I like bugs (on cakes)

This was my project cake for my final cake decorating course last night. It's just a small cake (I already have two other cakes in the fridge from this weekend--I really didn't need another one), but that was perfect because I only had half an hour to make the buttercream, apply a crumb coat, a top coat, and press on my bug before I had to be at the class. Surprisingly enough, I managed to make it to the class in time, cake fully intact.

I wanted something very simple but ended up with something very cute instead.

In Which I Take a Running Jump at Rose's Heavenly Cakes

I had long anticipated trying out one of Rose Levy Beranbaum's cakes. She is, after all, the author of The Cake Bible--widely considered to be THE go-to book on cakes. So when my mom came home one day with Rose's Heavenly Cakes in the bag I was pretty excited to try out one of these "guaranteed to please" "impossible to fail" cake recipes.

Cut to four months later when I decide to excavate the cookbook from a huge mound of other cookbooks, and endeavor to make one of these cakes. Seeing as it was Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to make something festive. With this in mind, I dug up a heart-shaped cake pan from the basement (possibly circa 1994), bought a bottle of red food colouring, and set to work making a Rose Red Velvet Cake.

Let me start off first by saying that yes, this cake does in fact require you to open up a bottle of red food colouring and pour the entire contents of that bottle into a bowl of egg whites and vanilla, which will then be mixed into your cake batter. Do not wear any pieces of clothing that you actually care about when you make this cake. And for you own sanity, under no circumstances should you wear white. While the red looks beautiful and vibrant in the cake, it's only unmerciful and devastating on your favorite t-shirt.

That being said, the method used to make this cake is a bit odd. You only lightly beat the egg whites and add them after you've mixed the dry ingredients with the buttermilk and the butter/oil mixture. I'll admit that the cake turned out really nice and light with a subtle hint of cocoa that (oddly enough) only made the vanilla flavour stronger and more pronounced. My only problem with this cake was the icing. Beranbaum calls it her Dreamy Creamy White Chocolate Frosting, but I just call it... Strange. Maybe it was because I don't droll at the thought of white chocolate, and maybe it was because of the strong acidic overtones from the sour cream... whatever it was, this frosting was not for me. If I were to do it again, I would make the cake with a regular cream cheese icing. What can I say, I'm a traditionalist when it comes to my cream cheese icing!

Rose Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes (page 83)

3 large egg whites (room temperature)
1 bottle red food colour
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup superfine sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cocoa (for a darker red colour, add more cocoa and reduce the amount of flour you use)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup canola or sunflower oil
4 tbsp unsalted butter at room temp
1/2 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350F at least 20 minutes before baking.
2. Mix egg whites, food colouring, and vanilla in a medium bowl until lightly combined. Set aside.
3. In another medium bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa, salt)
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and oil on medium speed for one minute (it won't be smooth, so don't worry too much about this bit). Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk while the mixer is on low speed. Raise the speed to medium for about 1.5 minutes or until everything is mixed together well.
5. Starting on medium-low speed, gradually add the egg mixture to the batter in two parts, beating on medium speed for 30 seconds after each addition.
6. When all in mixed together nicely, scrape the batter into your prepared pan and carefully smooth the surface. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.

My First Cake Order

I never thought of making fancy cakes for money. As I've said before, I'm really not the most artistic person in the world, so why would someone want to pay me to not be artistic? So, while I didn't understand it, I went for it and took a commission to bake and decorate a cake for a friend.

Of course, I couldn't just go for a simple one level chocolate cake. Nope, I decided to try (for the first time) a two tier chocolate cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and pureed strawberry filling. Go big or go home right? In defense of my sanity, the cake was not enormous. The bottom tier was only 8 inches in diameter and the top tier was only 3.5 inches in diameter, so it was more like a mini tiered cake.

I had the whole process planned out to the hour. Friday morning I was going to put the cake in the oven so that while I was at work, it would cool and then I could do the crumb coat when I got home. No pressure, no stress, no worries. Of course this plan fell through within minutes. The cake didn't get into the oven until about 8:00pm Friday night, and while the two little top tier cakes turned out very well, the 8 inch bottom tier took an hour and 45 minutes to cook through. I don't know whether it was the oven, the batter, or the fact that the pan was deeper than the recipe called for. When it FINALLY came out it seemed no worse for wear, but after I let it cool outside the pan for a little bit, I realized that the crust of the cake was more than a little brick-like. While the cake was taking forever to bake, I made the filling in my (awesome) food processor, combining just strawberries and pectin. The strawberries were sweet enough on their own that they didn't need any extra sugar. And besides, the cake was chocolate ontop of chocolate ontop of more chocolate, more sugar was not necessary. I would have to carve the outer layer of crust off the cake before I could do anything with it. It was pushing 1:00am before I went to bed, cakes wrapped in saran wrap, butter and eggs sitting on the counter waiting to be mixed into decadent chocolate frosting.

Saturday was awesome. I had so much fun all day putting the cake together that I didn't even mind getting up at 7:00am.

I started with the swiss meringue chocolate buttercream. It worked out way better than it ever had in the past. I really think the key to baking is actually using ingredients that are room temperature (and not stuff right from the fridge with the excuse that it's the room temperature in Nunavut...). With the hard crusts cut off, I sliced the bigger cake into three layers and put together three layers of the smaller cakes as well. Once filled and crumb coated, the big cake was ready to go sit on the porch outside to cool along with the small (and much more difficult) cake.

After that it was easy. A final coat of buttercream, smoothed out with a heated spatula, piping out "happy birthday mom" (the most difficult word being "mom"), and some chocolate flowers. It was finished 45 minutes before she came to pick it up. Awesome timing on my part! Maybe I need to work on that part for next time. My only issue with the cake is that I don't get to try it to see if it turned out as delicious as I intended. I'll have to figure out how to work around that issue for next time too...