The Best Basic Butter Cake and The Dessert Game

The Dessert Game: Simple tricks, skill-builders and show-stoppers to up your game, written by Reynold Poernomo, features an incredible collection of stunning desserts and fun projects for the home baker. A few highlights include Matcha & Yuzu Ganache Tart, Spiced Apple Pavlovas, Tropical Panna Cotta Jar, Chocolate Choux, and A Slice of Irish Cream. I will also be sharing his recipe for The Best Basic Butter Cake following the review.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Murdoch Books in exchange for my honest review. All comments and opinions are my own. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.

Reynold Poernomo

Reynold Poernomo is the co-founder of KOI Dessert Bar and Monkey’s Corner in Australia and he was a contestant on Season 7 and Season 12 of Masterchef Australia.

He also created the Youtube series, Sweet x Salty, and has been a guest speaker for TEDx, Finalist Best Pastry Chef (Gault & Millau 2017) and Forbes Asia 30 Under 30. This is his first cookbook.

KOI Dessert Bar was actually on our itinerary for our Sydney 2020 trip (which didn’t happen), so I was very excited to get the opportunity to try some of the desserts at home. Hopefully, I will finally make it to the restaurant someday.

The Dessert Game

Reynold begins The Dessert Game with a short introduction. He shares his first experiences with food and how working with ingredients transformed from simply a hobby and into a passion.

I absolutely love the notes scattered throughout the book breaking down the ingredients and their flavor profiles to really learn how they interact together in the completed dessert. Reynold even shows which chocolates (white, milk, or dark) pair best with other items.

With this foundation, you can take your desserts to a new level and have fun experimenting. He ends the book with notes on specialty ingredients and kitchen tools.

The Dessert Game is divided into three sections: Level 1: Taking it Easy, Level 2: Kickin’ It Up a Notch, and Level 3: For the Serious Cooks. The contents include a list of included recipes with corresponding page number for easy reference.

Photography is provided by Jeremy Simons. Every single recipe is paired with at least a full page photo of the finished dessert. Many also have step-by-step photos to demonstrate specific techniques.

As this book was published in Australia, the tablespoon measurement is for 20 milliliters or 4 teaspoons. Measurements are listed in grams and ounces. Each recipe includes a headnote with background information, personal stories, yield, and tips.

The Best Basic Butter Cake

While I do enjoy pushing myself with the more difficult and intricate desserts within the pages of the book, I also loved the how easily the recipe for The Best Basic Butter Cake came together. It is also perfect for customizing!

The butter cake base comes together with a combination of butter, caster sugar, self-raising flour, eggs, milk, lemon, honey, and olive oil. After dividing into individual springform tins, the batter is baked until golden, about 40 minutes. While still warm, each cake is brushed with additional honey.

These butter cakes are best served warm alongside a cup of tea.

I kept half the butter cakes plain and added thinly sliced apples to the other half. Reynold also recommends a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the batter, sliced figs, or even crushed frozen raspberries.

If you want to add fruit to the top, slice it thinly and choose fruit that is not too heavy or it will sink to the bottom.

Self-rising flour is not readily available here, but you can make your own with a combination of all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Simply combine 2 cups (250 grams- all of this won’t be needed in the recipe) with 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Other Desserts

I also made the Burnt Honey Basque Cheesecake, Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Lava S’mores, and Tiramisu Jar.

This was my first time baking Basque cheesecake! I have seen them (especially recently) across social media and finding the recipe for the Burnt Honey Basque Cheesecake was the push I needed to try. I really loved the flavor of burnt honey in a recipe I made for Burnt Honey Ice Cream years ago and it works so well in this cheesecake too.

The Chocolate Mousse is another simple recipe from the first section. Reynold breaks down the instructions well to create a light, yet decadent texture to the mousse. He recommends pairing it with honeycomb (there is a recipe, but I used some leftover dalgona before our move to clean out the pantry) and a homemade lemon jam.

I have made Lava Cake before, but this Chocolate Lava S’mores was such a fun way to take the dessert to the next level. A dark chocolate lava cake base is topped with a toasted meringue and edible flowers for quite the striking presentation.

The Tiramisu Jar was my personal favorite and one of the favorites at KOI Dessert Bar. Individual jars are layered with a soaked coffee sponge, tiramisu mousse, hazelnut or Nutella sponge, and finally coffee jelly. All the flavors were incredible together.

The Dessert Game is a great pick for those wanting to try more intricate and stunning desserts. The book is divided into three sections based on skill level. I haven’t attempted any of the level 3 recipes yet, but I am very excited to try once we settle into our new house and kitchen.

Many of the ingredients and specialty tools may require further searching. A few more difficult to locate items include muscovado sugar, hazelnuts, dark cocoa powder, liquid glucose, matcha, yuzu juice, elderflower syrup, star anise, orange blossom water, dried rose petals, dark palm sugar, lemongrass, and almond meal.

The Best Basic Butter Cake Recipe

Excerpt from The Dessert Game

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5 from 5 votes

The Best Basic Butter Cake

A recipe for The Best Basic Butter Cake from the cookbook, The Dessert Game. These butter cakes are baked until golden and brushed with honey.

Course Dessert

Cuisine N/A

Keyword cake, dessert, honey

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

0 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Servings 5 Servings

Ingredients

• 250 grams (9 ounces) unsalted butter softened
• 210 grams (7 1/2 ounces) caster (superfine) sugar
• 200 grams (7 ounces) self-raising flour
• 2 pinches of fine salt
• 3 eggs
• 185 milliliters (6 fluid ounces) full-cream milk
• Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
• 20 grams (3/4 ounces) honey plus 50 grams (1 1/3 ounce) for brushing
• 20 milliliters (3/4 fluid ounces) extra virgin olive oil
• Fruit of your choice (see Notes)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line five 10 centimeter (4 inch) spring-form cake tins with baking paper.
• Put the butter and sugar in an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium–high speed until fluffy, about 5–8 minutes.
• Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt together.
• Once the butter mixture is fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time, and whisk until combined.
• Add the milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, honey and olive oil and whisk until completely incorporated. Add the sifted flour and slowly whisk until a batter is formed.
• Spoon 190 grams (6 3/4 ounces) of the batter into each cake tin. Arrange thin slices or pieces of fruit on top.
• Bake the cakes for 35–40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each one comes out clean.
• Warm the honey in the microwave for 10–20 seconds to loosen it.
• Drizzle each hot cake with some of the honey and use a pastry brush to brush it over the top of the cake.
• Allow the cakes to cool a little before removing them from the tins and brushing them with more honey.

Notes

NOTES: Try using thinly sliced or chopped apples, oranges, figs or berries on top of the cakes. Ensure the fruit isn’t too bulky or it will sink into the batter.

You can also cook the batter in one large cake tin. Increase the cooking time by about 15–30 minutes, depending on the size of the tin.