Fortune Teller Cake

Instructions

FORTUNE TELLER BOOTH

Prepare the gingerbread cookie dough.

1. In a saucepan add the honey along with the two types of sugar. Place over medium low heat and, stirring occasionally, allow the ingredients to melt and integrate completely. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. In the bowl of the KitchenAid add the butter and using the paddle attachment, beat on speed 1. Add the molasses you prepared in a continuous thread. Mix on speed 1 until smooth.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, waiting to add the second one when the first one is integrated.
4. Add the spices along with the salt and mix again.
5. Finally, add the flour little by little while mixing the cookie dough. You will obtain a homogeneous dough.
6. Dump the dough on a clean work surface and knead a little with your hands.
7. Flatten slightly, wrap with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 2-3 hours.

Roll out the gingerbread cookie dough.

1. Stretch the dough between two sheets of Teflon giving a thickness of 6 mm with the help of an adjustable rolling pin. It is possible that not all the dough will fit on the tray, I advise you to divide into two parts and roll out separately.
2. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until the next day.

Cut out the cookies.

1. With the help of cutters or a template that you make yourself, cut out the pieces to make the booth.
2. Once you have cut them all, carefully lift them off the Teflon sheet to remove them. If you square the cutters properly, it will not be necessary to move the pieces. If you have to do it, I advise you to keep them cold to prevent them from losing their shape.
3. Below I detail the amount of dough to cut for each part and thickness.
4. Refrigerate while you preheat the oven.

QUANTITY OF DOUGH TO BE CUT

• For the wall of the booth, 1 piece (thickness 6 mm)
• For the sides of the house, 2 pieces (thickness 6 mm)
• For the base or floor, 1 piece (thickness 6 mm)
• For the sign (thickness 6 mm)

Bake.

1. Preheat the oven to 165ºC, heat up and down.
2. Bake directly from the refrigerator. Place the tray halfway up in the oven and bake for 16-18 minutes, making sure they do not brown too much.
3. Remove and let cool completely on a wire rack.
4. Once you have baked all the cookies, let stand at room temperature for 14-16 hours in a cool, dry place, if possible.

Prepare modeling chocolate.

1. Add the chocolate in a waterproof bowl and melt in a double boiler.
2. Remove from heat and add the warm corn syrup or corn syrup. Mix until completely homogenized.
3. You will obtain a dense and slightly oily paste. That's right.
4. Store the dough in a freezer bag or cling film. Stretch slightly, remove the air and reserve at room temperature until it becomes firm. It will take about 8 hours.
5. NOTE: To preserve it we can keep it refrigerated if it is very hot or in a cupboard, cool and dry. Always wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put it in a zip bag to prevent it from drying out.

Prepare royal icing.

1. Sift the royal icing mix.
2. Add with the water and mix lightly with a spatula. In this way you will avoid making a cloud of powder in the kitchen. With this first quantity you will obtain the royal icing base.
3. Mix the mixture with the water in the KitchenAid (using the paddle on speed 1) for about 7-8 minutes. You will obtain a white and homogeneous glaze.
4. To decorate the cookies, depending on how you want to decorate them, you should add a little more water.

Paint the wall of the booth.

1. Take some of the royal icing and tint with black paste coloring.
2. With the help of a pastry spatula, spread the icing on the cookie to cover it all over. Do not worry if it is not perfectly smooth, it will simulate a painted wall. Let it dry completely.
3. Once dry, using a stencil, place on the cookie and spread a layer of icing. Use the spatula to give uniformity. Carefully remove the stencil and let dry completely.
4. Finally, paint with metallic gold paint the reliefs you created with the stencil. Let dry.
5. NOTE: I also created a base of these dimensions to place the stand on the cake. I brushed the entire surface with lightly lightened and dyed black icing.

Paint the side walls with windows.

1. The rectangles that have come out of the windows can be used to create decorations. In my case I reused one to create the table where I placed the crystal ball.
2. Paint the two cookies that will be the walls with windows with black icing. Let dry completely.
3. Place two sheets of gelatin to simulate the windows, glue them to the cookie with a little royal icing. Let dry for 1 hour.

Assemble the booth.

1. Once the cookies have dried, proceed to put them together. Place the painted wall leaning on the work table, spread a good amount of black royal icing on the sides and place the two walls with windows. I recommend placing glasses or other objects on the sides to support them while they dry.
2. Let dry for 12 hours.

Paint the sign.

1. Paint the cookie that will be the sign with royal icing dyed black. If you wish, you can create a beveled edge in my case. Let dry completely.
2. With the help of metallic gold paint, paint the text “Fortune Teller” and, if you wish, you can add a drawing like the one I show you. Also paint the outer edge with gold paint. Let it dry completely.
3. Use a silicone mold with baroque or renaissance decorations, small size. Use modeling chocolate to create these pieces.
4. Place on the cookie with icing and let dry completely for 12 hours. Paint the reliefs with gold coloring powder.
5. Finally, you can add some gold sprinkles as decoration.

