There is so much inspiration and information available on the internet these days that it can be hard to make a decision when there is so much choice available. There are also so many awesome bakers on Insta to take inspiration from. This was inspired by Cakes by Cliff, Katherine Sabbath and Unbirthday Bakery.
This cake is a mash up of all tried and true recipes that combine magically in flavours that I love and I thought the birthday girl would love also. This was made quite a few months ago and I have been a slacker in posting . . .
I am a bit of a list maker and tend to have about 30 Evernote notes going at a time. I generally collect a few recipes in a note and cull them when I make a final decision.
Here's a glimpse into my listmaking mania.
I usually have a calendar of when I am going to make everything as well, as I only like to build the cake on the day it's due.
If a cake was needed for a Saturday, I would organise the decorations during the week (i.e. the toppers and the chocolate sail and the meringues), bake the cake on Thursday night, make the cheesecake filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream friday and fill and ice the cake, make the ganache for the drip on Saturday and decorate.
So, here goes, the list of recipes that contributed to the cake! Of course, you could choose to make less components and it would still be delicious or replace a certain part with one of your own favourite recipes.
Coconut and Lime Syrup Cake via Donna Hay here
I baked this in 2 x 16cm round pans. I also replaced any lemon with lime. I don't remember the cooking time, use the skewer test (poke in a skewer when you think done and when only crumbs are on stick, not batter, take out.
Passionfruit Curd via Taste here
You will have leftover, but no-one will be complaining!
Passionfruit Cheesecake Filling via Katherine Sabbath
This recipe was modified from a little booklet Katherine gave out at at cake decorating demo I went to.
250gm cream cheese icing, at room temp
75gm butter
200ml freshly whipped cream
1/2 C icing sugar
1. Beat together room temp cream cheese and butter until well combined. Gently fold through whipped cream and icing sugar alternately.
2. Place in a container and cover with plastic wrap until needed.
Passionfruit Swiss Meringue Buttercream via the neverfail Sweetapolita recipe here
I made half this recipe (it makes plenty enough to cover the cake) and flavoured it with passionfruit juice. It wasn't passionfruit season, so I strained a can of passionfruit and added about 1-2 tablespoons of juice to taste once the buttercream was finished and beat well. I also added colour and beat well to make sure it was mixed in.
Meringues via Taste here (don't add the lemon rind)
Colour the meringues as needed (gel paste preferred as doesn't add as much liquid) and place into piping bags with star tips and cook as directed.
Ganache drip
125gm dark chocolate, in pieces
60ml thickened cream
1. Place cream in a saucepan and heat over medium heat until bubbles at edges of pot appear. Take off heat, add chocolate, let sit for 1 minute and then stir until smooth.
2. Place in plastic container and let cool down until it is room temp and similiar to pancake batter.
Chocolate Sail
100gm dark chocolate buttons
So, I know how to temper chocolate, but sometimes you just cant be bothered! So, if like me, you don't want to temper, make sure you use chocolate buttons that have vegetable oil rather than cocoa solids. This means that you don't have to temper it.
To make the sails, melt the chocolate, spread it thinly on a piece of baking paper, and rest it on something in your kitchen to make the sail shape. I draped mine between two glasses, You can also make a support out of foil etc.
If the chocolate hardens before you have reached the shape you want, put the baking paper in the microwave for 5 second bursts and then reshape. That's the benefit of using cooking chocolate rather than tempered chocolate.
Construction
1. Layer cakes into two layers each, you will have 4 in total. If the cakes have domed too much, level them out a little. Make sure you reserve a flat bottom to use as the top layer.
2. Place first layer on a cake board, drizzle a tiny bit of syrup from cake recipe , use a palette knife to spread 1/3 of passionfruit cream cheese icing on base, Then layer a small amount of passionfruit curd. Continue on with second and third layers the same way. Depending on how firm your passionfruit cream cheese is, you may need to stick a kebab stick vertically through all layers to keep them where you want them, whilst it firms in the fridge, Place in the fridge for around 1 hr to firm up.
3. Take cake from fridge and apply crumb coat. Place back in fridge for 15 mins. Apply final coat, scrape back with palette knife until smooth. See Cakestyle on Youtube for a tutorial if needed.
4. For the chocolate drip, I use a teaspoon to drip the chocolate around the edges, once I am happy with the drips, I spread the leftover ganache over the top of the cake. Here is a drip tutorial if needed . I have also seen some tutorials where the chocolate has been put in a piping bag and dripped own the sides that way, I might try that next time.
5. Decorate the top with whatever treats you wish. For this cake I went with roasted coconut chips, white coconut ball chocolates (forget the name), Flakes, a Summer Roll and a chocolate sail.
Unfortunately, as this was eaten at work, there are no innards images, but it was good!
