Coconut Buttercream Biscuit Cake

 

My son asked for his favorite dessert in the form of a cake for his 10th birthday two weeks ago. Hm….. I had to think a little how I am going to transform it into a cake, but I think I did a pretty good job eventually, and he was over the moon and very pleased!

This dessert it’s called originally “Kokuszos Keksztekercs“, which in English would be “Coconut Biscuit Roll“. I tried to translate it as accurately as possible, but there is the twist of transforming the biscuit roll into a cake, so I finally came up with calling this cake a “Coconut Buttercream Biscuit Cake“.

This is a heavy (literary!) and dense buttercream cake, my son was absolutely thrilled and so were my other two kids. They really love the original recipe which is basically a roll, very much like the decoration on this cake, only bigger.

I am not a fan of buttercream cakes, but this I like, maybe because I like the version with rum more than the one without. Anyway, this cake is something that I’m sure that every Hungarian ate at least once in their lifetime, but most probably more than once. It so common and loved, mostly because it is so easy to make, even for children, especially that you can buy ready-made ground biscuits which is the main ingredient for this cake. Some people use coffee in this dessert, but my children like it without, so I left the coffee out from the recipe.

Ingredients:

-500 g digestive biscuits (finely grounded in the food processor)

-200 g + 200 g icing sugar (400 g in total)

-6 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-220 g unsalted butter (20 g+ 200 g)

-shredded coconut (1-2 Tbs)

-milk

-rum

Method:

In a large bowl, mix together the ground biscuits, 200 g icing sugar, cocoa powder, 20 g softened butter, rum (only if you don’t want to serve it to children, and you can put as much as you desire) and as much milk as you need to form a dough.

I divided my dough into 7 parts because I made 6 layers of cake and the last dough I used to make the decoration on the top of the cake. To make the cake layers I laid a sheet of parchment paper and rolled out all 6 parts of dough separately into a round circle and I used a round bowl to cut all layers into the same size. The last part of the dough I rolled into a square shape and spread over a little buttercream, then rolled up into a sausage, put it into the fridge to set for about 1 hour.

To make the filling, I whipped 200 g butter with 200 g icing sugar and the vanilla extract and shredded coconut, then spread each layer of the cake evenly. I left a tiny bit to cover the side of the cake. It’s your call how thick you want your cover layer, I like my cakes to look rustic, uneven, so I didn’t need too much.

When your cake is stacked and covered, place it in the fridge for at least 1 hour to set. When you are ready to serve, take out the roll first and cut it into slices to decorate your cake.

Sunny Yellow Ombre Birthday Cake

 

My daughter turned 13 this week, she became a teenager at last. I think she was waiting for this milestone for some time… Her favourite color is yellow lately, so it was obvious that I will make her a yellow cake. I really love how it turned out, especially that her little sister helped me make it, and actually she proved to be a very keen and capable sous-chef!

 

It is a four layer milk chocolate cake covered with whipped cream icing. We also made a few mini pistachio cakes, which are actually cupcakes cut in half and stacked together with whipped cream.

 

 

For the Pistachio cupcake recipe click here.

 

 

 

 

LOL Surprise Birthday Party

 

 

My daughter got her first little LOL doll last summer as a present. She already knew what they are, I’ve never heard of them before. A few weeks after that she got another one, and the rest is history.

 

 

Fast forward this summer, we decided she will have an LOL birthday party with her friends. Since we usually don’t hire out a place for the kids birthdays, we have to restrict the numbers. My daughter was really struggling with who to invite in terms of keeping the numbers low, because she would have invite all the little girls if she could. Maybe, this home-party idea should be reconsidered in the future to keep everyone happy.

Or, move to a bigger house 🙂

 

 

 

 

The girls got a little doll each, they had to look for them and find them in the garden, a bit like an Easter egg hunt.

When everyone found herself a doll, they got a Fashion Crush to dress their dolls. They were super excited to open them and see what everyone got, and of course they kept their dolls and took them home in their party bags.

Since it was in the middle of the afternoon, after lunch and before dinner, we served more like a desert table with some sandwiches, fruits, cupcakes, cookies, sweets, etc. And there was the cake in the end. My daughter asked for white chocolate and strawberry cake, so that’s what I made.

It was a small party, with few guests, relaxed atmosphere, laughter and smiles, and we enjoyed every second of it.

Funny thing happened in the end, we lost Queen Bee….. My son tripped over the string it was holding her down, and she got free. We all jumped to catch it before she flew away, but we were not quick enough, so she took off high in the sky. Bye bye, it was nice to have you here…..

We still have Diva though, she decided to enjoy our hospitality for a little longer.

