Sprinkle Christmas Cake

This cake is a special bake for my beautiful friend Sasha @sashacakeschicago  I was so sad to hear that her Instagram account was hacked and deleted recently.  As the Instagram community is amazing, we have come together and dedicated a bake to Sasha to help her rebuild her account back up.

Be sure to head over and give her account a follow as her bakes are inspirational and she is so beautiful, sweet and supportive.

This cake was inspired by Sasha's technique of carving out part of the cake and adding sprinkles.  I had fun trying out this technique but adding the sprinkles was not as easy as it looks.

This Sprinkle Christmas Cake is made of a moist coconut cake with smooth Swiss meringue buttercream in between each layer.  The carved Christmas tree is decorated with sprinkles and the cake is dusted with icing sugar to create a snow effect.

I hope you're inspired to try this technique too.

Happy Baking xo

Sprinkle Christmas Cake

Ingredients

· 2 cups self-raising flour
· 1 cup caster sugar
· ½ cup desiccated coconut
· ¾ cup almond meal
· 2 eggs
· 150 grams butter (melted)
· 250 ml buttermilk
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

· 2 egg whites
· 150 grams caster sugar
· 200 grams unsalted butter (room temperature)
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· Food colouring (red – queenfinefoods)

Decorations

· Icing sugar
· Sprinkles (glamour & sparkle – queenfinefoods)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Spray four round 4-inch tins with oil and dust some flour around the tins.

3. Mix the sifted flour, desiccated coconut, caster sugar and almond meal into a large bowl until all ingredients are well combined.

4. Add all wet ingredients, making sure the butter has cooled down. Mix until combined.

5. Spoon the mixture into the tins evenly. Make sure to only fill them up a third full and smooth the tops with the back of a spoon or off-set spatula.

6. Bake in oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool in pans for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Place egg whites and caster sugar into a large bowl. Place over a pot of simmering water on low. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved completely. To check if the sugar has dissolved, rub a bit of the mixture between your fingers.

Remove from heat and using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat on medium speed for about 10-15 minutes or until mixture has completed cooled.

Remove whisk attachment and replace with the paddle attachment. Slowly add portions of the room temperature butter and beat well before adding next portions.

Once all the butter has been added, beat on high for several minutes and then reduce to low speed and continue to beat for another few minutes to remove air bubbles.

Frosting is ready for use.

Assembling the cake

Cut-off the tops of the four cakes if needed to make them even.

Place one cake onto the cake board, securing it with a bit of buttercream at the bottom.

Pipe some buttercream around the top of the cake, spread it evenly and stack the next cake and do the same.

Lightly crumb coat the whole cake and place into the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Create the final coat on the cake with the desired food colour and place cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Remove cake from the fridge and using a Christmas tree and star cookie cutter push it into the cake and scoop out the shape of the tree and star. Place sprinkles into the carved sections.

Finally, pipe a border around the top and bottom of the cake. Add sprinkles and dust some icing sugar over parts of the cake and Christmas tree to create a snow effect.

Tips

· You can also line the bottoms of the tins with some baking paper.
· Allow cakes to cool completely before icing and decorating.

Did you bake this recipe?

Remember to tag @youcanbakeittoo on Instagram & hashtag #youcanbakeittoo 

so I can see your wonderful bakes.