Pepper cake house

The tradition, I believe, calls for a ginger bread house around Christmas time. This year however, Caroline asked if she could have a “Hansel and Gretel”-style house made out of pepper cake dough, when she was having her friends from kindergarten over for a birthday party. Of course she could:

The dough was pre-made  gluten free and bought by yours truly at the local super market. But I did role it out, cut out the different elements for the house, bake them, stick them together with royal icing and decorate the whole thing. So the house consisted of a little bit of cheating and a whole lot of fun!

Penguin cake / Pingu cake

Another tradition in Denmark: we bring cake to work and kindergarten and… when it’s our birthday. It is really remarkable that the Danes are generally able to keep fit and slim with all the cake we eat…

Now Caroline had asked if she would please have a cake with ice and snow and penguins to bring to her friends at the kindergarten to celebrate her birthday with all of them. Of course she could:

The figurines were made out of fondant (which was also used to cover the cake).

The cake was P’s brown Christmas cake covered in 1:1 ganache:

Melt 100 grams of butter, 100 grams of sugar and 100 grams of syrup (don’t boil too much as it will turn in to a thick caramel and burn). Once cooled down a bit add 2 tea spoons of cinnamon, 1 tea spoon of clove and 1 tea spoon of cardamom. Then add 1 tea spoon of natron (hydrated sodium carbonate) dissolved in 1 dl of buttermilk. Finally stir in 250 grams of flour. Poor into a well greased baking tray and baked for approx. 20 min at 180 degrees.

I made one batch in a bowl shaped baking tray for the igloo and a normal round tray (22 cm in diameter) for the penguins and igloo to sit on.

1:1 ganache:

100 ml of boiling cream poured over 100 grams of fine chopped chocolate, stirred and chilled until it feels like butter.

Lucia cake (gluten free chocolate mousse cake)

Our daughter Caroline’s birthday is on December 13.

The 13th December is also Saint Lucy’s day (Sankta Lucia’s Day), which in Norway, Sweden and Denmark is celebrated by holding processions, where girls in white dresses walk through the building singing. Saint Lucy is represented by a girl with a wreath of spruce and candles on her head. In the dark Scandinavian winter it’s beautiful and magical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy%27s_Day

Each year since her birth my parents have come round in the early morning and we wake Caroline up by holding our own Sankta Lucia procession - perhaps not so beautiful but still very special...

Not surprisingly Caroline had asked for a Sankta Lucia cake this year – the amount of candles to show her new won age:

As adults typically don’t fancy fondant, I make an extra cake without it – just covered in 1:1 chocolate ganache and lots of little white pearls (the inside was exactly the same):

The cakes were cocoa sponges and chocolate mousse all covered in 1:1 ganache.

Thin cocoa cake sheets:

2 eggs whished white with 80 grams of sugar + 40 grams of gluten free flour, 30 grams of cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, ½ tea spoon vanilla sugar and ½ tea spoon baking powder. Spread out on baking paper covered baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes at 200 degrees.

Chocolate mousse

150 grams of chocolate melted in water bath. Add 2 egg yokes. Carefully add 2 egg whites whisked stiff with 1 tablespoon sugar. Whip 2 dl cream and add to chocolate.

1:1 chocolate ganache

100 ml of boiling cream poured over 200 grams chopped dark chocolate. Let sit for a little while, and then stir until smooth. Let chill until it has the same feel as soft butter. Cover the cake and let chill before covering the cake in marzipan or fondant.

Christmas wreath 2015

When a baby is born in Denmark a nurse is assigned to visit the family to check and monitor the health of the baby (and the mother). 

The nurse; Susanne, who came to visit Christopher was a bubbly lady, who probably sensed that her services weren’t really required and therefore mainly talked about her house in the Swedish country side, cooking and her grown children. On several of her visits I had decorated cakes sitting on the kitchen bench ready to be sent of to friend and family. Susanne always made such kind comments about the cakes, and indicated that she wouldn’t mind a taste. Her last visit was scheduled for December, so I decided that she should have a cake as a good-bye present.

The cake was the traditional Christmas cake better know as P’s brown cake:

Melt 100 grams of butter, 100 grams of sugar and 100 grams of syrup (don’t boil too much as it will turn in to a thick caramel and burn).

Once cooled down a bit add

1. 2 tea spoons of cinnamon, 1 tea spoon of clove and 1 tea spoon of cardamom,
2. 1 tea spoon of natron (hydrated sodium carbonate) dissolved in 1 dl of buttermilk and
3. 250 grams of flour.

