Number cake

The world has gone crazy for number cakes. And it’s easy to see why – they’re a refreshing change from traditional sponge and meringue cakes, and make a wonderful gift for an anniversary, birthday, Valentine’s Day or practically any occasion. They can be baked in the shape of numbers, letters, hearts… Usually, they consist of two layers of shortcrust pastry (mine has ground almonds added) sandwiched with a light vanilla cream made from double cream and mascarpone, although I’ve also come across three-layer cakes with all sorts of creams and decorations. The only limit is your imagination :). The cake is time-consuming if, like me, you make all the decorations yourself, but it isn’t difficult. The whole process comes down to making and baking the shortcrust pastry properly and preparing a simple cream. Does it taste good? Absolutely! And just look at it ;).

First, prepare the numbers, letters etc. that you’ll use to cut out the shortcrust pastry. I used numbers printed on A4 paper (25 cm high), then cut them out and mounted them onto pieces of card to make them sturdier.

Ingredients for the almond shortcrust pastry (4 layers):

• 400 g plain flour
• 100 g ground almonds
• 100 g icing sugar
• 250 g butter, cold
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt

Sift the flour, add the almonds and butter cut into cubes, and quickly chop together with a knife until the mixture resembles crumble topping. Add the egg, sugar, salt and vanilla extract and quickly knead together (you can also mix the ingredients in a food processor). Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for about 60 minutes.

After this time, divide the dough into 4 portions. Roll out the first portion to a thickness of approximately 4 mm, lightly dusting with flour. Carefully wrap it around the rolling pin and transfer it to a flat baking tray lined with baking paper. Use a sharp knife to cut out the printed number (cut it out directly on the baking tray, as the numbers are large and transferring them to the tray could be difficult). Prepare the remaining shortcrust layers in the same way (each number needs to be cut out twice). Place them in the fridge again, this time already on the baking tray, and chill for 60 minutes. Just before baking, prick the pastry in several places with a fork, as it tends to puff up.

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Place the tray with the pastry in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 180°C. Bake for approximately 13–16 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Bake the remaining pastry layers in the same way. Leave to cool.

Note: You will have some shortcrust pastry left over from this recipe. You can use it to bake shortbread biscuits or an additional cake layer if needed. Alternatively, wrap it in cling film and freeze.

Ingredients for the vanilla cream:

• 900 ml double cream, chilled
• 500 g mascarpone, chilled
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• seeds from 1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla powder

Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until you have a thick cream.

Transfer the cream to a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle approximately 1.5 cm wide and pipe the cream onto the shortcrust pastry. Carefully cover with another shortcrust layer and pipe the cream over it again. Decorate as desired.

Note: the shortcrust layers should be assembled with the cream on the morning of the day you plan to serve the cake.

For decoration, optional:

• macarons
• meringues
• flowers (protect the end of the stem that goes into the cream with cling film)
• fresh raspberries, strawberries
• strawberry powder made from freeze-dried strawberries

Arrange the decorations on the cake just before serving; this is especially important for the meringues and macarons, as the cream will soften them.

Keep the number cake in the fridge. It is easiest to slice after a few hours (3–4), once the pastry has softened slightly from the cream. Do not assemble it the day before, as the shortcrust pastry will become too soft from the cream.

Enjoy!