I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of fondant. I don’t think it
tastes good, nor do I think it’s visually appealing. A decade back when fondant
wedding cakes were all the rage, I thought that it was the future of cakes, and
that there was nowhere to go from there. But much like fashion, cake decorating
trends change, and now it’s all about new and cool buttercream piping
techniques (e.g., rose, petal, ruffle) in cool colours (e.g., ombre) and pretty
toppers (e.g., bunting, flags, washi tape).
So I was kind of horrified when I asked the fiancé what kind of cake he
wanted for his birthday, and he said “an RCMP cake”, because I knew that
fondant would have to be used.
Side bar: If you’re Canadian, then you know all about the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (aka, Mountie) with their red serge (uniform), but if
you’re from elsewhere, that’s the name of our Federal police.
Then I asked him what flavour he wanted, and he said fruit, which made
me feel a bit better because I had book marked a lemon blueberry cake a few
years ago that I wanted to try.
In the end, I worked out a way to use minimal fondant. Check out the
verdict at the end of the post!
Fondant
I used half of this recipe,
but you can purchase pre-made fondant of course.
I added black, brown, and yellow food colouring for the various pieces.
Blueberry Curd
Can be made a week in advance.
Ingredients
¾ cup fresh blueberries
½ cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg
2 Tablespoons salted butter
Directions
1. In
a small saucepan, mix blueberries, sugar, lemon juice, and zest over medium
heat until the blueberries burst and sugar has dissolved. You can smash the
blueberries with a fork to speed things up.
2. In
a small bowl, beat egg yolks and eggs. Temper the eggs by adding a small amount
of the blueberry mixture to the eggs and beat. Add a little more, and beat
again. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and stir continuously until the
mixture is thick.
3. Place
butter in a bowl. Pour the blueberry curd over a sieve and into the butter. This
will ensure a smooth curd without any blueberry skins or scrambled eggs. Mix
the butter into the curd and cool. Store in the fridge until ready to use.
Lemon Blueberry Cake
To bake a 5-inch cake
Ingredients
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1.5 cups fresh blueberries
¼ cup sour cream, room temperature
¼ cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon ground vanilla beans (optional)
¼ teaspoon pure lemon extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ cup butter, softened
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom
of two 5-inch baking pans with parchment, and grease and flour the sides.
2. In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt.
Set aside.
3. Take 2 teaspoons of the flour from the mixture and
toss it with the blueberries. Set aside.
4. In a pourable bowl or measuring cup, mix sour
cream, milk, vanilla extract, ground vanilla beans (if using), lemon extract
and zest. Set aside.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle
attachment, combine butter and sugar and beat until combined and fluffy.
6. Add eggs one a time and beat well after each
addition.
7. Add the flour in 3 additions, alternating with
the liquid mixture, mixing on low.
8. Add blueberries and fold in gently by hand.
9. Divide batter between the two pans and bake for
25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
10.Cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing and
cooling completely on a rack.
11.Cut off the dome and slice each layer in half.
Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
1 cup salted butter, softened
4 cups icing sugar
¼ cup milk or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Gel food colouring
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
Directions
1. Combine
all ingredients (except colouring and cocoa) in a mixer and beat until light
and fluffy (about 5 minutes)
2. Portion
out ¼ cup and add yellow food colouring and mix.
3. Add
red food colouring and cocoa powder to the remaining buttercream and mix.
*Buttercream colour gets deeper with time
Assembly
1. Spread
a teaspoon of blueberry curd on a cake plate. Place the first layer on the
plate.
2. Pipe
a damn of red buttercream around the edge of the cake. Spread a layer of
blueberry curd in the middle. Top with the next layer and continue to repeat,
topping off with the final layer of cake.
3. Crumb
coat the entire cake with red buttercream. Place in freezer for 5 minutes.
4. Add
another layer of red buttercream and smooth with a metal spatula dipped in hot
water.
5. Roll
out fondant with a rolling pin and cut to different shapes. Place on cake and
pipe details with yellow buttercream.
Verdict: The fiancé was very pleased with the cake, which I made while
he was out during his weekly boy’s night at Denny’s. We had his friends over
for the cake and everyone though it was tasty. It was pretty moist, and was
fluffy when it first came out of the oven. It got a bit compressed with the
weight of the buttercream, but no one complained about that except for me. The blueberry lemon combo was perfection.
My thoughts on baking strips – I used them on this cake and it was a
mistake, because it prolonged the baking time to 1 hour! I ended up taking them
off at that point and it baked a lot quicker. My final verdict is that they
should not be used for 5-inch cakes, though they work well for 6 inch and
higher.