Place the sign on the stand once it has dried.

1. Reuse one of the cookie rectangles to place on the top of the stand to support the sign. File the top and bottom to give as straight a finish as possible.
2. Paint the surface with black icing and let dry completely.
3. Once dry, place between the two windowed walls with a good amount of black icing at both ends.
4. Place a support under the cookie so that it dries and stays in place. Leave to dry for 12 hours.
5. Once the stand has dried, place the “Fortune Teller” sign in the center of the rectangle with a good amount of black royal icing, leave to dry for at least 12 hours.

Prepare the table for the booth.

1. Reuse one of the window rectangles to make the table. You will have to cut a small part of it to fit the inside of the booth.
2. Cover the entire surface of the table and sides with black royal icing. Place a piece of rice paper on the surface of the table, of the same dimensions as the table, and carefully press it together.
3. Brush the surface with a little water and purple food coloring to give it color and a fabric-like finish.
4. Create a bottom ruffle with rice paper on the front of the table. Place the rice paper and brush with purple water. Shape to simulate reliefs.
5. If desired, add a sprinkle for decoration. Let dry completely.
6. When dry, spray the surface with edible glitter (in my case it was silver).
7. Cut two cookie squares and place as table legs, attach with black royal icing. Let dry completely.

Decorate the outside of the house with modeling chocolate.

1. To make the chocolate decorations, I used silicone molds. Below I will show you the ones I used, but you can vary them and use the ones you have at home or the ones you want to buy.
2. If it is very cold, the chocolate will become firm. Take a portion and massage it between your hands to provide warmth, then it will be very easy to stretch, shape and mold.
3. Create all the decorations on the outside of the house, let your imagination run wild. In my case, in addition to creating the columns, I then added details from parts of the silicone molds to create decorative ornaments.
4. I glued all the chocolate decorations with black royal icing.
5. Let dry for 12 hours.
6. The next day, paint the modelable chocolate. In my case I wanted to give it an oxidized bronze finish.
7. Subtly paint a base with “Ivy Green” powder coloring. Over this, paint delicately on the reliefs part, especially with golden colorant.

Place the stand on the cookie base.

1. To be able to move it more easily, I placed the stand and the table on a base made with cookie and painted in black. I advise you to attach the stand to the cookie with black royal icing to prevent it from moving or falling.

Prepare the edible fabric.

1. Hydrate the gelatin, you can use powdered or in sheets (in this case I recommend chopping it), in 40 g of water. Let it stand for 20 minutes.
2. Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie or in small batches in the microwave, being very careful not to burn it.
3. Heat the hydrated gelatin for a few seconds in the microwave until it acquires a fluid consistency. Do not overheat the gelatin or you risk damaging its gelling ability.
4. Pour the gelatin over the melted chocolate and mix until homogenized.
5. Add the food-grade glycerin and mix again to promote perfect integration. This ingredient is responsible for making the fabric elastic.
6. Pour the mixture on a silicone mat or silpat and spread with the help of a spatula. Try to create a “fabric” that is not too thick or too thin, the latter will break easily. You should work fairly quickly because the gelatin will soon begin to solidify.
7. Let it cool at room temperature until it solidifies, it will take about 30-60 minutes, depending on the outside temperature.
8. With the help of a soft brush (I advise you to use a new blusher brush) paint the whole surface with metallic powder colorant. In my case I used a ruby shade, but you can use any shade you prefer.
9. Carefully remove the fabric from the mat, flip it over and paint the other side.
10. When you go to decorate the booth, you can cut it to fit the curtains to your liking.
11. NOTE: In case when you are stretching the mixture it has cooled quickly and does not allow you to work with it well, let it cool a little more and remove it from the mat. Put it back in the microwave and heat until it reaches a fluid consistency. Gelatin is thermo-reversible, allowing us to reheat it as many times as necessary in case the result is not as expected.

BASE, THE CAKE

Prepare the sponge cake.

1. In the bowl of the KitchenAid, add the egg yolks with the water and 70 g of sugar. Beat with the whisk at medium high speed until a whitish color and a creamy texture, you will notice that it gains some volume.
2. Begin to incorporate the flour, little by little. Integrate while mixing on speed 1. Add the baking powder along with the salt, mix.
3. Once everything is integrated, set aside.

Whip the meringue.

1. In another bowl, add the egg whites and begin to whip. Once it starts to foam, add the sugar (the remaining 70 g).
2. Whip with the whisk at medium-high speed until a semi-whipped meringue is formed. At this point, add the cornstarch in two batches.
3. Add half of the cornstarch and beat until incorporated. Add the remaining starch and whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.

