Kumquat Blueberry Orange Cake and an Elephant for Lyanne - Kumquat #1

Lyanne turned 3 last Dec 31st. Phew! She's 3. Time flies. She's not as chatty as Lydia, special in her own way. Handy in the kitchen, loves podding beans, peeling chestnuts and make cookies! And once she comes in to help, she stays until the end. Sweet girl. She just started Kindergarden, in a 4 year old class, but she's just 3 years and 5 days old. I worried..but I think she's doing fine. She loves school.

She loves elephants. So, I made her an elephant cake. I was hoping it'll be something like Elly of Pocoyo. It wasn't very much like Elly, but haha, a cousin of mine said it's Elly the moment she saw it. So, I think.... I think... I think I am successful .. I think.

I didn't want to use any artificial colouring this time, and so to tint the buttercream pink, I used blueberry extract with lemon juice. The colour was well ok. :)
And since it's kumquat season, I want to take full advantage of it and make something with kumquat. My girls love orange cakes and so... this cake's combination came about. Was this cake good? Hmm.... Let's just say, very very very well recieved.

Kumquat, Orange and Blueberry Cake

Recipe source: Wendyywy

Orange sponge

Yolk batter
7 egg yolks
35gm sugar
70gm vegetable oil
70gm orange juice
1 Tbsp orange zest
140gm cake flour
½ tsp baking powder

Meringue
7 egg whites
70gm sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven at 160(fan)/180C. Prepare an 10 inch pan. Line the base only.
2. Prepare yolk batter. Combine all the wet ingredients + sugar + lemon zest. Sift cake flour + baking powder together and combine with everything until a smooth batter forms.
3. Prepare meringue. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks and beat in sugar gradually until stiff peaks form (hooked peak).
4. Prepare final batter. Fold ¼ of meringue into yolk batter until well combined. Repeat with another ¼. Pour the yolk batter into remaining meringue and fold until well combined (Fold not stir and it should look very foamy). Pour batter into prepared pan.
5. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and let the cake totally cool before removing cake from pan. (If it’s a springform pan, you can skip lining the base and then invert the pan to cool for better volume)
6. Slice cake into 3 slices and fill with kumquat cream cheese filling (recipe below). Cover and chill for 2 hours minimum.
7. Cut cake to preferred shape (in my case, elephant). Dollop some cream onto cake board (where you want to lay the cake pieces) and arrange the cake pieces onto it.
8. Chill the cake for another 30 minutes before frosting the whole cake (just to make sure the filling is properly set after being cut and revealed) with blueberry buttercream (recipe below)

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Kumquat Cream Cheese Filling

10 kumquats
½ cup water or more
25gm sugar or more (depending on the kumquat’ s taste)
125gm cream cheese, room temperature
60gm butter, slightly softened

Do this step in advance. Half kumquats and remove seeds. Slice them thinly and place in a saucepan together with sugar and water (amount should cover the sliced kumquats nicely, if not, add more). Bring to a boil and lower heat to simmer until kumquats are soft. Blitz the kumquats together with the syrup until a coarse puree forms. Let it cool down. It should be at the consistency of ketchup. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge, it will further thicken.

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in cold kumquat puree. Taste it. If not sweet enough, add some caster sugar and beat a while. Use this to fill cake.

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Blueberry Buttercream

100gm blueberries
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1.5 Portion of buttercream

Prepare the blueberry compote. Cook blueberries with water and sugar until they bleed. Lightly mash it with a fork. Let it cool down to warm and press the blueberries through a sieve to remove the skin. Mix the sieved compote with lemon juice, it will turn reddish. Discard the skins in the sieve.

Prepare blueberry buttercream. Prepare buttercream and at the end of the beating put in blueberry compote by the tablespoon, beating well after each addition before adding in the next spoon. Chill the cream for half an hour before use (it’s easier to frost with firm buttercream) Use this to frost cake.

I had leftover blueberry buttercream, so I made another cake (in simple form) after the Elephant.

We all loved it.

I forgot to insert this picture earlier on.. this is how I assembled the elephant