Anglo-Brazilian Adventure in Cake

Last December I briefly met Ceri, a very accomplished luxury bespoke cake designer, at a Christmas gathering.  Just after that I decided to start blogging for fun; to share my cooking and eating experiences. Eight months later and here we are in my tiny kitchen working together for what turned out to be a very long afternoon of baking and cake decoration. I always admired people who take time and care of how they present their food. Ceri is one of these people who put time and love into her work. First we decided on a theme – tropical colours. I was in charge of providing the recipe, which I got from 80’s Brazilian cookbook that my sister gave me many years ago, and Ceri taught me some basic cake decorations. The cake recipe was altered from orange to lime to keep with the tropical, Brazilian flag and summer theme we had in mind.  We also wanted to bake a gradient cake as we never baked one before.

my very first ‘not perfect’ sugar paste flour

 

Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups flour
1 ½ cups of vanilla flavored sugar
¾ cup margarine
¾ cup coconut milk
Zest of 2 limes ( do add the juice if you want a stronger taste)
3 organic eggs
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 vanilla seeds only
a variety of green food colorings – we used a mix of colour paste, silver spoon liquid and Morrison’s cheap liquid – we found that each one has a very distinct intensity to the colours. Morrison’s being the weakest of them all. However, it worked well with the other colours.method:

1. Preheat the oven (190C). Grease and flour round shaped moulds 12cm (6″) in diameter.

2. place the first eight ingredients in a large bowl and beat well. Divide the mixture in 5 bowls and add the green food coloring  according to taste.
3. Pour in the mixture in to the moulds evenly and bake for 15 or 20 minutes each layer of cake
4. Let them cool and un-mould

 

1 freshly grated coconut – yes, you can use the shop bought dessicated coconut

1 can of condensed milk
1 knob of butter

place all in a pan and cook for 10 mins or until you start seeing the bottom of the pan.
First how to open a coconut:

perforate the ‘eyes’ of the coconut

drain all the water from the coconut

 

crack the coconut open with the help of a hammer

grate the coconut – I have this rather old fashioned gadget it works wonders Alternatively : use a flat head screwdriver to separate the white flesh from the hard shell, it’s not easy, but it can be done. Then use a grater or a food processor to grate the coconut.

Add condensed milk to the fresh coconut (or dessicated if you are feeling lazy) and cook till you can see the bottom of the pan.  Let it cool.

Creamy lime curd filling – Ceri’s delicious and zesty recipe
Zest and juice of 2 limes
75g (3oz) caster sugar
2 large eggs
50g (2oz) unsalted butter

Place the sugar and grated lime zest in a bowl, whisk the lime juice together with the eggs, then pour this over the sugar and zest. Then add the butter cut into little pieces, and place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently till thickened – about 20 minutes. You don’t have to stay with it – just come back from time to time to give it a stir. It makes enough for 8″ cake. It’s quite zesty it should be enough for this cake, but you could make 1 &1/2 recipe for a multi-layered cake.

the cake must be completely cool before applying the topping Some decorating techniques with sugar paste based on tropical colours

Decorating the cakes

 

free style shapes

 

 

I really enjoyed working with colour paste- fantastic vivid colours

colouring sugar paste using colour paste

for beginners: roses and butterflies – Yes, I know how to make simple roses now! just need to practice

It was very nice light but it would’ve done with a bit more lime

simple cake with a layer of chocolate cake

filled with caramel

Thanks so much Ceri for a lovely day, for teaching me  some new cake decoration techniques and for the beautiful photos for this post.