Jun
12

Birthday cake

by Sofia   -   in Cooking

Sunnuntaina kutsuin parhaat ystäväni kakkukahveille. Synttärit ovat hyvä tekosyy nähdä ystäviä ja leipoa kakkuja. Leipominen on siitä hankala harrastus, että jos ei syöjiä herkuille ole näköpiirissä, kokonaisten kermakakkujen tekeminen tuntuu vähän höpsöltä. Tällä kertaa valmistui kaksi kakkua perinteisellä sokerikakku pohjalla. Toiseen laitoin väliin sitruunavettä kostukkeeksi, sekä tuoreita masikoita, murusteltua marenkia ja kermavaahtoa. Myös koristeluun käytin kermavaahtoa. Pienempään kakkuun tuli kostukkeeksi kaardemummalla maustettua maitoa. Kakun välissä oli kirsikka kompottia ja vanilja voikreemiä. Samaa voikreemiä käytin myös koristeluun. Se on valmistettu Magnolia Bakeryn ohjeella. Lisäksi kakun päälle tuli macaronseja ja tuoreita kirsikoita. Molemmat kakut olivat herkullisia, mutta kyllä mansikka kermakakku kuitenkin on maailman paras täytekakku. Mikä jumalainen yhdistelmä!

Last Sunday I invited some of my best friends over for some birthday cake. As my birthday is in the beginning of June this is the absolute time for a strawberry and whipped cream cake. Rhubarb was also on my mind as a filling choice. I like trying out different cakes and flavours but in the end a basic strawberry cake is always my favourite. And I like all kinds of butter creams and swiss meringues for spreading and piping as they look so pretty but a whipped cream with a hint of vanilla or lemon just tastes so much better. But I did want it to look a little different this year. So this is my simple birthday cake. I have shared the recipe for the basic “sponge cake” before in Finnish here ( it´s for a bit smaller portion). So now I´ll share it in English too. This is a very very traditional cake recipe in Finland called the “cream cake” or the “filled cake” and the cake base is called a “sugar cake”.

sugar cake

4 eggs

2 dl sugar

2 dl cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

( you can also add flavours if you like, vanilla, cardamon, lemon zest etc.)

1. Whip the sugar and eggs until very pale and fluffy.

2. Mix the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Either sieve it or use a ball whisk to get it all fluffy and airy. Fold it in the egg mixture gently.

3. Bake in a 200°c oven for about 15-20 minutes or until baked through.

When the cake has cooled cut it in layers. Moisten the layers with ( sugared) lemon water, coffee, cardamon milk, juice or whatever you like and goes with your cake plan. Then fill it with what you like too. Banana, jam, berries, chocolate bits and part of the whipped cream. Top it with the other layer(s) and spread or pipe with the rest of the cream and decorate with berries or a pretty piping or what ever tickles your fancy. As this cake has no butter in it it´s very light, bit dry and fluffy and needs something to moisture it with.

A few things to consider when deciding on making a whipped cream cake. It does not hold as well as a butter cream frosting. With butter cream you can cool the cake after the crumb coat and it gets harder and then you can add layers. But whipped cream is absolutely best very fresh so this is best served as a last minute piped kind of a cake. It does not make a pretty firm layer “stripe” inside your cake either so if you are planning on an ombre cake or so and want very straight layers on the pieces then I recommend maybe using something else for the filling. But it pipes very easily and looks and tastes so fluffy and airy and lovely. One more thing to consider is that the whipped cream basically “sucks” other flavours/ odours to it so before putting the cake in your fridge make sure that last nights curry or your stinky cheese is not in the same fridge. But I do not recommend putting it in a fridge for a long time anyway. As said it´s absolutely the best when as fresh as possible.

For my cake I added some vanilla extract for the sponge itself and a few tablespoons of sugar in the whipped cream. Between the layers I grumbled some meringue ( for a fun and tasty texture) and sliced fresh strawberries to mix with the whipped cream. I moistened the cake with vanilla & lemon water. As the cake and the whipped cream are both sweet as are meringues and strawberries at this time of the year I did not add anything sweet to my “moisturiser”.

I actually made a smaller cake with buttercream. Just because I had a design in my mind I wanted to try out and did not think it would play out so well with the whipped cream. For the smaller cake I made a smaller amount of “sugar cake” ( 3 eggs, 1 dl sugar, 1 1/2 dl flour and 1 tsp baking powder). I used cherries for the filling. I was actually a bit lazy to pit fresh cherries so I bought a Bon Maman cherry compote that I mixed with the buttercream for the filling ( besides the compote jar is so pretty it will make a great vase for lily of the valley). I used  both macarons and fresh cherries for decoration. I moistened that cake with some cardamon milk ( the cardamon flavour gets more intense if you heat the milk a little). It also turned out really good but I´m still partial for the strawberry cake.

On my last cake note. Use the best possible ingredients you can afford. I always bake with fresh organic eggs from a specific farm I tend to find has the best eggs. Make sure your flour is fresh too. If your baking requires salt I use the rose Himalaya salt and the best butter for buttery bakes. It really makes a difference! You may also want to look in to different sugars and substitutes for refined sugar like coconut sugar. For this specific cake I just used an organic sugar ( as I would for meringue as I´m afraid the texture would not survive the change) but for many other bakes like cookies for instance you could definitely try with a substitute. Next cake I bake I will try spelt flour and maple syrup. I have the right recipe in my mind already. From a book called Love Bake Nourish. It´s so pretty! But in general I think that if we don´t eat cake every day or even every week it´s ok to use white flour and sugar when we do bake it. But it´s not to say I would not try some substitutes too. And if you are worried about health factors you can always do like I did. While the cakes were cooling down I went to run for an hour and then added extra greens for my dinner. Balance you know, balance ( read this with a little wink from me!).

Have a lovely lovely weekend and thank you for stopping by again!

Onko sinulla viikonloppuna kenties hääkatsomo tiedossa? Olisi ihana pitää pienet teekutsut, nauttia lasillinen sampanjaa ja ihailla kuninkaallisia häitä. Mutta nautin tällä kertaa häätunnelmasta “livenä”, tosin en ihan kuninkaallisista häistä, mutta itselleni sitäkin tärkeämmistä. Rakkaan, rakkaan ystävän häistä. ( viime vuonna samoihin aikoihin olin toisen bestikseni häissä kaasona)

Ihanaa viikonloppua!

Lattemamma

p.s. I´m really sorry about the awful photos still ( some are actually from my phone!).  On top of my camera still not being fixed my friend already came over while I took these photos so I was listening to her more than concentrating on taking pictures. But I still wanted to share the recipe and something of the cakes on the blog. Hope this whole camera thing gets fixed soon!