Cactus and Lama Birthday Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My oldest daughter loves cactuses for a while now. She has a few on her shelf in her bedroom, and she has other cactus print stuff around. I wasn’t at all surprised when when said she would like a cactus cake this year for her birthday.

 

 

 

 

She didn’t have a party this time, only took two of her oldest friends to town for a fun wall climbing session and dinner afterwards, but we returned home for cake time.

I made white chocolate cake, her absolute favorite, and even baked and decorated some sugar cookies along with it. They turned out delicious and very pretty, although very time consuming, I might add.

Lara’s Cupcakes

 

Made these beauties for Lara, my daughter’s friend for her 12th birthday. She asked for rose-gold cupcakes, and although I didn’t find rose gold fondant or sprinkles or anything for that matter in the shops and online, I tried to achieve it by mixing pink, with metallic gold powder to tint the light pink and white fondant.

 

 

 

 

 

These are vanilla flavour cupcakes, all were iced with vanilla butter cream, but different models contained different amount of icing. Some are hidden under the fondant icing.

Chocolate Birthday Cake

 

This was my cake, for my birthday. I love the simple, but feminine looking cakes, touching a bit of shabby chic on the edge of whimsical notes, but quite rustic altogether.

 

 

Although, this cake is white and pink on the outside, it is full chocolate on the inside. I made a chocolate sponge, and filled with Belgian milk chocolate and dark chocolate cream, sprinkled with dark chocolate chunks. Sadly, I forgot to take a photo of the inside, because I have completely forgotten. I had such a good time with my friends, and only remembered that I should have taken a photo the next day or so.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

5 Tbsp flour

5 Tbsp brown sugar

5 eggs, separated

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp dark cocoa powder (unsweetened)

1/2 tsp salt

Cream:

600 ml double cream (for the filling)

300 ml double cream (for the icing)

100 g dark chocolate

100 g milk chocolate

100 g white chocolate

50 g dark chocolate (chopped)

pink food coloring (few drops)

Method:

Note: you need to prepare the filling cream for this cake one day ahead. Warm the double cream in a pan on the stove and stir in the white chocolate broken into pieces. Stir until melts, don’t let the cream boil! When the chocolate is melted, place it on a cool surface to cool, then put it in the fridge for the whole night to chill, but at least 6 hours.

For this cake, you need to divide the 600 ml double cream in 2 separate pans, to prepare the milk and dark chocolate cream. In addition, you need to have a third pan with 300 ml double cream adding the white chocolate.

In a large bowl beat the egg whites with the sugar and salt on high speed until you get a shiny and firm consistency. You can hold the bowl upside down and the cream will stay put, that’s the hardness you want to achieve.

Gradually, add the egg yolks one at a time, adjust the mixer to medium speed while beating. Add the vanilla extract, too.

Mix the flour with the cocoa powder, you might need to sift if it has big lumps.

Using only a large spoon, adding one spoon at a time, carefully fold in the flour mixture in the egg cream in a way that it doesn’t brake it. Using the electrical mixer is not recommended at this stage anymore.

I baked 5 separate layers in large paper baking cases. I love using it because it is the right size ( 7 inches in diameter) and it saves me from cutting the cake into layers after baking. Also, it will bake much faster and evenly.

You can bake the cake the night before at the same time when you preparer the cream, and can be left on the kitchen counter wrapped in kitchen foil, or bake it on the day of assembling the cake.

When it’s time to finish the cake, whip the chocolate creams until you get a smooth, but not too hard consistency. It is hard to describe where to stop beating, your cream should be lightly firm, but not very stiff.

Spread the milk chocolate cream on two layers of cake, and spread the dark chocolate cream on another two layers of cake. Sprinkle the dark chocolate chips on before stacking them.

Before whipping the white chocolate cream, put half of it in a separate bowl and add the pink coloring, then whip. Cover the whole cake with the white chocolate cream, put the pink cream on the bottom. Smooth the sides and the top using a cake spread or knife.

 

 

Monster Cake

 

My boy had his birthday in August, he has waited patiently ever since for a cake. We are never home in the summer, that’s why he doesn’t have a home made birthday cake on his special day.

 

Since we’re approaching Halloween, I thought a monster cake is welcome, especially if it’s so easy to make and requires no baking. I could do it in no time even though I have my little one home all week with chicken pox……

Ingredients:

Oreo cookies

600 ml double cream

100 gr white chocolate

Black food colouring gel

White fondant

2 edible eyes

Method:

Warm the double cream and melt in the white chocolate. Set aside to cool, then place it in the fridge for overnight or at least 6 hours.

Tint the chocolate cream with black gel colour. Whip the cream and set aside.

Place the first layer of oreos on a cake plate, then add a layer of chocolate cream. It doesn’t have to be perfect, you are making a monster, remember?

