Zupfkuchen and pumpkin pie
You may have asked yourself if I ever make any "normal" cakes that aren't covered in fondant. Of course I do. Don't be silly. I made two different kinds this weekend.
First, there's a very popular cake around here called Zupfkuchen, or pinch off cake... it obviously loses something in translation. It's also sometimes called russischer Zupfkuchen, although seems to have nothing to do with Russia. It's basically a chocolate butter cookie base with a vanilla pudding kind of filling with little pieces of the base sprinkled on top.
I was a little nervous. I'd never made it before. Plus for the sake of my lactose intolerant preschooler, I used a vegan recipe. It called for 500g of vanilla soy yoghurt, which of course the store was out of, so we improvised by buying regular soy yoghurt and adding copious amounts of vanilla sugar.
I saved more of the base than necessary to sprinkle on top. A little less would have been plenty.
It also baked higher than I expected and ended up over the edge of the butter cookie base.
However, somewhat surprisingly, it turned out delicious. Exactly as a Zupfkuchen should.
My second endeavor was pumpkin pie. This time I used a standard recipe and swapped out the evaporated milk for cooking grade coconut milk and the milk for vanilla soy milk.
The pumpkin itself was a touch chunky since canned pumpkin doesn't exist here and our blender decided to be temperamental that day. But otherwise, all was well.
It looked just like a pumpkin pie should. And except for a touch of coconut flavor, the taste was spot on as well.
If you're wondering if it was for Thanksgiving, the answer is... sort of. We sometimes do Thanksgiving if someone else organizes everything. No one did this year, so we did something small the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had goose instead of turkey (store was sold out of turkey that wasn't lunch meat), sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie. My husband cooked. I baked. It's a great trade off.
First, there's a very popular cake around here called Zupfkuchen, or pinch off cake... it obviously loses something in translation. It's also sometimes called russischer Zupfkuchen, although seems to have nothing to do with Russia. It's basically a chocolate butter cookie base with a vanilla pudding kind of filling with little pieces of the base sprinkled on top.
I was a little nervous. I'd never made it before. Plus for the sake of my lactose intolerant preschooler, I used a vegan recipe. It called for 500g of vanilla soy yoghurt, which of course the store was out of, so we improvised by buying regular soy yoghurt and adding copious amounts of vanilla sugar.
My second endeavor was pumpkin pie. This time I used a standard recipe and swapped out the evaporated milk for cooking grade coconut milk and the milk for vanilla soy milk.
If you're wondering if it was for Thanksgiving, the answer is... sort of. We sometimes do Thanksgiving if someone else organizes everything. No one did this year, so we did something small the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had goose instead of turkey (store was sold out of turkey that wasn't lunch meat), sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie. My husband cooked. I baked. It's a great trade off.
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