It's so hard to believe that two years ago this month, I finally started the My Kurated Life blog. For years I had dreamed and planned to have a space where I could be creative - to document and share some of the things I love most (aside from family, friends and Lola of course!): interior design, travel, cooking, florals and stunning outdoor areas. Three years ago I turned that dream into a vision board with an Instagram page - creating vignettes, styling and displaying my photography. While the @mykuratedlife Instagram page is still a large creative outlet, I felt that it was missing something. It was missing the connection to the larger narrative - my stories, my why.
So much of what I do and create on the blog is rooted in my travels, experiences, values and day-to-day learnings. Having a visual platform to kurate is fantastic, but attaching words and tales to those images is both exhilarating and therapeutic at the same time. So, every year, I have started to celebrate the "birth" of the space, My Kurated Life, that allows me to share my world with you.
This year's My Kurated Life birthday celebration centred around a very special Snowman Speculaas Spice Cake. This cake is special for two reasons.
It's in the shape of a snowman! For years I have had a snowman shaped cake pan from Williams Sonoma that I always seem to run out of time to use, until now. I vowed 2020 was going to be the year that the snowman was going to come to life and adorn our winter table.
Speculaas Spice. If you follow along here, you know I love to eat and that I usually have extensive lists of food and restaurants to visit when I travel. On one trip to NYC years ago, I had a food truck - Waffles and Dinges - listed. My mouth still waters when I say or type those words, as that was the very first time I had experienced the wonders of Speculaas Spread. Speculaas (or speculoos as it's sometimes written) is a biscuit or spice blend traditionally found in crispy cookies in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria around Christmas time. The spice mix has many of the same warming spices found in gingerbread with the addition of white pepper and cardamom. What's not to love about those festive and spiced flavours! I was lucky enough years later to then try actual speculaas cookies in Germany, Austria and Belgium - I had to taste the cookies everywhere we went for research and regional differences, of course!
So in combining my love of kitchen bakeware pans and flavours from my world-wide travels, I decided to develop a snowman-shaped cake with Speculaas Spice flavours. This is by no means a traditional European style Speculaas Cake. The recipe is more of a regular spice cake, ramped up with Christmas flavours!
I hope you love this festive Speculaas Snowman Cake. It's not only fun for a winter dessert centrepiece, it's also tasty!
So, as I celebrate two years of My Kurated Life, I would like to thank each of you for your support. Your comments, pictures and likes are all appreciated! I am so looking forward to what MKL's third year brings.
Stay tuned for more exciting additions to the blog, including more design and services coming in 2021!
Take care,
Krista xo
Snowman Speculaas Spice Cake
makes 1 snowman cake or 1, 2-layer 8" cake, serves 8-10
Ingredients
Speculaas Cake (adapted from here)
3 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting snowman mold or cake pan)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons speculaas spice (*see Recipe Note below)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk here, but any milk will do)
1/2 cup of plain full-fat greek yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup salted butter (2 sticks)
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
Vanilla Buttercream Icing
1/2 recipe of Vanilla Buttercream if making snowman, full recipe if using cake pans(my favourite recipe is here)
*I used almond milk in place of regular milk
1/4 cup powdered confection sugar (to dust)
red nonpareils (to decorate)
holly branch
Method
Speculaas Cake
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and move racks to lower half of the oven.
Using non-stick baking spray, spray the snowman-shaped cake molds generously. Then dust the inside of mold with flour so that all of the surfaces are covered. Do the same if using cake pans.
In a medium-sized bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, speculaas spice and cinnamon. Set bowl aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk milk, yogurt and vanilla, gently mixing until just combined.
In the bowl of a stand-mixer cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2-4 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, blending each egg in before adding the next.
Slowly add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the stand-mixer and incorporate, then 1/3 of the wet milk mixture. Repeat two more times allowing the ingredients to combine in between each addition of ingredients.
Divide cake batter evenly between the front and back side of the snowman cake pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Once baked, allow cake to cool completely 1-2 hours before flipping cakes onto a wire rack. Set cakes aside until ready to frost.
Make one recipe of Vanilla Buttercream Icing. I used half for the cake and half for other baking.
To Assemble
If using a Williams Sonoma or Nordic Ware Snowman Cake Mold see assembly instructions here .
Dust upright snowman cake with powder confection sugar and decorate with holly and red "berry" nonpareils.
If using 2, 8" cake pans. Begin by adding one cake to a serving dish. Add 3/4 cup of vanilla buttercream icing on top. Place second cake on top of icing layer. Use remaining frosting to cover both the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with holly & red nonpareils.
Keep cake chilled until ready to serve.
Recipe Notes:
*Pre-blended Speculaas Spice Mixes can be found at any spice merchant or specialty cooking shop. If you prefer to make your own, there are a number of recipes online.
*If you do not have a snowman cake pan, this cake is excellent baked in 2, 8" circular cake pans, then layered on top of each other with vanilla buttercream. Adjust baking time depending on size of cake pan used.
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