Number cake - an absolute trend at the beginning of the year! Today this is the most popular cake among confectioners all over the world! Try it too! With our proven recipe and step-by-step instructions, it's very simple and fast! Excellent results guaranteed! Simple in design and decoration, a cake in the shape of a number will be a great table decoration!
Hello! Anita Vlasova is with you, and today I have an incredibly cool recipe for you! A recipe that many of you were probably looking forward to appearing on Pteat.ru! I will tell and show you how to bake a cake that became an absolute trend at the beginning of this year! Number cake ! This is truly the most popular (for February 2021 for sure) cake, if not the entire Internet, then at least the Instagram network) There are many variations of this cake, I will show you one, but I will tell you what, with what and at what point you can replace it so that you You've got your own number cake!
We are all already dreaming of warm, bright spring days! The cherished day is getting closer - March 8th. That’s why I chose the number for the cake in the super-current design, not just any number, but precisely - 8!
This number-shaped cake is made much faster than a regular sponge or mousse cake, and it looks simply amazing. It can look bright, can be decorated in pastel colors, and if you use chocolate cream and decor, this cake will turn out to be brutal in a masculine way (though this option is not suitable for us now, we are making a cake for Women’s Day)!
A number cake will not only be a wonderful decoration for the holiday table on March 8, but also an excellent gift for mothers, girlfriends, sisters and all representatives of the fair sex.
A cake in the form of a number is also good because you can use anything to decorate it: meringues, chocolate, cookies, berries, marshmallows, flowers, etc. - in general, almost anything edible you can find (just kidding! Of course, you should be thoughtful when choosing decor, choose colors and not go overboard with quantity!). I decided to decorate my cake with macarons, flowers, pistachio greens and fresh strawberries, but you - I repeat! - you can take something else.
So, let's go!
Cakes!
The original recipe calls for shortbread cakes (almond sablé), but now everyone bakes whatever they want, whatever they want) I wanted to make a cake with a honey tint - we’ll bake honey cakes!
We will weigh out all the necessary products at once, so as not to be distracted!
We will need:
- flour - 200 g (sifted)
- butter - 60 g
- sugar - 30 g,
- honey - 60 g
- 1 egg
- soda - 6 g
- lemon juice - 6 g
Number cake: chocolate honey cake
The cake turns out very impressive and tasty. Cooking takes a short amount of time. Working with dough is a pleasure. There are a lot of options for making honey cake. Let's take a closer look at the unique recipe for chocolate honey cake with mascarpone cream and chocolate nougat.
Ingredients for the dough:
- 1.5 tbsp. l. – Honey;
- 30 g - butter;
- 2 pcs. - egg;
- 100 g – sugar;
- 1 tsp – soda;
- 300-350 g – flour;
- 1.5 tbsp. l. - cocoa.
For cream:
- 450 g – confectionery cream;
- 250 g - chocolate nougat;
- 300 g – mascarpone.
Number cake: chocolate honey cake
Let's continue!
We wait until the butter melts and the sugar and honey dissolve.
Add soda and citric acid, stir. The mixture begins to increase in volume, continue stirring (for a minute or two). As a result, the volume will increase approximately 2-2.5 times. Then add the egg and quickly mix until smooth.
Add flour and mix.
Let's put it away to cool!
The finished dough is smooth and almost does not stick to your hands, but you may find it a little runny. I strongly do not recommend adding more flour. After the dough rests, it will become denser and easier to work with. Wrap it in cling film and put it in the refrigerator for about an hour. At this time, you can prepare the cream, decor, and clean the workplace.
Recipe 6: Digit cake - a new trend in 2018
The absolute trend of 2021 is a cake in the form of a number. It has already appeared in the collection of most confectioners we know. Now it’s my turn. Had a lot of fun baking and assembling it. Nothing complicated: you don’t need to let the cakes stand, soak them, level them for a long time, spend hours sculpting figures or planting flowers. This is the option that can be baked when guests are on the doorstep. Decorative elements can be: berries, pasta, marshmallows, meringues, cookies, chocolate, candies. Based on nut sablé, honey or puff pastries, you can also try a classic sponge cake without impregnation. Any dense cream: cream cheese with cream or butter, ice cream, ganache. Any shape: numbers, hearts, icons. Color ranges from white, chocolate, to red or black. A drop of dye will help make any of your fantasies come true!
