When baking cleared my mind and a delicious cake was created – spiced chocolate cake / Magenbrot cake with figs

Hey there!
Some people take a hot bath when they’re stressed out and tired, some drink a glass of wine, others go for a run in the forest and I bet there are even a few that just hide under they’re bed covers until they start feeling better. Well I don’t do either of these things. I bake. Cakes, biscuits, bread, tarts, whatever, I just bake. (Don’t worry I also love baking when I am super relaxed so don’t think I felt stressed out every single time I have posted a cake recipe in the past)

For some reason baking really relaxes me and particularly takes my mind off whatever is making me have this terrible feeling of unease. After successfully surviving my first week of university I suddenly started to get really worried that I wouldn’t be able to manage my studies. I actually don’t even know why I was suddenly having those doubts. I actually had a pretty good first week so there was no reason for this strange mood swing. As I know myself pretty well I decided to put on an apron, get the most appealing looing ingredients out of my pantry and start whipping up a batter for a delicious cake.

After I sifted the flour I already stopped doubting whether I had chosen the right major by the time the chocolate had melted I had regained my confidence in my ability to speak English and as I poured the finished batter into a lined cake tin I was feeling pretty certain again that I would totally be able to manage my studies.

I guess my little therapeutical baking session had definitely wiped away my worries and resulted in a delicious cake creation I hadn’t come up with had I not been feeling slightly out of sorts after getting back home from uni on that certain day. The cake I created if I say so myself is actually turned out to be rather epic. It literally ended up tasting like a mixture of two typically Swiss baked goods (Bärentatzen and Magenbrot), which I totally adore. So if hadn’t started university last week I would have never had these terrible doubts and I would have never come up with such a scrumptious cake creation. I guess everything happens for a reason. Some people go to university to get their masters degree Fanny goes to university to come up with delicious cake creations…

Well not really, I am also hoping to get a degree at one stage but for the time being I am happy when my studies lead to heavenly tasting cakes and delicious dinners.

• 200g spelt flour
• 200g sugar
• 2tsp baking powder
• 100g chocolate
• 3 tbs canola oil
• 100 ml chickpea water
• ¼ tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• 1 dash of salt
• 100g cooked beetroot (pureed)
• 6-7 small figs *

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. And slice your figs in half. Set them aside for later.
2. Melt the chocolate. I usually just pour some boiling water in a bowl, add the chocolate in a smaller bowl and then place the small bowl in the bigger one. I then set it aside and let it melt.
3. While the chocolate is melting mix the sugar, canola oil and the chickpea water until the mixture has become slightly fluffy and its colour is significantly lighter.
4. By now your chocolate should be nicely melted so pour the chocolate and the pureed beetroot into the fluffy mixture and mix until well combined.
5. Sift the flour into the bowl with the other ingredients and also add the ground cloves, ground ginger, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix until well combined. The texture of your batter will be similar to the one of brownie batter.
6. Pour the mixture into a lined cake tin (approx. 20cm). Stick your figs into the cake with the pretty side looking towards you.
7. Bake your cake for approx.40 – 45 minutes or until a tooth pick stuck in the middle comes out clean.
8. When your cake has finished baking let it cool completely then remove it from the tin and to make it look even prettier also dust it with some icing sugar.

Voila you just baked the most delicious spiced chocolate cake/ Magenbrot cake. Trust me people this tasted like heaven and I can only recommend to bake this delicacy as long as figs are still available at the supermarket. The figs make this cake even more delicious but just in case you’re reading this post months after it’s publishing then don’t worry about the figs you can also just bake a plain spiced chocolate cake and it will surely delight your taste buds just as much.

*you can leave out the figs if they’re not in season when you are baking this cake or you could substitute them with another fruit such as plums or apples.

Wishing you a wonderful rest of the week, only three days till the weekend!

Bisous