Poor into a well greased baking tray and baked for approx. 20 min at 180 degrees.

The cake was covered in 1:1 ganache (100 ml of boiling cream poured over 100 grams of fine chopped chocolate, stirred and chilled until it feels like butter).

Then there was a layer of marzipan cut out with a leaf cutter.

Christmas tree cake 2015

No second Sunday in Advent without a Christmas party, and no Christmas party without a Christmas tree cake.

The cake was the traditional Christmas cake better know as P’s brown cake:

Melt 100 grams of butter, 100 grams of sugar and 100 grams of syrup (don’t boil too much as it will turn in to a thick caramel and burn).

Once cooled down a bit add

1. 2 tea spoons of cinnamon, 1 tea spoon of clove and 1 tea spoon of cardamom,
2. 1 tea spoon of natron (hydrated sodium carbonate) dissolved in 1 dl of buttermilk and
3. 250 grams of flour.

Poor into a well greased baking tray and baked for approx. 20 min at 180 degrees.

The cake was cut into 6 circles (9, 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 cm in diameter and “glued” together with 1:1 ganache (100 ml of boiling cream poured over 100 grams of fine chopped chocolate, stirred and chilled until it feels like butter) to form a cone.

Then the “cone” was covered in 1:1 ganache and marzipan cut out in triangles. Finally, candy canes and Christmas balls made out of fondant were added.

Snow man cake 2015

So this is Christmas…..

…..and oh, have we (Caroline and I) been looking forward to this!! It’s finally December, the house is one big Christmas decoration and the excuses for baking cakes are just lining up.

First Christmas cake of 2015 went to my colleagues (I went there to pick up my Christmas present and didn’t want to come empty handed).

The cake is the traditional Christmas cake better know as P’s brown cake:

Melt 100 grams of butter, 100 grams of sugar and 100 grams of syrup (don’t boil too much as it will turn in to a thick caramel and burn).

Once cooled down a bit add

1. 2 tea spoons of cinnamon, 1 tea spoon of clove and 1 tea spoon of cardamom,
2. 1 tea spoon of natron (hydrated sodium carbonate) dissolved in 1 dl of buttermilk and
3. 250 grams of flour.

Poor into a well greased baking tray and baked for approx. 20 min at 180 degrees.

The cake was covered in 1:1 ganache (100 ml of boiling cream poured over 100 grams of fine chopped chocolate, stirred and chilled until it feels like butter).

Then there was a layer of marzipan and finally covered in fondant.

The snowman, leaves and snowballs were all made out of fondant.

Autumn birthday cake for great grandfather’s 80th birthday

Caroline’s great grandfather turned 80 and we were all asked to bring a cake for the party. I planned something spectacular, but as the case often is in this house, things didn’t go according to plan, so I had to down scale and improvise.

My father and my husband kindly volunteered the comment that the look was boring and that they had expected something more creative. I will suggest that they are spoiled when it comes to cakes!

The cake was a chocolate/nut cake:

4 egg yokes whipped light with 75g brown sugar. Add 150 g chopped chocolate, 50 g chopped hazelnut, 50 g chopped pistachio nuts, orange zest from 1 orange and 25 g flour. Gently add 4 egg whites beaten stiff with 75 g brown sugar. Bake in a well-greased baking tray with baking paper at the bottom for approx. 1 hour at 170 degrees.

A there were quite a big number of guests, I have 2 1/2 time the above-mentioned amounts.

Once out of the oven pour ginger syrup over the cake: orange juice, sugar and ginger.

Once completely cooled covered in nougat and marzipan.

Princess cake – for newborn girl

One of Caroline’s little friends from kindergarten, Bille, became a big brother this week. That’s a big thing when you are 4 years old, and Caroline suggested that we should make Bille a cake to take home to his newborn sister. I could think of no good excuse for not making a cake.

The cake consisted of two layers of chocolate mousse between three layers of thin cocoa cake sheets and covered in 1:1 ganach and marzipan. The decorations including the princess crown were made out of fondant.

Thin cocoa cake sheets:

2 eggs whisked white with 80 grams of sugar + 40 grams of flour, 30 grams of cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, ½ tea spoon vanilla sugar and ½ tea spoon baking powder. Spread out on baking paper covered baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes at 200 degrees).

