Meraner Cake Recipes

CHOCOLATE & GRAND MARNIER CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Line bottoms of two greased 8-in. round baking pans with parchment paper; grease paper., In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking cocoa, salt, baking soda and baking powder; add to creamed mixture alternately with water, beating well after each addition., Transfer batter to prepared pans. Bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes before removing to wire racks; remove paper. Cool completely., In a chilled large bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar; beat until soft peaks form. Refrigerate, covered, 1 hour or until very cold., For filling, in a small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over orange juice concentrate; let stand 1 minute. Stir in sugar. Heat and stir over low heat until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir in 1/4 cup Grand Marnier and orange zest. Let filling stand at room temperature just until spreadable, stirring occasionally. (If mixture becomes too firm, warm in microwave to soften, about 10-15 seconds.), Meanwhile, using a long serrated knife, cut each cake horizontally in half. Brush layers with remaining Grand Marnier. Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with one-third of the filling. Repeat twice. Top with remaining cake layer., To frost cake, cut a hole in the tip of a pastry bag or in a corner of a food-safe plastic bag and insert #829 or other large star pastry tip. Gently stir whipped cream; spoon into bag and pipe onto top and sides of cake. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

MOM'S MARGARINE CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch tube pan.
• In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and margarine until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and lemon juice. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; mix into the batter alternating with the milk just until blended. Pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the crown comes out clean. Cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

MERANER CAKE

Steps:

• Mix all ingredients briefly with a hand mixer until well mixed.
• Pour into a well greased (use baking paper) 30cm long loaf pan.
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven on the bottom shelf for 65 minutes.

MERMAID CAKE

Steps:

• If you're making the mermaid tails, melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl in 20-second bursts in the microwave, stirring after each turn. Pour into the tail moulds and small shells, and put on a small tray flat in the freezer for 15-20 mins until set. You can repeat this for four tails if you only have one mould.
• Once set, remove from the mould, mix the lustre with ¼ tsp of water and paint it onto the mermaid tails (see tip, below). Put back on a plate or tray in the freezer until needed.
• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter and line the base of three 18cm sandwich cake tins with baking parchment. Using a stand mixer or electric hand whisk, beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking powder and flour until you have a fluffy mix.
• Divide the mixture evenly between three bowls and mix a few drops of colouring into each bowl until fully combined, making each bowl a different shade of purple, getting lighter. Pour each coloured sponge mix into separate tins and smooth over the tops. Bake for 25-30 mins until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. After 10 mins, remove the cakes from their tins and transfer to a cooling rack, top-side facing down, and leave to cool. Don't worry if the outside doesn't look purple, the inside will!
• While the cake is cooling, make the icing. Beat together the icing sugar and butter until pale and fluffy, mixing in 1 tbsp warm water to loosen the mixture if necessary. Set half of the icing aside in a bowl. Divide the other half of the icing between three bowls and colour each a different shade of blue, a dark, medium and light. Stack the sponges, spreading most of the white icing over each one using a palette knife, then use the palette knife to roughly coat the outside of the cakes with the remaining white icing to create a crumb coat. Chill for 30 mins.
• Put each of the blue icing shades in separate piping bags and cut a large 2cm hole at the bottom. Starting with the dark shade at the bottom of the cake, pipe an even ring onto the whole cake, two-three times around. Continue working your way up the cake with the icing getting lighter as you reach the top of the cake. Using a small palette knife, work your way around the join in between each row, gently pushing to join each line together. Save some icing in the piping bags to decorate the top. Smooth over the cake with a large palette knife or cake scraper to create a smooth ombre icing, keeping the excess to decorate the top.
• You can either mix all the leftover icing together and put in a clean piping bag with a star nozzle to get a multicoloured effect, or pipe individual shades on the top. Add a few dots around the top of the cake in the varying blue colours to look like waves (using some of the white to look like the top of a crashing wave), and dot around the pearls, sprinkles, shells and mermaid tails, pushing them into the icing on the side of the cake, and on top to finish.

GRAND MARNIER CAKE

Steps:

• Cream sugar and butter.
• Add egg yolks and 1 teaspoon Grand Marnier.
• Continue to beat. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder.
• Add flour to mixture with sour cream, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.
• Add orange rind, walnuts and stiff beaten egg whites.
• Butter and flour an angle food cake pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
• Spoon topping over baked cake while still in hot pan.
• Cool and invert onto serving plate.