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.