Integrate the meringue into the egg yolk mixture.

1. Begin to incorporate the meringue, little by little, into the egg yolk mixture.
2. Add a small amount, mix with a spatula until fully integrated and continue adding more. The first part of meringue will help smooth the mixture. As you add more, the mixture will become smoother and lighter.
3. Add the last batch of meringue and mix with the whisk using gentle, encircling motions to integrate it.

Pour into the mold and bake.

1. Preheat the oven to 356ºF/180ºC, heat up and down.
2. Grease and line a 20 cm square baking pan with baking paper.
3. Pour the mixture into the pan and tap gently to settle the mixture. Bake for 25 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven, let stand for 5 minutes in the pan and unmold.
5. Place on a wire rack, upside down to make the dome as smooth as possible, and let cool almost completely.
6. Wrap the sponge cake in plastic wrap when warm and let it cool completely. Refrigerate until the next day.
7. NOTE: Wrapping the sponge cake in film, warm to cold, helps the cake to remain very juicy and tender. Refrigerating the cake makes the cutting process much easier.

Prepare the toffee buttercream.

1. In a saucepan, add the whipping cream and glucose. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil, remove from heat.
2. In another saucepan, add half of the sugar and place over medium-low heat, let it melt. At this time, add the other half of sugar and stir by turning or moving the saucepan, never with a spoon or utensil, until caramelized. It should acquire a nice golden color, be careful not to burn the caramel.
3. Add the reserved cream, cook over medium heat and mix constantly with a whisk. At first some of the caramel will stick to the whisk, do not worry, keep stirring constantly. It will gradually dissolve and integrate into the mixture.
4. Stir until the mixture reaches 223-225ºF/106-107ºC. Be patient, it will take a while, about 20 minutes.
5. Pour the caramel into a bowl and let it cool completely. You can do this a day in advance if you prefer.
6. Just before proceeding to assemble the cake, finish this filling. Add the caramel together with the butter at room temperature in the bowl of the mixer and beat with the whisk on medium-high speed until whipped. You will obtain a cream with volume, silky and uniform.
7. Pour into a piping bag with a 1 cm smooth nozzle. Set aside at room temperature.
8. NOTE: I advise you to carry out the last step of whipping the cream just when you are about to fill the cake.

Prepare milk chocolate ganache.

• To be able to work with it you need it to be completely cooled, but not taken directly from the cold. It should have a texture similar to Nutella®. For that reason, I like to make it first thing in the morning and let it cool throughout the morning. In about 5-6 hours it will have the perfect texture to decorate the cake. In my case it was very cold, I got lost and it solidified much more than expected.

1. Finely chop the milk chocolate, set aside.
2. In a saucepan add the cream and cook over medium heat until it reaches temperature, but without boiling.
3. Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, mix with the help of a whisk until completely homogenized.
4. Pour into a bowl and let cool to room temperature. As it cools and does not release too much heat, cover the surface with film leaving a small opening so that it does not condense.

Make the filling, whipped chocolate ganache.

Before we get ready to whip the cream, we must make sure of two things:

• The cream must be at least 24 hours in the fridge.
• The bowl where we put the cream must be cold. I recommend you use an aluminium one and put it in the freezer 20 minutes before preparing to whip the cream.

1. Pour the cream (310 g) into the cold bowl and start to whip it with an electric mixer at speed 1.
2. Once it starts to whip, add the sugar little by little and without stopping beating. We will increase the speed gradually but without ever reaching the maximum. The ideal is an average speed.
3. Be careful not to over whip it or we'll make butter...
4. Cover the bowl with film and refrigerate it until we use it.
5. On the other hand, in a saucepan add 115 g of heavy cream and place it at medium heat. Cook until it reaches a gentle boil.
6. Remove from heat, add the chocolate in pieces and mix until it is evenly mixed.
7. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and leave to stand for 20 minutes to lose heat.
8. Add a little whipped cream and mix, making smooth and enveloping movements, with the help of a silicone spatula.
9. Continue adding whipped cream, little by little, and integrating following the same process.
10. Transfer to a smaller bowl, cover with film and refrigerate until use.

Prepare syrup.

1. Add the water and sugar to a saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil. The sugar should be completely dissolved.
2. Once it comes to a boil, reduce to medium-low heat, cook for 5 minutes and turn off the heat.

Cut the cake.

1. With the help of a lyre cut the cake into 3 equal parts. I advise you to start at the bottom (the base of the cake is straight unlike the top which is domed).
2. Keep wrapped in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.

Assemble the cake.

