Ninja Turtle Cakes

Ninja Turtle Cakes - Ninja Kajkager

These cakes have been on my to-do list for the longest time. Normally they are made without the ninja bandana, and are called Kaj cakes. The name Kaj is the name of a puppet from a Danish children's program "Kaj og Andrea" I grew up with in the 1970's. The cake is a spongecake with a strawberry buttercream and marzipan.

This time Kaj went undercover or mutated into Teenage Ninja Turtles. 

Makes 8 cakes.

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 150 g sugar
• 110 g all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod

Strawberry Buttercream:

• 2 tablespoons pasteurized egg whites
• 125 g confectionary sugar
• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature
• 6 tablespoons cooled strawberry pure (Pure:400 g strawberries boiled with 25 g sugar, blended and strained)
• Red food color, optional

Decorating:

• Strawberry jam
• 200 g Marcipan
• green food color (orange, puple, red and blue for the bandana's)
• dark chocolate, small flakes for the eyes

Directions:

Cake: 

Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Spray three 9-inch (22 cm) baking pans. Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of each and spray this too. Set aside. 

Whisk the eggs light and foamy with the sugar, it takes about 5 minutes to get maximum foaming when whisking on a stand mixer.

Mix and sift flour and baking powder together, and set aside. 

Very gently fold the flour, vanilla and milk in the foamy eggs. Be very careful not to deflate the egg mixture to much.

Pour the batter onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet

Bake the cake for about 8-10 minutes, until light brown.

Set aside to cool.

You only need about a third of the cake for the 8 cakes.

Strawberry Buttercream:

Mix egg whites, butter, sugar in a bowl, and whip the buttercream until thick and fluffy over a double boiler. I used a saucepan with very hot water, and placed my bowl on top of that. I didn't have it on the stove. It takes some time to get the buttercream nice and fluffy. Save 1-2 tablespoons of this white buttercream for decorating. Mix in the strawberry pure. Put buttercream into a piping bag, with a large round tip.

Marzipan:

Color most of the marzipan with green color. Color small amounts marzipan with blue, purple, orange and red for the bandanas.

Assembly:

Ninjas in the making.

Using a cookie cutter cut out 8 circles about 2-inch (5 cm) in diameter. Divide each disk horizontally. Spread a thin layer of jam between the two thin disk of cake. Pipe a nice top onto the disk. 

Roll the green marzipan out very thin. I did it a little at a time between two pieces of plastic wrap.   Wrap the marzipan on top of the buttercream, trying to seal the marzipan close to the cake disk. This way you end up with a green bobble.

Cut a large slid into the cake in about a 45 degree angle, press a little on each side to open the cut. This will be the mouth. 

Roll out the colored marzipan and cut a ribbon for the bandana. Pipe white buttercream dots on top of the bandana, for the eyes, place a small chocolate flake on top for the pupil. 

Serve the cake with a cup of tea or coffee. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Mazarin Cake

Chocolate Mazarin Cake

This chocolate cake is a little dense. But it's not as dense as a brownie, but you can clearly tell it's made with real chocolate. Serve the cake with fresh fruit and ice cream. The cake can easily be made a day in advance.

Makes one 9-inch cake, serves 8-12.

Ingredients:

• 200 g dark chocolate, I used Valrhona
• 200 g butter, salted
• 200 g sugar
• 5 eggs
• 150 g marzipan, I used ren rå marcipan from Odense
• 1 orange, the zest of
• 75 g all-purpose flour (30-100 g)
• 100 g almond flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375℉ (190℃).

Butter a 9-inch springform, set aside. 

Mix the marzipan with the eggs until you have a homogenous mixture, add the sugar and whisk with a flat-beater for a few minutes to incorporate air into the mixture.

Melt butter and chocolate over a double boiler. (I put boiling water in a pot, and melt chocolate and butter in a stainless steel bowl, placed on top of the pot. No need for having it over the heat.

Fold in the chocolate mixture, orange zest, vanilla and flours into the marzipan. Pour the batter into the prepared springform, and bake the cake for about 40 minutes. Sprinkle the cooled cake with powdered sugar. Serve the cake with fresh fruit and ice cream.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble 

Crumbles was new to me when I moved to the US, I have no idea, why we never made this before. Crumbles is perfect when you need to make a quick dessert. And you can make it with fresh or frozen fruit. This time I made it with the classic combination: strawberries and rhubarb. 

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

Berry filling:

• 225 g strawberries
• 190 g rhubarb
• 20 g sugar
• 2½ tablespoons cornstarch 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Crumble:

• 125 g brown sugar
• 55 g all-purpose flour
• 60 g rolled oats
• 75 g slivered almonds
• 75 g butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425℉ (220℃). 

