Little rose cake

In my bakingdom..., it doesn't need to be a "special day" to have a cake that looks special.

So..., last weekend, although it wasn't any occasions I made this little rose cake... because... I could...

I baked a little layered pink cake, filled with raspberry jam, coated with butter cream and icing, and topped with some sugar roses. Tying out my own roses were a good practice for my sugar work and also much more fun than using ready-made sugar flowers. It remains of me of those times when I was a kid and played with clay;)

After spending hours in the kitchen, making the cake look pretty, I actually started to feel like it was a birthday or wedding or something... and that gave me a buzz of excitement for no reasons!

Hummm, the cake was yummy, especially the butter cream was so good...! I think I indeed turned a normal day into a little bit special with this cake.... ;D

Torta de hojas

"Cake of leaves"...., Torta de hojas is a Chilean treat that has a stack of cookie-like layers and a rich caramel filling between the layers.

I've always interested in making this cake, but I've sort of avoided trying it until now, knowing it's a very time-consuming recipe. However, today I finally made my mind up and went in the kitchen to start a long prep session. Fun fun fun...:D

First of all, because my oven isn't big enough to fit all the layers at once, I had to run 4 sessions to bake all 8 layers..., which took me... about an hour.
Then, while I was baking the layers, I made the caramel filling, dulce de leche. Since I've made it before, I was thinking... "it shouldn't be too hard, but it just takes time...". Ok..., I was wrong. It was pretty tough to watch out the caramel and the stuff in the oven at the same time, but I was doing well....yes..., until the dulce de leche made a little explosion... Luckily, it wasn't major and there were only few drops of caramel on the hob... phew...
All in all, I finished the prep in 3 hours or so, which was what I consider as a success!
The only part left was to stack the layers! Yes, this is the bit I've waited for! The authentic torta de hojas uses brandy between the layers, but I avoided it this time as I didn't want the cake to be alcoholic. I also mixed whipped cream in the filling so that it's more spreadable and lighter to eat;)

Here we go... it's looking pretty, no?

To see the recipe, visit The World of Sweets Recipes, Chile.