1. Place a non-slip pad on the rotating cake base to secure the cake disk.
2. Place the disk and a small amount of filling cream on it, this will help you to fix the cake.
3. Place one of the sponge cakes and press down lightly. Be sure to place on the base the cake that has the bottom of the base baked. Brush with the syrup.
4. Pipe the whipped chocolate ganache alternately with the toffee buttercream.
5. Place another sponge cake and press down lightly. Brush the surface with syrup.
6. Pipe another layer of the whipped chocolate ganache alternating with the toffee buttercream. This time, I decided to alternate the order.
7. Place the last layer of sponge cake, press gently and brush with the syrup.

Cover the outside of the cake with the excess whipped chocolate ganache.

1. Spread the chocolate filling with a spatula over the entire surface of the cake and remove the excess with a pastry scraper or spatula. This layer will help you to “pick up” any crumbs from the cake that might come to the surface when you decorate it.
2. Refrigerate for 30 minutes for the outside to harden.

Cover the outside with the milk chocolate ganache.

1. Spread the ganache over the entire surface. Start at the top and continue on the sides, if desired. Smooth, removing excess, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Spread another layer of ganache. Smooth the entire surface and refrigerate until you are ready to decorate it. Ideally, you should have a thin layer of ganache.
3. NOTE: In my case it hardened more than it should have because of the cold and it was quite an odyssey to carry out this part.

Decorate the outside of the cake.

1. Cover the sides with rice paper, place it before refrigerating the cake to solidify the ganache. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Prepare some water with red food coloring paste, paint all the paper on the sides to achieve a red shade. Let dry at room temperature for 15 minutes and refrigerate until the next day.

Making the ornamental details.

1. With the help of silicone molds, create the decorations that will go on the edges and corners of the cake. In my video you will see a suggested presentation, but you can do it any way you like.
2. To place the modelable chocolate decorations, use melted and tempered chocolate. If the cake is cold, they will adhere without any problem. If not, you will have to use a cooling spray.
3. Paint the decorations with the same colors as the cake stand to simulate a rusty bronze.

Place the bhoot on the cake.

1. Carefully place the curtains inside the booth. In my case I have used flower wires to hold them, shape them and adjust them to the inside.
2. Place the stand on top of the cake. If you wish, you can place a decoration made with silicone molds and modeling chocolate on the base of the cookie base. This will prevent the cookie cutout from showing through.
3. Paint with cocoa powder this edge and a little on the surface of the cake.
   If you feel like it, you can place a glass ball, I used a marble and the base was made with modeling chocolate brushed with cocoa powder.
4. Enjoy it very much.
   

Notes

• The honey and dark muscovado sugar can be replaced by molasses if you wish.
• This dough is firmer after baking than other gingerbread cookies, the reason is that we need it to be so that the house remains in good condition over the days.
• It is important to let the cookies dry very well on a wire rack before painting or decorating with the icing.
• When making royal icing, do not over beat. The ideal is 7-8 minutes maximum at low speed or 1 always. The reason is that we will incorporate too much air and, when the glaze dries, many air bubbles will appear giving a porous and fragile texture. In fact, when you touch the glaze, it will crumble like sand.
• When you give different consistencies to the icing, you must add the water little by little. In my case I always do it with a bottle to avoid adding more unintentionally. Mix very well with the help of a spoon to integrate the water and then check the consistency by taking a quantity and dropping it.
• All the surplus icing that you have left, either royal icing or colored icing, keep it in an airtight container covered with cling film. When we need it again, since it will have separated and there will be water, mix it inside the container itself with a spoon until it is homogeneous again and proceed to work with it.
• The royal icing can be kept at room temperature for 15 days or up to 1 month refrigerated. As long as it is made with a royal icing preparation. In case of making them with egg whites, their shelf life is much shorter.
• I have used a square mold of 20 cm of side.
• The baking time of the sponge cake will vary depending on the size of the mold you use.
• Refrigerate the cake overnight, it helps when cutting it with the lyre because it will not crumble or will do it in smaller proportion. Or when assembling it.
• To make the plastic chocolate you can use corn syrup or glucose.
• Respect the resting time of the moldable or plastic chocolate to be able to work with it. If it is too cold, you can heat it with your hands or with a slight heat in the microwave (1 or 2 seconds).
• Remember to cover all the scraps of chocolate paste that come out. When they are in contact with the air for a long time, they start to dry out.
• The moldable/plastic chocolate can be stretched between two Teflon sheets to work better with it. In case you need to do so.
• To paint the chocolate I used metallic powder coloring and cocoa powder, but you can use other types of coloring.
• It is important to be patient in the modeling process. The use of silicone molds, in this case, will help us a lot to achieve good results.
• I advise you to make the edible fabric the same day you are going to serve the cake. As the days go by, it loses moisture and, therefore, flexibility.
• All decorations can be adjusted to your needs.
• To keep the cake you should keep it refrigerated for 3-4 days. The cookie decoration should be kept out of the refrigerator.
• Ideally, before consuming it, it should be tempered for a while, depending on the outside temperature.
  

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