Ruan Mei Caramel Coffee Biscoff Ice-Cream Cake

My elder boy gave me this brief for his birthday bake this year:

Ruan Mei from Honkai: Star Rail (just because she's an expert in biological sciences), microscope, bee, DNA, leaves, caramel, coffee, ice-cream cake

I could drop any detail if I wished. This was what I came up with!

Composition:

- Coffee patterned and painted chiffon sponge

- Caramel coffee homemade no-churn ice-cream 

- Crunchy Biscoff spread

I took the liberty of including the crunchy Biscoff to give a light crunch in the texture as well as including something complementary in flavour to caramel and coffee.

Here's a peek at a slice!

I had enough ingredients to make a simple non-patterned version too!

The detailed recipe and video of the process can be found in the reel here:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRehyHOkuDf/?igsh=MXV3M2NjcmQ0OG1tYw==

I will share the ingredient list for your convenience in this post.

Caramel Coffee Biscoff Ice-Cream Cake

(makes about two 4" ice-cream cakes)

Coffee Chiffon Sponge (10x12" tray):

30g oil

45g concentrated coffee/coffee milk*

1/2 tsp vanilla extracr

54g cake flour, sifted

1/8 tsp salt

3 large eggs (about 65g with shell), separated

1/4 tsp cream of tartar/lemon juice

45g caster sugar

* You may brew concentrated coffee/espresso for this or do what I did, dissolve 2g instant coffee granules in 43g hot milk. I used Mount Hagen instant coffee as it tastes great.

Caramel Coffee Ice-Cream (no-churn):

100g caster/granulated sugar

10g light corn syrup

20g water 

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

120g milk

1/8 tsp kosher or 1/16 tsp fine salt

180g whipping cream of choice*

30g strong coffee/espresso**, chilled 

3-5g gelatin***

* I used 60g non-dairy mixed with 120g heavy cream.

** I dissolved 3g instant coffee in 27g hot water before chilling it.

*** You may omit if you wish, especially if you have an ice-cream maker to churn. Adding gelatin without the ice-cream maker helps to prevent the ice-cream from becoming icy and rock hard when frozen, as well as prevents the ice-cream from melting into a puddle quickly in tropical Singapore.

I know many no-churn ice-cream recipes make use of condensed milk as an essential ingredient. Personally I don't like to use it as the condensed milk flavour and sweetness comes through too strongly for me. I prefer the taste of old-fashioned custard based formulations where the intended ice-cream flavours take the center stage.

Here are some photos of the process...

Patterned coffee chiffon sponge before adding in the details 

Painted chiffon sponge. I cut this smaller to fit the 4" cake ring after painting

The birthday boy loved the cake, both for it's looks and taste!

with lots of love,

Phay Shing