I was asked to make these cookies for my son’s Easter party at school. It took me 5 hours to make 32 cookies but it was quite fun to decorate them. I chose to use fondant for decoration as the results are beautiful. Please refer to my Fondant Cake with Strawberry Filling post for the marshallow fondant recipe. Happy Easter!!
Ingredients for Sugar Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks)
Butter, softened
1 cup
Sugar
1
Large egg
3 cups
All purpose flour
¼ tsp
Salt
1 tsp
Vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract, beat until blended.
Combine flour and salt, gradually add to butter mixture, beat until just blended, don’t over mix it.
Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Cover and chill for 30 minutes or longer.
Place 1 portion of dough on a lightly floured surface, and roll to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with a cookie cutter (I did not have an easter egg cookie cutter, so I cut the dough with a round cookie cutter and shape cookies into an egg shape). Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Freeze shaped cookies for 10 minutes before baking.
Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool cookies on wire racks.
Roll out fondant and decorate your cookies after they are completely cool.
I baked a checkerboard cake for my husband’s birthday. Since he loves chiffon cakes, I thought putting two flavors in one cake would be a good idea. The first time I made this cake, the chocolate flavor overpowered the orange flavor and both cakes did not rise too much (I used a recipe for an 8″ cake but divided half of the ingredients for the orange cake and half for the chocolate cake). I also realized putting two cakes in the oven at the same time had also cause the cakes to not rise properly. So I made some adjustments – (1) increased orange zest to 2 tbsps to enhance the orange flavor, (2) bake a full size cake for each flavor, and (3) bake one cake at a time. This time the cakes came out beautifully.
Ingredients (makes two 8″ checkerboard cakes):
Orange Cake
Chocolate Cake
6
Egg whites
6
Egg whites
105g
Caster sugar
70g
Caster sugar
1 tsp
Cream of tartar
1 tsp
Cream of tartar
6
Egg yolks
6
Egg yolks
30g
Caster Sugar
35g
Caster Sugar
80g
Cake flour
70g
Cake flour
1/8 tsp
Salt
1/8 tsp
Salt
1 tsp
Baking powder
1 tsp
Baking powder
1 tsp
Vanilla extract
1 tsp
Vanilla extract
50g
Olive oil
50g
Olive oil
80ml
Fresh orange juice
90ml
Non fat milk
2 Tbsp
Orange zest
25g
Unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions for making the Orange Chiffon Cake, please clickhere.
Directions (for Chocolate Chiffon Cake):
Preheat oven to 340 °F.
Separate egg whites and egg yolks.
Mix egg yolks and 35 g sugar until well combined. Add in olive oil, milk and vanilla extract, mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder.
Sift in cocoa powder and flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture, mix well to make sure there are no lumps. Set aside.
Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. It is best to begin at a slow speed and gradually move up to high when beating. Add cream of tartar to stablize the egg whites. After mixing well, add 70 g of sugar in three batches, about one-third at a time, and beat well between additions. Continue to beat until the egg whites are stiff and glossy. Don’t over beat it, overbeaten whites look lumpy and watery.
Gently fold-in half of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture and repeat the same with the remaining egg whites.
Pour mixture into an 8″ tube pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cake cool completely.
Remove the cake by running a thin-bladed knife around the pan, angling the knife towards the pan to try to get the full crust on the cake.
Assemble Cake:
Before assembling the cake, place both cakes in the refrigerator to chill so they will be much easier to cut into circles. I used a cake leveler so they will all be even. Bear in mind this is a chiffon cake, unlike the regular buttery checkerboard cake, it is harder to cut through as the cake is super soft and fluffy.
Use a sharp knife to remove the top thin layer of the cake (picture 1)
Also trim off the edges with a knife (picture 2).
Cut the cake into 2 to 3 equal layers with a cake leveler (depending on how thick your cake is) (picture 3)
I did not make this cake with a special pan that has dividers so I cut out circle templates. I used an 8-inch cake pan, so my circle templates were 6″, 4″ and 2″) (picture 4)
Put the biggest circle on top of your cake and use a sharp knife to cut around the rim, repeat this cutting process with the remaining circles. (picture 5)
Lift slowly and remove the cake pieces. (Picutre 6)
Start your layers on a cake plate or stand. I started with the cocolate flavor first, don’t forget to frost the edge of each ring. (Picture 7)
You will alternate the colors for each layer, creating a target shape. Remember to frost the edge of each ring. (Picture 8)
Once you have assembled the first layer, spread frosting on this layer. (picture 9)
Now assemble the second layer which will have the opposite colors (orange flavor first). (picture 10) Repeat Step 10.
You can make a cake with four, five or six layers. Each time you just alternate the colors for each layer. (picture 11)
To decorate the cake, apply frosting all over the cake. (picture 12) The whipping cream frosting recipe is below.
Whip the heaving cream with medium speed until it’s smooth and firm, add powder sugar and whip for another 1-2 minutes.
To make the cream more firm, add Vanilla Instant Pudding and whip for 1-2 minutes.
Note:
The tube pan has a hole in the middle. I saved some batter and poured into a 3″ springform pan and bake separately (do this for both flavors). These small cakes are used to fill the middle part of the checkerboard cake.
GinsKitchen 