Babka with Three Chocolates!

I was inspired by the use of 3 sorts of chocolate in a recipe I saw from Lidl to decorate a babka.

Babka is the name of a Polish cake – the word means grandmother and refers to the round dumpy shape reminiscent of an older lady wearing a long full skirt as is traditional in many Polish folk costumes.

Wooden Dolls in Polish Costumes

This marbled babka was made using a creamed sponge mixture – using my mother’s friend’s basic recipe for a creamed sponge.

Ingredients – Cake

• In this recipe you weigh the eggs in their shells and then use the same weights of butter, caster sugar and self raising flour.
• Use 4 or 5 eggs
• 2 drops of vanilla essence
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 2 tablespoons of water

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
• Grease the babka tin with melted butter using a pastry brush.
• For this babka, 4 eggs were used. (I could have used 5 eggs for this tin).
• Cream the butter and sugar.
• Beat the eggs with the vanilla essence and add them gradually – mixing in thoroughly.
• Fold in the flour.
• Use half of the mixture and place spoonfuls in the bottom of the tin.
• Mix the cocoa and water together.
• Mix the cocoa mixture into the second half of the cake mixture.
• Placed this on top of the plain mixture and flatten it off.
• With a metal knife lightly mix the two to give a marbling effect.
• Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes.
• Leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning out.

Weighing eggs

Ingredients – Icing

• 100g of dark chocolate and 60g of butter
• 50g of milk chocolate and 30g of butter
• Shavings of white chocolate.

Method

• Put the dark chocolate and butter into a glass bowl.
• Heat the bowl over hot water, stirring till it all melts together.
• Drizzle this over the babka and leave to cool.
• Put the milk chocolate and butter into a glass bowl.
• Heat the bowl over hot water, stirring till it all melts together.
• Drizzle this over the dark chocolate.
• Scatter the white chocolate shaving over the milk chocolate icing.

Portmeirion plate – The Holly & The Ivy – the pattern inspired by the 17th Century English Carol – launched in 1997.

Served on tea plates by Duchess – Poppies – from the 1980s.