My Favorite Cake Recipe

This is my favorite cake recipe. It only requires four ingredients (plus flavoring of your choice) and it is perfect for layer cakes !

I’ve shared this cake recipe before, with this Easter cake, or this nectarine layer cake, and I thought it was time it had its own post.
You see, I’ve used this cake recipe for four years now. It’s my go-to whenever I have to make a layer cake for a birthday or another special occasion (see this other Easter cake).

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Easy Apple Crumble

This easy apple crumble requires only 4 ingredients. Plus, it's got fruit, so that means it's healthy, right ?!

Once upon a time, I hated cooked fruit. As long as the fruit in the dessert wasn't actually baked with the dessert, I was okay, but things like warm apple cake or apple tart ? Blegh.
Then one day I decided to get over my fear of warm fruit because there was an apple crumble in the oven and it made the house smell wonderful. I tried it, and ever since then, I can actually tolerate cooked fruits in desserts.

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Almond Sablés (Almond Shortbread Cookies)

These buttery sablés (French shortbread cookies) are made using ground almonds and a couple of drops of almond extract to take the almond flavor up a notch. Only four ingredients and no eggs required !

Lire la recette des sablés à l'amande en Français

I've had a bag of ground almonds in the cupboard for months now ; I received it in the Vahiné box I won last Spring (which also had the chocolate caramel chips I used for these brown butter cookies). I've been wondering what to bake with the powdered almonds ever since, and I finally got around to using them (and no, they thankfully weren't expired, ha !).

I made almond sablés ! Sablés are the French version of shortbread cookies : think roll-out sugar cookies, but more crumbly. These almond sablés only require four ingredients, and they're made without eggs ! These almond cookies are buttery and out-of-this-world delicious, believe me. I added just a couple of drops of almond extract to kick the almond flavor up a notch, but that's optional as the ground almonds already give that amazing almond taste to the sablés.

If you're making these almond shortbread cookies, here's an important piece of advice : don't overbake them ! For me, 10 minutes in a preheated oven were enough ; the almond sablés will definitely look like they aren't fully baked, but that's how you keep them soft for days. If you bake them until they look, well, baked, they'll just become rock-hard as they cool, and that's not what we want. We want soft crumbly almond cookies, not break-your-teeth-hard cookies.

Are you going to try them or do you still need convincing ? If you still need convincing, here goes : my little brother was the first one to taste them and he kept saying they were really good, so delicious, can I have more ? Haha ! Oh, and also : do you know how hard it is to look at the pictures I took of the almond sablés, craving one (or four) but knowing they're all gone ? It's torture. I just had lunch but I'm hungry now :(


Here's how to make these almond sablés (or shortbread) :

ALMOND SABLÉS
by A Cup Of Sprinkles
Adapted from La Mère Pierre

These buttery sablés (French shortbread cookies) are made using ground almonds and a couple of drops of almond extract to take the almond flavor up a notch. Only four ingredients and no eggs required !

Cook time : 10 minutes

Ingredients :
300g of flour
230g of butter, softened
100g of sugar
125g of ground almonds
Almond extract (optional)

Instructions :

Whisk together the flour and sugar. Cream the butter

Gradually mix the flour/sugar to the butter.

Add in the ground almonds and a couple of drops of almond extract and knead until everything is incorporated. The dough will look very crumbly but it will come together the more you mix it.

Cover the dough with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat the oven.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface using a rolling pin (about 5mm/¼ inch thick) and cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Place the cookies on a baking paper covered baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes (300°F/150°C). Don’t overbake (the cookies wouldn’t stay soft as they cool) ! The edges on the cookies should barely look golden. The cookies will harden as they cool.

Let me know in the comments if you make these ground almond cookies ! You can also share a picture on Instagram by tagging @acupofsprinkles and using the hashtag #acupofsprinkles !

See other cookie recipes.
See other egg free recipes.
See other 4 ingredients recipes.

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White Chocolate Truffles

White chocolate truffles are an easy no-bake treat that only requires four ingredients.

I really thought making truffles would be more difficult. It turns out truffles are simply ganache that you've let set overnight before rolling it in cocoa powder. That's it.
Making these white chocolate truffles requires no baking : you only have to melt the chocolate, butter and cream in a bain-marie, add in some icing sugar, and then wait for it to set. You'll then have to shape the truffles by rolling them between your palms, then coat them with cocoa powder or sprinkles.

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Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting

Learn how to make this fluffy mascarpone whipped cream frosting with only four ingredients !

This mascarpone whipped cream frosting is high on my favorite frostings list. Yes, I have a list of favorite frostings.

I have used this mascarpone whipped cream on cupcakes and cakes, and I love it. It's light and fluffy and delicious. It takes like whipped cream, but the addition of mascarpone makes it more stable, so the frosting holds itself a lot better than plain whipped cream. It's perfect for anything that involves fruit, and it'd be great with chocolate cake, too. And the best part about this mascarpone frosting ? The recipe doesn't involve softening butter or cooking egg whites in a bain-marie, and you'll only need four ingredients !

