recipes Archives - Jenny is baking

My Favorite 20 Chocolate Recipes

Probably you are not going to believe me when I say that it was extremely hard for me to narrow down the list of chocolate recipes and reduce them to 20 only. Yes, I am a chocoholic, day or night, summer or winter, I will happily eat chocolate. Chocolate for breakfast, why not? It doesn’t come as a surprise that I have a full chocolate category on my blog. Today I am presenting 20 of my favorite chocolate recipes, simply, because I am celebrating this entire week with other bloggers I invited to make something with chocolate for me. I am celebrating that I don’t have premanent damage after my bike accident five years ago. Despite brain bleeding, a concussion, and a tooth I cut in half. Today, April 23, marks the day when I had the accident. I celebrate every year, with you and other bloggers. If you would like to learn more about the accident and my fifth anniversay, please check this blog post.

I am also excited that at least five of below recipes are among the top 10. Apparently I am not the only one who loves chocolate. I once managed to even with a recipe prize with this chocolate mousse cherry cake and had the chance to go to the chocolate festival in Tübigen. But let’s get back to the 20 chocolate recipes below. Which one is your favorite?

Layer Cakes and Cupcakes

Raspberry chocolate cake

Super moist chocolate cakes and a fruity raspberry filling, which isn’t too sweet and also not as heavy as buttercream. Many of you made this cake and love it as much as I do. I published a similar recipe recently as German bakers prefer sponge cake as the base- Please find that recipe here.

Black forest cake

This classic German cake in its very classic version. Chocolate sponge, lots of cherry filling, and whipping cream plus chocolate shavings.

23/04/2022

Colombian Christmas Traditions and Recipes

Today I have the honor of introducing to you Colombian Christmas, rituals, and customs. Of course I am going to introduce to you typical Colombian recipes for Christmas as well. I by no means consider this extensive and is more based on my personal experience. As a German I can say though that Colombian Christmas is happier, louder, and more carefree than German Christmas. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Germans usually meet with their nucleus family; during these short winter days you need to be at home behind closed doors. Colombians, on the other hand, are found travelling in large groups to relatives, Christmas celebrations can start at 30 people or more, you may encounter a birthday cake for Jesus and see Colombians dancing Salsa happily. Of course the food plays an important role as well. Usually you will find a large amount of people being involved in some food preparation as it requires many hours of labor. By the way, New Year’s Eve is not that different from Christmas, usually Colombians will visit one side of the family on Christmas, and the other on New Year’s. Prepare yourself for eating large amounts of food. But let’s first get started with Christmas in Colombia!

04/12/2021

Recipes for Three-Tiered Wedding Cake with Fruity and Fresh Fillings

Since I have been asked by several people now whether I could publish the recipes for this very fruity and fresh wedding cake (each tier had a different flavor combo), I decided to give in and finally let you have the recipes. You can also see a summary in my highlights in Instagram. Yes, just making the cake base requires 43 eggs already (because I used sponge cake as the base) and yes, we need 18 more egg whites for the Swiss meringue buttercream and almost two kilos of butter, but hey, this is for a large crowd. Since I am frequently asked about some further details, let me first give you the most important facts. The wedding cake consisted of:

18cm Apricot Rosemary Filling with Fluffy Vanilla Sponge Cakes, based on this apricot rosemary cake
24cm Raspberry Filling with Fresh Raspberries and Chocolate Sponge Cake, based on this raspberry chocolate cake (I did change the cake base though)
30cm Blueberry Lemon Filling with Lemon Sponge Cake, based on this blueberry lemon cake

You can also check some details on my Instagram highlights on how I made this wedding cake. In this reel you can see how big the wedding cake actually is.

