Hiden Pi Cake

Difficultiy: Depending. There is an easy mode and a hard mode.

Time needed: Depending. But it's not a quickly made cake. You can use the recipies for the batter only, then you won't need as much time. If you want a secretly filled cake, it takes quite some hours to make.

Items needed:

• a Kitchen scale or some measuring cups
• 2 bowls or more
• a pan
• a hand-mixer (and a mixer)
• a teaspoon
• an oven and a stove
• a sieve, or if you don't have one, take a clean piece of cloth (if you go the hard way)
• a spatula (to scrape out your ingredients)
• a cake-pan (a long one is the best choice for a hidden shape-cake)
• a knife, paper, scissors or a cookie-cutter

I did make some mistakes, for I made this up, as I went.

I hope you like it anyways.

(You need the following ingredients for both cakes. So count them twice!)

300 grams or 2 cups of sugar

300 grams or 2 and 1/4 cups of flour

150 grams or 1 1/4 stick of butter

5 eggs (I have large ones)

A knife-point each of vanilla and salt

(The following ingredients you need only once.)

200 grams or about 7 ounces of chocolate (if you prefer cacao that is fine too, but I recommend chocolate.)

150 grams or 1 1/4 cups of Raspberries (Use more, if you want. More can't hurt. Use jam if you go easy-mode)

Some milk and water

For the hidden figure (in my case the Pi) inside, I used a raspberry cake I later cut into the desired shape.

Start with seperating the eggs into egg-white and yolk.

Take the sugar and put half of it into each bowl. (So 1 cup to the yolk and one cup to the egg-white.)

Add the salt to the egg-white and set the bowl aside. We need it later.

Put the yolk-sugar-mix into the mixer and mix until fluffy.

Cut the butter (1 1/4 sticks or 150 grams) into small pieces and add it into the mixer.

Add the vanilla and mix again until fluffy.

If you want the short version: Now add the jam and mix. Continue after the *.

If you want the more difficult Version:

Put the raspberries into a cooking-pot and add some water. Let it cook on the stove until your raspberries are very soft and squishy. Pour the mixture into a sieve (or clean cloth) you placed in a bowl. Use a spoon or your hands to squish the mixture through the sieve (or cloth) to seperate the seeds from the fruit-stuff. Do this until no more sauce is coming out. Add the sauce to the batter and mix until combined.

* If the batter gets too thick, add water or milk until it's smooth again. Add the flour (2 and 1/4 Cups or 300 grams) to the batter and mix it in.

Now we need our egg-whites again. With the hand-mixer beat them until they are very stiff. The stiffer you get them, the better. If you mess up the egg-whites and they won't get stiff, you can add a Little baking-powder to your batter. Once your egg-whites are stiff enough, carefully fould them into your batter.

Take your cake-pan and pour in your raspberry-batter. (You may need to grease your pan in first.) Put the cake-pan into your oven and bake until done.

I used air-circulation and 160°C, which is about 320°F or 275°K and it took my cake about 40 minutes until it was ready. But use the Settings you are most familiar with when baking. Each oven is different and my settings may not suit for you. I use to check my cake with a toothpick after 30 minutes or so, to see if it is ready. For that insert your toothpick into the center of the cake and push through to the bottom. Pull the toothpick out again. If there is batter on it, you need to continue baking. If it is clean, your cake is done.

Once your raspberry-cake is done, put it out to cool. You might want to put it into the freezer for some hours. It's easier to carve if it's a bit less fluffy.

If you don't have a cookie-cutter with your chosen design, cut your design out of a piece of paper. Remember, it has to fit into your cake-pan! So make it a bit smaller than your raspberry-cake turned out.

Once your cake is firm enough, take it out of the freezer.

If you have a cookie-cutter, try to push your cutter down the length of your entire cake. You might need to cut away the sides to continue pushing.

If you don't have a cookie-cutter use your paper-design to start carving. Carefully cut your shape out of the cake with a knife. Remember that you want the whole length of your cake to show the design.

Once you are finished, set aside.

Leftovers can be eaten, used for cake-pops or used to save batter for the chocolate-cake.

For the chocolate-surrounding of your design start like the raspberry cake.

Again start with seperating the eggs into yolk and egg-whites.

Put half of the sugar (1 cup or 150 grams) into each bowl.

Add the salt to the egg-whites and set the bowl aside.

Put the yolk-mixture into the mixer and mix until fluffy.

Cut the butter into pieces and add it to the batter, together with the vanilla. Mix until fluffy.

Melt the chocolate:

You can either do this in the microwave, or you do it in a water-bath on the stove. You also can cut the chocolate into tiny pieces, fill it into a freezer-bag and put it into hot water. Massage the bag until the chocolate is completely melted. OR use cacao-powder. Personally I prefer chocolate, for not only does the cake taste better, it's also not as dry as with cocoa.

Add the melted chocolate (or cacao) to the mixer and mix until well combined. If the batter gets too dry, add some milk until it is soft again.

Take your egg-whites again and beat them until they are stiff. Fold them into your batter carefully. As I wrote before, you can add some baking-powder, if your egg-whites won't get stiff enough.

Now take your cake-mould (you might want to grease it) and pour in some batter. Take your raspberry-cake-design and carefully press it into the batter. Fill the cake-mould up with batter, until at least your design is completely covered.

Put your cake into the oven and bake until done.

(I used the same settings as with the other cake, but it took far longer than before. Try it out.)

Leftover batter can be filled into muffin-moulds and be baked next to the cake.

Once your cake is done, so are you.

Turn it out carefully and put it on a plate to cool.

Once your cake is cooled, it's ready to be cut.

Serve your cake and surprise your family and friends with your hidden design visible as pale-pink shapes in all pieces.

I hope you enjoy making the cake!

I made this cake up as I went, therefor I made some mistakes that I corrected already in the instruction.

The only things I had planned was that I wanted a pi-shaped design hidden in my cake and that I wanted to use raspberries and chocolate.

So my first problem was that I kind of spontaniously decided to make the cake. Therefor I had not enough ingredients for two batters. So I made it with one and used the leftovers from the raspberry-cake to stretch the chocolate batter and I used a very small cake-pan.

The next mistake I made was mixing both batters at the same time. The long wait inbetween the two cakes for baking, cooling and carving the raspberry one asks for patience and to make the chocolate-batter later. Especially with the egg-whites the long wait is a problem, for they start to become a liquid again after some time, and if you rebeat them they won't get as stiff as before.

Another mistake was mixing the raspberry-sauce in by hand. Therefor it didn't combine as well as it should have, causing the darker spots in my raspberry-batter. If you use a mixer, liquids combine better into the batter and you won't have stains.

Finally I had the wrong mould for my cake. I used a silicone one, which turned out not to be stable enough to hold the batter together, causing my cake to look a bit bulky. I would recommend using a firm mould instead.

I hope you enjoy making this cake. I really could use a new mixer. As you can see, mine is very old, and it isn't even mine... I had to borrow it from my mother. If you have any questions, please ask!