Leftovers, more leftovers, and yet more leftovers...

Another throwback to a post from last year - you may recall I created a tinned version of the hot dogs ordered for Mick "Crocodile" Dundee in New York City, in the first of that series of films - "one dog, with onions, chili, sauerkraut, and some peppers". In my version, each element (apart from the hot dog bun) came from a tin. I was able to use up most of the leftovers quite quickly, apart from the sauerkraut, which came in such an enormous tin, and was so densely packed into it, that I wondered quite how long it would take me to get through it all, decanted into a jar to store in the fridge. So there were an awful lot of sandwiches with sauerkraut added, sausages and mash with kraut on the side, and even the odd German-style schnitzel or potato salad with great spoonfuls of it for added authenticity. And still there was plenty of it left.

I eventually found a way to use it up after spotting an unusual recipe online - a German Chocolate Cake. With sauerkraut in it. It sounds utterly bonkers, and even a little unpleasant, but then again we are all used to using carrots and other vegetables like beetroot, pumpkin and courgette in cakes, which provide moisture and texture without only a hint of the flavour of the vegetable itself. Hopefully the sauerkraut would do the same, without its natural salty and sour taste coming through.

The recipe began with rinsing the kraut in a sieve, presumably to get rid of some of that flavour. Then it was mixed into a basic egg-sugar-flour-butter-cocoa cake batter, with a splash of dark German beer added for extra depth. 

It came out of the oven with a somewhat cracked top, and a curious lighter-coloured seam. Fortunately I had some icing to cover that up - which itself came from a tin.

I had found this tin of Kajmak on sale in a Polish shop and assumed it was icing or a topping of some kind - with the wording on the tin entirely in Polish, Google Translate was needed to be sure of what to do with it. 

As I had assumed from the picture, it was indeed a chocolate fudge flavour topping ("Masa krówkowa" = "fudge mass"; "O smaku kakaowym" = "cocoa flavour"), and was "Gotowa do spozycia" ("ready to eat"). Another useful Polish phrase I learned was "wyszukane przyjemności", meaning "Sophisticated pleasures". I also enjoyed the last sentence of this paragraph:

"The secret of Bakalland's Kajmak lies in the perfectly prepared recipe. Excellent taste and aroma as well as the right consistency ensures culinary success. You can choose from 4 variants: traditional, nutty, cocoa and Tiramisu. Kajmak Bakalland does not contain preservatives, and after opening it is immediately ready for use - it does not require cooking for several hours, which will certainly please many housewives."

I am not a housewife, but I was also pleased. A thick, deliciously fudgy chocolate icing, ready to be spread straight on to the waiting cake - fabulous. There may have been a few spoonfuls that went straight from tin to mouth too.

As for the cake itself, I don't think anyone could ever have guessed that sauerkraut had been anywhere near it. There was certainly not even a hint of cabbage to it; maybe the slightest note of acidity, in the same way that sour cream or buttermilk might provide a lactic tang, but I might have been imagining that. It certainly did not detract from the rich chocolate flavour. As with the carrot in a carrot cake, the strands of kraut had almost become almost completely incorporated into the texture of the cake itself. But in terms of its moistness, I was disappointed. Perhaps I had kept it in the oven for too long, but it was very dry - so much so that I ended up slathering on far more of the Kajmak topping to help it slide down.

While I could have persevered that way to get through the whole cake, I decided on a different take for some of the rest of it. I crumbled up a big chunk into a glass dish and then sprinkled over some kirsch liqueur. 

Then I opened another two tins from my stash, to add on a layer of Princes Black Cherry Pie Filling, and another of Ambrosia Chocolate Custard on top of that. 

Then a layer of whipped cream, and a few of the black cherries from the tin, plus one fresh one with its stalk still intact. Finally, a drizzle of the Kajmak topping, thinned with a little of the chocolate custard. And there you have it - a Black Forest Trifle - and a far more German one than most Black Forest gateaux, given that it still had a small amount of sauerkraut and beer in it. 

As with most trifles, not the prettiest of desserts once spooned out of the serving bowl, but delicious nonetheless.

The downside of this was that in my endeavour to use up the rest of the tin of sauerkraut, I had opened another 3 tins (and only part-used). So, what to do with those?

Well, just as the Kajma topping helped the somewhat dry cake slide down more easily, a good dollop of the chocolate custard had much the same effect, while reminding me of the chocolate sponge and custard they used to serve for pudding at my primary school.

Banana custard is another nostalgic treat, and I'm pleased to say it's quite nice with chocolate custard as well.

For the Black Cherry filling, I continued with the 'Black Forest' theme, inserting some into the middle of a chocolate and cream choux bun, and then drizzling with a little more of the Kajmak/custard mixture. In German, a cream puff is known as a Windbeutel, which I guess makes this a Schwarzwalderkirschewindbeutel. Easier to eat than to say.

I also happened to have some limited edition cherry bakewell flavoured chocolate digestives (which were surpisingly bakewell-like), which spread with a slick of cream cheese and some of the black cherry topping made for an exceptionally speedy cheesecake, of sorts.

The remaining Kajmak stayed in a tupperware pot in the fridge for a while, with the odd sneaky spoonful being stolen every now and again in place of a proper dessert, until eventually it was all gone. Not particularly sophisticated, but a pleasure nonetheless. There was still a bit of chocolate custard left too, which did eventually get used, but it involved opening yet more tins to go with it - and so the cycle continues. So, I'll save telling you about that for another time...