Bento cakes have become a delightful addition to the culinary world, especially for those following a keto diet. This article explores the unique world of bento cakes, their connection to the keto diet, and answers some common questions about these delicious treats.
Understanding Bento Cakes
What Are Bento Cakes?
Bento cakes, also known as character cakes or kyaraben, are decorated cakes made to look like characters, animals, objects or scenes.
Why are they called Bento Cakes?
The name comes from the Japanese word "bento", which refers to a single-portion packed meal.
Bento cakes are commonly made from rice cereal treats, cake, and fondant. Rice cereal treats are used as a base for structure and stability when shaping and sculpting details. Cake, usually vanilla or chocolate, is added to the rice cereal base. Fondant is used to cover the cake and sculpt intricate decorations and details.
Various decorations can be added to bento cakes using fondant, icing, cereal, sweets, cookies and more. Miniature accessories like small toys, fruits, or everyday objects are also commonly used. The cakes are sculpted and decorated to resemble anything imaginable, like animals, fantasy creatures, vehicles, food, plants, and more.
Bento Cake Themes
Popular themes for bento cakes include characters from cartoons, movies, video games, anime, and seasonal themes. Attention is paid to capturing the character's features and expressions. Bento cake themes focus on what would appeal to children, but cakes for adults are becoming popular too.
What Makes Bento Cakes Special?
The creative possibilities are endless with bento cakes. Their whimsical and imaginative designs make them popular for birthdays, holidays, and special occasions. The personalised, handmade nature and interactive decorations give them a unique appeal. They allow bakers to combine sculpting, painting, and modelling skills.
How Does a Bento Cake Differ from a Regular Cake?
Construction and Structure of a Bento Cake
- Bento cakes are usually sculpted around a base of rice cereal treats which provides internal support and stability for modelling shapes and figures. Regular cakes are made with layers of cake and filling.
- The rice cereal base allows the cake to bend and shape more efficiently than regular cakes' soft crumbs. This enables the creation of 3D sculptures.
- Dowels, skewers and toothpicks are used in the rice cereal base as armatures to attach decorations and accessories. Regular cakes rarely require internal structures.
Decorations and Design of a Bento Cake
- Bento cakes are elaborately decorated externally to bring characters and themes to life. Regular cakes may have simple piping or minimal decorations.
- Fondant is smoothly applied over the entire surface of a bento cake to cover imperfections and attach decorations. Regular cakes are iced but need to be fully covered in fondant.
- Bento cakes utilise decorations like fondant cut-outs, 3D modelling, cotton, sweets, cookies and toys to embellish the design. Regular cakes stick to standard decorations like fruit, flowers or piping.
- The themes and designs for bento cakes are more playful, creative and elaborate. Regular cakes have more superficial, classic ornamentation.
Purpose and End Use of Bento Cakes
- Bento cakes are usually for special occasions and tailored to younger audiences. Regular cakes can be for everyday enjoyment.
- More time, planning and skill go into designing and sculpting a bento cake. Regular cakes follow basic recipes.
- Portions of a bento cake may be entirely decorative and not intended for eating. Regular cakes are made to be eaten.
How to make Bento Cakes
The half-sheet pan method
The half-sheet pan method involves baking a large cake to cut out custom shapes with cookie cutters. This allows versatility in tailoring bento cake bases to fit decorative takeaway boxes. Creative bakers can also use leftover cake scraps for making cake pops, trifles and more.
Silicone Cake Moulds
For evenly shaped bento cake layers every time, use silicone cake moulds. Pour batter into the moulds to bake bite-sized cakes in cute shapes like hearts, stars, circles or squares without any waste.
You can produce magical miniature cakes with these easy DIY bento cake baking tips. Turn your next baking project into an adventure by crafting an edible art masterpiece with adorable sculpted cake characters your loved ones will enjoy.
Can I eat bento cakes on keto?
Bento cakes can be enjoyed on a keto diet by substituting high-carb ingredients with low-carb, keto-approved options.
- For the cake layers, use almond flour or coconut flour cake recipe sweetened with keto-friendly sugar substitutes like erythritol or stevia. Keto cake recipes often use eggs and cream cheese to ensure a moist texture. Baking with almond or coconut flour keeps the carb count low.
- In place of rice cereal treats, the cake base can be sculpted from cookie crumbles made from keto-friendly cookies like shortbread, almond flour cookies, or our Groovy Keto Cookie Mix or Keto Gingerbread Mix. Held together with butter or cream cheese, the cookies create a sturdy base.
Keto Ingredients for bento cake
To cover the cake, opt for sugar-free fondant or marzipan. These are moulded around the cake for a smooth surface to decorate. Keto marzipan can be made from almond flour and swerve.
Use low-sugar nuts like pecans or walnuts, unsweetened coconut flakes, fresh berries, mint leaves, or 90% dark chocolate for decoration. Whipped cream is a keto-friendly decoration as well. Mini keto cookies or fat bombs can embellish the cake too.
With smart substitutions using keto-approved ingredients, bento cakes can be customised to suit a low-carb ketogenic diet. The capricious decorating options are endless, even without traditional cake ingredients. Sculpt away and enjoy a delightfully decorated bento cake on keto!
Bento Keto Cakes Recipe
Creating keto bento cakes requires a careful selection of keto-friendly ingredients. Here's a simple recipe to get started:
Keto Ingredients: Almond flour, erythritol, eggs, butter, vanilla extract, baking powder.
Instructions: Mix, bake, and enjoy as part of your keto bento box!
If you are short of inspiration, why not use our Keto Friendly Groovy Keto Baking Mixes to make keto bento cakes? Follow the instructions, but use a large pan with a 4-inch cookie cutter to cut out the cakes, or use 4-inch silicon moulds! Here's a list of keto bento cake ideas from our range:
- Keto Carrot Bento Cake
- Keto Vanilla Bento Cake
- Keto Lemon Bento Cake
- Keto Chocolate Bento cake
- Keto Red Velvet Bento cake
Serving and Presentation
Size of bento cakes
Bento cakes are typically small and individually portioned. The typical size is 4 inches (or 10cm), weighing between 300g and 350g.
What Are Bento Box Cakes?
Bento box cakes are designed to fit within a bento box, often enjoyed as a dessert within a balanced meal.
Common Questions About Bento Cakes
Are Bento Boxes Considered Healthy?
Bento boxes can be healthy, especially with balanced, nutritious options like keto cakes.
Are There Any Specific Bento Cake Recipes for the UK?
Bento cakes can be adapted to various cuisines, including UK preferences, by incorporating local flavours and ingredients. Use our Groovy Keto baking mixes are a base for your bento cakes to ensure it fits in with your keto lifestyle.
Should Bento Cakes Be Kept In Fridge?
No, you don't need to keep it in the fridge. Most cakes, decorated and undecorated, are fine at room temperature for several days.
