Tri-color cookie (Easter) cake

Tri-color cookies, or Italian rainbow cookies, have to be one of our top five favorite sweets.  My family and I are seriously crazy about them!  No Christmas is complete without at least one, or more likely 2 or 3 batches of it.  We're talking three layers of almond sponge cake joined together by apricot preserve, encased in dark chocolate.  It's a heavenly combination.  We're such fans I've turned them into mini cupcake bites and now, we can have it in cake form, too!

Tri-color cookies, then cupcakes bites, and now cake too!

Given our love of those cookies, you can imagine my interest when I spied this recipe for "Italian Rainbow Cookie Cake" on Joanne's Eats Well With Others blog.  The post I happened to be looking at was for another lovely cake but it was the rainbow cookie cake that popped up at the end of the post, in the 'related recipes' section, that caught my eye.  I knew I had to make it!

I couldn't possibly wait until Christmastime to try it out.  I know I don't really need a reason to make any cake but thinking of the colors (I was actually aiming for pastel hues but the colors baked up deeper than I expected), I thought I'd pretend to be seasonal and call it an Easter cake.  I added some white chocolate shavings and nestled a few Cadbury mini eggs on top.  To me, once something has a few Cadbury mini eggs on it, it just screams: "Easter!"  They're the first thing I buy when Easter treats start appearing at the stores.  So I hope you'll play along and indulge me on this loose Easter theme.

I made this recently as a little surprise for my fellas (my husband and the little one).  I knew they'd love it and after tasting it, we were all thrilled.  It is literally tri-color/rainbow cookie in cake form!  As you'd expect, it's fluffier and thicker than the cookie (which is really not a cookie...but that's another discussion) and more importantly, the flavor is very much the same.  I've been partial to making smaller 6-inch cakes lately and this one is another example (though my family would've welcomed a 9-inch with this one).  This could very well be the first 3-layer cake I've ever made and, miraculously, I actually had three 6-inch round cake pans so I was able to bake the layers all at once!

Texture and flavor wise, this cake is as it should be - a moist sponge cake that has a lot of body and almond flavor thanks to almond paste.  I use apricot preserve (heated then strained so it's smooth), rather than a combination of apricot preserve and raspberry jam because my family and I are partial to it here. I tried to pack as much of the preserve in the cake as possible since we love the flavor it adds. That got me thinking about possibly baking the batter into two layers next time but splitting the 2 layers into 4 so that we'd have another layer of preserve!  I can call it a quad-layer rainbow cake, maybe?  That might be over-complicating things but I want to make it happen...

I like to use strained apricot preserves - and lots of it - between the layers of this almond cake

This cake is encased in one of my favorite things: chocolate ganache. But because of a higher chocolate to cream ratio, the chocolate ganache is somewhat firmer (so you get more of a shell) than typical ganache frosting you'd use for a cake.  That's just spot on here because it replicates that hard shell/snap I know and love from a good tri-color cookie.

You can probably tell I've discovered a new favorite cake!

What I learned (and other commentary)...

I noticed and learned a few things making this cake and thought I'd share them here (this is totally self-serving because, nowadays, if I don't write things down, I may very well not remember myself down the road):

- The colors of the cake batter will deepen after baking.  I know we'd all prefer to shy away from food coloring but with this cake, I just can't get away from it.  It's tri-color or rainbow cookies/cake, after all.  I do leave the yellow layer as is, no food coloring necessary.  For the other layers, I was aiming for soft pastel hues to go with my "Easter" theme but the cakes baked up a bit darker than I expected.  It's something to bear in mind depending on what you're going for.

Color of cake batters before baking

Instead of liquid food coloring like I typically use for the cookies, I used a few drops of gel paste coloring instead.  I used "deep pink rose" and "sky blue".  Notice the blue, mixed with the natural yellow of the base cake batter, turns the cake green.  I thought about going "crazy" and trying for lavender but, in the end, stuck with the known elements.  

The cakes after baking - the colors have deepened

- Grating the almond paste helps it disperse into the batter.  This was an unusual step in the recipe but I realized you need to grate the almond paste because it's added close to the end of the mixing and this way, it will distribute more evenly within the cake batter and reduce lumps.  I recommend grating it in the smallest opening of your box grater so you almost have almond paste flakes.  I also found the almond paste easier to grate when chilled.  Just let it sit a spell after grating to come back to room temp.

Should you want/need to skip this step, I recommend beating the almond paste in the stand mixer at the very beginning of this recipe, along with the butter and sugar, so that it has a chance to spread and mix into the batter.  This is how the recipe for the cookies starts and it works very well.

- Level the tops of the cake layers for more than one reason.  My cakes had a bit of a dome and I leveled them off by slicing them with a serrated knife.  Not only did doing this make for a better-looking, more even, cake, I noticed that it also opened the cake up for the apricot preserve to soak in better!  I started trimming the cakes a bit more when I noticed this.

Trim the cakes to even out the layers and allow the preserve to soak in better

Speaking of the apricot preserve, I first heat it so that it's easier to strain out the lumps. My family and I also like a lot of preserves so I try to pack in as much as I can.  The cake layers tend to absorb it pretty well.

We prefer using just apricot preserves but you can alternate with seedless raspberry jam

And to tell you the truth, I even snuck a thin layer of preserve on the top, third, cake layer before applying the ganache over it!  

