Christmas speculoos cake
Layers of a rich speculoos (Biscoff) spread cake with a silky buttercream and decorated with speculoos spread cookies.
A cake that is light in texture but rich in flavour, paired with a dreamy Italian meringue buttercream, and a design with plenty of room for creativity (and lots of extra nibbles for the baker of course).
This cake was such a crowd pleaser during Christmas last year, so not only did I decide to make it again this year, I also decided to post it here! It doesn't have to be exclusive to Christmas - it can make a spectacular winter cake too.
There are three main components: the cookies, the cake, and the buttercream. It may sound daunting to those who do not bake much, but each component can be made separately, on different days for instance, so it's not too much once you break it down. The cookies can last a fair while in an air-tight container, and the dough can also be refrigerated for around a week if wrapped tightly (but use your judgement), so it can be made in advance. The chocolate trees are optional but quick to whip up on the day of assembly. I just melted some chocolate, poked a hole in the corner of a plastic bag using a toothpick, and piped it out.
The above image is the cake from Christmas 2018; using whipped cream on top and speculoos spread French buttercream inside instead
Last year, I only made half of the cake recipe I have noted down below, and I layered it with a speculoos spread French buttercream. However, because I wanted a taller and more structurally sound cake, I made four layers and used a sturdier Italian meringue buttercream. I also wanted some colour contrast between the cake and the buttercream so I left the buttercream plain. I did drizzle melted speculoos spread on each layer though, so I'm not skimping out on spec. French buttercream is truly delicious and has the silkiest texture, and with speculoos spread it is the most decadent thing, so feel free to give last year's cake profile a try.
If you're feeling ambitious (which I was not this year), topping the cake with a cookie house as I did last year is a fun option. In order to have enough cookies to fit around the circumference of the cake and make a house, I doubled the recipe. I did, however, end up with enough for two houses plus extras, but more cookies are always welcome in this house.
For the purpose of this post however, I will provide instructions and measurements for this year's cake.
Ft. broken tree branch :'((
The recipe for the cookies can be found at Baking a Moment, though I will also type it here for ease of access. I changed the measurements to grams for some ingredients. I used her cup measurements and weighed that, so they're a little bit different from the metric measurements on her page. I also didn't use cold, cubed butter. Just putting it out there. I ain't here trying to steal others' recipes and hard work. If you want cup measurements, hop over to her page.
I will preface the recipe by saying it uses a LOT of eggs. Half of the eggs are used for the buttercream, so if you're not keen on using as many eggs feel free to use an American buttercream, ermine buttercream (unsure if ermine is a proper noun...... all Google shows is a kind of weasel... very cute, but seemingly unrelated. Unless it was named after ermines, in which case it is not a proper noun) or some other kind of egg-free buttercream. Whipped white chocolate ganache would work well too. I'd advise against whipped cream as it is unlikely to be sturdy enough to hold up the layers, especially if left at room temperature.
Recipe
For the speculoos spread cookies:
(double if making the 3D houses)
From Baking a Moment
INGREDIENTS:
115g unsalted butter, room temperature
130g speculoos/ Biscoff spread
95g brown sugar
1 egg
1tsp salt
270g plain flour
32g corn flour
100g white chocolate (roughly), for decorating
METHOD:
1. Prepare cookie templates. I made my 2D houses roughly 5-8cm wide. Make sure your houses aren't too wide, otherwise they won't surround the cake as well. I like to have a variety of heights and widths. Simply use a ruler and pen/ pencil to draw your templates on paper and cut them out.
2. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, spread, and sugar with an electric handheld beater or by hand until lightened in colour.
3. Beat in the egg until fully incorporated.
4. Sift in the salt, plain flour, and corn flour and mix in (on slow speed if using an electric beater) until fully incorporated.
5. Roll dough between two sheets of baking paper to roughly 7mm thick. You don't want to roll it too thin otherwise it will be difficult to transfer them to the baking tray as they will be larger than regular cookies. If the dough is too soft to work with, chill it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Cut out your desired shapes using your prepared templates. Use a small sharp knife when cutting out the dough. Transfer cut-out dough to prepared baking sheets.
6. Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. They will be quite soft at first, but will harden as they cool. Cool on their baking trays then transfer to a cooling rack once sturdy enough to handle to fully cool.
7. When cookies have fully cooled, gently melt white chocolate over the stove or in the microwave. Use a fine-tipped piping nozzle or create a piping bag by poking a toothpick through the corner of a plastic bag and fill it with the melted white chocolate. Draw designs on your cookies. Allow to set before using them to decorate your cake.
