I was at my uncle’s two weeks ago. It was my cousin’s birthday that weekend so I brought the project for a special birthday cake with me. You must know, that my cousin, who turned 7, LOVES Star Wars, which I considered to be the topic of the cake. Luckily, he is not the only boy freaking out about that story so I found a lot of ideas on the internet. I decided to make a yoda cake.
The following pictures show the creating process and the result of our work.
First we prepared the dough for the cake. I chose a pound cake recipe and multiplied the volume with 1,5.
Yeah, that’s the way it looked when everything was combined. Until now, this still-six-year-old was allowed to help.
Mhh, delicious dough. Wait until it is done baking.
After taking the cake out of the oven, I continued decorating the cake with my older cousin to prepare a surprise for his little brother.
So we covered the cake in buttercream and put some structure basics out of fondant on top.
Then we covered it with a sheet of green fondant and added details with a knife. Anything still missing? Ah yes, the eyes. :)
Here they are.
Done. Yodas head on a silver plate.
Yummy!
Some people hate nuts. Some people detest coconut. Mostly those who do not like nuts, do not like coconut, either. And on the other hand those, who like coconut love nuts, as well. Why this? I have no idea, coconuts are not real nuts, actually. They are fruit indeed. But some people I know, do not like coconut in general, but they love bounty bars.
Humans are confusing.
When I noticed this after talks to my friends about their eating habits, I knew that homemade bounty bars would have fans. Yippie :)
I found a very VERY easy recipe on „Lick the Spoon“ http://lickthatspoon.blogspot.de/ .
Five ingredients, one success. Just try it out.
Homemade Bounty
3 cups (700 ml) dessicated coconut
½ tin (about ½ cup or 200 g) sweetened condensed milk
60 – 85 g (1/2-3/4 cup) powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla essence
350g (13 oz) dark chocolate, melted
Combine the coconut and condensed milk in a bowl. (I did this with my hands as I didn’t want to spread coconut all over the kitchen with my handheld mixer.) Add powdered sugar, until the mixture is stiff and less sticky. Combine with the vanilla.
Form 24 to 30 bars with your hands. Let them chill in the freezer for at least 45 minutes.
Cover with melted chocolate and serve when hardened.
Couldn’t be easier, right?
Alright. Today’s cake is a real beauty. Really, if you are just brave enough to try. It is a cake with yeast, so some of you might get a shock when they only hear the word. But don’t worry, you will succeed if you follow the instructions.
Are you craving a fruity, fresh, not to sweet, delicious, soft cake? Try out this one.
For the filling, you can use any fruit of the season. I worked with strawberries and cherries, but I’m sure that it tastes good with blueberries, peaches etc.
Make sure you have enough time to make this, no stress. If you have 2 or 3 hours time and something to do while you are waiting for the yeast to work…
Here is the list of ingredients:
Fruit Pudding Cake
Dough:
250 ml (1 cup) milk
75 g (1/3 cup) butter
500 g (4 1/8 cups) flour
1 pkt active dry yeast
75 g (1/3 cup) sugar
1 pinch salt
1 egg
Filling:
400g (14 oz) strawberries
350 g (13 oz) cherries
75 g (1/3 cup) sugar
1 pkt baking stable pudding powder
Topping:
75 g (1/3 g) butter
1 pkt baking stable pudding powder
250 ml (1 cup) milk
50 g (¼ cup) sugar
50 g (1,5 oz) planed almonds
recipe from: Dr. Oetker „Modern Cakes“
To prepare the dough, heat the milk in a medium-sized pan and stir in the butter until it is liquid. Place the flour and yeast into a bowl and combine. Add sugar, salt, eggs ant the milk with butter. Stir about 5 minutes with dough hooks, first using the lowest, then the highest speed of your mixer.
Let the dough sit at a warm place for about 45 minutes.
Knead the dough with your hands on a floured surface for 2 minutes. Cut the mass into two parts of the same size. Roll out one half to the size of 30 cm x 40 cm (12“ x 14“). Place in an oiled pan with the same size.
For the filling, mix the sugar and pudding powder in a small bowl. Wash and cut the fruit. Combine with sugar and powder. Place the mixture onto the dough layer in the pan.
Roll out the other half to the same size as the bottom layer and place it on top of the fruits. Let sit at a warm place for another 45 to 60 minutes.
Last step before baking!
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)
Dent about 15 molds into the top layer with the handle of a spoon. Prepare the pudding powder with the milk as written on the package. Fill the pudding into the molds with a piping bag. Spread sugar and almonds all over the cake. Bake for about 30 minutes.
Entjoy this fruity dessert.
