På dansk om Ampelmann cake: Se forneden i indlægget.

I have only made one previous post in both Danish and English, but I am delighted to do this one. I love the little Ampelmann from the former GDR. The little, friendly, green guy in the traffic lights, telling us whether to cross the street or not.

We have spent much time in Berlin over the years. And we have bought quite a lot of souvenirs in the Ampelmann shops: Bags, mats, signs – and cookie cutters. I was up for the challenge of baking a cake with a surprise inside, using one of these cookie cutters.

Ampelmann celebrated his birthday on the 13th of October, and I made a cake for him. I put my Ampelmann cake in the freezer, and when we went to Berlin for our autumn vacation, I brought a piece for the Ampelmann restaurant.

The cake was very well received:-) I was photographed with my cake in the restaurant, and my husband and I were served a cup of coffee in the sun, while the Ampelmann cake was put on display with other cakes – that were for sale, waiting for Romina from the office to come pick it up.

Romina (who personates the @ampelmann_berlin and @team_ampelmann profiles on Instagram) asked me on Instagram, if I had a recipe for my cake in English, so she could link to it on their Instastory? I didn’t, but here it is;-) Hopefully someone will bake this cake, using my recipe and celebrate the Ampelmann with me.

But won’t the cake be dry, when you have to bake the green cake twice? No, it doesn’t. When you put the baked Ampelmänner in the chocolate batter, they are ice-cold, so when they thaw in the oven, they are protected by the moist chocolate cake. The chocolate cake is very moist and yummy, so give it a try.

Ampelmann cake

Green batter

• 3 eggs, medium sized, at room temperature
• 250 g sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 100 g salted butter
• 2 dl. milk
• Green food coloring
• 250 g all purpose flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder

Chocolate batter

• 100 g chopped dark chocolate
• 1 dl. whipping cream
• 200 g soft, salted butter
• 250 g sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, medium sized, at room temperature
• 2 dl. milk
• 340 g all purpose flour
• 55 g dark cocoa powder
• 4 tsp. baking powder

For decoration: 80 g dark chocolate.

Start with the green batter

Preheat the oven to 175°C (regular, not fan). Line a baking pan with baking paper.

Whip eggs, sugar and vanilla extract, until it is very light and fluffy. It takes at least 10 minutes. Sift your flour and baking powder together and mix it thoroughly. Melt the butter and mix it with milk and green food coloring, until you have the desired green color.

Mix the flour into the eggs alternating with the milk/butter mixture. Don’t overmix! That will result in a heavy and compact cake.

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake it on a lower rack for about 20 minutes. Check, if the cake is done, or if it sticks to a wooden skewer.

Let the cake cool in the pan for a few minutes. Run a knife around the outside edges, put a new piece of baking paper on top and flip it over onto another baking pan or board. Remove the baking paper on the bottom of the cake, and put the cake in the freezer, until it is firm. It doesn’t have to be frozen solid, but it easier to cut out your Ampelmann, when the cake is cold.

When your green cake is cold and firm, level it off with a bread knife and remove the spots of oven browning, both on the top and bottom of the cake. We just want vibrant green cake! Take your cookie cutter and cut out as many green Ampelmann, that you can fill out your bread pan with men standing up. Cut out a few extras just to be safe. Put your green men in the freezer again, while you make the chocolate batter.

Chocolate batter

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Butter or spray a bread pan, sized 10x10x30 cm.

Heat the cream in a small pan, remove the pan from the heat and pour the cream over the chopped chocolate. Leave it for at few minutes, until the chocolate starts melting, before you stir it together.

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla extract very well. Add the eggs one at a time, and mix well between each egg. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa together and mix it thoroughly. Mix in flour alternating with the milk and be careful not to overmix it. Fold in the melted chocolate, until the batter is evenly combined.

Pour one centimeter of chocolate batter into the prepared bread pan and bake it for 7 minutes. The batter is not baked at this time, but has set. Pour the rest of the chocolate batter into a freezing bag or a piping bag.

Cut off the tip of your piping bag and put a stripe of batter in the middle of the baked cake, because we need some batter between the walking Ampelmann’s legs. Place your cold, cutout men upright all through the bread pan, very close together.

Pour in the rest of the chocolate dough evenly on both sides of the green cake. When you have used up all your batter, use a spatula to smooth out the dough and cover the green cake. Tap your bread pan a few times on the work bench just to make sure, that the chocolate cake has filled it properly.

Bake your Ampelmann cake in the lower third of your oven for 45-50 minutes. Check with a wooden skewer, whether the cake is baked or sticks to it. You of course have to check on both sides of the cake, because the middle (green) part of your cake is baked already:-)

Let the cake cool in the bread pan for 5-10 minutes, before you flip it over, remove the bread pan and let the cake cool completely on a cooling rack.

Decoration

Carefully melt the chocolate for decoration, either in the micro wave or in a bain-marie, and drizzle it over the cooled Ampelmann cake.

Your guests will be impressed, when you serve the Ampelmann cake, because each slice shows a little, green guy to put a smile on your face:-)

På dansk

Det er ikke tit, jeg skriver opskrifter på engelsk – og da slet ikke hvor det engelske står først, men  der er en efterhistorie til mit Ampelmann kage-indlæg, som jeg lagde op i sidste uge. Jeg lagde kagen i fryseren, straks da jeg havde bagt den, for vi havde i virkeligheden nogle andre kager, der skulle spises først – og det var slet ikke Ampelmanns fødselsdag endnu.

Jeg sendte en privat besked på Instagram til Ampelmann-profilen, bare så de kunne se, hvad jeg havde gået og puslet med. Romina, som styrer deres profil, svarede tilbage, om det var OK, at de repostede mit billede i deres Instastory om fredagen, når jeg havde lagt det op? Jo, det måtte de selvfølgelig gerne. – Skulle jeg så tage et stykke kage med, når vi alligevel skulle til Berlin i efterårsferien? Ja, det ville være lækkert…

Jeg afleverede kagen i Ampelmann restauranten dagen efter vores ankomst. De vidste ikke helt, hvad de skulle gøre med den, men satte den ind til de kager, der stod i salgsmontren, indtil Romina kunne hente den. Jeg blev fotograferet sammen med den. Og til gengæld fik vi serveret en kop kaffe i solskinnet.

Dagen efter skrev Romina igen: ‘Har du opskriften på engelsk, for vi vil gerne linke til den og din blog fra vores Instastory?’ Det har jeg nu:-) Lidt pudsig oplevelse at aflevere en hjemmebagt kage på en restaurant, og at den så kommer ind at stå med de “rigtige” kager… Jeg forventer dog ikke at bloggen bliver lagt ned af udenlandske Instagrambrugere, som vil kigge på opskriften. Men følelsen af at nå lidt længere ud i verden, er nu meget rar:-)

Ha’ en dejlig mandag!