Challenge No 6 - Pink Ombre Cake with Raspberries & Lemon Curd

Month 6 - June
Blog 6 - Sockerrus www.sockerrus.se
Recipe 6 - Ombre Cake http://sockerrus.se/2011/07/20/blue-rainbow-cake/

 

Now this is a cake that has been on my hit list for about a year, I originally saw it on a Swedish Website which is the Sockerrus Blog where you can see some fantastic cakes designs, ideas and recipes.  You just need to hit "Translate to English" up on the right hand side.

The funny part is I had my heart set on making this for sooooo long, and I have now made the cake itself three times in total in under 2 months, and everyone constantly comments how delicious the cake is. Its a White Velvet Cake, which I had never actually heard of, but it is a very fine compact crumb. Therefore the texture is really lovely to eat, and soft and can make a decent cake even when thin layers are required.

I doubled the cake batter, so feel free the halve this recipe for a small cake.  Also I thought I would put cream in centre layer, I felt it ruined the look a bit and I have to take it by car to my brother's (about a 15 minute drive) and the cream layer cause the top layers above the cream to slip off. Definitely keep it to just the lemon curd and save the cream for the top. So forgive me the the final cake doesn't look as good as it should, it slipped apart in my car....

Here is the cake (which as mentioned I doubled)

White Velvet Cake

135g Egg Whites
250g Milk
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
300g Castor Sugar
300g Plain Flour
1 1/3 Baking Powder
1/4 Salt
170g Butter - room temp

Food Colourings - used Americolor Electric Pink and Rose
Punnet Raspberries
300ml Whipping Cream
Tbsp Sugar
300-600g Lemon Curd

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Grease and flour at least 2 x 8 inch tins.

Whisk together the egg whites, milk and vanilla in a small bowl, and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, castor sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add in the softened butter and mix in gently.  Add a third of the egg milk mixture, repeat twice until mixed in completely.

Your batter is now ready, so divide it evenly into 5 bowls, i recommend you use 5 bowls of the same kind and size so you can measure consistently.  Once divided into 5 bowls, leave first bowl as natural, add one drop/tiny blog to 2nd bowl and stir, add a larger amount to the 3rd bowl, change to darker colour and add small amount to ensure it darker than 3rd bowl, finally add a larger amount of colour to the 5th bowl.

You should end up with 5 layers of graduating colour in separate cakes.

Bake each layer/tin separately on the middle shelf in the oven, for 15-20 mins, check the cake springs bake touching the centre of it to check it is cooked enough. It should be firm and spongy.

Remove cake tin, allow to cool for 15 minutes and then turn cake out of the tin onto a cooling rack.

Make the lemon curd and place into the fridge to cool.

I recommend freezing your cake layers for just a couple of hours to get them firm and cold before cutting, trimming and layering them as you will get a much better result.

Finally layer up your cake, putting lemon curd between each layer, and finally top it with cream and raspberries. Edible glitter compulsory!

Here is what this delicious number looked like on the inside!!!! Delightful!!

ENJOY!

Minnie Mouse Dessert Table & Party for Miss 3!

My little girl just turned 3, and her wish was for a Minnie Mouse Birthday Party, she absolutely adores Minnie Mouse (and Mickey of course). And of course it had to be PINK!  So off I went in the planning stages to plan it with all the bells and whistles.

I run a Cookie Business from home, and I am really hoping to get into doing more Dessert Tables as part of my baking business.  I love doing dessert tables!! They are huge, alot of planing, very imaginative and even more baking but the result is awesome and very rewarding. Children and adults alike love a Dessert Table.

The choices and options are endless, the menu I had was a centrepiece as the Minnie Mouse two layer cake, then we had themed Cupcakes with Italian Meringue in spotted collars, Minnie Cookies with the edible images on them, Ice Cream Cake Pops, Fairy Floss (Cotton Candy) in the jars, Push Pops with Double Chocolate cake/Raspberry Mouse/Meringue/Fresh Raspberry, Minnie Silhouette Bubblegum Macarons and Pink Mini Toffee Apples.

