Happy New Year! Most of you must have celebrated by now. Hope it was a lovely night. For 2015 dinner parties we made this cute and yummy chocolate/vanilla/orange cake. Please try!
New Year’s Dream Cake
Chocolate Sponges
You will need two chocolate sponges for one cake, which means you need two batches of these ingredients:
- 1 cup / 2½ dl flour
- 1 cup / 2½ dl sugar
- ½ cup / 1¼ dl cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 4/5 cup / 2 dl milk
- ⅓ cup / ¾ dl cooking oil
Set the oven to 170°C / 340°F. You can make both sponges at the same time if you have two cake tins with a diameter of about 19-20 cm / 7-8 inches. Otherwise just make one sponge at a time. Grease the tin and powder with a little flour. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Whip the eggs gently and add milk and oil. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and whip until the mixture is smooth. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes.
Let the sponge rest 5 minutes in the tin. If the sponge is bigger than the tin you can place a pan on top to press the sponge so that the surfaces becomes flat. Turn the sponge upside down on a plate and let cool under the tin. Slice both sponges into two layers so that you have four sponges.
Orange Frosting
- 75 g soft butter
- 1 cup / 2½ dl icing sugar
- a few drops of vanilla extract
- 200 g cream cheese
- ½ orange, finely grated peel and a few drops of the juice
Whip the butter. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract to the butter. Add the cream cheese, orange peel and orange juice and whisk.
Spread the frosting over the first sponge and repeat between the other sponges. Cover the cake in plastic wrap and let cool in the fridge a couple of hours. This will make it easier to cover the cake in vanilla frosting. Make the vanilla frosting while the cake is in the fridge.
Vanilla Frosting
- 150 g soft butter
- 2 cups / 5 dl icing sugar
- a few drops of vanilla extract
- 400 g cream cheese
Whisk the butter and add icing sugar and vanilla. Add the cream cheese and whip into a smooth frosting.
Put a round tip in a piping bag or cut a hole of about 5-6 mm. Fill the piping bag with frosting. Cover the cake in frosting using the piping bag. This will make sure that no cake crumbs will be mixed with the frosting. Spread out the frosting so that it covers the cake evenly. Make bows around the edges of the cake using a star-shaped piping tip. Decorate the cake with fir trees made of sugar paste and add some deer or reindeer if you like. You can also powder the cake with icing sugar.
Sugar Paste Trees
Sugar paste can be bought in well-stocked food stores or on the internet. Spread out the paste between plastic using a rolling pin to make a thin layer of about 3-4 mm. Use a cookie cutter to make the trees. Let dry in room temperature over night so that they can stand by themselves on the cake. Turn them at some point so that they become dry on both sides. The edges can be covered in icing made of egg white and icing sugar.
