Juliet Sear’s New Year’s Eve countdown cake
Juliet Sear is making sure your countdown to 2024 is even sweeter. She’ll be showing you how to bake up a New Year’s Eve showstopper, and serve up your own countdown cake!
New Year’s Eve countdown cake
Makes one 8” cake and 12 cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cake batter: 350g plain chocolate chips (70% cocoa) 400g light muscovado sugar or light brown sugar 350g salted butter 6 medium eggs and 4 egg yolks 200g sour cream, at room temperature 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract 300g self-raising flour40g cocoa powder 1 tsp baking powder
For the frosting and decoration: 500g unsalted butter, softened 1kg icing sugar, sifted 125ml Irish Cream liqueur, e.g., Baileys, at room temperature 100g brown sugarpasteChocolate sticks, e.g., MikadoGold lustre dust Gold sprinkles and stars An extra 1.25kg of brown sugarpaste for icing the board
Equipment: 2 x 8” round tins, greased, sides and base lined 12 golden cupcake cases (plus 3 or 4 extra for any additional cupcakes) Cupcake tin Number cutters Small rolling pin Large 14-16” cake drum or serving platter to assemble the clock on Large piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle (with approx. 1 cm hole) Cake sparklersGold ribbon (approx. 10mm x 2 metres)
Method
To ice the board:
1. To ice the board, roll out the sugarpaste using a little icing sugar to about 5mm thickness, so it is just larger than your desired board.
2. Make the board a little sticky by dusting with icing sugar and dampening with water with a pastry brush.
3. Lay the rolled out sugarpaste over the board and flatten with a cake smoother or palette knife. Trim off any excess icing with a small sharp knife.
4. Set the board aside to dry.
To make the clock numbers and hands:
1. Roll out 100g of sugarpaste to approximately 3 mm thickness, and then cut out the numbers for the clock. Set these aside to dry.
2. Cut a little of the sugarpaste into arrow shapes to add to the ends of the chocolate pretzel sticks to make clock hands.
3. Once the numbers are dried, brush them with gold lustre dust in preparation for decorating the cake.
To make the cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 180℃. Place the chocolate, sugar and butter in a heatproof bowl. Put this in the microwave at medium heat for 1-minute intervals, stirring at each interval, until melted together. (Alternatively, you can melt the ingredients in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.) Allow the mixture to cool slightly.
2. Whisk the eggs and yolks sour cream and vanilla together in one bowl, and in another mix the flour cocoa powder and baking powder to combine.
3. Add the egg mixture to the melted chocolate mix and stir well, then fold in the flour and the cocoa.
4. Add approximately 450g of batter to each round tin and level off. Measure approximately 65g of batter into each large cupcake case. Bake in the oven for 15-16 minutes for the cupcakes, with the cake taking a bit longer (approximately 20-25 minutes) until they have a fudgy and moist consistency.
5. Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack. Remove the baking paper and let them cool completely.
To make the buttercream frosting:
1. Beat the butter and icing sugar until they become pale and creamy. Beat in 75ml of the Irish Cream on slow until just combined.
2. Remove 400g of the frosting for the filling and crumb coating of the cake, and add another 50ml of the Irish Cream to this. Stir to combine. Keep the remaining buttercream aside for piping onto the cupcakes.
To assemble the countdown cake:
1. Smooth approximately 300g of the filling frosting onto the first sponge layer. Top with the second cake layer, smooth side upwards.
2. Coat the cake with some of the assigned frosting to create a thin crumb layer. Set in the fridge or freezer to firm up. Add a second, neater coat of frosting once the cake has set.
3. Fill a piping bag with the buttercream for the cupcakes, and pipe neat swirls onto their tops.
4. Set the cakes out onto the board or platter. Arrange the cupcakes around the larger cakes in a clock formation and top them with the golden numbers. At the centre of the cake, place the gold-dusted chocolate sticks as clock hands.
5. Finish with some golden sprinkles and stars for extra flourish, and serve with cake sparklers to count down to the New Year in style!