I simply decorated with two big Minnie Mouse helium foil balloons (one each end of the table) and a wall decal I order through ebay that I reused in her bedroom (or could be used on the door).

The kiddies table was all fitted out with the themed table cloth, plates and napkins.  I filled glass mini milk bottles with Raspberry alternative to Ribena with the hot pink & white paper straws. Each place setting had a mini pink toffee apple for each child to take home and to the apple stick I tied a lollipop themed pink & white balloon to it that each child got to take home as an extra surprise.

I hired the child size trestle table and kiddies coloured chairs from Little Ones Party Hire, they were perfect and added a great element to the room, the colour range is wide and you can get all one colour or mixed.

Pin the Bow on Minnie Mouse was played, along with Pass the Parcel, Musical Chairs and Statues with the latest tunes that turned into a kiddies dance off to Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO.



I ordered something a little extra special for the Party Favours, miniture Picnic Baskets, filling them with tiny fizzy and gummi lolles and a Minnie Mouse Funfetti coloured cookie with the black silhouette face and hot fuschia bow. All done up in ribbons and thank you cards. I bought the Picnic Baskets and Lollipop coloured Balloons through Bon Bon Boutique, the girls were gorgeous to deal with here, as I had a week's delay through a Melbourne based site and had to cancel the order and found Bon Bon Boutique to be beyond fabulous in there Customer Service, a hard find these days.

My Minnie Mouse themed Birthday Cake was a bottom layer of Double Lemon and Raspberry with raspberry Buttercream and the top layer was a 70% Cocao Double Chocolate Cake by Miette Bakery San Francisco with Ganache then both covered and decorated in Satin Ice fondant.

The Cupcakes were a Vanilla and Raspberry cake and topped with Italian Meringue Buttercream and alot of sparkle. Then placed into Hot Pink with tiny pin spot Collars, bought from Baking Pleasures.

The gorgeous and most delicious Macarons were made as a custom order in black silhouettes with a Bubblegum filling, by Leah at Half Baked Tart.  These were Marley's deemed most favourite party food item, she absolutely loved them and was the first item she grabbed as she finished blowing out her cake candles! Dont worry about my hours of baking :-( but I understand in the mind of a 3 year old, she dove into the one thing her mother doesn't make on a regular basis.

The Ice Cream Cake Pops looked very effective, I made them with funfetti cake, and white chocolate and topped with with coloured jimmies (American sprinkles) and a Shimmer Sixlet (also American that I order from the USA regularly). I bought a special stand which in my pending USA trip I will purchase a 2nd one for the pair (maybe more but Shhhhhh dont tell anyone)!

Cookies were simple but effective.... a large Mickey silhouette in cookie dough filled with hot pink, black & white jimmies, then topped with a Hot Pink fondant cut out, then I place on with sugar syrup a Minnie Mouse edible image.  All cookies were served in cellophance bags tied with matching satin ribbons.

Finally were the Push Pops, a dessert table item becoming very popular in deed, they are a plastic cylinder with a stick handle and you can push the food up as you devour it.  I always serve mine with spoons so you can tuck into them with gusto! The idea is to layer the contents with cake, crumble, meringue, buttercream, cream, curd, mouse etc the options are endless and they are clear so you usually consider the colour or appearance.  Mine consisted of Double Chocolate Cake, Raspberry Mousse each layered up twice, then topped with italian meringue and a fresh raspberry on top (and a pink of hologram edible glitter). I love the wooden spoons, you can stamp the handles as an additional touch. There are stands you can buy or get made but i usually use these adorable boxes and they fit 6-8 in them perfectly.

So for your Party, Cookie, Cake or Dessert Table needs to make your next event a hit, contact me (Traci) at :

Cookie Queen Kitsch'n

Email - cookiequeen@y7mail.com
Ph - 0404 741 790 (or 61 2 404 741 790)
I am based in Sydney. Minimum order of Cookies are 12, Cupcakes are 24, other items on application.

I look forward to making your next Party extra special!!