- butter (well chilled) - 230 gr.
- powdered sugar - 170 gr.
- nut flour (almond, hazelnut, pistachio) - 170 gr. I have hazelnut. It gave the cakes a bright nutty flavor.
- wheat flour - 300 gr.
- egg - 1 pc. + 1 yolk
- a pinch of salt
This amount of dough is enough for one A3 digit (fits on a 30*40 cm substrate) or two A4 digits. Two layers of cakes. Weight approximately 1900 g.
cake cream in the form of a number:
I opted for the proven and well-known cream cheese and cream.
- curd cheese - 600 gr. (any will do: hochland, almette, mascarpone). Since I planned three cakes at once, it’s more economical
- I had to take a large package of professional 65% cream nuvo cream cheese
- cream 33% - 300 ml.
- powdered sugar - 220 gr.
- vanilla sugar - 1 sachet
For decoration and assembly:
- all or part of what is listed in the announcement (flowers, berries, pasta, marshmallows, meringues, candies, chocolate, cookies) + jam or preserves in a layer.
How to make a Digit cake?
Take cold butter and cut it into small pieces, no larger than 0.5*0.5 cm. It is important that the butter is cold all the time before work. A package forgotten on the table and left there for a couple of hours, and then frozen again, will no longer work. To prevent the butter from melting longer, it is advisable that the kitchen be cold.
Add powdered sugar, wheat and nut flour to the butter and rub into fine crumbs with your hands.
Add egg and yolk to the dough.
Knead a homogeneous elastic dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
This is where I lied that there was no need to wait for anything. I highly recommend refrigerating the dough. Only in this way will it acquire the correct consistency and will be easy and comfortable to work with. I’ll tell you a secret, I had experience working with the dough right away. It would seem that nothing critical is happening, but: the dough sticks more strongly to your hands and the surface, and may spread in the oven during baking. If you don't have 2 hours, at least put the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes.
The required figure, in our case the number 8, can be downloaded from the Internet or drawn yourself on a sheet of paper.
Cut out the workpiece with scissors.
When the dough has cooled, divide it into 2 parts. We return one back to the refrigerator so that it does not heat up, and we roll out the second between two sheets of parchment. I really like the siliconized one; dough like this never sticks to it and comes off easily.
It is also convenient to use sticks of the same thickness, about 0.5 cm, placing the dough between them. This way the entire layer of dough will be even.
When the dough is rolled out to the desired size and thickness, remove the top sheet of parchment, apply a stencil and cut out the workpiece.
Remove the dough from the number eight rings and around the edges.
Prick the dough with a fork so that it does not rise during baking.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180-200 degrees for 10-12 minutes. The dough bakes very quickly. For example, after 10 minutes my number was still light, but after 12 one edge was already very burnt, so much so that I had to redo it. Don't make my mistake, watch carefully. It's better to take it out when the cake is still light.
We bake the second eight in the same way.
For cream cheese, you can mix all the ingredients in one bowl and beat well with a mixer. However, in order to completely eliminate the appearance of grains of sugar that have not dissolved in the cream, I recommend first whipping the cream with powder (+ vanilla sugar) until stiff peaks form, and then adding the cheese and whipping again. Cream and cheese should be cold.
Transfer the cream into a pastry bag with a nozzle (tube or star) cream and berry or fruit jam for filling
We transfer the first base, number 8, onto the backing and place the cream in 2-3 rows.
We place jam between the “cones” of the cream.
We cover the cake with the second figure eight and again plant the “bumps” from the cream.
Next, prepare everything you need to decorate the number cake.
If you use flowers, they must be isolated from the cream by brushing with melted chocolate (or glaze).
The cake is ready!
Now it’s time for the cream!
For the cream we need cottage cheese (400 g), powdered sugar (30-40 g (to taste)), cream 33-38% (40 g) and white chocolate (70 g). We take the cottage cheese out of the refrigerator in advance: we will need it at room temperature.
