Cakes

Birthday Cakes

The idea about these cakes started one day when my oldest daughter, had her first birthday. I wanted to make something she would be excited about, which would lead to her speaking out more of those "one-year-old" words.

After that, my inspiration grew more and I made a commitment to make artistic cakes so I don't have to worry about any other birthday gifts. Some creations were really accidental. First "true" 3D cake Dora the Explorer was made because I baked very wide cake and didn't have large enough plate to put it on. So when I cut the extra cake "ring", I had realized I could have used it for something. Dora’s hair came to my mind!

That was the moment I discovered my "sculpting" hands. I remember how much I loved playing with clay when I was young.

When my kids were younger, it was much easier, because they always had some favourite character they would request for their cakes. Later on, the books they loved, like Treasure Island. Now, it’s up to me. It’s like a psychoanalysis now, according to personality, and taste buds.

   

Po - the pink Teletubby

Early beginnings, young kids.

Halloween Monster cake

Completely baked from one piece of sweet dough with inserted gummy eyes and teeth that were, surprisingly, undamaged in the oven!

Bunny puff

Made as a replica of my daughter’s favourite toy.

Snowman

Appropriate for any winter party, especially at school.

Dora

As explained earlier!

Treasure Island

This is how I imagined the characters.

Ice-cream Cat-cake

Kids wanted an ice-cream cake. The cat was my choice.

Harry Potter’s little friend

Dobby, the house-elf from "The Chamber of Secrets" movie.

Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore

Highly demanded; kids favorite all over the world.

Cartman from The South Park

This guy is a big step up from Teletubbies. The entire family loves him!

Winnie the Pooh, again

This time alone , confirms that he is a celebrity among the cake characters too!

Pig

Kind of Salvador Dali's version of the pig.

White Cool Cat

This is neither cartoon nor book character. It is 100% my own design.

Snowman

Another version without edible hat.

Rainforest,

My daughter's big summer research project

SpongeBob,

basically 2D project, simply because he is a Square(whole body shaped)pants .

Dad’s birthday cake

My daughters' design and decorations.

Kick-Ass cake (Raspberry meringue cake)

Recipe:

Raspberry filling:
300gr  raspberries
150 gr sugar
3 gelatin sheets
6 egg yolks
1cup milk

Meringue sheets:
6 egg whites
200 gr sugar
100 gr icing sugar

7 minutes icing:
2 egg whites
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tbs water

Ice-cream Sun and roses cake

Very simple to make if you are using store ice-cream.

Gollum cake

White Cow cake

White Cow cake before decorating

White chocolate coconut cake

Genoa cake:

 150 g marzipan

5 eggs separated

2 tbsp cocoa

3 tbsp white flour

2 tbsp potato flour

1 tbsp sugar

First crumble marzipan  and mix it with egg yolks. In another bowl whip egg whites until soft peeks and at the end add sugar. Fold  1/3 in marzipan mixture and add other ingredients in a mix. Fold the rest of the egg whites in a bowl and mix well carefully, not to break the whipped egg whites. Bake a cake in three separate round pans. If you want dome shaped cake or plan to make cow head like me, bake a cake in different sized pans on 175 c (325 F) for about 25 minutes.

White filling:

 2 bags of vanilla pudding powder

2 cups (o.5 l ) milk

50 g butter

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

2 tbsp vanilla essence

100 melted white chocolate ( this is optional)

Prepare vanilla pudding with a half of required milk. So for two packs of pudding use two instead of four cups of milk. When  pudding is cooked add coconut and vanilla. Leave it to cool a bit and than add butter. After this point, filling is ready and it should be cooled more before adding it to the cake. If you want to add white chocolate in the filling, melt it and add before total cooling.

To finalize the cake, first layer of Genoa cake cover with half of the white filling and repeat layering again one more time and finish with a third cake layer. Make a cake compact by pressing firmly over and after cooling in a fridge , after couple of hours, decorate with whipping cream or other icing as desired.

Bush-baby Ice-cream Cake

Bush baby cake Recipe:

For head:

1 kg ice-cream ( three types: banana, chocolate, almond))

two orange lollipops

two ice-cream cones

chopped nuts

Banana mix: (melt on a stove and mix until even)

1 banana mashed

50 g chocolate

1/4 cup milk

For hands:

six canoli swirls

Process:

Take ice-cream from freezer for five minutes. Start layering in small round bowl lined with plastic wrap  inside. First ice-cream layer then chopped nuts, ice-cream than Banana mix layer, and ice cream again.
Leave it covered inside freezer for one hour. Prepare cones (cut out tops with scissors) and lollipops (cut out handles). Take bowl out and flip on a serving plate. Leave again for couple of minutes to be able to "shape" baby bush head for the eyes  and press in cones for the ears and nose (top of the cone). Work fast, freeze again. Before serving sprinkle with coconut and place candles.
For hands and tree, fill canolis with ice cream and tie them together, freeze immediately. For hand, cut from soft long jello candy, five fingers and attach to canoli tree.
Rest of the process and shaping is individual, let your ideas and creativity guide you!


