Sweet • Sour • Savory

Food blog on scandinavian style food done right.

Easter Cake

Cake, DessertsTove Balle-PedersenComment
Easter Cake.

Easter Cake.

I saw this decorating on Pinterest and I was sold. I had to make this cake for our Easter celebration/family gathering. 

I have been wanting to put up recipes for a traditional Danish layer cake for the longest time. Every time I made a cake, we have had people over, and the cake has been eaten before we could take a picture. So this was my chance. Well, so I thought. Because we had to bring the cake to the family gathering, we could only take pictures of the decorated cake, and no pictures of a slice. 

Slicing the cake was not an easy task. The edible grass was kinda difficult to cut, to get a pretty slice. But it was fun making, and the reaction to the cake was well worth the effort. 

Serves 10-12

Ingredients:

Directions:

Make the cake/lagkagebunde/the spongecake and the mousses. I normally make the cake a day in advance, to ease my workload on the day I need the cake.

Place a springform or ring lined with some plastic cake wrap on a cutting board. Place one layer of the cake in the bottom, (I sprinkle the cake with some water/port or juice to moisten the cake). Pipe the chocolate mousse on the cake and even it out. Place the cake in the refrigerator for the mousse to set for 10-15 minutes. Place a thin piece of cake on top of the mousse, and put the passionfruit mousse on top followed by the last piece of cake, this placed upside down on the mousse. Put the cake back in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours to set.

Make the buttercream.

Remove the ring or springform.  

Spread a thin even layer of buttercream on the top of the cake, repeat on the sides of the cake. 

Cut up 1 pack of edible grass into 1-inch (2,5 cm) pieces into a large shallow dish. Spray a very small amount of water over the edible grass, this will make the grass a bit sticky. Now using your hands, mix the grass together, so the water spreads, and the grass starts to clump together. Working in small batches, take a clump of grass up and adhere it to the buttercream on the cake. Repeat putting the grass on the cake until it is all covered. Spray with very little water over the cake, for the grass to stay in place.

Place the bunny on top and sprinkle the M&M's round the bunny.

Let the grass dry completely, and place the cake on a cake stand and serve it.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Passionfruit Mousse

Desserts, Frostings & FillingsTove Balle-PedersenComment
Passionfruits

Passionfruits

I love love love passionfruits. For me it is the most exotically tasting fruit, I've ever tried. The taste is very distinct, somewhat sour. The more wrinkled  the fruit gets, the sweeter the juice is. 

This Mousse is perfect as dessert or in cakes. It pairs perfectly with chocolate.

Ingredients:

  • 3 gelatin sheets (husblas)
  • 200 g passionfruit juice*
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla paste
  • 45 g confectionary sugar
  • 250 ml heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Place the gelatin sheets in cold water, to bloom. 

Half the passionfruits and scoop the juice and seeds out in a sauce pan. Heat the juice, and strain the seeds from the juice.

Heat juice, confectionary sugar and vanilla in a small saucepan. You just want to melt the sugar and hot enough to melt the gelatin. Remove from heat and put the bloomed gelatin (husblas, squeeze most of the water out first) in. Stir until the gelatin is melted, this takes no time. Pour the mixture into a small bowl and let it chill in the refrigerator until almost room temperature.

Whip the cream to medium stiff peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the chilled passionfruit juice. Now the mousse needs to set, this will take a few hours in the refrigerator. 

Before the mousse sets, you can pour it into individual serving vessels, a large glass bowl, to serve family style, or spread in between layers in a cake. 

Enjoy!

* Or use 100 g concentrated passionfruit concentrate and 100 g water. Sometime you can find this product in the freezer isle in Whole Foods.

 

 

Chocolate Mousse

Desserts, Frostings & FillingsTove Balle-Pedersen2 Comments
Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate Mousse

Easy, no eggs chocolate mousse, perfect in layer cakes.

Adapted from piskeriset.dk

Ingredients:

  • 300 ml heavy whipping cream
  • 220 g milk chocolate, I used Valrhona
  • 2 sheets of gelatin (husblas), about 3.5 g

Directions:

Place the gelatin (husblas) in cold water to bloom for 5-10 minutes. Melt the chocolate over at double boiler with 50 ml of the cream. 

Whip the remaining cream to medium hard peaks. (You don't want it to become grainy.)

Melt the gelatin in a small ball over a double boiler. (I just place a bowl as a lid on a saucepan with water I just boiled in a kettle. I don't put the saucepan over the heat.) Mix the gelatin in the melted chocolate. Let the chocolate cool to finger-warm. Gently fold the whipped cream in the chocolate. Pour the Mousse in small serving sized bowls, one large bowl if served family style or use it as filling in a cake. 

Now the chocolate mousse has to set. Let the mousse set for a minimum of 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Lagkagebunde - Spongecake for Danish Layer Cake

Cake, DessertsTove Balle-Pedersen2 Comments
Classic Danish Layer cake

Classic Danish Layer cake

I know I need a better picture of the spongecake inside.

Makes 3 thin cakes.

Ingredients:

  • 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

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

If baking 3 thin cakes:

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 in the prepared baking pans, dividing the batter evenly between the three, if making 3 cakes. (Put about 155 g in each.) 

Bake the 3 thin cakes for about 7-8 minutes, until light brown.

If baking one big cake, to cut up in 3 thin discs after cooling:

Spray a 9-inch (22 cm) springform. Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom 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 in the prepared springform

Bake the large cake for 25-30 minutes, until light brown.

When cooled completely, place the cake on a sturdy work surface. Using a long serrated knife and a sawing motion, cut the layer horizontally to make 3 layers. Don't worry if the layers are not perfectly even. The filling and frosting will mask that.