New Year's Bento Cake
Description
The baking is simple and quick. I'll go into more detail below,
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare all the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
- 2
Step 2
For the sponge cake, first mix the milk with vegetable oil, lemon juice, and vegetable oil until smooth.
- 3
Step 3
Add cane sugar, a pinch of salt, lemon zest, and apple cider vinegar. Mix again again.
- 4
Step 4
Gradually sift the flour into a bowl and gently knead the dough.
- 5
Step 5
At the end, dissolve the baking soda in 1 tbsp. water, pour it in, and mix until smooth.
- 6
Step 6
Transfer the batter to a baking ring or round pan. Bake the sponge for about 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean and golden brown.
- 7
Step 7
Let the finished sponge cake cool slightly, remove it from the pan, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Let it cool completely in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Then trim off the dome, and cut it into 2 equal layers. You can do this with a sharp flat knife, a cake leveler wire, or ordinary thread.
- 8
Step 8
For the berry filling, transfer the frozen cranberries to a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for a couple of minutes until the cranberries release their juice and begin to burst. Separately, dissolve the starch in a small amount of water. Pour the dissolved starch into the saucepan and heat over low heat for 1–2 minutes until thickened. Then cool the filling completely.
- 9
Step 9
For the cream, beat the cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth. Pour in the cream and continue beating on medium speed until fluffy. Transfer the cream to a piping bag.
- 10
Step 10
Place the bottom sponge layer on a plate. Soak it with milk, then spread a thin layer of cream on top. Next, pipe a thick ring of cream around the diameter of the cake base.
- 11
Step 11
Carefully place the berry filling in the center of the ring.
- 12
Step 12
Cover with a second layer of sponge cake and press down lightly. Soak the top of the sponge with milk as well, then coat the top and sides of the cake with a thin layer of cream. It is important that the bottom and top are level and that all crumbs are sealed with cream. Wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3–6 hours.
- 13
Step 13
Carefully remove the cake from the refrigerator and transfer it to the parchment paper you will use for assembly, or onto a cake board. Set aside some of the frosting for decoration.
- 14
Step 14
Cover the top and sides of the cake with a thick layer of frosting and smooth it with a spatula. After that, you can decorate the cake to your taste.
- 15
Step 15
For decoration, I tinted part of the cream with red food coloring and drew a horse silhouette on the cake.
- 16
Step 16
Then I added more cream details and a piping bag for decoration.
- 17
Step 17
The finished cake can be placed in a bento box.
- 18
Step 18
In cross section, it looks as follows.
- 19
Step 19
The New Year bento cake is ready — enjoy! Happy upcoming New Year!