Finally The B'day Cake of my hubby is here...I have been wanting to post this in the first week of jan but due to some or the other work it got postponed..Anyways better late than never..
Usually I bake the cake the day before his b'day when he is at office so that he never knows it and we cut it at night 12..This time b'day came on monday which meant I had to bake the cake on friday to cut on sunday night and keep it. Now that was tough to hide a cake for 2 days when hubby was at home throughout..So i was in a dilema whether to bake or not. Finally at around 3 on friday evening I decided to bake a cake. Now I had to find one. So after searching I loved the ombre cake. Again I knew that hubby wont like many colors in the cake...so the layers need not be colored so I went with a vanilla cake. Initially I thought of baking basic vanilla cake then when I looked into The Cake bible I saw the white cake and went with it. Baked 2 layers on friday evening and kept them covered in fridge. Now baking on sat and sunday was impossible..so I changed the plan of cutting the(my) cake on sunday night. Had arranged for a cake with hubby's friends and cut that at 12..
Now monday after he left to office I baked other two cakes and frosted it. The cake recipe is from The Cake Bible- Rose Levy Beranbaum.
White Velvet Butter Cake
Large egg whites- of 41/2 eggs(135gms)
Milk-1 cup(242gms)
Vanilla-2 1/4 tsp(9 gms)
Cake Flour-3 cups(300 gms)(Sifted)
Sugar-11/2 cups(300 gms)
Baking Powder-1 tbsp+1 tsp(19.5 gms)
Salt-3/4 tsp(5 gms)
Unsalted Butter-12 tbsp(`170 gms)(must be softened)
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two 9" cake pans and set aside.
2. In a bowl lightly combine the egg white,1/4 cup milk and vanilla.
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix on low speed for 30 sec to blend.
4. Add butter and remaining milk to the dry mixture and mix on low speed to moisten the dry mixture.Increase the speed to high and beat for 11/2 minutes.
5. Scrape the sides and add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating inbetween for 20 sec. after each addition to incorporate the ingredients.Scrape the sides.
6. Scrape the batter into prepared pans and smooth the surface using a spatula.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 mins or till a tester inserted near the center comes out clean and cake springs back when -pressed lightly in center.
8. Let cake cool in pan 10 mins and then on wire racks.
Notes:
1. Ingredients should be at room temperature.
2. Cake flour can be replaced with 1 cup minus 2 tbsp All purpose Flour to which add 2 tbsp corn flour and sift 3 times so that the flour gets mixed and aerated properly.
3. When the cake is inverted to wire racks to cool, its best to re-invert with the top facing up to avoid splitting.
4. I used a hand mixer to make the cake if its a stand mixer instead of high use medium speed.
5. I measured the ingredients in grams.
Frosting recipe is from
sweetapolitaWhipped Vanilla Frosting
Unsalted butter-3 sticks + 2 tablespoons (375 grams)(softened and cut into cubes)
confectioner's sugar- 3 cups sifted (475 g) (icing, powdered sugar)
Milk- 3 tablespoons (45 ml)
Vanilla extract- 2 tsp
Salt- pinch
1. In the bowl whip butter till it becomes very pale & creamy(approx. for 10 minutes on high speed ).
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix on medium speed for 1 minute, then on high speed for 6 to 7 minutes till frosting is very light, creamy and fluffy.
Assembling the cake:
1. If your cake has dome on top cut and level it.
2. Keep one cake on the base and apply a scoop of frosting on top of it. Spread it evenly on whole cake and then place the second cake on top of it. Continue the process for the four cakes and then apply scoops of frosting on top and sides of the cake to form the crumb coat. After that keep the cake in refrigerator for 30 mins to set.
3. Now divide the remaining frosting into 3 bowls and add a drop of blue to one bowl and two drops to another bowl. Keep one frosting as white. Now mix the colors well and evenly.
4.Attach a 1m open star tip to a pipping bag and fill the bag with the white cream first and then start to decorate wtih rose from sides to center. Now to do rose keep the star tip in the center and with equal pressure lift the tip and move outside. Continue this on top.
5. Then fill the bag with the next light color and start pipping the frosting from the sides in a line. At this point hold the pipping bag perpendicular to your cake. You can do that for two lines and then use the dark color at bottom and continue with the roses.
6. Sometimes there will be little gap between the roses and you can see the crumb coat, then using the same color frosting draw a line in the same direction as rose or just put small stars. At the end those small stuffs wont be visible.
7. If you happen to do some mistake while making the rose then you can scrape it and do it again.
8. The colors should be from base dark to lighter shades of same color. You can use any color of your choice.
9. Refrigerate the cake for some time so the frosting is set. Keep the cake outside for about 15 to 30 minutes before serving.
Notes:
1. My husband is not very much interested of having colored cake layers so I went with a white cake. You can add ombre effect there by adding blue color in dark to light tone in layers.In that case try to match the frosting colors to that.
2. The above measurement for cakes makes 2 9" cakes.
3. To frost the whole cake(4 layered) I used twice the above measured frosting.
