Nutcracker – Land of Sweets Cake ♡

Hello my frosted fairies! I hope you have had a wonderful first week of the new year. It seems as though I haven’t written a baking post for quite some time. Truthfully, I have been stifled for inspiration over the last few weeks but seeing as it’s still winter I thought I would create something truly magical and comforting to have in the cold evenings with a cup of tea, of course.

The Nutcracker has always been one of my favourite ballets. I can recall at the age of five, twirling around my living room to the score on my dad’s record player. I danced for seven years and it’s something I miss ever so dearly. Anyway, last month I saw a Russian ballet company’s performance of The Nutcracker and it was so special and festive. I have been meaning to create something inspired by the Land of Sweets and I decided to adapt this recipe from the BBC which follows a winter wonderland setting. I have used the same concept and ingredients but I have modified the decoration to fit my Nutcracker design!

The cake itself is light and fluffy; with a velvet, chocolate sponge and an angel frosting which forms a frothy, meringue-like texture ~ fit for any snow queen. The sugar-plum fairy has worked her winter magic and adorned the very top of this cake with an array of scrumptious, irresistible delights; crushed candy canes, decadent meringues, sugar roses and pink fluffy marshmallows.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

175g of unsalted butter

250g of golden caster sugar

3 large eggs

225g of plain flour

2 tsp of baking powder

50g of crème fraîche

100g of dark chocolate

For decoration:

3 tbsp of strawberry jam

8-10 candy canes, red and white

Sweets of your choice

Mini white meringues

For the angel frosting:

500g white caster sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 tbsp of liquid glucose

2 egg whites

30g of icing sugar, sifted

Method:

For the cake:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180˚C. Butter and line three cake tins (I only used two for my cakes.)
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, beating them in one at a time. Proceed to fold in the flour, baking powder. After this, fold in the crème fraîche, chocolate and 100ml of boiling water.
3. Divide the cake mixture between the tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
4. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin and then tip out onto a cooling rack and let them cool completely.

For the angel frosting:

1. Start by putting the sugar, vanilla and liquid in a saucepan with 125ml of water.
2. Bring to the boil and cook until all the sugar has melted – the syrup should become clear. Take off the heat.
3. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until stiff then, while still beating, gradually pour in the hot sugar syrup. Keep beating until the mixture is fluffy and thick enough to spread. Beat in the icing sugar.
4. Spread two of the sponges with jam and some of the angel frosting, then sandwich the cakes together with the plain one on top. Use a little of the frosting to ice the top of the cake.
5. Finally, crush the candy canes and add any sweets you desire!

And… enjoy! ♡

Here are a few more pictures of the end result! ♡

If you enjoyed this post, please let me know by leaving a sprinkling of sugar dust in the comment section below! Also, if you decide to bake this fairy-tale Nutcracker cake, please tweet me or send a picture of the end result on Instagram @xxsophiebeth and remember to use the hashtag ~ #frostedfairies ♡

Keep practicing your arabesques and prancing in your pointe shoes and make sure to stay tuned for my next baking post! ✨🍰  xoxo