Ice Cream Fake Out Cake

Anyone else dreaming of summer? Living in Vancouver, it’s been rain errryday and the Huz said that I’m not allowed to check the weather anymore. Well, for my friend’s birthday, I thought I’d bring her some summer. And since she has 2 adorable kiddies, I thought they’d like a fun whimsical cake.

My inspiration for this cake is Katherine Sabbath. Have you seen her work??? Mind blowing. Not only are her designs amazing, her flavor combinations are out of this world. I’m pretty much in awe of her. Check this out:

Here’s what I’ve done for my friend in the past:

Chocolate meringue cloud cake

Mint chocolate layer cake

Smartie cake

I always try to do something big and different for her. It keep me on my game keeps me flexing my muscles.

Here’s my technique for decorating this cake. I’m not including a recipe for the cake itself - I did a vanilla cake with raspberry jam - because I wanted to focus on the decor. And lucky for you, I’ve worked out the kinks (trust me, there were some tears, right Huz?).

Ice Cream Fake Out Cake Decor

Buttercream Frosting - for sprinkle layer and “ice cream”

Ingredients

1.5 cups butter, softened (add ¼ teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter)

5 cups icing sugar

½ cup heavy cream, room temperature (nuke in the microwave in a time pinch)

2 teaspoons vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

¼ cup jimmies sprinkles

2 Tablespoons chopped chocolate

1 Tablespoon raspberry jam

Food colouring of choice (I used a mix of blue and green gel)

Ice Cream Cone

Ingredients

1 sugar cone

¼ cup white chocolate, or white chocolate discs, or candy melts

¼ cup sprinkles or nuts or anything you want to decorate the ice cream cone with

Drip Icing

Ingredients

½ cup icing sugar

3-4 teaspoons water

Food colouring of choice (I recommend gel colour)

Tools

Large and mini ice cream scoops

Metal spatula

Piping bag

Decorating instructions

1. Make buttercream frosting by whipping butter (and salt if using) with beater attachment in a stand mixer until fluffy. Add icing sugar and mix on a low speed. Gradually stream in cream as it’s mixing and beat until well incorporated and fluffy. Add vanilla and almond extract and beat until incorporated.
2. Stack and fill your cake layers. I baked a vanilla cake in 3, 6-in cake pans and sliced them in half. In between the layers, I used raspberry jam. But sky’s the limit here in terms of flavour combos.
3. Crumb coat the cake - apply a thin layer of frosting to the entire cake to seal in the crumbs. Scrape off any excess. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
4. At this point, you’ll need to estimate how much frosting you’ll need for the sprinkle layer and the “ice cream” portions. Scoop out the amount that you’ll need for the “ice cream” into a bowl and set aside.
5. With the portion of frosting you’ve portioned for the sprinkle layer, add sprinkles and fold in with a spatula. Feel free to add more if you want it extra sprinkl-y.
6. Frost the cake with your sprinkle frosting and scrape off excess. If you want it extra smooth, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes. Dip a metal spatula in hot water and wipe off, and smooth out the frosting. You can add more frosting and repeat this process of refrigerating and smoothing out with a hot spatula.
7. Next, colour the frosting that you will use as ice cream. In my design, I made a turquoise large scoop and smaller scoops of chocolate chip and raspberry ripple. For turquoise, I mixed blue and a small amount of green into the frosting. For chocolate chip, I chopped up chocolate and mixed it into the frosting. For raspberry ripple, I added 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam into the frosting and ran a few strokes through it with a spoon. And for the important part: Spread out the frosting on the bottom of their bowls and refrigerate for 10 minutes. This will give it the ice cream look when scooped out.
8. In the meantime, you can do 2 things: decorate your ice cream cone and make your drip. First the cone: melt your white chocolate in a double boiler or in 10 second intervals in the microwave, stirring between intervals. Dip your the outer 1-inch of your cone in the melted chocolate, then dip in sprinkles or nuts. Place on parchment/wax paper/foil and harden in the fridge.
9. Next the drip icing: Place icing sugar in a small bowl and add water 1 teaspoon at a time, stirring after each addition. Stop when you get a thick but fluid consistency. I recommend putting a drop of the icing on the lip of a cup to see how fast it drips down. If you’ve added too much water, you can add more icing sugar. Add food colouring and mix to incorporate (I recommend gel colour so that it doesn’t add more liquid to the drip).
10. Apply the drip icing: I’ve seen this done in a number of ways, but here’s what I did - I put some of the drip icing in a small pastry bag with a small round tip. I applied beads of drip icing on the edge of the cake and allowed it to drip down. I put the remaining drip on top of the cake and spread it out with an offset spatula.
11. Apply the “ice cream”: Scoop the ice cream frosting with an ice cream scoop and place on the cake. If the frosting is too hard, you can run the scoop under hot water (be sure to dry with towel before scooping). Place ice cream cone on the middle ice cream.
12. Keep cake in the fridge. Bring up to room temperature before eating - 2 hours prior.

