Our
little owl (the older one) celebrated his
third birthday! With his latest fascination being – besides
windmills – volcanoes with lava, craters and explosions, it was
obvious that the cake had to be a volcano! Let me introduce to you
Julek’s third birthday cake – the volcano!
The
cake itself is traditional, consisting of a sponge cake, two creams
and cherry preserve. It is a rather worn-out set, but it suits my
kids best, because I cannot prepare them a deeply coffee- or
nut-flavoured one and they do not really fall for chocolate either.
recipe
sponge
cake:
6
eggs
6
spoons of wheat flour
6
spoons of potato flour
12
spoons of sugar
1/2
spoon of baking powder
*
chocolate
and nut cream:
300
g of double cream
200
g of milk chocolate (bitter if you prefer)
handful
of chopped nuts, e.g. cashew nuts, walnuts
and Brazilian nuts
*
mascarpone
cream:
500
g of mascarpone cheese
500
g of cream (36%)
4
spoons of icing sugar
vanilla essence
*
punch:
1
glass of boiled water
3
spoons of sugar
half a glass of lemon juice
*
cherry preserve
***
1.
Prepare the sponge cake using the following principle: for each egg
add 1 spoon of wheat flour, 1 spoon of potato flour, 2 spoons of
sugar and 1/4 spoon of baking powder. I prepare the cake from 6 eggs
and use a tin that has 21 cm in diameter. You will need at least 500
g of icing for such a cake.
Beat
the egg whites stiff, add sugar and beat
some more. Add yolks and, after that, flour mixed with baking powder,
stir.
2.
A piece of advice from my mum: instead of potato flour you can use
wheat flour but add a spoon or two of vinegar, as it helps curdle the
whites, makes the sponge cake lighter and prevents it from sinking. I
should try that next time.
For
this occasion, I baked the cake in my grandma’s tin which has a
hole in the middle so that the cake would resemble a real volcano.
Bake
in a 21-cm tin for 35-45 minutes in 180º
C. Check whether the sponge cake is dry with the help of a small
stick.
Now
comes the infamous dropping of the cake! I do not have any idea how I
manage to pull it off, but I always drop it! For the uninitiated: you
drop the cake when it’s still in the tin, from the height of about
half a meter, which supposedly prevents it from sinking. Whether it
is true or not, I always do it and my sponges are puffy enough.
When
the sponge cake cools down, take out of the
tin and slice into three layers.
*
Prepare
the mascarpone cream by whisking the cream
with mascarpone cheese and icing sugar. You can add a few drops of
vanilla aroma. I also added two colourings – red and yellows –
to achieve that desired lava effect.
Prepare
the punch by melting sugar in the water and adding lemon juice.
Prepare
the chocolate cream by melting chocolate in
hot water and cool it down. Beat the cream, add melted chocolate and
stir until smooth. Add chopped nuts and mix well.
With
all the ingredients ready, we can begin assembling the volcano!
*
Slice
the sponge cake into three layers.
Moisten
the bottom layer with lemon punch and place
cherries on top. Cover it delicately in chocolate cream – mine was
a bit crumbly and would not spread well so I put some of the
mascarpone cream on top, so as to level the layer and make the
structure of the cake hold better.
Add
the second layer, moisten with punch, put
the mascarpone cream on top and add a couple of cherries (not too
many). Add the last moistened layer, but remember: the bottom should
be moistened most and the top of the cake should be the driest.
Fill
the empty middle with whatever’s left – lots of chocolate cream
on the bottom, then cherries, mascarpone cheese, chopped nuts and
cream on top.
Decorate
the top – I covered it in a mascarpone-cream cream and sprinkled
with bitter chocolate and cocoa. I made the lava tongues from cream
and fondant. I also added a couple of M&Ms (yellow, red and
orange ones, of course) and a couple of golden balls. I sprinkled
some golden powder on top and on the lava tongues to make them fiery.
Bon
appetit!
