Monday, October 29

the most sinful cake in the world



 After a nine-month break -- no, I did not have a baby! -- I'm back to blogging. Well, sorta. See, I need a place to store recipes of food I have made and the numerous tweaks I made along the way (as well as what to do differently should I revisit them), and I have decided this shall be it. I mean, why start a whole new blog, right? (Yes, I'm that lazy.) (And yes, I still like parentheses.)

And what better recipe to kick off this new start (which, hopefully, does not die off after one post) than this icebox cake.

Since the first time I tasted it, years ago, on a trip to New York, at Billy's Bakery, it's been at the back of my mind. I've always wanted to make it, but never had the occasion to make (notice I didn't use the word "bake", you will see why in just a bit) such a sinful cake -- until Sherv's birthday rolled around. (He likes unhealthy food. A lot.)

A quick spot of googling led me to the recipe on the ever-reliable Smitten Kitchen, and a quick trip to the Phoon Huat near the office got me all the ingredients needed.

3 cups (750ml) whipping cream
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Beat the above on high until soft peaks form (ie. they flop over when you lift the beater out of the mixture). I bought 1 litre of Millac brand whipping cream (in blue carton), which worked out to be about 4 cups (1 cup more than what the recipe called for).

Note to self: Next time, just whip all four cups and be more generous with the cream between layers, rather than having 1 cup left over (which was kinda just nice for making a mini-cake). Oh and I added 3 tbsp of Baileys, but I think I will double/triple it in the future. Hic!

Instead of the Nabisco cookies mentioned on Smitten Kitchen, I used something I found in Phoon Huat known, rather ominously, as Black Biscuit (basically Oreos without the fillings, $6.20 for a giant bag, more than enough for one normal-sized cake and a mini one). And instead of seven cookies in one layer, I used 11 in a circle and filled the middle with all the broken bits from the bottom of the package. Then I smothered the layer with the cream. In total, I made seven layers, covering the top with one super thick layer of cream.

Being the anal sort, I used a springform pan to make sure the cake wasn't lopsided. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Amazingly, the biscuit will soften and become almost cake-like, yet the entire "cake" will still retain that beautiful rippled pattern.

Easiest and prettiest cake, ever.