Wash and slice strawberries and rhubarbs and mix them with sugar, cornstarch and vanilla paste. Set aside while making the crumble. 

Mix brown sugar, flour and oats in large bowl. Add chilled butter, using your fingers, blend butter into mixture until coarse crumbs form, then mix in the almonds. 

Divide strawberry/rhubarb mixture among 3-4 ramekins. Divide oat mixture among dishes, sprinkling it evenly.

Place ramekins on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350℉ (175℃), and continue baking until the crisp topping is golden brown and rhubarb filling is bubbling at edges, about 15-20 minutes longer. Let the crumbles cool for a while before serving.

Serve crumbles with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some cream fraiche.

Enjoy!

Lemon Lavender Cheesecake

Lemon Lavender Cheesecake

For the longest time I have been wanting to include lavender in a cake, and this is my first take. Well, I made exactly the same cake for 4th of July last year. But I learned that you can't pour the fairly warm lavender jelly onto a barely set cheesecake part, without getting a clouding of the jelly layer. So no pictures, and no blog post for that try. But the taste was great, so I knew I had to revisit this cake. The lemon and lavender is a really good combination, I think I have to explore this further in the future.

Makes 4 cakes.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 200 g shortbread cookies
• 4 tablespoons melted butter, salted

Cheese filling:

• 225 g (8oz) cream cheese 
• 100 g sugar
• 6 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
• zest of 1 lemon
• 200 ml heavy whipping cream, whipped medium soft

Lavender jelly:

• 100 ml water
• 100 g sugar
• 2 teaspoon lavender flowers (dried or fresh)
• purple food coloring, optional
• 2 sheet gelatin (just under 4 g unflavored gelatin)

Directions:

Line serving-size cake rings with cake wrap/collar. 

Crust:

Crush the shortbread cookies, I used a food processor. Mix in the melted butter. In a medium bowl, mix together crumbs and melted butter until combined and crumbs are moistened. Press the mixture into the bottom of the cake ring using either your fingers or the bottom of a small glass to form a crust layer.

Cheese filing:

Whisk  the heavy whipping cream until medium soft peaks, set aside.

In another bowl whisk the cream cheese with the sugar until completely smooth. Add in vanilla paste, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Using a spatula, gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

Pipe the filling into cake rings and smooth the top. Cover the cakes and place them in the freezer for 30-45 minutes or until completely set, before pouring in the lavender jelly.

Lavender jelly:

Heat water, sugar and lavender in a saucepan, while stirring. When sugar has melted, turn off the heat and let sit to steep for 5-10 minutes. Drain the lavender from the syrup, so you have a clear syrup. Add a tiny amount of food coloring to the syrup. 

To make jelly. Let the gelatin bloom in some cold water for 10 minutes. (If using powder, follow the instructions on the package.) Heat the syrup and melt the gelatin in the syrup.
Pour the jelly on top of the cheesecake . You get the best result by pouring over the back of a spoon to avoid clouding the jelly with the cheesecake. Let the cakes set completely in the refrigerator before serving.

Enjoy!

Blood Orange Upside-Down Cake

Blood Orange Upside-Down Cake

I found blood oranges, when I went shopping today. I was on point in getting ingredients for a good and healthy dinner, and then I came across the blood oranges. And I'm sure they screamed "buy me" and "lets bake a cake" at me. So what is a girl to do?

For the longest time I have been wanting to make an almond blood orange cake, so today was the day.

Makes one 9-inch cake.

Ingredients:

Oranges:

• 3 small blood oranges, sliced thinly
• 100 g sugar
• 120 ml water

Cake:

• 200 g butter, room temperature, salted
• 200 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 200 g almond flour
• 50 g all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 100 g creme fraiche or sour cream

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325℉ (160℃). Line a 9-inch springform with parchment paper, and set aside.

Slice the oranges thinly with a sharp knife or on a mandolin. Heat water and sugar in a saucepan. When the sugar is dissolved place the orange slices in the syrup, and let them simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the peels get semi translucent. Remove the slices with a slotted spoon. Boil the syrup and reduce it to half. Let it cool.

Pour half the syrup in the prepared springform, and brush the parchment paper sides with the syrup. Place the orange slices in the springform, arranging them in a decorative manner. Set aside. Reserve the rest of the syrup to brush over the cake once baked.

Cake:

Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in one egg at a time. Stir in vanilla, flour, baking powder and creme fraiche, mix until just combined. Gently spoon the cake batter into the springform, trying not to break up the placement of the orange slices. 

Bake the cake for about 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. 

Let the cake cool in the springform for 10 minutes. Carefully turn the cake out onto a cake stand. Gently remove the parchment paper. Brush the cake with the remainder of the syrup.

Serve the cake with a dollop of cream fraiche or whipped cream.

Enjoy!