Baby cake

For months, Caroline, has been looking forward to two things: Christmas and the arrival of her brother.

While Christmas is still uncomfortably far away, her brother, Christopher, made his arrival into this world on April 4.

Caroline (being her mother's daughter) proclaimed that this festive event called for a cake, that she could share with her friends at her kindergarten - and so I made her this one:

The cake was a chocolate sponge (500g butter, 500g sugar, 400g flour, 100g cocoa, 4 tablespoons of baking soda and 8 eggs = 32 servings) covered in chocolate butter cream and vanilla fondant.

Personally, I found the cake to be a little too plain, but children aged 3-6 apparently prefer simple cakes, and this one qualified (!), even though Lennart (Caroline's little friend) was horrified that Caroline's brother was missing both arms and a belly button - luckily, it's only the cake version of Christopher that suffers these handicaps, and this small oversight on my part didn't stop any of the kids from eating the cake with great enthusiasm :-)

Shrovetide cake (fastelavntønde-kage)

In Denmark we celebrate Shrovetide (fastelavn) by dressing up, eating buns with custard and whipped creme and beating a barrel filled with candy (and/or fruits) with a stick until the barrel breaks.....(agreed, it makes no sense at all).

In the old days the content of the barrel would not be sweets but a black cat, wherefore most barrels are decorated with images of a black cats cut out of paper (agreed, it makes no sense at all).

My daughter insisted we bring a Shrovetide cake to the festivities at her kindergarten (makes perfect sense):

The cake was a chocolate sponge (450g melted butter whisked with 450g of caster sugar until white and fluffy, 8 lightly beaten eggs stirred in and then 450g flour and 4 teaspoons of baking powder and 8 tablespoons of cocoa is added. Pour into well greased baking tray and bake for 40 min at 175 degrees).

When the cake came out sugar syrup was poured over it and then the cake was cut into the desired shape and then covered in chocolate butter-creme.

I used homemade fondant for covering the cake and making the decorations - and that was the last time I'll ever do that (!!) unless I find a different recipe - the fondant was much too sticky and difficult to work with, so the result did not look like what I had envisioned, but I'll just try again next year :-)

Moon cake with home made fondant

What to do when home with a 3 year old who has the flu and who wants to make a snow man - out of sugar, naturally - and you have run out of Wilton's white fondant?

Well, I had a bag of marshmallows (approx. 20 big ones) and some sunflower oil (3 tablespoons) which I melted with 6 tablespoons of water in a water bath (takes quite some time and you should remember to stir once in awhile). Once melted I mixed in with approx. 700 grams of icing flower in my Kenwood (would never have made it by hand!). The result? A perfect fondant.

The fondant snow man was a great success.... unfortunately, he didn't survive long enough for me to take a picture, so instead we made a lemon moon cake, which I brought to work:

The cake was a Lemon Moon cake (Victoria sponge with lemon zest and lemon syrup, covered in royal icing. The stars and the moon was made out of home made fondant)

Butterfly effect cake (No. 3)

I woke up Sunday wanting a to make a cake - no occasion and reason. The cupboard revealed that we had only: gluten free marzipan (150 grams), icing sugar, unsalted butter, Valrhona 80% chocolate, eggs and potato flour and 10 butterflies made out of royal icing.... what to do with that????

SMALL GLUTEN-FREE MAZARIN CAKES   

Mix 150 grams of marzipan with 150 grams of icing sugar. Add 100 grams of soft un-salted butter a little at a time. Add 1 dl of eggs (approx. 3 whole eggs) and 25-30 grams of potato flour. Place the dough in small pie trays or cup cake forms. Bake at 200 degrees for 15-20 min.

Anneal the chocolate and cover the cakes with the chocolate and add the decoration of your choice (if any).

Butterfly effect cake (No. 2)

My daughter did NOT understand why she couldn't eat the butterfly cake that I brought to work (see butterfly effect cake (No. 1), so I made her this one:

The cake was half a portion of Lemon Moon Cake. Recipe for a full Lemon Moon:
Whip 250 gram of softened butter with 250 grams of icing sugar. Stir in 250 grams of egg (approx. 5 eggs) a little at a time (don't whip/beat the eggs in!). Add 250 grams of flour and 10 gram of baking powder and add grated zests of 2 lemons.

Bake in a well greased tray for approx. 1 hour at 200 degrees.

Make a syrup of the lemon juice (half juice, half sugar - boil to reduce liquid) and pour over cake went it comes out of the oven.

Cover the cake in royal icing (egg white, icing sugar and a little bit of softened unsalted butter - to make sure that the icing remains soft, and the cake may be cut without splintering).

Butterfly effect cake (No. 1)

We were invited to a birthday party, and I was to bring the cake. The birthday girl is a lovely and lively woman who's demeanor reminds me of a butterfly, so I had planned to make a two tier birthday cake with lots of butterflies flying around it.

The butter flies were made and ready for the cake, when the birthday party was cancelled..... and so I decided to make a cake for my colleagues - a Victoria Sponge, with lemon/clementine syrup and soft nougat:

My American and British friends seem to prefer Victoria sponge-type cake covered in royal icing or fondant, where as the Danes appear to like layered cakes with custard, cream and marzipan. Personally, I think Victoria sponge cake is often quite boring; dry and without much taste. So the butterfly effect cake was really an experiment in trying to get a Victoria sponge to actually taste of something:

The sponge is made of:
250 gram of caster sugar whisked white with 4 eggs.
250 gram of melted butter is added to the boule. Stir well and add
250 gram of flour + 2 table spoons of baking powder.
Pour into a well greased baking tray and bake for approx. 40 min at 175 degrees.

Make a syrup:
I had a handfull of clementines and a lemon at hand, leaving me with approx. 200 ml juice. Put 150 grams of sugar in a pot. Heat and add the juice while stirring. Turn the heat down and reduce the liquid.

Once the sponge was done, I took it out of the owen, let it sit for a few minutes to cool down, and then I cut it into three (horizontally).

The nougat was heated in a pot to make it runny (don't boil it!). The nougat will harden up, once its cooled down.

I poured 1/3 of the syrup over the bottom sponge, and added a think layer of each of the warm nougat, and placed the next sponge on top of that, and repeated the process until the last layer was soaked in syrup and the whole cake covered in nougat to give it a smooth surface.

Then I made a stiff royal icing (egg whites and icing sugar). Don't beat it as small air bobbles will form - and that's undesirable in royal icing. I added the colour and covered the cake, leave some royal icing for piping small flour on the cake...

A victoria sponge is very tasty made in this way, btw :-)

New Year's Eve Cake 2014

A festive end to fantastic New Year's Eve dinner and a fantastic year!

400 gram marzipan and icing sugar kneaded into a homogene pulp (the pulp should have been heated to approx. 50 degrees - but we forgot this step). Roll into a "sausage-shaped" of approx. 1,5-2 cm width, cut in smaller pieces and form rings and make a top. Bake the rings at 200 degrees until they look right :-). Pipe them with white royal icing and place on top of each other to form a tower. Eat with a glass of champagne :-)