best friend). But this year I will get back into the swing of things, plus have a lot of time to cook and bake when I'm on maternity leave which I'm very excited about (the cooking and the baby!).

 Before getting in to this week's FFF giveaway I would re-share an a recipe from early last year - Roast Chicken with Verjuice. I loved making this, as it was my first ever roast chicken, and it was so easy. Check it out here

Roast Chicken with Verjuice

This week's sponsor is Broken Treasures, who is giving away two sets of stamps (US Shipping only).You can view Broken Treasure's itemson her blog on Facebook and Twitter

This week's hosts are:
Foodie Friends Friday
Tracy at Busy Vegetarian Mom
Robyn's View
Marlys at This and That 
Lois at  Walking on Sunshine
From Calculus to Cupcakes
Feeding Big
Binomial Baker 
Spatulas on Parade
A lil Country Sugar
Adorned Well
Cindy's Recipes and Writings
Winelady Cooks
Nosh My Way
Hungry Little Girl
Chef Picky Kid

Last week's winners

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Satay Beef - the easiest & best recipe

I love a good satay but finding the perfect recipe has not been easy (and I have tried a few). So I decided to ask my trusty friend - Google - for some assistance, and I came upon Best Recipes. I can't stress enough how easy this recipe was and with so many ingredients I already had in my cupboard it made it even better. Even the husband loved it. Next I will try it with chicken!!! 

What you will need:

500g beef, thinly sliced

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 large Onion, sliced

1 Garlic clove, crushed

1 small Red Chilli, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon Lemon Rind, grated

2-3 teaspoons Curry Powder

1 Tabelsppon Soy Sauce

2 Tablespoons Peanut Butter

250ml Coconut Milk

2 Tablespoons Coriander, chopped

Ingredients

What to do:

Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the onions, chilli, garlic, lemon rind and curry powder and cook for 1 minute.

Add the beef and cook until just brown.

Add the soy sauce, coconut milk and peanut butter and stir until smooth.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. The sauce will start to thicken up and the onions will go soft.

Stir in the coriander and serve with rice and your choice of vegetables.

This recipe can also be made with chicken, Substitute the 500g of beef with 500g of chicken breast, thinly sliced. 

Do you have a favourite satay recipe? If so share it below. 

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