Chocolate mousse:

150 grams of chocolate melted in water bath. Add 2 egg yokes. Carefully add 2 egg whites whisked stiff with 1 table spoon sugar. Whip 2 dl cream and add to chocolate.

1:1 chocolate ganach:

200 ml of boiling cream poured over 200 grams chopped dark chocolate. Let sit for a little while, then stir until smooth. Let chill until it has the same feel as soft butter. Cover the cake and let chill before covering the cake in marzipan or fondant.

Autumn cake – basket with marzipan apples and pears

My computer crashed, so I had to go in to the office (in the middle of my maternity leave period). Doing so requires a cake – at least in the eyes of my colleagues, so I made a carrot cake and disguised it as a basket with little apples and pears made out of marzipan. They were well pleased and the computer was fixed.

The recipe:

300 grams of finely grated carrots soaked in 1 ½ dl sun flower oil for a least an our.

200 gram of brown sugar beaten light with 2-3 eggs (120 grams). Add 200 grams of flour, 1 tea spoon of salt, 2 tea spoon baking powder, 2 tea spoons of cinnamon and 2 table spoon vanilla sugar. Add the carrots. Bake for 45 min at 170 degrees.

The "basket" was royal icing with added cocoa powder.

Very basic LEGO cake

The municipal of the town we live in had threatened to shut down my daughter’s kindergarten. Miraculously, the politicians changed their mind, allowing 4 adults to keep their jobs and 30 children to keep their routines. That rather called for a cake.

In my experience children like chocolate cake, so that’s what they got:

250 grams of sugar beaten with 4 eggs until white. Add 250 grams of melted butter. Stir in gently 200 grams of flour and 50 grams of cocoa powder and 2 tea spoons of baking powder + 150 grams of chopped chocolate. Bake for 40 min at 175 degrees

Covered in 1:1 chocolate ganach:

200 ml of boiling cream poured over 200 grams chopped dark chocolate. Let sit for a little while, then stir until smooth. Let chill until it has the same feel as soft butter. Cover the cake and let chill before covering the cake in marzipan or fondant.

I covered the cakes in white fondant, and then I made as many LEGO bits as I could within an hour and then off to bed.

Unstacked cake with 50 roses for Tuscan wedding

This I will NEVER do again!

Some of our very dear friends were getting married in Tuscany this summer and they had very kindly asked if I would do the honour of baking the wedding cake. I proudly and gladly accepted. 

As my darling husband later remarked: You hadn’t really thought it through (he’s a kind man, and he was putting it mildly…): A new oven, someone else’ kitchen, little refrigerator space, two children to look after, 50 fondant roses to be made by hand, three stand alone mousse based cakes, all ingredients to be transported from Denmark to Italy, including 8 kilos of fondant, 30 degrees lovely Tuscan autumn days and a three days fabulous full on wedding….. I confess that I was a trifle stressed.

The bride was pleased, so mission completed:

The picture were taken by one of the guests: Henry Gibbs, who did rather a job of that.

The cakes consisted of:

Three thin cake sheets (2 eggs whisked white with 80 grams of sugar + 70 grams of flour, a pinch of salt, ½ tea spoon vanilla sugar and ½ tea spoon baking powder. Spread out on baking paper covered baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes at 200 degrees). X3.

Layer of chocolate mousse:

150 grams of chocolate melted in water bath. Add 2 egg yokes. Carefully add 2 egg whites whisked stiff with 1 table spoon sugar. Whip 2 dl cream and add to chocolate. X3.

Layer of lemon mousse:

Beat 3 whole eggs with 100 g of sugar. Add 4 leaf of gelatin, which has been melted in a water bath + at least 1 tea spoon lemon zest and ½ dl of lemon juice. When nearly stiff gently add ¼ liter whipped cream. X3

Balloon cake

Our former neighbour, the lovely Isabella, had invited us to her birthday party. On the evening before, her mother send a text to ask, if I was bringing a cake.

With two small children at home baking and decorating a cake really was not on the agenda, but…..  I have been making cakes for Isabella since she was a very little girl, and having kids of my own really shouldn’t change that…., so I opted for a quick and simple layered cake:

Three thin cake sheets (2 eggs whisked white with 80 grams of sugar + 40 grams of flour, 30 grams of cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, ½ tea spoon vanilla sugar and ½ tea spoon baking powder. Spread out on baking paper covered baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes at 200 degrees).

Creamy custard for one layer (as I was in a hurry I cheated and used Dr. Oetker, where you just add milk and cocoa powder to disguise the nasty synthetic taste (most people don’t even notice).

