Turn your leftover Xmas cookies into this amazing cake!
Around Christmas I tend to have way too many cookies lying around my kitchen, so I thought it would be great to make use of them! So I’m revamping a true Luxembourgish classic: the ‘Petit Beurre Kuch’ (also often called ‘Kaalen Hond’). I’m replacing the Petit Beurre cookies with festive spekulatius and dipping the cookies in egg nog, for a true Christmas touch! Totally decadent and really yum!
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300g spekulatius cookies + extra for decorating
150ml egg nog
For the buttercream:
240g butter, at room temperature
250g sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a good pinch of salt
Makes 1 cake for 6-8 people
Put the butter into a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat for 5 minutes until really light and pale. With the mixer still running, slowly pour in the condensed milk a little at a time, beating until smooth and uniform before adding more. Mix in the vanilla essence and a pinch of salt in the end.
Line a 20x10cm tin with cling film. Pour the egg nog in a deep plate.
Dip six spekulatius cookies into the egg nog, and line the bottom of the tin. Top with a second layer of egg-nog-dipped cookies. Cover with a layer of buttercream, then repeat with cookies until the tin is full (you will get 3 layers), leaving the last layer bare. Keep approximately 180g buttercream for decorating the cake later.
Refrigerate the cake and the remaining buttercream for a minimum of 4 hours.
Take the remaining buttercream out of the fridge 1 hour before using it.
Take the cake out of its tin, unwrap and place onto a chopping board.
Beat the buttercream to make it soft, then spread all over the cake.
Decorate the cake with a few pieces of speculatius biscuits, then transfer onto a serving plate.
Refrigerate the cake for at least another hour before serving (best is overnight).
TIP: The cake is best when left to rest for a night so the spekulatius becomes really soft.
