ENGLISH BIRTHDAY CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE CREAM AND CHERRIES

We will celebrate the second birthday of young Owl in January, 23! It's difficult to believe that the time passes so quickly :) ! This time instead of organizing one big party I will prepare 3 small ones. On Sunday, January 23 we will meet with our family so the birthday cake has to be more dignified ;) That's why I thought about decorating it with roses. The cake is made of sponge cake and this time I decided to soak it properly to make it less dry. I flooded my mother's best jam with vodka so the cake will not be eaten by the young Owl :) (at least the sponge part of it but I prepared a coffee punch, which also contained vodka). Unfortunatelly, a chocolate cream which I was dreaming about, is not good for the basis of the cake. As I was in a need of a basis :) and didn't want it to be a buttery one I added mascarpone cheese with heavy cream. Chocolate cream is coffee-flavoured, I added coffee punch to two sponge tops to make coffee a dominant flavor.

And, frankly speaking, the cake was wonderful! My mother in law ate 3 pieces of it, which was the best proof that it was good :) And my aunt, who is a Birthday Cake Expert and makes the best cakes ever said that it was delicious, luxurious and exquisite! Enough of boasting the cake, I don't want someone to make it and complain that it wasn't that good :), but honestly, the cake is tasty. It's quite sweet but alcohol and cherries spice the flavor. And don't forget that this cake almost swims in alcohol so after eating it everyone was a bit drunk and the atmosphere became nice and easy-going. Really, a cool birthday cake! :D

* Recipe *

Sponge Cake:

6 eggs

6 tablespoons flour

6 tablespoons potato flour

12 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

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Chocolate Cream:

300 g heavy cream

200 g of milk chocolate (or bitter, if you like)

2 teaspoons espresso coffee or 2 teaspoons of instant coffee brewed in a small amount of water

*
Mascarpone Cream:

250 g mascarpone cheese

250 g 36% cream

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

*

Coffee Punch:

3 teaspoons instant coffee

1.5 tablespoons sugar

50 ml of alcohol, vodka, brandy, etc.

*

Cherry Punch:

cherry jam flooded with vodka, about 100 ml, or cherry brandy

***

Below are the recipes for sponge cake, mascarpone cream and coffee cream pasted from the previous cake :)

Follow the recipe for the sponge cake, that is: add 1 tablespoon wheat flour, 1 tablespoon potato flour, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder to every egg. I usually do sponge cakes with 6 eggs in a baking tin which diameter is 21 cm, then I need about 500 g of icing to cover the cake (it you cut the sides there will be some icing left).

Whip egg whites to stiff, add sugar and beat it. Add yolks, flour mixed with baking powder and stir it together. Bake the sponge cake in the baking tin of 21cm, for 35-45 mins in 180C, a little stick can help you check whether the sponge is already dry.

And there is famous sponge-dropping after baking it ... I seriously don't know what is all this dropping about but I do it all the time :) For those who are not familiar with sponge-dropping: we drop the sponge (in the baking tin :) on the table from around half meter. It is supposed to prevent sponge from lowering. I always do it and my sponges are fluffy :)

Wait for the sponge to cool down and take it out from the baking tin. Cut it to get 3 pieces.

*
Whip the heavy cream with mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar to make a cream and do the punch: brew instant coffee with sugar and add alcohol when it cools down.

Next comes the chocolate cream: dissolve chocolate in a water bath and cool it down to the room temperature. Whip the heavy cream, add coffee (not necessarily), liquid chocolate and stir it carefully.

No it's the time for cherry punch (if you'd like that :) so mix vodka with jam.

Here we go, we have everything, now we have to put it all together ;)

Soak the top with cherry punch, put cherries on it and cover it carefully with chocolate cream. Put the second sponge top onto it, soak it with coffee punch and put mascarpone cream on it. Put the last sponge top on it. It should be soaked with coffee cream and the soaked part should be below, the cake should not be that soaked on the surface. I cover the surface and the sides of the cake with mascarpone cream.

And it's time to decorate it with icing!