Hidden Design Cake: Chocolate & Rainbow Cookie

Great British Baking Show: “The Beginnings” (Netflix), Season 5 (PBS)                                                   –A.K.A. The Great British Bake Off Series 3 

Episode 1:                                                                                                                                                         Showstopper Challenge– Hidden Design Cake

 

This cake was most certainly a challenge for me, and if I were to do it again, there would be plenty of corrections I would make. But I am completely content with the lovely heart I found inside when I cut a slice to try. 

I wanted to do something fun and different and I wanted to try my grandma’s rainbow cookie recipe she just sent me. Lastly, I love chocolate, so I decided on a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and a rainbow cookie heart in the middle when you slice into it. 

The whole process took a couple days. Day 1: I cooked the rainbow cookies and jellied up the layers, then put a book on it to weigh it together and left it in the fridge overnight. The rainbow cookies have a super thick batter so it’s a bit of a challenge to spread each layer into a parchment lined baking tin, but it’s worth it when the cake is cooked and just plops right out of the pan. Also a word to the wise, I got into the groove of jellying a layer and then putting a next layer on top, so I almost started jellying the top when I actually wasn’t supposed to!

Day 2: after I came home from work, I baked the chocolate cake and made the frosting. Then came the fun part: assembling and decorating! The chocolate cake and frosting were simple enough and I always use the same recipe from Add a Pinch because it always comes out so moist and delicious. I user her chocolate frosting recipe as well.

I did hit a snag with the frosting, and this is the second time this has occurred. I used dairy-free butter (I’m allergic to dairy products) and for some reason, there’s little tiny pieces of butter that somehow didn’t get beat in and I’m not sure why this is happening. No matter how much I beat it, I’m still left with little pieces. So next time I may try a different butter. — UPDATE: I think I might have solved this. I whip the butter first, then sift in the sugar and add in the cocoa powder last and it comes out smoothly. I guess I was too impatient before, throwing it all in at once. 

During assemblage, I stuck pieces of cut-out cake back around the rainbow cookies. Something I would different next time is add a little icing to those crumbly cake pieces to make it stick together better, so the slices don’t fall apart when you cut the cake. 

Grandma’s Rainbow Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 tube almond paste
• 3 sticks of butter (1.5c)
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp almond extract
• 2c flour
• 3/4c sugar
• 10 drops green food coloring
• 8 drops red food coloring
• 1 jar seedless, raspberry jam
• 1 pkg semi sweet chocolate

Directions:

1. In a food processor (or with a beater if you don’t have a processor), break up almond paste. Then beat in butter, sugar, egg yolks, and almond extract. Beat about 5 minutes until smooth.
2. Place into a large bowl, stir in flour and set aside.
3. In a dry glass bowl, whip egg whites until stiff, and add vanilla. Fold egg whites into almond mixture until fully incorporated. 
4. Get 2 more bowls and separate dough into 3 equal parts. Color one part with red, and one part with green. Mix gently together, and use however much coloring you want, the # of drops above is just a guideline.
5. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 3 13x9x2 baking pans with parchment paper. Spread batter into each pan. Bake 13-14 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes.
6. After cakes are completely cool, leave green layer in pan and spread jelly onto it. Immediately flip white layer on. Jelly the top of the white layer and then flip the pink layer on top. Cover with parchment and aluminum foil and press down with a book or two. Refrigerate overnight. 
7. The next day, melt down your chocolate. Take cookie out of fridge and out of pan. Spread melted chocolate on top and cut into pieces. Keep refrigerated!

After I made these rainbow cookies, I baked a chocolate cake and made chocolate frosting. For the chocolate cake and frosting I always always use are this recipe from the Add a Pinch blog. I usually omit the espresso powder, but feel free to add it! It’ll just make it even yummier. I baked this cake in 2 13x9x2 pans. 

Assemble:

First get your final plate ready, and put the first cake layer on it. My husband then helped me cut two 2 inch columns length-wise into the cake (about 1 inch deep). Do the same thing with the other cake layer. 

Take the leftover cake pieces and crumble with hands. Then add a bit of frosting and mush together until it’s holding together.

Onto the rainbow cookie. Cut two 2-inch columns lengthwise. Cut a V into the top of each column. Then cut a downward slant into each side lengthwise as well. Save all cookie you cut off!

Take the top V you cut out, and place that in the bottom of each cut-out column in the first layer of cake. Then take the whole cookie part and place into the column. Take the last two slivers you got from cutting the slants and place on top of the cookie. Do this with both cut out columns. 

Then stuff the sides and top with the leftover cake/frosting mixture. Put frosting around the rainbow cookie, on the sides and in the middle. Here’s the hard part: gently flip the second cake layer onto the top of the first cake layer with the rainbow cookies on it.

Frost the rest of the cake! Put some rainbow cookie on top, and chocolate works if you decide to make them. For chocolate works, you take melted tempered chocolate and pipe in nice designs onto parchment paper. After they set, decorate cake with them! 

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