Jumbo Donut Cake (For about 15 persons) - (Non vegetarian recipe)
For the cream cheese pound cake
340g of salted butter
375g of pastry flour
3g of salt
200g of cream cheese
300g of sugar
6 whole eggs
15ml of vanilla essence
2g of vanilla powder (optional)
125g of Corinthian raisins
~5g of butter or margarine to lightly grease your mold
For the decoration
200g of white chocolate
150g of dark or milk chocolate
Green and orange food coloring
Sugar sprinkles
Any decorative mini chocolates (I used the mini liquor chocolate bottles !)
20g-30g of chopped almonds
Note: For the baking mold, you can use a 10 inch loaf pan but if you intend to do a jumbo donut cake like I did, you can use a 24cm diameter savarin mold and the remaining cake batter you can put in some cupcake paper cups like I did to make it more festive !
Procedure
Step 1: Get all your ingredients ready ! Using your robot mixer or hand mixer, start mixing butter and cream cheese together.
Note: Eggs, cream cheese and butter must all be at room temperature.
Step 2: Once butter and cream cheese are well mixed together (uniform color of the batter), add sugar and continue mixing.
Step 3: As soon as the butter, cream cheese and sugar mixture has become light and fluffy, start adding the eggs one at a time while continuing to mix.
Step 4: Then add in vanilla essence, followed by the dry ingredients alltogether (that are: Flour + vanilla powder (optional) + salt) where you may add the dry ingredients mixture in 3-4 instances while mixing. Finally add your Corinthians raisins and perform a final mix until all is well combined.
Step 5: Your cream cheese pound cake batter is ready !
Step 6: Wash, dry and grease your Savarin mold lightly using your silicon brush and fill it with your cake batter until almost filled (normally pound cakes do not rise too much, they are quite dense in nature). Ensure that the cake batter is evenly distributed.
Tip: To ensure that the cake batter is evenly distributed, I use to tap 2-3 times my mold on the table
Step 7: Add the remaining cake batter to the cupcake baking cups of your choice !
Step 8: Your cake is ready to be baked in a preheated oven at 160 Degrees Celsius for 1 hour (in the oven middle shelf). To test if your cake is done, insert a knife, a toothpick or brochette pick in the middle of any section of the cake, if it comes out clean/dry, then your cake is done, else leave it some some time in the oven while checking every 5 minutes !
Tip: The cupcakes being smaller may take less time to cook so if ever they are done earlier, just remove them and allow the larger cake (donut cake) to continue to bake alone in the oven
Step 9: After baking time, allow your cake to cool for about 15-20 minutes (without unmolding). If your cake has opened/exploded on the surface during cooking, no worry, this is normal ... In any case, that face will be turned upside down before decoration...
Step 10: After this cooling time, turn your donut cake (not the cupcakes) on a cake board while tapping gently to ensure that the cake comes out smoothly. Voila, your cake is now ready for decoration (fun part ).
Step 11: Get all your decoration stuffs ready. Start by melting your white chocolate using a double boiler !
Step 12: When your white chocolate is fully melted, add few drops of green food colouring and mix well using a wooden or silicon spatula.
Step 13: In a rapid yet circular motion, pour your colored melted chocolate on top of your donut cake. It should not imperatively cover the full cake, just at least top half of it horizontally. Then before your chocolate starts to harden, add the sugar sprinkles !
Tip: You may use aluminum foil like I did below your cake during decoration time not only to ease 'cleaning' process at the end but also and mostly to avoid any wastage. For instance it will be easier to recollect same chocolate to melt them again to decorate your cupcakes or for other uses ...
Step 14: With the remaining green melted chocolate, add a few drops of orange food coloring to obtain this simply beautiful caramel colour ! Eventually spread the latter on your cupcakes while toppping with sugar sprinkles as well as any nice mini decorative chocolates ...
Step 15: Returning back to the donut cake, using your spatula, trace a line horizontally in the middle like in the picure below, remove the excess part of chocolate and place it in your bowl containing your dark or milk chocolate. You may either use a double boiler to melt your chocolate or you may also use your microwave (do not forget to stir every 30 seconds ...).
*No worry about the green chocolate, its color will dissapear with the dark color of the dark or milk chocolate ..
Step 16: Spread your melted dark/milk chocolate on the lower part of your donut cake (inside and ouside) using your silicon spatula. No worry if it is not perfectly smooth because in any case you are going to add chopped almonds eventually ...
Step 17: With your fingers or silicon spatula, "stick" your chopped almonds again on the lower part of your cake on the dark/milk chocolate (inside and outside of your donut cake ). Voila !!!
Great to use for a birthday cake !
Hmmmmmmm ...
You may use the same savarin mold to make a Christmas wreath cake !
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING !...
