cloudy sky birthday cake

Sometimes I make order cakes for family/friends/friends' friends and this was one of them - the girls surname is Chmura which means 'cloud' in Polish, so the order was to make a blue cake with fluffy clouds, plain flavored, with some fruit. They liked the cake and it was easy and pleasant to make, so everyone was satisfied. It's a very simple decoration but it looks really love in real, so it should work for any kids' parties you might have upcoming in the future :)

cloudy sky birthday cake

sponge cake

(for 1 round 22cm / 9” cake, to be cut in 3 layers)

4 eggs, separated

1 cup flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

salt

whip the egg whites with salt until foamy, then continue adding sugar in 3-4 portions and beat until stiff

beat egg yolks with mixer (in small bowl would do) until pale and fluffy

mix the two on low speed

add flour sieved with baking powder and mix delicately with rubber spatula until there are no more flour lumps

bake for 35-40 min in 180°C (i don’t preheat my oven when I bake sponge cakes, it helps the top to be more flat as the sides seem to raise more easily)

vanilla swiss meringue buttercream (i used a portion made of 6 egg whites) + blue food coloring

raspberries

assembly:

mix food coloring into 2/5 of the buttercream

place one sponge cake layer on a cake stand, top with 1/5 of the white buttercream and spread it evenly, put some raspberries onto the buttercream, repeat

make a crumb coat with the blue buttercream, let it sit in a fridge for at least half an hour, until the buttecream is firm to touch

over the cake with the rest of the blue buttercream, smooth out the top & sides

pipe clouds with the remaining white butercream (I piped half-spheres with wilton tip #2 and then created a nice cloud surface with the back of a tiny dessert spoon, you don't want the clouds to perfectly smooth though)

keep in fridge until 20-30 minutes before serving

blueberry crumb bars

This is my little gift to thank you for 100 followers on tumblr! You are all such lovely people, thank you so much for being here <3

blueberry crumb bars

3 cups flour (I used 1 cup oat flour here)
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tbsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
zest of 1 lemon
250g butter, room temperature / margarine

500g blueberries (about 3 cups)
100g sugar
3 tbsp flour

mix the dry ingredients for the cake + zest in a bowl
add cubed butter/margarine and mix in with your hands until it forms crumbs
mix the blueberries, sugar and flour for the filling
line a 25cm/10” square pan with baking parchment
put 2/3 of the crumbs into the pan, toss the blueberries over it and then sprinkle with the rest of the crumbs
bake in an oven preheated to 190C for 40 minutes
serve chilled – I used some simple powdered sugar & lemon juice on the top of the cake to add some lemony sweetness

chocolate "fake ice cream"

Those of you who have been following me & who looked though my recipes probably know this: I love meringue in all possible ways and I use it all the time in different types of desserts. The thing that I want to show you today doesn't exactly quality as frozen meringue, like this one, because of the additional ingredients. It's certainly not ice cream either. So I just call it fake ice cream and that's as close as it gets.

Easy to scoop, soft straight from freezer, no ice cream machine required, strong chocolate flavor, feel light melting inside your mouth. I served the ice cream in small scoops with a tiny bit of chocolate sprinkles for texture and edible flowers, in tall aperitif glasses and they were a perfect elegant treat before the real dessert ;) 

chocolate „fake ice cream”

5 egg whites

200 g sugar

150 g chocolate

100 ml whipping cream

whip the egg whites with sugar in bain marie (like when making swiss meringue: instructions here) until stiff and glossy

melt the chocolate in bain marie

pour the melted chocolate into the egg whites, mixing constantly on low speed

whip the cream until stiff

fold the whipped cream in the meringue/chocolate mixture with a spatula

freeze for at least 6 hours

eat immediately after serving, no need to take it out of freezer early to let the “ice cream” soften - it melts pretty quickly