Fluffy, soft bottoms filled with refreshing apple jam and fresh whipped cream topped with Odense marzipan and lovely bluish turquoise roses - a glory for the sight. It is like biting into a world of dreams.
In the midst of exams and assignments my former neighbour girl wanted me to make a birthday cake for her younger brother. And she brought with her a large shopper with storebought cake mixes!!!!? Chocolate cake, genoise cake, brownies, chocolate mousse.. you name it! Failure number one: You never ask a true baker to bake with these silly mass-produced mixes!! It is like an insult. I mean I was even more shocked to see an instant mix for whipping cream! I think seeing whipping cream in a powdered form was a really turn off for me. The prize was more or less same as fresh cream and I can not understand how it can be difficult to whip fresh cream in two minutes? You have to mix the powder too, so were is the saving of time? And you can never compare the silly powdered cream taste which is no way near to the fresh one. I am a real baker and I love to bake everything from the scratch and my rule is to use everything fresh. There is no compromise in taste. Especially not marzipan cakes which are made with cream as the main filling.
Anyways, not having a lot of free time, I decided to agree for the cake making, but not with the mass-produced stuff, I was going to make the marzipan cake from scratch with fresh ingredients. What a lovely feeling to look at the fresh eggs, sugar and flour, crack the eggs, mix and fold them together, bake them and enjoy the even more lovely smell coming from the oven. What a pleasure feeling. Whipping the fresh cream, yummm, and assembling the cake. No ready cake mix can beat the feeling and taste of real and fresh ingredients and the love that is put in making the cakes.
My sister used to bake lovely cakes and yeasted goodies before she got married, but now she always use a store bought cake mix when making brownies. And I can not understand why? Firstly, baking brownies is sooooo easy! They are done before you can count to three and they are the most delicious in taste (my favorite recipe). Secondly, the store bought brownie mix is a shame like any other cake mix, because they taste nothing, but water! And that is true, because I have tasted them and they seriously lack taste. My brother bought a cake mix for a spiced cake once, it is long ago and I made it and seriously I was like "where is the taste?". By the way, I have a confession to make. I actually decided to try out one of the cake mix the girl has brought with her. Well not to try it because I wanted to, but maybe to prove them that these can not be the same as scratch made cakes. I baked the moist chocolate cake one and filled and topped it with chocolate mousse mix. Do not ask how terrible the cake and chocolate mousse tasted and the cake was breaking up and believe me never again! Never again!!
Okay, back to the cake I was making. I ended up with a marzipan cake with bluish-turqouise roses on the top with arches of pearls going all around the cake, finishing it with borders on top with royal icing. I was pretty satisfied with the result. The bluish roses is a new color to me, I have never dared to make roses in this color before, but they look so amazing! The color is coming out so beautifully. I think this design of marzipan cake is my "signature cake", because I have made quite a number of marzipan cakes with this decorating style now. I am wondering how beauitful would not this cake look if I used white fondant as base instead of marzipan?
Oh and I forgot to tell that the neighbour girl's mom sent me a beautiful zirconia jewellery set, a necklace and a matching bracelet shining so amazingly and a cute scarf pin as a "thank you". I was surprised and got heartily glad that they appreciated my effort <3.
Makes about 12-14 servings
I n g r e d i e n t s
5 eggs, large at room temperature
240 g sugar
200 g allpurpose flour
1,5 tsp baking powder
Preheat the oven to 200C - Prepare a round spring form about 24-25 cm with parchment paper and grease the sides, dust with flour
1. Sieve and combine together flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside
2. Beat the eggs and sugar until pale in color, thick and fluffy (about 5 minutes)
3. Fold in the flour carefully
Lower the heeat of oven to 170C and bake at the lowest slot for about 30-40 minutes or until a pin inserted comes out clean
Let cool on a rack with parchment paper turned upside down
Filling
7 dl whipping cream
0,5 dl vanilla cream, thick
2 dl apple jam
1. Whip the cream until it forms soft peakes
2. Take out a little cream and add the vanilla cream, fold until combined
Topping
400 g marzipan
blue food color
pearls
icing sugar
Royal Icing (for the borders)
0,5 egg white
icing sugar
1. Beat the egg white until frothy, add sifted icing sugar little at a time until desired consistency is reached (not too runny and not too firm)
Assembling the Cake
1. Divide the cake bottoms in three equal parts
2. Sprinkle a little milk on the bottoms
3. Spread apple jam on the bottom and cover with whipped cream
4. Add a second bottom, spread apple jam and the mixed vanilla and cream
5. Add the last bottom on top and repeat with apple jam and whipping cream, spread it all around the cake
6. Roll the marzipan measuring a little larger than the cake and the sides
7. Cover the cake with marzipan and cut the edges, tuck the excess sides down in the cake with a knife
8. Roll out a sheet of marzipan, cut in 1,5 cm strips and twist them around
9. Cover with the twisted marzipan around the cake on the bottom
10. Decorate the cake with marzipan roses (check video here), pearl arches and royal icing borders (no step-by-step pictures because I made the cake at night and the lighting is not good enough to give a good quality pciture)
And the final cake..
Time comsuming, but so worth it!
I am in love with the bluish-turquoise roses <3 I will deifnitely make roses in this color again.. so different and refreshing than the susual pink ones..
I feel like having a piece..
I think this picture was amazing, so I am adding it!
