Skip to main content

Birthday Cake

Image
By

A birthday wouldn't be complete without a proper birthday cake. And by proper birthday cake I understand a gateau type cake - and it needs to be moist and sweet. Usually they are a sponge cake type cake, dripped with punch, with layers and cream sandwiched in between. My cake, however was a poppy-seed cake, with coffee cream. Though, it's always been my favourite cake, it's the first time I made it, so I was a tad comprehensive. Luckily, everything turned out fine, the cake was fabulous, and I had a fantastic day, which makes gettign older more bearable ;-) Kidding, don't really care about that.

The cake is quite time-consuming, but believe you me, it's well worth it!

For the cake you need:

200grammes of ground poppy-seed
150 grammes of icing sugar
6 eggs
4 table spoons of bread crumbs
1 packet of vanillin sugar
almond aroma
butter or margarine to grease the baking tray

Whisk the egss with sugar and vanillin sugar to a fluffy mixture. Add poppy seed, bred crumbs and aroma, stir gently (ideally with a wooden spoon). Pour the mixture onto a greased tray (mine was circular; 24cm in diameter). Pre-heat the oven to 180C, bake the cake for about 40 minutes. Leave the cake to cool, and cut horizontally into two.
Each tier of the cake needs then to be dripped in punch.

Punch:

1 glass of water
100grammes of sugar
1 shot glass of rum
Mix all ingredients until sugar has diluted. Pour the punch onto both parts of the cake.

Coffee Cream

70 grammes of icing sugar
4  egg yolks
250 grammes of soft butter
2 teaspoons of instant cofee
4 tablespoons of water

Pour water into a pan, add sugar and heat up, constantly stirring until sugar has diluted. Bring the mixture to boil. Reduce the heat and simmmer for further 5 minutes without stirring. Leave teh syrup to cool. Whisk the yolks on steam, that is: place a large pan on low heat, pour enough water inside to cover the bottom. Put a smaller pan inside, so as it doesn't touch the bottom of the bigger one, but it is suspended in it.While whisking the yolks, add cooled sugar syrup (one spoon at the time) and don't stop whisking. Cool the mixture a bit, then gradually add butter, and keep whisking until the cream is fluffy and smooth.
Adding butter is the bit that may prove truicky, as the cream may curdle. Luckily, mine didn't, but I did all whisking on steam (even though I had to cool it before adding butter). Finally, dilute coffee in 1 tablespoon of hot water and stir it into the cream.
Spread  1/3 of the cream on one piece of cake and place the other bit on top, spread the rest of the cream on top of the cake and sides. You may decorate your cake with ready made cake ornaments, or cover the sides with chopped almonds or nuts. I'm not sure if I'd advise to decorate the cake, as for some mysterious reasons, it tends to disappear very quickly, once it's ready. :-)


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Take on Italian

By
Italian cuisine is often to be considered to be simple. I guess it is like with elegance - simplicity is the key. Good quality, real Italian ingredients are crucial, combined with a bit a passion, and not too complex a recipe. Pronto! Though, to tell you the truth, my very first steps with Italian cuisine included ... using instant sauces ... Nowadays I can't quite comprehend how anybody can claim they taste of anything, but I guess it takes trying to "the real deal" ...   The very first thing I cooked from scratch, and we both instantly loved, was spaghetti Pomodoro e Basilico, as the Italian call it. Even though for the Italian it is "primo piato" (first dish), an introduction to the main meal, it is just the matter of the amount, as it surely can be the main meal as well! All we need is spaghetti pasta, 4-5 ripe, sweet tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of passata, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, a few basil leaves, salt and pepper to seaso...
1 comment
Read more

Gingerbread Layer Cake

By
This Christmas I decided to "pimp up" my gingerbread a bit, after a last minute inspiration. I saw a photo of this cake, literally a day before making the cake and decided it's an absolute must this Christmas. I really like how the cake combines gingerbread and gateau type cake features, it's both presentable and delicious. The cake (4 layers): 150 g honey (liquid) 200 g butter or margarine 500 g plain flour 3 yolks 4 tbsp milk 1 tbs purified soda 100 g sugar 1 tbsp ground ginger 1 tbsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp ground cardamon 1tsp ground cloves a pinch of ground black pepper Combine the ingredients in a large bowl - as it's really hard to do, you may be best off using dough whisks on a food mixer. Cover the bowl with cling film and put into the fridge for 24 hours. After that time, divide the dough into 4 parts, place on a baking paper-lined baking tray and bake in 180C for about 15 minutes. Leave to cool.   The cream: ...
2 comments
Read more

How come I'm in Italy?

By
My little students often ask me: "Miss, how is it possible that you speak Italian and also English?" It's very cute when they do, but others ask equally often - how come you live here? Well, some people have their "American dream", I've got my Italian one. That's it. I've always loved Italy. I've liked the sound of the language, Italian food's always been one of my absolute favourites, and one day as I was travelling in Italy I had a thought - why not try to live and work here? There are some many teachers like me, who work in this country, I could do it too! I like doing things my way instead of following the same path as others. Life's short and what's the point wasting it repeating the things other people have already done? And so, a day before the end of the year we landed in Brindisi, Puglia where our Italian life began. I'll always have a soft spot for Puglia. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I feel that it was the time o...
Post a Comment
Read more