Build your cake as tall as you wish, if you are making a smaller diameter monster, your cake will be taller as a result.

To make the eyes, just remove one side of an oreo cookie and use the sides with the white cream on, placing an edible eye on them.

Roll out a small amount of white fondant and cut little triangle shapes. Arrange them on your cake to form teeth and claws.

A very rainbowy rainbow birthday party

My little one turned 5 and we threw her a small party at home with just a handful of her closest little friends.

The weather isn’t the greatest these days, but fortunately the rain missed us, so we could be inside and outside as well. We planned to have the party table inside, and the craft station outside.

With some adult and big sisters help they made rainbow wands from wooden sticks, colored star shape felt and rainbow ribbons. I cut everything ahead, so they only had to chose their stars and assemble the wands with the glue gun.

I also prepared each girl a cotton bag which I decorated with a rainbow drawing, and I personalized them by drawing their names on each bag. I left their names uncolored in purpose, so that they could finish it with the colores they chose. We used fabric markers, so they are permanent and hopefully will last for a long time.

I made pizza for them with rainbow colored vegetables, but they were so focused on the sweets and candies, that they hardly touched it. There was also 6 kind of fruits, arranged by the colors of the rainbow, like strawberries, peach, pineapple, green grapes, blueberries and red grapes.

I found the giant rainbow Marshmallows about a month ago in a shop, and bought a few packs of Jelly beans and a few boxes of Smarties. It was fun arranging them by colors.

I decorated the paper cups with Sharpies.

These are plain biscuits from the store and I applied rainbow fondant on top of them.

Vanilla cupcakes with milk chocolate chips and rainbow buttercream.

I filled these biscuits with the same rainbow colored butterceram.

These are Smarties chocolate eggs from Easter. I had to hide them really well to keep them safe from the kids till now….

 

The cake was a big success. It was very humble and simple from the outside, but when I cut throw it, the girls shrieked with joy seeing the rainbow inside the cake. I snapped a photo of the cake before I covered it with the icing.

 

 

 

Lemon Curd Birthday Cake

Lemon is one of my most favorite flavor in a cake, so I was very excited to make this, but then this wasn’t my cake to eat, but my friend’s Karen. I searched for a good lemon curd recipe, and the one I eventually made was truly up to my expectations.

I tried a few variations, like mixing the white chocolate cream with some lemon curd, then just a layer of pure curd, and even lemon curd topped with the white chocolate cream. All good, but my favourite was the last variation when I spread a layer of lemon curd on the cake and then a layer of white chocolate on top of that. The sourness of the lemon meeting the sweet white chocolate cream (not overly sweet) was Heaven. For me, that is.

Ingredients:

-8 eggs, separated

-8 Tbsp flour

-8 Tbsp sugar

-pinch of salt

-1 tsp baking powder

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-300  ml double cream for the white chocolate ganache

-100 g white chocolate

-coral pink and white fondant

-edible silver foil

-edible silver beads

-paper flowers

Lemon Curd:

-3/4 cup caster sugar

-1/4 cup cornstarch

-1 cup water

-2 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

-2 Tbsp butter

-1 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest

-4 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

Combine sugar, cornstarch and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil (3-4 minutes). Boil, stirring, for 1 minute more. Remove the pan from the heat.

Spoon about 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into a small bowl with egg yolks and stir quickly until combined. Continue stirring, while pouring the egg mixture back into the saucepan.

Return pan to medium heat and cook, stirring, until the curd is thickened and lemon colored (1-2 min). Remove from heat and stir in the butter, lemon juice, and lemon zest.

Let the lemon curd cool, then press plastic wrap onto the surface, this will prevent a skin from forming on the top. Refrigerate. Makes 1 1/4 cups

Make the Cake:

Prepare the ganache one day ahead of the cake. Warm 300 ml double cream in a pan adding 100 g of chocolate. Stir until the chocolate melts, don’t let it boil. Let it cool down, then place it in the fridge and leave to chill over night.

To bake the cake, separate the eggs first. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with the sugar until you get stiff peaks. Add one egg yolk at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.

In another bowl, combine the flour with the salt and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg cream, mix on the lowest speed or fold in only with a large spoon, don’t break the cream.

Line your cake pans with baking paper before pouring in the batter. I used disposable paper baking cases to avoid the cutting step before filling the cake. This way you have all your cake layers even, and I like to have as many layers as possible. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let it cool completely.

I used 4 cake dowels and a little cake board in between the 2 tiers when stacking the two cakes.

I covered the cake with white fondant as a first step, then I decorated the bottom part with lots of coral flowers. I used three different shapes of flower cutters.  On the top half of the cake I applied edible silver foil and decorated with some more edible silver beads. I finished off with coral and white paper flowers bought from Hobby Craft.