Gear cake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 4 eggs
• ½ cup(s) sugar (200ml coffee cup)
• 1 tbsp sugar, for dusting the work surface
• 60 g butter
• ½ cup(s) flour
• ¼ cup cocoa powder, (baking cocoa)
• 4 eggs
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp sugar, for dusting the work surface
• 60 g butter
• ¾ cup flour
• 1 cup of red fruit compote, from the refrigerated section
• 1 pack of pudding powder (vanilla pudding powder)
• 200 g butter, room temperature
• 350 ml milk
• 40 g vanilla sugar
• 1 pack of marzipan
• Food coloring (gold spray)

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 35 minutes

for mechanical engineers and engineers on their birthday

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Mix the pudding mix with a little cold milk until smooth. Bring the remaining milk to a boil with the vanilla sugar, then stir in the mixed mix and bring to a boil while stirring. Cover the surface with cling film to prevent a skin from forming and let the pudding cool. Bake two sponge cakes one after the other in identical steps, one light and one dark. I’ll only describe the preparation of the sponge cake once. Once one layer is baked, simply repeat the steps. For the sponge cake, separate four eggs. Once one layer is baked, whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar. Beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. When the egg whites have the consistency of shaving foam, gradually add the second half of the sugar. The egg whites are ready when they form standing peaks that defy gravity. Alternatively, hold the bowl upside down over your head. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Carefully add the sifted flour (and cocoa for the chocolate sponge) and the butter and mix until you have a smooth, fairly runny batter. Pour the batter into the baking tray. Shake the tray several times to release any air bubbles. Bake until no batter sticks to your fingertips when pressed (alternatively, use a toothpick to test the batter). The batter bakes very quickly (approx. 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven). Dust the work surface with 1 tablespoon of sugar. Once the sponge is baked, turn it out onto the sugar surface and let it cool. Prepare the second sponge following exactly the same steps and let it cool as well. Bring the pudding to room temperature. For the cream, mix the pudding with a hand mixer, adding the butter a little at a time and stirring in. This will take a while. To ensure a smooth and not flaky cream, the pudding and butter should be at the same temperature. Spread the cream on the bottom light layer, then the red fruit compote, then the chocolate sponge. For the decoration, roll out the marzipan on a surface dusted with powdered sugar or baking paper. Place a stencil on it (I made it myself using pictures of gears from the internet) and cut out the gears. Then spray the marzipan with gold spray and place it on the cake. I baked the cake Friday morning for a mechanical engineer’s birthday party on Saturday evening; an all-nighter is ideal.