Biscoff cake

I haven’t written here since 2021. Life was life-ing, and I drifted away. But I’m back now, and keeping things simple, like the days of yore when you could just find a recipe and get straight to it – no long history, no fluff. This is my Biscoff cake, which has become a family favorite. I made one for my sister-in-law recently. And while I was at it, made a second one for my work family. They enjoyed it, so I figured I’d post the recipe here to share. It’s adapted from a peanut butter cake recipe I found a while back, with a few modifications to sub my favorite ingredient, Biscoff cookie butter spread (and a few Biscoff cookies for good measure.) Get the printable recipe here, or scroll below.

Biscoff cake with Biscoff frosting and ganache

Adapted from this peanut butter cake recipe from Melissa Diamond.

Makes three 9-inch layers or four 6-inch layers; baking time: 25-30 minutes (time to frost/decorate: 1-2 hours)

Cake ingredients:

• 1 package yellow cake mix

• 1 small (3.4 oz) package cheesecake pudding mix

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup all purpose flour

• 1 cup Biscoff cookie butter spread

• 1-1/2 cups water

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 3 large eggs

• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

• 4-5 Biscoff cookies, crumbled

• cooking spray

• other materials to have handy: parchment paper & plastic wrap

Frosting ingredients:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (softened or at room temperature - do not melt!)

• (1) 8 oz. package cream cheese (softened or at room temperature)

• 1 cup Biscoff cookie butter spread

• 6 cups powdered sugar

• 1 tsp. vanilla flavor

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• Heavy whipping cream (see instructions for amount)

Ganache ingredients:

Depending on amount needed, these amounts may need to be adjusted:

• 5 oz. heavy whipping cream

• 5 oz. white Ghirardelli chocolate bar (cut into chunks)

• ½ cup Biscoff cookie butter spread

Cake directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Prepare baking pans by lining bottom with parchment and spraying sides of pans with cooking spray. Set the pans aside.

3. Place cake mix, pudding mix, sugar, flour, Biscoff, water, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes until thoroughly mixed. Add crumbled biscoff cookies and mix until well incorporated.

4. Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with a spatula or spoon as needed.

5. Place the pans in the oven.

6. Bake the cakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger or test by inserting a toothpick and if it comes out clean, your cakes are done!

7. Using potholders, remove the cakes from the oven. Careful, they’re hot!

8. Allow the cakes to cool for a few minutes. Run a knife along the edge of the cakes in the pan and invert the cakes onto plastic wrap to remove.

9. Wrap the cakes with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours or overnight until you are ready to decorate. This seals in moisture and makes the cakes much easier to decorate.

Frosting directions:

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter, cream cheese, biscoff, salt and vanilla to the mixing bowl and blend well.

2. Scrape down the bowl.

3. Gradually add the powdered sugar in stages, mixing well* in between.

4. Depending on how thick it is, you may choose to add a few splashes of heavy whipping cream.

5. You’ll want it to be light and fluffy for easy spreading, so mix at high speed, whipping it for about 2-4 minutes. The icing will get lighter in color and will become more fluffy and of good spreading consistency.

6. Add the frosting between cake layers and cover top and sides of cake. Smooth as desired.

   *Pro tip: when mixing in powdered sugar, cover the mixing bowl with a clean dish towel to keep the sugar dust from flying around.

Ganache directions:

1. Place the heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 30-45 seconds until steaming.

2. Gradually add in the chopped white chocolate until melted.

3. Add in the Biscoff and stir well until blended.

4. At this point, you can test it on the side of the bowl to see how well it drips. As it cools, it will thicken, so it really depends on the consistency you want for your cake. Pour on top of the cake and with a spoon, gradually push it to the edges to allow it to drip down the side of the cake.

5. Chill the cake in the fridge until 1-2 hours before you plan to serve.

Left: the stars of the show, including cake mix, pudding mix, Biscoff spread, and Biscoff cookies; Right: Add some crumbled Biscoff cookies into the batter for even more goodness!

Cakes packaged and ready to go!

Blueberry Citrus Cake

I've been craving blueberries lately, and although it is not the season for them, I ended up buying a few trays of them to enjoy. After a hectic work week, I was so happy that my weekend was wide open for some much needed baking therapy. I turned to one of my favorite white cake recipes and decided to mix in a few blueberries to make things more interesting. I added some citrus flavoring that I'd been wanting to try, Fiori di Sicilia. As it turns out, a little goes a long way, because any hint of blueberry flavor in the cakes was overpowered by more of a creamsicle flavor. The cake was still tasty, though, and I had fun putting them together. I used some Bonne Maman blueberry preserves to make a blueberry glaze for the cake. After using a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds, I added the preserves to the buttercream to add a beautiful purple tint to the frosting. Next time I use blueberries in cake, I'll leave out the citrus flavoring and let the natural blueberry flavor come through.

Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves

Celebration Cake: Welcoming Baby Rylie

Every new baby needs a birthday cake, even if they can't enjoy it. No teeth? No problem! The new parents would surely enjoy a cake to celebrate their new little bundle of love. When I heard of Baby Rylie's arrival, I knew a pretty little pink cake was in order. Our friends were expected to arrive home that Saturday with their new baby girl, so I set to work baking, frosting, and applying a liberal dose of sprinkles. I made a little cake flag from the same fabrics I had used in making her baby quilt. This was a fun cake to put together.

Welcome Spring!

I have been in a sort of winter hibernation and this blog has sat dormant for far too long. Now that it is Spring and the weather is finally warmer, iced-tea season is upon us (it never really goes out of season here in Texas, though), so it is the perfect excuse to start posting on ye olde blog again. During my embarrassingly long absence, I have been churning out lots of potential new blog-post material. I have traveled, crafted, baked and decorated lots of cakes.

With this introduction back into blog land, I leave you with cake!

This is a cake made in honor of all the April birthdays in our family. I made this for a family gathering (we have a big family, so it needed to be a BIG cake), and utilized some Easter candy I had on hand. I love the pearly pastel colors of these Jelly Belly jelly beans - so festive and perfect for a spring-time party cake!

Get your beans here:

http://www.jellybelly.com/

Citrus Dream Cake

After the little photo shoot for my new blog header, I had a lot of citrus fruit left over. Never mind the fact that I've been hoarding limes since the Great Lime Shortage of 2014. We started the summer with a major lime shortage due to problems in Mexico (fruit diseases, transportation problems, etc.), so I snatched up limes just as soon as I was able to get my hands on them, and have been stockpiling them ever since. Along with lemons and oranges, limes are the epitome of a happy fruit, like a ray of sunshine on a summer day.

I decided to combine these three fruits into a happy little cake. I used a favorite go-to recipe, White on White Buttermilk cake and added some fruit zest and fruit extracts to impart the citrus notes to each of the layers.

Citrus Dream Cake:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (do not melt!)

• 2 1/3 Cups sugar

• 3 large egg whites

• 3 Cups cake flour (I use Swans Down)

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 3/4 tsp. salt

• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 1 1/2 Cups buttermilk (or use 1 1/2 cups whole milk with a splash of vinegar)

• 1 tsp. each of Lemon extract, orange extract and lime extract (added at the end after batter has been divided into 3 bowls)

• 2 tsp. grated Lemon, lime and orange zest (each added separately to divided batter)

• Yellow, Orange and Green food coloring (each added separately to divided batter)

Buttercream ingredients:

• 2 Cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 2 Lbs. powered sugar

• 1 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 tsp. fruit extract of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

• 2 tsp. fruit zest of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

Directions:

1. Prepare your baking pans. I used three 9-inch round pans. Line the pans with rounds of parchment paper. I never have a problem with cakes sticking to the bottom when I line the pans, so it is worth the extra effort. Grease the pans with cooking spray.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg whites and continue beating for another minute.

4. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and gradually add these into the wet mixture, beating thoroughly.

5. Divide the batter evenly into 3 separate bowls.

6. To each of the bowls, you will add the flavor and color you want for each layer. 1 bowl will get lime zest, lime extract and green food coloring. The next will get lemon zest, lemon extact and yellow food coloring. The last will get orange zest, orange extract and orange food coloring. Mix thoroughly.

7. Add each batter into each of the 3 baking pans you prepared.

8. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Tops of cake layers should be very lightly brown. Oven and baking times vary, so check regularly. Do not over-bake or the cake will be dry.

9. Remove cake layers from the oven. Allow cakes to cool.

10. While cakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream frosting.

11. Using electric mixer, beat butter, gradually adding in powdered sugar and salt. Mixture will be thick, so add in the whipping cream and flavoring/extract of your choice (I used lemon for mine). Add fruit zest. Whip thoroughly, scraping sides as needed so that it is well-blended.

12. Frost cooled cake layers.

13. Garnish with fruit slices or sliced/sugared fruit rind (avoid white pith when slicing rind to avoid bitterness)