Speculoos Cake aka Biscoff Cake

My friend Mary asked for a Spice Cake. I asked if I could get fussy and make it a Speculoos cake. She said absolutely!

Speculoos Cake Aka Biscoff Cake

This starts with Stella Park’s Speculoos Cookie recipe. Make 2 or 3 batches of cookies because these are hard not to eat sitting freshly baked. A double recipe really is enough if you don’t snack on them. I cut them 1 inch by 2 inches with a straight cutter. Toast the sugar as she describes, the day before and buy the Shirakiku powder, as she explains. Or buy Lotus Biscoff Cookies and Biscoff Cookie Butter.

I still print out recipes. Particularly if they have many ingredients. These are mostly spices.

I also make her Speculoos Cookie Butter for use in the frosting and make a skinny smear on the cake layers. And with some of the remaining toasted sugar I make simple syrup (1:1) sugar and water, to use when assembling the cake.

Cake Ingredients:

225g egg whites, room temp

93g milk, (for egg mixture), room temp

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

540g cake flour

450g white granulated sugar, caramelized sugar

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

171g unsalted butter, softened

102g oil

252g milk, any fat (for mixing into dry), room temp

150g speculoos cookies, chopped into large chunks

Cake Instructions:

Place an oven rack in the middle and preheat to 350°F (180°C).

Spray the insides of three 8" cake pans and line the bottoms with a circle of parchment paper. Spray the circles too.

In a bowl, with a fork, whisk together egg whites, milk make sure to add the one labeled "for egg mixture", vanilla extract. Set that aside.

Add cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds.

Add your softened butter and oil to those dry ingredients and mix on medium-low speed to combine for about 30 seconds.

Add the milk labeled: "for mixing into dry" NOT THE EGG/MILK MIX and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. You'll have a thick batter at this point. Scrape the bowl down.

Pour the egg white-milk-extract mixture into the thick batter in 3 additions. Mix on medium-low speed for about 20 seconds after each addition, then scrape the bowl.

Add speculoos cookie chunks to batter, stir to combine.

Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared pans. I weigh the pans to assure there is an equal amount in each. Level with a spatula.

Bake for about 35 mins or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs attached. (Start around 30 mins.)

Move the pans to a cooling rack and allow the cake to cool in the pans completely.

Three cake layers fresh out of the oven.

Adriana of Sugarologie is a scientist and baker and she is one of my favorite people creating the most useful content. She needs to be awarded.

Sugarologie’s French Buttercream is the foundational recipe which uses up the yolks, plus 3 additional eggs. Also, this makes an ample amount of frosting.

Frosting Ingredients:

250g egg yolks or a combo of mostly yolks and whole egg to get to 250g

625g toasted sugar

105g water

850g unsalted butter, softened slightly

25g vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

175g cookie butter spread (reserve 100g of cookie butter spread for layering in the cake)

Frosting Instructions:

Prepare the double boiler. Add some water to a pot that fits your stand mixer bowl while not allowing the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Simmer the water.

Prepare egg mixture. To the bowl of your stand mixer add the egg yolks/whole, sugar, and water. Whisk and scrape with spatula. Place atop the double boiler and ensure that the steam is getting to the bottom of the bowl properly.

Cook eggs. Continuously stir and scrape the egg mixture with the spatula to evenly distribute the heat. Use a thermometer to make sure you reach 165°F/74°C. Remove from the double boiler.

Whip up the egg mixture. Place the bowl on a stand mixer fitted with a whisk. Whisk on high speed for 10 minutes. The mixture will thicken some but still be loose. Whisk until it is cool.

Add in the softened butter, one tablespoon chunk at a time. The frosting will lose volume at first and then start to come together and look and feel a little like firm, freshly whipped cream, leaving tracks in the frosting.

Add cookie butter spread, salt and vanilla. Switch over to the paddle attachment.

To frost the cake:

Give the first layer a soak with the Toasted Sugar Simple Syrup.

Spread on 50g of Speculoos Butter.