One eyed Monster Octopus Zuccotto Cake
(recipe below)




Debate cake - marzipan cake (see recipe below)



MY FAVOURITE CAKE RECIPES:

Pave du Roy

An old French classic, “Cake for King,” is also made with Genoa cake. This flour-less recipe, which puts this cake in the category of Gluten free desserts, is dairy-free too.

A sophisticated combination of ingredients, like almond, chocolate and orange liquor give this cake the top score on my dessert list.

Genoa cake

part 1:

 1 egg + 2 yolks

75g sugar

15g cornstarch

15g cocoa powder

60g ground almonds

part 2: 

2 egg whites

20g sugar

Mix first part ingredients, add almonds at the end. Whip second part by adding sugar last when your egg whites are whipped into egg white snow. Combine part one and part two by lightly blending together. 

Mousse:

125 g dark melted chocolate

4 tbsp butter

2 egg yolk

4 egg whites

3 tbsp sugar

Separately whip egg whites in one bowl and egg yolks and sugar in another. Blend all in one bowl with other ingredients and cool. Don’t forget to cool down melted chocolate before incorporating.

Syrup:

2 tbsp bitter orange liquor

2 tbsp candid orange peels, chopped

½ cup water

6 tbsp sugar

Cook syrup on a medium heat in a pan until it gets syrup consistency.

To assemble cake, first lay one layer of cake, spread half of the syrup over and cover with half of the filling. Continue one more time layering and finally top with one more Genoa cake layer. Leave overnight to cool and than decorate with sliced almonds or grated dark chocolate.

Zuccotto cake

for more zuccotto recipes go here

Genoa cake (200 g)
Whipped cream (250 ml)
Ricotta (cottage cheese) 300 g
Chopped roasted hazelnuts 100 g
One bar of bitter chocolate chopped 50 g
Icing sugar 3 tbsp or more (to your taste)
Bitter cacao (powder) 30 grams
Amaretto Liquor or similar liquor

Whip the cream in a bowl, add the sugar, the ricotta and mix well; divide the mixture into two parts, mince in little pieces the bitter chocolate bar and nuts and add it in one of the two parts (you can also add candied fruit). Into the second part mix the cacao powder.
Cut the sponge cake in rectangular slices (5 x 10 x 2 cm) and soak them with liquors, line with the slices a mold for zuccotto or even a bowl, coat all with the black cream, in the centre put the white cream, cover all with more slices of soaked sponge cake. Keep into the refrigerator several hours. You can also us the freezer but you have to take out the cake one hour before eating.

A zuccotto is a tasty summer dessert – well chilled, but it can be made in any other season or event as well. It looks impressive and it's easy to make.

Marzipan cake

Batter:

1 jar of hazelnut butter (or finely ground roasted hazelnuts – 250g)

5 egg whites

3 tbsp sugar

Fill 1:

1 vanilla pudding

250ml milk

3 tsp sugar

¼ tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp butter

Fill 2:

1 Almond pudding

250ml milk

3 tsp sugar

¼ tsp Real Almond aroma

3 tbsp butter

50gr chopped marzipan

50g chopped roasted hazelnuts

50g chopped roasted walnuts

50 g chopped orange peel (optional)

50g chopped dark chocolate

100g melted chocolate for toping

For the marzipan figurines: 250g of soft marzipan, natural food coloring

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Bake cake batter:

Whip egg whites, add sugar, mix than carefully in hazelnut butter and incorporate into the mass. Bake in a small oiled cake pan (~20cm diameter), so that you can get three layers from it. Bake on 180C for about ½ hour (check after 20 minutes by inserting toothpick into the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean is ready). Leave it to completely cool and cut horizontally into three equal parts.

Pudding fillings:

Cook separately milks for both puddings according to instructions, but instead of 0.5 l of milk use only 0.25l for each pudding. After cooking puddings with milk and sugars, add essences and leave it to cool. Then add butter and whip until you get fine cream. If needed, add more icing sugar into puddings to make it sweeter.

In a small pot, melt chocolate with little bit of milk, to make it smooth for the cake cover.

Cake assembling:

Put first layer of the cake on your cake plate. Spread good amount of chopped chocolate and marzipan. Spread vanilla pudding mix on top of that. Press over second cake layer and top it with chopped hazelnuts and orange peel (optional), spread almond pudding over. Cover with third cake layer and press. Cover with melted chocolate and make sure that all cake is equally covered. Refrigerate.

Winnie the Pooh cake

(slide show manual)

How to...