First, you want to stick your bowl, heavy cream and hand- or stand-mixer whisk attachments in the freezer for about 10 minutes, so everything is cold. Once the ten minutes have passed, take everything out of the freezer, add some icing sugar and vanilla extract to the heavy cream and start your mixer on low speed before switching to medium speed. You want the cream to be forming firm peaks : put the whisk attachments upside down, the whipped cream should form a peak that doesn't lose its shape. You can then add in the (room temperature !) mascarpone, and whip on medium speed until the frosting is firm. That's it ! Keep the mascarpone whipped cream in the fridge until you're ready to use it, either to frost a cake or to pipe on cupcakes.

The recipe below makes enough to fill and frost a 9 inch four layer cake.

MASCARPONE WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING
by A Cup of Sprinkles

How to make fluffy mascarpone whipped cream frosting with only four ingredients !

To fill and frost 2 9-inch cakes

Ingredients :
800mL of heavy whipping cream, cold
200g of icing sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
500g of mascarpone, room temperature

Instructions :

Put the hand- or stand-mixer attachements, bowl, and heavy cream in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes.

Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract to the heavy cream, then beat on low to medium spead until stiff peaks form.

Add in the mascarpone, and beat on medium to high speed until well incorporated.

Keep the frosting in the fridge until ready to use.

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Easter Cake (Vanilla Cake + 2 Ingredients Chocolate Frosting)

Easter Cake : Easy vanilla cake with two ingredients chocolate frosting

Lire la recette du gâteau de Pâques facile en Français

Today I thought I'd share the cake I made for Easter last year : a vanilla cake with a two ingredients chocolate frosting. Yes, you read that right, two ingredients chocolate frosting, that can even be made in the microwave !

I decorated the cake using pastel mini confetti sprinkles (similar here), gold pearl sprinkles (Mine were "Soft Gold Pearls" from Dr Oetker, but it looks like they've been replaced by Chocolate Gold Pearls), mini meringue candy (or "Petit Jésus" here in France, usually found in stores around Easter and Christmas. They're often shaped like, well, baby Jesus. See here ; do you have those where you live ?) and chick and eggs picks (I didn't find anything similar, as mine were originally decorating a plant and I just re-used them. I did include pastel bunny face picks in my Easter Party Moodboard.)

The cake is almost a génoise. A génoise only requires flour, sugar and eggs to make, but the ones I bake always end up tasting like eggs. One day I was looking for a baking powder free cake recipe and found this one. I tried it even though the ingredients are almost the same as a génoise, hoped it wouldn't taste like an omelet, and it didn't ! This recipe is now the one I use for every birthday cake I bake. It's the perfect base for any kind of frosting, the cake is light and soft, you can add any flavoring you want, or none at all and it still tastes great !

As for the frosting... well, it's the most simple frosting ever. No need to cook egg whites or soften butter. Just two ingredients, a microwave (or bain-marie if you're feeling fancy), a handmixer, and voilà ! Frosting !

EASTER CAKE
by A Cup of Sprinkles
Adapted from CuisineAZ

Easy baking powder free vanilla cake and two-ingredients chocolate frosting

Cook time : 55 minutes
Yield : 2 23cm/9 inch cakes
Keywords : Easter, easy cake, easy frosting

FOR THE BAKING POWDER FREE CAKE :
Ingredients :
5 eggs
220g of sugar
150g of flour
100mL of milk
1 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)

Instructions :

Preheat the oven.

Separate the egg whites for the yolks. Beat the egg whites until firm, set aside.

Beat the yolks with the sugar, until the mixture has whitened in color.

Mix in the flour, then add in the milk and vanilla extract.

Gently fold in the egg whites.

Transfer the batter to the cake pans, and bake for 50 minutes to an hour (180°C/350°F), until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

FOR THE 2 INGREDIENTS CHOCOLATE FROSTING :
Ingredients :
250g of unsalted butter
250g of dark chocolate

Instructions:

Cut up the butter and break the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave for 1 minute, whisk, and microwave again for 30 seconds. Repeat until the butter and chocolate are completely melted and whisk to combine.

Set aside and let cool completely.

Once the frosting has cooled, beat on medium speed using a hand or stand mixer. The frosting will lighten in color and fluff up.

Keep in the fridge until ready to use (Beating again on low speed if the frosting isn't soft enough to spread.)

ASSEMBLY :

Put the first cake layer on the cake board or serving plate.

Spread a little frosting on top of the cake and put the second cake on top of the frosting.

Spread a thin coat of frosting all around the cake, and allow to set in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Once the crumb coat has set, spread the remaining frosting all around the cake.

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