I love autumn. I love it because me, my sister and my three cousins’ birthdays are in this season, so there are lots of celebrations to make. The first one to celebrate is my birthday, and it was on the last Saturday.

As usual, I wanted to make my own birthday cake. This time, I was hoping to make something that does not only taste good, but also looks good. Well, it was not a disaster, but you know I don’t have the ability to make cakes that look storebought.

This time, I planned everything beforehand. I drew some sketches and decided to make a cake with coconut butter and pineapples.

This idea of a “tropical” cake came from the coconut butter I made last week. I have been seeing some recipes made with coconut butter for a long time. Katie uses it a lot for example. So I looked through the internet and see if I could buy it in Turkey. But, no. It’s not sold anywhere. So I decided to make it myself. There are actually a lot of bloggers who made their own coconut butters, and the idea is easy, just like making nut butters: process some dried coconut flakes in the food processor for about 10 minutes. Good.

But, my 400W Tefal mini-rondo couldn’t process that longer and I had a thicker coconut butter instead. So I blended it with some water (coconut milk can work well) and also added some honey to taste. But it wasn’t something that you can spread on your bread. I don’t know, maybe my version was too thick, but it also tasted heavy that I cannot eat by itself. While I was thinking about my birthday cake, I thought “Why not? You cannot eat that thick coconut butter anyway. Just use it!”

For the cake, I used a recipe that I took from a pastry chef (so I shouldn’t share it with you!).  I bake the cake two days before my birthday.

One day before my birthday, I assembled my cake. I layered the cake and moistened the layers with some milk. Then I made some dark chocolate ganache and spread on each layer. On the first layer, I spreaded the coconut butter on the ganache. And on the second layer, I put some diced pineapples on the ganache again.

To cover the cake, I made a whipped cream by mixing the regular whipped cream with some of my coconut butter and diced pineapples.

As you can notice from the photo, the cake doesn’t look that perfect, because 1- I have problems with layering the cakes perfectly and 2- I have problems with covering the cake with whipped cream. No problem, I always have some impromptu solutions.

So, I decided to make two little cakes instead of one big. I had two square-shaped cake cutters, and cut the cake with them (My mum and I finished the leftover cakes later).

Onto these two cakes, I put some easily-made-yet-looks-professional decoration. I melted some chocolate and transfered it to a small piping bag I made by rolling a parchment paper. Then I drew the decorations on a parchment paper. After chilling the decorated chocolate for 5 minutes, they were ready!

(Sorry about the bad flash photography, I took the cakes out to the restaurant we celebrated, and it was all dark.)

My artisan chocolate making attempts are continued! I really liked the Earl Grey taste in my previous hand-dipped chocolates, so I used tea again in these truffles. I also added orange zest to strengthen the orangey flavor. Unfortunately, I messed up the kitchen again, but I am happy now eating my truffles and drinking my holy Early Grey tea!

Truffles with Orange and Early Grey Tea

adapted from Making Artisan Chocolates

makes 20 truffles

Ingredients:

For ganache:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz.) 60-70% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 100 gr (3.5 oz.) heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea
• 1 orange’s zest

For dipping:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz) milk chocolate, melted
• cocoa powder

Directions:

In a saucepan, mix heavy cream and tea, and cook until it gets to medium-heat. Wait for 5 minutes to allow tea give its flavor.

Stir the mixture through a strainer into a bowl with chopped bittersweet chocolate and the orange zest, and mix until you get a smooth ganache.

Freeze the mixture for 30 minutes, or until hardened.

Using a spoon, take small pieces of ganache, and form 20 ganache-balls using your hands. Freeze for another 30 minutes.

By using a fork, dip each truffle in melted chocolate, then in cocoa and be sure all parts of the truffles are covered with cocoa. Place the truffles onto a parchment paper, and keep them in a cool place.

I spent my whole Friday trying to make some flavored white-chocolate ganache. I made chocolate macarons using David Lebovitz’s recipe, and used fig and orange flavored white ganache to assemble the macarons (I simply added 1 orange’s zest orange flavored one, and 2 mashed fresh figs for the fig flavored one).

And as usual, there was some leftover ganache, and I made these mini raspberry cakes to use it. I also flavored the ganache with ground cinnamon. I liked the results, the cakes were delish and they also look good, huh?

Heart-Shaped Raspberry Cakes with White Chocolate & Cinnamon Ganache

makes 2 cakes

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups raspberries (I used frozen)
• 4 teaspoons baking soda
• a pinch of salt

For the ganache:

• 80 gr. (2.8 oz.) white chocolate
• 40 ml. (1/5 cup) heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Mix together eggs, oil and sugar in a bowl. Add vanilla extract, flour, salt and baking soda and mix well.

Process the raspberries in a food processor, and add into the bowl.

Pour the mixture into a mid-size pan (Don’t worry at this stage that the mixture is not enough. It will rise). You can pour the mixture into heart-shaped molds (I cooked them first, and cut them in heart-shapes).

Bake for 40 minutes, or until it well cooked.

To make white-chocolate ganache, heat the cream until slightly hot. Remove the pot from heat. Add white chocolate, which are divided into small pieces. Make sure that the chocolate is totally melted, by stirring. After that, add the cinnamon. Mix well, and let cool in the refrigerator until hardened enough.

Assemble the two pieces of cake with ganache.