I baked more holiday cookies than we can gift and eat, so the idea is to use some of them in the cake. What is better than a cookie crust base? I used spritz cookies in the recipe, but any kind of crispy cookies will work. I added some almond slices to give it more crunchiness. I can tell you that the aroma from the baked cookie crust is heavenly. Then for the middle part, a light chiffon cake with a few drops of almond extract will bring out more nutty flavor from the cookie crust base. A simple whipped cream with seeds from a vanilla bean is all what we need to bring everything together. Of course the decorating part may seem challenging at first. There are detailed instructions in the recipe below to help you make a beautiful cake.To make it easier, you can even serve the cookie crust without baking, just press it down to the bottom of a trifle bowl. In this case, it’s better to toast the almonds before putting them into the crust base.
A little bit of personal update to end this post. As many of you may know, just after the Thanksgiving, I fell from my bicycle and injured my shoulder. I’ve told you guys through Instagram that no bone was broken, according to the initial evaluation at the ER. But later a MRI revealed there is a fracture on my right arm. That explained why it still hasn’t healed after 5 weeks. That’s why I was less active on Instagram and on my blog, except to share some holiday desserts. But it also gave me a chance to reflect on the direction of my blog.
Being working on this blog for 6 months now. The first thing I realized it’s how much time it takes to maintain a blog: the content, the technical issues, the promotions (social media)……To be honest, I have more ideas in my head than I actually have time to make, cook, photograph and write for this blog. So the question is : “What should I concentrate on? What really matters to you, my readers?” I would really appreciate your thoughts. Tell me in the comment area.
X,Qi
Trifle cake
Ingredients
- one 9-inch cookie crust (recipe below)
- one 8-inch chiffon cake (recipe below)
- about 2.5-3 cup of whipped cream (1.5 cup heavy cream whipped to reach soft peak consistency, incorporated with seeds from a vanilla bean, and powdered sugar to taste, about 4 tbsp)
- 1/2 cup of simple syrup (1 part sugar or sweetener of your choice, 1 part water)
- Fruits to decorate (strawberries and blueberries for this cake)
Instructions
- All the component of the cake can be baked, prepared the day before, assemble the cake the day you plan to serve it.
2. Put the cookie crust onto your serving plate, put the whipped into a piping bag. Pipe a thin layer of cream onto the cookie crust, leave about 1/8 inch space until the edge. Circle the cookie crust with a collar, made with an acetate sheet of 30 inch long and 4 inch wide taped ends together. This way you know where to pipe the whipped cream, and can see exactly what the outside of your cake looks like when you are decorating it.
Alternatively, you can also build cake in a springform pan, especially if the cookie crust is baked in it. Measure the side of your springform pan, cut out a strip of parchment paper that will cover the inside wall of the springform pan, put some double sided tape on the parchment paper, and tape it onto the inside wall of the springform pan. Make sure the paper won’t move around.
The advantage of using an acetate collar is since it is transparent and rigid, so you can present the cake with the acetate collar and remove it when you need to serve, the cake looks more professional. If you are using parchment paper attached to the sides of a springform pan, there is a risk that a small amount of the cream will be attached to the parchment paper, in this case, use a offset spatula to add more cream to that spot to smooth it out.
3. Cut the strawberries into 1/8 inch thick slices, line them around the acetate collar or the springform pan inside wall.
4. Cut 1/8 inch off along the edge of the chiffon cake using a knife, so it can fit into the circle of strawberries. Brush the top of chiffon cake with simple syrup.
5. Pipe whipped cream into the space between chiffon cake and strawberries, and also about 1/8 inch thick on top of chiffon cake. Then you can use a star tip to pipe swirls on the top of the cake and decorate with more strawberries slices and blueberries.
6. Chill the cake in the fridge for at least an hour before remove the acetate collar or the sides of springform pan.
Cookie crust
Use leftover holiday cookies to make this super yummy and crunchy crust for our trifle cake.
Ingredients
- 30 small spritz cookie (without sugar sprinkles prefered), about 200g (7oz)
- heaping 1/2 cup (70g) almond slices
- about 4 tbsp (60g) butter, melted
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Using a food processor, ground the cookies into fine crumbs, it takes about 30 seconds to 1 minute depends on the food processor. Remove cookie crumbs from food processor into a medium size mixing bowl.
- Put sliced almond into the food processor, pulse a few times to break them slightly. Pour almond pieces and salt into cookie crumbs and mix them well.
- Pour melted butter onto the mixture, mix until well combined. Adjust the butter quantity until when you scoop some of the mixture out with you hand you can pinch them to stick together.
- Line a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper, pour the mixture into the bottom of pan, push down with a rubber spatula to flatten the surface. Or, if you have a 8-inch cake pan or a simily sized sauce pan with flat bottom, put another 9-inch round parchment paper onto the cookie mixture, use the 8-inch cake pan or sauce pan to press it down to have a perfectly even layer.
- (Alternatively, you can shape the cookie crust in a bottomless cake ring on a sheet of parchment paper.)
- Bake at 400Fº for about 10 minutes until the surface is lightly browned. Let it cool in the springform pan completely. Then remove the cookie crust from the pan gently and place it directly onto a serving plate. You will build the cake directly on the serving plate.
Notes
I use about 30 small spritz cookies (without any sugar or gel decoration) for this recipe. You can use any mild flavored crispy cookies like sugar cookie, sable or even Graham crackers. The chewy cookies won’t work for this recipe.
Chiffon cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs (1 whole, 3 separated)
- 1/2 cup(115g) granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup(100g) cake flour*
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp (90ml) water
- 1/4 cup (60ml) peanut oil or vegetable oil
- 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
*You can make your own cake flour: for every cup of all purpose flour, remove 2 tbsp of flour and add 2 tbsp of cornstarch, sift twice now you have 1 cup of cake flour.
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325Fº (165Cº). Line bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper, no need to grease the pan.
- Separate 3 eggs. In a large bowl, whisk 1 whole egg with 3 eggs yolks, water, oil, vanilla extract and almond extract together.
- Sift flour, sugar, salt and baking soda over the wet ingredients. Whisk until the batter just turned smooth.
- Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, whip egg whites until stiff peak. Using a rubber spatula, fold whites into the batter, until no pocket of whites is visible. Pay attention not to deflate the egg whites too much.
- Pour the batter into prepared pan, tap the pan on the counter a few times to release big air bubbles. Then swirl the pan until the surface is flattened, and some of the batter cling to the sides of the pan, it will help the cake rise evenly and higher in the oven.
- Bake cake for about 55 min or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Invert the cake pan onto a cooling rack. Let cake cool in the pan upside down, this will ensure cake won’t sink and stays light and airy.
- When cake is completely cooled, run a butter knife along the pan to loosen a the edge of cake, then gently remove it from the pan. Peel off the parchment paper.
Notes
With this small quantity of batter we don’t need a tube pan to bake this recipe, but you can if you want to, since the tube will help the middle to cook faster. You can double the recipe to fill a standard sized tube pan (about 16 cup).