In a bowl, mix the cream and chocolate and melt them in a water bath until completely dissolved, then stir until combined. Make sure that water does not get into the container with chocolate!
After the cream and chocolate have combined, remove from the water bath and let them cool slightly. In a mixer at low speed, mix the cheese with powdered sugar (using a hook attachment). Then, continuing to stir slowly, pour in the chocolate in a thin stream. Stir until completely combined, at the end you can increase the speed. The cream is ready, leave it aside (do not put it in the refrigerator).
ATTENTION!
You can use any cream that is moist enough to saturate the cakes, and at the same time stable. It can be cream cheese with cream, mascarpone cream, ice cream and even chocolate ganache. Or any other cream that can hold its shape at room temperature. But I cannot recommend pure butter or protein cream: although they are stable, they will not soak your cakes.
How to make the number 6 from a biscuit: instructions
Number 6 from a biscuit
Number 6 from a biscuit :
- Make the dough into 2 portions and bake two round cakes.
- Cut one of them in half lengthwise to soak it in the filling, and cut out the “tail” of a six from the other, as shown in the photo above.
- To maintain the integrity of the number, insert another small piece of biscuit between the “tail” and the circle.
- Cut a hole in the middle using an inverted glass or mug.
An example of how you can make the number 6 from a sponge cake.
All that remains is to grease the dessert with cream filling and decorate the top.
Cut out the numbers!
I pre-printed and cut out the number 8 templates from A4 paper. You can draw them by hand.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator. We divide it into 3 parts. Take a piece of dough, roll it out thinly (on a mat or baking paper) and put a stencil with a number on top, trace it with a thin sharp knife.
Recipe: cake with number 1 step by step
To create the number 1 you will need a square sponge cake measuring 22 cm by 22 cm
Instructions:
Slice the cake along the dotted lines. Place the left piece horizontally under the middle piece. Then take the top right piece and place it horizontally over the middle piece (cut side to the left) and then place the bottom right piece on top of it in the same direction.
Coincidentally, number one looks like a giraffe, so you can decorate it with yellow buttercream, add some fondant details and voila, a number 1 cake or a little giraffe, perfect for celebrating a first ever birthday!
Let's bake cake layers for a number cake!
We remove the paper and everything unnecessary, prick the cake with a fork and put it in an oven preheated to 175-180C (use yours!).
As soon as the cake becomes golden, we take it out, but under no circumstances remove it from the paper. Leave on a flat surface until it cools COMPLETELY! When warm, the cake is very tender, soft, and may break. We bake 2 more cakes in the same way. You can use the leftovers to make small cookies using cutouts. And, by the way, they can be an additional decorative element)
Concept
Adi herself does not reveal her recipe, but the concept of such a cake is clear. These are thin cakes, stenciled in the shape of a letter or number, connected together with beautifully deposited cream. On top there is a nice decor of fresh flowers, meringues, and macarons. This cake from the series is brilliant and simple, maybe that’s why it has become so popular? The cakes can be made from thin sponge cake or shortcrust pastry; many people use honey sponge cake; the result is something between a honey cake and mille-feuille). The main condition is that the cakes should be thin, they are more like cookies and should not lose their shape during the baking process. We offer you a recipe for shortbread sablé.
Adi Klinghofer
Let's assemble our cake!
When all the cakes have cooled, we begin to assemble the cake.
Place the cream in a pastry bag with a tube attachment (the diameter of the outlet is 10-12 mm) and pipe the cream over the entire area of the cake. Attention! I made the cake without any toppings, but I’ll tell you what and how you can add, if desired. If you want a cake with filling, put it out at this moment! Between the “bumps” of the cream you will just get a small distance and there you can put, say, a berry - fresh or boiled with sugar and cooled. You can, for example, use spiced cherry sauce for this, which Tori Pteat wrote about here. In principle, you can pour the sauce over the cake between the “bumps” of cream. The main thing is that the sauce is not too liquid, and for this it must be boiled with starch or pectin!
