K-Recipe: Cutest Cakes to Level Up Your Baking 🧑🏻‍🍳🍰

There’s always room for dessert no matter how much I ate! I know I’m not the only one that relates to the saying that when it comes to desserts, we have a second stomach for it. In Korea, cafes are open until late, where you’ll often find Koreans grabbing dessert after dinner paired with coffee (iced Americano is the go to, yes, even in winter)! It’s also common to celebrate special occasions with cakes 🎂 We usually just serve cake for birthdays but in Korea, it’s for any celebration really. 

IDUS

Sure you can get personalised cakes but there’s nothing more special than baking and decorating your very own. Sounds like such a hassle, right? But with the vintage “cake box” cake trending not too long ago, Korea has made a new version called “bottle cakes.” I think it’s even simpler to make and gives a more modern feel. Bottle cake is basically cake in a jar, or any small see-through container that is fit for one serving to give to your special someone 🍰 It’s a layered cake that’s presented in a bottle/jar (thus the name) and often filled with jelly, jam or fruit and cream. Whatever filling between the layers can all be seen  which creates a very cute look as you customise it to whoever you are giving it to. Plus it’s much simpler to put together than a whole cake!

Instagram | @dalf_bakery

I don’t know if it’s just my family, but we can never finish an entire cake so if you would like a single-serving cake, these bottle cakes are perfect! Because it’s super customisable, you can match the flavour profile to whoever you are giving the cake to. Not just the cake itself but from the filling to the decor. There’s a lot of different ways to make this but I thought I would share with you a classic sponge cake recipe. Plus to keep it easy, using fruits are the simplest way to create the beautiful layers that can be seen through the jar. Feel free to switch it out with any fruits in season 🍇🥭🍑🍓🫐🥝 Popular fruits for cakes would be mangos, melon and kiwifruit. Are you ready for the recipe?

Ingredients

For the simple syrup  48g white sugar  80g water   For the whipped cream 470g Heavy cream 110g Mascarpone cheese 100g Condensed milk (or 55g sugar)

For the sponge cake  5 eggs 150g white sugar 135g cake flour 30g milk 20g Grapeseed oil (or any neutral oil) 1 tbsp vanilla extract

 

To start, let’s make the sponge cake:

1. Begin by separating egg yolk from egg whites.
2. Add 40g sugar in with egg yolk. Whip until pale yellow and smooth.
3. Add 110g sugar to egg white until it’s like meringue. The batter is ready if you tip the bowl over and it doesn’t come out.
4. Add ⅔ of meringue to egg yolk mixture and mix thoroughly.
5. Sift in cake flour and mix. Make sure to mix from the bottom of the bowl to the top to ensure ingredients are evenly mixed through.
6. Add remaining meringue and mix gently.
7. Scoop out part of the batter into another bowl. Add milk, oil, and vanilla extract. 
8. Add in this mixture to the rest of the batter and mix thoroughly. This prevents overmixing of the cake batter and ensures cake remains fluffy.
9. Pour batter into the baking pan making sure it’s evenly spread with no bubbles.
10. Bake in a preheated oven of 170C for 15 minutes.
11. Make sure to cool off cake before assembling.

Youtube | Calorie Restaurant

To make the simple syrup and whipped cream:

1. Simple add sugar to water and boil until sugar has dissolved.
2. For the cream, whip together heavy cream, mascarpone cheese and condensed milk until it’s thick and the texture of soft cream.

Now it’s finally time to put it together and decorate:

1. Cut and shape the cake to ensure it fits into the bottle/jar.
2. Then add cake, brush on sugar syrup to maintain moistness, fruit and lastly, fill empty space with heavy cream.
3. Repeat step 2 until you’ve nearly reached the top.
4. Decorate the cake with more cream and fruit.

Youtube | Calorie Restaurant

There’s quite a lot to prepare, right? But I can guarantee you that your special one will feel all the love and effort you’ve put into it. If you need some decoration inspo, you can refer to this cute video and see how all this recipe comes together! They used strawberries to make a strawberry shortcake but as I said you can really add any fruit you would like. I’ve also seen some other flavours from no-bake tiramisu to sweet potato cake so go wild with your cake creations! Happy baking 🧑🏻‍🍳