For the speculoos cake:
(for 4 layers)
Based on BBC Good Food's peanut butter cake recipe
INGREDIENTS:
240g unsalted butter, softened
400g speculoos/ Biscoff spread
200g brown sugar (may increase to 250g if you would like it sweeter)
8 eggs
300g sour cream
400g self-raising flour
METHOD:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 23cm round tins and butter or oil the sides.
2. Using a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, spread, and sugar until lightened in colour. Be sure to periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Approximately 2-3 minutes.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated after each addition. Scrape down the bowl and beat for a further 10 seconds to ensure everything is combined. Beat in the sour cream.
4. Sift in the flour and beat on a low speed or fold by hand with a spatula. If beating using a stand mixer, beat until mostly incorporated then complete by folding by hand.
5. Pour cake batter equally into prepared pans. Weigh them for accuracy. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer or cake tester inserted comes out clean.
6. Cool cakes in pans for 5 minutes then turn out to cool on cooling racks.
7. Once fully cooled, level each cake (slice the dome off the top and save it for a snack or something) and slice them in half to create 4 layers. Set them aside.
For the Italian meringue buttercream:
Based on How To Cake It's Italian meringue buttercream recipe
INGREDIENTS:
8 egg whites
400g caster sugar
1/2c water
500g butter, at room temperature
METHOD:
1. In a small pot, heat sugar and water on medium heat, stirring gently until sugar has melted. insert a candy thermometer and bring the mixture to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, using the whisk attachment, whisk egg whites in a stand mixer on medium low speed until very foamy. Increase speed to medium. When the temperature of the sugar mixture reaches 110°C, increase the mixer speed to high and beat until stiff peaks just start to form.
3. As soon as the temperature reaches 118°C, take the pot off the stove and, with the mixer running on medium speed, slowly and carefully pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites in a thin, constant stream. The trick with this is to time the sugar and egg whites so that the whites reach stiff peaks as soon as the sugar reaches 118°C.
4. Whisk the meringue until it cools down. You do not want to add the butter when the meringue is still warm. This step may take a while. It doesn't need to be completely cool, but it should not be warmer than body temperature. That is, if you test with your finger, you should not feel much warmth.
5. With the mixer still running, scoop pieces of butter to add into the meringue a little at a time, making sure one piece is incorporated before adding the next. Don't worry if your mixture looks loose. Just keep beating and it will come together. If it still looks loose after beating for a while, chill it in the refrigerator for a while, then beat again.
6. Once all the butter has been added, scrape down the sides and bottom and beat on high until thick and smooth.
*This buttercream will be quite airy once it's finished, so feel free to mix it on low speed with the flat beater/ paddle attachment or by hand with a spatula to knock some air bubbles out.
To assemble:
INGREDIENTS:
1 batch speculoos spread cookies
1 batch speculoos cake
1 batch Italian meringue buttercream
Extra speculoos/ Biscoff spread to drizzle and spread on backs of cookies (approx. 100g)
Dark chocolate to draw trees (approx. 50g)
Rosemary for decoration (optional)
1. On the serving dish, spread a small dollop of buttercream and place a bottom layer of cake (a layer that would've been at the bottom of the pan) on top.
2. Evenly spread 1 cup of buttercream on this first layer. Drizzle some melted speculoos spread over the top.
3. Place a top cake layer (a layer that wouldn't have been touching the bottom of the pan) on top and repeat step 2.
4. Repeat step 3.
5. For the final layer, flip it so the side that was touching the bottom of the pan is now at the top. Spread a thin layer of buttercream over the whole cake to trap in the crumbs. This is your crumb coat. Move the cake to the refrigerator to chill until buttercream is firm.
6. Meanwhile, melt some dark chocolate and pipe out some trees on some baking paper if desired. Make sure they are tall enough for your cake and piped on thick enough to peel off the baking paper without breaking. Leave to cool and harden. Peel off the baking paper once hardened.
7. Remove the cake from the fridge and spread on a final coat of buttercream. It should only be thick enough to just cover the cake. smooth it out with a spatula or bench scraper. Dollop the rest of the buttercream onto the top of the cake and roughly spread it out using swooping motions with your wrist. The aim is for it to look like snow.
8. Spread a thin layer of speculoos spread on the backs of the cookies to prevent any soaking. You only need to spread it on the parts that will touch the buttercream.
9. Stick the cookies and chocolate trees onto the sides of the cake in your desired order. Stick the extra houses on top of the cake and stick in rosemary sprigs to look like trees.
That's it!
Store your cake in the fridge. Do not store uncovered if there are other strong odoured foods or if already sliced. Buttercream absorbs smells and flavours easily, and the cake will dry out in the fridge without any buttercream protecting it.
This cake is best enjoyed fresh, at room temperature. It is easier to slice neatly when straight from the fridge, so I’d suggest taking it out, slicing it, then leaving the slices for a couple of minutes before digging in.
Enjoy!