The original recipe actually calls for a layer each of raspberry jam and apricot preserve, and I have had tri-color cookies with raspberry jam and a combo of both.  My family and I prefer the apricot so I stuck with just the apricot.

The chocolate coating is a bit firm yet soft enough to slice

- I really like the chocolate coating.  Okay, I know this is not news.  I love chocolate and chocolate ganache is my frosting of choice so it's no surprise I enjoy it here on this cake.  What I really appreciate is the higher chocolate to heavy cream ratio that makes for a firmer chocolate "shell" on the cake, replicating the cookies, while still being soft enough to cut through easily.  I scaled down the amount of ganache for this recipe since I find I always have too much but you can certainly make and use more if you want a thicker chocolate coating.  

I store the cake in the refrigerator and bring it to room temperature before serving.  The great thing is you don't need to refrigerate the cake layers overnight (just a couple of hours to let it set) like you do with the cookies.  And that got me thinking about whether you really need to wait so long with the cookies...but I'll go off and ponder that on my own since I've been wordy enough for today...  

Thanks for stopping by - have a great Easter holiday!

If you'd like to check out the classic cookies or my mini cupcake bites, here are the links again:

• Tri-color cookies
• Tri-color cookie cupcake bites (my attempt to enjoy the same flavors but shorten the amount of time it takes to prepare)

Recipe:

Italian Tri-color (Rainbow) Cookie Cake
Adapted from Always Order Dessert via Eats Well With Others (see notes)

- Makes one three-layer, 6-inch round cake - 

For cake layers:
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces almond paste (I prefer the canned variety, particularly the Love 'n Bake brand), grated with a box grater
1/2 tablespoon pure almond extract
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Food coloring (red and green or any other colors you prefer)
1/3 cup apricot preserve, heated then strained 

For chocolate ganache coating:
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
2.5 ounces heavy cream

Make cake layers:
Grease (or use baking spray) three 6-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with a round of parchment paper, lightly greasing the paper.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with an oven rack in the center of the oven.

In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.  Add eggs and continue to beat for another 3 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.  Add the grated almond paste, almond extract, and milk. Beat until incorporated.  The mixture might look curdled at this point but will smooth out once dry ingredients are mixed in.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.  Then, slowly add it into the almond paste batter and mix until combined.  

Divide the cake batter into 3 bowls.  Use food coloring and dye one bowl red, one bowl green (or alternatively, any other colors you want and to the shade you desire), and leave the remaining yellow.

Scrape each of the batters into the cake pans, smoothing out the top of each.  Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, approximately 20-22 minutes.  Remove cakes from the oven and let cool in the pans, on a cooling rack, for 5 minutes.  Then, turn the cakes out and remove the parchment paper.  Let cool completely on cooling rack.  

Make ganache coating:To prepare the ganache, place chocolate and espresso powder (if using) in a heatproof bowl.  Warm heavy cream until it just starts to bubble along the edges.  Pour cream over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute before stirring together until smooth.  (If the chocolate is not completely melted, pop it in the microwave and heat for 5 seconds at half-power, stirring well after.)  Let cool to room temperature. 

Assemble cake:
Use a serrated knife to trim off the domes on the cake layers (this will even out the layers as well as allow the preserve to better seep into the cake).  

Line the bottom of a serving plate or cake stand with pieces of parchment or wax paper for easy clean up.  Set the red layer in the middle of the plate, flat side down (trim side up).  Slather on a layer of apricot preserve reaching nearly to the edge of the cake.  Top with the yellow layer (trim side up) and spread with more apricot preserve.  Top with the final green layer, again trim side up.  If you have leftover apricot preserve, you can even spread a very thin layer over the final green layer.

To frost, spoon the ganache over the cake and spread gently using an offset spatula.  Start at the top and spread it around the sides of the cake until completely covered.  Let cake sit at room temperature, in a cool spot, or in the refrigerator, for 1-2 hours to set.  I store the cake in the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before serving.

You can decorate the top of the cake with chocolate shavings, sprinkles, candies, piped ganache, or anything you like.  I used white chocolate shavings and Cadbury mini eggs for an Easter theme.

Notes:

- I made a few tweaks to the original recipe.  Mine is half the original, making a 6-inch, instead of 9-inch, cake.  I use all apricot preserve, which I heat to strain out the lumps.  You can substitute (or alternate) with seedless raspberry jam instead if you prefer.  I also added salt to the cake batter and scaled down the amount of ganache (to avoid waste, mainly).

- I recommend grating the almond paste on the smallest opening of a box grater.  I found it easier to grate when chilled; just let it sit at room temperature a bit afterwards.  Grating the almond paste is important so that it breaks up the paste and allows it to incorporate more evenly in the batter without big lumps.  If you want to avoid this step, I suggest beating the almond paste with the butter and sugar at the very beginning of this recipe so that the almond paste has a chance to break down.  

- Trimming the cake layers make for a more even cake and also opens up the cake to allow the preserve to soak in.  If you like plenty of preserve (like we do), you could use up to 1/2 cup (before heating and straining) and even spread a thin layer over the final green cake layer.  Just don't add too much so that the chocolate ganache can be spread over it easily.

- I used gel paste food coloring here.  The amount will depend on the type of food coloring you use and the color/intensity you want.  I used 4 drops of "deep pink rose" and 2 drops of "sky blue" in this case.  The color deepens slightly after baking.  And using the small amount of blue makes for green since the base cake batter is yellow.