Whipped cream and strawberries for the second layer.

All covered in blue fondant and lots of fondant balloons.

LEGO cake in three layers for boys' birthday party

A former colleague of mine, Helene, sent me a message with a link to an amazing LEGO wedding cake (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cupcakes-by-SJ/554669104671327?fref=ts) with the words: 

“Next project?”

It turned out that her boy, Oliver, and his best friend, Dines, was to celebrate their 6^th birthday together, and Helene jokingly “ordered” a cake similar to the one made by Cupcakes by SJ but modified to serve 20-24 people and be suited for a boys’ birthday party.

She’s perfectly aware that I only make cakes for the fun of it (and don’t take orders), but a challenge is a challenge, and after all I am on leave….

I tried to by square baking trays at http://www.frederiksbergkoebmanden.dk/, but the ladies there were busy chatting with each other and didn’t seem interested in providing any help or guidance, so I opted for using my existing baking trays…. 

The cakes was baked in three round trays (10cm, 18cm and 26cm) and consists of:

600 gram of caster sugar beat with 10 eggs (until white). Add 600 gram melted butter.

Stir in 600 gram of flour + 4 teaspoons baking powder + 6 teaspoons of cocoa and 300 gram finely chopped dark chocolate.

Bake for approx 50 min. at 200 degrees preheated oven.

When the cake comes out of the oven, turn it upside down on a tray, soak in neutral syrup (sugar and water boiled to a syrup) and cover the whole thing in cocoa/butter cream.

The cake was covered in white fondant and the LEGO pieces were made out of coloured fondant (using a straw to make the little knops). All in all a kilo of fondant was used for this cake.

Summer cake - creepy-crawly (royal icing cake)

We had been invited to a summer party at my daughter, Caroline's, kindergarten, and every body had to bring something to the buffet. Caroline wanted to bring a cake (no surprise there) and she wanted a Lego cake.

However, this morning I realized that had mysteriously run out of fondant (wherefore making the Lego pieces would have been impossible), so she was asked to come up with a different wish for a cake. She asked if we could bring a creepy-crawly cake in stead....and I accepted the request (but mainly because, and I didn't have time to get some,...)

So rather than making Lego pieces, I spend my morning making spiders, ants, beetles, ladybirds and butterflies. It's very messy and lots of time for drying is required, but it's fun!

The cake was a chocolate sponge (250g sugar beating with 4 eggs. 250g of melted butter added. Then 250g minus 4 table spoon flour is mixed in together with 4 table spoons of cocoa, 2 tea spoons of baking soda and 150 of chopped dark chocolate).

The cake was baked for 45 minutes at 175 celcius, turned up side down on to serving tray, soaked in plain syrup and covered with cocoa/butter creme. The sides where piped with royal icing and the sugar bugs attached to that.

Spring flower cup cakes

Sometimes you call the midwife; and you can only hope that someone kind, experienced, calm and utterly professional answers the call.

In April I was in luck! A fabulous midwife named Anja Flagstad made sure that my son was delivered safely into this world, and that I survived the ordeal without any physical or mental damage.

But she was not alone. She has some truly competent colleagues at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, and the all deserved a cake – and I really felt like making cup cakes....

The cakes consists of:

125 gram sugar beat with 2 eggs (until white). Add 125 gram melted butter. Stir in 125 gram flour + vanilla + ½ tea spoon salt + 1 tea spoon baking powder. Add 1/2 decilitre milk + approx 150 gram chopped dark chocolate and grated marzipan.  Pour into cup cake baking tray and bake for 15 min. at 200 degrees.

I used royal icing and fondant flowers for decoration. 

Italian wedding cake – test cake

I have learned something new: Butter cream frosting MELTS in warm weather.  

Even sitting on a table waiting 10 minutes to be served for high tea in a garden on a mild Danish spring afternoon in May (not warm at all really) is sufficient to melt the frosting and have the decoration fall off the cake.

This of course will not do at a wedding. Not at all!!! And I am glad I made this test cake (and saw the result), as I would otherwise have attempted to serve a cake covered in butter cream frosting at a wedding in Tuscany Italy in September……

Also, the roses will need to be different shades of pink and different sizes in order to create a harmonious effect.

Well, basically I just have a lot to learn, and then I can begin to figure out how to transport wedding cake more than 1300 kilometres from Copenhagen to Tuscany….

The cake was a sponge cake with chocolate and marzipan added to the dough for taste.