Make, Create and Grow

Finally an excuse to make another cake. Ruby was 2 yesterday and her love of tutus and fairies inspired this cake. As most projects, it came together and changed as I made it, but I’m happy with how it turned out. I tried to remember to take pictures along the way this time, so here’s the process of how it came together.

I started with a double batch of a Vanilla ‘Magic Bean’ Cake. A thermoix recipe that I just make in my food processor. This is the link to the recipe. https://www.recipecommunity.com.au/baking-sweet-recipes/clone-of-vanilla-magic-bean-cake/vzxvw94q-14701-782345-cfcd2-thjzd36w. I use a little less coconut sugar, but otherwise didn’t modify this too much.

The recipe says moderate oven for 10-15mins, which was a bit strange and vague. I had half the mix in a 20cm round tin, and the other half in a Pyrex glass bowl, so I knew they would already take different cooking times. I started the oven at 170 degree Celsius fan forced, and after 10mins, they were still very raw. I just keep checking them at 10min intervals, and finally turned the oven up after about 20 or 30mins. The round cake was done at about 30mins, but the dome cake took closer to 40-50mins. I did cover it with foil towards the end to stop the top burning. I made these the night before and just let them sit in the fridge over night.

I also made the chia jam the night before and let it sit in the fridge. I just used mixed frozen berries, heated slightly to defrost on the stove, then added chia seeds. I used maybe 1 to 1 1/2 cups of berries, and just poured chia seeds and mix until I get a consistency I like, knowing it takes about 20-30mins for the chia seeds to fully swell.

The next morning, I cut the dome cake in half. This was much easier once it had been in the fridge. I layered them with the chia jam and just natural coconut yoghurt. I covered it all and let it sit in the fridge for the day.

In the afternoon, I made the icing. I took the recipe from a paleo carrot cake, which I love. It’s made on sweet potato and taste great and is a really good consistency. This is the link to the recipe https://paleoglutenfree.com/recipes/paleo-sweet-potato-carrot-cake/?fbclid=IwAR1YMEBgQ-wBbzN6ccEj8CJcmRrOKuyjjteQXOquDyw_vg3-dQyy_r-O5h4

I made 4 times the recipe, but had a lot left over, 2-3x would’ve been enough. The recipes uses white flesh sweet potato, but I bought the white sweet potato with purple flesh, hoping for purple icing. Unfortunately, the sweet potatoes weren’t that purple inside, so it ended up nearly white anyway.

Fairy for the top/middle. I assume for a cake this like, you normally get a doll that you can remove the legs from. We choose a fairy, and Ruby loved it so much, I couldn’t bring myself to cut her legs off. I also realised I couldn’t use the fairy wings she came with since they were attached to the dress and if Ruby was going to use the doll again, I didn’t want the dress covered in icing. So I made a top from some scrap fabric, it’s just attached with an elastic hair band around the waist. I made some fairy wings from some plastic off the front of a box one of her presents came in. I just used the exisiting wings as a stencil, decorated them with handfuls of sequin mix, and sealed it in with clear contact paper. I attached them to the fairy with a dot of Blue Tak, fancy stuff! I also braided the dolls hair because I didn’t like the pony tail it came with! Finally, I wrapped the dolls legs in glad wrap to stop too much cake going everywhere on her.

Assembling the cake. I cut a hole in the middle to accomodate her legs. I iced the cake, just spreading it like buttercream. Put the doll in, iced the little bit of her that didn’t fit in the cake. I used white Chrysanthemum for the bulk of her tutu, a few extra flowers from a bunch I found at the supermarket and some cut strawberries around the bottom. It was all getting a little rushed by this stage. Ruby just wanted to touch it and I just wanted a few photos before she could!

Here are the final pictures. A doll fairy cake, with flower tutu. Gluten and refined sugar free. Not dairy free as I used a little organic butter in the icing. Full of organic whole foods, nutrients, and fibre, an option I’m happy for Ruby (and me!) to have as cake!