Good morning everyone,
So I am here to answer all your questions, are you going to make your own birthday cake? Yes, yes I did. And this is what I made.
I took this cake to my farewell party at my work Mavis and Co,one of the chefs I worked with was gluten free, so I made sure she would be able to eat some.
Mavis and co, where I worked as a pastry chef, waitress, barista and breakfast cook.
This cake is by far one of my favourite cakes. I love the simplicity of design and colours it has.
It is a 4 tiered gluten free orange cake. Frosted with 72% dark cocoa chocolate ganache, to cut out the sweetness of the cake and add some bitterness.
Ganache drippings down the cake and garnished with homemade macarons.
Orange and peach macarons, lemon and cream cheese passionfruit macarons and raspberry coulis dark ganache macarons.
I decorated all the macarons with a stripe, to give the macarons more definition. I love this subtle but striking look it gives to the sanity biscuits. This is the perfect decoration for a gluten free cake, because macarons are gluten free.
So yes, I did make my 18th birthday cake. And I loved it, it was so super tasty and stylish. I had a combined farewell and 18th birthday party at my work. After resigning from a job and workplace I absolutely loved it was hard to say goodbye. A week after turning 18, I was on a plane to Sydney, Australia where I was to start everything from scratch again. I never knew how daunting or tough it would be, until I was there living each day as it came.
Sadly moving from my hometown, where I had gathered a well represented name for my business (LINZcakes) I had to sadly leave it all behind. If I could build up a brand label up that fast and at so young (16 years) I knew I could pick up this business anytime or anywhere I was in the world.
I joined all the macarons with chocolate ganache. I had to kind of build it up like a pyramid, because that is the look I wanted but was also the stablest. I would do one level, wait for it to set and do the next layer. It is time consuming, but there is no other way to do it.
A funny story comes from this cake, so I had spent 2 days preparing this cake for my 18th birthday. I was taking it to my work which was just a couple of blocks up from where we were living. I remember I had brought a nice orange playsuit online and was wearing that to my party.
On the way there, I had my cake firmly secured in a box and had it firmly secured between my legs and was taking it to work. Dad was driving, and just as we were turning off a side street onto the main road, a car pulled out suddenly and Dad had to slam on the brakes.
I just remember the cake falling right back into me, and I remember getting so angry at Dad. Some macarons had fallen off, and my orange playsuit had chocolate stains all over the stomach.
I remember yelling at Dad, this is a disaster, my cake is ruined, and my dress is ruined. It's all your fault. Dad being dad, told me to stop being a spoilt brat and to get back into the car.
So I did, I remember turning up to the party a bit upset, but soon learnt that It was just me preventing myself from having a good 18th!
This is me and Larry, we were great friends, she even came and visited me when she was in Sydney.
Larry and I at a cafe in Bondi, Sydney when she visited me.
Here is a couple of photos from the party, it was a great night and I am still in touch with a couple of work friends after 2 years distance.
Simple styled shoot, because I wanted the macarons to be the main feature, I like the shoot colours. Pastel colours with pink and ribbon.
So here goes I have the recipe waiting for you, this cake is super easy to make and you can make it and serve it plain with unsweetened yoghurt and dust with icing sugar and it is just as good.
Photo tutorial on how to make the macarons in this blog entry,
Orange Gluten Free Cake
Makes 4 x 15cm layers
3 cups GF flour (make your own blend or buy pre-packaged one)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 TBSP orange rind
2-3 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
284g butter
Orange Glaze
1/4 cup of water
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons of Grand Marnier
Dark Chocolate Orange Ganache
300g dark ghana chocolate
300ml pouring cream
4 drops of Orange Chocolate essence*
*Note make sure you get the chocolate essence so it will not seize up your chocolate. They are expensive but you will have them for a long time. And does wonders to your flavour profiles of your cakes.
Method:
= Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
-Mix together the dry ingredients until they are well dispersed.
-Cream the butter then add sugar until smooth.
-Add eggs one at a time, make sure you allow lots of time for the egg to incorporate because you don't want your mixture to curdle.
-Beat in orange rind and vanilla on low speed and beat in your flour with a wooden spoon.
-Add the flour mixture first and then add the orange juice, alternating these two as you incorporate it into the mix. Beginning and ending with flour.
-Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer is inserted and comes out clean!
-To make the glaze, add water and sugar and heat till the sugar dissolves. Then take it off the heat and add your grand mariner. When the cakes are warm brush the syrup over the top of the cakes.
Ganache
-Chop up the chocolate so it is in small pieces and place in a bowl. Heat the cream up in a saucepan until simmering. When the cream is hot pour over the chocolate and let it sit for 2 minutes. With a spatula begin folding the chocolate and cream together.
Place 4 drops of orange essence into the ganache and continue mixing until smooth.
Cover with glad wrap and allow it to sit at room temperature for 2 hours to set some more.
Once it is a frosting consistency begin layering your cake.
Yum yum, my favourite combination orange and chocolate,