*What to do with extra frosting and cake: If you’ve found yourself with extra cake scraps from cutting off the dome of the cakes and frosting, why not make cake pops or cake truffles! You can keep both the cake scraps and frosting in the freezer until you’re ready to make these. I’ll do a post on this next!

Verdict: This cake was an absolute show stopper! I was really happy with the way it turned out and how much it resembled ice cream! Such a whimsical cake. I have so many ideas of how this ice cream technique can be used!

Ps. Does this remind of you Baskin Robins of the 90’s? I got a few of those comments.

Chocolate Stuffed Sugar Cookies

Guess what. I'm getting back into it. Baking and blogging that is. My mood to photograph and write ebbs and flows. That doesn't mean I haven't been checking out recipes and baking - see my Instagram for evidence.

One of the recipes that I've been wanted to try is a sugar cookie recipe. You might think it's boring, but there's something about a no-frills cookie that I like. It can't hide from fancy add-ins and flavours. It's all about texture and the balance of sugar and salt. Like a butter cookie (which by the way, is my favorite cookie). But just in case a basic sugar cookie is too boring for you, here's a version with ganache.

Check out the verdict at the end of the post!

Ready to form back into a ball.

Ready for baking. No need to press down.

Chocolate Stuffed Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookie base recipe from Brave Tart

Ingredients

1 cup butter, cold

1 ½ cups of sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Pinch of nutmeg (freshly grated if available)

1 large egg, cold

1 Tablespoon vanilla

2 ¼ cup all purpose flour

Ganache

40 grams dark chocolate, chopped

52 grams cream

½ cup of cane or muscovado sugar

Directions

1. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg until fluffy (5 min).

2. Scrape down the sides, add egg and vanilla, and beat for another 2 minutes.

3. Scrape down the sides and add flour. Mix on the lowest speed until combined (no more than 30 seconds).

4. Put your dough in the fridge while you make the ganache.

At this point, you can pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment.

5. Put the chopped dark chocolate in a bowl. In a microwave safe cup, microwave cream in 10 second intervals until steaming. Swirl between rounds.

6. Pour cream onto chocolate and let sit for a couple minutes. Stir to combine starting from the middle going outwards. Once smooth, let it sit in the fridge until cool.

7. Scoop out 2 Tablespoon portions of dough and form a ball. Make a deep indent in the ball with your thumb, insert a small dollop of ganache (~½ teaspoon), and patch up the hole with dough from the sides and bottom of the ball. Roll in your hands to re-form a ball.

8. Roll dough in sugar. Place 5 on a baking sheet and bake for 14 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing.

Makes about 26 cookies.

Verdict: Crispy edges, chewy centers. Delic! I made a couple without the chocolate and sugar on the outside and they were still really good. Not boring - classic, OG.

Various Winter Bakings

Here are some things that I've been baking this winter. No recipes here but I thought it might be nice to show you some photos. I really need a professional light for taking photos. Short days mean short time periods of when I can photograph, and in dark and rainy Vancouver, the light that is available isn't great. This winter, I didn't even bother trying to catch the light, thus these photos. Oh well.

Let's start with a birthday cake with blueberry jam. I just love those colours.

Next is a Winter Wonderland cake that I made for a potluck. A chocolate cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. Pretty simple and it's all in the decor!

Next is the World's Best Cake, which was a disaster, but which I managed to salvage. The final product is layers of angel food cake, whipped cream, and meringues with slivered almonds.

Next is a dairy free birthday cake. Chocolate cake with meringue frosting. Fluufffyyyy!

And finally, a pretzel cake from Christina Tosi (Milk Bar). Interesting flavours for sure - pretzel, honey frosting, and ganache. A grown up cake for 3 grownups' birthdays.

That's all for now. I'll be here hoping for better weather and lighting.

Various Summer Bakings

Want to know what's been happening in the kitchen? Check these out!

First up, shoe cupcakes. These were for my boss who loves shoes - I think some of us can relate. I've seen these made with Milano cookies but I made the cookies myself and attached Cadbury Fingers.

There was also these eye shadow palette cookies for a makeup themed bridal shower. This was the first time I decorated cookies with royal icing. Definitely need more practice - whoa these took time to decorate.

And finally, these cupcakes and cake for a birthday party. The cake was Neapolitan (vanilla and chocolate cake layers with strawberry swiss meringue frosting in the middle). Did you know that you can get images printed on rice paper at the grocery store? So awesome!

Check out the birthday girl :)