Easter Cake with Marzipan Chicks

Ingredients

• 150 g dark chocolate couverture
• 6 Eggs
• 175 g sugar
• 1 vanilla bean (pulp)
• 1 tbsp Cornstarch
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 125 g flour
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1 jar cherries (drained weight: 350 g)
• 1 tbsp Cornstarch
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 packet vanilla pudding powder
• 500 ml milk
• a pinch of salt
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 250 g mascarpone
• 0.125 l egg yolk liqueur
• 100 g marzipan dough
• yellow food coloring
• almond slivers (and sticks)
• 0.5 l whipping cream
• 1 packet gelatin powder
• 2 packets vanilla sugar
• 50 g roasted almond slivers
• 3 tbsp chopped pistachios
• small colorful candies
• 200 g marzipan dough
• 1 tbsp almond slivers
• 1 tsp almond sticks
• 8 small sugar pearls

Instructions

1. 1.

   Melt the chopped chocolate over a double boiler.

2. 2.

   Separate the eggs. Beat yolks with sugar until fluffy, then add vanilla pulp and cooled liquid chocolate, followed by cornstarch, cocoa, flour, and baking powder; mix well. Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the batter.

3. 3.

   Grease the bottom of a springform pan. Pour the batter in, smooth the top, and bake at 175 °C for 25‑30 minutes on the middle rack (do a toothpick test). Remove the finished base from the oven, let it cool slightly, then carefully loosen it from the rim with a thin knife, transfer to a wire rack, and allow to cool completely before letting rest for at least 2 hours.

4. 4.

   Cut the cake horizontally in half. Place one layer back into the springform ring.

5. 5.

   Drain the cherries and reserve the juice. Stir cornstarch into a little juice; add remaining juice with sugar and bring to a boil. Whisk in the cornstarch mixture, boil again, then fold in the cherries and let cool.

6. 6.

   Whisk pudding powder with a bit of milk. Bring the rest of the milk, salt, sugar, and mascarpone to a boil. Stir in the pudding milk, cook while stirring until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in the liqueur.

7. 7.

   Spread the cooled cherries over the base and brush warm pudding cream over them. Place the second layer on top and refrigerate for about 3 hours.

8. 8.

   Tint marzipan with yellow food coloring and shape into large and small balls; stack them together. Attach almond slivers as beaks and wings, and almond sticks as beak tips.

9. 9.

   Whip cream with gelatin powder and vanilla sugar until stiff peaks form. Coat the entire cake with this whipped cream and sprinkle roasted almonds on top. Decorate with marzipan chicks, pistachios, and candy eggs.

10. 10.

    For the chicks, divide marzipan dough into thirds: from two-thirds make 2 larger balls, from one-third make 4 smaller balls. Stack the balls; press sugar pearls as eyes into the heads, use almond sticks as beaks, and insert almond slivers as wings into the bodies.