I baked the Minecraft Cake in Real Life!

Over the last couple of weeks, I had the urge to bake a cake. After browsing through a few recipes, I finally settled on one: The Minecraft Cake! Of course, following the exact Minecraft recipe isn’t very practical, as it calls for three buckets of milk and wheat (and I have no idea how to turn wheat into flour!)

This project turned out to be more challenging than I had anticipated. I didn’t even have a square pan! I spent 2 weeks searching for one in my town, but none were available. In the end, I ordered one online and it arrived! Now, it’s time to get cooking!

The Cake Base

For my cake, I opted for a classic vanilla sponge version.

I used 8 eggs, which is quite a lot! I was aiming for a really large cake with extra fluffy layers, but in the end, it didn’t expand as much as I hoped. If you want a smaller cake, you can easily cut the recipe in half and use 4 eggs instead.

Ingredients

The ingredients I used for the cake are the following:

• 8 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
• 240 grams of powdered sugar
• 240 grams of all-purpose flour
• 1 / 2 teaspoon of salt
• 10 grams of baking powder
• 30 grams of oil
• 30 grams of butter
• 80 grams of milk
• A splash of vanilla essence

Preheat your oven!

Before you start mixing, preheat your oven to 180 °C (356 °F). If your oven runs “hotter”, you may want to bake at 150 °C (302 °F) instead to prevent overbaking.

The Liquid Ingredients

To achieve maximum “airiness” for my sponge cake, I separated the eggs yolks and whipped the egg whites with a teaspoon of vinegar. The vinegar helps stabilize the egg whites, making them extra foamy and fluffy. Then, I gradually added the powdered sugar while continuing to whip until I reached stiff peaks. Be careful not to overmix!

Once the whites were ready, I gently folded in the yolks by hand with a whisk to maintain as much volume as possible.

In a separate bowl, I combined 30 grams of oil, 30 grams of butter, 80 grams of milk and a splash of vanilla essence until everything was well mixed. The butter should be melted before mixing. You can microwave it for about 10-15 seconds until it’s liquid but not too hot. For now I put this mixture aside.

The Dry Ingredients

Mixing the dry ingredients is straightforward. I simply sifted the flour and baking powder together to eliminate any lumps and added a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor.

Combing the Ingredients

Next, I gently poured the sifted dry ingredients into the egg mixture and used a hand whisk to fold them until just combined. After that, I added the oil, butter, milk and vanilla essence, whisking until a homogenous batter.

Do not to overmix! Be careful!

The goal is a light, fluffy and airy cake. Overmixing can release too much gluten from the flour, which may result in a desner, chewier texture - the opposite of what a sponge cake should be!

Baking

Now it’s time for baking! I lined the bottom of my cake pan with a baking sheet to make it easier to remove the cake later, then carefully poured in the batter. Bake for about 35 minutes at 180 °C (356 °F), or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If your oven runs hotter, you may need to reduce the temperature to 150°C (302°F) for better results.

The Frosting

For the frosting, I went with a mix of butter, mascarpone, and cream cheese for a rich, creamy texture. Here’s what I used:

Ingredients

• 220 grams of butter (softened, but not liquid!)
• 150 grams of powdered sugar
• 160 grams of cream cheese
• 160 grams of mascarpone
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)
• A splash of milk (only if needed, to adjust consistence)

I started by beating the softened butter with a hand mixer until it was smooth and fluffy. Then, I slowly added the powdered sugar, mixing well to avoid any lumps.

Next, I added the cream cheese and mascarpone, blending everything together until it was silky smooth. If the frosting felt too thick, I had a splash of milk on standby to adjust the texture.

At this point, the frosting was ready to go! Feel free to tweak it depending on your taste - just don’t make it too runny, or it’ll be hard to spread on the cake.

Assembling the Cake

Now comes the fun part - putting everything together!

1. Layering the cake & applying the frosting
   • If your cake batter turned out to be too much for one pan, you might have baked it in two batches. In that case, just spread a thin layer of frosting between the layers before stacking them.
   • If you baked a single thick cake, you can cut it into two layers.
   • Once you have your layers ready, place the bottom one on your serving plate and spread a layer of frosting on top before adding the second layer.
2. Applying the frosting
   • Scoop some frosting onto the top and sides of the cake using a spoon.
   • Use an offset spatula (or just a knife) to gently spread and smooth the frosting.
   • It might not be perfectly smooth, but that’s totally fine!

The Red Squares

For the little red squares on top of the cake, I originally planned to make them using fresh raspberries, sugar, and gelatin. But since it’s not raspberry season apparently, I ended up using some homemade raspberry jam my mom made last year instead. Honestly, I think it worked out pretty well!

Ingredients

• Raspberry Jam (home made or store-bought, preferably without seeds)
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice
• 1-2 tbsp of Gelatin Powder
• 3 tbsp of warm water (to disolve the gelatin)

How I made Them

1. I scooped some of the raspberry jam into a bowl and mixed it with some lemon juice.
2. In a separate small bowl, I sprinkled the gelatin with some warm water and let it sit for about 5 minutes to bloom.
3. Then, I microwaved the gelatin mixture for about 10 seconds, just enough to fully disolve it.
4. After that, I stirred the gelatin into the jam mixture until it was well combined.
5. I poured it into a small, flat container (you can use a parchment-lined pan too) and spread it out evenly.
6. I put it into the fridge for about an hour, until it was firm.
7. Once set and firm, I grabbed a sharp knife and cut out the little squares, trying to match the look of the Minecraft cake.
8. Finally, I carefully placed them on top of the frosted cake.

I slightly messed up one of the red squares in the middle, but that’s okay.

Pro tip: if the squares feel too soft while cutting, try putting them in the freezer for about 10 minutes and try again.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading my blog post! I hope you enjoyed following along with my baking experiment. If you decide to make the Minecraft cake for yourself - good luck! I think it turned out pretty nicely. I had a blast making it for family and some friends and seeing their reactions made it all worthwhile.

Stay safe and keep baking!

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