After we have completely covered the cake with cream, put the second cake layer on it and pipe the cream again. Etc.
Recipe 2, step by step: cake in the shape of the number 8
- chicken eggs - 1 piece;
- honey - 1 tbsp;
- butter - 1 pack and 60 g;
- sugar - 100 g;
- cocoa - 30 g;
- flour - 200 gr;
- baking soda - 0.5 tsp;
- condensed milk - 1 pack;
- cream 35% - 100 ml;
- powdered sugar - 1 tbsp.
Add 100 grams of sugar, 1 tbsp. l. honey, 60 grams of butter - put on the stove and stir until the sugar dissolves:
Add 0.5 tsp. baking soda and heat for another minute:
Remove the pan from the stove, add 1 egg, mix quickly and add 30 g of cocoa and 200 g of flour:
Place the finished dough in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. I wrapped it in cling film:
I divided the dough into 3 parts and I got very thin cakes... so it’s better to make 2 cakes from this amount of ingredients.
Cut out the number 8 from the paper and cut the dough along it:
Pierce the cakes with a fork. And bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes:
Prepare the cream: beat a package of butter at room temperature and slowly (while whipping) pour in a package of condensed milk:
Transfer the cream into a pastry bag with a nozzle:
And we decorate our cakes:
Carefully stacking them on top of each other:
I didn't have enough cream. I took 100 ml of cream 35% and 1 tbsp. l. powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form:
We decorate the rest of the cake with this cream, and then it’s a matter of imagination:
Side view:
Preparing flowers for decoration!
I used fresh flowers to decorate the cake. The attitude towards fresh flowers as decoration among confectioners is ambiguous. But if you are careful, the flowers are not poisonous, of course! - you can use it (or even better, take flowers grown specifically for food, there are such ones. Well, or grown by you personally in your garden without any chemicals, those that you are confident in!). Flowers need to be washed in running water, dried and carefully isolated from contact with the cream! To do this, I tore off all the sepals on the back side and covered the ENTIRE back surface of the roses with melted cocoa butter! After processing all the flowers, I put them in the refrigerator for a while so that the oil hardened well. If you don't have cocoa butter, you can use chocolate.
How to prepare decorative figures
For the cake, you can make any decorations you can think of: drawings of leaves and flowers, geometric patterns, thematic patterns and monograms, numbers, letters. Similar creations are made from chocolates and sweets.
The chocolate needs to be broken into small pieces, melted in a water bath, then poured into a parchment cornet. You can choose any drawing you like, put tracing paper on it, you can use cellophane, and pipe chocolate along the contours. The decoration is sent to the refrigerator, but very carefully. When they harden, you can remove them with a knife, then transfer them to the finished confectionery product.
There is an opportunity to make luxurious three-dimensional decorations. You need to pour chocolate into a double-sided mold through the hole located at the bottom. It is important to shake well and turn the mold over for two to three minutes. Thanks to this manipulation, you can remove all air bubbles and distribute the chocolate evenly. After filling, place the mold so that the hole is at the bottom, then add the remaining glaze. There will be a layer of 3-4 millimeters on the walls.
Let's decorate!
So, our number cake is almost ready!
If you plan to eat it right away, then start decorating. If you want to let it brew, you can decorate it before serving. You can see I used macarons, strawberries, flowers and pistachio greens. I also baked cookies from the leftover dough and filled the voids with them. You can take whatever you want, that's the beauty of it! But be careful: it’s bad when the entire surface of the cake turns into one big pile of different-sized sweets, without an idea or color unity! Everything should be harmonious, and I personally like it when islands of light cream peek out here and there between the bright decorative elements.
You can eat!
Brew your favorite type of tea or brew aromatic coffee, cut off a piece of cake and ENJOY!
A small note: the cake can be cut almost immediately and then the cakes will be crispy. But if you let the cake sit, the cream will soak it in and the cakes will become soft. I prefer it crunchy! But if you like delicate textures and soft, rich fillings, leave your number cake in the refrigerator overnight or longer. Before eating, take it out and keep it at room temperature for at least an hour. Bon appetit!
And happy spring holiday, our dear readers!
