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Peony Cake (Blog Test)

Purple and gold peony cake

If you want to make a single tier cake look really impressive add a large and impressively ruffled bloom — a peony of course! What a statement a perfectly created floral makes on an otherwise simple cake. The marbled fondant on this small tier is a great way to add a few different hues of purple and cleverly mimics the detail on the realistic peony petals.

Open peony wedding cake

We love working with gold, can you tell? Adding toppled gold sequins beneath large open peonies is a whimsical way of including a rough texture to really contrast the delicate pinks and look of the floral arrangement. Exposing a white fondant tier before a fully ruffled tier begins is a great technique for including a neutral tone in an otherwise luxuriously extravagant wedding cake. Play around with the floral arrangement by changing the color of the peonies, adding wild berries and filler flowers for a really indulgent finish.

Love the idea of creating listing sequin studded cakes? Then you should try Erin Gardner’s Cakes in Full Bloomclass to discover and learn this eye-catching technique!

Pink peony cake

We adore the textured lace covering used on this cake. Choosing pink for both the cake and the peony flowers softens the presence of the lace allowing the impressive peonies to really take center stage. The clever use of white pearls, light greens and ombré peony petals finishes this pretty little cake off wonderfully. If you like the idea of adding texture to your cake but don’t want to use lace, why not try hand painting a floral design before nestling peonies on top?

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LYCHEE CAKE (Test Blog)

I must recognize that many times I get to make recipes for times. On some occasions I make bread constantly, other enriched doughs, cookies … and now I can not stopped making puff pastry and biscuits. I can assure you that, at home, more than one is dancing of happiness.

What’s so good about cakes?

They are done right away and if we crave it, we can cook it in just over an hour. Not to say it is an elaboration that everyone likes and is perfect to enjoy at any time of the day. The only drawback we can find is that the ingredients used do not like us.

When making coconut and lychees cake, you will read that I use coconut milk. Well, this milk is not which you buy in bricks but the one you can buy in a metal container.. I used this from Blue Dragon, you can find it in supermarkets. Before open the canned milk, do not shake it,we are interested in the solid part. You will see that it is very dense, almost like butter. The water is not discarded, it can be refrigerated for 2-3 days and used to hydrate any dough or even a bread.

I have used natural lychees, but I know that it is not easy to find them in the market. So they can be replaced for lychees in syrup, they are easier ti find. When decorating the cake, if you do not have natural lychees, you can use another type of decoration or even the lychees in syrup.

But you can always choose dry meringues, red fruits, natural coconut flakes … Here we can make the necessary adjustments or use those ingredients that we have at hand. Although if you do not want to complicate much, only the white chocolate coating  is amazing.

INSTRUCTIONS:Make the batter for the cake.

Preheat oven at 320ºF.

Grease a pan and line with parchment, you can use non-stick spray if you prefer. Set aside.

In a medium bowl sieve the flour along with baking powder and salt, mix with a silicon spatula. Set aside.

Add grated coconut, mix again and set aside.

In the KA bowl or a bowl from a stand mixer mix sugar with eggs using wire whip attachment on low speed until lightly puffy.

Add coconut milk along with crème fraîche and mix again until get an homogeneous mixture.

Change the wire whip for the flat beater and add flour.

Pour one third from the flour and mix on low speed for a few seconds. Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl and pour other one third from the flour and repeat. Do not over mix, only until combined.

Finally, pour melted butter little by little and mix at a time.

Cover with flour chopped lychees and transfer to the batter. Mix with a silicon spatula to get a homogeneous distribution.

Pour into the pan and bake for 60 minutes or until a cake tester comes clean when inserted into the center.

Let sit on the pan for 3-4 minutes.

Remove the cake from the pan and let cool completely on the racks.

NOTE:

I recommend you to make cake one day in advance and cover with chocolate coating the next day. Once the cake is completely cool, cover with film and let sit at room temperature overnight.

You can chill it, if you desire or if you are going to cover with chocolate 2 days after.