Letter Cake Cookie Cake

How gorgeous is this latest cake trend - "cookie cakes"?

It's one of those ideas that's so simple, yet so beautiful that you think - Why didn't I think of that?!

But I didn't! So I'll just follow the trend instead...

I made this one for my niece's birthday. It's not strictly a "cookie cake" because it's layers of cake - vanilla pound cake - not cookie. 

Same same, but different... 😉

One of the things I love about it is that you can make most of the elements in advance. Just add the fresh bits on the day of assembly. Winner!

 As an aside: I always prefer to work with cold cake; it's not as fragile and there's less crumb to deal with.
(Another reason to make the cake in advance!)
Once baked, let the cake cool down, then wrap it in a double layer of cling-wrap and freeze.

Cake doesn't take long to defrost, but I don't wait for that, anyway - preferring to slice it when it's semi-thawed.

If you are worried about the cake drying out, use a simple syrup to keep the sponge moist. Or select high-fat recipes, that freeze well.

For this particular cake, I was tried out a new pound cake recipe - this one from mycakeschool.com 

But you could use this delicious cream cheese pound cake recipe, or this hot milk vanilla sponge.

Use a plain round-tip icing nozzle, e.g. an Ateco 806, to pipe on your buttercream ...
try get your lines straighter than mine!

Place another layer of cake on top, and repeat piping rounds.
Decorate with meringue kisses, macarons, chocolates, berries, edible flowers, etc.

The possibilities are endless, and I can't wait to try another version ... a boy-themed one perhaps?

Happy baking!

xxM