Paulchens FoodBlog?!

G. (the boy’s handsum man) celebrates his 40th birthday today. Last Friday me and some friends organized a surprise party for him and I made this birthday cake.
He is a poppy seed lover and therefore the cake had to be one with poppy seed.

I used my moms secret cake recipe which is a must have in our family!

To pimp the cake a bit I filled the cake with a layer of light vanilla cream and fresh cherries. The top of the cake was powdered with vanilla sugar. The sides are covered with ground almonds.

For the cake layer:

100 gr butter
150 gr sugar
10 gr baking powder
6 egg whites
200 gr ground poppy seed
10 gr ground almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 egg whites
3 tablespoons rum
15 gr Vanilla sugar

Mix butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and egg yolks until frothy. In a separate bowl stir together poppy seed, baking powder, almonds and cinnamon plus rum. Beat the whites of the eggs separately until very stiff.
While stirring constantly add the poppy seed mixture to the butter mixture.
Fold in the beaten egg whites. Fill in you baking dish. I used a rather large square one as I did not want a very high cake layer.

Bake at 115°C (with circulaton air) for about 20-25 minutes.

For the filling:

500 ml QimiQ (or if you do not have this creme fraiche)
200 ml whipped cream (I used a fat reduced one)
1 vanilla bean (or 2 sachets of vanilla sugar ~ 20 gr)
if you use creme fraiche you’ll need about 6 leafes of gelatine

Whip the cream and slowly add the Qimiq or creme fraiche and vanilla to the whipped cream. If needed add some gelatine. I cooled the cream in the fridge for about half an hour before spreading it on the cake layer.

Putting the cake together:

Spread a thin layer of cream on the first cake layer. Place halfed cherries on top. Cover with cream again and do a second layer with cherries which then are covered thinly with cream again. Put second cake layer on top.
Use remaining cream to fill up the sides of the cake. cover the sides with ground almonds.
Powder top of cake with vanilla sugar.