This cake is one of the five Girl Scout cookie cakes I am planning on making. I bought five boxes with the full intention of making a cake inspired by each flavor. I will also be using the cookies as part of the actual cake and decoration. For this Tagalong cake, I didn't want to just make the same chocolate peanut butter cake that I always make, but I wanted to highlight my favorite part of the cookie...the actual cookie! I made a buttery vanilla cake to mimic the buttery cookie in the Tagalong. I really like the way all the flavors mesh together and I think it goes perfectly with the actual cookie. By the way, I still and always call these cookies Tagalongs even though some are called Peanut Butter Patties. I was a Girl Scout when I was younger and that's what they were called. I remember loving being a Girl Scout and selling cookies. I loved doing things to earn my badges. The Girl Scouts taught me a lot and this was kind of a way to show my appreciation towards a great organization. This cake is the second of the five of my series of Girl Scout cookie cakes. I've been wanting to make a lemon cake for some time now but I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. I wasn't sure how many people actually like lemon cake. Boy was I hit with a huge surprise! I had so many people comment on how lemon was they're favorite flavor. I brought the extra slices to work and I was the most popular person at the office that day. Everyone loved it, it was gone before lunchtime! I am so in love with the way this cake came out. The flavors are exactly how I imagined it. The cake is light and fluffy with a slight lemon flavor. The lemon curd is tart and the cookies give the cake some texture. The cream cheese frosting and white chocolate ganache give the cake enough sweetness to balance out all the tart. Oh, and did I mention that I am so happy with the decor as well! It simple yet sophisticated and goes perfectly with my new Hearth & Hand cake stand Greg got me. Thin Mints are definitely a fan favorite. It has a light crunchy cookie that has a light minty flavor. For this cake I wanted to mimic the light minty flavor, so instead of adding artificial mint extract to the cake and/or the frosting, I added Thin Mint crumbs to the chocolate buttercream. The crumbs add a texture element to the cake while adding just enough mint flavoring. I was very happy with how this cake turned out. I wanted a simple design that highlighted the cookie and I feel like I did just that. This was by far my favorite cake of my Girl Scout Cookie Cake Series. The cake layers were made with actual graham cracker crumbs. The crumbs made the texture of the cake a little gritty, which doesn’t sound pleasant, but it was similar to the texture of the cracker itself. Although it was gritty, it was soft, fluffy, and delicious. As for the marshmallow, I made a homemade fluff and made sure to toast it a bit to bring out the “campfire” flavor. All the flavors combined perfectly and really highlighted the key points of a real s’more. I, like many, love Samoas/Caramel Delights. I especially love them straight out of the freezer. I knew I had to include these delicious little cookies in my Girl Scout Cookie cake series. Many cakes I looked at were made with chocolate cake but I wanted to mimic the cookie so I used my vanilla cake recipe. As for the filling, I made a toasted coconut and salted caramel Italian meringue buttercream which is beyond delicious! I found that toasting the coconut added another depth of flavor as well as another texture. I struggled most with the design of this cake. I had an idea in mind but, in my opinion, I did not execute it well. The top made a weird dome-like shape which I really did not like. I made a ring from the salted caramel and some toasted coconut. The ring became so hard it was inedible. My goal when decorating all these cakes was to highlight the cookie, make it obvious which cookie was being used. I think I achieved that but I know I would decorate it differently if I had to make it again. Just know, besides the décor, the cake tasted exactly as I imagined.
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AuthorA little taste of a homebaker's mind. Archives
July 2018
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