22/10/2021

A Few Tips for a Wonderful Picnic and Two Picnic Recipes

Are you also such a big fan of picnics? I just love the idea of sitting on a blanket, enjoying a few treats I prepared beforehand and breathing some fresh air in nature. A picnic to me is the best way to relax. Below you will find two recipes perfect for a picnic. One is a berry salad infused with lavender honey, the other is homemade pesto, which I used on a sandwich as a spread, but which may be used as a dip or with some cooked pasta. All of below tips are also from my first-hand experience as a huge picnic lover.

27/08/2021

Tips for Shipping a Cookie Box

Wie man eine Weihnachtsplätzchendose verschickt

Cookie boxes are my thing! I love shipping cookies to friends and family during the season! I have been doing this for years. And since this year is so special and you may not be able to see everybody you hold dear, how about shipping a cookie box instead? This post will let you know which type and size of box to choose, which cookies are best to ship with lots of recipe suggestions, how you make your cookie box look nice and give it a personal touch and how your cookies make it safe and sound without breaking or going bad. Let’s have a look:

Simple sugar cookies with royal icing

#1 Which box is best to ship cookies?

It may sound counter-intuitive, but I do prefer rectangular boxes, even if round cookie boxes seem so much more common here in Germany. I find rectangular boxes so much better as you can easily create smaller compartments by cutting out some carton (yes, you can use an old cornflakes box) and by placing them inside your cookie box to create smaller compartments. So stacking the cookies becomes much easier as each has its small compartment and is protected even better. You probably could create something similar with a round cookie box, but I am very bad at this. This is not to say that you can’t use round boxes, but as stated, for shipping rectangular boxes are better.

A tin can will work best and can be found in German stores during this time of the year. Once I even bought a cookie box already filled with cookies in a grocery store and replaced those with my own homemade cookies. So you can go with tin, thick carton, or wood. Paper is not thick enough, you may only use it if you want to wrap single cookies in some extra containers.

The size is also tricky, they shouldn’t be too small as you won’t be able to put in any cookies (and they fill up much faster than you think), but also not too large. I would suggest about 17-20cm in diameter and 8-10cm in height for round cookie boxes, these are the ones I liked a lot. For a rectangular box again height should be between 8-10cm, the largest I shipped was 17cm in width and 20cm long.

30/10/2020

My Nine Favorite Recipes with Pumpkin

My nine favorite recipes with pumpkin. Finally it is the season again for my beloved pumpkin. So let me introduce to you my favorite recipes, be it breakfast, in a cookie, a cake, cupcake or in waffles, let this orange vegetable shine. What is your favorite recipe with pumpkin?

03/10/2020

The best Canadian Nanaimo Bars

Have you every heard of Nanaimo bars? These translate to a no-bake bar with a nutty base, which is mixed with graham crackers and melted butter, a vanilla custard in the middle layer, and then topped off with delicious chocolate. I’m telling you, you are going to love this Canadian treat, at least I fell in love with it and I don’t even like coconut that much, but in this nutty base combined with walnuts, it is a dream come true. Ah, just look at this deliciousness!

I was fortunate enough to spend a gap year in Canada after high school. Don’t ask me why, but Germans LOVE Canada. And there is a lot to love. So much untouched nature, such friendly people, and in general a very wonderful place to be in. Canadians are in general extremely polite and friendly, but if you tell them they are basically the same as Americans, they get offended and will talk about all the differences, such as Tim Hortons (the “Starbuck/Dunkin Donuts” version of Canada), their beloved queen, and, of course, the fact that they have public health insurance.

Be it as it may, conversations you are definitely going to have is about food. Canadians love their food. I don’t think I have ever eaten more salmon than during my gap year in British Columbia, it was sold EVERYWHERE. And the famous maple syrup, yes, I have actually seen Canadian pour it on their bacon, mashed potatos as well as into their coffee. So needless to say that of course I had to try Nanaimo bars. Nanaimo bars are originally from British Columbia, from Vancouver Island. The base usually contains coconut flakes, graham crackers and melted butter. Since I live in Germany and pecans are a little harder to find, I went with walnuts, but I believe you can use any nut as a wonderful addition to this mix.

25/01/2019