Sweet • Sour • Savory

Food blog on scandinavian style food done right.

Teenage Ninja Turtles

Ninja Turtle Cakes

Brunch, Cake, DessertsTove Balle-PedersenComment
Ninja Turtle Cakes - Ninja Kajkager

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.

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!